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).

Note: I would recommend reading my review on the Golf 1.4 TSI before reading this as most of this is based on a comparison between the Roc and the Golf

One of the benefits of joining other Volkswagen enthusiasts especially during a teh tarik session is that I get chances to test drive other member's cars. One of them, which I managed to sneakily test drive a number of times was the Scirocco 1.4. Now I have always been curious to see a car with the same engine as the Golf 1.4 TSI, but priced at RM188,888 has to offer.

The Scirocco was also featured in the recent Karate Kid movie but of course, it's an extremely old version. Also called the Roc for short, here is a quick and brief history of the Scirocco.

So let's see what are some of the differences here.

First Impressions

Right off the bat, the moment anyone looks at a Scirocco, I am sure there has to be a reaction. Whether it may be a good one or a bad one but still a reaction. Perhaps you might be like James May where he might have a fizzy little thing between his legs when he sees a car which gives him the fancy, yeah, something like that but irregardless, it definitely turns heads. The first time I actually saw a Scirocco was when Top Gear featured an episode on it where they had to come up with an advertisement for the 3-cylinder diesel version of the Roc (you can view their silly results here and here).



Interior and Boot Space

From other Roc owners, you can still set up a baby chair in the Roc and it comfortably fits 4 people in total due to its 50/50 split folding rear seat design (you can squeeze in 5 for short trips but it wouldn't be legal as there are only two rear seat belts available). One thing that stands out between the Roc 1.4 and the Golf is that the Roc comes with a flattened steering wheel, the same one which is given for GTI and R owners. The Golf 1.4 comes with the standard round steering wheel which also is available with the Passat CC sold here.

Shown above is the flat bottom steering wheel designed for the R-line cars. The GTI ones look exactly the same except that it has red stitching on it. Another thing to note that Scirocco's that were manufactured in 2009 have a completely different interior than the current ones mainly because it takes the same styling from the older Golf MkV. The ones sold here by Volkswagen Group Malaysia are based off the newer interior but I have seen 2009 Rocs for sale on Mudah brought in by the local dealers.

The rest of the interior is standard and there isn't much differences between this and the Golf. In my opinion, the steering wheel itself provides a nice sporty look and feel and to optionally get this steering wheel itself can cost around USD$500 (searching through eBay).

The boot however, is surprisingly deep and you definitely can store a lot of stuff in there. I haven't had the chance to test it out with my full-sized golf bag but it definitely does look like it has a lot of space.

Another benefit you get with the Roc 1.4 is that it comes with 17" rims as it's standard compared to the Golf's 16" rims.

So far there hasn't been any complaints as well for the Roc owners especially when it comes to the "rattling" noise experienced by Golf owners especially when taking the corner. This issue actually comes from the fact that the rubber lining along the doors tend to dry up in our weather, hence the noise. Because the Roc has only two doors, I guess you can hardly hear the sound.

The Drive

After taking off in the standard fashion and the moment I enter the first corner, or basically, leaving the mamak stall and turning the first corner; the Roc shines here. Due to it's lower profile, this car handles way better than the Golf 1.4 which I think is a little soft around the suspension areas. You get the planted feel when tackling corners and I could hardly feel the side G's pushing me. Of course it does help that it's only a 2-door car hence you get less body roll due to a more rigid and firmer chassis.

Differences

Other differences between the Roc and the Golf are rather miniature in nature. For example, the Roc doesn't have sensors at the front but only sensors at the back as compared to the Golf which has sensors all around. The Roc however has two reverse lights versus the rest of the other VW cars mainly because I think the rear window is so small and the C pillars are so fat, that it is extremely difficult to reverse out.

Interesting Mods

Of course with every VW car, comes plenty of modifications. Here are some of the mods you can do for the Scirocco to stand out from the rest of the other Rocs.

• Bodykit (Rieger, Caractere, etc, etc) - This of course changes the look of your car!


• Scirocco R rear lights - This isn't as fancy as the Golf R rear LED lights. It's just a darkened rear Roc lights


• Aluminium pedals for the Roc 1.4 as well as the OSIR footrest or you can opt for the full R-line pedal sets.


• Unibrace for the Roc to improve its handling further. I am not too sure if they have the Crossbrace for the Roc as well.


• Head unit upgrade to either the RCD510 (the Roc 2.0 comes with this) or the RNS510 which offers satellite navigation and DVD playback.


• Custom downpipe for the Roc


• Engine remap


• Cold air intake


• Quad exhausts


• H&R or Eibach lowering springs

So far there hasn't been any announcement by VW to provide daytime running lights for the Scirocco.

Conclusion

To conclude up this review, would I say that the Scirocco is worth the extra RM30,000? Well it all depends on your taste. If you like a 2-door car, then yes, I would say it would be worth the RM30,000 extra. But if you are considering the 2.0litre version, I still have some doubts mainly because a 2-door Renault Megane RS is priced currently at RM236k which is RM15k cheaper than the 2.0 Roc and it has a lot more features to the car. Overall, the Scirocco fits into a different segment compared to the Golf hence I guess it's a nice compliment in their line up.

The Roc which I tested was a very unique Roc, because the owner, decided to bring it in for a dyno run and the results were astonishing. The Scirocco 1.4 TSI is stated to provide an output of 160ps running on Ron98 but his Roc managed to generate 170horses at the wheel, yes, 170whp! That is insane!

By the way, there is currently a Scirocco R in Malaysia already. Apparently someone managed to bring it in via a local AP and it made an appearance at the Volkswagen Club Malaysia's TT session two weeks ago. So far no concrete rumours about Volkswagen Malaysia launching the Scirocco R but there has been changes in terms of the prices for the Golf R. What I have heard is that the prices have been raised from the rumoured RM270k+ to RM300k+.

Last updated: 21st September 2011 - New map update from APR, results are looking good!


(Image source: Motortrader.com.my)

After all the hype about me posting up on the Golf on both my blog as well as on Facebook, Wearnes VW saw my post on their fan page and informed me on Friday (September 2010) that the car was available for a test drive. This is definitely thanks to the power of social media. Immediately I called Wearnes VW and made an appointment with them for a test drive on Saturday the moment the opened. Not that I was super kiasu or anything, it's just that I had a number of wedding meetings and errands I had to run hence I decided for an early test drive.

Both CW and BK as well as Ash followed me to the dealership for the test drive. Ash had already placed a booking for the Golf earlier but I just wanted to test drive the car first hand to see it. Of course there are plenty of pros and cons when I sat in the car and looked at it. Initially I did say I wanted the car to be red but after seeing the red colour in person, I felt as if it didn't have the same effect as the Golf MkV had with their tornado red paint jobs.



First Impressions

The unit that was available in the showroom was in Amaryllis Red and I didn't like it that much. Stepping into the car, the first thing I noticed was the lack of leather seats as well as manually adjustable seats (versus the electric seats you get with the GTI). Of course these luxuries have been taken away in order to bring the price of the car down. The dashboard looks decent as well as the number of knobs and gadgets are a plenty. Build quality was good as BK was trying to figure out how in the world did they make such a good solid feel for the compartments in the car especially on the side hand rest.

Although there were some comments on my Facebook which I totally agree with, was that the 16" rims and the fabric seats does give it a budget look and feel.

Visual differences compared to the Golf GTI

 

From the outside, there are quite a number of visual differences between the Golf TSI and the Golf GTI. First and foremost would be the front bumper where the GTI's front bumper is different and it also includes in a front lip as well. The GTI sits lower compared to the Golf TSI. The number of fingers I can fit between the gap of the tyres and the car is around 4 fingers on the TSI versus 3 on the GTI. The GTI has a simple side skirt (although I don't really think its a full skirt). The rear bumper as well is different as the GTI cater's for twin exhaust versus the double exhaust ports on the TSI. Another small but important difference is the rear spoiler, the TSI's one is a little short which seems a little short. Also the GTI's brake calipers are red in colour.

On the inside, the GTI car is wrapped in leather and the driver's seat has electronic seat functions. The steering wheel is wrapped in leather and red stitching and it's a flat bottom steering wheel which gives a better and sportier feel to it. The TSI uses the same one in the Passat CC. Also the GTI does have aluminium sports pedal versus the standard rubber ones on the TSI.

Cabin Space and Boot Space

Let's face it, the car is small and it has less boot space then what I am used to. Well as a comparison, what I am used to is ferrying 3 friends to the golf course with 4 golf bags in the boot of my Honda Civic. I am definitely not going to be able to fit in 2 let a lone 3 golf bags unless I bring down the rear seats which in turn means I can't ferry the other people as well. Seating wise, it's still comfy but the fabric seats that come with the car are a little more on the hard side of things.

I am having slight difficulty fitting in a large-sized golf bag into the boot. In order for it to go in, I had to angle it in such a way that the bag is laid down diagonally. But other than my golf bag,  there hasn't been much of an issue getting other luggage in. It is rather ironic that the Golf has difficulty fitting a golf bag in its boot.

The Drive

The most important thing to me was the drive, I drive a lot. As in, I travel over 100km a day to and from work alone and this does not count in lunch runs and dinner runs or the occasional trip to the city center for meetings. But most of the driving time is limited to the highways where I feel fuel consumption comes into a very big effect here. The engine was beautiful, pickup was good, way better than what my 1.8 Civic can handle but there have been comments about it being a little bit of lag before the turbo kicks in. I guess I probably would need to have driving experience with a GTI first to have a good comparison.

Power (updated Sep 2011)

Now I have to be very frank, the power output between both the 1.4 TSi and the 2.0 TSi engines are really day and night. I have driven the GTI as well as the Roc 2.0 and the power difference can be easily felt. The amount of torque generated and the pull factor will leave you pressed back against the seat. So this is the true difference between the 1.4 TSi and the 2.0 TSi versions. To some, 160ps is enough for their usual day-to-day drive but I guess the power junkie in me seems to want to have more power!

I recently brought the Golf to GT Auto in Sunway (Sep 2011) again using the same dyno machine as the previous run below. The difference this time is that APR has released a version 2 of their 1.4 twincharger map and I wanted to see what is the difference on a proper dyno machine instead of relying mainly on my butt dyno. So using the same machine and also seeing the previous results (170whp and 267Nm torque), this time I came out with a smile! Latest figures is that I am running on 194whp (wheel horse power) with 307Nm of torque! That's more torque than a stock Golf GTI and the horse power is quite close to that of a Golf Mk6 GTI. Definitely a happier guy right now! Note that hardware wise, everything remained the same with the exception that I changed my drop-in filter to a K&N drop in filter.

I brought the TSI to GT Auto in Sunway and put it through a couple of runs on their dynometer. On paper the spec rated it at 160ps and that is achieved using Ron98 fuel. So with Ron95, based on other 1.4 TSI cars including the Roc as well, power on wheel was around 150-155whp when running on Ron95 fuel. After remapping the engine to a Stage 1 APR v1 map, I only managed to pull around 170whp on Ron95. I still think that is a little low and even the guys at APR has informed me that the reading was on the lower side. I definitely have to bring the car out for a datalog session to check out the readings and the boost levels.

The infamous DSG Gearbox

Gear change was quite smooth and the paddle shifter were fun to play with but as the shifter are in a fixed position, the weird part comes when you are turning on a winding road and you wanted to change hence you might have some difficulty changing gears quickly using the shifter. You have 3 different gear modes, the standard "D" mode for your every day-to-day driving, the manual mode where you have to change gears manually without the need of a clutch and the "S" mode where you usually red line your rev meter a lot more before it changes gear.

Braking powa!

The brakes were very sensitive as a little tap would send the car to a screeching halt almost immediately. That is quite good considering for a car that has 160hp.

Handling and suspension

Handling on the car wasn't too bad, although the salesperson didn't let try to slalom the car along Jalan Maarof so I can't give a good perspective on that. In my defence, there were plenty of potholes on the road which allowed me to snake my way in between them but I also wanted to try out the suspension comfort whilst going over the potholes. Compared to the Golf GTI and even the Sciroccos, the Golf TSI is a little wobbly especially after taking a high-speed corner. You definitely feel a lot more planted in the GTI and the Roc due to their stiffer setup.

Features

The car comes with plenty of features which include optical parking system(OPS) in front and at the back of your car. Whenever you park your car, you get a display on your head unit, which in my case is the RCD 510. Note that the original head unit you would receive with your cars would be the RCD 310.



Definitely comes in handy especially when you try to reverse into a tight parallel parking space.

Other features also include the ability to plug-in your USB thumb drive into the player as well as your iPhone/iPod via the MDI (media device in) connectors. Note that upon delivery of the car, only the MDI-to-USB cable was provided. I managed to source through eBay to get the MDI-to-iPod cable hence I am now able to plug my iPhone into the system and control it via my steering wheel (control meaning controlling the volume and switching of songs). All of this whilst the car also charges my iPhone at the same time.

Some interesting features which may seem standard for those of you who are used to drive a continental car but seem to be exciting for me because this is my first European car would be the auto rain sensor, auto lights, paddle shifters on the steering wheel, radio and MFD (multi function display) on the steering wheels and much more!

Fuel Consumption

Technical specs states that the car can travel up to 100km on 6 litres but I would be happy if it could go for 700km on a full tank of 55 litres.

At the end of the test drive, we were brought downstairs to the basement to have a look at the various other colour models available, reflex silver, a deep blue colour and another red was available. The test drive car was in white (candy white). Personally I would have chosen the blue but once you have driven on the highway everyday for the past 4 years, you would know that our highways are filled with stone and small pebbles which would eventually chip away at our front bonnet and bumpers. Hence going for a light colour is always preferable.

By the way, I also saw the Polo 1.2 in the basement. It's not the final one which will be launched as it is a manual version brought in here to pass the Puspakom test. From the outside, it looks exactly like a Golf, only smaller. Not mini-me small but just a little smaller.

Overall I would say it is a fantastic car, European built quality and the power is there. Two thumbs up from me :P

Some updates on the fuel consumption. I have also included in the Ron of the petrol I used to fill it up with. Personally I swapped over from Ron 97 to Ron 95 mainly because of the fuel hike but I can definitely notice the difference in terms of pickup and power. Overall power is slightly less but with Ron 95, the pickup feels as if it is a little more sluggish.

• 1st run - 520km (Ron 97)


• 2nd run - 520km (Ron 97)


• 3rd run - 500km (Ron 95 mixed with Ron 97)


• 4th run - 500km (Ron 95)


• 5th run - 520km (Ron 95)

As of right now, I am sticking to only using Ron 95 petrol as the prices of Ron 97 has increased.

4th Jan 2011 - I have driven almost 4,000km and my average fuel consumption is around 9.7km/L

11th March 2011 - I have driven almost 7,300km and my average fuel consumption is around 10.7km/L. I get about 550km average for a full tank of Ron95 petrol.

21st April 2011 - Trying out the new Petronas Ron95 Extra petrol, still see no difference in terms of mileage. I get the average 550km for a full tank of petrol

4th May 2011 - I just downloaded an app from the iTunes store for my phone. I need to fuel up my car for another 3-4 more times before getting a good set of data. Will post those up pretty soon.

Fuel preferences:

1. Caltex Ron95


2. Petronas Ron95 Extra


3. Esso Ron95


4. Shell Ron95


5. BHP Ron 95 - I get the worst fuel economy out of BHP

Car Maintenance:

This is my first hatchback car ever and I have never had a chance of maintaining one. Since the car is still relatively new, the service period hasn't popped up yet hence there aren't much information about it here. One of the things that I am rather anal about is how clean the car is and the colour I chose for my car was white. Personally I would have loved it in Tornado Red. Anyhow, no matter what the colour is, the car gets very dirty very easily especially the back. In rainy weather, mud, grime and dirt gets trapped at the lid of the 5th door so you will see that the back portion of the car is always dirty.

I have sent the car in recently to apply Sierra Glow on the body to maintain and sustain its white shine. You can read more about Sierra Glow in my review post here.

Car Services:

As I have recently passed my 7,500km mark, I have decided to send my car in for a simple service. Note that I did not send it in to the official VW service center as all I needed was a simple engine oil change and replace my fuel filter. I sent the car to Exquisite Marques over at Sunway Damansara and the 1st cost was RM380 in total of labour charges.

7,500 km - RM380 @ Exquisite Marques
15,000 km - RM525 @ Wearnes Service Center at Sg. Besi (total service time was about 6 hours)

Car Modifications:

When I first wrote this article, I would probably think that keeping this car stock would be very good already but once the modding bug hits you, it hits your hard, as well as your wallet. Here are some of the modifications you can do which may or may not void your warranty.

• Change your existing head unit (RCD 310). Alternatives around would be the RCD 510 as well as the RNS 510. Both the RCD and RNS 510 sport a touch screen LCD whilst the latter provides 20Gb of hard disk space and a built-in GPS navigation system.


• iPod MDI cable so you can control your song list using the steering wheel controls


• Change your rear lights to the Golf R LED lights. Shops which sell these babies include Ryou's Modshop (found on Facebook), Exotic Mods in Sunway Damansara, Exquisite Marques in Sunway Damansara and many more.

• Change your rims, let's face it. The stock 16" Atlanta rims just doesn't quite suite it especially since the advertisement features the Golf with 18" Atlanta rims. I fell in love with these Caractere rims!


• Upgrade your ECU with APR's tuning. Bring your car from 160bhp to 205bhp! Other tuning brands include MTM, ABT, DKTuning, Custom ones available at Exotic Mods as well.


• Change your pedals to aluminium racing pedals! Love these from OSIR.

• Add a bodykit, ABT has a showroom in Glenmarie. Get a copy of Hypertune and you can find loads of them available for the Golk Mk6.

• If you are thinking of increasing the power for your Golf TSI, I would also recommend that you change your brakes! Get the Golf R BBK (big brake kit) or 3rd party market brakes such as Brembo discs and brakes.

• Door sills scuff plates to protect your sides from scratches especially if you track on a lot of sand and dirt.

• For those of you who bought the 2010 Golf TSI, the latest mod you can do is get the front DRL Bi-Xenon lights. The 2011 Golf TSI and Golf GTI's will come with these lights as standards (damn Volkswagen! If only I had known!)

Places where I wash the car

• Waxsons in Aman Suria - Best place and very good cleaning job. A RM28 nano-wash and interior cleaning job really is worth it here! What I can notice is that even the dust on the air con vents have been cleaned up!


• Cars International - Expensive and don't really get many benefits by joining their membership.


• Susheteki in Tropicana City Mall - Don't like the staff's attitude, didn't really do a good job and must be a member to wash your car during the weekends

Conclusion

It would sound extremely biased especially if I said that this car is a very good car but with so many other choices within the price range, I can safely say that the ride and power on this little white rabbit is really amazing! Of course the next closest thing would be the Peugeot 308 Turbo which also offers similar power ratings (on paper) with the Golf but because it is a CKD model, the interior and ride quality doesn't come close to the Golf. But then again, you are paying a lot less for the Peugeot 308 Turbo. Overall I am very pleased with the Golf and even though I pump it with Ron 95, there is always power available especially when I want to overtake cars. The feel of the supercharger and the turbo kicking in is awesome. Only problem I have is that thanks to our wonderful Malaysian weather where it rains almost every other day, a Candy White car gets dirty very easily!

Discussion Groups and Forums

Do check out these forums where I participate together with other VW Golf TSI owners. Good source of information and a great place to hang out and learn from one another. A warning, you will get severely poisoned by some of the members there :)

• Lowyat.net VW Discussion Thread


• Autoworld VW Group Discussion Thread


• Volkswagen Golf Club Malaysia Forums

Do look out for me there in those threads. I am known as either "Mavik", "mavicarus" or "rendezvous".

Other Test Drive Reviews

• Check out Motortrader's more comprehensive test drive here.


• Check out ZerotoHundred's test drive review here.

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.