Unnamed sources told the NST’s Business Times paper today that PSA Peugeot Citroen will be sending a top team to meet with Proton’s top management as well as officials from the Ministry of Finance and Khazanah Nasional on the proposed purchase of Proton shares.

Apparently this brief was scheduled to be presented later, but the time was brought forward due to pressure from the news of Volkswagen’s renewed interest in Proton’s manufacturing arm last week.

The proposal will include a proposed stake purchase in Proton’s manufacturing arm as well as technical tie-ups between the two car manufacturers that will benefit both parties. Possible collaboration in areas such as product development, manufacturing, quality initiatives, vendor development, contract assembly and distribution will be discussed.

On a side note, updates on this blog from now until next Wednesday might be scarce and sporadic as I will be out of the country - updates will depend on the availability of internet access in the hotel.

UPDATE: The new 2008 Toyota Corolla Altis has been launched in Malaysia! - click for more details, specifications, photos and pricing.

Someone said in a previous comment on the Singapore auto show post that your country’s auto show is only important when a manufacturer decides to give the world a debut look at a new model at the show. This move by Toyota further emphasizes the importance of the Chinese market - it let the world see the new replacement for the Corolla Altis there, which will also be taking the place of the current USDM Corolla.

Not to be confused with the previously launched Corolla Axio/Fielder duo which serves the JDM market, the new Corolla is 4,540mm long, 1,760mm wide and 1,490mm tall. This means it’s grown 10mm longer and 55mm wider than the current Corolla Altis - being significantly wider the car will likely lose it’s current tall and unstable looks, giving the driver more confidence in the handling ability of the car.

You’ll also find Toyota’s new flagship 1.8 liter Dual VVT-i engine under the hood. A comparison with the previous generation 1.8 liter VVT-i can be found here. Although the new 2ZR-FE comes with a new CVT gearbox option, the Corolla for the Chinese market will come with either a 4-speed auto or a 6-speed manual. The previous Corolla only had a 5-speed manual, while the auto was also a 4-speed. A pity, the Civic has moved on to a 5-speed auto with two overdrive gears.

UPDATE: Added new photos. More shots after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of New Toyota Corolla Altis Preview at Beijing 2006

Ah, Skoda. You know the jokes that usually go around: how do you double the value of a Skoda? Fill the tank!

When Volkswagen AG took control of Czech automaker Skoda in 1991, it was positioned as the new budget marque of the group, with Volkswagen itself being pushed up a segment higher. Despite being a budget marque, the cheapest Skoda we can get here in Malaysia is the Skoda Fabia 1.4, with a price of RM100,948.00, putting it into direct competition with other fully imported superminis like the Jazz and the Yaris.

Check out my report on the Skoda Fabia 1.4 after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Skoda Fabia 1.4 Test Drive

The ultimate E90 BMW 3-Series sedan is going to be on sale from March 2007 onwards, with BMW’s most powerful non-M powerplant for the 3-series under the hood as well as BMW’s xDrive all wheel drive system.

The E90 335xi will boast the same 3.0 liter twin turbocharged inline-6 cylinder engine putting out 302hp and 400Nm of torque (sometimes even higher!) introduced with the E92 3 Coupe, with all that massive torque punishing the ground through all four wheels.

DRB-HICOM explained to the media yesterday the rationale behind it’s proposal to the government to purchase Proton shares owned by Khazanah Nasional. The proposal was on a preliminary level, and submitted a few weeks ago on its own initiative without an invitation from the govenrment, was yet to receive a response from the Government.

DRB-HICOM used to own more than 27% of Proton before selling that stake to Petronas in the year 2000. Now, Petronas owns 7%, while other majority shareholders are Khazanah Nasional which owns 43%, while the EPF owns 12%. Khazanah Nasional’s 43% is actually over the limit that Bursa Malaysia has set for shareholding, but being the government investment arm and all, an exception was made until Khazanah can find someone to buy off the excess shares.

DRB-HICOM says it submitted the proposal because it felt it can assist the development of Proton, especially the distribution and components side. On the matter of distribution, DRB-HICOM owns Proton distributor Edaran Otomobil Nasional Bhd.

DRB-HICOM also has no issues with a foreign partner, referring to the recent news on the government considering letting a foreign partner having a controlling stake in Proton’s manufacturing arm.

Sources:
DRB-HICOM has plans for Proton
DRB-HICOM: Proton stake offers synergy

Related Posts:
DRB-HICOM confirms Proton share purchase talk
Mofaz interested in Proton?

Now, in the span of over 30 years since the last Fiat 500 rolled off the production line in 1975, what do you think fans of the Fiat 500 have been doing? Restoration and outright pimpage of course. Introducing the Prancing Mouse - a Fiat 500 done up at the former premises of the Arrows F1 team at Leafield, rechristened the F500. The Fiat F500 Prancing Mouse is built by Hartham, a race car constructor, will do 0-100km/h in under 4 seconds and hit a top speed of 193km/h.

The Fiat F500 trades in it’s tiny 2-cylinder boxer engine for an L-Twin superbike engine from the Ducati 999R - an fuel injected liquid cooled 999cc Testastretta Desmodromic 8 valve making 150hp at 9,750rpm. The engine is also available in a higher state of tune churning out 200hp, and this is mated to a sequential 6-speed gearbox. The tiny brakes for a tiny car have been replaced with Brembos, and the chassis is a carbonfibre composite. Yes, another car powered by a bike engine.

Production of the Fiat F500 is strictly limited to 500 units. More technical specifications after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Fiat F500 Prancing Mouse

Following the moves of other car manufacturers that have revived classics (e.g.: the MINI and the New Beetle), Fiat is bringing back it’s old adorable Fiat 500, the town car with a boxer two-cylinder engine that came in either 479cc, 499cc, or 594cc displacements. There were even estate and convertible versions.

Fiat’s new Fiat 500 is set to be a 2007 release model based on the Fiat Panda platform, and word is that the two-cylinder configuration is coming back, now in turbocharged form! The engine is set to be a two-pot 0.9 liter engine making between 90hp to 110hp and 120Nm of torque, which is likely to kick in pretty low in the torque band considering the usual turbocharged torque curve patterns. The photo above is a computer generated rendering of how the new Fiat 500 could potentially look like, but expect the production version to retain all the retro looks of it’s predecessor.

More powerful variants will use the new Fire 1.4 liter engine that will also be put into the new Fiat Bravo. It makes about 150hp, doesn’t look as nice on paper as the 1.4 TSI from Volkswagen but still commendable.

Will the modern interpretation of the Fiat 500 enjoy the same runaway success that BMW has had with the New MINI Cooper? In case you don’t know how the original Fiat 500 looked like, a photo of a 1973 variant is available after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of New Fiat 500 to use two-cylinder turbo engine

Another witty Volkswagen advertisement video, this one advertises the small yet potent Volkswagen Golf GT equipped with the 1.4 liter TFSI twincharged engine.

Video after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Golf GT Frog Commercial

Sime Darby Bhd is considering expanding it’s Kulim car production facility from the current 30,000 units a year up to 120,000 units a year if it can get Hyundai to use Malaysia as it’s ASEAN hub. Hyundai is currently considering between Thailand, Vietnam or Malaysia as potential production hub for the ASEAN market.

Currently Sime Darby assembles a few Hyundai vehicles for the local market through it’s Inokom badge - the ATOZ as the Inokom Atos Prima, the Matrix as the Inokom Matrix, and most recently the Hyundai Getz as the Inokom Getz. Inokom also assembles Hyundai commercial trucks like the Hyundai Mighty, and has plans to locally assemble SUVs by Hyundai.

Related Posts:
CKD Hyundai SUVs soon!
Inokom to assemble Hyundai Mighty

Source

Volvo has consolidated it’s two non-industrial operations in Malaysia - Volvo Car Malaysia Sdn Bhd (VCM) and Volvo Car Asia (VCA) into a single unit. Previously VCM handled the national sales for Malaysia, while VCA handled regional management for China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Indonesia and Brunei.

Source