Cattrall, who plays sex-obsessed, promiscuous Samantha Jones in the hugely successful U.S. series, appears in the ad purring with excitement about Nissan's new sedan.

"Why didn't you tell me it was so big, I just wasn't prepared for it?" she gushes. "The all-new Nissan Tiida makes you feel really, really, really good inside."

She tells a salesman: "Ah! That was amazing. Absolutely fabulous! I mean the great body and the way you moved it."

The double entendre-laced ad was approved by New Zealand's Television Commercial Approvals Bureau before broadcast. Nevertheless, it sparked a number of complaints to the Advertising Standards Complaints Board.

Nissan said it was taking the commercial off the air before the board could consider the objections.

OBVIO said that gas-ethanol engines would power the initial versions of its 828 and 012 microcar designs, planned for production in 2007. But the 828E and 012E equipped with advanced electric drive systems will not be far behind, says OBVIO ! President Ricardo Machado, who announced he would export the electric cars to North America.

"It is clear to me that electricity has a big future in the auto industry," said Machado. "OBVIO !'s business model of 100 percent outsourced supplier relationships allows for the speed and flexibility to incorporate a new drive system powered by electricity by our second model year."

Machado says there are several suppliers that are negotiating to provide electric drive systems for the 828E and 012E. Targeting a price of $49,000 and $59,000 respectively, the cars will have plenty of power, capable of reaching a top speed exceeding 120 mph for a range of up to 200-240 miles per charge.

Nationwide gas prices hit an all-time high in the last two weeks, rising nearly 2 cents to just over $3 per gallon, according to a survey released Sunday.

The national average for self-serve regular stood at $3.0150 a gallon Friday, up 1.98 cents in the last two weeks, according to the Lundberg Survey of 7,000 gas stations across the country.

The price exceeded the previous high of $3.0117 set in September last year, analyst Trilby Lundberg said.

The Princess Kitty is finished in pink, with matching paint applied to the wheels. The Hello Kitty trademark ribbon logo is applied to the front doors and roof, while the rear doors get a "Princess Kitty" graphic with the lovable cartoon character's face. The back window also gets a large Hello Kitty face decal. The sideview mirrors feature Hello Kitty's face in relief.

Inside, occupants rest on pink-and-white striped seatcovers adorned with the "Princess kitty" logo. The headrest covers are the shape of Hello Kitty's head, complete with ribbon on the left ear. It may be the friendliest-looking kei car ever made.

With timing perhaps intended to blunt criticism of the move, Bill Ford announced the strategic shift in an e-mail to employees Wednesday, the same day he and the CEOs of General Motors Corp. and DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler Group sent a letter to Congress promising to double their annual production of alternative-fuel vehicles to 2 million by 2010.

Critics decried the back-pedaling on hybrids as another broken promise by the automaker to build more fuel-efficient vehicles.

Bill Ford's hybrid pledge, made last September, was the centerpiece of a national advertising campaign touting the company as an environmental and innovation leader.

"What I didn't foresee at the time was how rapidly other technologies would evolve," Bill Ford wrote in the e-mail, obtained by The Detroit News. "Now, I am convinced that the objective we had set earlier to build capacity for 250,000 hybrids at the end of the decade is too narrow to achieve our larger goals of substantially improving fuel economy and CO2 performance."

"For the second time in as many weeks, the price of crude oil climbed into record territory. This time, above $76 a barrel," said AAA Texas spokeswoman Rose Rougeau.

"Escalating tensions in the Middle East have renewed fears that supplies from the region may be disrupted. If crude stays at or near these levels for an extended period of time, retail gas prices will soon follow, because demand remains strong. And motorists will see new record prices at the pumps," she adds.

The national average for regular self-serve gasoline is $2.96 a gallon -- up two cents from last week.

8. Mother Nature: Though it's impossible to predict just how bad this hurricane season will be, the odds are against the kind of devastating damage seen last fall in the relatively small Gulf Coast corridor that produces nearly half of U.S. gasoline supplies.

But it wouldn?t take another direct hit by a Category Five storm to sent pump prices higher. Hurricanes and severe tropical storms anywhere in the Gulf would likely interrupt shipments of crude oil to refineries as well as tanker shipments of gasoline to local market.

And any spot shortages can be counted on to produce short-term local spikes in pump prices.

U.S. gas prices jumped nearly 11 cents per gallon in the past two weeks with the national average for self-serve regular just shy of $3 a gallon, according to a survey released Sunday.

The average price for the grade was $2.995 per gallon Friday, up 10.73 cents in two weeks, according to the Lundberg Survey of 7,000 gas stations across the country. The price was less than 2 cents below the all-time high of $3.01 set Sept. 9, analyst Trilby Lundberg said.

1. July 4
2. July 3
3. December 23
4. August 3
5. January 1
6. August 6
7. August 4
8. August 12
9. July 2
10. September 2

1. Saturday
2. Sunday
3. Friday
4. Thursday
5. Monday
6. Wednesday
7. Tuesday

1. 3:00 - 6:00 pm
2. 6:00 - 9:00 pm
3. 9:00 - Midnight
4. Noon - 3:00 pm
5. Midnight - 3:00 am

It is being provided under contract to Verrus Mobile Technologies, a Vancouver company that has already signed up commercial parking lots and cities in Canada, the U.S. and Britain.

Verrus gets paid through a 30-cent surcharge paid by the driver, which it calls a convenience fee, on each parking transaction using the service.

The approximately 8,000 city meters are not changing except for new decals with a meter number on them. All Vancouver meters will have decals within a few weeks.

Motorists can call a city phone number, provide the number of the meter and order exactly as much time as they need, up to the normal limit of the meter. That means no more plugging a dollar or two into the meter when you intend to stay only 15 minutes but you're short of exact change.