SITE UPDATE - MOTORING MALAYSIA Is Basically On a Break - Will Be Back Shortly

Mid-February 2020 I celebrated my birthday. I am two years to fifty and I had started writing this blog since 2006. Seriously blogging about the Malaysian automotive industry since then and writing for others in between. Boy, it has been a long time writing almost non-stop over the past decade and a bit more. A lot more.

I am just taking something of what I think is a well deserved break. I told myself that after the Chinese New Year I should get back to business of writing and also pumping out videos but somehow, things took a more relaxing turn and when my birthday came up, I decided to chill.

Of course, the looming threat of the coronavirus COVID-19 has also something to do about this. It basically allowed me an excuse to just be a more relaxed person in terms of my life. Doing the simple pleasures in life and not chasing datelines. The lack of events due to the virus and the recent festive holidays allowed me to look inward and just do the other pleasures in my life aside from Motoring. 

The thing about Yours Truly is that there are many things I love doing. I love writing, I love drawing. I love the nice things in life. I have collected watches, stamps, fountain pens, model cars, other toys and ever since Motoring Malaysia came about, I have a sizeable camera collection too. Of course, I started out shooting from the cellphones I had (take a look at the earlier posts from a decade ago) and compare some of them today. You know the equipment has been upgraded over the years.

The thing about me is that I do not want Motoring Malaysia to be a fully commercial endeavour. It is more of passion and more of what I think a motoring blog should be. I write from my heart and I write what I feel. I still write with emotion and if I cannot find that emotion then it isn't worth for me to write about.

The state of motoring is now different from 12 or 15 years ago. These days, cars are merely transport. THose days, people loved them as rally, race machines. We had proper cars that we aspire to owning like the Subaru Impreza or even a Porsche 911. These days, Subaru is now a SUV maker (most of the time) and Ferrari has gotten so high tech and expensive that it is only a dream to many. Including me (in terms of owning).

The people who buy cars these days do not dream like we did last time. With the new generation, they think of cars are transport. Look out and you can see that there are less people who go out and mod their cars compared to people a decade or so ago. The advent of ride sharing and car sharing has also made the car merely transport and nothing else. 

New cars are also a bit sterile these days. Sterile but so bloody competent and rational that you can't fault them for what they are. They are moving infotainment machines with their big touchscreens and gadgets inside them. No longer do I hope into an average family SUV or sedan and feel like they are a Ford Escort Mark II or a Fiat 131 with its flaws but  rorty sounding engine and nice rear wheel drive setups. 

These days any Toyota Corolla or a Honda Civic is going to drive decently well and cosset their occupants. They will drive well but not bring a big smile to my face. A little smile as with all the safety equipment like traction control and all of that life saving stuff it is actually hard to go all white knuckles or wet your pants type of drama when the Fiat oversteers in the wet when you dont want it to. No longer do I feel the thrill of driving unless I am in a 300,400,500HP car like the BMW M2 Comp or something like a Porsche 911 Carerra S. 

It has gotten to that stage where most cars will not go out of their way to try to kill me. I have to try very hard for them to do so. In short, I need to pay a heck of a lot more to truly feel utter enjoyment when I drive. I need a minimum of at least a RM200K car. And the problem with Malaysian is that our currency sucks (Ringgit to US Dollar) and the fact that we still make our citizens poor by taxing cars exorbitantly. The Government should not burden Malaysian unnecessarily with these taxes. We need some liberalisation in terms of all of this (something which I will write about if and when I feel like it).

Anyway, Motoring Malaysia will be back with normal posts, reviews and editorials. Give me some time. I am too busy trying to buy my Tier 10 tank in World of Tanks Blitz also. The screenshot about is of my level 9 1950s British Conqueror Tank. It's a beast in real life and hard as heck to master in the game by the way. 120mm Cannon and a Rolls Royce Meteor V12 engine which is actually based on the Merlin from the Supermarine Spitfire WW2 figther plane. Of course, from a bygone era. If you notice from this article, I do like the good ol' days.

Wait for more stuff. I haven't abandoned this yet!