Renault plans to revive the Alpine brand by starting with the beautiful Vision Alpine prototype

Renault have announced plans for a new Alpine sports car. This is very good news to me. The last Alpine was sometime in the 1990s and they were like the French's answer to a Porsche 911. They had their engines like the Porsche, slung way back at the rear behind the axles. They looked good too, but this new one takes after one of the earliest and nicest looking model, the Alpine A110 - which I happen to think as one of the nicest small sized coupe ever built. Aside from some small, tiny, obscure Italian Fiat Abarth,  an Alpine A110 in French Racing Blue is awsome. Too bad they are showing it in white.

Ah...here's a proper pic of it below....

2016 Proton Perdana - Teased and previewed. An opinion.

And so, after unveiling their latest plan in order to make PROTON successful again, Chairman Tun Mahathir and CEO Dato' Abdul Harith showed us the new 2016 PROTON Perdana in top spec 2.4liter form. All of us who attended the press conference were forced to put away all forms of camera when they showed us the new car. Of course, they have already been teasing us with bits during the presentation - like the headlights above and in the presentation slide below. So there will be no full pics here but an writeup on what I think about the car after viewing it for the first time.

PROTON unveils new logo, new service assist, new aftersales initiatives and the It's in the Drive campaign + Opinion

CEO Dato' Abdul Harith Abdullah explaining to the media the new plan for PROTON

In order to bring back confidence in the Proton Cars brand, Proton Holdings Berhad held a press conference unveiling a new look (and logo), its transformation plan and its promise to provide a much better experience to its customers. 

Spotted for Sale: 2005 BMW 318i 1.8 (A) SPORTS UNCLE CAR - Yup. The E46 can be considered an UNCLE CAR

Usually when we say the car is an 'Uncle Car' it means that the car is super dull looking. Something like a two generations ago Toyota Camry or the A33 Nissan Cefiro. These are super boring to look at cars and usually driven by slightly elderly people who are as super dull looking as the car. However, sometimes even a somewhat interesting car like this E46 BMW 318i  gets called  an uncle car by the people trying to flog it off.

Ramblings on a Sunday - The upcoming Proton-Suzuki Ertiga collaboration model and what might have been

Imagine if Suzuki had brought this into Malaysia in 2012.....

I had recently heard that one of the first few collaboration vehicles under the Proton-Suzuki joint venture is the Suzuki Ertiga small SUV. Recent in this case was about a week or so ago but since it was Chinese New Year and I had opinions and news about other things to write about I have now decided to say a bit more on what I think the of this Suzy MPV and some background stuff about Suzuki in Malaysia.

An English lesson: The meaning of 'Grand'....but when it comes to cars....

The Suzuki GRAND Vitara....

Recent test results of the ASEAN NCAP has got me thinking. Not about the results but about cars that use the word 'GRAND' in their name.

grand
ɡrand/
adjective
1.
magnificent and imposing in appearance, size, or style.

ASEAN NCAP Results for Quarter 1, 2016 - Hyundai i10, Ford Everest, Toyota Fortuner, Nissan Grand Livina results

 Ouch!!!! The 1st generation Hyundai i10 with some crash test dummies....and a flying side skirt.

 MIROS / ASEAN NCAP recently performed several crash tests on the 1st generation Hyundai i10, 3rd generation Ford Everest, the current Toyota Fortuner, the Nissan Grand Livina and the Toyota Innova. 

Road Safety: Shell Malaysia partners MIROS on iRAP Programme to improve road safety in Malaysia

Shell Malaysia together with the Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (MIROS) will be partnering through the International Road Safety Assessment Programme (iRAP) in order to improve road safety in Malaysia. The partnership was marked with a signing ceremony witnessed by YB Dato' Sri Liow Tiong Lai, Minister of Transport Malaysia. Also present were Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye, Chairman of MIROS, Datuk Seri Hj Saripuddin Hj Kasim - Deputy Secretary General Ministry of Transport Malaysia, Datuk IAIN Lo - Chairman Shell Malaysia, Mr Rob McInerney - CEO of iRAP, Datuk Azman Ismail - MD of Shell Malaysia and Prof Dr Wong Shaw Voon - Director General of MIROS.

Now, iRAP is an international award winning charity organisation dedicated to creating a world without high risk roads through research and evidence.

Spotted For Sale: 2001 Nissan Cefiro 3.0 Auto A32 - VIP dirt cheap...road tax is the only issue

The thing about large capacity cars in Malaysia is the road tax. The annual cost of road tax climbs steeply after 2,000cc (RM380 at 2,000cc) with another jump after 3,000cc (3000cc costs around RM2,130) which actually makes 3.2liter car's road tax cost RM3,030. So cars that are over the 2.5liter barrier are usually shunned unless they are collectible sports cars. Even so, if you can spare about RM2,100 worth of road tax per annum, you can start playing with entry level big bruisers and cruisers like this dirt cheap 2001 Nissan Cefiro 3.0 Brougham here.