Driven: Automotive Bliss and the 2008 Suzuki Swift Sport

Automotive bliss can mean a lot of things. One of it could be waking up early on a Sunday morning, taking that sports car of yours for a drive to nowhere and feeling great about yourself. It can also mean the satisfaction of fixing something small yet the pleasure, or pain, derived from it is immense. Bliss is a nice word to describe a feeling that someone who feels naively feels satisfied or truly happy when the actual situation isn’t so impressive.

Imagine this, your sister in law’s Proton Wira decides to not start when your wife, kid and sister in law decide to go shopping on a Saturday afternoon. You being all dressed up in your sports Rolex, Italian loafers, nice Audi T shirt and blue jeans ready to hop into your Subaru Impreza decide to help change the battery under the sweltering sun. It’s an automotive moment there folks, getting his hands dirty fixing a run of the mill Proton and enjoying that moment of pain and suffering yet accomplishing something. The car started, everyone was happy and could go wherever they wanted to.

The Proton Matter Continues.....

The latest and greatest news around the local automotive industry is that Proton has decided to not enter into any joint venture arrangement with any larger automobile manufacturer. The rationale given by its main shareholders, mainly the Government of Malaysia, stated that since Proton performing well due to increased sales the need for a collaboration isn’t necessary at this point of time. Analysts were shocked, the stock market was surprised and Proton shares lost a Ringgit in record time. Most analysts still rated Proton shares as underperforming and were dismayed at such an outcome. They were concerned with the fact that although sales and exports were up, long term prospects for Proton did not seem to be strong. I totally agree to this statement as where is Proton going to find more money to develop new vehicles? Do they have the financial strength to spend on R&D for new vehicles?

If it takes them eons to come up with a Wira replacement and also a Saga replacement, what’s going to happen? By the time they finish the development on a Perdana replacement model I could be as old as Yoda at the rate things are going. I think Proton needs to keep abreast with other manufacturers or as close as possible to them. They should ensure that a new replacement model is launched at least every 6 to 7 years if they can’t do a 5 year cycle like Honda or Toyota. 7 years is quite similar to Mitsubishi and Subaru so it isn’t that bad.

I somehow wonder how the people in power think. Do they take into account economics of scale when making such a decision? Do they take a holistic view about the automotive industry? Do they just look at national pride? If it is just pride taken into account, it isn’t enough. Many of us have read articles stating that Proton should be left to market forces and also to be let run by people in the industry instead of politicians asking for favours and so forth. Do the people in power listen? Honestly, 30,000 bookings of Gen2s to China (to be rebadged as some other brand), a few thousand cars to an Arab country that may or may not be invaded by America in their war against terror, 5-6000 units to Indonesia (mostly as taxis), a few thousand to the UK (for pensioners), a few thousand shared between Australia (to some sheep and cattle farmers) and Singapore (people somehow deciding to buy Proton over cheap Japanese cars sold there) and 22,000 Personas that have bookings in Malaysia do not actually show the economics of scale needed to make Proton profitable in the long run.

While the above figures may sound productive, you have to ask whether such a turnaround is sustainable. In theory, a manufacturer will have to manufacture at least 80,000-100,000 units of something in order to become economically feasible. Will there be a production of 80,000 personas yearly? Will the demand for the Persona peak then fall? Will China readily accept the Gen2 and purchase another 30,000 units? Will there be people within Proton that will ensure that quality of the cars is maintained like it has been over the last 1 year or so? Does the popularity of the Persona affect the sales of other Proton cars? Are they now selling 5 Wajas, 10 Savvys, ½ a Perdana every month instead of 50 units of each? Too many questions are left unanswered and too many variables.

Another point is that I do not think VW is going to get burnt or snubbed again. Having been snubbed right after Tengku Mahaleel’s time, then a blooper statement by the PM of Malaysia saying that VW isn’t interested, then interested again, and then, now turned down again; there won’t be a white knight in the form of VW ever again if you ask me. Getting spat in the face isn’t the result they were looking for.

I love the Persona for what it is; it corrected the silly mistakes that the Gen2 and Neo had. But is it enough to turn a muddy slide into a beautifully terraced hillslope with roses and trees? The saga continues…..

MPVs and SUVs as well as the beloved Volvo Brick

Recently I have been spreading my belief on the uselessness of MPV ownership to a few friends and acquaintances. I’ve been telling them that those who buy an MPV yet only use its large volume of carry space once every Hari Raya or school holidays are actually people who are killing the environment more than those of us who drive tuned cars. If you have been following my blog for some time, you’d know that I have something against these vehicles. Now another reason for why I don’t like MPVs is that they actually cost more to manufacture in terms of energy. Imagine this; a Toyota Wish has 8 large glass panels and a sunroof, which is a lot of extra glass area that costs more than the energy used to power a lightbulb or three for a few days. 


A normal 4 door car would have less glass panels and basically cost slightly cheaper than a MPV. They are larger than a normal family car which means that the energy expanded to fabricate a MPV chassis is at least 50% more than a normal car. Hence, these vehicles actually take up more of earth’s valuable resources than is needed.They also take up so much more space (up to ½ a car extra) on the roads than a normal car and is not used for anything other than transporting the driver to and from his office in downtown Kuala Lumpur. This has got to stop. Malaysia should ban all MPVs that are large and cumbersome or legislate some sort of laws that allows the JPJ to evaluate the need of an individual to purchase such a form of transport. Basically JPJ should allow those who actually have 1 wife, 4 kids and a maid as well as 2 cats or a dog before they are allowed to buy such a large vehicle. Then upon buying such a vehicle, the MPV has sensors on the passenger seats which will immobilise the engine if there are less than 3 people aside from the driver in the MPV.

Cars Recently Launched In Malaysia, The Lancer -Civic Comparo ...And The Winner IS.....

Yes, I’ve been pretty busy and haven’t posted anything here recently yet there have been tons of new cars on the market. Maybe I just don’t really care about those new launchings. Actually I did care, but was too swamped due to work commitments and outside projects. One of these projects was the assistance I provided to help set up an Audi auto dealership located at the Jaya 33 Shopping Centre, Section 13, Petaling Jaya, Selangor. It has started two weeks ago and hopefully all goes well and if any of you readers (the 2 or 3 of you) ever have the cash to go buy Audis, you know where to look for. The First free plug just made over here (Update - It has since closed a few years ago)!

Of Harry Potter and Of Classic Cars....

I recently went to the Borders bookstore at the Curve and I picked up the latest and final Harry Potter instalment, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows. In this context, ‘picked up’ meant that I picked up the book, flicked to the final 15 or so pages and read the ending there and then, and later put the book back to where it belonged. Which was on the shelf of some bookstore or some 13 year old girl or boy’s bookshelf. It was as expected, Harry lives, Voldemort dies, the kids (now at least 18 years old) end up back at the point where they part ways and move on with their lives.

The plot twist for the ending was something like ‘the wand of power will be passed on to its rightful heir if the following occurs:

1. in the case whereby my current owner decides to die, he is entitled prior to his death name a heir which will in all realms be my rightful heir. Or

2. if in the case where my current owner decides to die without him naming such an heir, I, the magical all powerful wand capable of destroying the one who in so many Harry Potter books whose name cannot be mentioned will choose my rightful heir.

Of course, in the case of the book, Voldemort didn’t read the fine print, and basically gets killed to death because of it. Somehow, you’d be surprised that in the real world, rich, corrupt businessmen on the same level of evil as Voldemort wouldn’t have a battery of lawyers that could decipher fine print. In this case, fine print as stated on the ownership of an all powerful and magical wand. The ending was too easy; it wasn’t like an ‘Elvis has left the building’ kind of grandeur, but more like a Proton Saga being crushed as it has outlived its usefulness. No one would remember that ol’ Proton Saga unlike if you crushed one Ferrari Enzo. In other words, the ending of the saga of ol’ young Harry Potter didn’t rock my boat.

Somehow, the reason Harry Potter sold was because I’d buy it if I were a teenager. I’d relate to it. I grew up reading Enid Blyton and her books gave the same same pleasure as reading Harry Potter. Kids would actually believe that they would be heroes, even besting grown wizards and warlords. But notice in the real world, a 13 year old kid may end up dead due to various crimes made by adult bad people. It is just fantasy, and in real life or in adult novels, 99% of the time it’s an adult who will solve a crime or a storyline. This is also another thing about Harry Potter novels that fail to rock my boat. It reads like a mystery novel. I rather get my hands on a thriller or horror and not a whodunit. I suppose it’s all about what you fancy in the end. But if I wrote Harry Potter, it’d have death matches instead of funny broomstick chasing a ball type of matches or flying Ford Anglias.

In my version Harry would zap to death his opponents, gets to bonk Hermoine all the time and other girls on a daily basis like James Bond as well as have more of a ‘rock star’ attitude. I mean, he’s Harry Potter, the guy who survived an encounter with some evil dude that no one else has. He SHOULD have some attitude as he’s still a teenager and popular and famous teens should be all cranky and worked up. Voldemort would be like the Emperor or a cross between a Balrog and Mum-RA, Dumbledoer would be more energetic like Gandalf and all the adult wizards would have more brains that they have now. I mean, Harry is young, naïve, while skilful as well as being protected by some scar on his forehead. But these older wizards have experience, which should account to something actually. Maybe that’s why I prefer classic fantasy by Tolkein and even Stephen King; they’re either classically written or morbidly written or with a better plot twist at the very end. However there is bound to be those who think I am just plain spoilsport but think about it. It's absolutely true what I am writing about the Harry Potter series.

Now this brings us to old classic cars. Don’t buy them. They’re useless aside from making you remember your childhood. Unless you are young and your childhood was filled with Honda Civics from the 1980s and 1990s. If you intend to buy a classic MGB GT or something of that sort, make sure you got the money and a lot of time to pamper it. I’ve driven an MGB GT, it drove superbly, steering has more feel that most modern cars and pretty ample handling for its 1.8l engine. But expect more from it like a daily commute in Kuala Lumpur or asking it to stop letting it’s petrol fumes from entering the passenger cabin is a hard thing to do. The parts you will have to order from England and they’re not cheap and I hate anyone who’d plonk in a Japanese engine in this car.

Even more recently, I helped reverse a 1957 Austin Healey 2600cc from its garage and I tell you it was hell. The door was small, the steering large, the seats unadjustable, the controls rock hard, the clutch high and the gear vague as doctor’s handwriting. To enter was agony as I had to be slim as a broomstick. To reach the clutch I had to actually reach it with my toes as the seat cannot be adjusted. I’m average in height mind you and I had to reach in. The only thing I enjoyed about that car is its looks and the power. Aside from that, it was sheer hell.

Now maybe that Jaguar Etype would be a different story altogether. Now if only I was ever given the chance of driving one of the most beautiful classic coupes of all time my mind may change on classic cars.

By the way, I have read a Harry Potter novel in full its just I don’t remember which one while I’m writing this and I couldn’t be bothered to look for the title.

The Audi TT Coupe at a glance...and some 'smart' People.

I was recently at the Malaysian launch of the new Audi TT coupe and enjoyed it very much. Yes, yes the car was good looking, but I enjoyed the food served there especially. They had those small oderves served by waiters and waitresses, they have music, colourful lights, usherettes and I repeat again, food that was pretty tasty to eat. It was also a rainy night but that didn’t seem to hamper the overall atmosphere. There were lots of people there, rich towkays, businessmen, doctors, lawyers, accountants, maybe some crooks and petty thieves as well as the towkay’s girlfriends, mistresses, wifes etc. I suppose an Audi TT is a good car for a rich chap to give to their girlfriends, mistresses and more.

Golf: The Game and The Car

Golf. I tried taking up golfing lessons but I never managed to finish it due to a total lack of interest in trying to hit a very small ball very far away from where I am. The aim of this game I’m told is to use a set of clubs, try to hit the ball into a hole slightly larger than the small ball which is usually at the very least is three to four hundred meters away. There are sand bunkers and water traps as well as areas out of bounds before you can consider trying to clear each hole or round with as little shots as possible. The game is tedious in that 18 holes may take you half a day. Add the 9 hole break for drinks and winner pays for lunch or dinner, it’s a whole day affair. The trade-off for this is supposedly health. But you may either die of sun stroke or skin cancer if you’re not careful from all that tanning or you may suffer from backache trying to follow exactly what your golf pro told you to do while taking that swing. You got at least 3 different angles in the swing and a funny kink in the knee before you're supposedly in the correct position to take a swing at that small ball. It's a method of torture I tell you.

Another reason why this game does not interest me is that you need so many clubs to hit a ball in one direction. You have a driver to ensure the ball can be hit the farthest, you have some irons for closer shots, a wedge for bunkers, a putter for even closer shots. You either have a golf buggy to drive around the course (which is good exercise for the buggy and not you). You have a caddy for lugging your golf cart filled with clubs you don’t use most of the time (which is good exercise for the caddy since he has to carry all the clubs). All the exercise you really get is by swinging that totally awkward 3 stage swing that will eventually cause severe back injury and walking back to the golf buggy and to the club house for a dose of high calorie steak and sandwiches (and beer for some). You don’t actually get any proper exercise. You actually play the game for the thrill of occasionally getting it right, showing off each other’s new set of clubs and getting high on a little side bets here and there.

Golf sets are also bulky and heavy items. You may have 10 clubs at any one time and lugging them around is a chore. Why don’t they invent a multi-purpose handle for them? You carry 2 shafts carried like samurai swords on your back like the ninjas do (how cool is that), one for the driver and one for the normal irons, have screw in heads carried around your waist on a waist-belt. The outfit includes a cool looking load bearing vest to attach that belt with the club heads as well as other golfing equipment. I think golfers will look cool looking like something from an American Ninja movie rather than looking like Government servants on a day off.

Furthermore, why can’t they have invented golf that only uses one club for every type of hole? Its so much easier to play by carrying one club instead of a whole bag. It’s like this, you are a French Foreign Legionnaire and your fort is being invaded by some crazy Bedouins. You have a .22 pistol to shoot at the shortest invader, a .38 for the next in size, a .45 for the bigger man, a .303 rifle for anyone larger than that and you keep changing guns just to suit the target. This is insane; you’d be dead before you know it. I’d like a nice big fat machine gun with unlimited ammunition if thousands of Bedouins came charging at me. Golf should be played like this. One club for all 18 holes. It takes up so much time, space and weight just to hit a small ball. If you want to hit a small ball, try taking up squash. The ball is almost the same size and travels fast in a small confined area.

However, I have to state that with cars going multi-purpose (or one club for all holes) is not necessary. That is why I don’t like MPVs. Too many of them drive MPVs alone and without any purpose for the other 6 empty seats. With cars, I would prefer them focused to doing a few things well rather than everything but not good at any one thing.

Golf. I had a small discussion about the Volkswagen Golf GTi Mk.5 with a friend the other day and he likes the car, its aggression and the design a lot. I on the other hand didn’t. It may be a fantastic car to drive and all that but I told him that the car looked like a mini MPV. I mean, park it beside to its cousins the Audi A3 or the Skoda Octavia or even the larger sized A4, you’d notice that the Golf is at least 2-3 inches taller and looks bigger. I suppose this is because Volkswagen found out from surveys that Hatchback owners like the space and utility of it. But the A3 is also a hatchback on the same chassis design and is still so much lower and looks so much daintier. This is maybe Audi A3 owners don’t go to IKEA as much as their younger Golf owners do. Those with the money to afford an A3 would pay IKEA to deliver the cupboard they bought right to their doorsteps.

The purpose of my argument is that do you need as much headroom if your sitting position is fine? The A3 still had tons of headroom and so does the other cousin, the Skoda Octavia. I love the A3’s driving position as I can bring myself low down and the steering nicely in front of me yet I still have lots of roof. Maybe being around 5ft 8in and not 6ft 3in does help.

But does the purpose of the high roofline actually help other than making the Golf as versatile as a van? Do you need a van in the first place? If you bought a GTi wouldn’t driving pleasure be up there on the list of stuff instead of roof height? I suppose there’s nothing the GTi enthusiast can do since Volkswagen designed the car like that. How unlucky for the GTi enthusiast. Maybe he should have saved up for an Audi instead. Then again, why bother with the brand Volkswagen in the first place since you're in Malaysia and there's nothing really special about owning a Volkswagen here.

The Lancer Evolution VIII MR is a good example of what I am stating here. The aluminium roof in the MR and RS series lowers the Center of Gravity of the Lancer Evolution by about 3mm or about 2.75inches of roof height. Imagine if you had to prepare a race car based on the Golf R32 and the Audi S3. You have the same equipment and specs, but somehow I would think that it would be easier to dial in the Audi to have better handling from this fact of reduced center of gravity. From this point alone, I’d state that the Golf is too big and bulky looking for its own good. It is a good looking car all by its own. But put it beside another 1.6 or 2.0 liter hatchback you will notice it’s actually huge. The Toyota Estima of all hatchbacks. Of course compared to the earlier one this is an improvement, but there is still room for more improvement. I want the next generation Golf to be actually lower in height and have a light and dainty look overall. I think that’s not much to ask.

Now, if I had a choice between the game of golf and a Volkswagen Golf, I’d take the car anytime even though it looks like a mini MPV.

The Vauxhall Viva....or the Perodua Viva ?

Many, many moons ago I had just learnt how to take a dump in my little potty instead of taking a dump in my diapers. It was a small step for a toddler and a relief to my mum as she didn't have to wash diapers anymore. I had also learnt that Malaysian Television had only 2 channels in black and white and I managed to survive these dark ages with barely a scratch. This was sometime in the mid 1970s and my father had just taken delivery of a new car named the Viva. Now this Viva was made by Vauxhall and was General Motors’ small family sized sedan that supposedly competed with the Fiat 124, Ford Escort and other European small family sedans. It was a dull looking sedan. If you were six years old and drew a car, you’d draw this kind of car, a typical three box shape with four wheels sticking out of it. (see pic)

Now the thing is the word ‘Viva’ basically means “Long Live” or “Hooray!” and this car had nothing to be praised at all. It was a crap car with crap build quality and handling. I remember my father telling me that he ended up with tons of cooling problems as well as some electrical problems also. It was also a car that my father used for the shortest period of time and not worth mentioning at all. The fact is, I believe that one of the reasons that my father chose a Vauxhall Viva was that I happened to come along into his life by being born, and he needed a ‘decent’ family car (This was after he owned an MGB GT which he sold off due to the reason stated above and another major incident involving that car). In those days, most respectable Government servants wouldn’t be caught dead in anything Japanese. That means something British or Italian, something that wasn’t named Sunny or Cedric or something that wasn’t made out of Milo tin. However, this meant suffering rust, electrical and cooling problems. Build quality wasn’t so much of an issue as buying British or Italian meant you have very little of it and not much difference from the Japanese cars of the same era. German cars were pricey then and only senior officers tended to buy them. Actually, there was nothing much to shout ‘Viva’ during those days in buying a normal family sedan in Malaysia. Basically the Vauxhall Viva was a dull and problematic car to own throughout the known universe. I doubt that any Vauxhall owner would scream “hooray!” after owning this car for a few months. Needless to say, the next car my dad bought was a second hand Mini Minor 850 which didn’t give him or my mum any major problems until he bought another car sometime later.

Notice that after the 1970s and in the 1980s GM basically had no market presence in Malaysia worth mentioning (other than Suzuki which it owns a major portion of shares). In the 1990s, it tried again with the Opel brand, and that too faltered. Hooray for us car purchasers, as Opels/ Vauxhalls in the 1990s were dull looking cars. Even the Lotus Carlton didn’t make me wet my pants. It was too Q car for my liking.

Back to the Viva, the Perodua Viva; instead of the original Viva from the days of terrible British engineering. This is the replacement for the Kelisa, which was first launched in 2000 and also the Kancil, which was first launched when Perodua was still in its diapers, sometime in 1995. From what I gather, it is a car with pretty good build quality and has a lot of space compared to its predecessor, the Kancil. In fact, the materials used by Perodua is so much better than even a Proton Gen-2 or Satria Neo which are cars from a grade higher than the market segment which the Viva is targeting. This is a feel good factor and is actually what Malaysians want; space and quality at a very reasonable price. I have to repeat that Malaysians do not really care if their car has handling like Lotus but just want to load things that they buy from Ikea into their cars. This is the reason cars like this new Viva and the earlier Perodua Myvi will succeed in selling by the thousands. I have sat in the 1000cc Viva full option and the seating position is nice (no silly Satria Neo screwups), the steering is light, the switches and controls very tactile and the quality in fittings is purely Daihatsu. These are good things. Looking at the size, it is as long as a Myvi as even with me pulling the seat to my desired driving position, there is still lots of space for the rear passenger. The boot also is an improvement over both the Kelisa and the Kancil although not by much but the seats fold down to make lots of space. Imagine a Myvi that is slightly lower and 10cm narrower and you have the Viva. I think, it may not be as nippy as the Kelisa due to its size, but at this price, space and comfort takes priority. And if you’re into tuning cars, you’d know that you can make any car handle pretty decent if you have some money to throw into the car.

On another note, I am looking forward to test driving the smallest Viva of them all, the 660cc manual. Why you might ask? The reason is pretty simple. It REVS TO 8,000 RPM! The 850cc and 1000cc models may have more power but they only redline at 6500rpm. This is pretty normal and what we motorheads would like is to occasionally drive a car with redlines closer to motorcycle redlines. Imagine driving this silly small car all the way to 8,000rpm and trying to keep the revs high, maintain momentum and just trying a windy mountain road in a small compact car. It would be like having a diluted experience of driving a small Italian Fiat 500, 600 Abarth through a mountain road. Imagine a mini Viva race series limited to the 660cc Vivas. It would be like a dozen angry mosquitos tearing down Sepang. It would be a race series that would be cheap to run yet pretty technical. It would be glorious, just Glorious. This Viva could be really live up to its namesake this time around.

Expensive Gym Memberships, Mazda 3, NAZA Sportivo version cars and memories of driving a van

How about enrolling yourself in a gym like Fitness First or Celebrity Fitness? It costs a bomb in fees every month and you get to rub shoulders with other pretentious people who usually go to these places to be seen instead of really working out. The people waste money on enrolling themselves in expensive gyms yet only use the shower, changing room and the juice bar instead of pummelling their bodies on the funny exercise contraptions. Some of them even live in apartments with gym facilities yet choose to be seen with other sweaty people. They already pay for the facilities in their apartment, yet pay more for facilities elsewhere. Some of them are not fat, but choose these places as excuses to meet people or to feel good about themselves but flaunting their skinny bodies to those who just enrolled and are really fat. Imagine how the fat newbie feels? I on the other hand refuse to pay any sort of money to keep in shape. Maybe that is the reason I am a fat pudgy man. But I do know the real secret of losing weight; and the secret is don’t eat anything for weeks, or months. For example, look at the starving Ethiopians, with skin and bones and flesh all wasting away. Their secret to looking absolutely fabulously thin is basically not eating and has nothing to do with going to any gym. So if you intend to be slim, just do what the Ethiopians do, don’t eat. However, I think I prefer bread, eggs and cheese instead of swallowing sand.

Joining an upscale gym isn’t the way to be healthy or not fat. It is just a way of showing other people that you have a healthy lifestyle or telling people that you can afford paying ridiculous amounts of money for a lifestyle that one does not actually practice. It’s like those people who are smart, or in this case stupid enough to buy huge 4x4 vehicles yet never spend a minute offroad. These are those who will buy Ford Rangers and never carry anything with it. These are those people who buy Toyota Hilux and bolt on 22inch rims and tires and make the nice purpose built 4x4 have no actual purpose at all except look ‘bling’. Why buy a 4x4 like a CRV when it can never go off road or even go on picnics, mountain biking, white water rafting or hiking like what the advertisements on these kinds of vehicles suggest? What is the point of buying something if you do not use it for the purpose it was built for? You might as well as buy a Ferrari 430 and let your 89 year old grandmother drive it for her weekly trip to play Bingo somewhere. It’s like asking Jean Luc Picard to use the U.S.S. Enterprise’s phasers to carve a block of wood into a cube instead of using them to knock out a Borg cube that’s attacking Earth. Then again, resistance is futile, people who think they’re all about a certain lifestyle would be conned over and over again into buying large 4x4s and use it to drive into their reserved parking lots somewhere in downtown Kuala Lumpur.

A practical car for Kuala Lumpur would be something comfortable yet reasonably sized for city traffic. So the other day I went to the NAZA showroom to help a few family members pick up a reasonably priced car for them. I chose to go to NAZA because they were Mazda dealers and had the Mazda 3 (pic on the right) on display. Currently, the Mazda 3 1.6 auto Sedan is on offer at RM99,500.00 or thereabouts. At this price, it is the best car under RM100,000.00 to own in Malaysia based on the criteria of price, looks, quality and rarity.

For the price of slightly lower than RM100k, you get a very sporty looking car, great Japanese build quality and technology as well as the rarity factor due to all straightlaced, normal individuals conforming and buying Toyota Vios’, Honda Civics and Citys, various Kia vehicles and those crude Toyota Avanzas. The Mazda has a great driving position of which everything falls into easy reach and place; with tactile knobs and turn signals. The tactile feel of the knobs and switches was actually better than the tactile feel of its bigger brother the Mazda 6, which is actually one reason why anyone should buy a newer designed car compared to a bigger, but slightly older car. It feels so much sportier than its competitor, the Honda Civic. It is of course not as huge as the Civic but I think the Civic is too huge to be actually called a Civic. It should be called the Accord. Compared to the 4^th Generation Civic, it’s a Honda Legend. The size is actually why owning a Mazda 3 is actually more viable than owning a Civic in Kuala Lumpur. All the Mazda 3 needs in its standard 1.6 litre form are larger rims. The stock 15in are too small for the car and it looks dumpy. It needs rims from the 2.0, which are 17inches in diameter. The materials used in the Mazda 3 are of better quality than your average Korean or Malaysian car. In fact, I’d rate it close to its European cousin, the Ford Focus in build quality as well as its handling. But being Japanese, I would suppose the cost of maintaining it won’t be as high as owning a Ford. I also have to mention that the Mazda is a CBU or fully imported unit from Japan as a plus point. This is currently my favourite small sized family saloon (circa 1.6-2.0 category) made available locally because of the points stated above.

While we are on NAZA, do not buy any NAZA Sportivo version of the 206 Bestari. Its carbon fibre look panelling interior looks like it came from the world’s worst plastic manufacturer. The carbon look plastic feels cheap and its carbon weave pattern is absolutely horrendous. Even a person with a spray can would be able to paint carbon weave better than the plastic manufacturer who did that panelling. Even a baboon at the local zoo if given a paintbrush and the colour black and grey will be able to get the carbon look right. This was so wrong I cringed. The 206 is French, meaning that while the carbon panelling was like duck food, the plastics in the whole car also felt like brittle plastic containers sold in the 1970s. the 206 looks good, but after the interior of the Mazda 3, its doorhandles felt like wafer biscuits instead of sturdy plastics. It felt like the cream cracker that you hold in your hand and if you use a bit more force would flake and crumble in your hands.

Do not also buy the NAZA Sutera Sportivo just because it has the same el-cheapo plastic panelling and MOMO equipped steering, gear knob and pedals. The driving position is awful. It you were ever the owner or either a Catering firm or a Nasi Ayam stall owner who once owned a Nissan C20 Vanette and wanted to relive the ‘good ol’ days’ where you had toiled hard, please go ahead and buy this car. It has a driving position which is exactly like a Van, a commercial one at that. That says it all.

So if you want to buy a car and feel good about it and be different from the other regular people. Buy a Mazda 3, don’t waste your money on stupid 4X4s or expensive gyms.

The Sad Looking Ant Eater, the Perodua Kelisa, Engineering feats that never will be performed due to monetary concerns and the new Impreza

The Bugatti Veyron is a 250mph monster that has an engine that sounds like Victorian plumbing and biblical tire roar. You’d think that Clakrson had rubbished the said car, if you ignore the very next line that he wrote on it, in which he said that the car is a magnificent piece of engineering. Now taking mis-quotes into context, we see our Members of Parliaments doing the same thing by looking at part of a Clarkson special on the Perodua Kelisa and noting that the Kelisa was the worst car in the world.

It isn’t the worst car in the world but to actually put what Clarkson said into perspective, is that Perodua and on a similar extent Proton do make soulless cars devoid of any sort of character. Numbers and volume are more important than soul is what makes Clarkson a little bit pissed off when it comes to cars made in Malaysia and Korea. Most Malaysians would actually relate to this as most have at any one time owned a Proton or a Perodua.

Back to the car that has a soundtrack from the 1900s. It is a monumental piece of engineering work that supersedes all known automotive engineering feats including the funny seating position but supremely engineered McLaren F1. It is the fastest and most expensive production car in the world. But I am betting that VW won’t make money out of it but still lose from each unit built. It is amazing that in this day and age of cost cutting, realistically budgeted and environmental friendly companies a monster like this is built. Ugly, like a sad looking doe eyed anteater with a 2 tone coat of paint but as politically correct as daily open air burning staring in the face of global warming. I think this is actually the only engineering feat worth mentioning in the last decade or so. And I estimate that after the Veyron, nothing fantastic will be built by any car manufacturer in the next 10 years including Ferrari, who is actually building race cars that resemble roadcars. These don’t move the goalposts, these cars are still within the usual tolerances of car manufacturing as if you read the specifications of a Veyron you’d notice that everything has to be over engineered to a grand scale to handle 1000 horses.

Mankind has gone backward. In the 1970s to the 90s we had supersonic airliners ferrying people across the Atlantic and we went to the moon in the 1960s. Now, the furthest we’ve gone is up to the International Space Station and the fastest we can fly across the Atlantic is by a Jumbo jet at mach 0.78. Even fighter aircraft development has slowed down. In the 1960s and 1970s America had its F15 and F14 followed by the F18s and F16s. But now, it only has the money to built one Joint Strike Fighter or whatever it’s called. Money and inflation to be blamed for this lack of development.

In those days, governments weren’t so obsessed in counting every single penny. If an inventor came up with a hair brained scheme, most probably some Government in the world will cough up with a hundred million dollars or so. But now, after listening to all those people who wants to save the whales, trees, homeless people, ozone layers, water, bees, locusts and what not, the Governments of the world has no choice but to limit spending on mind blowing projects. I suppose mind blowing projects must now be funded by groups like Volkswagen Audi Group or crazy Russian billionaires. If it were a Government from a developed nation like Germany or even France, a project will be shot before anything can even happen.

“ve haf come up with a solution build an elevator to a stationary point 200km from earth.”

“vat vould be de use?”

“So that it vould be easier and cheaper to dock de ISS instead of vesting precious fuel sending space shuttles to it. Plus its something never been done before. We would be in the annals of history!”

“Vat vould be de cost?”

“Ve estimate it to cost 4 Trillion Euros”

“Mein Gott! Ve can feed a billion African people with that money. Ve can plant trees. Ve can build portable airconditioning units for Antartica so dat de icebergs von’t be affected by global warming. I am afraid ve cannot approve your budget. Let’s go for lunch, I heard dat der hotel across de street has an all de wiener schnitzel you can eat for 5 euros.”

There, and nothing momentous or magnificent gets built anymore. I blame inflation, Governments too concerned with spending money on statues and planting trees and Non Governmental Organisations for pressing for aid and curbing everything in sight. The question of “because we can” will be limited to small measly projects instead of wonders of the world due to this.

Heck, look at the latest version of the Impreza (see the pic to the left). It’s conservative. It’s dull as all character has been squeezed out of it. Look at the bonnet scoop. It’s been severely blunted by rising awareness for car manufacturers to provide for pedestrian crash safety. Pedestrians should look left, right and then try not to get hit. But now they're suggesting that pedestrians will be smiling with comfort when they fly over the bonnet of your car. Look at its boot, specs for the sedan say that it can carry 3 golf bags in it. Do I want to know information like that if I bought an Impreza? I suppose Subaru has to sell more cars and golfers are a demographic that they would like to cover. It is no longer a monumental piece of affordable fast machinery, but it is a compromise to cater for all markets. I suppose it’ll handle well as it has a better rear suspension and lower center of gravity, but sometimes, that’s not what matters to most (maybe having space to put 3 golf bags is what matters). Sometimes, making a profit or trying to make a profit kills a car. Making money isn’t everything.

Who would you want? Flat Chested Plain Jane in a Gucci Dress or Eva Longoria in Jeans and a Cheap T-shirt?

Recently I met two old friends of mine somewhere in Desa Sri Hartamas for a late night mug of teh tarik. One of them was an owner of a Toyota Celica VVTL-i Auto, the other a Proton Satria Neo 1.6. The guy who owned the Satria was a motoring journalist and had only owned the car for about a month. We basically talked about his car quite a bit as it was about to be transformed by Subi of the Promote bodykits fame. The car already had a suede alcantra dashboard as well as a suede alcantra wrapped steering wheel, 17inch rims and BMW-like angel eye projectors. It looked pretty good one might say, but none of the flaws inherited from the basic Satria Neo had been ironed out. Like my previous posting on this car, it had seats perched too high and a rubbish steering wheel and driving position.

Now this friend got some ridicule from me due to the fact that he was an automotive journalist and bought such a flawed car. His argument was that at the price range the Satria Neo was (circa RM55,000.00) nothing could touch its handling. I suppose he is right on that point as journalists don’t actually make much even though they get to try out (or in his case, trash out) new cars but yet would still want to own a reasonable handling car. But the next remark he made was that he is already looking at the latest range of seats OMP have brought into Malaysia to alleviate the seating issue that the Satria Neo has. Could you compromise on such an issue? I compromised when I bought the Proton Wira in 1998. However, even the Wira at the time didn’t have such glaring flaws.

But, the main issue that I shall bring today is on something I noticed just as the two of them were driving off from the parking lot and out to the main street along Desa Sri Hartamas. The all important point that the Toyota Celica, even in its stock 16inch rims and tires looks a whole lot better than the Proton Satria Neo which was complete with the larger 17inch rims and tires; and angel eye projector headlights. It’s not like the Satria is a bad looker, but it was totally outclassed by a car that was rarer in Malaysia and sportier looking. Now it’s not about price difference, as you could put a RM120,000.00 Honda Civic 2.0 beside the Celica and the Celica would still catch my attention over the Civic which costs the same as the Civic here in Malaysia due to most of them being re-conditioned imports. I suppose its all about exclusivity. As no matter what you do, a Satria Neo or a Honda Civic are 2 cars mass market made cars and bought by the thousands every year; whereas the Celica, only a couple of hundred have been imported over the last few years.

I suppose it’s also about design. The Celica is a low slung sports coupe, and that alone helps. The Satria Neo my other friend drives will have the full treatment of big rims and tires, a stonking body kit and lots of upscale trimming. But all in all, spending RM20,000.00 on a Satria Neo still makes it a Satria Neo, which is the actual problem that cannot be addressed. Yes you will be unique, but think of the Satria Neo as your flat chested, plain Jane friend dressed in Gucci and the Celica as Eva Longoria in a pair of Jeans and a cheap t-shirt and you’ll get my point.

Yes, yes those who own Satria Neos or Honda Civics will say I am biased or so forth. But that’s the fact, and that is why when it came to me having a choice to do up my trusty 1.6 Wira when it came to the looks factor I left it totally stock except for the 16inch rims and tires for better handling as no matter what you do to it, it’ll look like a Wira which is a copy of a Mitsubishi Lancer which in turn is modded by the thousands into Mitsubishi EVO look-alikes. Is that a waste of hard earned money? Would it be better for someone to save the money and just buy a more expensive car? Would it be better just to sort out the performance aspect of the car like I did? The answer is subjective. But what does my journalist friend think? He’s the exception to the norm, as being an automotive journalist means that he got friends in the right places to pimp up his ride for a ridiculously small sum of money, unlike other Satria Neo owners that is who would have to spend tons of money just to get where my friend’s Satria Neo would be at.

The 3 Grouses For The Beautiful Month of February

The other day I was reading the latest issue of HYPERTUNE and the reader’s help section caught my eye. A guy who owned a Toyota Unser was asking for help from a performance tuning magazine concerning his Unser. Why? These van owners must get it through their heads that they are driving a van that is trying to be a ‘lifestyle’ vehicle that can do everything. A swiss army knife kinda thingy. However, a large 7 seater object isn’t a small and dainty pocket knife. A Toyota Unser is as dainty as a hippo wearing a tutu and trying to dance the Nutcracker suite. It’s as pointless as asking the current government to start and finish projects on time. It’s as pointless in asking a nun to lift up and show you her knickers. It’s as pointless as trying to ask Proton to stop producing the Saga. What the owner should do is stop wasting his money on performance CAR magazines and publish a magazine for Van owners like him. Maybe I should capitalize on this in the first place. I’d call my magazine – Lifestyle MPV – with the motto – For the discerning MPV owners with Taste. I’d be rich. But as I do not like these vehicles at all, I shall not bother. But others who have read, feel free to capitalize on this idea. These people are like eager beavers. The second option for guys like the Unser owner is stop buying HYPERTUNE and save up and buy an Estima, which at least looks sleek.

Now the second grouse for the month are on car clubs. The problem with people who own cars these days is that they like joining car clubs or inventing car clubs specific to their vehicle. It is getting ridiculous as every other day there is a new model being launched and if every one of these vehicles have their own club, there’ll be a million by 2010. For example, if you buy a Proton Satria Neo, you decide to start a new club called the Satria Neo Club. Then lots of others who want to exchange ideas join the club. Soon, there’ll be about 500 members with the same car joining the club. Things will be fine and dandy for the next 5 years, where new members join and old members sell off their cars and leave. But then, a newer Satria comes out, and therefore makes the old one out of date. What happens? Another bloke decides to start a new car club called the Satria MK3 club or whatever the latest Satria might be called. In the end, there will be 200 clubs for Satrias alone, the Satria GTI club, Satria Special Edition Club, Satria original club, Satria Pencen Club, Satria 1.6 owner’s club, Stupid Satria Owners Club, Dumbass Satria Owner’s Club, Balding Specky Pot Bellied 30 something Satria Owner’s Club and so forth. What needs to be done by these enthusiasts is make one club like the Proton Satria club, then have divisions in the club, like the Satria Gti Register, Satria 1.3 register and so forth. It’s as systematic, and logical as you won’t see membership turnover slowing down just because the car has been out of production for 10 years. Members will help other members of the same brand and because there are so many interchangeable parts, there can be inter-registry meets and these clubs will flourish. Of course its easier said than done, as every one of these car owners think that their car is great and deserves a group of their own. But then again, how unique can your car be if you see 100 others of the same type gathered in one spot? Imagine 100 Satria GTIs in one place at the same time? What’s unique about that? I believe a club with diversity will last a long time rather than a one make club.

The third grouse for the month is Proton, Hyundai and Kia owners who think that their respective Waja (see pic and check out the front grill), Wira, Accent and Spectra are Imprezas. What is wrong with you people? Why aren’t you proud of the type of car you drive? (Although I wouldn’t be proud driving a Accent RXS in the first place) Why do you think your car has a semblance of an Impreza when its either too boxy or too small or what not? Have you been getting high on ganja? Did you have too much Jack Daniel or Budweiser on that day? If you own a Proton Wira, it is excusable if you want to mimic a Lancer EvoIII. But a Subaru? Waja owners, kindly refer to my earlier article on this stuff sometime end of last year. Accent owners, why did you even buy this small crappy looking car in the first place? Why stick on the Subaru sticker? How do any of these people who drive these cars feel when the real deal passes by or stops right beside them? Does it make them proud?

If you have any friends who are one of these car owners mentioned above or think that they should modify their Van or join a ‘special’ car club, please advise them to stop what they are doing. Either that or take some C4 and shove it into their nether regions and do an Altantuya. It’ll make me a very happy chap indeed. Now if you’ll excuse me its time for a cuppa tea.

Electronics, Why they will be a burden in the long run to car owners.

It’s been awhile since the last posting. In fact, it’s already mid-end January 2007 and Mitsubishi’s getting ready to launch the new Evolution X. I was actually quite worried when I read that it was going to come with a 6 speed DSG-like gearbox and no manual shifter. However, upon reading up on the production ready versions, I’ve found out that there will be a 5speed manual shifter option and because of this I am relieved. The reason for my worry is that it seems that every new sports sedan/coupe etc has more and more electronics thrown into its guts than the previous generation of sports cars. The actual impact of these additions is that while these cars will corner like its on rails, blast off into the horizon like nothing you’ve ever seen before or change gears faster than a speeding bullet, these cars have too much dependency on electronics.

Electronics are good, according to all car manufacturers. They aid the driver in driving bla bla. Enabling extremely high cornering speeds in an otherwise family sedan based automobile. However what worries me the most is that all these gizmos are somewhat burdensome in the long run. Most cars with all these gadgets, gizmos and ting-tongs may only have a shelf life of 15 years max before their electronics give way and no spares can be found. Basic stuff like ECUs may be abundant, but stuff like the Active Yaw Control for the Evo IV from 1996 may be impossible to get hold of by 2010 and a relatively good car from 1996 isn’t that usable anymore (to an extent as you could get the later AYC controllers to fit). Of course such a scenario may not even be applicable as there are lots of chop shops out there. But it would be a hassle to find parts that get obsolete so fast. Owners of current Evo IX may be enjoying their cars now, but I would assume that 10 years down the line, after they have disposed of their EVO IX, the next owners would find huge bills trying to find and buy electronic parts for their newly purchased old Evo. I am of the opinion that all these new additions, while they do make cars go faster, stop better and are more comfortable, they are going to be harder to maintain than the classics of yore. Imagine sourcing an electric motor for your new 2011 Mercedes S-class rear air-cond blower.

“Hello, my rear air cond blower is not working”

“Which side”

“Does it matter?”

“Yes, the left rear passenger blower has a different mounting bracket built into the motor, while the right side has a built in speed controller module that controls both left and right blower”

“I see”

“But you may need to buy something else as it may not be the blower, these model W510 S-classes have another electronic sensor that is located under the rear seats to tell the Air Cond ECU how heavy the passenger is and how much air needs to be blown. Also, it may not be that, but it could be the main override switch from the secondary systems ECU that controls the Air Cond system overall. That is also reported to give flaws after approximately 100,000km of mileage. But, that’s a no option fix that Mercedes is giving its customers.”

“I don’t see clearly anymore, what would be the damage?”

“It could be a Thousand Ringgit if it’s just the motor or 3 million ringgit if it’s the Air Cond ECU. It depends.”

I see that in the end, consumers will be forced to change their cars every 10years or so whether they like it or not due to tons of electronics been put into their cars. The curse of mass production. Where change is good no matter what the costs are to the consumers. This actually highlights the second main problem that consumers are faced with, too much gizmos and gadgets.

The first problem is the fact that cars are becoming larger. Look at the current Honda Civic, it’s so large that an Accord from 1990 looks small compared to it. Before 1995, Honda didn’t have a need to have a Honda City, look what’s happened now? In the year 2025, the Honda City will be Accord sized and the Accord will be slightly smaller than your average terrace house. The Mercedes S class will be slightly smaller than a small bungalow and would need a ladder for you to reach the door, occupy 2 lanes on a highway and because of the miracle of lightweight materials, electronics and engine development, make 125mpg. We are obviously screwed when it comes to a desire for space. Years ago, before men invented MPVs, we all went round in 4 door Mazda 323s, Volvo 244s and so forth. I think those days were simple. So simple that we won’t go back there again because cars those days have their own set of issues. We were screwed then as well as in the future.

Of the Avanza Owner's Club and What Proton Needs to Do To Survive

Somehow, the past couple of weeks have been extremely hectic. With not much time to voice out my opinion on things concerning the automotive world, it has become obvious that there have been no new articles on my blog for the whole of last week. I have been busy glancing through magazines and recently, an article in the latest issue of a local Malaysian tuning had caught my eye.

I read an article about the Toyota Avanza owner’s club and found out that it is an active club and that the owner’s of this Van were actually spending their time and money researching on how to make this Van corner better. While this is a good thing, they’ve actually went slightly overboard in putting tons of chassis bracing and high end Kayaba shocks in order for the Van to corner better. I wonder whether firstly, they are doing it for the safety of the passengers or secondly, bragging rights within the club or lastly, so that when they take corners, their children, wife, maid and pet dog or cat will be flung left and right as well as up and down while they are doing the chicanes at obscene speeds around shopping complex car parks. I suppose being Malaysian, everything’s possible. If they can fit a Supra twin turbo engine in the Avanza’s big sister the Unser, I suppose soon we’ll see a 20valve Toyota twin cam 1.6 or a TRD/BEAMS Yamaha tuned 2.0 VVTL-I in an Avanza anytime soon. I can hardly wait.

What I’d like to talk about today are the problems faced by Proton. This small insight to why Proton has actually failed and if no changes are made was cooked up at a weekend Teh Tarik session with a friend of mine somewhere in Gombak. I have to thank this chap who drives a Celica with another round of Teh Tarik on my the next time I see him. I’d divide this examination in brief to a few parts.

1. The people in Proton love cars that handle until they are blind.

The simple fact is that you see Proton building cars that can handle and corner very well. However, none of the general Malaysian public bothers with this fact. What they want is actually tons of space. Good examples of these would be the Perodua Myvi and the Toyota Avanza. At the price they are selling these cars, space counts. Young couples who like buying stuff at IKEA love the Myvi. Thirtysomethings with 3 children and a maid love the Avanza. These people don’t want to drive like Senna or Montoya most of the time. If you go to a small town, you see Pakciks and Makciks driving at 60km/h everywhere. These people don’t need handling. What they need is space to carry their tempoyak and ikan kembung from the pasar to their house. They’d like to know that the car is safe and will be able to protect them in an accident, not handling by Lotus. Proton has its marketing and strategy wrong. While being pro-handling is actually good, the well-being of the company and its future should be considered here.

2. The people in Proton are blind until they fail to see what the market wants.

Again we see the Avanza and Myvi come into the picture. Ever since the Waja, Proton have not launched a car, MPV or SUV that the market actually wants. Proton had launched the Juara to almost no success whatsoever. The reason being that while it is good strategy to launch an MPV, the Malaysian public’s perception on MPV is that is cannot, must not and in all that’s holy look like a van. What Malaysians want in an MPV is that it must be car-like in its features. Look at the Naza Ria/Citra as well as the Toyota Unser (while Pig ugly, still has a 2 box shape) and Avanza.

They also came out with the Proton GEN2, Savvy and the Satria Neo. Notice that the best selling new Proton is still the Waja for the simple fact that it has a boot bigger than most cars in its class and it has 4 doors and legroom for basketball players at the rear. With the Gen2, you got not much bootspace and rear headroom. With the Savvy you got not much of everything as it’s a small mini sized car and with the Satria Neo, it’s a 2 door hatch that’s out to capture the single girl or single guy market. Why come out with cars that do not hit the spot? Why come out with niche market cars in a market where niches aren’t that profitable? Note that there are still not that many Savvy or Satria Neos on the road to this day. You see Gen2s on the road as it has 4 doors. Malaysians still can accept a car like this if it has 4 doors.

Proton has totally misread the basic needs of the Malaysian public by not coming out with cars that they actually need. What they want and need are actually 2 different things. By launching 3 hatchbacks in a sedan driven market is actually bad strategic planning actually. Proton needs another sedan, an SUV and a MPV (that doesn’t look like a van) to survive.

3. The people in Proton believe that they do not need to improve on the quality of material they use and only improve on the finishing and producing defect free cars.

This is another strategy gone wrong for Proton. Let’s take the success story of another Korean car that is a success story in Malaysia. The Kia Spectra. This piece of Bantha fodder is actually a car which is even less substantial than the Proton Waja, yet the Malaysian public still rush out and buys it. What Naza Kia has done is listen to what the general populace wants in a family sedan. What the general populace wants is this:

“I want what a Mercedes have. I want Leather Seats, a CD player, ABS, EBD and some semblance of class that Proton cars don’t give me”

And as such, the marketing team in Naza Kia throws in leather seats, a CD player ABS, EBD, rear disc brakes and great marketing advertisements showing class and grandeur from a Kia Spectra. The general populace buys it in droves.

What Proton has done to counter Kia is come out with products that have an interior made from the same plastic as the microwave containers we use for takeout food. There are no leather seats unless you pay for it and only recently decided to offer CD players on most cars. Proton, no one listens to tape nowadays. Are you in league with aftermarket accessory shops? You want more people to go change their players at accessory shops issit?

If the basic Kia Spectra offers ABS, why isn’t Proton offering ABS like what the general populace wants? I think all Protons should have ABS for the simple sake of telling the people who buy cars that Proton cares for the safety of its consumers. The actual fact is that, the Pakciks and Makciks who drive at 60km/h do not really need the ABS as they seldom use the car fast enough for anything to happen. Some even send the car to the workshop because they think that the judder they feel upon heavy braking is a faulty brake system whereas it’s actually the ABS kicking in. These people wouldn’t know how the ABS works but they just like to have it on their car as it gives them bragging rights when they’re exchanging information at the Mamak stall or among relatives at a family reunion. Imagine this scene:

“Wah, Pakcik Abu, new car arrr?”

“Yes, my new Kia Spectra.”

“Nice lah, got leather seats. Must be very comfortable.”

“Ya, summore got CD player, ABS, EBD, 16VALVE SOHC, leather steering wheel 15in Sports Rims and more.”

“FOOOOOOYIOOOOOOOHHHHHHH, so good lah this car, everything also got. I must tell my dad to buy one also”

And a sales phenomenon starts within Pakcik Abu’s family and friends.

This is also the same with the rear disc brakes. Notice with the Honda ES model Civic the 1.7 models came with rear drum brakes. Malaysians were aghast as they thought that drum brakes couldn’t stop anything but a 1950 morris minor. So the latest Civics brought in from CKD packs in Thailand come fully equipped with rear discs. This is what Naza Kia thought of so much earlier and then packaged them in. From a sales and marketing point of view, brilliant. From a cost point of view, not so brilliant. But if it’s what the public wants, so be it. Of course, this fact Proton has countered as all new Protons have rear disc brakes. But it all goes to show how mighty the consumer is.

If Proton wants to at least gain back some of the sales which it has lost, it would need to actually give more than what they currently give. They would need to work on a more tactile interior. The interior would have to be at least a good as a Toyota before people would actually believe that it is better than a Kia. The mountain is really that high as currently, if you took a look at the Gen2 and the Satria Neo, you'd notice that the dashboard is made out of hard plastic that is only fit for cars in the small mini size or budget bracket. Of course, the lack of stupid defects like power window failures should not occur anymore. That is obvious.

Malaysians want space, toys and class. They do not want Lotus to tune the suspension. They want gadgets that they see in Mercedes and BMWs. They want bus sized interiors with the luxuries of a pleasure cruiser. What has been given by Proton are hatchbacks and more hatchbacks and ugly van-like MPVs which no one wants. No wonder people are not buying the latest batch of Protons.

A breakdown on what should Proton do in order to survive:

1. Market on safety, luxury and space. People at this price range do not want “handling by Lotus.” But want a cheap Mercedes knockoff.

2. Make MPVs, SUVs and Sedans instead of launching 3 hatchbacks in a row.

3. Improve the tactile feel of the cabin. Give top notch plastics.

4. Install the latest safety features at whatever cost as Malaysians like to brag about what they have in their car.

5. Have a proper strategic planning team in place. Find out where Proton needs to go from here on. Proton is never going to be a Ferrari who formed his company with the need to maintain his racing team. And as such, Proton has to know what t wants to be. It needs to be a volume seller. It needs to make safe, reliable, spacious, luxurious and stylish cars within a price range. It needs to be the next Toyota. That’s the company it should benchmark. There are no excuses. Benchmark the best global manufacturer and you can’t go wrong.

Tech Focus: Would the noise from a car make you buy it? I would.

I’ve decided to work harder today (and hopefully for the rest of my career). The reason being that recently, a Brabus versioned SL 55 AMG zipped by on the opposite side of the road and the driver basically let it rip. The sound emanating from the tailpipes or engine was absolutely mind blowing extra loud BRRAAAAAAAPPPPPPPPPP.

It is exactly a cross between a NASCAR V8 and a World War II fighter plane. I suppose the engineers at AMG must have conveniently forgot about drive-by noise regulations when they designed this engine and exhaust system. I suppose when you can afford one of these, you wouldn’t be bothered about neighbours complaining that your car is noisy and disturbs their 6 month old baby’s nap. You’d just buy over the whole surrounding neighbourhood or buy a 10,000 acre estate somewhere in Sungai Buloh. The police won’t even bother you unlike the time when you once owned a Proton Saga with a hundred Ringgit ‘meriam buluh’ muffler. And as such, you can make the SL55 wail in graceful abandon, without a care in the world.

Some cars produce noise that’s irritating and outright loud without an ounce of character in them. Some produce a sound as if the Angels had come down from Heaven and blessed the engine and its exhaust pipes with their harps. Some produce a sound as if a gigantic beast had awoke and now wants to eat everything it its path. However, it is usually the first case that happens to be in abundance around here instead of the second and third situation. We get the sound of mosquitos and the sound of a hollow tin can rattling around in most cars. The mosquito like sound usually comes from a Perodua Kancil with a RM95 muffler from the shops proclaiming ‘murah, tarak tipu punya’. You pay el-cheapo money for this crappy irritating sound. And it does not make a 3 cylinder Kancil engine sound like half a Porsche 911 flat 6. This is because we all know that in order to get a decent sounding car, (or a decent handling car, or a decently characterful car etc. etc) you’d have to pay through your bleeding nose for something like that if you want it brand new.

The thing that limits the ownership of a soulful sounding car in Malaysia is the same as the ownership of any soulful looking or a neat handling car. The reason is that these cars usually cost a whole lot more than those anodyne cars you see everywhere. It is also because manufacturers who sell basic low end cars are too busy working out numbers on how to milk as much profit from them rather than spend money on developing interesting handling, loads of power, a decent driving position or even the tuning the exhaust system or intake system of a car to make it sound nicer. But sometimes, it is advancement that makes an engine quieter.

We shall look at good sounding affordable cars in this article. The problem of cost also limits most mass produced cars to having a 4 cylinder in line engine. An in-line 4 is very cost effective when it comes to piston displacement and the power it produces. With the correct camshaft profiles, correct intake and exhaust as well as ignition and camshaft timing an in-line 4 could produce an efficient 100bhp per 1000cc. We take note of the Mitsubishi MIVEC and the Honda VTEC engines for this. The power outputs these engines make are astounding. But, I’ve experienced that a correctly tuned VTEC or i-VTEC engine from the year 2006 will not sound like the step-up VTECs from 1990. You won’t feel a rush or a change in induction like in those days as it’s more linear nowadays. Less character you may say, but there are no gaps in the powerband like before. There is less of a blood curling howl in the latest DC5 Integra than in an early DA6 Integra. I suppose it’s when everything is balanced out it goes quiet. It may however still have a somewhat unique shriek due to the fact that the Honda Twin Cam VTEC revs to at least 8,500rpm where most cars find it a struggle to reach 6,500rpm. The extra 2,000rpm or so makes a lot of difference when it comes to induction roar and exhaust note.

Some may say that it isn’t the way to make a car sound good but these people have forgotten the induction roar of those old 4 cylinder cars running 2 or more carburettors. Honda once in the late 60s came out with their S800 which ran 4 Mikuni carbs and a 9,500rpm redline. As such, one of the pleasures of owning a high revving Honda or Mitsubishi would be gunning the engine right up to the redline, knowing that you are one of the few with engines (in cars) that can howl and shriek like a Pontianak with some belacan shoved up her arse. However, you need at least RM195,000 to fork out for a Jap unregistered reconditioned Integra DC5 for the pleasure (if one can still be found that is). Of course second hand EG series Civics from 1992-1996 could be bought, but they aren’t worth paying up to RM35,000.00 for one and hard to get financing also.

However, note that with the Yamaha designed Toyota VVTL-i 1.8liter engine found in the Celica or the MRS you won’t find any outrageous noises anywhere. Being a Toyota engine, it performs like a grown up engine should. Quietly doing its job with a very, very normal twin cam noise. Nice, but not as good as you’d expect. Somehow, you’d buy the car to enjoy driving it. Sound is secondary to a Toyota. In fact, you’ve never once heard anyone say that they bought a Toyota for the sound.

Now we come to flat 4s, a rare sort of configuration once used on Lancias and Alfas as well as the VW Beetle. Only Subaru carries on with this configuration nowadays. Porsches are 6 cylinders and BMW makes 2 cylinder boxers for their bikes. If you noticed the newer Subaru Imprezas are pretty thrummy instead of burbly due to the fact that it has equal length manifolds which balance the pulses of the exhaust gasses. In the early days, you get Imprezas with manifolds having very unequal lengths from each bank of cylinders. This causes the exhaust pulses to be unbalanced and therefore a burble as nice as a V8 engine. With each improvement, the Subaru EJ series comes closer to being as interesting as a workmanlike drone of a Mitsubishi 4G63 engine, a classic in its own right, but a very electrical appliance sort of drone when it comes to making noise.

However, at this moment, there still is a semblance of character in its exhaust note compared to other 4 cylinder cars. The Subaru Impreza/Forester and the in some ways the Subaru Legacy are the only 4 cylinder cars that sound different and good nowadays. No one utilises flat 4s anymore. I suppose it does cost more to produce with separate cylinder banks and all, but the price for maintaining this kind of engine makes it worthwhile as it makes it have a dozen times more soul than the run of the mill in-line 4s. Expect to pay RM115, 000.00 for a recently new Subaru Impreza WRX bug eye from 2000-2001. This version still has a very single beat sound compared to the later models as with the 2004 revision (applied E onwards) the manifolds are of equal length.

The next affordable type of engine that produces decent noise would be the Alfa Romeo 4 cylinder in-line engines, with its twin spark cylinder heads and variable cam timing. This covers both the newer JTS engines as well as the earlier fully Alfa Twin Spark ones. The Alfa trademark is a very throaty growl. The Italian engineers/designers seem to have perfected the art of making everything they touch from the look of the car to the sound of the car seem just nice. However, the only problem of owning an Alfa is that you may be afraid of driving it due to the fact that something may break and cost a bomb while you’re driving it. This puts a spanner to the cogs to most people’s plans of buying one. Even if they do buy one, they hardly take it out of Kuala Lumpur and hit the B-roads. Some don’t even leave their neighbourhood in the first place. One Alfa I’d suggest anyone to buy is the one my cousin bought, a 147 1.6 Twin Spark manual from 2001. It doesn’t have the selespeed gearbox, therefore you won’t die a pauper trying to maintain it. It’s been pretty reliable throughout the one year my cousin has owned his and it still looks great. The market price for a 1.6 is around RM60,000.00.

After this the only car that sounds decent for around RM100,000 would be a Proton Perdana with its V6 engine. But you won’t want to pay 100k for a car that’s been in production for so long and when there’s gearbox problems cropping up, and a flooded second hand market of Perdanas. You wouldn’t want one anyway. But a V6 sounds good nonetheless. And if you want one, get a recently used one from the year 2004-2005. It’ll sell for around RM60-80,000. But the thing is, you may need a few thousand more fixing up the gearbox if the previous owner hadn’t experienced the gearbox problem first. It’s a catch 22 situation with this car.

There are other cars that have a vocal engine, but you will be looking at cars that are second hand if you want them cheap. 6cylinder BMW 3 series E36s and E46s as well as the 5 series (all of them at the age where things start to go wrong and cost BMW money to fix), the 5 cylinder Fiat Coupes (with tons of problems to go with it), certain old Nissans with the RB20, 25 or 26 engines, the newer VQ series V6 from Nissans in the Cefiros (fwd and dull to drive).

The thing is, cost is always the constraint, and if cost wasn’t a constraint, the top 5 list of current production cars to have just because of the noise they make would be as follows (I shall limit to the cars that I have had the pleasure of hearing them sing):

1. Mercedes Benz SL55 AMG

2. Ferrari F430

3. Bentley Continental GT/GTC

4. BMW M5

5. Range Rover Sport (basically that would make the new Jaguar XK coupes sound fantastic and its cousin the Aston Vantage which utilises the same engine as desirable)

So, should we choose a car to own for the noise that it makes? I suppose some cars like the SL55 AMG would make me say yes.