For the past few months the old Chevrolet Aveo hatch was being sold along side the new Aveo sedan in the US, but now Chevrolet has unveiled an updated hatch model, thus completing the Aveo line update. Chevrolet says the new Aveo hatch has been completely redesigned, but somehow the side profile seems to be too similiar to the current model and looks like a facelift instead.

Casting doubt aside, let’s look at the specs. The new Aveo5 hatch will come with either a 84 horsepower 1.2 liter petrol engine or the existing 1.4 liter 98 horsepower engine. The car will make it’s first public debut at the 2007 Frankfurt Motor Show, and sales will start in March 2008.

One more picture after the jump.

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Click here to read the rest of New Chevrolet Aveo hatchback revealed

While we are still arguing over whether xenon headlamps should be legal or not, the whole world has moved on with the latest in automotive lighting technology - LEDs. Some cars already have LED tail lamps - the most affordable one locally bein the Perodua Myvi. But Audi has been pioneering the use of LEDs for frontal lighting.

Audi has already made LED lighting a daytime running light option for some of it’s cars - the R8, A5, S5, S6 and the A8. LEDs can also be used as turn signals, but something new is clusters of LED lights used for low beam and high beam lights.

An LED headlamp from Audi uses a cluster of 54 LED light sources grouped together as a single light source. A single LED head lamp assembly consists of a few modules. The low-beam headlight module uses an array of four LEDs for each of the upper and lower reflector shells with range and light/dark boundary via the plastic lens from three arrays of two LEDs.

The high-beam headlight reflectors use one array of four LEDs per reflector shell, the turn signals use 8 yellow high-performance LEDs, and finally the daytime running light strips: 24 white Advanced Power TopLEDs with optical fibers for homogeneous illumination. The headlamps also have two cooling fans built into them, but they are not to cool the LEDs, instead they push the heat from the LED forwards to melt ice or snow stuck onto the lense.

Advantages that LED technology has over halogen or xenon bulbs are smaller size, increased durability, increased lifespan and low energy consumption. LEDs are also more flexible in the sense that the arrays can be configured in such a way that the classic headlamp shape is no longer necessary, thus giving the designers abit more room for creativity. Audi is confident that LED lighting will take over as the primary light source in vehicles in the future.

Jinhua Neoplan will be assembling CKD kits of Lotus cars in China, with one of the first cars set to be the Lotus Europa.

Interesting to note that Jinhua Neoplan is part of the Jinhua Group, and it is the division that makes buses with technology from German company Neoplan with an annual production capacity of 2,000 vehicles. A bus company making Lotus sports cars.

Source

Click to enlarge

Suzuki has released a teaser sketch image of the Suzuki Kizashi mid-sized sedan concept, and I must say I cannot make out head or tail of what it’s supposed to be. Let’s just hope this is just some over-exaggeration of the car’s lines and the actual concept car will look much more sane than this.

The Suzuki Kizashi mid-sized sedan is due to make it’s public debut at the 2007 Frankfurt Motor Show.

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Saab has released a teaser image of the new Saab Turbo X, which was previously codenamed the Black Turbo. The name Black Turbo was used as a nickname for some of Saab’s old high-performance models back in the 70s and 80s.

This new modern incarnation of the Black Turbo is basically a limited edition Saab 9-3 with all-wheel-drive, a big performance upgrade and exterior styling touches. The base engine will likely be Saab’s turbocharged 2.8 liter V6, but upped to put out in excess of 280 horsepower, while the engine in stock form makes about 255 hroses.

The new facelifted BMW 5-Series is now available in Malaysia, and is available in 523i SE, 525i Sports, 530i, 540i, 530d and of course the top of the line BMW M5.

All of the 5-Series models have Active Steering, Adaptive Headlamps, High Beam Assistant, runflat tyres (except the M5) and something new is that the whole range of 5-Series now comes with GPS satellite navigation with maps on a DVD.

The 530i and 540i now has BMW Night Vision, and all the models except the 523i SE are now equipped with a Head-Up Display. I managed to try out BMW’s HUD back in Athens with the BMW X5 and I must say it is the most useful when it displays satellite navigation guidance - you don’t have to turn your head to look at the iDrive screen.

An exclusive feature to the BMW 540i is the Lane Departure Warning System. It senses when the driver veers out of his lane and vibrates the steering wheel as a warning.

BMW 523i SE – (190 hp) – RM 376,800
BMW 525i Sports – (218 hp) – RM 409,800
BMW 530i – (272 hp) – RM 453,800
BMW 530d – (218 hp) – RM 499,800
BMW 540i – (306 hp) – RM 628,800
BMW M5 – (507 hp) – RM 898,000

From the prices above - the M5 is now RM10,000 more expensive. But to those who can afford an M5… I am not sure it is just pocket change. Anyway, this should give the 5-Series a breather of life until the next generation F10 BMW 5-Series arrives. It will be the first BMW with a model code starting with F instead of the current E. I think one of the best improvements that BMW has done with the car is the fitment of a more conventional door trim design - the original E60 5-Series had the power window switches such that if you want to use them your hand has to be at an awkward angle.

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I’ve been away on two media drives last week, so forgive me for the slowdown in updates. It will definitely pick up in the evening today. For the moment, I’ve gotten one of my friends Kenneth Fong to detail his experience with PROTON>>LIVE!, which is that little pop-up thing that you get on Proton Edar’s site. It’s an interesting experience - moving some of the sales transaction of the car to the web. Even Mazda has started doing it lately.

Read more after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Proton>>LIVE Experience

Mercedes Benz has officially announced its new small SUV set to be launched late 2008 - the Mercedes Benz GLK-Class. This name has been speculated for a very long time now, and there have been many sightings of a disguised GLK on road tests. The compact SUV will have 2 rows of seats with place for 5, and will go head to head against competitors such as the BMW X3 and the Land Rover LR2.

According to The Edge, it’s sources have informed them of an upcoming due diligence audit on Proton assets sometime this month. Analysts think that the exercise marks a significant milestone in the Proton-Volkswagen talks as such an exercise is normally only carried out if major issues in the discussion have been ironed out.

Source

Audi has slotted it’s recently announced 2.8 liter FSI V6 into it’s flagship Audi A8 sedan, giving it a relatively good fuel consumption of 8.3 liters per 100km - not bad at all for a huge limo. The new Audi Valvelift-equipped FSI V6 puts out 210 horsepower and 280Nm of torque between 3,000rpm and 5,000rpm.

This new variant also gets facelifted on the inside and outside together with the new engine option. Audi engineers have made the steering more direct, and running gear has been reengineered to provide better handling. The adaptive air suspension has also been tweaked, and noise insulation has been improved.

The new facelifted Audi A8 also has new active safety features added to the car 0 these include Audi Lane Assist and Audi Side Assist. Audi Side Assist uses radar to warn the driver of dangerous lane-changing maneuvers. A yellow LED in the wing mirror housing lights up if there is another vehicle in the next lane, and this LED gets progressively brighter and flashes more quickly as the situation gets more critical.

Audi Lane Assist uses a small camera positioned above the rear view mirror to warn the driver of unintentional departure from the lane, thanks to a sensor connected to the camera that detects the lane marking lines on the road.

Audi has sold over 100,000 units of the Audi A8 so far.

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