Sketches of the front and rear three quarter views of the upcoming 2009 Proton MPV have been revealed on the Buletin Utama segment on TV3 last night, revealing a front bumper design that is reminiscent of the second generation Proton Saga.

Other design details that are revealed include a swage line on the side profile of the car to hide the actual door height.

These sketches may or may not represent how the actual production 2009 Proton MPV will look like as we have not seen an actual test mule being driven on the road yet. All that has been spotted is a test mule using a Toyota Wish body with what is presumably a Proton engine and a rojak dashboard.

WATCH: Buletin Utama TV3, 26th May 2008 - Part 2

Related Links:
First sighting of new Proton MPV-related test mule
Proton MPV due in early 2009

The government has banned all petrol stations within 30 to 50km from the Malaysia-Thailand border and the Malaysia-Singapore border from selling fuel to foreign cars beginning this Friday (30th May 2008) onwards. This would include all petrol stations in Perlis, Kedah, North Perak, Kelantan, and several Johor distrincts. Offending petrol station owners would be fined up to RM250,000 or jailed 3 years or both.

I know that there are some people, especially those who live in the northern states who buy and register cars in Thailand, but drive them around in Malaysia. They would certainly be in a fix as now they would have difficulty filling up their fuel tanks, as even though they are Malaysian and their cars are being used in Malaysia, their number plates are foreign. I can think of a probable but illegal solution they’d come up with: fake local number plates?

This ban is only temporary until a permanent solution is introduced to prevent fuel subsidies from being enjoyed by those who are not intended to receive them.

In the same report by Bernama, Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Shahrir Samad said that the Federation of Malaysian Consumers Associations (FOMCA) has suggested petrol subsidies to be given out based on engine size would be considered. This seems logical as first as the rich would have cars with larger engines, but with the world engine trends moving towards displacement downsizing and the likeliness of the rich being able to access this latest technology in the first place, it is another idea which in practice is not going to be completely effective.

As it is the popular Mercedes-Benz E200K and C200K uses 1.8 liter engines, and the large Volkswagen Passat is available with a 1.4 liter engine. That is smaller than a Proton Persona’s engine in terms of displacement.

Kia Motors will produce the Kia SOUL Concept, which will retain its concept name and be called the production Kia Soul. It will be unveiled at the 2008 Paris Motor Show. It doesn’t just retain its name, the production version (as shown in the teaser images released by Kia in this post) retains most of how the SOUL Concept looked like.

It looks like a cross between a Suzuki Swift on the side profile including the blacked out A and B pillar, and a Daihatsu Sirion/Perodua Myvi on the rear. The ride height looks slightly high, which leads me to believe this is pretty much a Korean competitor to the likes of the Suzuki SX4, Fiat Sedici and Volkswagen CrossPolo.

Two more images after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Kia to unveil production Kia Soul at Paris 2008

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Ricardo Engineering Consultants (the company that designed and produced the Bugatti Veyron’s DSG gearbox and designed the JCB Dieselmax’s engine) has produced a prototype 2.0 liter V6 engine called the 2/4SIGHT, which can seamlessly switch between 2 stroke or 4 stroke mode. It produces the same amount of power as a conventional 3.5 liter V6 engine, while having reduced fuel consumption of up to 27 percent.

The prototype Ricardo 2/4SIGHT engine achieved high torque levels of over 300Nm at 1,000rpm and 460Nm of torque at 2,500rpm.

The prototype also uses other technologies such as electro-hydraulic valve actuation, direct injection, and two stage forced induction combining the use of a Rotrex supercharger and a Honeywell turbocharger. The forced induction system is only in concept form - the actual prototype uses pre-compressed air from an external compressed air supply for simplicity sake.

We could soon be paying more for our tyres, or at the very least Pirelli tyres, according to its CEO Francesco Gori.

He says price increases should not be unexpected sometime in the second half of this year, thanks to Pirelli having to compensate for rising raw material costs. Despite improving its internal efficiency to cut costs, apparently raw materials have increased so much in price that a price increase is inevitable if the cost of raw materials continue to rise.

If Pirelli is indeed facing this problem, expect all the other tyre manufacturers to have the same thing on their minds as well, and in the end it is the consumers whose wallets burn when its time for a change of tyres. Let’s prepare to ubah gaya hidup!

Source

Infiniti plans to differentiate its European-bound cars from their North American counterparts in terms of aesthetics.

Examples of modifications to the European Infinitis that are set to be launched in 9 European markets October this year are knobs instead of push-button switches on the center consoles, heated seats, retuned suspensions, bigger brakes, more powerful windshield wipers, heavier window seals, and between 300 to 500 other changes per car. According to Infiniti, these are all things that an European customer is more used to.

Nissan’s 2.5 liter inline-4 engine may also make its way into an Infiniti, as Europeans are warmer to smaller displacement engines, as compared to the displacement and V8-obsessed American buyer.

Exterior aesthetics may also change, although these changes will likely be minor changes such as the difference between the European Mazda 6 and the American Mazda 6, rather than two outrightly different cars like the American Accord and the European Accord.

Aston Martin has updated its Aston Martin V8 Vantage that was unveiled back in 2005 for the new model year. The facelifted V8 Vantage features numerous improvements, with the most noticable being the increased engine displacement up to 4.7 liters, while retaining the V8 cylinder configuration. Peak power is now at 420 horses at 7,000rpm, an 11% increase over the 4.3 liter unit, and peak torque is now 470Nm at 5,750rpm, up by 15% over the previous engine. 0 to 100km/h takes 4.7 seconds, and the car goes on to a top speed of 288km/h.

The increased displacement is achieved by an increase of bore from 89mm to 91mm, and stroke from 86mm to 91mm. The result is a “square” cylinder. The new longer stroke is achieved via a new forged steel crank with new holes in the counterweights for reduced rotating mass. Conrods are also forged steel, and pistons are cast aluminium. Intake valves are now larger - 35.9mm versus 34.9mm on the previous engine. The dry sump has also been improved with a new sump casting featuring oil pick-up points moved from the front and rear to the sides.

The car’s optional Sportshift 6-speed automated manual transmission with LSD differential has revised shifting intelligence, and mechanically it, together with the pure manual gearbox has a modified clutch and flywheel resulting in less effort required to operate the clutch. These improvements also save 0.5kg over the previous gearbox. Throttle inputs now have two modes - a Comfort mode with a more progressive and smooth operation and a Sport mode that is more snappy and aggressive.

The Aston Martin V8 Vantage gets an updated interior featuring a new center console design and a revised switchgear. The navigation system has been updated to use a Hard Disk Drive for faster map loading and route processing. More space also allows better graphics to be stored. The exterior remains largely unchanged except for new standard 20-spoke 19 inch wheels, finished in either silver or graphite. The Sports pack uses a lighter 5-spoke aluminium wheel.

Proton Holdings Bhd has just announced a Q4 net profit of 236.4 million ringgit, compared to 915,000 ringgit during the same period the previous year.

Sales climbed from 1.26 billion ringgit up to 1.72 billion ringgit for the financial year of 2007 (which Proton attributed to the Persona and Saga), resulting in a net profit of 202.9 million ringgit.

Source

Don’t be shocked that profit before tax for the financial year was listed as RM162.2 million, but somehow net profit for the financial year ended up more than the profit before tax. It’s probably due to tax refunds or something similiar from prior periods.

For the new financial year which will end on the 31st of March 2009, Proton plans to improve its export performance, with the Saga set to be launched in Proton’s major export markets from June 2008 onwards. We’ll get to see whether foreign media share the enthusiasm of a large amount of people here in Malaysia that are happy with the value that the Proton Saga gives. I’m very curious how the Saga will be priced in markets outside of Malaysia, which will decide what budget cars it will go against.

As for production levels, Proton is planning to increase its current production level of 6,400 units monthly up to 8,000 units monthly in the next few months. Production levels were only about 4,500 units a month before April 2008. This is in efforts to meet high demand for its Proton Persona and Proton Saga cars. Last I heard, even the automatic version of the Proton Waja CPS has a waiting list because of fleet purchases.

The Proton MPV is still set to be launched in early 2009, so we should expect to see on-road sightings of the MPV sometime before the end of the year. After its local debut, the MPV will make its way to export markets like Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam in 2010, and China in 2011.

UPDATE: If you take a look at their full Q4 financial results report document, you will find that on page 8 it is report that Proton received an R&D grant from the government under the National Automotive Policy amounting to a total of RM194 million.

The NAP encourages local investment through various incentives such as R&D grants and excise duty exemptions. So for Proton, the benefits from the NAP are RM194 million worth of R&D grant money, an unknown amount of excise duty exemptions through the Industrial Adjustment Fund. The RM194 million is registered under Other Operating Income, which accounts for more than half of the total of RM329.3 million worth of Other Operating Income for the financial year ending 31st of March 2008.

Another interesting item is the sale of the rights to use Intellectual Property for RM32 million: this is the Jinhua Youngman Europestar RCR deal which involves rebadged left hand drive Proton GEN2s sold in China, as explained on page 10.

Lamborghini has released a promotional clip for the Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4, a 5.2 liter V10-powered supercar that puts 560 PS to all four wheels. It has quite a touch of humour inserted into it really, you’ll know what I mean when you watch it. The only disappointing thing is the sound of the actual car isn’t there, replaced instead by funky background music. View the video after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of VIDEO: Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4

Honda has revealed details on a few hybrid cars it will be producing over the next few years. One will be a hybrid version of the new Honda Fit, known as the Honda Jazz on our local shores. Honda wants to price the hybrid version of the Fit at a premium of a maximum of US$2,000 over the regular version of the Fit.

That could translate to about RM20,000 here in Malaysia: would you pay RM120,000 for a little zippy hybrid car, in face of the impending rises in fuel prices? This should be quite an exciting proposition if it ever makes it to our local shores. Unfortunately, this is only expected to be released in 2015, which should mean the hybrid Fit/Jazz will come in the form of the third generation car. We’ve yet to get the second generation here in Malaysia.

The other hybrid vehicle (one closer to reality compared to the Fit Hybrid) will be a dedicated hybrid-only 5-door 5-seater hatchback model aimed to be relatively affordable, due next year. Honda will design this hybrid vehicle to look like a smaller version of the Honda FCX Clarity hydrogen fuel cell vehicle, so that consumers would easily identify it as a hybrid. Surveys have shown that hybrid vehicle buyers want their vehicle to look like a futuristic car because they want to make a statement that they’re into preserving the environment. Full product details will be announced later this year.

A third hybrid vehicle will be a production version of the Honda CR-Z compact sports car displayed at last year’s Tokyo Motor Show, using a hybrid powertrain. The final car to be released in the next few years is the next generation Honda Civic Hybrid, expected to arrive in 2011 or 2012 after the release of the “regular” next generation Civic.