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Helang light car for Langkawi tourists

May 12, 2009 at 11:11 pm By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, Local News

There is a company called The Island Car Company which are using Kancil parts including the 660cc inline-3 engine to produce a 4-seater light car with a fiberglass body for the purpose of taking tourists around resort islands.

The company will be based in Langkawi and the cars will be built at the company’s workshop with an initial batch of 100 units. No price indicated yet but the company will call it the Helang, which is probably a reference to the eagles found in Langkawi Island.

With a fiberglass body the car had better be intended only for slow speed cruising as I doubt the shell would have much crash safety capabilities engineered into it. Does anyone have photos of the Helang? News reports mentioned Tun Mahathir has tried the prototype out.

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VIDEO: Mercedes-Benz F-CELL Roadster

May 12, 2009 at 6:59 pm By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, Concept Cars, Mercedes Benz, Videos

F-CELL

Mercedes-Benz talks about the rather odd F-CELL Roadster in this video production which you can watch after the jump. When the F-CELL Roadster was announced near the end of March this year many dismissed it as an April Fool’s gag because of how bizarre it was. It takes retro-futurism to a whole new level, as this is inspired by a model that was way way in the past.

We’re talking about a 1.6 horsepower fuel cell with a top speed of 25km/h, hardly anything that serves modern motoring needs, and we haven’t even gotten around to the lack of a roof yet. If put into production in its current state it could possibly serve as some kind of luxury golf course transportation, or some kind of Segway-like vehicle at most.

Halfway through the video comes the answer – it was actually built by Mercedes-Benz apprentices as some kind of training project for them.

Watch the video after the jump.
[Read more...]

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Lexus IS 250c goes on sale in Japan!

May 12, 2009 at 6:32 pm By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, International News, Lexus

Lexus IS 250c

The drop top version of the Lexus IS 250 aptly called the IS 250c goes on sale in Japan this month. Two models are available – the IS 250c and the IS 250c L which features more equipment. The IS 250c goes for 4,950,000 Yen (RM180k) while the IS 250c L goes for 5,350,000 (RM194k), inclusive of consumption tax.

The IS 250c features a folding 3-part hard top that can go down or up in 20 seconds. The air conditioning system has also been tuned for convertible usage, featuring a special top down mode that adjusts cabin temperature in relation to exterior temperature and the amount of sunlight. Air volume is also adjusted according to vehicle speed. The audio system also makes similiar adjustments to suit the different sound stage that an open top presents.

Lexus IS 250c

Unlike the sedan IS which comes in both 250, 350 and IS-F forms, the 1,730kg convertible is only available as a 250c for now. The car’s 2.5 litre 4GR-FSE V6 is mated to a 6-speed Super ECT transmission driving the rear wheels with 215 PS at 6,400rpm and 260Nm of torque at 3,800rpm.

Look after the jump for a video and gallery of the IS 250c.
[Read more...]

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RM2 for a liter of RON97 from 1st September!

May 12, 2009 at 12:26 pm By Paul Tan Filed Under Malaysian Fuel Prices

Fuel Wallet GaugeDespite the change of ministry leadership, the proposed restructuring of fuel grades and pricing will go ahead as scheduled. The new Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob has announced that the price of RON97 fuel will be increased to RM2.00 per litre from the 1st of September 2009 onwards, which is also the date that RON95 and Euro 2M diesel are expected to be introduced into the market. That is an RM0.20 increase from the current price. We’ve paid RM2 per litre for RON97 before as that was the price during the period of the 18th of November 2008 to the 2nd of December 2008.

It’s not known yet at the moment what the new RON95 grade fuel (which replaces RON92 in the market) will be priced at, but when Datuk Shahrir was the minister he said that RON95 would be priced at the same price as RON92, with the income from RON97′s hiked price used to subsidise RON95 fuel.

Hopefully this is still the plan. Get ready for massive jams at the petrol stations on the last day of August!

UPDATE: RON95 fuel will be replacing RON92 and will be priced at RM1.75 per litre, which is up RM0.05 from RON92 prices. Although nationwide roll-out is only expected to be fully ready by September 1st 2009, the new RON95 grade fuel is already available at 2 Petronas stations in Putrajaya. In addition, there will not be any ceiling price for RON97 fuel so petrol companies can feel free to come up with premium versions such as Shell V-Power as long as they inform the government.

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Volkswagen Indonesian CKD assembly plant could begin full scale manufacturing in 2012

May 12, 2009 at 11:39 am By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, International News, Volkswagen

Volkswagen CrossTouran

Volkswagen has confirmed its Indonesian plant deal. The Indonesian plant will be set up in cooperation with the Indomobil Group, who is the parent company of Volkswagen’s Indonesian distributor PT Garuda Mataram Motor.

The plant will start off as an assembly plant, putting together CKD packs from elsewhere, but full scale manufacturing could begin in 2012, 3 years from now. The plant will churn out the Volkswagen Touran from CKD packs in the hundreds as first. Then Touran output will increase, and eventually other models will also be assembled there. Indonesia is pretty much an MPV market and if the Touran manages to capture the Indonesian MPV buyer’s fancy sufficiently, it could justify the volumes for full-fledged production that goes beyond just putting together CKD packs.

Touran Interior

The Volkswagen Touran is an MPV built on the Golf platform. There is also a version with offroader elements called the CrossTouran (shown above), which was brought in to Malaysia last year for some reasons but VW Malaysia did not sell the car. Some pre-owned units with a 1.4 litre TSI engine and DSG transmission went on sale late last year for about RM165k.

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Lawyers request show direness of Chrysler situation

May 12, 2009 at 11:02 am By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, Chrysler, International News

Chrysler LogoChrysler’s financial situation may be worse than anyone had thought. Their bankruptcy plan involves selling its healthy operations to “New Chrysler”, a company owned by the worker union trust, Fiat, and the Canadian and US governments. The remaining will be used to settle outstanding claims.

Here comes the killer – Chrysler’s lawyers from Jones Day have asked for special priority for their fees to be paid. University of Pennsylvania law professor David Skeel says he has never heard of any lawyer ask for this in a bankruptcy case as they normally don’t take cases where there is little chance of being paid.

Skeel suspects Jones Day are not optimistic about a payment, and because they know what is going on, that is very scary indeed.

Source

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Volkswagen Group to build more new models outside Germany to reduce costs

May 12, 2009 at 10:40 am By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, Volkswagen

Like any car manufacturer with maintaining profitability in their mind, Volkswagen is moving production for certain models out of their home country of Germany. The Volkswagen Up! will be built in 2011 in its Slovakia plant, and in the same year the compact Audi Q3 SUV will begin assembly at SEAT’s plant in Spain. The Slovakia plant currently also builds the Audi Q7, the Volkswagen Touareg and the Porsche Cayenne, so the Up! (Lupo?) should help fill up the capacity as the demand for these SUVs drop in this bad economy.

Audi Q3

Unlike the UAW, the worker unions accept that during these troubled times where everyone is taking a hit, they also have to reduce their standards of living – at least they get to keep a job! Because the 13,000 workers at the plant agreed to accept wage scale adjustments and possible pay cuts, the SEAT plant won the Q3 job, otherwise it could have to a number of other plants that the Volkswagen Group has such as Skoda’s Czech Republic plant. In turn, Audi will invest 300 million Euros in the plant to increase annual capacity up to 80,000 units.

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GM to move more production volume overseas

May 12, 2009 at 10:18 am By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, Chevrolet, International News

gm logoGM aims to bring in a new range of small vehicles into the US and plans to have these made in China!

Though not technically a “Chinese car” as in produced by a Chinese marque, it is still the first time a volume car produced in China will be sold in the US.

Will the American consumer be able to accept that these set of cars will be made in China? It’s not a lot though, GM expects these Chinese-made models to only account for 1.6% (just over 50,000 units) of American GM sales in 2014.

The same GM document that details plans to bring in cars from China also reveals plan to increase production in Mexico from over 300,000 to over 500,000 and South Korea from just under 40,000 to nearly 160,000 by the year 2014. In turn, Canadian production will be cut.

Of course their UAW union is kicking up a fuss all over again, accusing GM of using taxpayer money to fund manufacturing outsourcing to other countries. Business is business and if the UAW cannot make cars at a cost that is competitive enough with the world, then this is just what GM has to do in order to improve profitability.

The American UAW and their colossal benefits schemes simply cannot compete with the lower labour costs of other countries.

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New Honda Insight is the best-selling car in Japan… for April 2009

May 12, 2009 at 9:51 am By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, Honda, Hybrids and Alternative Fuel, International News

Honda Insight

After two months of sales in Japan with about 4,000 units each month, Honda Insight sales suddenly jumped up to 10,481 units in April 2009, making it the 1st in a monthly ranking of all new vehicle registrations in Japan! Yes, the new Insight is Japan’s best-selling car in April 2009, and the first time in history for any hybrid car to take that spot for a monthly sales period.

The Insight took the throne from March 2009′s sales leader, another car from the Honda stable – the Honda Fit (known as the Honda Jazz here in Malaysia). It sold 9,443 units in March and was also the best-selling car in the entire of 2008, the fiscal year ending March 2009, and also monthly sales for 4 months since December 2008.

I wonder why the sudden registration (a sale/booking is not a registration) jump – it could be that Honda suffered production issues in the first two months?

Related Posts:
MUGEN unveils aerodynamics zero-lift Honda Insight

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Mazda Verisa (Mazda 2 Plus?) updated for JDM!

May 11, 2009 at 6:01 pm By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, International News, Mazda

Mazda Verisa

The Mazda Verisa is a “tall hatchback” version of the Mazda 2 that is sold only in the Japanese market. It is pretty much the equivalent of the European Ford Fusion, which is a larger car built on the Fiesta, which shares a platform with the Mazda 2.

The car that was launched in 2004 and updated in 2006 has just undergone another refresh this year. Three fresh exterior colours are available including the Lilac Metallic Silver you see in the car above, and Metropolitan Grey Mica and Sparkling Black Mica. On the interior you have Lilac Grey fabric seats with orange stitching.

Mazda Verisa

There are 2 grades available – the C and the L, each available in both front wheel drive and all-wheel drive. Its 1.5 litre twin cam engine is mated to a 4-speed automatic, producing 113 PS at 6,000rpm and 140Nm of torque at 4,000rpm.

The Verisa C gets a leather-wrapped steering as standard, and the head unit has been removed, so audio-less specs are now standard with the car. The owner can fit whatever 2-DIN or 1-DIN head unit he wants.

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