Try this quick quiz: what's the most useful tool for cars ever invented?

No, it's not the DEWALT 204-Piece Mechanics Tools Kit and Socket Set or the automotive stethoscope or the Trade Map Swirl Flame Torch Kit. No, it's the humble wire coat hanger. Invented in 1869 by old Alby Parkhouse, a loyal employee of the Timberlake Wire and Novelty Company and never bettered, the coat hanger has a million uses in and around and on your car.

Lost your key or trying to break into a random car? The wire coat hanger is the answer. But, of course, its main purpose in life is as a replacement car radio aerial. There are two schools of thought on this. One is you straighten the hanger and just stick it down the hole where the aerial was. My experience has been that you get much better reception if you only straighten the hook and shove that bit down. It's also much more aesthetically pleasing to have the triangle sticking out of the bonnet than a stick of wire.

Now while you may be chortling at my old-fashioned preference for things mechanical let me just bring you up to date with the latest exclusive from Britain's Which? Magazine. Under the very racy headline "We hacked a Ford Focus and a VW Polo", journalist Andrew Laughlin tells us how Which went out and bought two brand new autos to see if they were protected against hacking. Bad news: they're not.

The problems are obvious. Apart from putting naughty pics on your infotainment system screen, disabling the traction control, extracting any personal data you have on the system, hacking the collision warning system and unlocking the car, the news is not great for self-driving autos given all the commies just waiting to commit atrocities using your Tesla.

And in other bad news for the company that is offering rideshares to put your own evil car-hacking satellite or granny's remains in space for a bit over a mill, quality gurus JD Power report that Tesla ranked last in their influential study.

Showing you the power of this paper and its sensational online multi-media platform, our very own subeditor to the stars, Mark Southcott, is the first Australian to order the Supercar Capsules or big glass box from UAE-based Italian consultancy firm Group mentioned here last week. Mark has decided it's time to showcase his 1979 Mini Moke bought new from Larke Hoskins with just 380,000km on the clock (or as Mark says: just run in) in an Italian/Arabian glass box outside his lovely fibro semi at Thirroul on NSW's south coast.