Volvo has released details on the upcoming Volvo C30 hatchback set to be unveiled to the public at the Paris Motor Show in September 2006. The Volvo C30 is a sporty two-door hatch with a unique large glass tailgate which Volvo targets at young singles or couples with an intense urban lifestyle. The car is a four-seater, with the rear row having two individual seats with a gap in the middle. More details after the jump!

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Despite the used car market facing difficulties due to loss of stock value due to the NAP as well as difficulties in getting second hand car loans, UMW Toyota is confident of it’s used car division TopMark contributing at least 5% towards total revenue this year. TopMark mainly handles used Toyotas as well as cars which are traded in when buyers purchase a new Toyota.

UMW Toyota plans to invest close to RM110 million over the next 4 years to open 17 new TopMark centers, with 4 of them expected to open this year. UMW Toyota currently has 3 TopMark centers, in Petaling Jaya, Butterworth and Johor Bahru. The 4 new centers this year will be based in Cheras, Selayang, Seberang Prai, and Sungai Petani.

TopMark handled 9,000 trade-in cars last year, and 5,000 cars to date this year. This figure is expected to hit 12,000 by year end, and 40,000 by 2010 with a total of 20 TopMark centers.

DRB-HICOM unit Edaran Otomobil Nasional Bhd (EON) is currently offering a voluntary separation scheme (VSS) to it’s employees in an effort to improve efficiency in it’s operations.

The VSS package includes 1.5 months their last drawn salary multiplied by years in service to a maximum of 24 years, or last drawn salary multiplied by months to retirement with a maximum of 36 months, whichever was lower. On top of this is an extra 2 month’s salary, RM1,000 medical assistance and salary in lieu of unused annual leave to a maximum of 60 days.

This was because EON sales volume had fallen for the past two quarters and it was currently unable to sustain it’s operation size so it has to move to a leaner organisation chart. EON currently has 2,500 employees.

Italian marque Alfa Romeo is making a comeback to the US, starting with the limited edition Alfa Romeo 8c Competizione, a carbon fibre-built sports car based on a shortened version of the Maserati Coupe platform. Alfa Romeo has been missing from the USDM market since 1995, more than 10 years ago.

The Alfa Romeo 8c Competizione will be powered by a Maserati 4.2-liter V-8 engine producing over 400 horses. Joining the 8c Competizione coupe in 2009 will be a soft top version known as the 8C Spider. 250 of the cars will make their way to the US market, which is about half of the total limited edition production planned worldwide.

These cars will carry price tags of around US$200,000, and it is hoped that the cars will create a halo effect to reintroduce Alfa Romeo as a sporty marque in the US market, paving way for more volume production models in 2010. The volume production models are expected to be the Spider, Brera coupe and a lengthened 159 sedan to suit US market conditions. Alfa Romeo will leverage on the Maserati dealership network already established in the US - about 47 of them.

Porsche has filed patents indicate the company is developing a new seven-speed DSG gearbox for use in it’s sports cars range. The Volkswagen Group’s Direct Shift Gearbox or DSG is a manual gearbox with dual computer controlled clutches. And it shifts fast, real fast. This could either be a Porsche design or an adaptation of Volkswagen’s BorgWarner DSG, considering Porsche’s close connection with the Volkswagen Group. Also, it’s not known yet whether Porsche will be calling their system DSG or something else. Audi uses Volkswagen’s DSG but calls it S-Tronic. The DSG is also expected to end up in Lamborghinis soon.

Porsche currently has manual and Tiptronic automatic transmissions for it’s cars. The original plan was to introduce the new DSG in time for the latest 2007 Porsche 911 Turbo (model 997) launch but it didn’t happen. BTW, stay tuned for an article on the new 997 Porsche 911 Turbo which was launched in Malaysia by Auto Eurokars last Friday.

Source

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You might have seen numbers like RON97 and RON92 at your neighbourhood petrol station. Fuel with a RON97 rating is more expensive, RM1.92 per liter at time of writing with the lower RON92 rating going for RM1.88.

Have you ever wondered what they mean? Why is RON97 more expensive than RON92, and can you use RON92 to save on fuel costs?

Let’s have a discussion. What petrol do you use regularly, and why do you like your choice of petrol? Or are they all the same to you?

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If you’ve watched The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, you would remember this scene where someone said he wouldn’t want his machai to be seen going around in a Hyundai. Well, I don’t think he’d mind this particular Hyundai. This Hyundai Tiburon (known on our market as the Hyundai Coupe) has two engines, both 2.0 liter turbocharged engines. You have one at the front making 309hp, and one at the back making 317hp, resulting in a total of over 600 horses and a technically an all wheel drive system. It does the quarter mile in 10.95 seconds on street tyres.

The car uses two independently controlled automatic transmissions, giving it the ability to operate in both drive and reverse at the same time! The smoke caused by the wheelspin as both engines threathen to tear the chassis apart in opposite directions guarantees a win in burnout contests effortlessly. Video after the jump.

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LATEST UPDATE: Nissan Grand Livina 1.6 and 1.8 launched in Malaysia

Nissan Motors has unveiled the Nissan Livina Geniss, a seven-seater MPV part of Nissan’s new global car line-up. It was displayed to the public today at the 2006 Guangzhou International Motor Show. The MPV was designed and engineered at Nissan’s Technical Centre in Atsugi, Japan.

The Livina Geniss rides on the Renault-Nissan B platform underpinings that also spawned the Nissan Micra, Renault Clio and Renault Modus.

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Here are more details on the upcoming R3 Limited Special Edition Vehicles (LSEV) based on the Proton Waja and Proton GEN2, due to be launched in August.

For one, the specifications posted in the previous thread do not reflect the specifications of the special edition vehicles. However, there are a few confirmed specifications which can be revealed for now. The cars will feature ultra grippy Continental SportContact-1 Tyres, which are similiar to the ones used on the Proton Satria Neo 1.6 and 1.6 HighLine. The in-car entertainment system features Bluetooth compatibility for hands-free usage with a Bluetooth phone. The ICE system is also complete with Apple iPod integration. And check this out, for you to fully utilise it’s Apple iPod integration each car will come with a bundled Apple iPod Nano!

The cars will also feature mild performance and handling upgrades such as R3 Performance Slotted Brake Discs. The Proton Waja R3 special edition might also feature Xenon headlamps as standard, a first for a national production vehicle, though this is not something confirmed.

These special edition vehicles are not completely souped up Limited Edition Vehicles like what the Proton Satria R3 was, but like the Satria R3 they will be available in a limited run only.

Related Posts:
R3 Waja and R3 GEN2 Coming Up!

Tesla Motors is a Silicon Valley start-up founded by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning which set out to to one thing - to design a sports car that would go as fast as a Ferrari or Porsche, but run on electricity.

The name Tesla is a tribute to genius inventor Nikola Tesla, a Serbian-born American inventor, electrical engineer, and scientist whose many inventions include the induction motor and alternating-current power transmission. He also did experiments with wireless power transmissions. Anyone here who has played C&C: Red Alert would have been warmed up to the name.

Their first production vehicle is the Tesla Roadster, which looks so much like a Lotus Elise that people have begun calling it an electric Elise. What makes the Tesla tick? More details after the jump.

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