Ramblings on a Wednesday night - Spare Parts aren't cheap these days...except for....

I may not be as good as a BMW, but my spare parts are damn cheap!

It's been a slightly slow week for me in the automotive scene. I had other things to do and not much had gotten my attention. So today I'd just like to share a little bit of my thoughts on spare parts for car.

Some off topic ramblings for you guys to ponder on.

Hello folks. I was away for the weekend and when I got home it was straight to the Ford showroom beside the Federal Highway to collect the recently launched all-new Ford Mondeo 2.0 Ecoboost. As some of you who know me personally, I lead quite an exciting life. From dabbling in trade, some investing, to being a father, a husband as well as a person who maintains two blogs things are pretty interesting most of the time.

So since the school holidays have officially started my family and I decided to take a short break down south to Singapore. I tend to do this often and three hour drives to do so are common. Why I end up there is basically because you can get a whole lot of stuff there which you can't get here. And the motoring scene in Singapore can be pretty vibrant too. Even with the most expensive car prices in the world do not stop them from enjoying them from buying cars they like. I suppose where there's a need, there's a way. In short, they work bloody hard and smart to get what they want. I don't hear most of the population bitch and whine most of the time. They do, but they still carry on with what needs to be done. And do note....they are disciplined 95% of the time in doing so. Compare this to us - we break traffic laws in city driving almost all the time. No signalling at turns, going down the wrong way on one way streets in neighbourhood commercial areas, no giving way to others in traffic,  not wearing your seatbelts most of the time and carrying babies in your laps. This does not happen down south okay. Discipline on the roads helps. It is also carried on in other aspects of life. If you do not have some self control, you will be a poor person. And don't blame others for your laziness and stupidity.

Odd ramblings on the Alfa Romeo Mito, the Mazda 2 sedan and my own Subaru Impreza 1.6TS

I recently had the opportunity to go try the Alfa Romeo Mito and the Mazda 2 sedan recently. The reason I wanted to try the Mito was that I was itching to get my hands on a new Alfa as I basically love Alfas. I tried the Mazda 2 sedan because the wife and I have decided to go look for a second car again as the need for one has arisen. No, the Alfa is manual and waaayyyy beyond what we intend to spend on a car.


Firstly, I loved the Alfa’s look and if it were down to looks I would buy it without a thought over the BMW Mini. However, as I wrote earlier, it handles like a high mileage shopping trolley from TESCO. The chassis is unresolved, steering vague and uncertain at different speeds and a chassis that does not work with the driver as well as I would have liked. So, I was disappointed. Another RM155K sporting car that I cannot buy. The reason I said that was that this figure is around the amount that I am willing to spend on any car if I wanted to upgrade from my trusty battle scarred Millennium Falcon like Impreza 1.6TS. It basically is a basic family sedan with some custom mods that, like the Falcon could do the Kessel run under 12 parsecs. If you are a Star Wars fan you’d know what I’m babbling about here. Actually its not that fast. It just handles simply sublime. Anyway I am just babbling here.

Secondly the Mazda 2 Sedan or Hatchback will sell for RM80-85K depending on spec. I tried the Mazda 2 sedan 1.5 auto with the R-Spec rims, 195/45/16 over 185/55/15 and a different front shock settings. It is a decent car to own with very high front end grip. In fact, the little family sedan here has a chassis that is slightly more resolved than the Alfa above although it is a much slower car. But the thing is, it somehow does not have the refinement of the little Suzuki, or even a Nissan Latio at that. Another beautiful looking car, especially the hatchback but it is lacking in some important areas like engine noise and wind noise at higher than normal speeds. Not something good for a family that happens to go on a lot of drive-to holidays like us. Of course we still have the Impreza, but what if we wanted to for the fun of it take the other car?

No, this isn’t about me getting old and that I cannot stand the lack of refinement anymore. Its just that if I went and drove a Nissan Latio to Penang and back I would come out of the Latio feeling better than if I did it with the Mazda. If I drove the Swift to Penang, I’d feel better also and be smiling as there is driving pleasure found here too.So there you have it. The two good looking cars I tried recently have faults.

Expect a longer review on the Mazda 2 sedan sometime soon either in here or over at myautoblog.org.