Minister of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Datuk Shahrir Abdul Samad says we could see the addition of RON95 petrol at the fuel pumps in 2009, perhaps replacing RON92 fuel. The government had actually proposed something like this in April this year, suggesting a change of the fuels offered at stations to subsidised RON95 and unsubsidised RON99 fuel.

The best part or should I say the most hopeful part is he says the government will be trying to price it at the same level as RON92 fuel, which is currently about 10 sen (or 5%) cheaper than RON97 fuel at RM1.90 per liter versus RM2.00 per liter for RON97. If they do this, they also have to work on getting more stations to stock the lower octane fuel as some of them currently only stock RON97 fuel.

Many engines are tuned to run either on RON91, RON95 or RON98, with RON98 being rare but commonly specified for rather aggressively tuned high compression engines like the Honda Civic Type R or even the BMW’s N52 normally aspirated engine family.

It’s not much of a saving, but it’s still something. Even some budget cars like the new Proton Saga with the 1.3 liter Campro IAFM engine requires at least RON95 so it cannot use the cheaper RON92 fuel. Replacing RON92 with RON95 will allow the new Proton Saga to use a cheaper grade of fuel and not pay for something it does not need.

In other related fuel price news, Datuk Shahrir also said the government deserves to profit from low crude oil prices via fuel taxes as it had given out subsidies on per liter fuel prices when crude oil prices were high, as well as the RM625 rebate.

However it seems that the fuel tax revenue that the government is earning right now is only a temporary thing until they decide whether to set a floor price for fuel, which will be discussed on the 1st of December 2008.

Source 1, Source 2

Honda Siel Cars India has dropped the price of its Honda Civic Hybrid sedan by Rs 8 lakh (approximately RM57,600), which means the car which previously costed Rs 21.5 lakh (RM155,000) since its launch in June 2008 now costs only Rs 13.36 lakh (RM96,250).

These prices are ex-showroom prices in Delhi. In comparison, the Civic 1.8V AT is priced at Rs 12.86 lakh (approximately RM92,650), making the Civic Hybrid with the 1.3 liter IMA engine only slightly more expensive than the regular 1.8 engine version.

Since the Malaysian government has given CBU hybrid cars a temporary tax-free period, sole hybrid principal importer Honda Malaysia Sdn Bhd has also promised to drop the price of its Honda Civic Hybrid to between RM125,000 to RM130,000 although a final price has not been determined yet. The original price of the Japan-imported hybrid car retailed for more than RM160,000.

Youngman Automobile’s Europestar brand has just launched its second offering in the China market, the Europestar Jingyue, also called the Europestar Persona. It debuts at the 2008 Guangzhou Auto Show this week. It’s pretty much our Persona with Europestar badges, powered by the 1.6 liter Campro engine. No specs have been revealed so far.

According to Chinese publication northeast, Lotus is working with Youngman to develop more Europestar models which include a larger car, an SUV and an MPV.

Look for more shots of the Europestar Jingyue after the jump, though they aren’t much other than Proton product photos with the Europestar badge photoshopped on. Even the product photo of the left hand drive interior was just flipped horizontally as you can see from the gear shifter area - the D, 3, 2 and L are flipped.

Click here to read the rest of New Europestar Jingyue based on Proton Persona

Click to enlarge

Toyota has replaced the 1.4 liter VVT-i engine (4ZZ-FE) in the Toyota Auris with a new 1.33 liter Dual VVT-i engine (1NR-FE) that produces more power, more torque, more mileage, less CO2 emissions, yet has a smaller displacement and also weighs 13kg less despite having a more complicated Dual VVT-i drivetrain, thanks to pistons that are 36% lighter among other improvements. It’s also more compact, and Toyota claims it is the same size as the inline-3 1.0 liter VVT-i engine.

The new engine also has stop-start capability, which automatically stops the engine when the car is stationary, the transmission is in neutral and the driver’s foot is off the clutch pedal. When the driver presses the clutch, the engine is restarted, and Toyota claims a potential fuel savings and CO2 reduction of up to 15% thanks to this.

For a smoother restart, Toyota says this new engine is 9dB quieter and 0.3 seconds quicker to start compared to the outgoing 1.4 liter engine.

The following is a comparison table between the two engines.

With the new engine also comes a new 6-speed manual transmission with ratios to match the new torque curve. Both the 5th and 6th gear are overdrive gears for a reduced cruising engine RPM during highway driving. Toyota says this new transmission can handle more torque than the outgoing 5-speed unit and is 11% smaller and has 15% less components despite having one extra gear ratio.

All these improvements come with a price of course. The new Auris 1.33 liter models are on average about £200 more expensive than the outgoing 1.4 liter models.

Click here to read the rest of Toyota Auris gets new Toyota 1NR-FE 1.33L Dual VVT-i engine in UK line-up

AMG boss Volker Mornhinweg told Autocar that his division was developing a new “AMG Hammer”, but this time the Hammer would be a “Super Hammer” and will use a diesel engine. Well, the insanely torquey punch of a diesel engine would definitely help the car earn its “hammer” name.

The original AMG Hammer was a W124 Mercedes-Benz 300E powered by the 5.5 liter V8 from the 560SEC, modified to have twin cams and 32 valves. It produced a good 360 horsepower, and to create a Super Hammer you could pay more to get a 6.0 liter that produces 375 horses.

Mornhinweg also said the new diesel AMG car would be built on a smaller car instead of a large car like the CL-Class coupe or the S-Class. This sounds alot like the formula that Brabus has been using, shoving the Brabus twin turbo V12 into nearly all Merc models such as the Brabus Bullit.

If I am not mistaken, the most powerful automobile diesel engine by Mercedes-Benz is currently the 4.0 liter V8 CDI engine found in cars such as the S 420 CDI. It produces 320 horsepower and 730Nm of torque. AMG could tune this up to create a Merc-equivalent to the monstrous 6.0 liter V12 turbodiesel in the Audi Q7. That monster has 500 horses and 1,000Nm of torque and could make an appearance in the Audi R8 too.

General Motors has released a video explaining in detail what would happen if they, together with the other two thirds of the Big 3 in US collapses. Obviously to be used as one way to convince their government to aid them. No use explaining more in details here, watch the video after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of VIDEO: What would happen if GM collapses?

Slovakian racer Jaroslav Baranek entered a race-prepped diesel-powered Kia cee’d in the Slovak Motor Sport Association’s diesel-only hill-climb championship and managed win the championship clinching the first place in 6 out of 13 total races.

The Kia cee’d had most of its interior removed and a roll cage was fitted to make the car more rigid to help it deal with the high cornering forces of a high speed hill climb. It weighs 1,130kg. The car uses a Proflex suspension, AP Racing brakes, a Sprintfilter air filter system and an OMP fire extinguisher. The build was completed in under 12 months. Under the hood is a tuned up version of Kia’s 2.0 liter CRDi engine producing 200 horsepower and a peak torque of 400Nm.

“We managed to win with the car produced and modified in the Slovak Republic. I am very pleased that it was Kia cee’d and that we were able to win the Slovak championship with it,” said the winning driver.

Renault UK has packaged some of its optional creature comforts into a cheaper-priced pack, allowing potential owners who want them to get them for a half price compared to if they were to select the options individually.

The Clio Renaultsport 197 Lux adds leather upholstery, automatic climate control, automatic headlamps, automatic wipers, cornering lights, extra tinted rear windows, a 60W MP3 CD player, Renaultsport carpet mats, satin chrome finish on the aircond vents, door mirrors and front wing grilles, and brushed aluminium alloys.

At £16,995, the Lux version costs £1,000 more than the standard version, but all the extra accessories are worth £2,000. If you want more, there is still the electrically folding door mirrors (£100), an electrically operated panoramic sunroof (£600), xenon headlamps (£550), Speedline wheels in either white or black (£100) or a “Cup” chassis (£400).

The Clio Renaultsport 197 is also available in Malaysia for RM210,182.00.

Another one of the big 3 is dumping their stocks in other car brands in order to stay afloat. This time it’s Ford will be reducing their 33.4% stake in Mazda to just slightly over 13%. Part of the stake will be bought back by Mazda and the rest by a group of Mazda’s business partners at a price of 184 yen per share. The “business partners” have not been named but some of them are rumoured to be Sumitomo, Itochu, Tokio Marine Holdings and Denso.

“The sale of Mazda shares by our partner, Ford, will not result in any change in Mazda’s strategic direction and we will continue to accelerate our product-led brand improvement and cost innovation initiatives. We will continue our strategic relationship through our ongoing joint ventures with Ford, as well as the sharing of platforms and powertrains,” says Mazda’s Chairman, President and CEO, Hisakazu Imaki.

What that means is that the Mazda 3 will continue to share platforms and engines with the Ford Focus, the Mazda 2 with the Fiesta, Duratec and MZR will be still be one and the same, and so on.

Hisakazu Imaki will cease to be the President and CEO, with the vacant posts to be taken up by Takashi Yamanouchi who previously held the post of Executive Vice President and Assistant to President in charge of corporate liaison, purchases, HR, admin, secretariat and auditing. David E. Friedman who is currently CFO will be replaced by Kiyoshi Ozaki.

There are also a few other Western names like Daniel Morris, David Stickel and Anthony Pastor who will step down as a result of the reduced Ford shareholding.

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Ford wants to sell Mazda to… Mazda?

What a turn of events! In just a few months we’ve gone through a record number of petrol price hikes and reductions, the hasty introduction of a lump sum-based subsidy cheque, and more. All because of fluctuating crude oil prices.

As of today, Malaysians have begun paying tax for their fuel again… in fact the government has not had to pay the promised RM0.30 per liter fuel subsidy since the beginning of November 2008 due to the dropping crude oil prices which leads to lower refinery prices.

According to Minister of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Datuk Shahrir Samad, the government also collected taxes for fuel from September 2001 to February 2002, but after that period crude oil had gone up so the government had stopped collecting taxes to prevent fuel prices from going up too much.

From the current price of RM2 per liter from RON97 petrol, roughly 12 sen goes to the petrol stations and roughly 19 sen goes to the oil companies. The balance is RM1.69, but Shahrir says this is actually higher than the refinery price.

While he did not say exactly how much refinery prices were at the moment (this will go up and down according to crude oil prices), he gave an example of RM1.30 per liter. This means the government can make as much as 39 sen per liter of fuel, and this amount will vary as the refinery prices go up and down along the month.

Because of the change of situation and the potential now for long-term income from the sale of fuel in this country, the government Economic Council will be meeting this month to decide on a new mechanism for petrol pricing in the country. Things that could be discussed are how often should price revisions be made, and what kind of tolerances towards crude oil prices should there be. I would imagine they could decide on something like a maximum tax when crude oil prices are low (or alternatively, a floor price for petrol), and a maximum subsidy when crude oil prices are high.

It’s sad to see the government so easily turn its back on its promise of a RM0.30 per liter subsidy, but Datuk Shahrir is of the opinion that the current low fuel prices are quite fair and there’s no need to go drop them too much even though the government won’t have to pay fuel subsidies per liter. He says this additional revenue will be used to strengthen the economy in face of the threat of the recession.

I’m pretty sure the Cabinet is happy with Shahrir’s performance as Minister of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs so far. He’s done his job well in helping tighten the government’s coffers, though many would argue it isn’t in the interest of “Consumer Affairs” at all.

All we can do is hope that the money saved and earned will be used in the right channels by those who have the nice job of choosing where to spend the money.

BTW, no one has revealed what the margins, subsidies and revenues are for diesel. Is there room to upgrade to something with less sulphur so we can enjoy cars like the Ford Focus TDCi and a potential upcoming diesel Honda City?