The Global Car

Updated: 23 October 2010

Going through old articles which I had printed out and had accumulated over the years, I came across this great one by Paul Si on the Chevrolet Optra.

Front-side shot of a first generation Chevrolet Optra (localised variant), in Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
Source: Two hundred percent.

Also known as the Lacetti, this is a car that defies convenient labeling.

Before I talk about the particular model itself, I would like to talk a little bit about Chevrolet brand. It was named after Louis Chevrolet a famous racer and pioneer of automotive innovations from Switzerland.

I remember that some Muslims in Malaysia were turned off by the brand symbol because they thought it was a cross. Stupid! They did't know that it represents a 'Bowtie'. I was surprised to find that many people still have that perception and I am not sure why GM or their representatives in Malaysia are not doing anything to dispel this notion.

Ok about the Chevrolet Optra. Regarding its history, work on it was first started by the engineers of Korean company Daewoo. It was ultimately completed jointly with General Motors experts after the company was taken over and re-named GM Daewoo. The design and styling of the Optra/Lacetti was done by Pininfarina of Italy and suspension developed by Malaysian-owned British firm Lotus.

A 1.8l engine was sourced from GM’s Australian subsidiary, GM Holden, while, German transmission specialists, ZF, supplied the four-speed automatic gearboxes.

The 1.6l engine came from South Korea, which also supplied the five-speed manual box.

The car is built at the GM plant in Rayong, Thailand. One of the vendors is Hicom Automotive Plastics (Thailand) Ltd, wholly owned by DRB-Hicom of Malaysia.

The Optra 1.8l automatic is available from Hicomobil Sdn Bhd and its dealers.

This is a car that has been touched by American, British, French, Italian, Korean, German, Australian and even Malaysian influences.

Truly a Global car.

Trivia: This car was the new reasonably-priced car in Top Gear's "Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car" segment for season 8.

Also read The Optra option.

New Concept Vehicles from Mitsubishi

Mitsubishi Motors Corporation and Mitsubishi Motors North America Inc. will unveil the Concept-CT MIEV hybrid sport compact and new Eclipse Spyder convertible at the 2006 Detroit Motor Show (January 8 to 22 at the Cobo Center in Detroit and open to the general public from January 14)


Mitsubishi Concept- CT MIEV (Image sketch)


Eclipse Spyder (Image sketch)

The Concept-CT1 MIEV2 hybrid 4WD sport compact concept uses an outer rotor type in-wheel motors and a lithium-ion battery system to drive all four wheels. It is targeted at the growing sport compact category.

This next-generation electric vehicle pairs the MIEV concept with a gasoline engine for series-parallel hybrid propulsion, which delivers higher power and realizes longer cruising ranges, to drive all four wheels. It was created by the Mitsubishi Motors R&D of America, Inc. design studio based in Cypress, California.

The new Eclipse Spyder is a convertible version of the Eclipse sporty coupe the company showed at the Detroit Motor Show in January of this year.

It features a soft top which opens and closes at the touch of a switch, with a new powered tonneau panel. The car is powered by either a 2.4-liter in-line 4-cylinder MIVEC3 engine or a 3.8-liter V6 MIVEC engine.

Eclipse Spyder will be produced at the MMNA's facility in Normal, Illinois and is due to go on sale in the spring of 2006.

Hopefully, they will ultimately make their way to the Malaysian market with the required modifications (left hand drive to right hand).

Automatic Scratch Repairing Paint

I first read about this at Aviks's blog. Really interesting innovation that all of us motorists have been waiting for.

From Nissan's web site :

Nissan Motor Co., Ltd., has developed the world’s first clear paint known as “Scratch Guard Coat”, that repairs scratches on painted car surfaces.

The paint contains a newly developed high elastic resin that helps prevent scratches from affecting the inner layers of a car’s painted surface. The scratched surface of a car treated with this paint will return to its original state anywhere from one day to a week, depending on temperature and the depth of the scratch.

The paint is water-repellant and is effective for about three years. It also has a higher resistance to scratches compared with conventional clear paints.

An interesting information I obtained from this piece of news was that car-washing machines account for the majority of scratches to painted car surfaces. According to the Nissan website, vehicles painted with “Scratch Guard Coat” will have only one-fifth the abrasions caused by a car-washing machine compared with a car covered with conventional clear paint.

Car painted with “Scratch Guard Coat” (From the Nissan Website)

New scratches




One week later

Proton has a new MD

The rumours were true. PROTON Holdings Bhd has appointed Perusahaan Otomobil Nasional Bhd. executive director Syed Zainal Abidin Syed Mohd Tahir as its new managing director. The 43 year old will take over as MD from Jan 1, 2006. Proton also named Datuk Kisai Rahmat, (currently joint chief operating officer) as executive director of its engineering and manufacturing division.

Proton also reported its second consecutive quarterly net loss due to falling sales, rising costs and higher provisions (mostly due to Proton owned Italian motorcycle maker Agusta's increasing outstanding debts with banks and suppliers).

It lost 154.3 million ringgit (US$40.8 million; euro34.8 million) for the three months ending Sept. 30.

Read more at Paul Tan's blog.

Maximum Speed Limit in Malaysia

What is the maximum speed limit in Malaysia?

If you answer 110 KM/Hr on highways, then you are wrong. It is actually (but not officially) 120 KM/Hr.

Actually I had heard of this as a rumour before, but I later confirmed it with a few friends working with the JPJ, the Malaysian Road Transport Department.

It's an unwritten rule that the maximum speed limit beyond which motorist may be fined in Malaysia is 10 KM/hr more than what is pointed out on the signs. If you don't believe me, just check the speeding summons, which you have received so far. The fine will be for speeds more than 120 KM/hr on 110 Km/Hr stretches and more than 90 KM/Hr on the 80 KM/hr stretches.

Anyway, the fastest I have ever done on my Proton Wira is 145 KM/Hr and yes I received a summons for it. However, I have heard that some guys have gone as fast as 200KM/Hr on the North South highway. I know for a fact that one of my wife’s relatives did Kuala Lumpur to Johor in almost 2 and half hours on his Ferrari. That’s a distance of 368 km and normally takes 4 hours (with no traffic jams).

Proton Chancellor

Proton's new model, the Chancellor, will make its debut during the 11th Asean Summit (Dec 12-14, 2005) in Kuala Lumpur for use by the delegates. It will then be launched publicly on Dec 15, 2005.

The car is an executive class sedan and is specifically designed to be a chauffer-driven.

It uses the Perdana V6 engine on the Waja platform with a wheelbase of 2850mm. From the pictures I have seen, it resembles the Proton Waja.

Proton has not released the price of the Chancellor.

If anyone has pictures or any other info about this model, please share it with us.

Just e-mail me: ahoklah@gmail.com

NAP

I wrote this long time back but forgot to put it up on the blog. So here is the framework of the National Automotive Policy of Malaysia.

The Objectives:
1. To promote a competitive and viable automotive sector, in particular he national car manufacturers.
2. To become a regional hub for manufacturing, assembly and distribution for automotive vehicles.
3. To enhance value added and local capabilites in the automotive sector.
4. To promote export-oriented Malaysian manufacturers as well as component and parts vendors.
5. To promote competitive and broad-based Bumiputra participation in vehicle manufacturing, distribution and importation as well as in component and parts manufacturing.

OTHERS:

- Reduction in import duties for CBU vehicles. ASEAN countries: from 20% to 15% and Non-ASEAN: From 50% to 30%

- Import duties for CKDs maintained: 0% for vehicles from ASEAN and at 10% on non-ASEAN.

- Reduction in excise duties for passenger cars and 4WDs. The reduction is the highest in passenger cars: 90%-250% to 80%-200%.

- However, Excise duties for MPV/vans to increase.

- Approved Permits (AP) to be phased out in the long term.

This represent a movement in the right direction but maybe a bit too late as other countires like Thailand have already moved way ahead.

However as they say, better late than never.