Archive for Cars

MidAmerican Energy Holdings, a unit of investor Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway announced it will be paying US$230 million for a 10% stake in Chinese automaker BYD Auto. BYD Auto (Build Your Dreams Auto) is said to be developing hybrid-electric cars set to be launched in China end-2008, and in Europe by 2010.

BYD Auto also plans to enter the US market. Its first two US-market cars are said to be the F3DM and the F6DM, both of which are going to support plug-in recharging. There will also be a fully electric F6e. Not sure how they’ll get past the copyright office though, as the F3 looks like a mash-up of the Toyota Corolla Altis, the Honda City and the Nissan Sentra (click to see the similiarities!)

The 2.0 liter TFSI engine in the Audi S3 producing 265 PS at 6,000rpm and 350Nm of torque between 2,500 to 5,000rpm finally gets the 7-speed version of the S-Tronic dual clutch transmission. This means there is now a 7-speed version of the DSG that can take this levels of torque, so it should appear on a Volkswagen (Golf GTI?)soon enough.

The Audi S3 equipped with the S-Tronic gearbox goes from 0 to 100km/h faster than the manual transmission version, and has lower emissions and better fuel economy too. The acceleration time drops by 0.2 seconds to 5.5 seconds, while the combined fuel economy goes from 33.2mpg to 34mpg. CO2 output falls by 5g/km from 198g/km to 183g.km. The S-Tronic gearbox is a £1,450 option over the base S3.

Other upgrades to the new Audi S3 S-Tronic include a quattro all-wheel drive system which responds faster to different traction and front-rear torque bias requirements.

Fans of Top Gear will know that one of the segments in the popular motoring TV show is the “Star in a Reasonably Priced Car”. In the UK show it is currently the Chevrolet Lacetti (called the Optra on our shores), which replaced a Suzuki Liana after the first 7 seasons.

What happens is a celebrity is brought onto the show, is interviewed about his or her interests in cars, then the star sets a lap around the Top Gear test track in the car.

In Top Gear Australia, the segment is called the “Star in a Bog Standard Car”, and the first car used is our very own Proton Satria Neo! I’d say its a great choice thanks to its relatively cheap price and above average handling, and for the most of it because I am Malaysian and it’s quite exciting to see something as familiar as a Proton used.

Proton Australia (whether they paid for this inclusion or not) must be really happy that their little hatch getting plenty of airtime through the show. As for the new and upcoming Top Gear USA, their reasonably priced car is supposed to be the Kia Rio.

Click here to read the rest of Proton Satria Neo: Top Gear Australia’s “Bog Standard Car!”

An initial batch of photos of the upcoming Chevrolet Orlando concept 7-seater MPV has surfaced on the internet. This is a compact MPV based on a C-segment car chassis (Delta II - Chevrolet Cruze and Volt) much like the Honda Stream and the Toyota Wish.

More details (as well as higher resolution images) will surface when it debuts at the 2008 Paris Motor Show, but for the moment the only details we have is that it’s a 7-seater and has the option for a 2.0 liter turbodiesel engine producing 150 horsepower and 320Nm of torque. A range of Ecotec petrol engines will probably be available for countries where diesels are not as popular.

Look after the jump for a whole set of images.

Click here to read the rest of Chevrolet Orlando Concept MPV Initial Photos

Click for larger image

A sketch of what appears to be the four door Lamborghini set to be unveiled at the 2008 Paris Motor Show has found itself onto the big wide internet right into the hands of curious automotive enthusiasts.

The sketch does not 100% match the teasers of the actual concept set to be revealed though - the rear tailpipes are different. This could be an early sketch, with the actual concept getting a revision to appear much more meaner in the metal.

The name Lamborghini Estoque has been confirmed to be correct and the Paris concept will be very close to the production “four-door coupe”. The car’s engine will be mounted at the front behind the front axle for better weight distribution and it will have permanent all-wheel drive.

Read the related post for the teaser images and more details.

Related Posts:
Third teaser image of Lamborghini Estoque released!

Honda has an interesting website up - Drive Every Drop. It’s essentially an online travel show which showcases places to go to in the Asia-Oceania region such as India, Malaysia and Australia, but with an interesting twist to it.

Everytime a visitor visits the site and browses the contents, they get points in the form of “drops of fuel”. There are various routes that the Drive Every Drop team can take across each country. These drops can then be donated to these specific routes - sort of like voting for which route you’d like the team to follow. The Malaysian route for example starts in KL and you can either go north or south. The route has descriptions of what they will visit along the way so if one route seems more interesting to you than another, you can donate more drops to it.

Of course, the host Allan Yu (of Amazing Race Asia fame) goes on his journeys using Honda cars. The show is really quite eye-opening as we’ve always heard about how crazy the traffic is in countries like India, with horns being sounded every few seconds. Now you can actually watch whether its true or what it’s like as India is the first country that Drive Every Drop showcased.

Go to Drive Every Drop to watch the videos or look after the jump for an episode of Drive Every Drop showing the traffic conditions in India.

Click here to read the rest of Honda’s Drive Every Drop Online Travel Show

Guangzhou Automobile will be developing a new large sedan using the platform of the Alfa Romeo 166, fully licensed and paid for of course.

The 166 has just been discontinued in spring last year, and rumours are that its replacement could return to a rear wheel drive format.

The 166 was a front engined front wheel drive car with double wishbones at the front and a multi-link setup at the rear. The Guangzhou Automobile car to be based on its platform will be styled by Bertone.

Russian car manufacturer AvtoVAZ will pay a sum of 220 million Euros to Renault (who owns 25% of AvtoVAZ) to license its Logan car platform to use as underpinings for the next generation Lada car range. 100 million is for licensing rights for the platform and the remainder 120 million are for the use of 2 of Renault’s engines.

Lada is Russia’s number one selling car marque with total sales of 428,000 cars from January to August 2008. Its market lead is currently being challenged by competitors such as Hyundai, Chevrolet and Ford who are coming in with cars that are more modern, so this is a way for Lada to step it up in terms of updating their cars to modern standards.

The first Lada based on the Logan platform could go on sale as early as 2011. Shown in the picture above is a Lada Priora, an example of a current Lada model sold in Russia.

Suzuki has just unveiled its all-new Suzuki Wagon-R in Japan. It’s essentially the same car and model line-up as the Mazda AZ-Wagon, offering two different styling options, two engines and three choices of gearbox.

The base model is the Suzuki Wagon-R while the more upmarket racy version is the Suzuki Wagon-R Stingray, mirroring Mazda’s AZ-Wagon and AZ-Wagon Custom Style cars. You have the choice of either a 54 PS normally aspirated 660cc engine or a turbocharged 660cc offering 64 PS.

Look after the jump for more photos of the new Suzuki.

Click here to read the rest of Suzuki Wagon-R launched in Japan

Mazda has just unveiled the new Mazda AZ-Wagon in Japan, which is a badge engineering project based on the Suzuki Wagon-R. Two different exterior styling options are available. The “standard” model is the AZ-Wagon while those who want racier looks can opt for the AZ-Wagon Custom Style which is also the range-topping model.

Two engine options are available - either a normally aspirated 660cc DOHC VVT engine with 54 PS at 6,500rpm and 64Nm of torque at 3,500rpm or a turbocharged 660cc DOHC engine producing 64 PS at 6,000rpm and 95Nm of torque at 3,000rpm.

The transmission options can be quite confusing. The AZ-Wagon is available either a 5-speed manual or a 4-speed auto, while the AZ-Wagon XT with the turbocharged engine comes with a CVT gearbox.

The AZ-Wagon Custom Style does not have manual transmission versions, but the CVT is also available for the normally aspirated engines. The turbocharged engines are available only with a CVT but it differs from the CVT in the AZ-Wagon turbo as the gearbox also has a 7-speed manual mode.

Look after the jump for more hi-res photos.

Click here to read the rest of Mazda launches all-new Mazda AZ-Wagon