The second wave of Toyota’s problems – this time focused on the Prius – began when Steve Wozniak claimed his 2010 Toyota Prius could unintentionally accelerate to about 97mph (156km/h) whenever he uses cruise control to increase his speed. He claims that he knows exactly what to do to duplicate the problem and can do it anytime.

And since in cruise control you don’t touch the pedal, it seems doubtful that it is a pedal issue. But thankfully for Steve, braking to cancel the cruise control system continues to work so it’s easy to stop. Toyota has offered to take Wozniak’s car in for a week to diagnose the problem.

Soon after that, it was reported that over 100 Prius drivers in the US and Japan have reported problems with brakes on the model. The numbers come to about 100 in US and 14 in Japan. The brakes on the Prius is a rather complicated thing – the car has to manage between actual braking using the disc brakes and braking with brake energy regeneration used to charge the batteries. 3 drivers even claim that brake issues have resulted in crashes.

The response to the Prius issues have been far quicker than the accelerator pedal issue. Toyota has announced a recall and pinpointed a problem in the software that controls the ABS system in the Prius. Apparently reprogramming the ABS system will solve the problem. But there still hasn’t been anything so far about the cruise control issue that Steve Wozniak brought up.

UMW Toyota Motor just announced yesterday that it will be calling in the Prius to perform the necessary corrective measures. There are currently 60 of the affected third generation Toyota Prius in Malaysia right now roaming our roads. UMW Toyota Motor president Kuah Kock Heng says UMW Toyota technicians are currently undergoing training on how to carry out the necessary corrective measures, and they will contact Prius owners beginning this Friday – the 12th of February.

He also added that undelivered new units of the Toyota Prius will also roll out of the showrooms with the fix already applied.

Porsche has released a collection of 4 videos to promote the new Porsche 911 Turbo S, set to make its public debut at the Geneva show later this month. The videos are quite interesting as they give a visual walkthrough of the technologies found in the Turbo S – we get to see cutaway animations of how various technologies work such as the dynamic engine mounts. A must watch for the Porsche-loving geek. Check them out after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Porsche releases 4 videos of the 911 Turbo S

It looks like GM is not the only company that has decided that for mainstream electric cars to be a viable business in the future, it has to build its motors on its own. Volkswagen has also announced similiar intentions – its components group will be the system supplier for electric drive technology for the whole group. The aim is so that it can build up a competitive advantage as well as safeguard expertise. Right now, Volkswagen has joint R&D projects with Sanyo, Toshiba and BYD. Volkswagen’s electric powertrains will be built at the group’s Salzgitter plant in Germany, which currently employs over 6,000 workers. The Salzgitter plant currently manufactures engines. Volkswagen’s components arm also intends to be the supplier for an EV version of the Volkswagen up! from 2013. The first Up! will be launched next year, but will be powered by a regular combustion engine.

Source

Renault Fluence – a sedan version of the Megane

New entries in the price sensitive and Suzuki-dominated Indian market more often meet failure than success but it doesn’t mean if you fail once you must give up. Renault will go solo in in its second attempt to make some good headway in the Indian market, after a JV with Mahindra to sell its sole offering the Renault Logan failed to make any significant headway. Earlier this year, the 51:49 Mahindra Renault JV announced that it would be restructuring its operations, after reporting a loss of 4.9 billion Rupees in the 08/09 financial year.

“Today we would like to reaffirm our intention to be a long term player in India, by announcing our plans to set up an exclusive Distribution Network for Renault cars that will be introduced in the Indian market. We will create an extensive nationwide distribution network in the next 30 months, to ensure our customers are assured of seamless service,” said Marc Nassif, Country GM and MD of Renault India.

Renault will be launching a few new cars in India in the next 2 years, and is set to offer a “full range” within 4 years. The Logan will probably continue to be sold by the Mahindra JV. The first “Mahindra-free” cars to be launched are the Renault Fluence (lowered-cost Megane sedan shown above) and the Renault Koleos, both of which will be available in 2011. They will be produced at a Chennai facility shared with Nissan. Naturally, a small car to compete with the likes of the Hyundai i10 is in the works.

Apparently there is an internal naming contest being held where Proton and Proton subsidiary employees can take part to name a new Proton sedan. The main prize winner will get RM10,000 cash, a GPS navigation unit, a special invite to the new Proton Sedan launch and 2 passes to the KLIMS 2010.

The two passes to this year’s KLIMS motorshow (3rd to 12th December 2010) may indicate that this is a model that’ll be launched this year – are we looking at the new Waja replacement which is rumoured to be based on a Mitsubishi Lancer, or something else? The contest will run from the 10th and ends on the 25th this month. You can click the thumbnail image on the left to view the full contest poster.

A little bird has indicated that Proton will probably take a small media group to the Geneva show (end February to March) this year, so there could be something of importance being unveiled there. Remember Azlan Othman’s tweet about Proton unveiling a new design direction this year?

Source: funtasticko & Ad

If you want something more than a 911 Turbo, insist on turbocharged power and don’t want to go the full way to get the expensive and hardcore GT2, here’s somewhat of a middle ground for you – the Porsche 911 Turbo S.

Power for the 911 Turbo S is up by 30 horses compared to the Turbo, so it now puts out 530 horses and a peak torque of 700Nm. There’s only one transmission available – the 7-speed Porsche PDK twin clutch transmission, which puts down power to all four wheels via the Porsche Traction Management all-wheel drive system.

The Turbo S comes standard with fade-resistant Porsche Ceramic Composite Brakes (PCCB), Dynamic Bending Lights, 19-inch wheels in RS Spyder design with central locking, a three-spoke sports steering wheel with gearshift paddles, adaptive sports seats, cruise control, a CD-DVD changer and an exclusive twin-tone leather upholstery in Black with Crema or Black with Titanium Blue.

Yours for Euro 173,241 including 19 per cent VAT in Germany for the coupe and 184,546 Euro including VAT for the cabrio. Look after the jump for a few very hi-res photos – they’re a few MB each! There’s also a video if you’re interested.

Click here to read the rest of Porsche 911 Turbo S to debut at Geneva

Back in late 2008, Proton had engaged in a legal tussle with its ex-partner for the Chinese market. Before Proton went to bed with Youngman for the Europestar range of cars, they actually had a JV with Goldstar Heavy Industrial Co Ltd to sell Proton cars there. Unfortunately there were hiccups along the way and Goldstar could not obtain the necessary manufacturing licenses.

Proton terminated the JV and naturally Goldstar was not happy. They went to court and the suit ended up being in arbitration in Singapore.

The result of the arbitration process is out:

This Subaru Impreza hatchback with off-roader style body cladding is the Impreza XV, which will get its public airing at the Geneva show next month. Subaru describes the XV as having “new crossover styling” which consist of a new front grille and wheel arches, roof rails and a roof spoiler besides the contrasting coloured panels. It will be available with the firm’s famous boxer engines, both in petrol and diesel and Euro 5 compliant. This is the only image released, so we’ll have to wait for a look at the front design.

Subaru’s Geneva stand will also have the good looking Hybrid Tourer Concept (as seen in last year’s Tokyo show) and the kei-car sized Stella plug-in hybrid.

It’s been only two months since the new F10 5-Series was unveiled and I must say it has quite a huge responsibility to carry. After all, there is a new E-Class in Malaysia now that it must face to continue the fight to try to overtake the E’s dominance in its segment in Malaysia.

The previous E60 5-Series did really well for BMW and is so far the most successful 5-Series to date, although it is its predecessor the E39 that is fondly referred to by some as ‘Car Of The Year Forever’. The E60’s design is a love it or hate it affair. It got even worse when you got inside – the dash design was quite bland. And then there was also that 1st generation iDrive! Just bad! But you gotta give it to the chassis engineers – it did very well in the drive and comfort departments. It’s not just about doing well in both departments but the fact that they could make the car do both well at the same time.

And now we have the all-new 5 which drops the ‘E’ designation in its code name and is now called the F10 (which sounds a lot like the designations used to identify fighter jets). It’s built on a common platform as the F01/F02 7-Series and even the 5-Series GT. We have covered all the latest updates regarding the new 5, right from the launch report to an article that talked specifically about how it was designed.

Now we finally have the all-important test drive report to share with you as we flew all the way to Portugal to have a go in it both on roads and the Estoril circuit!

Read more after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of BMW F10 5-Series First Drive Report

The new BMW 335is is available in either Coupe and Convertible form and from what it looks like so far it’s a model destined for the North American market only. It’s basically a sportier and more powerful version of the 335i.

That’s not really that much of a bummer, as you can essentially just equip your bog standard 335i here with a tune from BMW Performance that boosts the engine to the same specs as the 335is – 320 horses and 450Nm of torque.

It’s essentially the same output as what you get in the 740i. But this new model has been added in the US at a time where the standard 335i without the “s” at the back will have its N54 twin turbo replaced by the N55 single twin scroll turbo that produces the same output as the outgoing N54 non-s engine.

The highest output factory standard version of the N54B30 so far is the one in the Z4 sDrive35is, which gets 335 horses and 450Nm, with a 50Nm overboost so it can peak at 500Nm depending on conditions. The 335is also have the 50Nm overboost feature.

Look after the jump for hi-res photos from a media test drive that BMW had in Portugal at the Estoril track recently, as well as two videos and a full press release with detailed specs.

Click here to read the rest of BMW 335is Coupe and Cabriolet Hi-Res Gallery

BMW has updated the second generation E70 X5 with the “LCI” treatment, which basically means a mid-life facelift in BMW speak. LCI stands for Life Cycle Impulse. The X5 gets the typical updates you’d expect from a 2010 BMW – an all-turbo line-up and the ZF 8-speed automatic transmission.

The new E70 X5 range consists of the xDrive35i, the xDrive50i, the xDrive30d and the xDrive40d. Over here in Malaysia the pre-FL X5 is sold with a 3.0 liter normally aspirated inline-6 (3.0is), a 4.8 liter V8 (4.8i) and a 3.0 liter turbodiesel (3.0d). It would be bloody nice if the 3.0is is replaced with the new xDrive35i model – that would be a proper 5-seater version of the scorching X6 xDrive35i that we can see increasingly often around the streets of KL.

The xDrive35i’s N55 engine uses a single turbocharger, but BMW still calls it a TwinPower Turbo, using the excuse that the turbocharger has twin-scroll technology. It makes 306hp at 5,800rpm and 400Nm from as low as 1,200rpm all the way up to 5,000rpm, taking the X5 xDrive35i up to 100km/h in 6.8 seconds while consuming about 10.1 liters per 100km.

The top of the range regular X5 (it’s still lesser than an X5 M)’s 4.4 liter twin-turbo V8 makes 407 horsepower between 5,500 to 6,400rpm and 600Nm of torque from 1,750rpm up to 4,500rpm. 0 to 100km/h takes just 5.5 seconds.

The xDrive30d has the new aluminum crankcase found in the 730Ld (the 3.0d pre-LCI X5 in Malaysia uses the engine preceding this aluminum crankcase model) and makes 245hp at 4,000rpm and 540Nm from as low as 1,750rpm to 3,000rpm.

The new xDrive40d variant is powered by the BMW TwinPower Turbo version of the company’s 3.0 liter turbodiesel engine, ,akin 306hp at 4,400rpm and a massive 600Nm of torque from as low as 1,500rpm. The engine in the xDrive40d uses a smaller turbo to get the engine going and then switches to a larger turbo to handle the upper reaches of the rev range.

Other than the obvious aesthetic changes which include new headlamps that have LED white corona rings instead of the yellow version that’s being phased out from the BMW range, the xDrive50i and the xDrive40d also gets updated suspension settings.

Look after the jump for a hi-res gallery and a video of the new LCI-ed X5.

Click here to read the rest of E70 BMW X5 gets the mid-life LCI treatment!

As motoring journalists, we’re very lucky to have the newest and shiniest cars in town parked in our porch. After awhile, the “immune system” gets build up to a level that only the very captivating will leave a mark.

The Volkswagen Passat CC is one such car because it’s such a beauty. I caught myself looking back everytime I walked away. I unrolled the curtains so I could occasionally look at it while reading the papers. Such was the effect.

Continue reading the report after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Volkswagen Passat CC Test Drive Review

UMW Toyota has put up a teaser announcing the coming launch of the facelifted Toyota Vios with the updated grille, tail lamps and etc that we saw earlier.

As expected, UMW Toyota has jacked up the prices of all models. Even the cheapest manual 1.5J has had a price hike, bringing the price now to over RM70k when previously it was priced just under RM70k. Of course, these price hikes could be accompanied with equipment list changes.

The price hike brings the top of the range Vios extremely close to the top of the range Kia Forte 2.0 SX – there’s a price difference of only RM1,000 and the Forte is a C-segment 2.0 liter sedan with a GEMA engine similiar to the one used in the Lancer, while the Vios is a 1.5 liter B-segment. On paper, the only thing the Vios has up on the Forte is a 3-year warranty (and double mileage) versus 2-years for the Kia.

The Ford Focus RS is one hot looking hot hatch and Ford of Switzerland has raised the temperature further with this special version called “WRC Edition”. It will be produced in a limited run of 50 units to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Ford’s RS division.

The WRC Edition, which pays tribute to the legendary Escort RS1600 that was launched in 1970, was designed with the help of Swiss fans who participated in a design competition. The winning design’s base is a “Frozen White” paint finish contrasted by black and green stickers and stripes as well as the 19-inch OZ Superturismo GT multispoke alloys in black. As with all special editions, there’s a plaque and this one bears the signatures of Ford WRC drivers Mikko Hirvonen and Jarmo Lehtinen.

No changes under the bonnet, so the 305 bhp 2.5-litre turbocharged inline-five sprints to 100 km/h in under 6 seconds and on to a top speed of 263 km/h. It is priced at 55,900 francs or about 37,950 euros. Check out some of the proposals that didn’t make it after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Ford Focus WRC Edition – 50 units in Switzerland

Honda seems to be very into video as a promotional tool. First they had Drive Every Drop, which was pretty much like a travel show. When a host landed in each country or state, he checked the local scene around in a Honda of course.

Now comes Live Every Litre – even the name sounds quite alike to Drive Every Drop. It’s also a show, but the concept is completely different. With Live Every Litre, Honda will put real participants behind the wheel of a Honda CR-Z, and cameras mounted around the car will record the participants’ journey and/or challenges across Europe.

VIDEO: Live Every Litre ‘Trailer’

Participants can do whatever they want. Honda gave a few examples in their press release – “propose to their girlfriend in Paris, take their band to play a charity gig, trace their ancestry to find a long lost relative, drive on a road they’ve always dreamed off.” Reactions, emotions, and experiences will be captured by the cameras.

All the footage will then be edited into a documentary-like film by Swiss filmmaker Claudio Von Planta and his team.

If you want to participate, you can logon to Live Every Litre’s website. I think it’s only fair to assume that you have to actually be in Europe to enter. As of today, you have 43 days left to apply, and they will begin filming in May.