Archive for Cars

You’ve seen the new Cosworth Range Rover Sports, now here’s something else by Azfal Kahn. Based on the Rexton 270 SPR, the Project Kahn Ssangyong Rexton R-Line features 22 inch Kahn Design RST alloy wheels, lowered springs, and a Kahn Design sports exhaust. On the interior you get a combination leather interior using black nappa leather and soft Alcantara, complete with red stitching. A rear spoiler is optional.

The equipment is the same as the 270 SPR, featuring automatic climate control, ESP stability control, active rollover protection, hill descent control, ABS brakes, automatic headlamps, rain sensing wipers, front and side airbags, electric folding door mirrors and heated seats. The audio system has been removed as it seems their target customer market would most likely want to install their own insanely pimped up sound system - think of multiple subwoofers in specially designed enclosures at the rear.

The 2.7 liter turbodiesel engine under the hood puts out 186 PS and 402Nm of torque from 2,400rpm, mated to a Mercedes-Benz T-Tronic 5-speed auto. The Ssangyong Rexton R-Line comes with a 3-year warranty and 3 years European roadside assistance. Look after the jump for a few more shots of the R-Line Rexton.

Click here to read the rest of Project Kahn Ssangyong Rexton R-Line

GM has surprised us all amidst rumours that its hopeful Chevrolet Cruze compact car has been postponed - quite far from it in fact. The car has actually already been launched in South Korea as the Daewoo Lacetti Premiere. It will compete with the Hyundai Elantra, the Kia Forte, and the Honda Civic in the increasingly competitive C-segment sedan market in South Korea. So perhaps only its US debut will be delayed.

The Daewoo Lacetti Premiere measures 4,600mm long, 1,790mm wide and 1,475mm tall with a 2,685mm wheelbase. It rides on 17 inch wheels wrapped with 215/50R17 tyres. Under the hood is a 1.6 liter ECOTEC engine that produces 114 horsepower at 6,400rpm and 152Nm of torque at 4,200rpm. No sight of the 1.4 liter ECOTEC Turbo yet.

On the interior, it seems that the dashboard can be colour coded to match your two-tone seats. Thus you are able to have your dashboard have either blue or red trim if you get black-blue or black-red combination seats. Apparently the various sensors in the car communicate with the ECU via something called GMLAN. It seems to be a trend to give your in-car databus a funky name these days, such as FlexRay.

The car actually kinda reminds me of a smaller Toyota Crown. Prices range from 11,550,000 won (RM32.300) for the cheapest SE manual version up to 17,700,000 won (RM49,500) for the 6-speed automatic CDX version. 6 colours are available - white, silver, silverish blue, grey, blue and black.

Look at more shots of the Chevrolet Cruze/Daewoo Lacetti Premiere after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Chevrolet Cruze finally launched as the Daewoo Lacetti Premiere in South Korea!

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The E60 BMW 5-Series has come a long way since it was first unveiled to the world. You could say it gave a rude shock to those who loved the low slung elegance that the E39 portrayed. It was a no holds barred styling affair for Chris Bangle after warming himself up with the E65 7-Series launched earlier.

A few years and a facelift later, we’ve all pretty much gotten used to what the new 5-Series looks like. I still prefer the E39’s looks but in two years or so that will already be two generations old and the new F10 5-Series will be out, which will probably look like a downsized version of the F01 7-Series. That means GIANT nostrils.

I was recently acquainted with the three mainstream models of the 5-Series range here in Malaysia over the period of 2 days. Continue reading to find out more.

Click here to read the rest of The E60 BMW 5-Series Facelift Range Test Drive: BMW 523i SE, 525i Sports and 530i

Porsche has released a teaser video of the Porsche Panamera featuring footage of the car being put through its phases while still remaining heavily disguised. It’s not hard to imagine what the Panamera will look like, but what’s left to be seen are just the details as we can already judge what the silhouette will be like.

In this Porsche claims this is the first four door, four seater Porsche, which is somewhat true since the Cayenne has 3 seats at the rear. Porsche also says that the Panamera is “nothing new” for Porsche… just another car that features what they say is important Porsche qualities like sportiness.

The Panamera will most likely mirror the Cayenne’s lineup with a V6-powered Panamera, a V8-powered Panamera S and a turbocharged Porsche Panamera Turbo.

Watch the video after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Official teaser video for the Porsche Panamera

Beijing has made a drastic move in trying to reduce pollution and congestion in the city, which reportedly has 3.4 million vehicles on the road, and still increasing! It has banned certain cars from being used on certain days.

Basically it works like this - cars with number plates ending with 1 and 6 are banned on Mondays, 2 and 7 are banned on Tuesday, 3 and 8 are banned on Wednesdays, 4 and 9 are banned on Thursday, and 5 and 0 are banned on Fridays. All cars can travel on weekends. This will last for a 6 month trial. The cities of Shanghai and Jiangsu will follow this ban albeit a more relaxed version - the ban will only affect vehicles that belong to the government, or government-linked companies.

Apparently future amendments to the system will include a variable ban which allows more cars on the road when the air quality is good, but ban up to half of the cars on the road whenever the air condition is bad such as above 300 points on the Air Pollution Index. Anything above 100 is harmful to children and old folks. They are also mulling the idea of a congestion charge to enter the city.

I cannot begin to imagine how frustrating this is for the Chinese folk, especially since there are bound to be some areas not covered well by public transport. Some families, especially well to do ones, are purchasing third or fourth cars with different number plates to go around this new ruling.

If we ever read about the Transport Minister and his entourage making a “study trip” to Beijing… we’d all better be afraid, VERY afraid. You never know when they may randomly pick up ideas like this to justify their existence, despite our public transport system being in a sorry state, according to the PM himself when he tried it out some time ago.

Unlike most other car manufacturers who usually procure hybrid and electric drive components from third party manufacturers (Tesla is one company that acts as a supplier), Volkswagen intends to produce all of its hybrid components excluding battery cells on its own, so that the company can master the technology and increase chances for a competitive edge.

A concept hybrid Volkswagen was unveiled earlier this year based on the Mark 5 Volkswagen Golf. It featured a combination of an electric motor backed by lithium ion batteries as the main method of propulsion, assisted by either a TSI petrol engine or a TDI diesel engine whenever needed. According to Volkswagen, a 100km test journey from Potsdam to Berlin took only 8kWh of electricity and 2.5 liters of fuel.

Source

The Honda City was displayed at the 2008 Sydney Motor Show as a SEMA-like concept, not surprisingly called the Honda City Concept. This tricked out Honda City features wing mirrors that use cameras instead of a mirror, LED headlamps and tail lamps as well as a bodykit and alloy wheels. Photos courtesy of Jeff Choo. More after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Modified Australia Honda City “Concept”

There’s so much that can change on the way from a concept display to a production model and the comparison image above shows just that - how different the production next generation Lexus RX will look like compared to the Lexus LF-Xh Concept displayed last year at the Tokyo Motor Show.

The front end has stayed largely similiar but the rest of the SUV ends up looking like a Nissan Rogue. Look after the jump for a strangely Subaru-ish rear view of the new RX, or head on to the source link for more shots of the brochure.

The thing is the RX always had very subtle roof rails, but they seem to have grown larger or at least apear to be more prominent in this new installment in the RX series, causing the new RX to take on a new feel.

Source

Click here to read the rest of 2010 Lexus RX brochure shots leaked!

The already arguably wacky BMW X6 has gone even more loony thanks to AC Schnitzer, who has decked it out in the brownish colour scheme of a Falcon’s feathers with this AC Schnitzer X6 Falcon demo car featuring AC Schnitzer’s Falcon bodykit for the BMW X6.

There is also a new twin flow exhaust system and an upgraded ECU for the diesel engines, which now produces 272hp and 310hp in xDrive30d and xDrive35d form respectively, up from 235hp and 286hp.

AC Schnitzer says the X6 Falcon “sweeps” around the “sky” of the Nurburgring North Loop, and its “legs” are decorated with AC Schnitzer Type VII alloy wheels. That’s some really funky copywriting there.

Look after the jump for a few more images.

Click here to read the rest of AC Schnitzer X6 Falcon bodykit

We may not see our fuel prices ever dropping below RM1.92 per liter, if the current Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister gets his way. Minister of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs is of the opinion that the government should scrap the RM0.30 per liter fuel subsidy if the cost of fuel minus the subsidy ended up being less than RM1.92 per liter.

This is because he feels RM1.92 per liter is a reasonable price to pay for fuel in Malaysia. In fact, since a floor price of RM1.92 per liter is being suggested, we could also see sales tax for petroleum introduced if unsubsidised fuel ends up being priced under RM1.92 per liter!

“I believe that we should try as best as possible to reduce or even stop forking out money for fuel subsidy and use it for development and economic purposes. Despite a decline in global fuel price, the amount of subsidy the government has to fork out is still substantial. I also believe that if the price is any lower than what I have mentioned, the public will not practice wise spending because an essential item is cheap,” said Datuk Shahrir.

The new higher fuel prices has forced me to be more frugal with my accelerator pedal. My driving is alot smoother and I managed to stretch my mileage from about 450 to 500km per tank to 620km per tank thanks to a new driving pattern. But at the same time, you have to acknowledge that those from the really poor income bracket need all the help they can get and would definitely benefit from having a fuel price lower than RM1.92 per liter without increasing their consumption unreasonably!

Government fuel subsidy expenditure for the months of June, July and August 2008 was RM1.97 billion, RM1.95 billion and RM1.42 billion respectively. In addition to that, the government also paid out an additional RM2.5 billion between April to September 2008 for the RM625 per vehicle subsidy.

“The government has spent up to RM16.8 billion just on fuel subsidy and RM2.5 billion on rebates for motorists and motorcyclists. All that means from January to December, we’ll be spending about RM19 to RM20 billion. If we can save some money on subsidy, that savings will be spent to tackle the issue of economic growth,” the Minister added.

The RM625 subsidy will be gone next year. In its place will be a new system that has yet to be decided by the government.

Source