Volvo’s R badge was originally intended to change the public’s perception on Volvo. While being known for safety is a great branding achivement by itself, it wanted people to know that Volvo is just not all about boring old safety. Thus the R badge was born, first born by the 850 T5 R and later continuing on the new S60 R and V70 R.

The new generation R duo featured turbocharged engines making 300 horsepower, and went from 0 to 100km/h in 5.4 seconds, putting all those 300 horses to the ground through a Haldex all-wheel-drive system.

While Volvo’s R badged vehicles were delicious beasts to begin with, sales figures did not meet expectations. Annual sales targets were set at 3,800 for the S60 R and V70 R, but only managed to hit 1,098 S60 R and 528 V70 R in 2006. Thus the R badge will be dropped beginning 2008 onwards, but Volvo intends to cook up more performance versions in the future, just without the R badge.

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Yet another British car show tries to destroy a car. This time, the victim is the Mercedes Benz W124, but the motive is very different. Much like what Top Gear did to the Toyota Hilux some time back, Fifth Gear intends to test how much abuse the W124 can take before giving way, instead of trying to destroy it because they dislike it.

It’s interesting to note that you can still buy a stretched version of the W124 E-Class brand new today, badged as a Ssangyong Chairman.

Video after jump!

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Yet another video in the series of “Jeremy Clarkson destroys” videos, this time the victim is an old school Porsche 911. Video after jump.

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This is a video for the MPs of our government, Jeremy Clarkson destroying something else other than the Perodua Kelisa. Of course, it’s not exactly a fair comparison has the Perodua Kelisa, as much of an old Daihatsu model as it is, is still much more modern than the Lada in this video.

Of course, Top Gear have done some really good things to Lada cars as well, such as this video where Top Gear sends a Lada to Lotus Engineering and lets them work their magic on it. The results are astounding.

Video after jump.

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Other than Thailand, everyone knows Americans have a healthy appetite for pick-up trucks, which is why anyone who wants to do a pick-up truck must think of whether it can do well in the American market. Because only if it sells in America you can get the economies of scale you need.

Korean automakers Hyundai and Kia have no pick-up truck. This is because there was previously a 25% tariff on trucks entering the American market, but now with a new free trade agreement between US and South Korea, Kia is now considering developing a pick-up truck for the Korean market.

Unfortunately for us, whatever Kia makes is not likely to ever reach our shores. Americans love huge oversized trucks, not the 2.5 liter to 3.0 liter turbodiesels that we have running around our country. Kia’s truck offering will most likely be monsters like the Kia KCV4 Mojave concept pick-up truck shown above. It’s a pity, because Theophilus Chin’s photoshop of a Sorento-based pick-up looked quite good.

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Kia Sorento Pickup Truck Photoshop

Volkswagen doesn’t seem to be able to decide what it wants to call it’s station wagons. The Passat stationwagon is called the Passat Variant, while this Jetta stationwagon, essentially also a Golf stationwagon, is called the Jetta SportWagen.

It will be offered with either a 2.5 liter normally aspirated 5-cylinder putting out 170 horsepower, a 2.0 Turbo FSI with 200 horsepower, as well as a 2.0 liter turbodiesel engine. More photos after the jump.

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

Large families that can’t afford the likes of the Wish or Estima. There are so many of them in Malaysia, yet it’s baffling how a certain national car manufacturer has not addressed this need. For awhile, the only way Malaysians could get a cheap people movers was the Naza Ria, but while it was big and spacious people couldn’t really take the fuel consumption of the 2.5 liter V6 quad cam unit under the hood.

Then along came the Toyota Avanza and the Toyota Innova, but these were body-on-frame rear wheel drive designs, which were easy to design and provided good economies of scale because of platform sharing (Toyota IMV: Innova, Hilux, Hiace, Fortuner), however because it is essentially a truck-based design, comfort levels are not as high as they should be.

Enter Nissan’s Livina Geniss project. The Nissan Livina Geniss project spawned two MPVs - the 5-seater Livina and the 7-seater Grand Livina, and the latter will reach our shores sometime in the second half of 2007. It is an economical 7-seater MPV, much like the Toyota Avanza, however it has one key advantage over it. The Nissan Grand Livina is built upon a monocoque car chassis rather than adapted from a truck chassis. This means it is alot more comfortable.

Front wheel drive driving dynamics also mean it is relatively somewhat safer as most people are used to how a car handles when it is front wheel drive rather than rear wheel drive. A car-based chassis also means a lower center of gravity compared to it’s competitors. If you want to see what I mean, just compare the Toyota Innova to the Toyota Wish. Both are 7-seaters of similiar size, yet one is so tall, as if the Innova body was built on top of a generic frame, while the Wish is close to the ground, and looks like the whole body has been designed together with the chassis. The Grand Livina’s chassis is shared with other compact Renault-Nissan vehicles such as the Nissan Note, Renault Clio, and Nissan March.

Two engine options are available, the HR15DE (109hp at 6,000rpm, 148Nm at 4,400rpm) and the MR18DE (128hp at 5,500rpm, 174Nm at 4,800rpm), both now with CVTC Variable Valve Timing. The MR18DE comes with with a 6-speed manual or a 4-speed auto, while the HR15DE’s gearbox offering is similiar except the manual only has 5 cogs.

Based on paper specs alone, the Nissan Grand Livina looks like a much better choice than a Toyota Avanza or a Naza Citra, but let’s see how it really performs once it arrives on Malaysian shores with whatever specs Tan Chong decides to fit it with. For those who always desire a little bit more, you’ll be pleased to know that a bolt-on Impul supercharger for the HR15DE is already available, and will boost power up to 144 horsepower.

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Like most of you already know, the new E92 BMW M3 was not the first BMW M3 powered by a V8 engine, but it is actually the first mass-produced M3 with a V8 engine. A V8-powered M3 existing in the past in a very limited 10-unit run that costed 250,000 Euros a piece back in 2001, probably worth more now as with all collector cars. That car was the E46 BMW M3 GTR. Check out the full story and video after the jump.

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Some really lovely videos of the new E92 BMW M3. Might change the minds of those who don’t quite fancy it. Bask in the sound of the new high revving V8 after the jump.

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BMW USA has released details on the production version of the new BMW M3. This new model will be released in the US in mid-2008 as a 2009 model year, but it will probably reach the European market sooner. More details after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Production 2009 BMW M3 Coupe Details