4:21 am in Local Automotive News by Justin Lim
Korean automotive giant Kia has unveiled an updated version of their widely successful Kia Soul at the recent New York auto Show. The new 2012 Soul now comes with a new design and that is not all as they have also put in a new engine together with better performance fittings as well. It now comes with projection beam headlights with its LED daytime running lights, pretty much the order of the day while they have also given it 2 new body colours.
Under the hood is a new 1.6 liter direct-injection, 4 cylinder engine paired with either a 6 speed manual transmission or automatic transmission gearbox. This is where you get power of up to 135 horses which is 11% more than that of the old 1.6 liter engine which used to come with a 5 speed manual or 4 speed automatic gearbox. In terms of fuel economy, it drinks about 28 mile per gallon for city driving while on the highways, you get 34 miles per gallon. The company announced that they are planning for a more powerful engine which would most likely come in a 2.0 box.
The Kia Soul first came into the scene only 2 years ago and the fact that Kia has moved to give it a facelift (and a change in the engine too) showed that they are moving fast in the competition and not resting anytime soon. The current Soul has already received global praise and even winning Top Safety Pick awards for 2009, 2010 and 2011 from the IIHS (Insurance Institute for Highway Safety).
Included in this version is also a new Infinity powered audio system as well as a UVO system which is a hands-free communications and infotainments system developed by Microsoft. A premium package will get you nice looking leather seat trims, automatic climate control and heated front seats. 4 trims will be made available in this namely the Soul, Soul+, Soul! and Soul sport. The standard Soul will pretty much get you by as it has most of what is required including door looks and mirrors, air conditioning, MP3 connectivity and power windows. Safety features are pretty standard with airbags on the usual palces as well as full length side curtain ones too. ABS, ESC, TCS and BAS are all standard too.
4:20 am in International Auto News by admin
Suzuki recently showed of 2 of their latest Kizashi concepts at the currently going on New York International Auto Show, first the Kizaashi eco-friendly concept and another one, the evil twin-brother and a performance oriented one, the Kizashi Apex Concept. Anything that has an Apex to its name tells you that it is about peak and that is what this model is all about. Basically, this model is seen as a salute or a tribute of some kind to the motorcycling heritage of Suzuki who has and still is one of the major teams in the sport.
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4:18 am in International Auto News by admin
Coming up at the Amsterdam Motor Show is the new Ford Focus ECOnetic. One of General Motor’s biggest brand is set to roll out its latest model the show to gauge the response and then subsequently start selling the production model early next year. It would most likely be made in 2 variants namely a 5 door and estate versions and if one accepts what it claims, the ECOnetic is set to become the most fuel efficient model in its segment for the Europe market, which is the compact category.
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4:18 am in International Auto News by admin
The luxury automotive market is growing in leaps and bounds in the past few years and the Strand Craft Limousine Beach Cruiser seemed to be persistent into making their mark in this segment. Typically meant for the luxury hotel chains market, this cool and luxurious looking vehicle is one which is well suited for passengers who enjoy comfort and style that basks in the nicest beaches around.
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4:18 am in Local Automotive News by admin
Volvo Cars Malaysia recently announced the launch of its new S60 variants for the Malaysian market. Known as the sportiest Volvo ever launched, the new S60 is in its second generation where they will be selling 2 of its variants which are CBUs (Completely Built Units) which are the 3.0 T6 AWD and the 2.0 T5 models respectively. Both the models come in a wide range of body and interior colours where you can choose between 15 exterior colours and 7 interior leather combinations which are priced at RM348,000 for the T6 and RM288,000 for the T5.
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4:17 am in Local Automotive News by admin
The Infiniti automotive brand will be making its launch into our markets by the fourth quarter of this year. The company made the announcement recently where they are very much interested in rolling out its brand name into our markets. This came in the wake of the recent launch of Infiniti in Indonesia where the company also announced that they will be further expanding their network into Mexico, Australia and Singapore.
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4:17 am in Local Automotive News by admin
Datuk Seri Syed Zainal Abidin Syed Mohamed Tahir, the Group Managing Director of Proton Group said that the company is targeting to take over the pole position in terms of car sales from its closes competitor Perodua and to achieve this, they will be banking on its growing customer confidence, improving of its network as well as better strategies in product and pricing. He said that the target is to sell an increase of 7 to 8% as compared to last year with a higher bar of 10% if possible. This is because the domestic sales market is growing and the company is improving vastly.
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4:16 am in Local Automotive News by admin
The official distributor of Peugeot cars in Malaysia, Nasim Sdn Bhd has announced that they are currently studying the possibility of bringing the new 3008 Hybrid4 into Malaysian roads.
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3:27 am in Local Automotive News by admin
The second national car maker Perodua or Perusahaan Otomobil Kedua Sdn Bhd continues its lead in the Malaysian automotive market when it was announced that they are tops again for the first quarter of 2011 after chalking up sales of 45,700 units for the period. This puts them as the market leader with a share of 29.1% despite recording a drop in sales as compared to last year when it recorded 47,800 units for the same period. This is translated to 4.4% of drop in sales when it lead with32.4%. Read the rest of this entry →
3:12 am in International Auto News by admin
With a name called the Volvo Concept Universe, it would surely invoke quite a lot of attention and that is exactly what the Swedish automotive giant is looking to achieve where they are using this to show off how their new luxury sedan would look like. Such a preview is to showcase to the world what their next top range sedan would be looking like so get a grip, gentlemen! Read the rest of this entry →
