The Volkswagen Passat gets enhanced slightly for Malaysia

Earlier today Volkswagen Group Malaysia had made known that the locally assembled Volkswagen Passat is now available with four new features - better infotainment system with more connectivity, 12 way adjustable electric front seats with memory function for the driver's side, folding side mirrors and an inproved anti theft / immobiliser system.

UMW Toyota Motor issues a recall for 82,457 units of Toyota Fortuner, Innova and Hilux

UMW Toyota Motor is conducting a recall (using the super politically correct term 'special service campaign'  ) for 82,457 units of Toyota models consisting of the Toyota Hilux, Toyota Innova and Toyota Fortuner manufactured from year 2005 – 2010 and sold in Malaysia.

This campaign is conducted to replace a spiral cable on affected Hilux, Innova and Fortuner. The driver’s airbag module in the involved vehicles is attached to a spiral cable assembly with electrical connections that could be damaged when the steering wheel is turned. If this occurs, the air bag warning lamp will illuminate and the driver’s air bag could be deactivated, and most probably may not deploy in the event of a crash.

UMW Toyota Motor will contact all Hilux, Innova and Fortuner customers involved to carry out the necessary corrective measures at no cost. The company also states that no other models it sold are affected by this campaign.

For details, call 1-800-8-TOYOTA (1-800-8-869682).

This is in conjunction with the recent announcement made by Toyota Motor Corp (Global) that a special service campaign concerning possible damage of spiral cable in the Hilux, Innova and Fortuner. 

This reminds me of a Dilbert cartoon I read recently - 'Item overheats' so market it as 'Red Hot Specification!!!!' Of course, folks, if you do own one of these, and is not a car thief with the intention of car-jacking one for sale in Laos, Vietnam or Myanmar, do head over to the local Toyota service center. If you are a car thief, hope you get into a car crash and the airbag doesn't work.

Some Mercedes Benz news over at motoring-malaysia.com - Run out W204 C200 and SL400

Mercedes Benz Malaysia has brought out the final edition W204 C-class before it starts bringing in the W205 by the end of this year. Only one model, the C200 CGI Avantgarde with AMG Styling will be sold at regular C200 prices. A 'bargain' at RM254,888.00. It basically has everything included in the previous C250 and C300 sold here but with the 184bhp C200 specced engine. Take a look at it over here at motoring-malaysia.com.

Over in Europe, Mercedes Benz has discontinued the SL350 for a SL400. This is a downgrade in engine size - 3,500cc to 3,000cc BUT a change from normally aspirated to turbocharging has enabled an increase in horsepower and torque. Good for road tax expensive Malaysia when it comes here. Click here to go there.

VW Group via Audi prepares for new engine technology and I am quite worried

The VW TSI engine

The latest news circulating in and around the automotive world is how Volkswagen Group intends to make electric turbochargers,variable compression ratios, cylinder deactivation (all on engines) and coasting (on the transmission) a reality. 

On variable compression ratios for the engine:
Audi Technical chief Ulrich Hackenberg gave no details on how Audi will introduce variable compression ratio technology, but what this means is that the car's engine can have a high compression ratio of a direct injected petrol engine of around 15:1 and when under high loads especially if it is turbocharged and boost is coming on drops to say 11:1. The luxury of being able to have variable compression ratio depending on the load and power demands makes this something all engineers chase after. It would be ultra efficient too.

Sunday Car Porn: Fiat 131 Abarth

I have a soft spot for everything Fiat, especially the Fiat 131 Mirafiori. This was because the car was one which I had my earliest motoring memories. My father owned one of these and we travelled distances throughout the Malaysian Peninsular before the days of the North-South Highways. I was a good car to own, but it had the dreaded Italian car rust problem of the 1970s. Made from cheap Russian steel they rusted even before leaving the factory in Italy. But today, rust aside, we're talking about the special version - the Fiat 131 Abarth.

TEST DRIVE: VOLKSWAGEN POLO 1.6 HATCHBACK

Hello again folks, now's the time for one of those longer than usual reviews that hopefully would assist you in your quest to purchase the correct car for the time being. Of course this is only for the time being as people change and tastes change along the way. Especially if you suddenly get that promotion and start thinking of cars bigger than the one you're driving at the moment. It happens. And before I start going on and on and on, I've just got my hands on the Volkswagen Polo 1.6 Hatchback and this is what I think about it. Do read on.

BMW launches the new BMW M4 Convertible

The arrival of the new BMW M4 Convertible (fuel consumption combined: 9.1–8.7 l/100 km [31–32.5 mpg imp]; CO2 emissions combined: 213–203 g/km) sees BMW M GmbH making another alluring addition to its legendary high-performance sports car line-up.

2014 Volkswagen Polo 1.6 Hatchback - Short in-car video clip.

We have been spending some time with this little Volkswagen Polo 1.6 Hatchback. We've taken it grocery shopping, on the school run, to appointments, shown it to our family members, friends, gone through some horrendous traffic and the pouring rain with some flooding as well as over to our favourite stretches of roads around Gombak, Selayang and Genting Sempah. Nothing broke. Which is a good thing in a car. Any car.

But before we go on to our full fledged review (which should come sometime soon) here's a short  in-car clip of it being driven over some twists and turns.

UPDATED: The review is already out. Go there by clicking HERE.

Volvo Trucks Launches the Fuelwatch 2014 and Driver Development Programme

Volvo Trucks are an interesting bunch of people in that they build really cool trucks and that they have got lots of value added benefits for their customers. Yesterday they launched the Fuelwatch 2014 competition and Driver Development Programme for their customers. This competition has been going on for about 5 years here in Malaysia and it basically educates the participating drivers (and lorry owners) about how to drive safely in an economical and environmentally friendly matter. Very important as lorries actually make up a whole lot of carbon emissions in any country, delivering goods everywhere throughout the region.

The event was officiated by Encik Mohamed bin Dalib, Director of Automotive Engineering Division and Road Transport Department, Malaysian Ministry of Transport who commended Volvo’s efforts. As the transportation industry expands, it becomes more apparent that we need to also increase the quality of our truck drivers by engaging them through training programmes such as these, so as to enhance overall safety, fuel efficiency, reduction of CO2 emission and optimise uptime. 

The Volvo FM & FMX lorries

April Fools Tale - The Proton Juara

First and foremost, the Proton Juara was not launched on April Fools Day. It was launched on the 22nd of July 2001 and was named Juara, or CHAMPION in Engish. The problem was the mini MPV was hardly a champion and it, and the Proton Tiara was a mega flop for Proton.

The Proton Juara was supposedly conceived in 1999 and was based on the Mitsubishi Town Box minivan, a Japan only minivan powered by a tiny 1.1liter 4 cylinder engine with a 4 speed automatic transmission. According to the official history, Proton brought it out to capitalize on the then burgeoning MPV market. In the early 2000s, Kia, via Naza, was having a boom period selling the Kia Carnival as the Naza Ria and later the Kia Carens as the Naza Citra. Renault was also selling the Espace and was surprisingly selling well. As was Toyota via the grey imported Toyota Wishes and Estimas. Honda was doing well with the Stream too. In fact, everybody was making profits from selling MPVs but Proton, in 1999 was high and dry.

2014 Malaysian F1 Results

#	Driver	Country	Team	Time	Gap	Points
1	Lewis Hamilton		Mercedes	1:45.390	1:40:25.974	2
2	Nico Rosberg		Mercedes	1:48.270	17.300	2
3	Sebastian Vettel		Red Bull	1:44.899	24.5	3
4	Fernando Alonso		Ferrari	1:45.663	35.9	3
5	Nico Hulkenberg		Force India	1:48.604	47.0	2
6	Jenson Button		McLaren	1:47.086	83.4	3
7	Felipe Massa		Williams	1:46.950	84.7	3
8	Valtteri Bottas		Williams	1:47.030	85.1	3
9	Kevin Magnussen		McLaren	1:49.665	108.8	2
10	Daniil Kvyat		Toro Rosso	1:50.986	135.7	3
11	Romain Grosjean		Lotus	1:49.006	137.8	4
12	Kimi Raikkonen		Ferrari	1:48.819	137.9	3
13	Kamui Kobayashi		Caterham	1:51.848	177.9	2
14	Marcus Ericsson		Caterham	1:51.624	229.5	3
15	Max Chilton		Marussia	1:48.964	229.6	3
R	Pastor Maldonado		Lotus	RETIRED	1 lap	1
R	Adrian Sutil		Sauber	RETIRED	4 laps	2
R	Daniel Ricciardo		Red Bull	RETIRED	9 laps	5
R	Jules Bianchi		Marussia	RETIRED	19 laps	2
R	Esteban Gutierrez		Sauber	RETIRED	33 laps	3
R	Jean-Eric Vergne		Toro Rosso	RETIRED	47 laps	4
R	Sergio Perez		Force India	RETIRED	47 laps	1

BMW Group DesignworksUSA designs new Siemens metro for Kuala Lumpur.

This bit of news is interesting for the people living in Klang Valley. The scheduled for operation in 2017 Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system for the Klang Valley that is being constructed by Siemens will have coaches designed by BMW Group's Designworks USA. Automobile companies do have their hands in other forms of (non-road going) transports too

I have posted its details as well as the basic specification of the upcoming MRT services over on Motoring-malaysia.com.

Sunday Special: The Volkswagen Golf is 40

Yes. The Volkswagen Golf has gotten old. First launched a good forty years ago it has gone to be Europe's favourite smal car and those that aspiring Malaysians want to be seen in before they can afford Audi, BMW or Mercedes Benz. Anyway, here is a pictorial of all seven generations of the iconic, little (but not any more) hatchback.

Saturday nite humour

Not that I condone doing this sort of thing to your old Proton Saga megavalve but this is Malaysian re-engineering at its best...or was it worst.
Oh...no folding roof or any of that sort. We Malaysians do not need any of that shade from the sun, rain or moon whatsoever.

W222 Mercedes Benz S-Class launched in Malaysia; S400L HYBRID and S500L with AMG Package

Mercedes Benz Malaysia had quietly launched the W222 S-class here in the Klang Valley recently. In our case, the long wheelbase V222 variants. Anyway my contacts had stated that the launch happened over the weekend to a select few guests. Very pish posh tish tosh you know. These are those VVIPs that had already placed bookings for the car and you guys very well know that Malaysian towkays cannot resist a new S-class. I know some have placed their bookings as soon as the car was out over in Europe.

Spotted for Sale: 1995 Honda Inspire 2.0 - When Honda chased after the Europeans for the Sports Sedan title

The late 1980s up till the mid 1990s for a fabulous time to get all worked up over Japanese cars. It was a time where car manufacturers had money to throw around and it was a time where they experimented with the technology that we seem to have taken for granted today. This was a time where four valves per cylinder were making an entrance into mass produced cars, big V8s other than those from America and even bigger V12s came popping out of the Japanese and European woodwork, experimental layouts and designs were being pushed out and a whole lot more.

Honda was one of the companies that were at the forefront of all this new technology. Sometime in 1989 they started using variable valve timing in their cars. This was a first and they called it VTEC for Variable Valve Timing and Electronic Lift Control. It made small displacement engines make loads of horsepower. Aside from going VTEC, Honda also started using double wishbones on the fronts of their cars (as well as the innovative new multi-link suspension at the rear). This allowed Hondas to have extremely nice handling throughout the range. It basically allowed the wheels to be on top of most road conditions and allowed the Hondas to be able handling machines. Honda made a whole load of innovative cars back then and even considered going after BMW by having premium sports sedans in the guise of the Honda Inspire / Vigor

Century Ultramax Battery and Century Battery Assist Launch: Final Verdict

Those that have been following my postings would remember that I was offered a Century Ultramax battery during the Century Ultramax battery & Battery Assist launch in December 2011. The battery, a NS60L sized one found a home in my Subaru Impreza 1.6TS and had basically functioned as it should have till its expiry about 21 months after its use, or sometime in September 2013. 

Xrobot Revo Lista - A Two Wheeled Electric Personal Transport that has just arrived in town

Last week I tried something which I don't normally try. This was something on two wheels and not a motorcycle or a bicycle. It was something called a Revo Lista, marketed here in Malaysia as the X-Robot Personal Transporter by a company that belongs to a pal of mine, SNCR Malaysia Sdn Bhd.

The Lexus ES 250 = The Honda Accord ?

Everything is subjective. At this very moment most of my friends and I would recommend those who can afford a full sized sedan, also known as the D segment car over any other category for best bang for buck if you have around RM130,000- RM200,000 to spend. This is as you get a helluva lot of car for your Malaysian Ringgit. At this price range you can get close to the quietness, refinement as well as the (slightly) effortless power delivery of a car with at least a 2.0liter -2.5liter engine inside it. This means fatigue-less cruising over long distances and a better image to boot.

Tokyo Auto Salon Putrajaya, Malaysia 2014 is set for the 14th to the 16th of November 2014 - UPDATED

UPDATE 20th November 2014: - I just remembered about this event and guess what? It has been postponed until further notice (check out the website -http://tokyoautosalon.com.my/notice.html) . It's not happening folks. 

Last Friday, 21st March 2014 marked the soft launch of the Tokyo Auto Salon Putrajaya 2014 edition which is scheduled to be held on the 14th to the 16th of November 2014 at Dataran Putrajaya, Presint 3, Putrajaya, Malaysia. The soft launch ceremony event was officiated by The Honourable Tuan Khairy Jamaluddin bin Abu Bakar (4th from the right), Minister of Youth and Sports, Malaysia. 

The organisers brought out some toys during the soft launch for the guest to view

All New 2014 Mazda 3 2.0 SkyActiv in Malaysia.

No. I haven't forgotten that the all-new Mazda 3 2.0 was just launched in Malaysia. The reason is that I did not have the time to get myself over to One Utama where they had launched it and I have not made it to any showrooms to have a look at it. Anyway, Mazda seems to have only brought in one fully imported CBU model - the 2.0 Skyactive sedan at RM138,935 OTR with insurance (with no hatchback in sight at the moment). It comes with a 3 year /100,000km warranty and a 3 year / 60,000km free servicing packages.

Mercedes Benz CLA200 - Due for an April Launch at an estimated RM235,888 CBU

Some news for those wanting a sleek looking 4 door coupe. The Mercedes Benz CLA 200 is due to be launched sometime in April with an estimated price of RM235,888 before any insurance. With this you get an entry level Mercedes Benz that looks helluva good, drives decently well and, looks helluva good. Better than in the photos I tell you. I mentioned that before haven't I?