Mercedes-Benz Malaysia can probably enter the Malaysian Book of Records now for the most expensive locally assembled car sold in Malaysia if they wish thanks to their new CKD Mercedes-Benz S 500 L.

The local boys from Stuttgart claim that the quality control adheres to the same strict level as the European plant or else the car would not be allowed to be sold, as the S-Class is a very important model for them and there are standards to adhere to. The reason for the local assembly is so that the price can be brought down as a CBU S 500 L could cost over RM400k more than its current price of RM998,888.00.

Under the hood is a 5.5 liter V8 engine producing 488 horsepower and 530Nm of torque between a wide-ish 2,800 to 4,800rpm, decent for a normally aspirated engine. This engine is mated to Merc’s own 7G-Tronic transmission with 7 cogs. 0 to 100km/h takes only 5.4 seconds but although I’ve yet to (and probably never) try it, I bet the car does it with a refinement that’s very different from powerful small cars with that kind of power.

The AIRMATIC system is still there of course, a trademark S-Class feature – the 7-Series only recently added air suspension to the F01 but for the rear axle only. AIRMATIC works together with Adaptive Damping System (ADS) which continuously regulates within 50ms the shock absorber characteristics and takes into account the road conditions, driving style and vehicle load. When the car is in sport mode, the suspension is automatically lowered by up to 20mm to improve handling and aerodynamics.

With such a high-end model, there’s also lots of driver-aid gadgets. The Brake Assist PLUS system detects cars ahead by radar and gives a warning if the gap is too small or the approach speed is too high. It will pre-arm the brakes and brake appropriately even if the driver puts too little pressure on the brake pedal for the kind of stopping power that the system calculates is needed.

DISTRONIC PLUS also uses radar and keeps the S 500 L at the pre-set distance and speed from the vehicle ahead of it, and even works when the car needs to stop to a stand-still. Once the car in front moves again, the S 500 L will accelerate back to the pre-set speed and maintains the pre-set distance.

The instrument cluster can display an infrared view of the road ahead during the night. It uses two infrared headlamps to illuminate the road to a range that’s extended beyond the driver’s range of vision on low beam.

GPS navigation is via the COMAND APS system, which also manages the in-car entertainment and other interior controls. The maps are stored on a hard drive and maps of Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand are pre-loaded. The S 500 L also adds a TV tuner, Harman Kardon Logic7 audio, and a 6-disc DVD changer to the in-car entertainment system. Rear passengers have their own display (2 displays – one 8 inch display installed on each front seat headrest) so they can watch DVDs or TV or other entertainment devices without distracting the driver.

The front seats have 12-way adjustments, and both the front and rear seats have this design called “multicontour technology” which uses multiple air chambers in the seats which can be individually adjusted. Depending on the steering angle, lateral acceleration and road speed, the piezo valves in the air chambers vary the inflation pressure and volume of the air chambers in the sides of the backrests within fractions of a second, providing the driver and front passenger with better lateral support. The rear seats also have the benefit of a massage function. All seats bear the seal of approval of “Aktion Gesunder Rücken”, a German organisation which tests products for spine-friendly design.

Mercedes-Benz also claims they conducted a scientific study between the S-Class and competing models on an approximately 500km long route and they found that the same driving and traffic conditions, the average heart rate of drivers in the Mercedes saloon was up to six percent (or five beats per minute) lower than that of drivers in competing models.

This probably means the S-Class driver is relaxed and less stressed, allowing him to concentrate on the traffic situation and maintains his performance reserves for safe, confident responses in critical situations.

© 2009 Paul Tan's Automotive News. All Rights Reserved.

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 22 Nov 09 08:36:03 +0800.

LMG Edaran (M) Sdn Bhd has started selling the LMG Shuttle 7-seater SUV, the third of it’s new models, joining the previous Tourer and Trekker models unveiled last year. It is powered by a 2.4 liter Mitsubishi engine, likely the same one powering both the Trekker and the Tourer: a 4G64 2.4 liter SOHC engine producing 147hp and 214Nm of torque.

Like it’s other two models, it is a rebadged Dadi (shown above is a Dad Shuttle), a Chinese marque which offers mainly SUV and pick-up truck vehicles. The LMG/Dadi Shuttle’s styling reminds me of a Toyota Land Cruiser Prado. Strangely, there is no mention of the Hydroxene technology that was previously announced and celebrated. Please refer to the related posts for a recap on what Hydroxene is, or rather was.

The LMG Shuttle will go for RM85,000.

Related Posts:
LMG Tourer with Hydroxene Technology
LMG Trekker Details
LMG Tourer Details

© 2009 Paul Tan's Automotive News. All Rights Reserved.

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 22 Nov 09 08:36:03 +0800.

While the company has been pretty much silent in Malaysia since it’s launch, LMG Auto will be displaying it’s LMG cars at the 2006 Oman Motor Show. Anyone have any news on LMG? For those who are out of the loop, LMG recently launched two new cars in Malaysia – the LMG Tourer and the LMG Trekker. Both are powered by a hybrid combination of a Mitsubishi 2.4 liter SOHC engine combined with a hydrogen injection system that they call Hydroxene, which creates hydrogene from water.

Source

© 2009 Paul Tan's Automotive News. All Rights Reserved.

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 22 Nov 09 08:36:03 +0800.

Okay, so we’ve looked at LMG’s pick-up truck offering, now let’s look at it’s other newly launched vehicle, the LMG Tourer. The LMG Tourer is a 7 seater SUV, likely based on the same chassis as the LMG Trekker – a single ladder frame that spawns both a pick up and an SUV have been pretty popular with car manufacturers lately to save costs.

The specifications for the LMG Tourer is pretty much similiar to the LMG Trekker, down to the creamish-base interior look. The LMG Tourer is lighter than the LMG Trekker, weighing in at 2,285kg compared to the Trekker’s 2,386kg. The engine is also the same 2.4 liter inline-4 SOHC unit making 124 horsepower at 5,250rpm and 190Nm of torque at 3,000rpm, equipped with the Hydroxene system as well.

Features include leather seats, dual airbags, CD player, and ABS. Suspension is the same as the Trekker – double cross arm torsion bar spring at the front, and variable rigidity assymetric leaf spring at the rear. Brakes are discs at the front and drums at the rear. Wheels are 15 inch alloys wrapped with 215/70/R15 at the front and 225/75/R15 at the rear. I pretty much copied and pasted this entire paragraph from my previous Trekker post!

Like the Trekker, it is only available in 5 speed manual transmission for now, which could limit it’s feasibility as a 7-seater family SUV, since a people mover application would definitely favour an automatic transmission. The 4 speed auto should be around in 2 months time. For now, the 5-speed manual LMG Tourer can be had for RM58,888.

© 2009 Paul Tan's Automotive News. All Rights Reserved.

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 22 Nov 09 08:36:03 +0800.

Okay, so we know the LMG Trekker and the LMG Tourer SUV and pick-up trucks have the new Hydroxene technology, but what about the rest of the details?

The LMG Trekker is basically a reengineered Dadi pick-up truck of the same name, and comes with a petrol engine, which might seem out of the norm considering the pick-up market here is dominated by turbodiesels. The LMG Trekker which weighs 2,386kg is powered by a 2.4 liter SOHC engine which produces 124 horsepower at 5,250rpm and 190Nm of torque at 3,000rpm.

This engine comes with LMG’s Hydroxene technology which I explained briefly earlier. I don’t know at the moment whether the usage of Hydroxene will affect the horsepower and torque ratings. Technical details seems sketchy at the moment, but I will try my best to find out.

The pick-up truck comes with both 5-speed manual and 4-speed automatic transmissions. Suspension is double cross arm torsion bar spring at the front, and variable rigidity assymetric leaf spring at the rear. Brakes are discs at the front and drums at the rear. Wheels are 15 inch alloys wrapped with 215/70/R15 at the front and 225/75/R15 at the rear.

The pick-up truck comes with 3 years or 120,000km warranty, whichever comes first. The brochures also states free service and free engine oil (Petronas) for the warranty period. Apparently local content is 52%. Other features include leather seats, CD player, ABS and dual airbags.

The LMG Trekker retails for RM84,888. This price is for the manual version, as the automatic is not available yet – only likely to be launched in the next 2 months.

© 2009 Paul Tan's Automotive News. All Rights Reserved.

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 22 Nov 09 08:36:03 +0800.

Some of you may remember a piece of news in July where a team of Universiti Sains Malaysia researches led by Dr Syamsul Rizal Abd Shukor came up with a way to produce hydrogen in a system compact enough to be fitted into a car. The system involved using waste aluminium metal and sodium hydroxide to separate water into it’s components – hydrogen and oxygen.

While I’m not sure if the new Hydroxene system in LMG’s new pick-ups and SUVs are based on the results of this USM research, it works very similiarly.

Click the image above for a larger diagram from LMG explaining how the Hydroxene technology works. Hydrogen fuel has been researched extensively by both Mazda with their Hydrogen Renesis engine as well as BMW with their hydrogen powered V12 7-series, but these technologies never made it into the production line because of trouble separating hydrogen from water.

Any of you remember the Mercedes Benz F600 Hygenius Concept I posted a long time ago? That car ran on hydrogen as well. Where to get this hydrogen has always been a problem. LMG’s on-board electrolysis device could be the catalyst to a new generation of fuel saving hybrids. For now, LMG’s system runs on a mix of both petrol and hydrogen, but a pure hydrogen system would definitely be possible. The mixture of petrol and water results in an effective reduction in fuel consumption of up to 50%. These systems have been available as a bolt on device before, but this is likely the first system that comes with a production car.

Read more about the new LMG vehicles:
LMG Trekker Details
LMG Tourer Details

Related Readings:
HFT Sdn Bhd’s hydrogen fuel system

© 2009 Paul Tan's Automotive News. All Rights Reserved.

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 22 Nov 09 08:36:03 +0800.

After that short speculation in my previous post, it’s quite obvious the new car to be launched this Tuesday in Johor will be a Dadi SUV or pick-up truck with an LMG Auto badge. While The Star’s report only mentioned a national car, a similiar report by Bernama confirms that the car is an LMG.

Dadi has two SUVs called the Dadi Shuttle and the Dadi Tourer, as well as a pick-up called the Dadi Trekker. Not sure which one will be launched this Tuesday, but the lights in the teaser looks like the pick-up truck. Reminds you of the Isuzu D-MAX eh?

Dadi vehicles use Mitsubishi engines in general, namely a 4G64 2.4 liter SOHC engine producing about 147hp and 214Nm of torque, which should be ample for an SUV or pickup of that size.

The theme of the ad is strange though – what do they mean by just add water?

© 2009 Paul Tan's Automotive News. All Rights Reserved.

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 22 Nov 09 08:36:03 +0800.