We started looking for automotive Christmas gift ideas in Hak Po Street, Mongkok, last weekend. This is where Daihatsu Move owners stock up on Hello Kitty seat covers and boy racers buy phallic gearshifts for their souped-up Mitsubishis. Hak Po Street is a crush on Saturday afternoons and is best visited after work, via the Mongkok MTR and crossing the long hawker market past a couple of blocks of sports and shoe shops.
We wanted a nodding dog that could be as comfortable on the dash of a Mercedes-Benz E-Class as a taxi. The problem with a lot of nodding dogs in Hong Kong is that they tend to nod too much at the slightest bump. Foot Down wanted a dog with a friendly expression and a discriminating nodding mechanism that wouldn't make the children car sick. We settled on a Suntech Alsatian (above, $125) as our best of show. You can buy one at J Auto HK (97-99A Hak Po Street; tel: 2392 4244), a friendly, well-laid-out store full of products to send the latest automotive interior back into the Dark Ages.
We also liked the store's Wallace & Gromit Sheep air-freshener ($98); it's not Chanel but no worse than the whiffs in Kowloon taxis and could provide an aesthetic contrast to the arrangement of Ultraman figurines on your dash. Foot Down made a faux pas at Auto Extra Shop (80 Hak Po Street; tel: 2391 0370) by asking for one of those cuddly Garfields you can stick with four suckers on the rear-quarter window, blinding you in most parking situations. Garfield has long been replaced by Hello Kitty, an assistant said, holding a winking icon with a cute message (below, $49). The ubiquitous Snoopy seat-belt covers are also $49 but we hear there's a move to the more discreet caramel-and-cream-coloured Baby Mickey accessory line. It's too early to say whether Hong Kong's automotive-accessory hunters have been hit by the recession, but if you're feeling the pinch go for a Mickey gear-knob cover ($58) rather than the Hello Kitty alternative ($120).
