When the new MINI Cooper by BMW was released, we had to refer to the old school model as the old MINI or old school MINI, and the new MINI Cooper as the new MINI or BMW MINI. BMW adds to our confusion with this 2nd generation new MINI Cooper, but nevertheless we petrol heads welcome it with open arms. So what’s new with the new new MINI Cooper? Check it out after the jump! Click here to read the rest of BMW unveils 2nd gen MINI Cooper
I posted about the Kia ED previously, which was also shown as the cee’d concept at the Geneva Motor Show earlier this year. Kia has announced that the production car based on the same concepts will also be called the Kia cee’d, pronounced “seed”. The car will go on sale in the European market in December 2006 and will be Kia’s latest contender in the European C-segment.
The Kia cee’d was conceived in Europe, is made in Kia’s European Slovakia facility and will be sold exclusively in Europe. The “CE” in cee’d symbolizes the European community, while the “ED” indicates it is an European Design. cee’d, pronounced as seed, represents Kia’s seed for growth in European sales beginning from the introduction of this car.
More photos after the jump, and for more detials on the car check out the related posts.
Related Posts: Click here to read the rest of Kia cee’d to debut at the 2006 Paris Motor Show
Kia ED exclusively for Europe
Good news for fans of the Chevrolet Camaro Concept above, General Motors has given the green light for a production Chevrolet Camaro Sports Coupe based on the concept due for a 2009 release.
The Chevrolet Camaro Concept is a modern interpretation of the popular 1969 Chevrolet Camaro. The production model will be front engined, with driven wheels at the rear. Engine options will be V6 and V8 units, true to it’s muscle car form. The original concept car was powered by a Chevrolet small block 6.0 LS2 engine making over 400 horsepower. This engine had Chevy’s Active Fuel Managementâ„¢ system, which shut off 4 cylinders during low loads.
If you want to know how the original 1969 Chevrolet Camaro looks like, a photo is available after the jump. Click here to read the rest of 2009 Chevrolet Camaro coming soon
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) of the United States has released a study that shows declining death rates for road accidents in the US are due to safer vehicles, not better drivers or improved roadways.
Influence of Vehicle Design Improvements
X-axis: Year, Y-axis: Driver deaths per million registered vehicles. Source: IIHS
The graph shows the actual rate of deaths in highway accidents from 1985 to 2004, and the hypothetical rate of death if cars now were still based on 1985 designs.
The hypothetical death rate was formulated through separating vehicle effects from other effects on auto accident death rates from 1985 to 2004, and with that data estimating what the death rate would be if people still drove the same cars they drove in 1985. Factors included into the estimation includes vehicle usage pattern as the vehicles aged.
Traffic environments in the USA have actually become more dangerous since 1994, but vehicles that are safer have helped offset the death rate. In the case of no vehicle safety improvements, death rates actually go up from 1994 onwards in the hypothetical situation.
I believe Malaysian lives are equally as important as American lives. Airbags. ABS. Crumple zone. Crash test results. These words have been repeated over and over again that it’s getting kind of tiring. The majority of the rakyat can only afford the Proton Saga if they need a bigger car than the affordable supermini alternatives (Naza Sutera, Perodua cars) that we have. Any MP reading this blog who wants to fight for our right to affordable and safe vehicles?
For more information on the study, read this PDF file.
Meet Clover, Honda’s ambassador to the Fruitstock festival. Honda is using this 2006 Honda Civic Hybrid with a Heifer cow based paintjob to promote hybrid technology as well as educate the public on how hybrid technology works. The Fruitstock Festival held at Regent’s Park London is a free festival for the family where people can buy music, food, basically they have activities lined up for the whole family.
The 2006 Honda Civic Hybrid has an i-VTEC Integrated Motor Assist powerplant which combined the use of a 1,339cc gas engine with a 158V electric motor. For more details on the Honda Hybrid i-VTEC system, click here.
BMW adds two 335 badges to it’s new E90/91/92 BMW 3-series arsenal in the form of the BMW 335i (read test drive report) and the BMW 335d. The twin-turbocharged diesel-powered BMW 335d joins it’s 197hp single turbo 3.0 diesel 325d and 228hp single turbo 3.0 diesel 330d siblings carrying the award-winning sequential twin turbocharged 3.0 liter diesel engine under it’s hood.
The 335d’s 3.0 liter twin-turbodiesel engine which made it’s debut in the BMW 5-Series makes 286 horsepower and comes with an astonishing torque chart. The plateau-like torque curve reads a maximum of 580Nm of torque from as low as 1,750rpm, with 95% of that amount available from low as 1,500rpm.
Thanks to the impressive performance figures, the E92 BMW 335d Coupe goes from 0-100km/h in 6.1 seconds, while the E90 sedan and E91 touring versions takes 6.2 and 6.3 seconds respectively.
Volkswagen has always had the most amazing ad campaigns. As part of its American “Rabbit is back” campaign, Volkswagen has teamed up with Playboy for a Playboy September 2006 issue sporting a rear cover that features the Volkswagen Rabbit logo on one of the three Playboy Bunnies.
The chosen Playboy Bunny, Holly Madison will have the Volkswagen Rabbit logo as a tattoo on her lower back. The rear cover will show a rear angle shot of the three girls in the equally alluring front cover pose. As you can see from the tiny thumbnail on the left, everything is flipped reverse. The actual rear cover as a bigger image is available here.
It all started when BMW decided to congratulate Audi when their Audi A3 won the South African Car of the Year 2006 back in May this year. As you can see from the ad image above, very cheeky. This makes Ford’s “thanks to our competitors for making us the best” advertisements here in Malaysia alot more tame. Audi decides to respond, have a look at their reply advertisement after the jump. Can anyone say “pwned?”
Apple Computer has teamed up with Ford Motor Co, General Motors and Mazda Motor Corp to offer easy iPod integration with their cars. While some manufacturers have begun offering AUX input so you can plug in external MP3 players and feed music into the audio system, this is not a complete solution as you cannot control the iPod from car controls such as buttons on the steering wheel.
Optimally, a complete integration solution will allow you to browse tracks from an LCD screen and skip tracks from steering wheel buttons. Recently, our local boys Race Rally Research have jumped onto the iPod bandwagon by offering an iPod Nano 1GB integrated with the car audio system with their new limited edition Proton Waja MME and Proton GEN.2 MME.
Subaru will be changing the all too familiar sedan shape of it’s rally-inspired Subaru Impreza car to a hatchback form when it’s next incarnation is introduced in 2008. We’ve kind of known this was going to happen when Subaru showed us the Subaru B5-TPH Concept at the 2005 Tokyo Motor Show.
Shown above is an artist’s impression from Road & Track on how the Impreza hatch could possibly look like. This move is in line with Subaru’s plan to position the new Impreza hatch against hot hatches like the Golf GTI, Golf R32/R36 and the Ford Focus. A preview of the final production vehicle will be shown next year at the 2007 Tokyo Motor Show. The car will come in both 3-door and 5-door models.
Engine options are expected to be a naturally aspirated 2.0 liter four-pot boxer producing 170 horsepower for the baseline model, and the WRX versions will have a turbocharged version under the hood. STi versions will have a higher performance turbocharged four-pot boxer producing over 300 horsepower.
There will also be four-pot boxer turbodiesel options, developed together with Toyota. Of course, the car will retain it’s trademark AWD drivetrain.
