Innovation is one of a cornerstone that sets apart from a good car to a great car. With good innovation, a more technological wonders can be offered to the drivers that makes an everyday drive a truly comfortable and a safe drive. This is what BMW Malaysia is offering to its potential customers here in Malaysia and also globally. A great and wonderful yet very safe to drive to be enjoyed to the most. To make known to the public about its very technological innovation; BMW Malaysia will be a organizing a series of event known as “BMW Innovation 2010” days till the end of the year.
The event has been kicked off starting today at Auto Bavaria Glenmarie Shah Alam that will last till tomorrow 25th of July 2010. The BMW Innovation days has been conceived to celebrate the history, milestones and advancement of BMW cars over the years since its establishment. But if you miss the event at Glenmarie Shah Alam, don’t be fret about it. As I have mention earlier, this event will be coming to almost all major towns in Malaysia including Kuching and Kota Kinabalu of east Malaysia. You can view the calendar of the event here.
So what can you expect during the BMW Innovation day? First of all, you can view a vast arrays of BMW cars in the showroom (depends to the showroom that the event will take place). As at Auto Bavaria Glenmarie, almost all models of BMW cars can be viewed there, from the BMW 1 series till all the way to the latest Z4 series. Besides the showcase of car, you will be serving with a great F&B to complement the journey of innovation brought to you by BMW Malaysia. After you have sign up for the test drive session (I strongly recommend) you will be greeted with a theory session about all the latest innovation installed in the BMW cars and what you can expect when you test drive the cars.
So the next wonderful agenda would be the test drive session. All together, BMW Malaysia has prepared 13 cars from almost all its range that is offered here in Malaysia, from the 135i coupe, to the 335i coupe, the latest F10 5 series, to the super luxury F02 7 series, the rugged X1 and the latest X5 and last but not least the z4. Yes almost all models are here to be driven by you. But first of all, before you can enjoy the driving experience, safety first must be fully adhere. Each car has been supplied with a walkie talkie so that all the instruction can be conveyed by the instructor to the drivers of the car. For the innovation day, BMW has put an extra length of providing the ultimate experience by having the test drive session from the Auto Bavaria Glenmarie to Cyberjaya and come back to Glenmarie. All together, it’s almost 2 hours of wonderful experience. If you have visited last year BMW Performance day event as I do, then I truly recommend you to come and visit this BMW Innovation day.
The lasts year event was organized to give the public an experience of how to handle a car in a very dangerous yet controllable manner where you can drive the car through a series of slalom, emergency braking and also emergency avoidance, but for this year event, BMW Malaysia change a little bit of the test drive session by providing you a drive along the route of Elite highway where you test the car for its straight line speed, high speed cruising before you exit off at Putrajaya interchange where then you will given a chance to feel the outright power of the engine by accelerating at wide open throttle(pedal to the metal). For my test drive session, I was given a chance to test drive the 135i, a 3 litre Inline 6 engine that features a Twin Scroll turbochargers with Valvetronic and direct fuel injection that can push the car from zero to hundred in 5.3 seconds. That amazing feat can be achieved with the engine producing a healthy 306hp and a massive 400Nm of torque blasting its rear wheel drive. The car is mated with a 7 speed dual clutch transmission which I can say delivers a very smooth drive without any feeling of jerking or shift shock. The power delivery is very linear yet instantaneous where you can’t feel any dip of torque or any turbo lag thanks to its single twin scroll turbochargers. The handling of the car is very good which is suitable for a very spirited drive but the ride setup has been tune on a firmer side but it is not too firm which can makes all your bones rattling, simple to say, the ride and handling of the car is suitable for a day to day drive either it is on highway cruise or on a B road type.
After we have arrived at Cyberjaya city, we were then stop for a while for some fuel as my test drive session was the last session. My test drive mate, Mr Chen was also amazed with the power and outright handling of the 135i but the lovely experience soon come to an end where we were then asked to experience another car which is a BMW 320d. I have to say, this is another wonderful experience as this experience will bring back the memory of driving the 320d where I have driven it before during the launching of 320d and also the 520d. I was so amazed with the power delivery of the car and I even told the sales girl, if I do have cash to spare, my money will be spend wisely to a BMW diesel car as it so fun and very exciting to drive. No wonder the Europeans like driving the diesel engine car as compared to its petrol engine car. So my test drive mate, Mr Chen was a bit sceptical of driving a 320d, a 2 litre turbo charger diesel engine, as according to Mr Chen, it would be a downgrading kind of experience from driving a 135i with its twin scroll turbo charges to a diesel clattering car. At that particular time, yes I do agree it’s kind of downgrading experience, but that was before I test drive the 320d, but when I drive it back, what the car delivers is very different from the 135i, with its different ride and handling character and then my perception change back from a downgrading experience to a wonderful yet very exciting kind of feeling. The same goes to Mr Chen, he was truly impressed with the car and he is smiling to his ears while driving it and he do agrees that, the 320d is truly a wonderful companion for a day to day drive with its 177hp and a massive 350Nm of torque delivering from a low 1,750rpm with a century sprint achievable at 7.9 seconds.
With its powerful engine, we were finally arrived back to the Glenmarie showroom in a light speed. Any great experience will soon come to an end. After filling up the feedback form, seems like the experience is not enough, the drive is very invigorating and you wanted it more. I would like to wish BMW Malaysia a very good thank you for providing us an experience of driving while experiencing the innovation of BMW cars as mentioned on its tagline driving tomorrow’s BMW technology today. I do remember one very powerful word coming out from the BMW Malaysia Head of ICT and Vice President of Corporate Support Service cum BMW Driver Training Instructor, Mr Irwan Ismail, “Spread the word” yes a very strong statement coming from him when I experience the BMW drive during last year BMW Performance day. I may not be an owner of a BMW car now, but who knows what the future has installed for us. The sentence “Spread the word” is a very powerful marketing tool as 9/10 potential buyers truly believes a word of mouth. Once again kudos to BMW Malaysia for this wonderful experience, as to Mr Irwan Ismail, yes now I am truly spreading the words.
P/s I also would like to thank Ms Elaine of BMW for her very accommodating hospitality while experiencing this wonderful event. To BMW Malaysia sales and marketing people, who are reading my blog post, do contact me if you would like me to cover for your product launches and also media test drive event. My details are available at the Contact Me section.
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