SOME car owners in the US and Europe have found a novel and easy way to earn a little extra pocket money every month - by renting out space on their cars.

Companies are paying out millions to put their logos on private cars.

Mr Brian Katz, 32, of New York is one of the tens of thousands of motorists who have signed up to have their cars and trucks 'wrapped' in advertisements in exchange for a payment of up to US$800 ($1,200) a month, The New York Times reported.

In return, car owners have to limit where they shop and to abide by a code of conduct while they are behind the wheel.

In Germany and Austria, former Formula One race car driver Niki Lauda has set up LaudaMotion, a company with a similar business plan.

Customers are provided with Smart cars, or other small vehicles, on a rental basis, for as little as US$1.37 a day if they agree to drive a vehicle decked out with advertisements. Advertisers have included McDonald's and Visa.

CHEAPER CARS FOR PHARMACISTS

In Germany, Bayer HealthCare leases about 1,000 cars at cheap rates to pharmacists who agree to display ads for Bayer aspirin on them.

Vehicle wrapping goes back to 1993, when PepsiCo in the US bought the rights to paint its logo on six city buses in Seattle, Washington.

Instead of sending the buses to a paint shop for six weeks, Mr Louis Hoffman, general manager of Seattle printing company, SuperGraphics, persuaded Pepsi to have the buses wrapped in a vinyl material made by 3M. It's a process that takes just a few hours to do.

And the advertising idea pays off, according to venture capital firm ARD Ventures, which has studied the phenomenon of wrapped cars.

It estimates that a single vehicle's advertising message is viewed by motorists and pedestrians as many as 70,000 times a day.

FreeCar Media, an advertising agency in Los Angeles that claims to have a database of more than one million car owners, says they are open to wrapping their cars in ads for a fee.

Cars qualify if they are no more than five years old and if they have enough surface area for a sizable ad.

But the owners have rules to follow.

Mr Brian Morris, owner of a car repair pool, told drivers of the cars he wrapped with his ads: "If you're in rush hour, find the slowest lane and sit in it. I'll pay for the time and gas.

"The people behind you can't help but sit and stare."