The jewel in the Toyota crown is the Prius – leader in hybrid terms and virtually a brand in its own right. The Prius is also complicated, and expensive to build (in Japan). In sales terms, a niche model. 

According to The SMMT’s latest batch of vehicle registration figures, Toyota’s UK market share is holding steady – a little over 5% (y-t-d). In December 2009 the company sold only a third as many cars as Ford, and fewer than half as many that drove off Vauxhall and Volkswagen forecourts.

The world’s largest car maker seems to have an image problem.

What Toyota needs to do is sell more ‘bread and butter’ cars, but how to lure the buyers? The ‘halo’ effect seems to work for Honda with the Civic Type R, but Toyota’s SR models appear ‘warm’ at best. And there are gaping holes in the line-up where the MR2, Celica and Supra once stood. 

Come on Toyota, perhaps it’s time to cash in on the UK’s love affair with ‘sporty’ cars.

The ability of car companies to dream up a good publicity stunt never ceases to amazes me. 

More memorable ones over the last few years included a Fiat 500 loaded onto the London Eye, a Chevrolet Captiva turned into a giant scratch card, and even a competition that challenged contestants to lick their way through a chocolate covered Jeep. The Jeep was the prize (along with indigestion.)

Hats off to MINI though for its latest idea, which placed faux-Cooper boxes around the streets of Amsterdam, complete with discarded ribbons and Christmas wrapping paper. The mysterious car sized boxes caught the attention of the public and quickly spread across news and social media websites. Total cost to MINI? Probably about £50.

The marketing department may live in the shadow of design and engineering, but without sales, there is no company. Whether a fan of the cars or not, you have to admit the MINI marketing machine is doing it right.

The elegant Jabra Stone headset is also exquisitely packaged

The elegant packaging of the Jabra Stone gives you the first clue that you’re in for a treat. The delights within are revealed through a series of precision-engineered twists and clicks.

It’s unlikely to win any awards for the greenest packaging but the presentation case is a thing of beauty in itself - perhaps it seemed logical to seat the Stone in a box that wouldn’t disgrace a serious ‘rock’?

And now to the content within.

The Jabra Stone headset earpiece appears to have been delicately scalloped from a solid smooth pebble (or Stone), the remainder of which forms the charging base.

Having charged the unit, pairing the Stone with my iPhone was a doddle. I didn’t even consult the instructions and was underway in no time.

The Stone sat comfortably in my ear. Its light weight meant that I soon forgot I was wearing it. Generally a good thing except for the time when I dozed off on the sofa, awaking a while later to find my baby daughter playing with it as it had fallen out during my slumber.

The ’swipe’ volume control is slick and sound quality is very good. My friend at the other end of the line didn’t even realise that I was ‘hands-free’.

Uniting the headset with its charging base restores it to its pure, almost ovoid, state.

The only minor gripe is that the plug adapter cable is on the short side. Perfect for desktop outlets but mine were fully occupied at the time.

Talktime on the headset is short compared to previous Jabra units I’ve tried at only 2 hours, but the charging base can store an additional 6 hours.

In summary, the Jabra Stone is the first bluetooth headset I’ve come across that could genuinely be described as cool.

It’s designed to be worn on your right ear only (fine for me) and retails at around £69.99.