The AutoIndustrie Blog

Mukhriz : Perodua is as Malaysian as it gets

2010-03-11T00:05:00.000-08:00

Looks like Daihatsu's outpost in Malaysia, Perodua, is going on a PR overdrive to convince the public (and the government) that it is a truly bona fide Malaysian car company, and thus deserves every bit of protection enjoyed by Proton. Last month, Perodua proudly annonunced that the company is planning to export auto parts to DMC's plants in Japan. Yesterday, two more news hinting at the same

Vios Minor Change 2010 shots

2010-03-05T07:49:00.000-08:00

A follow up to the 2010 Vios Minor Change post. Credits to autoincar.com for posting them up.Launch in main ASEAN regional markets of Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia and Singapore is expected to be between April - June 2010.

Germans remained indifferent about Toyota's woes

2010-03-03T19:47:00.000-08:00

In the recent Geneva Motor Show, executives from BMW and Mercedes were asked if Toyota's Lexus recall issues would lead to Mercedes-Benz and BMW trying to grab sales from Lexus in the United States.“I will not, and I mean that seriously. It's not what we do. At the end of the day they are still a good company."Ian Robertson, BMW's sales and marketing chief."That's not the way we do business."

The correct world's first removable wrist watch-car clock

2010-03-02T21:24:00.000-08:00

With reference to an earlier post about the Peugeot SR1 Concept, anonymous reader "luxury watch aficionado" pointed that Peugeot was not the first to offer a removable luxury clock. The honour goes to Bugatti's 16C Galiber Concept, which features a Parmigiani made removable Reverso Tourbillon clock that can be worn as a wrist watch. The price? A cool USD 150,000.This particular bit info was not

Drumming up support for Akio Toyoda.

2010-02-26T06:50:00.000-08:00

Many years ago, Toyota showed this TV commercial.The short 30 second ad pretty much sums up what the Toyota brand stands for in the eyes of the general public.In an almost hero-zero like manner, Toyota started making headlines late last year for all the wrong reasons. Starting with this incident. Recordings of the frantic 911 call by the driver of an out of control Lexus ES were spread on Youtube

World's first - Removable car clock you can wear as wrist watch

2010-02-18T20:19:00.000-08:00

French car maker Peugeot is the latest car maker to unveil a car (albeit in Concept form) in partnership with a premium watch maker. The Peugeot SR1 Concept will be the first car in the world to have a detachable premium watch that you can remove from the vehicle and wear on your wrist. Correction : This is the correct world's first.Luxury watches and cars often appeal to the same consumer

Audi Winter Olympics commercials

2010-02-18T08:01:00.000-08:00

Once again, Audi (of America) takes a jab at its competitors. Not contended with the recent TDi Superb Bowl ad, Audi purchased two ad spots for the Winter Olympics season.Personally I think it is a little bit over the top. Audi has always been about subtlety and understated elegance, a strong preference of inner strengths over superficial values, hence the tagline "Truth in Engineering." So the

Nissan Juke looks to VW TSI

2010-02-16T20:44:00.000-08:00

Like many people, our jaws dropped, and we scratched our head in disbelieve when Nissan revealed the Juke crossover. Then again, what do we bloggers / arm-chair critics / so-called industry watchers know about car design? More than 5 years ago, critics spelled doom and gloom when Chris Bangle unveiled the flame surfaced E60 5-series and duck-tailed E65 7-series. The market responded by providing

Thoughts on After-Sales

2010-02-10T16:25:00.000-08:00

55% of American drivers surveyed by AutoMD intend to use their current vehicle until "it dies," a decision mainly driven by the generally poor confidence of consumers in the economy.Nearly 50% of survey respondents indicated that their current vehicle had over 100,000 miles. A combined 69% reported that they planned to drive their current vehicle for 150,000 or more miles (13%), or until their

2010 Super Bowl Commercials

2010-02-10T04:40:00.000-08:00

Super Bowl is America's most celebrated sports event. TV commercial slots during Super bowl is also the most expensive and a highly coveted airtime for commercial brands. In this year's Super Bowl, Hyundai purchased the most airtime, some of the ads were clearly targeted at Toyota, with reference to their recent high publicized quality concerns. Toyota meanwhile took this opportunity to launch a

Honda expands airbag recall

2010-02-09T21:43:00.000-08:00

In the wake of Toyota's recent gas pedal and Prius brake recall as well as Honda's recent power window switch recall, Honda Motor Co. today announced that the company needs to expand the coverage of a recent airbag related recall. The part under scrutiny is the driver's airbag inflator module, which under a worst case scenario, could deploy with excessive force, rupturing the module and sending

Fast & Furious 5

2010-02-08T21:28:00.000-08:00

According to rumours within the entertainment industry, a fifth installment of the Fast and Furious franchise is in the plans.According to Variety, the next installment will be called Fast Five, with the old crew of Vin Diesel and Paul Walker as lead stars and Justin Lin directing. Filming is set to begin later this year, with a movie release in 2011. Filming location is rumoured to be either in

VW Cars Sdn Bhd to pursue legal action against VGM

2010-02-07T19:44:00.000-08:00

Back in Nov 2009, VW Sdn Bhd, the then master dealer of VW vehicles in Malaysia had their dealership terminated with immediate effect by Volkswagen Group Malaysia Sdn Bhd (VGM). The news came very sudden and there were many speculations as to reason behind the sudden fallout. Prior to their termination, VW Cars was operating two dealerships in the Klang Valley, a "boutique store" in The Curve and

Thoughts on Toyota's recall

2010-02-04T05:42:00.000-08:00

Above is an image explaining Toyota's permanent solution to its problematic runaway cars. The part is currently being shipping to all Toyota dealers in markets affected (North America, Europe, China, South Africa, Middle East, Latin America) by the recall as we speak. Just when you thought that Toyota can finally put that episode behind it and work on repairing its damaged brand reputation, we

2010 Vios Minor Change - ASEAN version

2010-01-30T08:32:00.000-08:00

The king of online scoop news, autoincar.com have just posted some images of the Vios Minor Change, Japanese speak for a facelift model.Update : Follow-up entry here.No specific info on local individual ASEAN countries introduction timing but mid-2010 is a good guess. So expect some good bargains and discounts for the current 482L Vios by the 2nd quarter of this year.Earlier, we have seen the

The week of mega recalls

2010-01-29T23:42:00.000-08:00

I was away for a week, snorkeling in islands off the Indian Ocean, unplugged from everything, and came back to find my RSS feeds filled with Toyota recall related news. First Toyota assured owners that there was nothing wrong with the cars despite many angry online postings by disgruntled Toyota owners, and remained adamant that sudden accelerations were caused by "driver error." Then a family of

Renault's expansion plans upsets French nationalist sentiments

2010-01-18T21:11:00.000-08:00

Think the Malaysian government meddles too much into Proton's business affairs? Consider the recent sparring between Renault and the French government. The President of France Nicolas Sarkozy as well as Industry Minister Christian Estrosi have reportedly given the board of Renault, including CEO Carlos Ghosn quite a earful for their decision to move the primary production site of the next

Daihatsu says Zai Jian to China

2010-01-12T22:00:00.000-08:00

Back in July 2009, Daihatsu ceased its automotive marketing activities in China, due to very poor sales. It handed over all automotive marketing and retail responsibilities to its local partner Tianjin FAW, which also has a separate joint venture with Daihatsu's parent company Toyota. Since the withdrawal of the Daihatsu brand in China, FAW has proceeded to rebadged the Daihatsu Xenia (aka Toyota

Continental to produce lower cost ESC and ACC solutions

2010-01-11T21:50:00.000-08:00

With new safety regulations by both the US Federal government and European Union mandating Electronic Stability Control (ESC) as mandatory for all cars starting from 2011, automotive electronics giant like Continental is set to cash in the new development. The ESC market is largely dominated by the twin German giants of Bosch (which patents their ESC solutions under the ESP name) and Continental.

Nissan Serena to return to local shores?

2010-01-11T01:41:00.000-08:00

Not sure if this is for real, but according to autoincar.com, the next generation Serena will once again be assembled in Malaysia. Previously we have heard of rumours that TCMA will snap up Ford's former AMI plant which has since been left idle ever since Ford Malaysia packed their bags and handed over the distribution business to Sime-Darby AutoConnexion. Most people are wondering why the need

Polo Sedan to challenge Vios in Thailand?

2010-01-07T20:37:00.000-08:00

We know that VW have made its intention to control 10% (from its current less than 1%) of the Indian car market very clear. Part of this plan include a major expansion of its dealer network, to 200 outlets (from the current 40 outlets) over the next 2 or 3 years. The first product to sustain this push is the Indian made Polo. Indian market regulations states that to qualify as a "small car" which

2 units of Lancer Evolution police cars destroyed so far?

2010-01-06T21:38:00.000-08:00

Remember the earlier post about our very own Lancer Evo police pursuit cars? Well according to CBT, apparently 2 units have since been totalled beyond repair. While there is a very little information on what happened, so let's not make any rash conclusions. But personally however I don't have a good experience with these so called Unit Helangs.Not long after the first post on the Lancer Evo

Toyota Etios Concept Car Official Pictures

2010-01-05T18:38:00.001-08:00

A follow up to the earlier post, below are the official pictures of the Toyota Etios Concept, previously known as EFC.Power will come from a choice of 1.2-litre or 1.5-litre petrol engine.

Toyota EFC to be unveiled as the Etios?

2010-01-04T20:20:00.000-08:00

We have previously talked about Toyota's upcoming LCC (low cost car), known internally as the EFC (emerging market family car), which we know will be launched in January's New Delhi Auto Show. Today, some photos taken during setup were leaked out, apparently it is of the Toyota Etios. Early info suggests that the Etios will be unveiled in India as a Concept car but looking at it, this seems very

Diesel powered BMW M models?

2009-12-24T23:59:00.000-08:00

Am currently sitting in a cafe with WiFi trying to get some work done. Playing on the flat screen TV is ESPN's highlights of the 2009 season of FIA WTCC. I hardly follow any motor racing series, not even Formula One. At least not as regularly as I used to. Watching the highlights, I get an odd feeling seeing the works BMW team 320si cars being pushed around and hunted down with no mercy by packs