Does a huge convertible make sense, the BMW 640i

Not too sure how to word the BMW 640i convertible as it is a huge drop top beemer, and most will ask whether this make any sense at all!  I love the Mazda MX-5/Miata, Mercedes SLK, and the BMW Z4 is acceptable since a convertible roadster make sense.  Even the Porsche  Boxster is nice to have.  The 6 convertible should only be good to ferry celebrities in a parade or while attending the Oscar, defnitely not a choice for daily drive.

At RM869k, it cost a lot of drive in style.  The 6 comes with a 3-litre engine mated to an 8-speeder transmission, producing 320hp/450Nm of power.  That's a lot of juice to keep the car on the burning tarmac.  Within 19-second, the roof could withdraw back into the rear in between the boot and back seat, keeping space for your weekend luggage. A softtop means it looks classic and luxury, and less storage space.  However, maintaining a canvas top require all the tender loving care from the owner.  It need special shampoo and protectant to be applied every wash, which means this car could not enjoy the normal RM8 car wash, nor RM150 wash.  BMW will happily sell you the Rag Top shampoo kit for > RM400.

The interior is commonly BMW, simple and elegant layout with most control done via the iDrive unit.  Again, the meter cluster are as boring, amber lighted.  The paddle shifter is a must here.  As a beemer, and close to a million in price tag, the 640i definitely come with all the norm of safety.  However, one should look at the Integral Active Steering system of the car, that turn the rear wheels at a maximum of 3 degrees.  Innovative and brilliant feature!

A huge coupe convertible, there is not much choice in Malaysia.  If you really want one, another good choice is the VW EOS, though it is not a coupe.  Suggestion: Leave the kids at home, go get a roadster for a good top down drive. 

Best value B-Segment, the all new Honday City

Looking for the best value B-Segment sedan?  You could stop your shopping and drop by any Honda dealer now, here is the all new 2014 Honda City, that could beat the rest of the competitors out from your list of choice.  At RM88k, the new City threw in almost all the gadgets one could get from a D-Segment car, minus the GPS navigation, though it has a 7" Display Audio.  I would think Honda purposely opted this out because to provide timely map update to a car that sell in the thousands could be a problem to the service centre.  Just use your smartphone and run Waze on it, this is the best solution.

	Vios	City	Almera	Polo 1.6
Engine Power	109HP/141Nm	120HP/145Nm	101HP/139Nm	104HP/153Nm
Transmission	4-speed	CVT 7-speed	4-speed	6-speed
Airbags	2	6	2	2
Traction Control	No	Yes	No	No
Cruise Control	No	Yes	No	Yes
Rear A/C Vent	No	Yes	No	Yes
Wheel	15"	16"	15"	15"
Price	86k	88k	80k	91k

Although the City uses the same engine as the one it replaces, the placement of most items in the engine bay has changed.  Even the engine mountings look different and the air intake is now mounted to the front above the grille instead of having an air duct mounted just below the bonnet.  This is a good change as the old City air duct could start to lose a few mounting clips after few years.  Battery is of maintenance free type NS40ZL, much better than Toyota that offer the traditional type, so they could charge you battery water whenever you bring the car in for a service.

  

 

The new City also loses the paddle shift as it now runs on CVT torque converter transmission.  It could provide improve fuel efficiency and smoother ride, which is what most customers would want from a city car.  However, losing one feature could easily be forgotten as it now has a lot more features added.  Are you ready for the list?  Here it is: 

1. Bluetooth mobile connectivity
2. Hill start assist
3. 6-airbag
4. 2 USB port, with HDMI connection (but limited support on model of phones)
5. Rear Aircon vents
6. 2 Rear power sockets
7. 7" Audio system with 8-speaker
8. Touch sensitive climate control panel (no button and dial at all)
9. One touch rear 60:40 foldable seats from the trunk
10. One touch turn signal
11. Cruise control
12. ECON mode to save even more petrol
13. Keyless Entry and Start
14. >500-litre trunk capacity which could fit at least 4 golf bags and more
15. Emergency Stop signal (hazard light auto on during emergency braking)

When the car is off, the centre console is simply plain black now as there is no button at all.  Looks interesting cool when the panels are lighted up, but plain dull thereafter.  As always, the gear stalk is boring again.  A gated shifter could bring in the luxury look.  Please do something, Honda! 

Honda also introduces rear drum brake as a cost saving exercise in this City which could be a let down.  However, for a car this size, drum brake is common among most manufacturers and shall not be the deal breaker unless one drive like a F1 driver or travel down from Genting daily.  The only drawback for a drum brake in a B-segment car is the heat dissipation capability while driving downhill, which could cause it to overheat easily (though disc will as well).  For those that is knowledgeable, the driver should always use the gear braking mechanism instead of engaging the brake all the way down.  The Goodyear Excellence rubber is decent! Anyway, checking at the engine bay show that ABS module is a 4-channel unit, thus all 4 wheels, disc and drum, get to enjoy similar safety.

Honda's built quality and fitting are always good, leaving all the seams in perfect lines.  Then looking closer to the passenger side dash, one might ask what with the fake stitching!!!  Vios has it, then now Honda has it...is this 2014 design trend?!  Fake will never be real and will never looks good, and after a couple of months, it will start to collect dust!  Why, Honda?  It could be a relief it is nothing lacey!

 

Side mirror signal indicator light now looks modern.  The tiny strip replaces the old thick indicator and the door look good with an angled profile instead of flat metal sheet.

Having the A/C rear vents and almost flat floor make it a comfortable family car where everyone could enjoy.  It even has 2 power sockets at the rear, enough to charge the kids' tablets during a long journey.  These are really thoughtful in our hot weather and technological days.

Again, at a decent RM88k, the City is the best value B-segment car available now in the market.  This is a car designed with safety in mind, family oriented and cost effective.  Furthermore, Honda provides a true 5-Year manufacturer warranty, with 6 free services alternating every 10k kilometers.  Unlike most other brands, warranty is 2+3 or 3+2 where additional years are provided by insurance companies that spelled all sorts of terms and conditions that put consumers in difficult positions.  Remember the recent VW's picketing activity that force the manufacturer to loosen slightly in the terms of its warranty?  Well, Honda builds reliable car, thus only isolated case could happen instead of having big group of customers coming together for a show.  Now, let's hope the new Earth Dream CVT is here to stay during the tenure of the ownership, with no breakdown!

Hyundai i30, when?

The Hyundai i30 made it appearance in KLIMS 2013, saw a few registered units on the road, then that's it.  Sime Darby Hyundai looks extremely quiet recently, and most of Hyundai's models should be up for a facelift or model update soon.  The new Sonata should be here anytime soon, unless again, the distributor's warehouse is still fill with the lots of unsold units.  Remember years back when Oriental had the Sonata EF and NF in the same showroom even after make the latest model available.  The i30 should be given a facelift by year-end or early 2015 since it was launched in 2011 as the 2012 model.  This might be a reason for the wait, as one would not like to get a newly launch car and see it being obsoleted in barely a year.

If Malaysia ever get the i30, it would be equipped with the Gamma 1.6-litre (128hp/157Nm) or the Nu 1.8-litre (148hp/178Nm) engine, both mated to Hyundai 6-speed transmission.  However, for a C-Segment hatchback, most probably only the 1.6-litre variant will be made available for a competitive pricing.  The interior is very consistent with Hyundai, with a protruding center console, and a sporty dual-binnacle meter cluster.  Leather gives the car an upmarket feel, but if the car were to use local made seat, it could be a disaster.  Enter the Elantra's Nappa-covered seat, one could not feel the luxury aside, but lousy!

The best parts of the i30 are the panoramic roof and sporty wheels, and the probable pricing of below RM100k.  Anything beyond the RM100k mark could start filling the warehouse instead of the road again.  However, competitors in the C-Segment hatchback are rare, thus a well executed marketing plan could work!

The Kodo Mazda 3

Here you go, the shrunken Mazda 6!  At a distance, one could easily mistaken the new Mazda 3 as the 6.  It is like the junior twin.  The soon to-be-launched Mazda 3 has made it appearance in most Mazda showroom now, even with most already sold.  Pity the first batch owner as the salesperson allows public to step in and out of those car that has been marked SOLD.  In fact, some minor scratches already been spotted!

Red has almost been the colour of choice for a sporty-looking vehicle, and it catches one's eyes easily.  The Mazda 3 is the fourth Mazda model in Malaysia to inherit the SKYACTIV Technology, following the CX-5, Mazda 6 and the Biante MPV.  With a compression ratio of 13:1, the engine fuel consumption is as good as a hybrid, qualifying it to be categorized as an Energy Efficient Vehicle (EEV) here.  However, no special incentive at this moment, as the 3 would still cost RM135k.

A 2.0-litre Skyactiv-G engine is the only choice here, producing 162hp/210Nm of power via the Skyactiv-Drive 6-speed auto box.  Lesser variant means easier marketing and sales strategy for Bezmaz.  However, this significantly pushes sway a lot of potential customers looking for a more affordable variant.  The 1.5-litre could be a welcome to flood our streets with more Mazda.  Let's hope Bermaz could consider this.  By the way, bring in the hatchback fast, we do not want to be tied down with a sedan.

First look at the interior, one would be disappointed with the analog aircon dial.  Though it could switch to auto mode, these dial looks so outdated and does not match the Bermaz catalog which shows photo with the Mazda 3 with dual-zone digital aircon control.  Moving your eyes to the center, the bolt-on 7" screen look odd, similar to the latest Mercedes A-Class, which shown some afterthought design.  The joystick behind the gear stalk is a welcome in this class of car.  Ergonomic placement of this joystick should be re-considered as it is now oddly placed and has to be operated with a hanging hand!  Another let down is the passenger space, which is small at the back.  The 3 loses this out to its competitors.  It feels like an upmarket B-segment instead!

The Mazda 3 should be the best equipped car in the C-Segment category, with 5-star Euro NCAP safety, 18" wheels, sunroof, GPS, Xenon headlights with Adaptive Front Lighting System (AFS), LED taillights, ABS with EBD, BA, DSC & TCS, 6-airbag, keyless entry, engine Start-Stop system (i-Stop) and Mazda flagship super-capacitor storage system, the i-Eloop that uses regenerative braking system energy to power some of the electrical equipment in the car.  Now, that shall add complexity to the electrical system which in turn add to the maintenance cost. 

Here you go, the simple comparison of various popular Japanese makes available, stick to the trusted uncle's Altis, boring Sylphy, or geeky Civic, it is up to you.  I would always recommend a car with the best safety rating, as one only live once, value your life!

	Altis 2.0V + Safety + Navi	Mazda 3 2.0	Civic 2.0 Navi	Sylphy 2.0 XV
Engine Power	143HP/187Nm	162HP/210Nm	152HP/190Nm	131HP/191Nm
Transmission	CVT 7-speed	6-speed	5-speed	CVT
Airbags	7	6	4	2
Traction Control	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Warranty (Yrs)	3	3	5	3
Price (RM)	142k	139k	137k	125k

The Ice Cube Kia Optima K5

Back in December 2011 when Naza launched the Kia K5, there were wow, nice, and cool everywhere.  The Optima is Kia D-Segment flagship, and their previous generation just looked like it came out from the 70's.  With Peter Schreyer on board with Kia, the ugly duckling took a 360 degrees turn, emerging with the signature tiger nose, and a total revamped of styling and features.  The facelift was made available this mid-January, wearing the same 2.0-litre Nu engine with the Hyundai's 6-speed slush box, producing a healthy 163hp/196Nm of power.  What stand out from this facelift is the ice cube layout of the LED fog light.  Now, this make one wonders whether this could be a useful light if it were in white, which will create a very messed up back-reflection and most probably get absorbed into the real foggy environment, providing no benefit in enhance visibility, but providing only a fashionable light source.  Everyone uses LED, I want it too!  Remember during the 70's and 80's, fog light are in yellow colour because it could penetrate water mist!

 

Now back to the Optima, which looks very European, inheriting Schreyer's gene.  For RM150k, you get a fully loaded machine, with 6-airbag, active headlight, panoramic sunroof, rear camera, Infinity cound system, dual-zone auto aircon with cluster ionizer, rain sensor, auto headlight, and all the safety stuffs such as ABS, EBD, BAS, TCS, ESP, and HAV.  Wow, that's a lot of stuffs in there.

Interior of the Optima is almost perfect, if it were to be equipped with a huge touch screen instead of the 4.3" unit.  A larger unit will add to luxury to the vehicle.  A steering full of button could not be very welcome as it complicate the usage.  Looking down to the gear shifter, two button that activate the front seat ventilation function is really cool in our hot weather.  Start feeling mild aircon from the seats, it is really comfortable.  Very thoughtful feature that is usually available only in high-end luxury vehicles.  The floor mounted sporty gas pedal is a plus!  No more cheap looking hanging pedal.

The car looks very "taiko", as it gives out the fierce feeling.  But overall, it really looks good.  It is huge, and in some way, it could look elegant.  The design is timeless, unlike its sibling Sonata with the fluidic concept that went out of the wow factor after few years.  The upcoming Sonata will realign back to the traditional conservative design, which shall be launched soon.  Now, again, let's hope the used car value will not rock bottom, and Kia shall make a huge success.  I still want to see the Kia Soul on our road.  Naza, are you listening?

RON97 is now @ RM2.90/litre

Again, quietly, RON97 is now priced at RM2.90/litre.  Since January 2014, this is the third time the price has been readjusted upward, at an increment of RM0.05/litre.

Looking at the WTI Crude Oil pricing, it is indeed has been increasing and is now just over the 100 dollars mark! It could be any time soon RON95 get the adjustment as well!

The Red Hot Kia Rio

Red means sporty.  Red means sexy.  Red means hot.  A well designed car, when painted in red, it becomes sporty, sexy and hot.  The Kia Rio is the best selling Kia's model in the world and stock arrival will take 2-4 months for the high specifications version (SX).  Naza Kia has managed to price this beauty at about RM80k, which is equipped with the 1.4-litre Gamma engine, mated to a 4-speed auto, and able to produce 108hp/137Nm of power.

The SX version is even equipped with a sunroof, for those who enjoy moonlight driving at night with some fresh breeze.  Bet no one would want to have this open during the daytime in our hot and humid weather.  With 5-star Euro NCAP rating, the Rio has 6-airbag, vehicle stability management which combine all the safety features such as ESC/ABS/BAS/EBD/TCS and Hill-start Control.  In fact, non of the Japanese models in the same segment could compete with it.  Even the cool daylight running light is standard.

The audio system is Arkamys tuned, with support for USB at the bottom of the the centre console.  One copy of your MP3 tracks will be copied into the unit in-built memory, without the need to leave the USB drive in the car.  Bluetooth is supported, with steering mounted control.  Auto aircon is available in the SX model, where the EX will have the manual control.  Overall the EX model which is priced at RM6k lower, will have to let go the sunroof, supervision meter cluster, foglight, rain sensor, auto defog system and 17" wheels.  Most buyer will want the SX model and remain in the waiting list.  EX is available as immediate stock.

If you would have notice, the rear lamp LED cluster is uniquely designed and when lighted, looks really sporty, with its wrap-around silthouette.  Taking the car out for a short spin, the NVH is pretty good, and ride is comfortable.  With just a 1.4-litre engine, this is not a fast car, but decent for highway speed and day-to-day city driving.  The Toyota Vios 1.5-litre unit produces very similar power, thus expect the Rio to feel the same.  Steering is light but if one has been driving a Japanese car all this while, do note that the Rio's turn signal control is on the left and wiper on the right, adopting the European norm.

Worry about resale value?  Just did a check on the recent Kia model, starting with Forte, and found that the used market value are quite decent, one could see about RM8k to RM10k depreciation yearly, which is similar to a Honda City or Toyota Vios.  Looks like the Korean and Naza have started making thing right.  Naza will provide 5 Years Warranty to all Kia models, and at times, it also offer some free services. In short, the Kia Rio could be a good buy.