Proton Exora CFE CVT spotted testing near Genting Highland

Wow thanks to Funtasticko design for alerting me about this spy pics of the Proton Exora CFE CVT that has been spotted testing near Genting Highland. Based on my reliable sources, the Exora CFE (Campro Fuel Efficient) is powered with a 1.6Liter Turbo engine that is mated to a CVT transmission. If you look closely, the bumper sports a different design and the design is not just for fun, it is basically an opening for the turbo intercooler which is located on the left side hole of the bumper. I’m not so sure whether this bumper will be the final design or not or just for testing purpose only as it is still far away for the Exora facelift which is rumoured to be powered with this new engine. Well what we can hope for is for the Proton’s MD to unveiled this new engine during the KL International Motor Show (KLIMS) 2010 as I suspect this is the time for the Dato’ MD to present this new engine as what has been indicated by him during a media interview in the past week. According to him, Proton will introduce the Turbo engine at the end of the year which is coincidently the KLIMS is happening during that particular time. I expect, the Proton booth will be a very interesting booth to visit during the KLIMS 2010. Keep your fingers cross!!!

Complete video presentation from the media test drive review of Korean journalist on the all new Hyundai Avante/Elantra

Here are the complete video of the test drive review of media from Korea on the all new Hyundai Avante/Elantra. Unfortunately the video is in Korean language thus I don’t understand what they are talking about. Any Korea readers of Auto Insider Malaysia care to explain to all of us about this new Hyundai Avante. Enjoy the video of this stunning Hyundai Avante. Here is the first video that I have published earlier. More video after the jump.

Mitsubishi Lancer Sportsback coming soon to Malaysia. Enjoy the exclusive spy shot!!!

We have read from other online automotive blog that Mitsubishi is going to launch the all new Pajero soon here in Malaysia. It was rumoured that the big SUV will be price around RM 300,000.00. Based on the journalist that has been invited to the Tokachi proving ground near Hokaido when they test drove the new Pajero, Mitsubishi has hinted that they will launch 3 new models this year in Malaysia which one of them is the new Pajero. So what are the other 2 models?

First production units of Mini Countryman rolls out from Magna Steyr Austria

Hot from the oven, this is the first Mini Countryman coming out from production as saleable car and not the production trail or pre production units which are destine for engineers to detect the early problem of the car. This 2011 Mini Countryman was shot at Magna Steyr plant in Graz Austria where it is previously has assemble the first generation of BMW X3. Speaking of Magna Steyr, something about that has link near to us. Keep on guessing guys!!

Enjoy the melodic exhaust note from the Porsche 918 Spyder

This is the latest video from Porsche about their new reportedly green light for production 918 Hybrid which is shown at Monterey festival. Please switch on the volume of your speaker and enjoy the melodic sound coming out from the exhaust of the car.

Source: Youtube and Road and Track

Latest 2012 Honda Civic Spy Video!!

This is the latest spy video of the 2012 Honda Civic being shot in a heavily cladded near Honda offices in Germany. Well to me it is not a spy video, but more of promotional video by Honda, but it is shot as if it is a spy shot. As you can see the video shot, it is too easy to get the glimpse of the car and also seems like to spy photographer already knew the route the car is going. As far as we know, the looks of the car does not differ much from the current Euro market five door Civic based on the silhouette of the car. So what I can say enjoy this promotional video.

DRB-HICOM and Volkswagen to roll out 3 CKD models here in Malaysia!!

We have heard the news of joint manufacturing of Volkswagen model with DRB-HICOM recently and today’s news we have heard that there will be 3 CKD models will be churn out from DRB-HICOM plant in Pekan based on the source here. The earliest we can see the fruitfulness of this joint venture will be on the last quarter of 2011 which is about a year plus from now. My instincts says that, the 3 models would be a VW Polo Sedan, a model develop for developing nation which is recently launched in India, a VW Jetta, a mid size sedan which would be a direct competitor to Honda Civic, Toyota Altis and Peugeot 407 and the last model would be the VW Golf or maybe VW Passat.

I would bet Golf would be a better choice as it has a quite number of enthusiasts here in Malaysia. As for the MPV, VW Touran, most likely it will be imported from Indonesia under the AFTA agreement to complement the local line up. So what your say about this 3 CKD models that would be manufactured here in Malaysia. Do you think that my instinct has a valid reason? Well looks like I need to dig some info from my sources inside DRB-HICOM for any new juicy info about this CKD programme. Wish me luck :)

Video of Jaguar XJ75 Platinum Concept!!

Jaguar is celebrating its 75th aniversay with a bash at the Pebble Beach Concours D'Elegance by unveiling the special edition the Jaguar XKR175 which were limited to 175 units only and there is another special edition which is the Jaguar XJ75 Platinum Concept.

The new XJ75 Platinum Concept is based on the XJL Supercharged which we luxuriously paint with Satin Matte Pearlescent White paint, with a black accents, a trunk mounted spoiler, an aerodynamic body kit and a 22 inch alloy wheels.

All the chrome trimming on the car has been change with a satin black colour even the leaping cat logo has been grace with a satin black colour. On the inside, the car boast a leather seat with diamond suede inserts, a bespoke Bremont clock, a massive 1,200 watt Bowers & Wilkins sounds system which I would say great and also a pearlescent white trim. Bremont clock, and a 1,200-watt Bowers & Wilkins sound system. According to the XJ's Chief Designer, Giles Taylor, "From a pure design perspective, the XJ75 Platinum Concept is foremost about emphasizing the striking proportion and presence of the new XJ, with a distilled black and white theme, which conjures up the sense of precious platinum."

This supercharged Jaguar will be powered by a 5.0 litre V8 with 510hp which would possibly be an XJR. A very beautiful car indeed.  Enjoy the pics after the jump. p/s The video does not load directly from the main blog post. Please click read more to watch to video. I don't know what went wrong with Blogger today. Sorry for the inconvenience cause

source: Jaguar

Ferrari 458 Italia crashes near Ferrari factory!!

Here’s another heart wrecking video for any avid Tifosi fans to see a new Ferrari 458 Italia involved in an accident. The accident happens at Maranello, yes the city of the Prancing Horse right outside the Ferrari factory. As you can see from the video, it looks like the driver of the car has overestimated his skill of manoeuvring the car around a bend thus crashing the car onto a tree. Maybe he is too excited driving this car and turning off all the electronic aids to show off his friends his unskilful driving manner. Luckily the car is not his, but unluckily for the rental company and the insurance company that needs to bear the cost of the repair. No wonder it is so expensive to rent exotic cars.

Ford Fiesta WRC shakedown video

Here is an interesting video about the Ford Fiesta WRC performing its shakedown. WRC is going to be more interesting next year with the regulation has been change with the engine displacement has been drop from 2.0 to 1.6 liters thus the sound and feel of driving the car is different. With this new regulation, maybe in the next few years we can see a Proton car running on the latest Campro Phoenix turbo engine roaming the WRC league instead of running at IRC and Asia Pacific Rally tournament. But it’s all depends on Proton strategy to be much more involved in the world of motorsport and also the most important thing is; backing of sponsors.

source:

Drive home a new car for this Hari Raya with Naza World "Upgrade Promo"

Following encouraging response from last weekend’s upgrade promo, Naza World has decided to extend the event for another weekend. Same as last weekend deal, for every car sold during the month of Ramadhan, Naza will donate RM500 to selected charities. The “Upgrade Promo” will be on from 9am to 7pm starting from yesterday till 15th August 2010 which is this Sunday at all Naza World branches nationwide.

Write you own blog post and publish it here in Auto Insider Malaysia. Credits are all yours.

Readers of Auto Insider Malaysia, today marked the 4th month of Auto Insider Malaysia has been established in the World Wide Web (WWW). I would like to wish thank you for your time and interest of being the readers of this website. I have always dream of having an open platform of automotive blog and I think it is time for me to open up this blog to all readers of Auto Insider Malaysia. What I mean by an open platform are readers of Auto Insider Malaysia can write their own blog post by emailing any stories about automotive scene here in Malaysia and other parts of the world to autoinsidermalaysia[at]gmail[dot]com and after moderation, I will publish your blog post and the credit is yours. I will state the author of this story and if you do have your own website, please include the link to your website so that I can publish it too. Besides that, if the stories you are writing are from other sources, please include the sources of that particular story. Please have your say about this idea if do like about it. Happy reading and have a nice weekend.

DRB-HICOM and Volkswagen AG has signed Memorandum of understanding (MoU) for CKD manufacturing in Pekan.

Look like the dream of owning a Volkswagen for the masses here in Malaysia would become a reality as yesterday DRB-HICOM and Volkswagen AG has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to collaborate on the assembly and manufacturing of VW car here in Malaysia. It is not a surprise VW would find another partner here in Malaysia after the failed talked with Proton as Volkswagen is really looking forward of having a car manufacturing facilities here in Malaysia as Malaysia has the biggest share of selling cars compared to other ASEAN region.

The MoU was sign at Volkswagen center in Singapore between the DRB-HICOM group managing director Datuk Seri Khamil Jamil with Volkswagen senior vice president, group manufacturing overseas, Dr Christof Spathelf and its head of sales for China and Asean, Soh Wei Ming.

This MoU will pave way for DRB-HICOM and Volkswagen to jointly plan the production of Volkswagen models here in Malaysia and currently both parties is in intense discussion of having a CKD (Completely Knocked Down) models here in Malaysia. As we may know, DRB-HICOM has its automotive manufacturing facilities in Pekan, Pahang, thus, the CKD programme will commence at its full fledge facilities once all the necessary facilities are up and running.

"We hope the entry of Volkswagen, Europe's biggest vehicle manufacturer into Pekan, would help to spur its transformation into a vibrant and self-sustaining regional automotive hub, as envisioned under the East Coast Economic Region initiative," said Mohd Khamil.

Accoding to Mohd Kamil, The group will also look at engaging the full participation of its component manufacturing companies, in a move to support Volkswagen's localisation programme, in line with the National Automotive Policy

source

Heart Pounding Monster Tajima piloting the Suzuki SX4 Pikes Peak run

Enjoy this heart pounding 11 minutes video brought exclusively by Falken tires of “Monster” Nobuhiro Tajima piloting the Suzuki SX4 with 3.1 litres twin turbo V6 which producing 897bhp and 654 pound feet of torque.

source:

Spy video of the upcoming Ferrari 458 Challenge caught lapping Fiorano circuit

This is a new spy videos of the upcoming Ferrari 458 Challenge being caught lapping the Ferrari’s Fiorano Circuit. This new Ferrari reportedly will feature a 562bhp churning out from its 4.5litres V8 engine that produces an astonishing 540Nm of torque. The engine is mated with a F1 inspired dual clutch gearbox with additional features such as F1-Trac control, a racing suspension and electronic differential. Enjoy the video.

Are your car safe from hackers?

With the introduction of electronic gadgetry in a car now, the car has been relying all the digital input to keep it up and running as compared to the car two decades ago. While the use of electronic gadgets has seen benefits, previously there are reports that it is now not so safe as the electronic system can be hack by tapping into the OBD-11(On board diagnostic) port normally used by mechanics for reading all the diagnostics codes.

Now there are new ways a hacker can hack into your vehicles. The way to hack it is through wirelessly connect to the tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS) as this gadget uses sensors on each wheel to monitor the tire pressure and transmit the data over radio frequencies to the car ECU.

By scanning the signals from the TPMS, any hackers can interfere the signals thus providing some false alarm input to the car but based on the reports the implication are limited as TPMS sensors have a very short range transmission signal and the update to the ECU is only limited to every 60 to 90 seconds. But even though the damage is limited, the findings has open up the weakness of such system thus an electronic temper proof data signal is required in the future in order to prevent such occurrence.

source:

Jaguar XKR175 to be debut at Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance

Jaguar will be celebrating its 75 years of establishment this year and it is using the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance to showcase its limited edition 2011 Jaguar XKR175 Coupe for its North American debut.

As being mentioned in its name XKR175, this limited edition will only be produce 175 units with the car being powered by a 510bhp supercharged V8 that produced an astounding 624Nm of torque. To control all of its available powers, Jaguar has installed a new rear diffuser, a big rear spoiler, a remodelled side sill and a revised air dam. Top speed of the car has been electronically limited to 174mph (280km/h).

There will be one colour which is Ultimate Black for this special edition which is fitted with 20 inch Kasuga alloy wheels and bright red brake callipers that will strike a sporty pose to this car. On the interior, as usual a Jaguar offering, it will be laid with Warm Charcoal leather with a Cranberry stitching and to finish up its exclusivity, is a wood veneer trim finish in Piano Black and special series numbers will be etch on the door sills.

The car will cost $104,500 that includes destination charges.

Artist impression of the new Saga Facelift!!

This is a very interesting artist impression of the upcoming Proton Saga Facelift featured in this blog. According to the website, this artist impression was based on the spy shots of the car being caught at Bukit Jelutong recently. I also have seen the car travelling along the NKVE recently near the Subang Jaya exit but unfortunely I was on the other side of the highway, so it was impossible for me to snap the photos of the car. Well to me the artist impression about this car is very promising and very convincing apart from the grill and also the side mirrors which looks like a Persona Elegance side mirror which are a bit off from the pictures of the spy shot. Does this artist Chaku have some inside inputs from Proton of how the Saga Facelift will look like? As you read the post on the website, the title of the post is Phase 1 of Saga Facelift. Ehmm very interesting. Looks like Proton is going to have more than 1 phase of the facelift?

About this new Saga facelift, I have some juicy bits about it based on my trusted sources and I would say this new facelift is going to be a great seller once it will be launched in few months time. I would say the people who will buy the highline model will enjoy the most upgrades both on the exterior and also the interior. Yes there are some upgrades on the interior of the car and the upgrades will definitely a welcome compared to the ones that being offered currently in the current version of the Saga. As for the colours, as of now, there will be two new colours will be offered and some of the currents colours will be discontinued. Stay tune to this blog as I will explain further about the upgrades on this new Saga facelift once the launch is near and once all the specification has been confirmed.

Enjoy the rest of the spy shots after the jump

The all new BMW 6 series prototypes caught on camera at Autobahn!!

This is a very interesting 10 minutes video of the all new BMW 6-series Convertibles and the 6 series Coupe being spy shot along the Autobahn. All together 3 different prototypes being caught on camera while it was speeding of up to 250km/h. This shot were taken in a 635hp G-Power M3 which is an insanely capable car to match the prototypes. Enjoy the video.

source:

Suzuki Alto is here in Malaysia!!!

Wow it’s been a while that I have not written anything in my blog. Well I have some juicy story for you here readers of Auto Insider Malaysia specifically for readers here in Malaysia. Yes Suzuki Malaysia Automobiles Sdn. Bhd has  launch the all new Suzuki Alto yesterday 09th of August 2010. I manage to capture this new car available at this showroom which is on display.

I'm sorry for my absence

Dear readers of Auto Insider Malaysia. I'm sorry for my absence in the past few days. I have not published any new blog post recently due to some health reason happening to my family. So I have to concentrate on that first before I can publish any newer post. I can assure you, some of the post that I'm going to publish soon is very interesting especially with the oil price has just gone up here in Malaysia. So stay tune!!! I will update my blog soon. Take care all of you.