Thursday, June 05, 2014

Car News: Launches this week - Nissan Teana and the Range Rover Sport


Nissan launches the ALL-NEW 2014 L33 Nissan Teana (aka Nissan Fuga elsewhere). It looks good, has a name that no one will make fun of and is now without a 6 cylinder engine (now a 2.0 136hp  4cylinder and a 173hp 2.5 4 cylinder driving the front wheels via a CVT - not that powerful if you compare to the Honda Accord or even Hyundai's i40). Boo Hoo for ultimate affordable refinement but prices are more affordable and servicing costs should go down a tad bit. RM139,800 for the base 2.0, RM149,800 for the 2.0XL and RM169,900 for the full monty 2.5XV. All with insurance.


What are the specifications like? It would be well specified of course. You want to take sales away from Honda and Toyota, this Nissan would basically have everything. Again, it has a name which isn't offensive and again, it is quite handsome. Would I buy it? No idea as I haven't had a chance to drive it yet (and maybe not unless someone shoves it into my hands as some of the PR people over at Nissan are offended that I called the smaller C segment car they are selling some not so nice names. But hey, it isn't my fault Nissan named their cars too close to certain unsavory words and names).

Anyway, moving along, Land Rover launches the ALL-NEW 2014 Range Rover Sport here in Malaysia. They are targeting 90 units for this year. This Range Rover Sport is actually 500kg lighter than the previous Range Rover Sport which is actually not really a Range Rover in some ways as it was built around the Land Rover Discovery chassis. So that previous model inherited the whilst very good off road and decently well on-road chassis, it was an overweight gorilla and since it did not have a bespoke Range Rover only chassis, some automotive pundits didn't like it. It made lots of friends with the EPL footballers and their wives though. So who cares.

So the new one is lighter and therefore better. Prices without insurance are as follows:
3.0 L SDV6 Diesel HSE: From RM859,888
3.0 L Supercharged Petrol HSE Dynamic: From RM 939,888
5.0 L Supercharged Petrol HSE Dynamic: From 998,888
So there you have it. One full sized sedan from Nissan and another SUV from Range Rover. 


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