I was moving back and forth between Quill BMW located at Section 14 lately as I was installing my powerkit and had to send the car in for it's 30,000km service. It was during this period where I had a courtesy car to use over the week, which was the face-lifted BMW X3. During this week of travelling between home and KL as well as occasional trips to Bangi to visit certain clients and a wedding to attend at Cheras, I had my first taste of BMW's new 2.0 litre power plant with it's twin scroll turbo technology.

As I returned the X3, I spied the recently launched BMW F30 320i. Being the curious person I was, I wanted to try it out and have a go at it. Immediately after getting into the car, the few differences between the E90 and F30 can easily be noticed.

1. Key-less stop start system - This was one of the things which irritated me whilst I was driving the X3 as the engine would stop running every time I was at the traffic lights or stuck in traffic.


2. New steering wheel design - BMW has moved the cruise control functionality to the steering wheel rather than having an additional stalk compared to the E90.


3. No paddle shifters - Like the F30 320d, the F30 320i doesn't come with paddle shifters


4. 6.5" screen with no satellite navigation and DVD playback


5. 8-speed automatic transmission

Transmission
Personally I really do like the newer 8-speed automatic transmission, it feels a lot smoother versus the older 6-speed variant. It took me a lot of adjusting when I moved from a double clutch gearbox where shifts were extremely seamless and smooth to a 6-speed automatic. All I can say that the newer 8-speed feels very closely to the double clutch gearbox.

Power Plant
The BMW TwinPower Turbo four-cylinder petrol engine which combines twin-scroll turbocharger with Valvetronic, Double VANOS and High Precision Injection really does live up to all it's marketing hype. Those familiar with BMW's engines from the MINI series will be familiar with their latest engine in the F30 320i. Power delivery was fast thanks to the turbo and 270Nm of torque. I was very impressed with it's acceleration and couple that together with quick gear shifts, the F30 320i really did impress me. Definitely we will see people getting the 320i and then having a simple remap on the ECU should unleash even more horses from the car.



The car comes with the sports mode functionality whereby your throttle response is improved, your gear shifts are aggressive and your steering, a little heavier. In technical terms it means a gentle tap to the accelerator can be easily felt, you swap gears at higher RPM's and you get less help from the power steering making the wheel (steering) heavier.

Handling
The steering is definitely lighter than my car, the feel of it is nice and smooth and once you go into sports mode the steering gets heavier which is a feature I do like. But what you do lack in terms of steering is the feedback from the front tyres. You don't get to feel the groove the of the roads. This is a preference for different people, especially people who just want a car that is nice and comfortable, the steering on the F30 320i doesn't disappoint. But for those hardcore fanatics then they will be wondering what is it that is missing. It's like when Porsche recently included in an electric steering rack to their 911 which a lot of critics said that the car has lost it's soul. In this case, it really doesn't matter because the 320i is meant to be a comfort saloon car and not one would expect to turn it into a performance monster.

The suspension was soft on the model I have driven but that's because it wasn't the M-Sport model. So far, no tentative dates yet are available on when the F30 M-Sport models would be hitting our shores.

Priced at RM238,800 (recommended OTR), I would say it's main rivals would be the Audi A4 as well as the Volkswagen CC. Both the VAG cars have a 1.8 litre power plant but the A4 and the 320i are closely matched in terms of power although the A4 has a bit more torque (320Nm vs 270Nm) compared to the 320i but loses out in horsepower (170hp vs 184).

It's funny that I wrote this post title since April the 8th and yet here it is still in my draft inbox of my blog. Anyhow, this is going to be a short and simple review of the E90 320d. The version I drove is the M-Sport kit with the full i-Drive system which is all in all a very good package. Especially now that the F30 has just been launched, you still might be able to get good bargains and fantastic discounts.

Coming from a guy who has driven a front wheel drive car all his life (well I had experience with a 4WD car when I was driving my Perodua Kembara previously), moving over to a rear wheel drive car was a new beginning for me. Personally, I can't really tell much of a difference, I did bring my car up Genting for a couple of runs but the main difference I can feel immediately was the steering. I tend to oversteer now a lot more compared to my Golf previously which tend to understeer at corners.

Handling wise I haven't had the chance to fully utilize BMW's so called perfect balance of a 50:50 weight distribution but being a fat 100kg guy, I think I totally screwed that up the moment I sat in the car. Right now the car is completely stock and even with the M-sport suspension, the car is comfortable indeed. That is mostly also due to the 17" rims it comes with and with rims that size, the tyres are on the tad comfortable side of things.

Now before anyone asks, for the 320d, the d stands for Diesel and yes, the diesel engine does make a bit of a noise hence I call the car a lorry or a taxi at times (well the older taxies which ran on diesel now that all the newer ones run on natural gas). But the moment you step inside the car and close the door, you can barely hear anything. Ride comfort is good and you just have to get used to the engine noise when you accelerate. Its not the usual engine sound you hear but rather, the sound of a diesel powerplant pushing you all the way

I used the term pushing is because this damn car gives you 380Nm of torque on paper. I brought it over to Sunway to have it dyno tested and the results was rather surprising! It resulted in 171whp and 370Nm of torque. All of that on the wheel! I definitely would encourage those of you who have the 320d to get the powerkit which then pushes the car to over 200hp and 420Nm of mouth watering torque. But thats just me, a performance junkie, well in some way. I just love the thrill of the acceleration but I usually chicken out at high speeds.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="616"] Source: PaulTan.org[/caption]

Interior wise everything is as standard as what BMW can give you, comfortable leather seats, electric seats, a nice M-sport steering wrapped in leather, i-Drive with Navigation and DVD playback. All in all a good package. I really did like the bluetooth integration with my phone as well as the DVD player made me go out to buy a bunch of DVD-R to burn some TV series and Top Gear on them.

In terms of running or servicing costs, because BMW's come with their BS+RI (BMW Service + Repair Inclusive)  which basically means that your service is free for the first 3 years or 100,000km, that means you don't have to pay for anything when you bring your car in for service. And I mean everything including engine oil, brake pads, etc.



Compared to the F30, it uses the same exact engine but the F30 has a new gearbox. The downside is that at this point in time the F30 320d has quite bad specs, no navigation and the screen is only 6.5". The F30 is indeed a little roomier especially for the rear passengers but for the front seats, the seats are not the sportier type and its aimed more towards comfort hence the feel of a larger cabin space.

In conclusion, the car is indeed crazy, crazy that you have so much torque and crazy that at a full tank of diesel (RM1.80 versus RM1.90 for Ron95 petrol), I can travel more than 700km. Heck, at a full 100% city driving, I manage to achieve 700km even through the notorious KLCC traffic jams on Tun Razak. So if you are keen on getting a BMW on the cheap, head over to your nearest dealer to find out some of the fantastic deals they have.

Real-time Fuel Stats

You can check out the current fuel consumption of the 320d in the link below.


 

Over last weekend, I managed to get an opportunity to shoot this beautiful car during an automotive workshop organized by Live Life Drive magazine. The entire workshop was held at the new Renault showroom over at Section 13. There were about 13 participants in total (I think) and most of the time, we never really had our alone time with the car.

Hence the lack of interior shots as well as the white Megane RS which was in the showroom itself. The instructor was Sherman who guided us through from shooting cars in an outdoor location, what are some of the tips that we needed to be aware of.

After that, we moved into the showroom where Sherman then explained to us about the things to watch out and what to be aware off especially when shooting cars in the showroom itself as well as in an indoor location.

In between shoots, I managed to have a chat with Sherman about shooting cars and what I thought about it. He did give me some insight about shooting cars and I learned that cars alone are as much as shooting a portrait session. Instead of looking at the couples as just another human being, we tend to learn more about them, find out their history, what their likes and dislikes are in order to capture "them". The same goes for cars, the history behind the car, what car is it, what does the car represent.

At the beginning of the workshop, the participants were also informed that there will be a winning shot competition where each participant would submit their best photo. I took this time as a challenge and made a complete fool of myself because I shot it RAW and forgot to change it to JPEG. Another surprise was that the image was going to be straight from camera so there was no Photoshop manipulation.

After shooting in the showroom, we moved on towards the back of the showroom where a Renault Koleos was waiting for us to photograph as well as the yellow Megane RS.

At the end of the day, this was the image I submitted.


Although the image I posted up here was a slightly touched up version as the original image had a bit of a yellow hose which was left on the ground where I cloned it out.


Photo credit: Live Life Drive Magazine

Here was a photo of my shot being displayed on the projector during the end of the workshop and when the judges were giving their comments.

A little bit of technical stuff here, I shot mainly with a Canon 5D Mk2 in full RAW. I used mostly the 17-40mm F4 lens throughout the shoot with the occasional change to the 50mm. I wanted to use the 70-200mm lens but couldn't get the right angle and shot that I wanted. All of the photos were shot in natural light, placement of the cars was done by the showroom guy so even if I wanted the car at a different angle, I couldn't.

At the end, I was glad as my photo was selected as one of the top 5, woohoo!

Photo credit: Live Life Drive Magazine

Thanks to that win, I received a small goody bag and of course a big boost in terms of confidence. I did recall that one of my projects last year was to start shooting more automotive themed shoots so this was one of my initiatives. Can't wait to shoot even more cars especially if the opportunity arises!

Do check out some of my shots below.
[gallery link="file" columns="2" orderby="rand"]

More photos and information about the workshop is available here.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.306430839427798.68914.199088550162028&type=1

The shroud has finally been unveiled. Volkswagen Group Malaysia has finally unveiled the VW Passat, VW Jetta and the VW Cross Touran.

Price structures for these cars are as shown below.

• VW Jetta - RM149,888 (160ps, 240Nm, 1.4 TSI, 7-speed DSG gearbox)


• VW Passat - RM184,888 (160ps, 250Nm, 1.8 TSI, 7-speed DSG gearbox)


• VW Cross Touran - RM166,888 (140ps, 220Nm, 1.4 TSI, 7-speed DSG gearbox)

I am surprised that the Jetta prices are a lot higher than the earlier said rumours which priced the car to be within the RM138k range to compete against the Civics and Altis. At RM150k, the price is going to be very close to that of the Golf TSI.

All of the cars are CBU units as the Pekan plant hasn't started operations yet.

As with our Malaysian mentality, the market still doesn't really care about the various car segments and they mostly compare cars based on price.

At RM150k, that touches the Toyota Camry, Accords price range and the Jetta might have a tall order to challenge them. The Jetta wouldn't be spec as much as the other Japs but in terms of drivability, the Jetta should win hands down.

The Passat priced at RM184k should be within the range of the 2.4 Camry, Mazda 6 as well as the higher specced Accord. I should say the Passat would then be a better buy purely on the fact that the car has good power and the road tax for the Passat which falls within the <2000cc range should make it more attractive. Although, the Ford Mondeo comes at very close competitor offering 200ps and 300Nm at RM180k, I am quite surprised that I don't see that many Mondeo's on the road. Probably because of its looks that most people don't fancy.

Most discussions on the social network tend to show that most people think that the cars are a little overpriced but then again in Malaysia we tend to be buying cars at an overpriced price anyway.

What we haven't seen yet is the Polo Sedan even though the brochures are now available at the Service Centers. Also everyone is still expecting the Golf R's as well. I would definitely would love to own a Golf R personally, maybe someday when there are way too many on the road and the second-hand price of it goes down.

Being part of the WPPM does have its benefits. Though I am a little shy as I haven't posted about photography in a while, this time I managed to join Patrick Low on one of his Photographer's chill out sessions at Autodetailer. In case you may not be familiar, Autodetailer is located at Jaya One and it prides itself as Malaysia's most advanced detailing studio.

I first met Darren when I attended the Nigel Barker's workshop a while back. Am glad that he managed to recognize me when I arrived at his studio.


Took this shot using my iPhone 4 and edited the image using SnapSeed

As I was at another event prior to this, by the time I arrived at the batcave, Darren was already giving the rest of the group a tour of his detailing studio. It is really really impressive and there has been countless of articles on the Star as well as car magazines which featured his studio.


Large turnout at the Photographer's Chill Out session

It was a real pity that my gears were in for service at the time or else I would be happily taking photos of his studio but I was very impressed with his car studio setup as well as his post processing setup. I have never seen a Wacom tablet that is larger than a 24" iMac in my life before!

After going through a tour of the detailing studio, I was utterly amazed! No wonder plenty of people send their cars to Darren to detail as well as restore. It's just amazing to see the amount of detailed work they put into each and every car. I was literally blown away and amazed and I can say that his detailing studio is the only one that has an iMac and a uber large Wacom tablet :P

Here are some of the images taken by Darren and displayed on his Facebook Page.





The last of the 3 images above has me very intrigued lately. Mainly because that is Darren's car and he has been working on his personal project which is to transform his Mito into a unique looking mini car which looks totally awesome. You can find out more about Project Mito at the blog or you can always check out their Facebook Page for latest updates. Do check out this Facebook Album set for a plethora of poisonous images.

I think I should do that as well for my Golf but most of the time, my Golf is pretty much dirty from all the rainy weather we have been having. It definitely needs a good wash!

For more information about WPPM and the monthly Photographer's Chill-Out Sessions, do visit the WPPM Facebook page for updates.

Ever since I moved out of my parent’s house, one of the pleasures of life that I have been missing is television, Astro in particular. So thanks to this situation, whenever I am outside, whether it may be at a pub or at the local mamak store, I tend to watch the television that is displayed on there. Most of the time it’s the usual advertisements but one particular advertisement did catch my eye. It was the Volkwagen’s Das Auto Show advertisement. Being a VW owner myself, I was excited about the event and thanks to a good friend of mine, I managed to catch a sneak preview of the event, live at the Bukit Jalil Stadium.

The main dome overseeing the rest of the structures under the moonlight

So instead of having the event at the usual convention center or a large open air space, Volkswagen instead have decided to build up a huge dome in the middle of the stadium car park area and have it surrounded by more domes. What you have here instead is an area completely dedicated to a full weekend of fun for the family.



At night these domes are lit up ever so beautifully.

A view of the smaller domes at night while workers complete the final touch ups

Upon entering the compound, I am greeted by Daniel who gave us the tour of the built up area. One of the first things that caught my eye was the Volkswagen signs that are located around the parking area.



At the main door we are greeted with a large entrance which leads everyone into the registration room.





After when guests register, they are then ushered into a reception area where there are merchandise stores set up as well as a simulator for you to try out your driving skills.

Upon entering the main dome where the main show is going to be held, the first thing that caught my eye was the incredibly large space. I really thought that the dome looked large from the outside but it is humongous on the inside.

The large VW logo is actually the top of the dome.

Guests will be ushered into the dome and seated down where they will be presented with a special show (I can’t reveal too much otherwise I might just spoil the surprise) for 30 minutes. During this time, there will be 13 Volkswagen models, which will be showcased. Yes, that’s right! 13 models, man, I can only think of the few models we have here such as the Golf, Golf GTI, Scirocco, Polo, Tiguan, Touareg, and the Passat CC. So it’s not going to be a surprise that the local CKD models will be showcased here as well such as the Jetta, Polo Sedan and the Passat. What are the remaining models that are going to be shown? Well, check them out this coming weekend.



 



Once the show is done, visitors are then brought into a showcase room where all the current cars available at the local VW dealers are showcased.



At the end of the tour, I was presented with a very very special preview. At first I thought that I had seen all of the models that were showcased until this baby arrived.



Specially transported on a flatbed truck, the secret is still safe until this weekend of course :) The only preview you can get is a small glimpse of the rims and the bodywork there.

Stay tuned as I reveal more sneak previews very soon!

For more information about the event, check out http://www.dasautoshow.com.my/ 

The event will be held at the Bukit Jalil Stadium on the 10th and 11th of September 2011.

Now ever since our wonderful government has decided to remove any sort of subsidies for our petrol, I have resorted to using Ron95 but as most other people, I get the question (sometimes) on what is the difference between the two fuels.

Personally on my car, I can definitely feel the difference in terms of power after swapping from Ron97 to Ron95. This is for the VW Golf but when I was driving my old FD1 Civic, I really couldn't tell any difference.

Perhaps this video could help us all understand the difference a little bit more.



Even with the lack of power, I still choose Ron95 mainly because of the cost of fuel now. Heck, the 10sen reduction still proves that Ron97 is rather expensive especially for people who drive far distances on a daily basis.

But heck, I am definitely tempted to try out a couple of tanks of Ron97 and bring the car for a dyno test to see the difference.

Since we are also checking out some YouTube videos, check this out. Happened during the Sepang GT last weekend :)

Update 04/03: Found an image of the A3 Concept in the flesh! Included that into the post



The Audi A4 (B8 version) really took the executive market by storm so much so that there is such a long waiting list for the car here in Malaysia. Mainly due to the fact that it is a CBU hence it needs to be imported in and since Malaysia is not one of the earlier markets to adopt newer models, we get ours fairly slowly. Such is the life of a Malaysian especially since we have to wait quite long before getting even Apple products.

As much as other car manufacturers try to copy Audi's foray into LED DRL's, none have come up with a design that even looks as nice and as sexy as the A4's.



Heck, even they tried to implement it on the A6 but it doesn't seem to pull it off as well as the A4.

Now there are talks and rumours in the air about a new Audi A3 Concept Sedan. Definitely a hot and tasty looking car!



I just love how the lights have been redesigned and the grill just makes it look so fierce! Since this is just a concept, I do hope that it does get into production one day!



Click on the image above to see more photos of the car which was showcased in the Geneva Auto Show.

Here is a filler post while I catch up with plenty of work, recently came about this thread at the BMW owner's club. Its a very long read but it talks about Mizhan's personal pet project to restore his old 1984 E30 323i BMW.

If you are unfamiliar with how a E30 looks like, this is how Mizhan's car first looked at the beginning of the project.



It started back late last year and if you checked the thread, it is still ongoing! Yes, it has been that long but the results are really truly fantastic.



Mizhan is still sourcing for various parts for his car so do check out this thread to see the latest updates on his project. If you have the time, read through the whole thread to appreciate the amount of restoration put into the car already.

Update: 10th June 2010

Since the Cruze now has been officially launched, the price for the car is at RM97,888, and the on-the-road price would be around RM98k. Still a lot cheaper than the current price of the Honda Civic 1.8.

Over the weekend I had the pleasure of being crashing  invited for Cergazam's sneak preview of the Chevrolet Cruze over by their showroom next to the Federal Highway. With only 4 hours of sleep thanks to the previous night's frivolities, I dragged my sorry ass over to the showroom, unshaven and half asleep only to be greeted by not a single coffee machine in the place.

Well, enough about my condition. Let's talk about the car and the event. The event started off with a couple of speeches by some big shots and then a product demonstration by one of their technicians.

Since they didn't allow anyone to take photos during the event especially photos of the car and it's interior, I can't really show them to you but rather narrate it out or help you visualize it with what I am about to type.

Ok, close your eyes and image that you are sitting in a car. The car is meant to compete against the likes of the Honda Civic or the Toyota Altis and also the newer and more recent Kia Forte. So it is rather roomy inside but it felt smaller compared to a Honda Civic.

The number of electronic gizmos attached with it is definitely a very good plus compared to the usual Hondas and Toyotas. Some of them include the following:

• Rain sensor to automatically activate the windscreen wipers. With Malaysia's weather, that should be perpetually turned on.


• Automatic light settings, it turns on your lights when you go into a dark place such as a basement or a tunnel automatically


• Different settings for your remote control, for example you can set that whenever you unlock your car with your remote, you can only unlock only the driver's side. Very useful if you are a lone single driver and you always have that fear that someone might just barge into your car and nick your handbag, laptop bag or knickers.


• 6 CD changer in car, yes you only see a single CD slot but you can slot up to 6 CDs into it.


• 6 speed shiftronic gearbox which performed quite sluggishly when I was test driving the car. I could really feel the jerked after I switched gears up or down.


• Auxiliary jack and a USB port


• A large boot space!

What is missing which I thought might be embedded into the car or into this version is there is no keyless entry and start stop button for the car. The interior feels plasticky and a super quick and efficient "mark" test tells me it wasn't made properly or some 200 other people have decided to use the "mark" test. (The "mark" test includes pressing every available panel spacing with their own fingers and if there is a squeek, that is a negative point).

The worse part about the interior is that they have no leather seat option as well as they have garnished the interior with a very ugly blue cotton-cum-suede material which totally does not go well with any of the car colours available. Now don't get me wrong, blue is my FAVOURITE colour and yet they manage to destroy it's beauty! Worse of all, its also on your dashboard. The good thing about that is they have a light grey option which wasn't available at the time of the sneak preview so I have no chance of seeing it. Doubt that it would be any difference.

The inside of the car feels bulky thanks to its garish interior design which sort of have a fixation of looking "muscular". To put it into perspective, image a buffed up body builder covered in body oil and have muscles that squeek each time you perform the "mark" test on him. That pretty much sums it all up.

The 1.8 litre engine felt a little bit unresponsive just the same way how I feel that the Civic 1.8 isn't responsive unless you tweak it up a bit. Road noise was minimal when I test drove it but no chance of testing it at higher speeds such as driving at 110kph on the highway.

Handling felt very normal and bouncy thanks to it's soft suspension. I guess you have a trade off between comfort versus handling performance.

The spare tyre is the typical black steel rimmed ones. The signal light is located on the left.

The engine was made in Germany and the front windscreen is from France. The car was assembled in Korea so technically this car is a CBU unit.

Price wise, the car will be priced cheaper than the Civic so for those people who are looking to spend that amount of money, they have now a new choice to look at, which is the Chevrolet Cruze.

Note that Naza is now the importer of the Cruze and they have the official launch where our lovely Prime Minister will be there to launch it at KL Convention Center on Thursday.