The Korean domestic market Kia Sportage gets a different exterior look than the facelift that we received last year. The Korean Sportage gets a more Rondo/c’eed-like look on the front end.

Two engine options with a total of three variants are available in Korea – a 2.0 liter CVVT petrol engine with a 2WD drivetrain, or a 2.0 liter turbodiesel with a Variable Geometry turbocharger available with either a 2WD or 4WD drivetrain.

The turbodiesel engine is the more powerful one, putting out 151 PS at 3,800rpm and 320Nm of torque at 2,000rpm as opposed to the petrol engine’s 142 PS at 6000rpm and 188Nm of torque at 4,500rpm.

More images of the KDM Sportage after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Kia Sportage for Korean Domestic Market

Fiat has picked Serbia to be the production base for its new low-cost car. It will use Zastava’s former plant in Kragujevac, Serbia, with an initial capacity of 200,000 units a year, with plans for this to be upped to 300,000 units from 2010 onwards. Fiat will invest a sum of 700 million euros into the production line, and the Serbia will contribute 200 million euros through tax breaks and incentives.

The first model to be built at the Serbian plant will be called the Fiat Topolino. Fiat had a car called the Topolino back in the 1930s, and it was a two-seat minicar. The new Fiat Topolino will be based on the Fiat 500 and Fiat Panda’s platform, and will be a shorter vehicle than either of the two vehicles at 3150mm long. The Panda currently measures 3538mm long, and the Fiat 500 about 3550mm long. An upscale variant of the Topolino will be marketed under the Lancia brand. Topolino means “little mouse” in Italian.

It was previously reported that Fiat might revive the Uno or Palio name for a new low cost car program. Fiat announced that from 2010 onwards, a new low-cost car project currently codenamed the B-compact family will be produced at the Serbian plant. This should be the new low cost car, but no name was revealed.

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According to a report by Turkish paper Today’s Zaman, Proton intends to make Turkey its European production center. Proton’s Turkish distributor is Ulu Motor, part of the Ulubaslar Group.

The Turkish automotive industry produced 1.13 million vehicles last year, and expects to hit the 2 million annual production mark by 2012. It is now ranked number 10 in the world in terms of annual production of cars. In the past 4 months this year, Turkey’s automotive exports rose 52% compared to the same period in 2007.

Mercedes-Benz has launched its new compact SUV, the Mercedes-Benz GLK-Class, which is set to go against the likes of the BMW X3 and the Audi Q5. The GLK-Class has a sharp-edged boxy look to it, perhaps to pay homage to the larger G Wagon, which the GLK shares the G model letter with.

Mercedes-Benz says the design also allows the typical advantages of a proper off-roader to be offered on a compact SUV like large approach and departure angles and good ground clearance. It’s 4MATIX all-wheel drive system splits torque at a 45:55 front to rear split during normal conditions. A multi-disc clutch in the centre differential allows a basic partial locking torque of 50 newton metres between the front and rear axle.

There is a button labelled G that you can press to activate a special off-road driving program for the 7G-TRONIC transmission which softens the accelerator pedal so that you can modulate how much throttle input you want to put in more precisely. This makes it easier to tackle off-road conditions with low-friction surfaces. There is also a Downhill Speed Regulation system which lets you set a maximum speed and just let the GLK roll down a hill, with the DSR system controlling the braking automatically.

At launch, the GLK-Class is available in 4 variants – the GLK 220 CDI BlueEFFICIENCY, the GLK 320 CDI, the GLK 280 or the GLK 350, with the first two being turbodiesel engines and the other two being V6 petrol engines. The GLK 220 CDI BlueEFFICIENCY’s 2.2 liter inline-4 engine puts out 170 horsepower and 400Nm of torque between 1,400 to 2,800rpm. This engine is from the recently launched OM651 twin-turbocharged turbodiesel family. The GLK 320 CDI’s V6 turbodiesel puts out 224 horses and 540Nm of torque.

The petrol-powered GLK 280 and GLK 350 put out 231 horsepower and 272 horsepower respectively. Both turbodiesel and petrol V6 variants use Mercedes-Benz’s 7G-Tronic transmission which features 7 forward speeds and two reverse speeds.

More photos and 4 videos of the new GLK-Class available after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Mercedes-Benz GLK-Class: Details and Photos

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The Nurburgring 24 Hours is officially called the ADAC 24h Rennen Nürburgring, introduced by ADAC as a low cost alternative to the 1000 km Nürburgring aimed mainly towards amateur drivers and relatively cheap production cars.

One more shot after the jump.

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The Audi Q7’s smaller sibling has been unveiled by Audi, and the production version of the Audi Q5 has lost the very coupe-like rear end of the Audi Cross Coupe and Audi Cross Cabriolet concepts, carrying a more conventional SUV shape now.

The new Audi Q5 measures 4630mm long, 1880mm wide, and 1650mm high, compared to the Volkswagen Tiguan’s 4427mm length, 1809mm width and 1686mm width. The Tiguan’s wheelbase is 2604mm, while the Q5’s is much longer at 2810mm. It is based on the B8 MLP platform with a longitudinal engine layout rather than the Tiguan’s Golf Plus-based platform with a transverse engine layout.

Two exterior looks are available – a rugged off-roading look and another more sporty look thanks to the S-line kit. Three different paintjobs are available for the trim elements on the exterior – the standard one is apparently just black all over, but a contrasting two-tone paintjob is also available, or a full body-coloured paint finish.

Three engine variants are available at launch time, with more to be added later. In line with the Volkswagen Group’s downsizing engine roadmap, all three engines are turbocharged, with two turbodiesel variants and one petrol variant. The venerable 2.0 liter TFSI model comes with Audi’s valvelift system with two different valve lift profiles on the intake. Peak torque of 350Nm is available from 1,500rpm up to 4,200rpm, and puts out a total of 211 PS, taking the Q5 2.0 TFSI from 0 to 100km/h in 7.2 seconds.

The two turbodiesel variants are the 2.0 liter TDI and the 3.0 liter TDI engines. Like its petrol sibling, the 2.0 liter unit also puts out 350Nm of torque, from 1,750rpm to 2,500rpm. Peak power is rated at 170 PS, and the Q5 2.0 TDI goes from 0 to 100km/h in 9.5 seconds. This engine is mated to a 6-speed manual, and the instrumentation cluster displays ideal shift times to help the driver get the most mileage out of his Q5 2.0 TDI.

The most powerful engine is the 3.0 TDI, delivering 240 PS and 500Nm of torque between 1,500rpm and 3,000rpm. 0 to 100km/h with the 3.0 TDI model takes 6.5 seconds, yet fuel economy is better than the 2.0 TFSI model at 36.6mpg on a combined cycle compared to 33.2mpg on a combined cycle.

Both the 2.0 TFSI and the 3.0 TDI models are mated to a 7-speed S-Tronic DSG twin dry clutch gearbox. This is something new as previously the 2.0 TFSI engine was only available with the wet clutch 6-speed DSG. A standard feature is quattro permanent all-wheel drive which varies power delivery from 40:60 front-rear up to a maximum of 65 percent to the front axle or 85 percent to the rear axle depending on driving conditions.

More photos of the Audi Q5 available after the jump.

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A day or two after the Perodua Nautica’s teaser site went online, Perodua added two new puzzle pieces of the new 4WD SUV showing parts of the rear hatch and the front grille and bumper. Thanks to readers Hilmy and Suzanne for pointing this out.

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The new grille can be quite clearly seen here, so now we can probably mentally put together how the Perodua Nautica will look like. There are only two colours available – Medallion Grey which is probably shown in these teaser images or Majestic Black, which isn’t very hard to imagine.

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Founder and CEO of the Naza Group Tan Sri S.M. Nasimuddin S.M. Amin passed away this morning at 1.15am GMT+8 in Los Angeles, California where he was receiving treatment for lung cancer at a private hospital in Long Beach.

I extend my heartfelt condolences to Tan Sri’s family. Despite being the big man behind a large home-grown conglomerate that has provided many jobs, having met him briefly over dinner one day I found him to be very nice man and very down to earth.

Proton Vendors Association president Dr Wan Mohamed Wan Embong says automotive vendors in Malaysia needs to speed up mergers and acquisitions so that Proton vendors will be stronger and will be able to perform in-house design and development including costly engineering and testing, as small and medium vendors would probably not be able to afford such R&D.

Sometime last month, the government announced a RM400 million fund under the Automotive Industry Development Fund for financial assistance for Proton vendors to improve quality and production levels.

A story back in 2006 mentioned that Proton had 270 vendors at that time. Proton now still has over 200 suppliers, but only 140 of them are members of the Proton Vendors Association. Even back during those times, the efforts for consolidation had already begun, but the process seems to be taking a long time.

“It is slow because it is not a easy task to group the entrepreneurs into one, where they have to report to possibly a boss again. And the fact that when you want to be an entrepreneur you have to be independent,” Dr Wan Mohamed added.

Dr Wan Mohamed himself is involved in a consolidation of four vendors under a new company called Automotive Network Alliances which specialises in car interior trim and noise control products.

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The new facelifted Ford Focus ST goes on sale in the UK beginning from today, and gets Ford’s new kinetic design styling that was applied to the base Ford Focus.

Making a return under the hood is the 2.5 liter inline-5 turbocharged engine putting out the same 225 PS as before, taking the Focus ST up to 100km/h in 6.8 seconds. Ford also says the ST can do the Nordschleife in 8 minutes and 35 seconds, apparently the fastest in its class.

The Focus ST gets a bodykit on the exterior to differentiate it from the standard issue Focus, and also comes with 18 inch wheels, Recaro sports seats. The highest ST-2 spec gets a Sony audio system, bi-xenon lights, LED rear lights and Quickclear heated windscreen while the highest ST-3 equipment level ncludes an in-dash six CD player plus full leather trim.

More photos of the Focus ST after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Facelifted Ford Focus ST