First post of 2015, ramblings, excuses for not writing and the Peugeot RCZ THP156 Automatic

Hello folks. Welcome to the first post of 2015. Yes, yes I have been busy doing nothing much in terms of writing over the past month or so. The reason being the recent school holidays and that I was just plain lazy. It takes a whole lot of effort on my part to actually sit down and type something out as you all would agree that thumb twiddling, latte drinking, shopping, meeting up with friends and other non-productive things to do are so much fun. And when you actually add the fact that keeping this website up to date does not actually pay me a whole bunch of Ringgit every month you can see why I have neglected posting anything over the last thirty days or so. So let's start 2015 with an introduction of why motoring-malaysia.blogspot.com actually started in the first place.


Now way back in 2005-2006 or so I was intrigued with editorials and articles written by great British automotive journos like Clarkson, Setright, May and a few others including those who had written for EVO magazine like a certain Mr Chris Harris. I basically thought to myself and asked "How hard can it be?"

It wasn't so hard at all in the end as whilst working for a friend/boss/ partner I had the means to do so. So write I did. A couple of years after that I was good enough to write for a handful of websites, notably the Singapore based myautoblog.org (under the SGcarmart group) and now the hugely popular Carthrottle.com (wrote for them for a while and had to stop as they were catering for the younger and more Eurocentric/American type of crowd). I also managed to ghost write for a number of websites, which I do not want to mention here as some were start-ups and have ceased to exist. Oh well, the writing did pay some bills and opened doors.

And then,  my time for writing for the websites mentioned above came to an end. I then decided to put a little more effort into motoring-malaysia and see what can be done. I suppose I did okay as I somehow managed to gain some recognition locally by winning a 'Best Auto Blog' award at the Malaysian Social Media Awards 2014. I could have done better, but what this meant was for less 'Me Time' and more writing and slogging. Those that personally know me would tell you folks out there that it would be unbecoming of me to have less personal time than anything else. Yup. I suppose I am one of those dignified thumb twiddlers out there and I can afford not concentrating my efforts here. There are my other business pursuits I have to handle to you know...but last December was just a plain ol' break away from writing as it does takes its toll.

Anyway, luckily for me (but not you readers) I can afford to take a break. Actually, it is the fact that I can afford to take a break that some of the stuff published here can be a little bit spicy to some. The amount of brickbats, complaints about me trashing some of the cars by unsatisfied owners and even by some manufacturers is a lot. The cake has to be the PR people at Nissan (not naming names of course) who called me asking me why I called one of their cars a venereal disease. Of course, I don't get invited to any Nissan events. But life goes on. It's not as if I cannot get my hands on any Nissan if I wanted to. But at this moment, aside from the GTR, the local crop of Nissans are extremely dull and uncle-like. Oh, at 42, I am uncle of age too, but my attitude is far from it. And I do believe that since the Teana is no longer equipped with a V6 locally, they don't really interest me as much as before.

So let me now relate a car test drive experience to you folks out there. I think starting off 2015 with a review of a sports car is a nice thing. I remember driving a Peugeot RCZ a couple of years ago and while the drive was a memorable one (and the fact that I took notes after the drive), I have not written about it.

First launched in 2009 the Peugeot RCZ is a beautiful creature. This was a car that actually made it in its entirety from motorshow concept car to production model without any major changes. The only major change in the exterior was the exhausts were positioned to the left of the car from the middle. Peugeot even kept the Zagato-like double bubble roof which actually makes the car super exotic looking. When I first saw one on the road in 2010 it was like looking at something that costed a million Ringgit. It was stunning. It had curves in all the right places. I was actually quite keen in procuring one for myself in 2012 if not for the fact and more logical reasoning that I needed a proper luxury sedan to ferry my family around.

Anyway, it did not stop me from actually taking a drive in one to satisfy my curiosity and whether there was a chance in hell it could be a family car. It could. If you didn't really car whether your then eight year old daughter and 68 year old mother could fit in the rear. There are rear seats, the kid might fit, but there could be some issues if my mother were to come along for our jaunts to Penang or Singapore.

But of course there is bound to be issues with the RCZ. It is a sports car. One that had actually won quite a number of awards from publications like Top Gear and Auto Express. It is beautiful to look at and while it may only be a Peugeot which some brand snobs turn their nose away from I have to state that snobs should actually drive the car before deciding so.

The RCZ I drove was a 1.6liter turbocharged 6 speed automatic (THP156). This means that it has 156hp instead of the 200hp in the THP200 6 speed manual. Torque of the automatic is 240Nm over 275Nm of the manual. This translates to a leisurely 0-100km/h time of 8.4secs (7.5secs manual) and a top speed of 212kmh. But I have to say that in a purpose built sports car, it isn't all about the figures but how the car makes you feel. And the Peugeot RCZ does make you feel like you're driving something exotic from the way it looks.

Now while the exterior looks like a million Ringgit, the actual platform used by the RCZ is based on the Peugeot 308 that we see on the roads of Malaysia. You do sit lower in the RCZ than the bulbous 308 and you also see the familiar 308 dashboard in a lower setting with a clock in place of the middle air vent. The dials have more trimming on them too. You do get leatherette wrap for the whole dashboard making the interior look more upmarket than it really is. But those who actually own a 308 would feel that it is quite similar to one on the inside.

As for driving the RCZ I have to state that the chassis is remarkable but if you want to let it work hard then you have to stay away from the lowly powered RCZ automatic. The car on its standard 19inch wheels sticks to the road so much and you have to be really stupid to unstick it. It is front wheel driven and it will change direction pretty quickly. Overall feel is that the RCZ automatic is much more planted, secure than the entry level front wheel drive Audi TT Mk2 2.0TFSI. Now while the TT driver will have more power to lay down, the RCZ could make up by being more surefooted in and around the bends. Somehow, a stock TT rolls more and is more twitchy at higher speeds than this. For the average driver, the RCZ is more confidence inspiring and I also remembered that the THP200 could actually do a better lap time than the TT when tested by EVO magazine UK.

So do not judge a Pug by it merely looking good. It is a bloody good driver's car too in manual form. Here in automatic, it merely looks its part, does high speed cruising well but don't go chasing Golf GTIs in one folks. Buy it to look good. And sometime in 2013, Peugeot had reworked its nose and it isn't so smiley these days. Still a looker though.

The RCZ costs over RM248,000 new these days. Used ones go for between RM135,000-158,000. They are not that troublesome to maintain as they are mechanically similar to the 308 Turbo. What you need to do is ensure you use a thicker grade of oil -w40 INSTEAD of the recommended w30, service regularly, ensure you use good petrol and occasionally use fuel additives. You'll want good oil to keep the turbo lubricated but not thin until it cannot stand our Malaysian climate and use better quality fuel (Caltex and BHP comes to mind) so that no excessive dirt ruins the turbo. This is a bugbear of the 1.6liter Peugeot engine. But hey, if the car looks this good, Spend abit more on it.