More Top Gear! Alot of you are going to be very interested in this video. Jeremy Clarkson and the team tests out a bunch of Malaysian and Korean cars. Some of the ‘victims’ include the Hyundai Getz, the Kia Picanto, the Proton Waja, the Proton Gen2, the Hyundai Accent, the Perodua Kelisa and a Kia Magentis known as the Kia Optima here on Malaysian shores.

Apparently a pogo stick is better than a Kia Rio, and the Hyundai Accent should be renamed the Hyundai Accident. couldn’t blame them actually, they test drove a 3-cylinder 1.5 diesel Hyundai Accent that does the 0-100km/h in 19 seconds.

Top Gear actually liked the Proton Gen2, but I believe their sentiments is exactly like most of ours here in Malaysia - Proton has got their priorities wrong and should have traded in the Lotus sports-tuned handling with some Toyota-developed door trim.

Best car is the Hyundai Getz, but it’s too expensive and defeats the point of buying a Korean. Which might work well for us here in Malaysia, a Hyundai Getz is not much more expensive than other Korean makes so if you want to go Korean, maybe you want to look at the Getz.

Video is after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Top Gear compares Malaysian and Korean cars

This is Suzukis’ SX4 WRC Concept. I previously blogged about the third in Suzuki’s new trio of cars the Suzuki SX4 here. The four wheel drive equipped Suzuki SX4 is a joint-venture together with Fiat, which will produce the same car as the Fiat Sedici. More details at the original 2007 Suzuki SX4 blog post.

Its interesting watching a new car manufacturer set up base in a country where its not had its presence around except through grey imports in a long time. Its kind of like building a new base in real time strategy games. Volkswagen AG has just officially launched its Malaysian headquarters in Wisma UOA Damansara.

Part of Volkswagen AGs long term plans in Malaysia is to introduce CKD models by 2008 while selling CBU models in the mean while, but circumstances have changed. Volkswagen is in talks with 3 local partners for assembly of CKD kits for the German marques cars. Launching CKD models by 2008 would only give it about 1.5 to 2 years to build its brand and dealership network.

This is an ideal case scenario of course. A lot of strange things can happen in the Malaysian automotive industry. Im sure all of my readers know.

Its not known which are the local partners that Volkswagen AG are in talks with because they include listed companies. It would probably affect share prices too much. Prices of the listed companies would go up upon this announcement, and when only one company gets chosen to assemble the CKD kits, the other two would go down. Protons was a good example.

Volkswagen AGs total investment in Malaysia has been about 9.5 million Euros so far, which is about RM 42 million and Volkswagen is committed to making Malaysia its regional hub due to its stability, infrastructure and resources.

After a failed partnership with Volkswagen AG, Proton signed an agreement on the 28th of January indicating that the two companies will collaborate on certain projects but abandoning any possibilities of a joint-venture involving an equity stake. Volkswagen will also supply certain parts to Proton.

Something has come out of the new fresh discussions so far. Volkswagens executive director for international sales Kevin Rose has shed a bit of light on the shroud surrounding Proton and Volkswagens new partnership at the launch of Volkswagens new HQ in Wisma UOA, Bangsar.

Rose said Proton is likely to use two or three of Volkswagen platforms to develop new cars. These are likely to be cars not in Protons current portfolio. In my opinion, Proton is lacking an entry-level budget car to replace the Proton Saga/Iswara, an MPV and an executive sedan to replace the Proton Perdana.

This seems to be a one-way relationship akin to the previous Proton-Mitsubishi tie up back when Proton was first formed. Protons new relationship with Mitsubishi is supposed to be more of a two-way collaboration, signifying perhaps Mitsubishi acknowledges Proton has grown up and is a lot closer to the same level as they are. Big daddy Volkswagen clearly sees Proton as an angsty teenage kid who doesnt quite know which path to take in life.

Source

A reader sent this in to me, another frontal spyshot of the 2006 Honda Civic taken in Malacca over the weekend. Did not manage to get any shots of the interior, but it’s safe to say that we are getting the high-tech flashy 2-tiered dashboard with the digital speedometer on the top tier and nice blue RPM meter on the bottom tier because the photographer managed to see it in action inside the car.

I was pretty worried that Honda would deem us not good enough for a nice interior. Kind of how Perodua downgraded the Toyota Passo’s interior with the Perodua Myvi.

More spyshots of the 2006 Honda Civic: Front spyshot, rear spyshot.

More on the 2006 Honda Civic.

Test Drive:
2006 Honda Civic Test Drive - Part 1
2006 Honda Civic Test Drive - Part 2
2006 Honda Civic Test Drive - Part 3

In order to enter the coveted Chinese market, it is part of the rules and regulations that you have to partner up with a Chinese company to set up shop there. Proton has had intentions of entering the Chinese market for quite some time and now it is rumoured that they’ve identified a suitable partner for them to enter the Chinese market with.

The prospective partner is Jinhua Young Man Automobile, based in Zhejiang. Rumours are that Jinhua is setting up to build a sedan model with Proton at it’s factory in Shandong. Jinhua also assembled 800cc minis in Iran with Iran Khodro.

The first sedan is expected to roll out of production in June 2006. It’s not known whether it will be a Proton or Jinhua-badged model, or whether it will look like any of the Protons we have here in Malaysia.

Source

In another of Top Gear’s crazy stunts, they pitch a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution against a bobsled in harsh icy terrain.

Good chance for you to see an Evo go wild rally style on ice. Video after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Top Gear: Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution on ice

Volkswagen Group Malaysia Sdn Bhd has appointed AutoStadt Asia Sdn Bhd as the sole importer of Volkswagen cars in the country. Want to know who owns AutoStadt? 499,999 shares are held by a certain Zulkifli Ishak and 1 share is held by his wife, Annie Tajul Arus.

Annie’s name might come across as familiar to some people. Yup, she is Datuk Seri Rafidah Aziz’s niece. The husband and wife businessmen recently lost part of their rice bowl as MITI stopped giving out franchise APs for Kleemann cars. Their company Emeritus Equities Sdn Bhd used to receive franchise APs for the Kleemann-tuned Mercedes Benz cars they were selling.

MITI has not released 2006’s AP allocations yet but I think we can assume AutoStadt has gotten hold of Volkswagen’s franchise APs since they obtained the sole importer status.

I wonder what happened to the talk of Quasar Carriage becoming Super Dealer. Will they still hold Super Dealer status? And why if yes, why not let them be the importers as well? An industry player stated “VW Malaysia prefers to have an exclusive tie-up with a player that does not currently have a major commitment to other brands. Quasar fits the bill because it is also a distributor of Skoda”. Skoda is a marque under the Volkswagen Group.

Over the next two years, Volkswagen will introduce a total of 9 models beginning with the lower end models like the Volkswagen Fox and the Volkswagen Polo. As time goes on, the more premium models like the Beetle, Golf GTI, Passat and the Sharan MPVs will be brought in. These will be CBU models, which means fully imported as a whole. In 2008/2009, Volkswagen will begin assembling CKD kits here in Malaysia with a local partner which was not revealed, or unknown.

Volkswagen will also be officiating it’s new Malaysian headquarters in Wisma UOA, Bangsar tomorrow. Their office takes up 5 floors and will be the nerve centre of the VW Group’s activities in Malaysia.

Source: The Edge Daily, Just Auto

While the folks at our first national car manufacturer are busy restructuring Team Proton, Perodua is grinning ear to ear at the runaway success of their latest model the Perodua Myvi. The Perodua Myvi has received 80,000 bookings so far, but only 35,000 are on the road due to inability for production to keep up with sales. Average bookings per month have stabilized at a certain figure, but still pretty much piling up at a rate of 4000-4500 new bookings a month. Earlier months sometimes had over 10,000 bookings in a single month. Perodua is working on expanding their production capacity and hopes to reduce the waiting period to 4 months from the current 7-9 months by mid-2006.

As for a new model, Perodua has one up it’s sleeves (I think it’s this model), but it will only launch it in early 2007 in order not to cannibalize it’s Perodua Myvi’s sales. The new model would also have engine capacities of 1.0 liter and below in order not to cut into the Perodua Myvi’s segment. Definitely sounds like either a Kelisa or a Kancil replacement model. I wonder if Perodua will combine the two product lines.

Q1: Why are you lobbying for MV Agusta right now after it has been sold?

A1: Here, we are trying to clarify our (me and former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s) positions because the inference is that we made a bad decision (in the purchase). When we purchased Agusta, people were asking why we bought (in the first place).

Click here to read the rest of Bernama Q&A Session with Tengku Mahaleel