I did some thinking on any enhancements I could do to this blog. I’ve noticed alot of people manually quoting each other during discussion.

A forum would solve that. Do you prefer discussing blog posts in a forum, or in this blog comments? If I moved discussion to a forum, every blog post would have a link to a thread in a forum and you guys could discuss it there. But having the discussion posts on the same page as the post like it is currently would be more convenient, and everyone is used to it.

What do you think? Also, what other features would you like to see added to this site?

Proton Holdings Bhd expects to finalise it’s recovery plan before the end of 2006. The plan will depend on the finalisation of a strategic partnership with another party, of which details have not been announced yet. Proton managing director Syed Zainal Abidin says the partnership takes a bit longer to finalise as Proton needs to be very selective with the details of the alliance. He did not reveal any further details on who it’s partner is.

Proton will also reveal it’s vendor consolidation plan within 4-5 months, and assured vendors that the system revamp will not drop vendors for the sake of dropping, but will weed out problematic and less committed vendors. More details on Proton’s recovery plan here. Syed Zainal Abidin also said the strengthening ringgit has helped with Proton’s margins with component purchases in the Japanese yen and other foreign component sourcing like Renault engines for the Proton Savvy.

Proton has also won the most trusted and favourite brand award in the 2006 Reader’s Digest Trusted Brands Awards for the car category. Criteria for the award was not mentioned in reports.

Here are more ads from Volkswagen for your viewing pleasure. These series of “Safe Happens” (a play on the phrase Shit Happens) advertisement videos are from Volkswagen’s campaign for the Volkswagen Jetta in the US, leveraging on it’s excellent front and side crash test results. The videos show a bunch of friends in a Volkswagen Jetta cruising along, and they meet an accident and walk out unscathed. Videos are after the jump!

Click here to read the rest of Volkswagen Jetta Safe Happens Advertisement

The Malaysian government will be considering forcing second hand car buyers get their vehicles checked by experts like Puspakom to curb the sale of half-cut cars. Half-cut cars are cars which are assembled by having two halves of a car welded together to make a vehicle.

Half-cut cars are dangerous because they split upon impact. Normal proper cars are supposed to crumple. The crumple zone doesn’t exist in a half-cut car, so an accident could prove fatal. According to statistics, there are nearly 50,000 half-cut cars on the roads nationwide, and most of the time the current owners do not even know they are driving such a hazard.

A Memorandum of Understanding has been signed between financial institutions which provide hire-purchase loans for car purchases and Puspakom which requires all second-hand cars to be checked by Puspakom before the loan will be approved.

Saudi Arabia is a country which is really oil-rich. While the rest of the world is struggling with high oil prices, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has decreed that oil prices in Saudi Arabia will be reduced to 0.60 riyals per liter, 30% down from the previous price of 0.90 riyals. 0.60 riyals is equivalent to roughly 0.57 ringgit here in Malaysia. Malaysians currently pay RM1.92 (roughly 1.98 riyals) per liter for RON97 grade petrol and RM1.88 (roughly .94 riyals) per liter for RON92 grade petrol.

King Abdullah said this is for the public good and to improve the standards of living for citizens. This price will be in effect until January next year.

Anyway, happy labour day to all Malaysian citizens. We’ll surely have to labour more and more if the prices of oil continues to go up. Kthxbai!

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