Zhejiang Geely Automotive Company will go ahead with the assembly of it’s Geely CK1, or Geely Freedom Cruiser here in Malaysia. It will be assembled by Information Gateway Corporation Sdn Bhd. Production is expected to be 10,000 units a year by August 2007, with 20% of that amount destined for the local market and the rest for export. That would mean 2,000 Chinese cars a year on our roads. Have any of you seen a Chinese car on the road yet? I’ve only seen the Chery A160 at an exhibition in Mid Valley. Can’t see them anywhere. However Datuk Cam Soh says 100 out of 262 CBU Chery A160 models have been sold.

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Edaran Tan Chong Motor announced price cuts of between 3% to 15% for Nissan cars with immediate effect under the new National Automotive Policy tax rates. The Nissan Sentra will be cheaper by 5%, while the premium Nissan Cefiro will be cheaper by 12-15%. Suprisingly the Nissan X-trail SUV also enjoyed a small price reduction of about 5%, when the whole industry was facing either static or rising prices in that model range. Nissan’s Serena MPV and the Nissan Vanette window van’s prices are to be about 9%-10% higher though, but not immediately. It’s effective date will be announced later.

Edaran Tan Chong Motor executive director Dr Ang Bon Beng expressed some concerns on the National Automotive Policy, especially on the usage of local parts in CKD assembled products and the Industrial Adjustment Fund which was set up. In Tan Chong’s case there is nothing much to claim from the fund except for the use of local parts. However this is a little tricky as Nissan has to consent, and even if they do, sometimes local manufacturers do not have the economies of scale to offer competitive prices for the parts. This might end up with local manufacturing of parts ending up costing more than importing them from overseas suppliers.

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Proton has posted new prices of Proton cars on their website. This is for Proton Edar. EON managing director Datuk Syed Hisham Syed Wazir said it has yet to receive an updated price list for Proton vehicles. EON is a Proton SuperDealer here in Malaysia.

Looking at the pricelist, the biggest percentage and ringgit cut off the previous sticker price would be the Proton Savvy 1.2 AMT Solid, which received a 7.5% price cut of RM3,387.93. It retails for RM42,050.07 now. The lowest price cut in terms of percentage and ringgit was the Proton Saga LMST, a 2.7% cut of only RM1026. It retails for RM36,359.01 now. The prices of the Proton Perdana V6 Enhanced and the Proton Chancellor V6 remains the same.

For the full list, please go here.

Naza Automotive Manaufacturing Sdn Bhd will be rolling out two new non-KIA models in the next two months. Codenames, NX-01 and NX-02, they will be built at Naza’s plants in Gurun and Pekan respectively.

Naza hinted at some details of the two models. The NX-01 will be a small 1.1 liter car in the Perodua Myvi range. It will be priced between RM30,000 to RM40,000. Naza says the model was originally designed by Pinanfarina but Naza’s own team had made some changes to the design to suit local market tastes and to have an identity of it’s own. These little hints seem to point to the Hafei Lobo 1.1, a Chinese car designed by Pininfarina. Check out this link for more details on the car. Launch date is scheduled to be on the 22nd of April 2006. Update: See Naza NX-01 Spyshots!

The other car, codenamed NX-02, would be launched in May. It will be priced between RM65,000 and RM75,000. Not much details on this have been revealed by Naza, but it would most probably be the Naza-badged Peugeot 206 which was announced September 2005. The Peugeot 206 has since been phased out by the hot new Peugeot 207, but it still looks good.

The model introduced would likely be the 1.4 liter SOHC 8 valve model.

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Volvo Cars Malaysia has announced price reductions of up to 7% for Volvo cars in Malaysia. This translates to price cuts of between RM10,000 to Rm20,000. The Volvo XC90 SUV’s price will not be hiked, even though under the new National Automotive Policy’s tax structure it was expected that most SUV and MPV vehicles will end up with higher price tags. These new prices are to be applied to existing stocks, so you can enjoy the new prices immediately once you step into any Volvo showroom.

Volvo will also be looking into exporting Volvo cars assembled in it’s Shah Alam plant, which was set up back in 1967. This makes Volvo likely the first premium car manufacturer to have set up an assembly plant here.

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Works Minister Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu opened today Malaysia’s first drive-in “massage parlour” rest stop in Malaysia, situated along the North-South Highway. The “massage parlour” is equipped with automatic massage chairs. You know, like OSIM or something like that. It is hoped that these chairs can help ease the tensed muscles of drivers to reduce accident rates. The government plans to open another of these drive-in “massage parlours” this year.

Yes guys, you can get real massages here. Not the dodgy kind of massage. I can see some of you grinning now. I wonder who supplies these massage chairs. Such luck bestowed upon them, obtaining a government tender for road-side massage parlours. They’d better be comfy. I hope these public massage parlours will not end up in the same state as public toilets. It’s not known right now whether this service will be free.

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While Subaru has decided to use Toyota hybrid technology in it’s efforts to improve fuel economy for it’s petrol-powered vehicles, it has decided to develop it’s own turbodiesel engine to address demands for diesel cars in markets like Europe.

Subaru’s new turbodiesel engine would be modular, and will be introduced as a 2.2 liter 4 cylinder boxer, as well as a 3.3 liter 6 cylinder boxer. Since it is modular, technically a 4.4 liter 8 cylinder boxer could also be possible. It will be designed to be compatible with Subaru’s all-wheel drive technology. There is currently no turbodiesel engine using the boxer (horizontally opposed) cylinder configuration in the world, so Subaru’s will be the first.

Subaru expects half of total Subaru sales in Europe to be diesel-powered by 2010. The engine is expected to be complete by 2007 or 2008. It will be developed by a 40-member R&D division based in Japan.

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I would like to pose a question to any of you who purchased a car recently. The government is unhappy that car prices have not been reduced much, only in the tune of 2-5% or at most 5-10%.

If you purchased a Toyota Camry (used as an example) last year, and Toyota cuts the price of the Toyota Camry by 15-20%, how would you feel? Would your car’s value drop in the second hand market? And if yes, would you be angry? Would your brand loyalty to Toyota be affected if Toyota was the only one who gave a big price cut for their cars? Would your brand loyalty to Toyota be affected if all car manufacturers did similiar price cuts? Or would you be okay with it, considering it is an effect of the National Automotive Policy?

There are no right or wrong answers. It’s a matter of your own opinion, and I hope everyone will agree to disagree in case differences of opinions occur in the discussion. Also feel free to give your thoughts on what you think of the NAP in general, and the after-effects so far. The prices of cars in Malaysia is truly a complicated thing. Such a delicate balance must be kept.

Motor Image, a Tan Chong International Ltd company based in Singapore will be building Subaru Impreza rally cars together with Prodrive UK, the company behind the Subaru Rally Team. The rally cars will be produced at a new USD$15.4 million production facility in Singapore. They will be Group N vehicles, which are basically production vehicles but fitted with safety equipment incompliance with FIA’s rules and regulations for Group N rally cars. This will probably be Singapore’s first venture into the automotive industry. Production will begin at a rate of about 5 cars a month, and might increase to 15 in the near future.

Proton has an R3 Zerokit upgrade for the Proton Savvy for those not satisfied with the zippy little thing in stock form. You can either purchase the Proton Savvy R3 Zerokit with the kit preinstalled from RM45,000, or purchase it as an add-on if you already own a Proton Savvy.

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