Bernama has reported that the locally assembled CKD version of the Volkswagen Passat 1.8 will be launched tomorrow. The national news agency got the news from Group Managing Director of DRB-Hicom, Datuk Seri Mohd Khamil Jamil, after the opening of International College of Automotive (ICAM) yesterday.
The DRB boss told reporters that about 70 units of the Passat 1.8 model will be marketed initially. No price was given though, as they are still awaiting government’s approval.
This comes as a bit of a surprise, since Volkswagen Group Malaysia only recently launched the fully imported Passat in mid October, alongside fellow CBU models Jetta and CrossTouran. In CBU form, the D-segment Passat is powered by a 1.8-litre TSI engine with 160 PS and 250 Nm, paired to a 7-speed DSG ‘box.
Kit includes 17-inch alloys, bi-Xenon headlamps with integrated LED daytime running lights, RCD 510 touch-screen, 6-disc CD changer / eight=speaker audio system and leather seats. Other items include cruise control, electric parking brake with auto-hold function and hill-hold control, PDC for the front and rear and a tyre pressure monitoring system. It is priced at RM184,888.
We’ll keep tabs, in the meantime you can read our review of the CBU Passat here.




















































It was supposed to be 2012, but it looks like we won’t be getting Euro 4 or Euro 5 grade diesel next year after all. This is because the government has given petroleum companies a two-year extension to the original deadline to offer better quality fuel. They now have until 2014 to roll out Euro 4 fuel. 
UMW Toyota Motor has issued a statement regarding reports in the news regarding a voluntary safety recall campaign issued by Toyota Motor Corporation on approximately 550,000 units of certain Toyota and Lexus models in Japan and other countries.
In the event of a personal emergency, such as a kidnapping case, if the EARs app is launched and the person is not contactable by the agent, the five closest contacts are immediately alerted via SMS and one primary contact is contacted to act upon the situation, armed with important information like location coordinates.


