Archive for Cars

Yet more updates on the Volkswagen-Proton parnership. The Malay Mail reports Volkswagen AG may buy 40% of Proton’s manufacturing arm, and assume management control over that unit. Proton’s board of directors had met up with Volkswagen officials last week to discuss this offer.

This deal will allow Proton to benefit from Volkswagen’s technical expertise. However Proton joint Chief Operating Officer Datuk Kisai Rahmat denied to comment on the results of the discussion.

Source

I previously blogged about the Volkswagen Jetta R GT concept, one of the three concept vehicles which Volkswagen AG unveiled at the 2005 SEMA show. Now let’s have a look at the second of the three concepts, which is a modified Volkswagen Passat – the Volkswagen Passat R GT.

Click here to read the rest of Volkswagen Passat R GT

The Proton Savvy Automated Manual Transmission was launched yesterday. The car uses a manual transmission with a computer controlled clutch, supposedly supplied by Magneti Marelli, similiar to the Renault Quickshift 5 available in the Renault Clio.

Proton’s Automated-Manual Transmission (AMT) has 5 gears. There are 2 modes, a manual selection mode where you can switch through the gears sequentially by with the gear knob. It works like a manual transmission with clutches and gears, not like an oil-driven automatic with a torque converter. No power loss there. Clutch control is computerized with precised timing, shifts are much quicker than any average driver can ever attempt with a normal manual gearbox and foot-operated clutch.

The Proton Savvy AMT costs RM45,888.00 on the road without insurance and can be booked at any Proton showrooms around the country. There’s a new colour called Galaxy Grey, specially for the AMT I’ve heard. It looks like the dark grey on the Proton Waja.

I’ll try to get a test drive and report my findings.

Volkswagen unveiled a series of vehicles under the R GT concept line for the 2005 SEMA auto show. This is the first of the three vehicles based on a Volkswagen Jetta. Let’s have a look at the Volkswagen Jetta R GT concept.

Click here to read the rest of Volkswagen Jetta R GT

The Edge reports HLG Research expects non-national cars to make up 50% of car sales on the overall by 2007, and 47% by next year.

HLG expects industry volume for both passenger and commercial vehicles to reach 562,380 units in 2007.

HLG recommends UMW shares for investment in the auto industry, with a price target of RM6.89. Reasons given include NAP incentives and Perodua’s involvement in assembling Toyota vehicles.

As for Proton, HLG maintains it’s buy status, in view of a potential alliance with Volkswagen AG which will improve economies of scale and efficiency through technology transfer, as well as better sentiments that the Volkswagen brand will give.

HLG has a hold status on Tan Chong shares, due to sales for the successful Frontier and X-Trail models that might be affected if prices go up because of 4WD and MPV segment tax hikes. Passanger cars should be safe so far, as the margins would be able to absorb the tax hikes.

A special celebrity Champion’s Drive will be held at next week’s A1 Grand prix at the Sepang circuit. Malaysia’s A1 Team and Proton has organised a 10 lap race, which involves celebrities racing in Proton’s Satria R3 cars.

Some of the celebrities participating are former F1 champion Emmerson Fittipaldi, ex-F1 driver Jan Lammers, Alex Yoong’s sister Pippa Yoong and Malaysia’s rally king Karamjit Singh.

The Malaysian leg of the A1 Grand Prix will be held from 18-20 November 2005. Tickets are priced from RM30 to RM200.

In a strange change of events, Lotus and Proton technicians are dismantling Lotus equipment here for shipping back to the UK. Production for the Lotus Esprit V8, supposed to be built here has also been moved back to Hethel where all Lotus cars have been built since the 60s.

Could this be related to the non-core asset dump previously announced?

Source

Sources say that Proton Holdings Bhd is reviewing it’s investments in MV Agusta Motor and the Lotus Group International.

No decision made so far, but Proton might cut down on such investments that are non-core assets.

Proton had made a RM137 million provision for bad debts that contributed to a net loss of RM12.4 million last quarter, and most of that amount is suspected to linked to loss-making MV Agusta.

Proton’s cash reserves had dwindled down to RM 2.8 billion this year, from RM 6 billion in 2001.

I doubt Proton would let go of Lotus – the main subject here seems to be MV Agusta, but we cannot rule it out just yet.

Source

BMW launched the M version of the 6-series in the UK – the BMW M6, powered by the same venerable 5 liter V10 engine found in the ultimate luxury sports sedan – the BMW M5. More details are available after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of BMW M6 with 5.0 liter V10

Seeing that the post on the highway speed limit was quite hot, let’s have a look at the German Autobahn.

The Autobahns are a series of highways in Germany, though there are some Autobahn-class highways in other countries too, like Austria and Switzerland. The highways are labelled with the capital letter A, followed by a two digit number.

Click here to read the rest of The Autobahn