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Maybach introduces new Zeppelin flagship range

February 12, 2009 at 4:59 am By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, International News, Maybach

Maybach Zeppelin

Built on the old W140 S-Class tank chassis resized with updated tech and with half W220 front and half W221 rear styling cues, the Maybach 57 and 62 are getting a little old. Sales figures are not up to expectations. What’s this – a new Maybach model we see? Not exactly. The Maybach Zeppelin series are basically the same old 57 and 62 with a more powerful version of the 6.0 litre V12 from the 57 S and 62 S, a two-tone exterior and a built-in perfume spray (the Peugeot 308 also has something similiar).

Power is up only 28 horses to 640hp while torque remains at a massive 1,000Nm, thanks to the V12′s twin turbocharged technology. The interior gets some high-spec California beige leather and shiny lacquered piano black trim. The car’s carpeting are made of genuine lambskin. The earlier mentioned perfume spray uses two scents (one light and refreshing and the other is heavier and woodier) developed for Maybach by Givaudan.

The price? €406,000 for the Maybach 57 Zeppelin while the 62 Zeppelin costs €473,200. The perfume spray is optional, costing an extra €3950.
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Ford Taurus SHO features twin turbo EcoBoost V6

February 12, 2009 at 4:13 am By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, Ford, International News

Ford Taurus SHO

Now this is quite interesting, an American Ford that at first sight looks rather appealing! Other than the Mustang of course, but even then the real eyeball-drawer is the supercharged Shelby GT500 version and not the plain vanilla version that barely manages to squeeze 210hp out of a massive 4.0 litre of displacement.

But anyway, back to this interesting Ford. It’s a large car, the Ford Taurus SHO (pronounced “show”). It’s size and wheelbase is in the range of the likes of the E60 5-Series. It’s also got Ford’s new Kinetic Design front end styling.

Under the hood is Ford’s EcoBoost engine, a twin turbocharged 3.5 litre V6 that churns out 365 horsepower at 5,500rpm and 475Nm of torque at 3,500rpm. This is where the SHO moniker gets its justification as it stands for Super High Output. This power gets sent through a torsen-equipped all-wheel drive system, through a Ford SelectShift automatic’s 6 gear ratios, which will also blip the engine on downshifts if needed.

Ford Taurus SHO

Other than the two turbochargers, the EcoBoost engine also has direct fuel injection. Ford claims a relatively flat torque band between 1,500 to 5,500rpm, but peaking at 3,500rpm of course. The SHO car also gets new shocks, springs, stabilizer bars and strut bushings, all in the interests of improving handling and agility. An optional performance package on top of the basic Taurus SHO gives you performance brake pads, a sportier electric power steering system programming, a Sports mode for the traction control system to allow a little leeway before it kicks in, large 20 inch wheels with Goodyear Eagle F1 tyres and a 3.16:1 final drive ratio (the standard is 2.77:1).

Even the interior is done well, it’s mostly grey and black but the various usage of piano black surfaces make it look quite classy. The only thing that looks rather out of place is the unwieldy boxy steering wheel design. With advanced technologies such as the new EcoBoost engine in Ford’s stable now, you’d wonder why Ford keeps an ancient 2 valve per cylinder SOHC 4.0 litre V6 in service in the Mustang. I suppose it’s purely in the interests of cost-cutting and making the V6 Mustang a “baseline model”.

Look after the jump for a full hi-res gallery of the Taurus SHO.
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New Chevrolet Cruze and Chevrolet Epica to hit Malaysian roads in 2009?

February 12, 2009 at 3:33 am By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, Chevrolet/Daewoo, Local News

Chevrolet Cruze

Hicom-Chevrolet Sdn Bhd has announced that it will be launching two models this year, which are believed to be the Chevrolet Cruze and the Chevrolet Epica.

The Cruze (photo above) is a nice compact car which will replace the Optra Magnum in Chevrolet’s line-up. It will be launched sometime either in late July or early August 2009. It’s a rather good looking car (from the front to the side at least, not too sure about the rear styling) with an appealing interior, as long as photos do not deceive of course because most of us have never seen it in real life.

The new Cruze measures 4,600mm long, 1,790mm wide and 1,475mm tall with a 2,685mm wheelbase which will provide decent interior length, falling short only of the Civic and Lancer’s which are class-leading. It was launched in Korea late last year with a 1.6 litre ECOTEC engine producing 114 horsepower at 6,400rpm and 152Nm of torque at 4,200rpm. A Malaysian line-up could see this engine plus the 1.8 litre engine from the Optra Magnum carried over.

Chevrolet Cruze

But what we’d really like to see is the new ECOTEC Turbo engine slotted into this baby, but I don’t know if it’s going to be very likely even when the engine is finally out because of cost issues. It might be an Europe and US-only option, but it would be nice if we could get it too. The Ecotec Turbo will be a 1.4 litre competitor to Volkswagen’s TSI, Fiat’s T-JET series and Renault-Nissan’s new 1.2 litre and 1.4 litre turbos. The small displacement engine can use turbocharging to provide power outputs equivalent to 1.6 litre, 1.8 litre and even 2.0 litre engines, with loads of torque to boot.

The Chevrolet Epica on the other hand, is a D-segment competitor to the likes of the Camry and the Accord. It was recently refreshed (and launched in Singapore) with various technical and design updates such as a new 6-speed GM 6T40 automatic transmission, replacing the old 5-speed unit. It comes with either a 143hp 2.0 litre inline-4 motor or a 2.5 litre inline-6 with 156hp.

Look after the jump for more shots of the Cruze.
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Contilovers.com 2nd TT Session (11th Feb 09)

February 12, 2009 at 2:41 am By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, Local News

Contilovers

Contilovers.com started off as a spontaneous idea between two friends who are mad about European cars. It all began right after the launch of the Peugeot 308 VTi and 308 Turbo. They realised that thanks to the decent pricetags of Peugeots (Nasim), Volkswagens (VW Malaysia) and perhaps even Fiats (Torino – read Bravo GT test drive review), some decent European cars were beginning to be more accessible to the more common folk.

European car drivers are usually more passionate about their cars as they are relatively harder to maintain so you’ve really got to love your European motoring to put yourself through that! They also wanted to have a place for potential European car buyers to seek advice and read REAL ownership experiences instead of just listening to the coffee shop talk about how European cars will kill you with outrageous spareparts pricing and various electronics gremlins.

Anyway after even more spontaneity later, the forum had their first and soon after second Teh Tarik session. After hanging out at Kayu Nasi Kandar in Aman Suria and having a blast chatting about our favourite cars and fussing over a mysterious Maserati-lookalike car, they convoyed to another location for a photography session.

There was a total of 11 cars that day and it was quite difficult to snap some decent photos of the cars all together in the dark. There were some really nice cars including a rare Saab 9-5 Aero. Sadly no Audis, though I was told some of the attendees wanted to recruit a certain “appealing” Audi driver on the spot at the mamak! ;)

Check out the photos from the TT session after the jump. If you’d like to join us please on to Contilovers.com!
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2010 Chevrolet Spark production car based on Chevrolet Beat Concept set for Geneva debut

February 11, 2009 at 10:52 am By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, Chevrolet, International News

Chevrolet Spark

Finally the Chevrolet Spark, a model that was allegedly shamelessly cloned to become the Chery QQ, will be able to have a unique design again! The new Chevrolet Spark will be unveiled at the 2009 Geneva Motor Show, smack in the heart of Europe where small and fuel efficient hatchbacks like this are popular.

The new Spark is based on the Chevrolet Beat Concept, one third of a trio of cute compact concept cars that GM exhibited sometime ago. While the Beat was a 3-door hatch, it has been translated for production into the 5-door design you see here. The new Spark will also be making an appearance in the new Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen movie, a smart marketing move as potential young and gimmick-loving European first time car buyers could be swayed to buying “that car that was in Transformers” when picking among the many choices out there.

Chevrolet Spark
Click for enlarged image

This is the first time we’re looking at the Spark’s interior and it seems that Chevrolet has implemented a motorcycle-style instrument cluster positioned in front of the driver. It is mounted on the steering column like the new MINI and uses a combination of analog and digital instrumentation to display information.

Despite being a small (likely low-end) model, there is considerable attention paid to detail with the exterior design. It’s not easy/cheap to stamp metal into the shapes required for the body, and the rear door handles are hidden near the C-pillar much like the Alfa Romeo 147 and 156. The interior dash lights up in a colour similiar to the Jaguar XF.

The new Chevrolet Spark is 3,640mm long with a 2,375mm wheelbase and will be available with either a 1.0 litre or a 1.2 litre engine, both DOHC engines with 4-cylinders for smoothness that’s hard to achieve with a 3-cylinder. The car will (depending on markets) be available with front, side and curtain airbags, ABS, and even stability control.

The Spark is expected to hit European dealers by early 2010. Stay tuned for more updates on this new compact car once Geneva rolls by, then we’ll have full specifications including power output and more photos of the interior.

UPDATE: Added a video of Dave Lyon, director of GM Design, explaining the exterior and interior design of the all-new Chevrolet Spark

For now, two more shots are available after the jump.
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MINI JCW now available with Cabriolet body

February 11, 2009 at 9:52 am By Paul Tan Filed Under BMW, Cars, International News

MINI JCW Cabriolet

The MINI John Cooper Works is now available with a cabriolet body in addition to the previously revealed hatch and Clubman bodies. The MINI JCW engine’s 211 horsepower and 260Nm of torque (280Nm on temporary overboost) can take the cabriolet up to 100km/h in 6.9 seconds, which is 0.4 seconds slower than the hatch due to the extra weight from the strenghtening required to make up for the lack of a roof on the cabriolet body. The rest of the specifications are quite similiar to the other body variants.

Only the JCW MINI hatchback is currently available in Malaysia and retails for an eye-boggling RM 279,000 which could get you a nice C-segment premium sedan like the Lexus IS 250, Audi A4 with the premium package, Mercedes-Benz C200K or the JCW’s stablemate, the BMW 323i. Expect a JCW Cabriolet to push the price tag over the RM 300k mark, but somehow there will still be those who can afford it!

Look after the jump for some nice high-res photos of the JCW Cabriolet. If you like it but can’t afford it (unlike the smug-looking young bloke in the photos), at least you’ll be able to use a photo of one as a desktop wallpaper!
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VIDEO: BMW M Product Development

February 11, 2009 at 9:17 am By Paul Tan Filed Under BMW, Cars, Videos

BMW M Models

BMW is taking video quite seriously now, taking advantage of various online sharing social media sites such as YouTube to push its branding messages out there. With the impending launches of the BMW X5 M and the BMW X6 M, you can say the BMW M brand finally goes “mainstream”, since you could say it is shedding its pure performance car origins and sneaking into products that wouldn’t really fit as an M car 10 years ago.

Purists will say BMW M is becoming more and more like AMG, hence the need for videos like this to explain the rationale of BMW M and how M products are developed. This 6 minute and 47 second video has interviews with various BMW M personnel and plenty of shots of the M cars in action. You can hear the new 4.0 V8 in the M3 in action as well. A high revving V8 that goes way past 8,000rpm (unlike America’s low-revving 5,500rpm pushrod V8s), salivating!

Watch the video after the jump.
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Proton dealer consolidation to cost RM100 million

February 11, 2009 at 8:46 am By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, Local News, Malaysian Makes, Proton

ProtonProton wants to trim its 290+ dealers down to 180 dealers, but they say the consolidation process will cost RM 100 million. Last I heard Proton offered RM 300,000 per dealer, but a simple calculation shows 290 to 180 dealers for RM 100 million is nearly RM 1 million in costs per dealer in a dealer Voluntary Separation Scheme program! Nothing is finalised yet as Proton Edar is still in discussions with EON on how to consolidate their dealer nework.

Why did Proton approve applications of too many dealers and cause this over-congestion in the first place? Where is this RM 100 million coming from – Proton or taxpayer money yet again like the previous RM 10 million given by the government for the first round of dealer VSS? Proton got snubbed by dealers when it first offered RM150k per dealer because the offer was said to be too low, so this increased to RM300k.

Why should dealers that don’t meet performance expectations get a safe exit? Shouldn’t they have conducted adequate studies on their own on whether there is enough demand in the area they are opening the dealership in to sustain the operations?

Source 1, Source 2

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BMW Web TV’s BMW Performance Promo Video

February 11, 2009 at 8:05 am By Paul Tan Filed Under BMW, Cars, Videos

BMW Performance

BMW continues its push for BMW Performance products awareness with this latest video from BMW Web TV. It’s actually quite similiar to one of the previously released videos but with a different background soundtrack. Now other than brands like AC Schnitzer and Hamann, you can also kit up your BMW with products from BMW Performance. The multi-functional steering wheel looks particularly fun since it features shift lights and a multi-info display at the north position. BMW Malaysia says some BMW Performance products are already available at dealers like Auto Bavaria. Watch the video after the jump.

Related Posts:
Teaser: BMW Performance kit for the 3-Series
BMW Performance kit for the 3-Series and 1-Series
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Honda Civic Hybrid gets new price: RM 129,980

February 10, 2009 at 2:05 pm By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, Honda, Hybrids and Alternative Fuel, Local News

Honda Civic Hybrid

The facelifted Honda Civic is now in Malaysia, first in Honda Civic Hybrid form. Honda Malaysia Sdn Bhd has finally announced the new pricing for the Honda Civic Hybrid. It now retails for RM 129,980, a small premium of RM1,180 over the Honda Civic 2.0S.

It’s now also available in two colours – Premium White Pearl and Neutron Blue Metallic (new colors shown above), while the pre-facelift version only had one bluish-silverish metallic colour. For those waiting for the facelifted regular Civic, according to Honda Malaysia it will be coming in mid-March 2009.
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