A old series of short promotional films by BMW starring Clive Owen as a driver. Beat The Devil is about a rock star who sold his soul to the devil in exchange for fame and fortune. Now in his old age, the rock star wants to renegotiate the terms with a reluctant devil. The devil challenges the rock star and The Driver to a drag race. Click here to read the rest of BMW The Hire Short Films - Beat The Devil
A old series of short promotional films by BMW starring Clive Owen as a driver. This time, The Driver must deliver ransom money in exchange for a hostage. The exchange goes awry and he gets a phone number instead of the hostage. Now The Driver must find the hostage before her cell phone battery and air supply runs out. This short film features the BMW Z4 Roadster. Click here to read the rest of BMW The Hire Short Films - The Hostage
An old series of short promotional films by BMW starring Clive Owen as a driver. The Driver comes face-to-face with a successful star with a major attitude problem. She always gets what she wants, and expects it to be the same this time. Featured BMW car is the E39 M5, my favourite BMW of all. Click here to read the rest of BMW The Hire Short Films - Star
There have been sightings of a small Nissan SUV being tested on the road. It is said that the new mini Murano is based on the Nissan Qashqai concept shown 2 years ago at the 2004 Geneva Motor Show.
The above artist’s impression image by Hans G. Lehmann photo syndication shows that the new small-sized SUV has abandoned the old Qashqai’s X-Trail-like front grille and has adopted the new Renault-Nissan look. It looks like a taller Nissan Versa. Note that this is an artist’s impression only, but inspired by Nissan’s current design trends.
The Nissan Qashqai is expected to debut in 2007 and will come with 2.0 liter petrol and turbodiesel engines. There could also be a top of the range six-banger version. Naturally, it will have all-wheel drive. This small SUV will be in direct competition with the Toyota RAV4, the Mercedes Benz MLK and the BMW X3.
The Volkswagen Golf GTI has been around for 30 years now, with the first one introduced in 1976, two years after the Volkswagen Golf was first introduced in 1970. To celebrate the occasion, Volkswagen has released a special edition Volkswagen Golf GTI Edition 30. Click here to read the rest of 2006 Volkswagen Golf GTI Edition 30
The Volkwagen Scirocco made it’s debut in 1974 as a simple coupe sports car based on the A1 platform shared with the Volkswagen Jetta and the Volkswagen Golf. It was the replacement for the Volkswagen Karmann Ghia coupe. The original Volkswagen Scirocco was designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro. It’s generations were sold up to 1992, and was replaced by the Volkswagen Corrado. There are now plans to bring back the Scirocco name in 2008. Click here to read the rest of 2008 Volkswagen Scirocco Concept Photos
UMW Toyota Motor Sdn Bhd is taking it’s operations here to the next step. It will start manufacturing cars here in Malaysia, with the first roll-out expected in 18 months time.
Toyota’s sales success of around 7000 cars a month has reached a milestone where it will begin to be financially feasible to manufacture vehicles locally instead of importing CKD kits and merely assembling them here in Malaysia. These Malaysian-manufactured Toyota cars would have over 60% local content. Toyota officials did not mention which models would be manufactured locally, but it is likely the high volume models like the Toyota VIOS which accounts for 1,500 units of the 7,000 monthly sales figure.
There is a future possibility of price reductions for the locally manufactured vehicles from cost-savings from its operations, but this is just a possibility. UMW Toyota is also exporting a vehicle assembled locally to Thailand beginning next Monday. The model exported will be a van model.
These days, it is a common strategy for either Malaysia, Thailand or Indonesia to be used by one of the few big car manufacturers as a hub for the ASEAN region. Thailand seems to be the most successful so far at this game, as companies like Toyota has made it a manufacturing central. It also has the priviledge of being nicknamed the Detroit of the East. The new National Automotive Policy of Malaysia aims to attract foreign investment in the Malaysian automotive industry to compete with countries like Thailand. But this round, Indonesia has scored few points with a car manufacturer that’s currently producing pick-ups in Thailand.
Jakarta’s head of investment board Muhamad Lufti says it is in negotations with a US automotive manufacturer to invest 1.4 billion US Dollars into Indonesia as part of a regional expansion plan. There was no indication on which company it is, but Muhamad Lufti says the firm is already producing pick-up trucks in Thailand. Upon research, it is revealed that both American car companies Ford Motor Company and General Motors have manufacturing facilities in Thailand, but only General Motors produces pick-up trucks. This means the US firm is likely General Motors. If it is GM, it will likely produce marques like Daewoo and Chevrolet-badged Daewoo vehicles at the Indonesia plant as they are destined for the ASEAN market. Previously, Hicomobil has expressed interest in assembling CKD Chevy vehicles here in Malaysia in order to remain competitive with the new NAP tax brackets.
The US firm plans to produce 200,000 sedan vehicles in Indonesia annually, with 70,000 destined for the Indonesian market. The cars would have 80% local content. The said firm is also negotiationg with the Indonesian government to get a tax-break holiday of up to 8 years and exemption from luxury tax for engines above 1,5000cc capacity, as offered in Thailand.
Currently Indonesia is the third largest car market in Southeast Asia. Thailand takes the top position while Malaysia comes in second.
[ UPDATE: The first test mules of the Proton MPV spotted! ]
[ UPDATE #2: EXCLUSIVE: Initial Proton MPV exterior, interior and spec details! ]
Proton is studying the feasibility of developing an MPV and an SUV, said director of manufacturing Datuk Kamarulzaman Darus. Development will take up to 24 months if the results of the feasibility studies are positive.
In such a short period of development time, it would mean Proton would be using a platfrom from one of it’s strategic partners, which could be either Volkswagen or Mitsubishi at this period of time. It could even be Peugeot.
Some interesting facts - Peugeot and Mitsubishi has a joint venture SUV program. The Peugeot 4007 is actually a re-engineered Mitsubishi Outlander. As for the MPV, it was previously rumoured that Proton would be developing an MPV based on the Volkswagen Sharan. That’s a large MPV, not a small one like the Toyota Avanza.
Details are sketchy right now, and the projects are not even approved and could possibly not even see the light of day if the feasibility studies have negative results, but at least it is something to look forward to once the Satria Replacement Model is launched. Another model to look forward to is the Perdana replacement model, which might be based on the Mitsubishi 380, or a Volkswagen Passat. Funny, when originally announced, Proton planned to launch the Perdana replacement by the end of 2005, but I guess that plan was scrapped when talks with Volkswagen broke down. The Mitsubishi 380 sounds likelier now.
Update (25/5/2006): Proton says if the projects are given the green light, it will be developing them on their own with assistance from Lotus Engineering. This would be a good opportunity to use Lotus Engineering’s Versatile Vehicle Architecture (VVA), in which a common platform can be used to develop a variety of vehicles like SUVs, MPVs, and even coupes. The Lotus APX Aluminium Performance Crossover concept vehicle was a demonstration of the versatility of the VVA platform. Click here for more details on the Lotus Versatile Vehicle Architecture (VVA).
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2007 Peugeot 4007
Proton to buy Passat and Sharan Platforms
Mitsubishi 380 to be exported to Malaysia
For those who love their cars in white, Perodua is now offering a new colour for the Perodua Myvi called Ivory White.
White is quite an extreme colour, it looks extremely good when taken care of properly, but if you slack a little it looks really bad.
