Kia’s Sidewider concept shown at the Los Angelow Motor Show had originally been a concept vehicle powered by a natural gas turbine, and electric motors in each wheel.

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Hyundai and Kia designs have always been a ‘rojak’ patchwork of other car designs and they know it, and admit it. We have the new Sonata looking like an Accord, and the previous generation Sonata looking like a Jaguar, the new Kia Sportage looking like a Volvo XC90, just to name a few examples.

Hyundai Group Chairman Chung Mong Koo decided it’s time for Hyundai and Kia to develop it’s own proprietary brand identity and styling language and has invested USD$50 million for two design studios in Irvine, California.

To head these design studios, Chung pulled Joel Piaskowski and Tom Kearns from General Motors, and put them in charge of Hyundai America and Kia America’s design houses respectively.

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Jeremy Clarkson shows his frustration on companies that seem to take make cars as a pure for-profit matter… perhaps you could call it cars with no ’spirit’ or ‘passion’. The victim - our very own Perodua Kelisa.

UPDATE: Recently this video has caught the attention of our MPs such as DAP-Tanjong MP Chow Kon Yeow and BN-Ledang MP Hamim Samuri. Click here to read more about that issue, or if you already know all about that, just enjoy the video in this post and find out what the fuss is all about.

Video after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Jeremy Clarkson annihilates the Perodua Kelisa

Hasadi managed to capture these shots of the Satria Replacement Model in Padang Besar, Perlis. The SRM was stuck in mud, so it could not run away from the camera!

Click here to read the rest of Satria Replacement Model - Padang Besar, Perlis

GM Daewoo Design Center has been rolling out nice vehicles lately, like the Chevrolet S3X SUV Concept. They’ve also recently developed a crossover SUV-coupe vehicle called the Chevrolet T2X concept.

Click here to read the rest of Chevrolet T2X Concept

Volkswagen’s EcoRacer was taken to the race tracks for a spin by 34 motor journalists from 9 countries. The journalists covered 1200km over 3 days at a racetrack in Pau, South of France.

Click here to read the rest of Volkswagen EcoRacer first on road test

This is Nissan’s URGE Concept, developed by Nissan’s US design studio in La Jolla, California. The URGE Concept’s styling is supposed to be inspired by motorcycles. The concept car is powered by a small-displacement, high-revving engine, much like a motorcycle engine.

The Nissan URGE Concept also features an integrated Xbox 360 system integrated in it’s driver-oriented cockpit. This concept could somewhat lead to a small sports car from Nissan, positioned somewhere above the Micra C+C. A baby Z-car perhaps. The Nissan URGE Concept will be unveiled at the Detroit Motor Show in January 2006.

Prodrive is a racing and engineering establishment based in Banbury, UK. It designs, constructs and races cars such as Subarus, Aston Martin, and BAR. It also does engineering consultation and design for car manufacturers. I’m sure most of you have heard of Prodrive from the Prodrive tuned Subaru Imprezas.

Click here to read the rest of Prodrive P2 Concept

[ UPDATE : The New 2007 Mercedes Benz C-Class (W204) has been unveiled! Click here for details. ]

The Mercedes Benz C-class has always been designed something like a small version of the current generation S-class. So when Mercedes Benz released it’s new W221 S-class recently, we can somewhat imagine how the next C-class is going to look like.

The new Mercedes Benz C-class will be positioned as a true sports saloon, focusing on excellent handling characteristics and a general sporty drive instead of just a smaller alternative to the E-class.

There are also news that the new C-class will come with Mercedes Benz’s first batch of KDI EVT engines. The supercharged KDI EVT is Mercedes Benz’s first camless valvetrain engine, which means the valves are electronically controlled instead of using a camshaft, rocker arms and etc. More details on camless valvetrain engines here.

The new Mercedes Benz C-class should be unveiled at the 2007 Geneva Motor Show.

[ UPDATE : The New 2007 Mercedes Benz C-Class (W204) has been unveiled! Click here for details. ]

Nissan has launched a facelift of it’s flagship sports car, the Nissan 350Z. It’s not just a facelift though, the new engine comes with some re-engineering that gives it a little more power and a nicer torque curve.

Click here to read the rest of 2006 Nissan 350Z Facelift