In a news flash by The Star, Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Shafie Apdal has given assurance to the rakyat that there would be no more petrol price increases this year, following the steep hike of petrol by 30 cents across the board this morning. The government expects to save RM4.4 billion a year in reduced fuel subsidies which they say can be used for development.

We’d better get used to this price. I will be taking the Putra LRT to my client’s offices more often, as they are all in the KLCC/Jalan Tun Razak vicinity. However, the safety of my car while parked at the LRT station is a concern, sigh.

BTW, I made a mistake yesterday. It seems Shell V-Power has not gone up 30 cents to RM2.02 a litre. It went up by 43 cents and it is now RM2.15 a litre. Shell V-Power is a RON97 petrol, the same as Shell Super but it is a different formula which contains extra additives, so it is more expensive. Demand for V-Power is likely to go down, so that’s probably why Shell increased the price by a larger margin.

In other related news, Malaysia Motorcycle and Scooter Dealers Association’s president Wee Hong expects the sales of motorcycles and scooters to go up following the increase in petrol prices, especially the ones in the 125cc range. These cost between RM5 to RM7 to fill up, according to Wee Hong.

Related: View on the effects of the price hike.

Source: Bernama, The Star SMS Flash

Proton Holdings Bhd reported a net profit of RM86.51 million in Q3 which ended on December 31 2005, thanks to higher car sales and lower debt provisions. This is good, compared to the RM154.33 loss in Q2, but still 38.61% lower than the RM140.92 million profit in Q3 of the previous year.

Click here to read the rest of Proton Updates: Q3 Profitable

I just got home after supper at Williams. Damn I love the food there. Free advertisements aside, I got a news flash from The Star’s SMS alert regarding a petrol price hike effective from Tuesday onwards, which is tomorrow. The journey home was pretty jam packed, with queues at every petrol station overpouring onto the main roads.

The price increase is 30 cents per litre for both petrol and diesel as well as 30 cents per kilogram for LPG.

Petrol prices are now RM1.92 per liter for RON97 petrol and RM1.88 for RON92. Diesel is RM1.58 per litre now. The more premium RON97 petrol Shell V-Power is a ridiculous RM2.02 a liter now.

Fuel prices last went up on the 31st July 2005, where it was a slight increase of 10 cents for petrol and 20 cents for diesel. The prices right now are much closer to the unsubsidised price.

The 64 litre fuel tank in my car would cost me RM122.88 to fill up now. With about 6-8 fill-ups a month… I’ve pretty much dug my own grave, jumped in it, and sealed it all up with cement and built a crypt in the shape of a petrol station around it. Millions of years later I would have turned into oil and you can pump me into your vehicles. Kthxbai.

Kia Motors Corp General Manager for Marketing William Choi mentioned in an interview with reporters at the Geneva Motor Show that Kia might consider using Naza Kia’s plant in Gurun, Kedah to cope with increasing regional and worldwide demand for Kia vehicles.

Demand for the Sorento, Picanto, Rio and Sportage models have been soaring worldwide. Kia has plans to launch 10 new models from now until 2010.

Kia will be unveiling 3 models at the Geneva Motor Show. They are the new Kia Carnival MPV (which Naza rebadged the previous model as the Naza Ria), a new hatchback concept car and the 2006 Kia Sorento.

Source: The Star

New scandal related to Approved Permits! The Royal Customs Department has uncovered 105 luxury cars worth nearly RM50 million which were imported using “recycled” APs while doing a routing inspection of 142 vehicles at the department’s AP inspection centre at Petaling Jaya.

Sources say that 37 Aps with different serial numbers were used multiple times to bring in the cars. These cars were mainly Toyota, Mercedes Benz and BMW makes, but also included cars like the Mini Cooper, Nissan Skyline, and Mitsubishi Lancer.

The cars have not been seized yet. Similiar irregularities have also been noticed before, but usually by the time it is noticed, the cars have already been sent off to the importers. The Customs have alerted the Road Transport Department not to allow these cars to be registered.

If you are buying a reconditioned or imported vehicle via grey importers, be careful. You might not be able to register your vehicle if it is imported in a dodgy manner. It’s good that UMW might be bringing in popular Toyota CBUs (Harrier, Wish, etc) this year so we can purchase them through an official channel.

Source: The Star

As I previously blogged, Honda unveiled the Honda Civic Type R Concept at the Geneva Motor Show. This will give a glimpse of what the final Civic Type R will look like. This concept is powered by the same K20A i-VTEC engine used in the current Honda Civic Type R.

Click here to read the rest of 2007 Honda Civic Type R Concept

I’ve started a simple one page car jargon dictionary over here. Whatever’s listed there is all I can think of at the moment. If you have any more terms you could like added, please leave a comment. It’s a work in progress.

The Project NEF engine aims to produce a high performance prototype engine without the need to resort to exotic materials or manufacturing technology, ensuring the transition from prototype to production with ease and speed. It was designed and developed by Lotus Engineering’s powertrain division.

The first in the engine family is the 3.0 liter supercharged DOHC 75 degree V6 engine found in the new Lotus APX prototype. The supercharged 3.0 liter V6 makes 300hp at 6250rpm and 360Nm of torque at 4500rpm. 80% of that 360Nm of torque (288Nm) is available from as low as 1500rpm. Acceleration should be very good. Pretty impressive stuff.

Other family models include a 2.2 liter and 3.0 liter normally aspirated versions, which compliment this supercharged one. They are all production feasible, but not planned for production, unless of course there is a customer who wants to buy it. Perhaps Proton would be one of the potential customers? Makes sense seriously.

The narrow 75 degree angle makes the engine compact. It also gives the engine better vibration characteristics, removing the need for a balance shaft and the extra cost and weight that comes with it. The engine is controlled by a 32-bit ECU capable of 200 million calculations a second.

Another Top Gear video - a comparison between the Subaru Impreza, the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 8 and the Audi S4. Japanese rally cars versus a competitor from the marque that originally brought 4WD transmissions to the rallying world. We’ll take a look soon at different transmission systems, I’m still writing that post up. But in the mean while enjoy this video and hope streaming is fast for you.

Click here to read the rest of Top Gear Battle of the 4WD Sports Sedans: Subaru Impreza vs. Evo 8 vs. Audi S4

Another series of advertisements, this time based on Volkswagen’s “Fast” concept which was explained in the previous video I posted. These are short clips for TV.

Click here to read the rest of Volkswagen Golf GTI Fast Advertisements