Toyota has found the remedy for its sticky accelerator pedals that could cause unintended acceleration – a steel reinforcement bar! The company will begin contacting its North American customers to to bring in their vehicles for the fix, starting this week. The parts are already being shipped to dealers, which will extend hours to complete the recall campaign as quickly as possible (some even stay open 24 hours a day).

Now, the actual problem involves a friction device in the pedal designed to provide the proper “feel” by adding resistance and making the pedal steady. This device includes a “shoe” that rubs against an adjoining surface during normal pedal operation. Due to the materials used, wear and environmental conditions, these surfaces may, over time, begin to stick and release instead of operating smoothly. In some cases, friction could increase to a point that the pedal is slow to return to the idle position, leaving the throttle partially open.

Toyota claims to have a solution that is simple but effective. A precision-cut steel reinforcement bar will be installed into the pedal assembly to reduce surface tension between the friction shoe and the adjoining surface, eliminating the excess friction that has caused pedals to stick. The effectiveness of the newly reinforced pedals have been confirmed through rigorous testing on afflicted sticky pedals, Toyota says.

The actual repair involves about 30 minutes’ work and Toyota will cover all repair costs. After the fix, drivers should not notice any change in the feel of the pedal. For the list of North American models affected by this recall, see our previous post here.

We recently reported about General Motors taking advantage of Toyota’s recall troubles by offering the latter’s customers incentives, now Chrysler is following suit by annoucing special deals for Toyota’s truck and minivan owners

The Auburn Hills based company is offering current Toyota Tundra, Tacoma and Sienna owners an additional $1,000 trade-in bonus cash with the purchase or lease of any new Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge car or Ram truck. The bonus cash is also there for all Toyota returning lessees who opt for a Chrysler Group vehicle.

“The 2010 Ram Heavy Duty is Motor Trend magazine’s ‘Truck of the Year’ and the Ram 1500 is our most awarded truck ever,” said Fred Diaz, President and CEO–Ram Brand and Lead Executive for the Sales Organization, Chrysler Group LLC. “Chrysler invented the minivan and with more than 65 minivan-first innovations has the best minivans in the marketplace with the Dodge Grand Caravan and Chrysler Town & Country. Dodge has sold more minivans than any other manufacturer, and combined with the Town & Country has more than 42 per cent market share in the minivan segment,” Diaz trumpeted.

The shapely Infiniti FX is one of the most distinctive looking crossovers around, with enough fire in the belly to challenge fast 4X4s such as the Porsche Cayenne and BMW X6. It’s an alternative rather than a default choice so it’s not easy to spot one in Europe (Nissan’s luxury brand was launched there in 2008) but the rare is about to get rarer still with this Limited Edition.

The FX Limited Edition will be limited to just 100 units across Western Europe, all individually numbered. Based on the already dramatic FX37S (316 bhp 3.7-litre V6) and FX50S (385 bhp 5.0-litre V8), the Limited Edition features Black Obsidian ‘Scratch Guard’ paintwork as standard, with the pictured Moonlight White pearl metallic available as an option. Specially commissioned 21 inch ‘Turbine’ alloys are finished in dark Graphite. The radiator grille, side air vents and roof rails are similarly coordinated.

The interior reveals illuminated entry guards and fine materials, including supple Graphite leather upholstered seats, upper door panels and dashboard with contrasting stitching and Alcantara headlining. Genuine carbon fibre is used extensively on the dashboard, centre console and door panels, replacing the standard maple wood veneer. Completing the kit list is Infiniti’s Connectiviti+ system which includes an 11-speaker Bose stereo, the Michelin Guide, full iPod connectivity and a 10GB music box with Gracenotes database. An option on the standard FX37S, Connectiviti+ is joined on by Infiniti’s trick Around View Monitor park assist.

Gallery after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Rarer than rare – the Infiniti FX Limited Edition

The MX-5 is 20 years old, and Mazda will celebrate the world’s most popular roadster’s success with a 20th Anniversary Limited Edition which will get a world premiere at the Geneva Motor Show next month. Limited to just 2,000 units, it will only be available in Europe, bearing a special edition scuff plate in stainless steel with a serial number.

Based on the 124 bhp/167 Nm 1.8-litre SE soft-top roadster, the 20th Anniversary Limited Edition adds chrome to the grille, door handles and headlight fascia plus silver fog lamp surrounds, unique 17-inch alloys and of course – 20th Anniversary logos. It can be ordered in three exterior colours – True Red, Crystal White Pearl and Aurora Blue; the latter is a new colour specific to this edition. The hue you choose will get repeated in the cabin.

There are no changes under the skin except for an additional bracing bar for the front suspension.

Porsche Asia Pacific has signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) to appoint Sime Darby the sole and exclusive importer of Porsche cars in Malaysia. In this role, Sime Darby will assume full responsibility for the importation, distribution, sales, marketing, PR and after sales service for Porsche cars in Malaysia, including the right to appoint dealers and service centres.

Sime Darby, which also owns a Porsche Centre in New Zealand, is expected to officially take on this responsibility from Jaseri Automotive Group Sdn Bhd by the end of the first quarter of 2010. Porsche Centre Glenmarie will remain as the base for Porsche Sales and Service while additional Porsche Centres will be added to ensure higher service levels.

“We are pleased to welcome a new partner to our Asia Pacific family, and are confident that the team at Sime Darby are the right choice for us to grow the Porsche brand even further. We are also very happy that Dato’ Mokhzani Mahathir (chairman of Jaseri) will remain as a shareholder in this new partnership, which will ensure continuity and a seamless transition for our customers,” said Christer Ekberg, MD of Porsche Asia Pacific.

As most of you should know if you’ve been keeping up with the news on this site, there has been a recall for the 1st generation Honda Jazz and the 2nd generation Honda City (based on the 1st gen Jazz) worldwide due to a issue where water could possibly enter the power window switch and potentially cause a fire.

Honda Malaysia Sdn Bhd will be participating in the exercise, but they also reported that there are currently no reported incidents in Malaysia. There are currently 12,935 units of 2nd Generation City 2008 YM with 7,713 units of V-TEC and 5,222 units of i-DSI respectively. As for the Jazz, there are 3,090 units of 1.4-litre Japan made 2003 YM.

Honda Malaysia says that when the power window master switch is exposed to excessive amount of water (such as rainwater), especially when windows are left open for prolonged period of time, electrolyte materials from rainwater would sip into the power window switch unit. This would decrease the insulation resistance between the electric circuits, which could lead to current leaks. In severe cases, the switchboard would melt or burn. According to Honda Malaysia, there are a total of 3 burn cases reported so far, 2 in the US and 1 in South Africa.

“We will be writing to all our customers directly and inform them of the preemptive measures to address this situation. We are in the midst of preparing the replacement parts and we will then carry out the necessary inspection and replacement when the parts are ready. All charges incurred in the inspection and replacement work will be borne by the Company. We would like to assure our customers that all current selling models are not affected,” said Toru Takahashi, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Honda Malaysia.

For more information, please call Honda Toll Free number at 1-800-88-2020, or visit any authorised Honda dealer. Of course, this recall exercise should logically only apply for customers who bought their Jazz from Honda Malaysia. But being a popular JDM model, there are most likely be grey import units out there as well. These owners have to somehow do something about it as well.

Honda Malaysia says that they will assist owners of grey import cars without discrimination but they are unable to confirm at time of publishing whether any work on grey import customers cars regarding to this update will be subject to any charges or not.

Toyota USA, facing a PR nightmare due to a massive recall on sticky accelerator pedals, has released an advisory for its customers, which contains recommendations on what to do should the problem appear in their cars. Here’s the official statement:

Each circumstance may vary, and drivers must use their best judgment, but Toyota recommends taking one of the following actions:

Nissan has unveiled in America that it is currently developing the replacement for its Nissan Versa and it will be ready to hit North American streets in 2 years time from its assembly plant in Mexico. The new second generation Versa/Tiida/Latio will be built on a platform that Nissan calls the global V platform. This means that we’ll be able to see a new Nissan Latio/Nissan Tiida in about the same time as well, since the Nissan Versa is basically just an American name for the Tiida/Latio. In the meanwhile, the current first generation car has been facelifted in Thailand but there’s still no news on our local model getting the facelift.

PSA Peugeot Citroën has announced a recall of about 90,000 Peugeot 107 and Citroën C1 cars following Toyota’s 1.8 million car European recall which includes the Aygo. The city car triplets of Aygo, 107 and C1 were jointly developed and roll off the same plant in Kolin, Czech Republic. Should the Aygo have faulty accelerator pedals, it’s likely that its French sisters are affected too.

A spokesman for Peugeot Citroën said that he was not aware of any injuries caused by the problem in the vehicles it is recalling, which were made from 2005 to mid 2009.

Meanwhile the New York Times quoted Toyota president Akio Toyoda as saying: “Customers bought our cars because they thought they were the safest. But now we have given them cause for grave concern. I can’t begin to express my remorse.”

This is the C29, BMW Sauber’s 2010 challenger, and the picture above shows team owner Peter Sauber and his two drivers – Pedro de la Rosa, a long time McLaren test driver, and Kamui Kobayashi, the young Japanese driver who impressed in a Toyota last season. The striking thing about the C29 is that it comes without any sponsor logos, although the drivers will rope in their personal sponsors. Scalp-D, a Japanese shampoo, and Kubica endorsed watch brand Certina are set to come in.

Some of you might wonder why we still use the name BMW Sauber when the Munich based carmaker has left the sport. Well, this team registered its name before BMW exited the sport, and there’s plenty of red tape involved in name changing, so the team is likely to retain the official BMW Sauber name for this season, even though the C29 is powered by Ferrari. The “C” model designation was used by the Sauber team until 2005, before BMW came into play. The last “C” car was the Sauber Petronas C24 of 2005 piloted by Jacques Villeneuve and Felipe Massa.

“An eye-catching feature of the C29 is its highly intricate raised nose. Also very distinctive is an extremely long undercut at the transition from chassis into underbody. These and other aerodynamic measures also help to ensure optimum airflow to the double diffuser. Further changes were required to integrate the Ferrari engine and, in particular, the Ferrari gearbox,” said technical director Willy Rampf.

More pictures after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Sponsorless BMW Sauber C29 launched

In case you’re in the market for a C-segment car in a few months time, here’s a piece of news to remind you that you might have one more option soon!

Chevrolet Singapore is now offering a “Cruze SS” bodykit for Cruze customers, consisting of a front, rear and side skirts, a rear spoiler, 17 inch alloy wheels wrapped with Falken tyres, and illuminated skuff plates.

The Cruze SS kit is priced at SG$4,980 which translates to about RM12,075. The yellow stripes are of course quite clearly milking the appearance of the Camaro in the Transformers franchise, though in the movie Bumblebee is yellow with black stripes.

We’re still waiting for our Cruze. There were plans to launch it here in Malaysia last year but the GM and DRB-HICOM partnership fell through. Things should pick up again once new distributors Naza start operations and it’s only logical that they’ll start their distributorship with the introduction of Chevrolet’s C-segment ‘world car’.

We’ll likely see it with a 1.8 liter normally aspirated engine mated to a 6-speed auto but one can still harbor some hope for a juicy 1.4 liter Ecotec turbo instead?

Renault F1 Team has unveiled its 2010 challenger, the R30, at the Valencia circuit. With the departure of title sponsor ING, Renault was free to choose a colour scheme, and has opted for yellow-black “Bumblebee” style livery that recalls the firm’s F1 cars from the 80s. Reminds us a little of the Jordan team too!

Main driver Robert Kubica was on hand to unveil the R30 with Team Principal Eric Boullier. Renault also presented Vitaly Petrov as Kubica’s teammate for the 2010 season. The 25-year-old finished as runner-up in the GP2 Series last year and becomes the first Russian driver to race in Formula 1. Also present were the team’s third driver, Ho-Pin Tung and reserve driver, Jérôme d’Ambrosio. Another reserve driver, Jan Charouz from Czech Republic, was unable to attend the ceremony.

The R30’s rear end has been reworked to allow the car to make the most of the ‘double-decker’ diffusers that were first seen last year. Changes have also been made to the architecture of the chassis to adapt to the refuelling ban, which requires a much larger fuel tank.

“We’ve been working flat-out during the winter to ensure that we begin the new season in the best shape possible. The R30 should be a competitive, strong and reliable car, and we’ve opted for an aggressive development strategy throughout the season. Now we’re here ready for the first test and we’re all excited to see if the car performs as we think it will,” Boullier said.

Renault will remain in Valencia until Wednesday evening to complete the first pre-season test session. More pictures and a video after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Renault launches R30, announces Russian driver

Lots of F1 teams are unveiling their cars this month, following Ferrari’s move to unveil their new racer first. This is the new MP4-25, the 2010 race contender from Vodafone McLaren Mercedes which will be piloted by Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button. Both are World Champions – 2008 and 2009 respectively. The new McLaren is powered by a Mercedes-Benz engine. Mercedes-Benz have their names on two teams this season.

Look after the jump for a video of the unveiling where both Button and Hamilton say a few words about the car and the upcoming 2010 season.

Click here to read the rest of Vodafone McLaren Mercedes MP4-25 F1 car unveiled!

If you’re looking for a Nissan SUV and are bored with the aging X-Trail that’s being hawked here for the longest time, you can check out the Nissan Dualis which is being imported by grey importers.

As part of Naza’s Chinese New Year sale, a 2007 Nissan Dualis can be had for RM151,000, and a newer 2008 model is priced at RM166,000. And from what I hear these prices are negotiable at the showroom if you’re really interested. I don’t expect the Dualis to be available from Tan Chong directly anytime soon as across all ASEAN markets except for Singapore (where it is known as the Qashqai), the only SUV being offered is the X-Trail.

Nissan calls the Dualis a ‘hatchback’. It’s a crossover based on the Nissan C platform. The body does look like a hatchback but its ride height is higher, putting the Dualis right in the middle of the definition of a hatchback and an SUV. It is a proper ‘crossover’ in true form, instead of just slapping any vehicle with a coupe-like roofline with compromised rear headroom and calling it a ‘crossover’.

In the engine bay is the MR20DE mated to a CVT transmission that we are already quite familiar with since it has been introduced in the Malaysian market installed in the Sylphy.

As part of the Dualis launch promo in Japan, Nissan actually commissioned Shoji Kawamori (of Macross and Robotech fame) to design a robot (mecha) version of the Dualis. The robot Dualis stands 3.5 meters tall. Check out these Dualis mecha videos which Nissan produced as part of a promo campaign in Japan – after the jump!

Click here to read the rest of Nissan Dualis – fresh air in M’sian Nissan SUV scene?

Toyota Motor Thailand introduced a new variant of the Corolla Altis at the 2010 Thai Motor Expo – an automatic transmission version of the 1.6 CNG model. The new model is priced at 834,000 Bt which is a premium of quite bait over the manual version which is priced well below 800,000 Bt.

The 1.6 liter 3ZZ-FE engine continues to put out 109 PS at 6,000rpm and 145Nm of torque at 4,400rpm acceding to Toyota spec sheets. The chassis has been revised to cope with the additional weight that the CNG system adds to the car – suspension, coil springs and EPS power steering variables have been changed here.

A selector switch shows which type of fuel is being used (petrol – E20 capable or CNG gas) as well as the amount of CNG left in the tank. The CNG refueling nozzle is located near the regular petrol inlet so you don’t have to open your engine bay to refuel like the way the taxis here in Malaysia do it.

The Toyota ECU calculates the right amount of gas to be fed to the engine via the electronic injectors. The gas is stored in a 75 liter CNG tank made from Chrome Molybdenum steel that is securely held in place and flows through a stainless steel high-pressure gas pipe. The tank is separated from the rest of the luggage compartment with a partition that prevents objects from slamming into the tank during braking.

There has not been much of a push for CNG here in Malaysia by the government. No concrete plan on alternative fuel or anything like that – they seem to be too concentrated on how to save money on petrol subsidies without offering or suggesting to us any viable alternatives other than what I’m interpreting as ‘ubah gaya hidup – drive less’. What about diesel or CNG?