There were reports of General Motors doing a due diligence audit last week on local Chevrolet distributor Hicomobil as a precursor to GM potentially acquiring a 51% equity stake by October. However DRB-HICOM Bhd’s management says it has not received any official proposal from General Motors Corp (GM) to acquire a 51 pct equity stake in Hicomobil Sdn Bhd. As far as I know, for a due diligence audit to be done it requires cooperation from the company being audited. For more details please refer to the Bursa Malaysia announcement linked below.

Source: Bursa Malaysia Announcement

Mercedes Benz gained a design accolade earlier this month when it’s Mercedes Benz R-Class won the best of the best Red Dot Design Award, one of the most prestigious awards of it’s kind worldwide. The Red Dot Award received 2068 entries this year, and a total of 485 products were awarded the red dot. However, the best of the best award was reserved for 36 outstandard products, and the Mercedes Benz R-class is part of the ranks. Other Red Dot Design award winners include Nokia’s Nokia 8800 mobile phone and LG’s design team who won Design Team of the Year.

The Mercedes Benz R-class is a six-seater sports touring SUV (IMHO, funky speak for ‘minivan’) offering a host of poweful engines producing from 224hp up to 306hp. There are also AMG versions, with the R63 AMG giving you 510 horses to play with from it’s 6.3 liter V8 AMG engine. The R-class was one of the first Mercedes Benz together with the CLS to feature Mercedes’ new muscular design with sculpted side profiles and all that jazz. The car features Mercedes Benz 4MATIC all-wheel drive, air suspension at the rear and a 7-speed 7G-Tronic slushbox.

Click here to read the rest of Mercedes Benz R-Class wins Red Dot Award

Chery has released information on their latest compact car, the Chery QQ6 known internally as the S21. The Chery QQ6 is a small notchback said to be inspired by the design of the Volkswagen New Beetle. The notchback form is popular in China, as evident by Citroen developing the Citroen C-Triomphe, a special notchback version of Citroen C4 the specially for the Chinese market. The 4-door supermini is based on a new platform, not carried over from the previous Chery QQ and the notchback form is the first in a series that will also include a hatchback and a stationwagon.

This platform is said to be developed by Chery entirely on it’s own. It offers two engine options, a 1.1 liter and a 1.3 liter. It will be priced between US$5,250 and US$6,500 in the Chinese market. With the introduction of the QQ6, it’s sibling the Chery QQ will be renamed the Chery QQ3 as Chery intends to continue selling the Chery QQ3. More photos after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Chery announces Chery QQ6 (S21)

BMW’s latest 3-series coupe, the E92 was chosen as a platform for BMW to introduce to us their latest engine, the award-winning twin-turbocharged N54 3.0 liter straight-six. Although I have not test driven the car yet, Jeremy Mahadevan shares with us his experience driving the new BMW 335i Coupe in Austria. I will be writing this post based on his experiences.

Click here to read the rest of BMW 335i Driving Experience

Tomato Auto & Product Design, or Tomato ANP provides third party upgrades mostly for Korean vehicles like the Kia Sorento, Kia Sportage, Kia Cerato, Hyundai Coupé, Hyundai SantaFe, Hyundai Elantra, and SsangYong Musso. While boasting “I have a Tomato kit” doesn’t sound as cool as saying “I have a Brabus kit”, some of the designs are not too bad at all. It is popular these days to kit up SUVs for that bling factor like the tricked out Hummers in the states. If you own a Kia Sorento or Naza Sorento, you might want to look into Tomato ANP’s kit for the Sorento. I particularly like the exhaust tips integrated into the rear bumper. More photos after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Tomato ANP Kia Sorento

The datacenter which hosts my web server (TMNet Netmyne) has been having problems serving Streamyx users since midnight last night. Apologies to Streamyx users who are finding it hard to access this page, as evident from today’s visitor statistics.

How ironic that a TMNet datacenter has connectivity problems with their own ASDL customers (TMNet Streamyx). I have to resort to posting this announcement from Maxis GPRS.

UPDATE: At first I was using Maxis GPRS as an alternative to reach my server, but it seems right now Streamyx itself is down in the area I live, Cheras. I have a few posts lined up, but since I do not have an unlimited GPRS package it would cost me a bomb to upload the photos associated with the posts. So let me apologise first for the short hiatus on updates while I wait for TMNet to get their sorry act together.

Related Posts:
Streamyx is pointless

Reader KH Chee sent in these scans from a Japanese car magazine “New Model Magazine X” showing how the new 2007 Toyota Corolla could look like. There seems to be two grills, one a horizontal bar grille and the other a vertical bar grille similiar to the one found on the Toyota Harrier. This is apparently the JDM model, and according to the magazine it will make it’s debut in October 2006. At 4450mm x 1690mm x 1470mm, the car is slightly smaller than our Toyota Corolla Altis which measures 4530mm x 1705mm x 1480mm. The car also looks like its lost some weight.

The Toyota Corolla Altis was originally developed for those who wanted a larger and more luxurious car than the Corolla, but did not want to get a Toyota Camry. This might be the new Corolla that we are going to get, or we might get another new Corolla Altis version which is bigger and more luxurious. Which explains the shrinkage in dimensions. The USDM Toyota Corolla uses the Toyota Corolla Altis model, not the Toyota Corolla. Anyhow, speculation is exactly that - speculation. Enjoy the photos.

Related Posts:
New flagship 1.8 liter powerplant for Toyota

Click here to read the rest of JDM 2007 Toyota Corolla Magazine Scan

Walk into BMW showrooms on July 22nd this month and you will find new locally assembled (CKD) versions of the BMW 3-series sedan for sale. There are 3 CKD Models, the BMW 320i priced at RM232,800, the BMW 320i SE at RM249,800 as well as the BMW 325i at RM288,800. Previously the 3-series was available in CBU form, with the 320i going for RM249,800 and the 325i for RM298,800. These are post-NAP prices. The BMW 330i remains in CBU form at RM408,000. As a comparison, the entry level CKD Mercedes Benz C180K goes for RM233,888.

Auto Eurokars Sdn Bhd will be holding their Autofair on the weekend of 22nd and 23rd July 2006 at their Eurokars Centre in Glenmarie, Shah Alam starting from 10am to 6pm. Selected models of Porsche and Saab cars like the new Saab 9-5 2.0 LPT and the Saab 9-3 SportCombi Sport+ will be available for test drive and refreshments will be served.

The newly launched Porsche 911 Turbo (977) will be there too, so if you want to check the car out be sure to be there. The new 911 Turbo features VGT twin turbos, one of the first in a production car. It goes from 0-100km/h in 3.7 seconds.

Other highlights include special trade-in deals for existing Saab owners and great deals on new ex-stock Porsche and ex-stock Saab cars.

CarPoint Australia has a preview article on the new Proton Satria Neo, but that’s not important. What’s interesting is something in the article regarding the upcoming Perdana Replacement Model, said to be based on the Australian-built Mitsubishi 380.

CarPoint quotes it’s sources saying up to 15,000 Mitsubishi 380 cars could find it’s way to Malaysia if a viable four-cylinder engine can be engineered into the Mitsubishi 380. With a curb weight of 1,625kg as compared to the current Proton Perdana V6’s 1,300kg it would require at least a 2.4 liter engine to lug it around so it will not feel sluggy. Of course, 2.0 liter engine would be sufficient, but it would not be as nice a drive as the current Perdana. The current Perdana has a Mitsubishi 6A12 2.0 liter DOHC V6 engine that makes 147hp at 6,750rpm and 179Nm of torque at 4,000rpm.

If you take a look at the current Mitsubishi Galant which shares many underpinings with the Mitsubishi 380, you will find that it has a 2.4 liter 4-cylinder engine with MIVEC variable valve timing that could be suitable for the new Perdana Replacement Model.

The 2.4 liter 4G69 makes 160hp at 5,500rpm and has a maximum torque of 212Nm at 4,000rpm. One downside is it looks like there are only 4-speed automatic gearbox options for all the possible engines, while the other cars in the Perdana range are moving up to 5-speed transmissions. Tentative launch date is April 2007.

I will continue monitoring industry sources for updates on the Perdana Replacement Model, so stay tuned!

Source

Related Posts:
Perdana Replacement Model in April 2007
Proton-Mitsubishi Feasibility Study
Mitsubishi 380 3.8L V6