Holden’s Cruze hatch has been awarded the highest possible five-star ANCAP safety rating by the Australasian New Car Assessment Program, ANCAP.

The GM Holden designed and built Cruze hatch maintains the high safety standards set by the Series II Cruze sedan, which went on sale here earlier last year.

Like the sedan, hatch receives the maximum safety rating thanks to a comprehensive range of high-technology active and passive safety features standard in this range.

Six airbags including driver and front passenger, front side impact and side curtain airbags, electronic stability control, anti-lock braking system, electronic brakeforce distribution, traction control and a collapsible pedal assembly system all come standard.

Want to improve your fuel consumption by up to 5% and keep your family safer on the roads?

Then make sure the tyres on your car are inflated to the correct pressures, advises Bridgestone New Zealand.

Ignore the tyres on your car this summer and it will almost certainly hit you in the pocket, in addition to the possibility of causing problems on the road.

A relatively small drop in pressure can lead to premature tyre wear and increase fuel consumption by 5% or more, according to research, and any saving is worthwhile given the ever-rising cost of fuel, according to Heath Barclay, Marketing Manager for Bridgestone New Zealand.

HEADLIGHTS.........think safety

If you think of car safety features, chances are headlights don’t immediately spring to mind.

Yet they play a crucial role in not just ensuring we can see where we are going but that other drivers can easily see us. Depending on how you use them, that is.

Using your lights incorrectly can be irritating and even dangerous to those around you so we have put together the following guidelines for how and when you should flick the switch.

What’s in a name

There can be confusion when talking about headlights because people often use different names for the same things.

PAINT WASTE

Ford Australia is aiming to halve the amount of paint sludge disposed to landfill.

Working in conjunction with Australian waste specialist Geocycle, the paint sludge from Ford's Broadmeadows facility is being used as an alternative source of fuel in the cement making process.

The first shipment of sludge went to Geocycle's processing facility in Dandenong, Melbourne in August and shipments of around 10 tonnes a month continue to leave the Ford site.

The prescribed sludge is a by-product produced from the paint process at Ford's Broadmeadows plant. It was previously all being transported off-site for processing and eventual disposal to a licensed landfill.

Currently 56 per cent of Ford Broadmeadows' solid waste is recycled and 44 per cent is disposed into landfill.

A petrol or electric hybrid concept version of New Zealand's best selling small car has gone on display in Japan.

Hinting at a possible production version within two years, the five-door Suzuki Swift EV Hybrid was featured at the 42nd Tokyo International Motor Show.

Many Japanese motorists typically drive between 20 and 30 kilometers each day, so the Swift EV has been designed to cover such distances on battery power alone.

If this distance is exceeded and the battery runs low, a petrol engine kicks in, driving a generator. However, during most commuting the Suzuki will operate entirely on electric power.

Compared with many conventional electric vehicles that depends entirely on battery power, the Swift EV Hybrid has a smaller battery that is quicker to charge, weighs less, uses fewer resources and costs less.

The sixth generation of the 3 Series Sedan has also grown in size.

There's a wider track and, as a result, more on-the-road presence. This new 3 series sedan has increased in length by some 93-millimetres so rear passengers extra legroom. There is also 15 millimetres of additional knee room behind the front seats, while headroom is up by eight millimetres.