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First photos of Cruze-based Chevrolet Orlando 7-seater

August 31, 2010 at 5:04 pm By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, Chevrolet, International News

This is the production version of the Chevrolet Orlando 7-seater MPV, which is based on the Chevy Cruze platform. It’s basically a competitor for other C-segment car platform based MPVs such as the Toyota Wish, the Honda Stream, and the Peugeot 5008.

The design differs quite greatly from what we usually expect – all of its competitors are sleek and curvy while GM has decided to go for an American boxy and muscular look with the Orlando. This production car was first previewed as the Orlando Concept two years ago.

Perhaps there is a possibility that Naza might just launch this as an official Chevrolet offering sometime in the future as the Orlando is set to be launched in Indonesia soon for about 250 million Indonesian Rupiah. This shows that GM has the “ASEAN market introduction” checkbox ticked for the Orlando 7-seater.

Two engine variants are planned for the Indonesian market – a 1.8 litre petrol engine similar to the one in the Cruze and a 2.0 litre diesel with 163 horsepower.

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Opel is coming to China and the rest of Asia Pacific!

August 31, 2010 at 4:25 pm By Jacob Alexander Filed Under Cars, International News, Opel

Opel, who are under GM’s European division, have announced plans of selling the brands in China. This will eventually open up to countries in the Asia Pacific region, Australia and South America. Current GM brands in China, include Buick, Cadillac and Chevrolet.

“We will market Opel as a European designed car in the premium segment. There are a growing number of Chinese who like European cars and have the money to afford them,” said company spokesman Andreas Kroemer talking to a German publication.

They have yet to set a date for sales to begin, but the company has previously sold around 4000 cars in the country as a testing phase. Currently the only other way you could get an Opel car in China was through Buick, which included the Opel Insignia-based Buick Regal in its product portfolio.

This will soon change and analysts predict that Opel will initially export cars to China until it has established a market position in the country. It will then assemble cars locally to avoid import taxes, which usually increases the price of the car by 20 percent.

Due to it being marketed as a premium brand, Opel will be competing against the likes of BMW, Daimler and Volkswagen who have been in China for sometime now. It seems that if ever the German-made brand make a return to Malaysia, it will be priced to compete at the premium level, and not the affordable category it’s priced at in Europe.

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Paris 2010 debut: Mazda Shinari 4-door coupe concept

August 31, 2010 at 4:18 pm By Jacob Alexander Filed Under Cars, International News, Mazda

Mazda has unveiled a new concept called the Shinari at a private press event held in Milan recently. This new four-door coupe concept will give the public a hint to the future direction the Mazda family will take in terms of design language.

Given the designation “Kodo”, it replaces the oddball Nagare design language that we’ve all become accustomed to, most recently seen on the latest version of the Mazda5 M{V. In Japanese, “Kodo” translate to “soul of motion” and the creation of the design was a joint effort between Mazda’s design studios in Japan, U.S. and Germany.

General Manager of Mazda Motor Corp design division Ikuo Maeda had this to say when asked when the new design language will appear on new models, “this design will lead to the next generation of Mazda design and will lead to other elements.”

Apart from the usual, Mazda also unveiled their plans of wanting to compete with luxury carmakers and has confirmed that they will be improving the quality of their interior levels. “We want to play in the same group as BMW and Audi. On fit and finish we want the same level of quality, ” said Derek Jenkins, director of design for Mazda North America.

The Shinari will make its official debut at the Paris Motor Show on the 30th of September this year. Check out the picture gallery after the jump.
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Ben Collins sacked as the Stig, replaced by another?

August 31, 2010 at 4:13 pm By Jacob Alexander Filed Under Cars, International News

It has been reported by British tabloids that Ben Collins (allegedly The Stig), has been sacked from the hit motoring show Top Gear. Pictures from the Daily Mirror, showed Collins playing with his kids at his home in England, while the “tame racing driver” was at a Top Gear Live event at the Nurburgring, Germany.

The supposed replacement Stig was brought in a week after Ben Collins’ was unmasked as the Stig. This comes after a row between Collins and the BBC on his right to publish his autobiography. BBC bosses state that the book is in breach of a confidentiality agreement.

Naturally his publishers HarperCollins disagree, stating that the BBC are wasting British TV audiences’ license fee money on costly legal action.

Rumours surfaced as Collins being The Stig, after reports from his company accounts pointed to the direction of Ben Collins as it described “a cornerstone year in 2003”, a month after the white Stig made his first TV appearance.

Ben Collins is remaining tight-lipped about the whole fiasco only saying “I am not allowed to talk about it.” Thus just another log entry into the rumourmill of the most famous-faceless race driver in the world.

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Ford Fiesta 1.4 and 1.6 Ti-VCT Test Drive Review

August 30, 2010 at 5:44 pm By Danny Tan Filed Under Cars, Ford, Test Drive Reviews

By now, many urban dwelling Malaysians and readers of this blog would have heard of or have seen the new Ford Fiesta. Ford distributor Sime Darby Auto ConneXion (SDAC) started drumming up awareness very early for this upcoming model, and as of today have received around 500 bookings, which is a decent sum.

The Fiesta should have its official launch in October but we have driven it in Thailand, where it rolls off the AutoAlliance plant alongside the Mazda2. We reckon that the Fiesta is a very impressive package, so much so that the observations you read after the jump are from a potential buyer – I really can see myself happy with one of these!

Continue reading the report after the jump.
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Citroen DS4 unveiled prior to Paris 2010 debut

August 30, 2010 at 4:41 pm By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, Citroën, International News

Citoren has unveiled yet another new model in its DS range – the Citroen DS4, bringing the new modern DS line-up up to a total of two models so far.

It’s essentially a very high spec Citroen C4, using the same platform, however dimensions are a little different. It’s shorter, taller and wider than the C4, and while the interior pretty much has a similar design except with much higher grade materials, on the exterior you can notice that the shape of the car between the B and C pillar of the DS4 is noticeably shorter than the C4. The rear door handles have also been hidden in the window trim.

The Citroen DS4 will be available with a choice of 5 engines – two HDi diesels and three petrol engines. The most powerful is the 200 horsepower THP petrol engine, joined by a THP 155 and a VTi 120. All three are different variants of the 1.6 litre BMW-PSA Prince engine, with the THPs being turbocharged and the VTi being a normally aspirated model. You can either have these with a manual transmission or a Citroen EGS transmission which is an AMT-type automated clutch manual.

Look after the jump for more photos and a full press release.
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Carlashes to make the woman in your life green with envy!

August 30, 2010 at 10:19 am By Danny Tan Filed Under Cars, International News, Laughs

The lady may not be very happy with your obsession with “the other woman” in your life – the car – but here’s something that could potentially make her turn green with envy. Carlashes are fake eyelashes for the eyes of your car (the headlamps of course) that’s sure to beat her natural lashes in volume and length!

Carlashes is easy to install and is attached to either the underside of the bonnet on the top border of the headlamp. There’s a “flexible style” carlash for oval or round lights. The $24.99 product sticks to the car via strong 3M double sided trim tape.


“I may be old and rusty, but I still want to look pretty!”

For full effect, Utah based Turbo Style Products recommend that you put on eyeliner as well! The jewel like $19.99 Crystal Eyeliner adds some bling and sits on the top edge of the eyelashes.

Although a car’s front design is often seen as its face, and many men refer to their ride as female (some give theirs sexy names too), we don’t see too many blokes rushing out to get this enhancement for their car, which should spare the lady (the real one!) some stress.

Source

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Belgian GP: Vettel says sorry for crashing into Button

August 30, 2010 at 1:46 am By Danny Tan Filed Under Formula 1, Motorsports

What a race the Belgian GP was! Unpredictable weather, safety car, accidents – you name it, Spa had it. One of the more memorable moments of the race was when Sebastian Vettel took Jenson Button out when battling for second place.

The young German was quicker than Button on lap 16 and tried to make a move into the final chicane. He closed up to the McLaren and pulled out dramatically, only to lose control and spear Jenson from the side. The defending champion retired as Vettel pulled into the pits to replace his front wing. He was later given a drive through penalty.

McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh was understandably mad. “It was not what you would expect to see in F1 – more reminiscent of junior formulae. A drive-through seemed a pretty light punishment to me. I would rather he did it with his team-mates rather than do it with us,” he said after the race.

The man at fault raised his hands. “First of all, I’m sorry. Obviously it was not my intention to destroy his race or mine,” Vettel told the media. “I was close, I was faster than him. The moment Robert got close behind I knew that he could pass us on the straight because we are not the fastest on the straight. I was very close a couple of times, unfortunately never really close enough.

“I tried to out-brake him on the outside. When I changed from the inside to the outside, I lost the car under braking on the bump and then I then I couldn’t really control it anymore and unfortunately crashed into him,” the Red Bull man explained.

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Sepang International Circuit wants Malaysian GP and Singaporean GP to be held back-to-back!

August 30, 2010 at 12:26 am By Jacob Alexander Filed Under Cars, Formula 1, International News, Motorsports

The number of visitors to the Malaysian Grand Prix isn’t as strong as it used to be, according to the Chief Executive of Sepang International Circuit. “I have to admit we’re suffering a bit with these new races,” said Sepang CEO Ahmad Razlan Ahmad Razali in the Bangkok Post.

He has attributed the inconsistent number to the rising number of International races in the Asian region. In 1999, apart from Japan, Malaysia was the only other Asian circuit on the F1 calendar. Since then, there have been a number of new tracks including China, Singapore and Korea along with the construction of an Indian track.

“This year we got nearly 100,000 fans to attend the race. But the numbers are up and down every year. It depends on a lot of things. The economy is also a big part,” said Razali.

Razali has suggested to Bernie Ecclestone for both the Malaysian GP and the Singapore GP to be held back to back. This is said to allow international visitors to attend both races by planning a long holiday without traveling twice. “We’ve talked to the FIA about it but we have to wait and see. Maybe it will be possible in the future,” he added.

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Lewis Hamilton wins dramatic and wet Belgian GP!

August 29, 2010 at 9:29 pm By Harvinder Sidhu Filed Under Formula 1, Motorsports

Lewis Hamilton is now back in contention with his win at the rather dramatic and wet Belgian GP. The McLaren driver who now takes the Driver’s Championship lead crossed the finish line ahead of Mark Webber, who started from pole position. Robert Kubica of Renault managed to convert his qualifying position to a race result after finishing third. Fourth place went to Felipe Massa in his scarlet Ferrari while fifth was taken up by Adrian Sutil giving another achievement to the Force India team.

Despite a not-so-impressive qualifying session yesterday and after receiving grid penalties, both the Mercedes drivers managed to score good results today. Nico Rosberg finished in sixth after starting from 14th and after overtaking teammate Michael Schumacher at the final moments of the race. The 7-times World Champion managed seventh after starting way down from 21st place. Kamui Kobayashi drove a respectable race and secured eight place ahead of Renault’s Vitaly Petrov and Toro Rosso’s Jaime Alguersuari. Further down the grid, Heikki Kovalainen of Lotus finished in 16th place followed by both the Virgin drivers, led by Lucas di Grassi.

Jarno Trulli in the other Lotus could have finished higher up than 19th if he did not suffer from a spin at the dying minutes of the race. Sakon Yamamoto from Hispania was the last driver to cross the finish line. Four drivers made up the retirement’s list today and they were Fernando Alonso from Ferrari, Jenson Button from McLaren, Bruno Senna from Hispania and finally Williams’ Rubens Barrichello who retired on his 300th start. Alonso, Button and Barrichello suffered from crashes while the reason behind Senna’s retirement is unknown at this point.

As expected the race at the Spa-Franchorchamps turned out as an exciting one. The opening lap was pretty much incident free as pole-man Webber lost his lead to Hamilton no thanks to a slow start. Just minutes later light rain started to pour and a number of drivers including a top runners spun out at the final corner. Barrichello crashed into Alonso at the time and was forced to retire right away. Alonso rejoined but entered the pits for intermediate tires while the front runners did not. The safety car was momentarily deployed.

Unfortunately for Alonso and fortunately for rest, the rain clouds moved away as soon as it arrived. Alonso had to pit again for slicks. Dry weather dominated most of the race as Hamilton extended his lead. A couple of interesting incidents occurred including some overtaking moves. Alonso was charging up the field while Schumacher overtook Rosberg while he was negotiating with Petrov. Another interesting event was the accident involving Button and Vettel. The latter was trying to overtake Button for second place but lost his traction and pushed Button into retirement. This indecent heavily affects Button’s chances of winning the Driver’s Championship.

Vettel managed to continue but was later given a drive-through penalty which he served at around Lap 21 during the 44-lap race. Vettel’s luck wasn’t getting any better as he suffered from a left-rear puncture after hitting Liuzzi. Rain clouds visited the circuit again at about Lap 33. This time the rain lasted longer and was even heavier. Race leader Hamilton went off-track at the final corner and narrowly missed losing his front wing. He along with second place man Kubica and third place Webber continued on for another lap, fearing that the rain might stop right away while others made their stops for wet tires.

At the end of the lap the top runners also pitted and Webber was able to overtake Kubica for second place as the Renault driver overshot his pit box. The safety car had to be deployed for the second time as Alonso spun and stalled his car on the middle of the race track on Lap 38, with just six laps to go. The race restarted with wet conditions and Hamilton managed to fend off Webber. Webber tried to take on Hamilton with just a few laps to go but the performance of the McLaren race car was unmatched by the Red Bull.

As mentioned earlier Hamilton has taken over the lead in the Driver’s Championship with 182 points. Webber is still a strong contender with 179 points in second, just 3 points behind. Today’s result suggests a two-driver battle for the championship as Vettel, Button and Alonso failed to score any point. But who knows? With six races remaining, the championship battle should go down to the wire. Formula 1 now heads to the legendary Monza circuit for the Italian GP on Sept 12th.

You can view the full results here.

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