Archive for Cars

Here’s an example of automotive technology doing more than just working on cars and benefiting our every lives instead. Nissan’s Scratch Shield paint which it developed together with the University of Tokyo and Advanced Softmaterials Inc will be licensed to NTT DoCoMo Inc to be used on mobile phones in Japan. The Scratch Shield paint has self-healing capabilities (for fine scratches) and can restore itself overnight or up to a week’s time with more severe cases. The paint is also more scratch-resistant than normal paint in the first place. It should do its job on a mobile phone very very well, considering alot of us just lump phones together in the same pocket as our car keys, and the result can be quite a mess of scratches.

Renault-Nissan has announced that it will work with an Indian company called Bajaj Auto to produce the world’s cheapest car, even cheaper than the Tata Nano. An agreement was signed and the partnership is set to introduce the new low-cost vehicle in 2012.

Under the agreement, Bajaj will handle the design, engineering as well as the manufacturing while Renault-Nissan will focus on marketing, branding and the sale of parts. CEO Carlos Ghosn revealed that the cost of the car will be lower any car made in India today, pointing to a price tag that would be cheaper than the Rs 1 lakh carried by the Nano.

With India to become the primary market and exports to emerging markets to be made later, the new vehicle is expected to feature a mileage that is better than 20 kilometers per liter. The car will be built in India and will target India’s emerging middle class. Both companies actually announced a partnership last year but apparently there were some disagreements, which have now been resolved. Pictured above is the Bajaj Lite concept that was shown in 2008.

Source

Renault is reviving the Gordini brand and also revealed that it will launch the Twingo Gordini Renault Sport that is based on the Renault Twingo Renault Sport 133 on 25th November in Paris. The automaker will also roll out a Clio Gordini RS a couple of months later. So what is this ‘Gordini’ brand in the first place?

To answer that question we will have to go back to 1964 when Amedee Gordini developed a rally car based on the Renault 8. The R8 Gordini finished 1st, 3rd, 4th and 5th in the 1964 Tour of Corsica rally and two years later, the Gordini Cup one-make race series was established.

Renault now plans to add Gordini variants into the Renault Sport range. The Gordini Renault Sport cars will be treated to an elegant finish, making it slightly more premium than the standard Renault Sport. The automaker did not reveal further details but judging from the classic Gordini, Renault may offer a light blue body finish with white racing stripes.

Click the images above for larger hi-res view

These are the first few product photos of the new Volvo S60 officially released by the Volvo PR team as a preview to a full-fledged unveiling soon. The car will make its public debut at the Geneva Motor Show 2010 in early March next year, and production will begin early summer 2010 at Volvo’s Belgian plant.

No other details or specifications have been revealed other than the fact that you can specify an optional feature called Pedestrian Detection that can detect pedestrians in front of the car and brake automatically if the driver doesn’t react in time.

Looking pretty good I must say, though I would prefer if the front end were to be a little sharper. It’s a little soft now, especially with the big soft ‘eyes’ (headlamps) and all. What do you think, do you like it?

Volkswagen Malaysia announced yesterday that VW Cars Sdn Bhd was no longer an authorised dealer of Volkswagen cars in Malaysia. This is some interesting news as VW Cars is one of the more prominent Volkswagen dealers in Malaysia, with showrooms in PJ and The Curve. A sister company of VW Cars is also the official dealer for Abt in Malaysia. They are part of the Cartrade group who used to be BMW dealers. I wonder what will happen to the bookings for the new Volkswagens (Scirocco, Passat CC, Golf GTI) made through their showrooms as they are sure to have a decent amount in hand. Hopefully if there is any kind of transition etc it will be smooth for customers.

It’s finally going to be here – the new F10 BMW 5-Series Sedan! BMW has released a teaser video of the new F10 and they say the F10’s debut is ‘about to take place’. A November 23rd (at 8pm CET timezone) unveiling date and time has been set, pretty timely for buyers looking at a mid-size luxury sedan in Malaysia as the W212 E-Class is about to be launched in Malaysia. So if you look at the F10 and decide you like what you see maybe you want to wait until it’s launched in Malaysia to compare the two.

The teaser video uses the kinetic sculpture (metal balls hanging from fine threads) at the BMW Museum to show us the silhouette of the car. Most people are expecting a scaled down version of the F10 5-Series with sportier rectangular kidney grilles rather than the large ones on the F01/F02 7-Series or even the 5-Series Gran Turismo.

Personally this is one of the more exciting car launches for me, as an old 5-Series owner I’m very interested to see how my E39’s ‘grandchild’ will look like, as personally I didn’t like the E60’s design very much though it drove like a dream. And of course after the F10 unveiling is over and done with we can look forward to the next generation F10 M5.

Look after the jump for a video of the kinetic sculpture teaser. You can also view some past posts on the F10 5-Series GT.

Related Posts:
F10 BMW 5-Series spyshot snapped conveniently next to a 5-Series GT for comparison
F10 BMW 5-Series Sedan Interior videotaped!

Click here to read the rest of New BMW 5-Series set for November 23rd debut

What’s happened here is actually quite common in the auto industry – a decent looking sketch ends up translated into a not very appealing production model.

These leaked set of next generation Nissan Micra/March photos were leaked from Dongfeng Nissan production lines as the Chinese JV prepares to assemble it in China. It’s expected to run a HR16DE and a 4-speed auto/5-speed manual combo in China, but there’s probably also the HR15DE and a CVT transmission to choose from for other market needs.

This video is BMW’s ‘last kopek’ at leveraging its F1 involvement, as the BMW Sauber F1 Team is no more. The team has now been purchased by Qadbak Investments, a buyout that has actually caused some of the other F1 teams to have reservations because of apparent dodginess of the new owners. Anyway enjoy the video after the jump, as you probably won’t much BMW F1 videos after this one.

Click here to read the rest of VIDEO: BMW M Power says goodbye to F1

The Boxster Spyder is Porsche’s lightest car, at just 1,275kg. That’s probably just around 75kg heavier than my BMW E30 3-Series.

It is a tribute to the Spyder nameplate that’s been used on various cars in Porsche history such as the 550 Spyder and the RS Spyder. It will be the third variant in the Boxster range, joining the existing Boxster and Boxster S models.

The Porsche Boxster Spyder has two bulges on the single piece rear lid, something that the regular Boxster does not have. The bulges make it look rather Carrera GT-ish. It’s got the same engine as the Boxster S, a 3.4 liter boxer yet is lighter than the Boxster.

Power is up 10 horses from the Boxster S engine at 320hp, and when mated to the PDK double clutch transmission and equipped with the Sports Chrono Package, 0 to 100km/h takes 4.8 seconds.

What I’m curious about though is what makes the Boxster Spyder lighter than the Boxster and the Boxster S. They probably removed the folding mechanism for the soft top roof, which means it’s manual now. Porsche’s press kit does not mention what else is gone.

Look after the jump for a hi-res photo gallery and a video.

Click here to read the rest of Porsche adds Spyder variant to Boxster range

Proton MD Datuk Syed Zainal Abidin has revealed in an interview with Business Times that the Italian design company contracted to develop Proton’s next C-segment sedan is in fact Italdesign-Giugiaro SpA.

Giugiaro (founded 1968) has designed a lot of vehicles in the past, including the Mk1 Volkswagen Scirocco (not the modern one that’s just launched in Malaysia). It even had a big part in the development of the R56 MINI. Here are some of Giugiaro’s recent work:

Ssangyong C200 Concept and Suzuki SX4

The Business Times report revealed that a clay model of the car already exists at the design house’s headquarters in Turin, Italy. It definitely has to be, considering the new Persona replacement car was previously mentioned to be out by 2012, after the Waja replacement in 2010 and the Perdana replacement in 2011.

The car will be engineered to meet tougher European and North American standards. Proton’s North American entry is still a hazy area at the moment but there was talk earlier this year that Detroit Electric would be helping with getting the cars registered with whatever authorities there are there. Not sure what happened with that whole project.

The Exora introduced new technologies in Protons that were not used before – more sensors for the airbag system and a Body Control Module. Datuk Syed Zainal says the new C-segment Persona replacement will implement these new features and add even more features to bring the new Proton up to international standards. Proton is currently in talks with various vendors on what can be implemented.

It is also in exploratory talks with some parties including a Chinese company (Europestar, SAIC-Roewe?) on collaborating on an SUV, and in talks via Lotus with a South Korean battery company and an electric motor supplier regarding EVs (what happened to Detroit Electric?).