Good old Simsy, the motorist's new friend. As you know Roddy Sims is boss of the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission. He took to this great paper last week to sing the praises of his car import scheme that kicks off in 2018. Simsy is an economist. You know the story: Why do people become economists? Because they don't have the charisma to be undertakers.
Naturally, just about everyone in the local industry says this is the equivalent of opening Australia up to the black death and before we know it millions of innocent locals will be killed driving lemons from Third World countries such as Germany, Britain and the US.
Hmmm. You mean we could get cars worse than get imported for us by the big makers. VW, which imports Audi, Bentley, Lamborghini and Porsche, has admitted to cheating on US emissions tests and will buy back nearly 500,000 cars, repair some others and pay compensation in the US.
Last week authorities said Mercedes had a problem, raided the offices of Peugeot Citroen, and Mitsubishi said it had been up to a similar caper for oh, about, well, 25 years.
So what is happening in Pinehurst, I hear you say. Well Pinehurst, North Carolina, is about as far away from bad diesel devices as you can get. I was at Pinehurst for the fourth annual Pinehurst Concours d'Elegance featuring precision Golden Knights and Black Daggers skydivers, barbecue and craft beer.