Launch of the Proton's compact car - Proton Iriz in Malaysia

Malaysian car company is launching their new compact car the Proton Iriz today. Blogger Paul Tan is streaming the launch live.

Even before the launch of the car, it has received five-star rating in Adult Occupant Protection and four-star rating in Child Occupant Protection by the New Car Assessment Programme for Southeast Asian Countries (Asean NCAP).

The car will come in 3 Trim lines and 8 variants and in 7 colours.

Prices of the car (on-the-road) will be between RM42,438 and RM62,888.

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Jaguar XE S Sports Saloon launch

The new Jaguar XE S sports saloon was launched in a big way all over London last night.

Powered by a supercharged 3.0 litre V6 with 8-speed automatic transmission, this sports saloon accelerates from 0-60mph in just 4.9 seconds.

Prices of the XE range start from £27,000.

Watch the launch here.

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Drive Me: Volvo's groundbreaking autonomous driving project

Volvo's project called "Drive Me" plans to have 100 self-driving Volvos to public roads in everyday conditions by 2017.

Watch the video:

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Volvo Car Malaysia expands into Sarawak

Volvo owners will now be able to service their cars at the two authorised service centres in Sarawak, located in Sibu and Kuching with more locations planned in the future

Greatwall Group of Companies has been appointed as the new 2S representative.

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BMW to recall cars over air bag fears

BMW is recalling about 1.6 million 3-Series vehicles produced between May 1999 and August 2006 worldwide. They will replace passenger-side front airbags made by Takata Corp because the inflators could break apart during deployment and injure passengers.

The recall is an extension of last year's recall of 240,000 cars globally for the same issue, he said.

The air bag supplied by Japan's Takata has also affected Honda Motor Co, Toyota Motor Corp, Nissan Motor Co, Mazda Motor Corp, Fuji Heavy Industries-owned Subaru, Mitsubishi, Ford and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles' Chrysler brand.

This latest recall will affect about 574,000 in the United States, about 450,000 in Germany and about 189,000 in the United Kingdom.

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The new BMW X4

A fusion of the power of the X model with the design of their classic coupe, the X4 is BMW's latest crossover vehicle.

3 different types of twin power turbo engines powering the X4: 

BMW X4 xDrive35d

• 6 cylinder in-line diesel engine with 313hp and 630Nm of torque
• Goes from 0-62mph in 5.2 seconds
• It has a top speed of 153mph (247km/h)
• Fuel consumption: 47.1mpg
• CO2 emissions of 157g/km

BMW X4 xDrive30d

6 cylinder in-line diesel engine with 258hp and 560Nm of torque

Goes from 0-62mph in 5.8 seconds

It has a top speed of 145mph (234km/h)

Fuel consumption: 46.3-49.6mpg

CO2 emissions of 149-159g/km

BMW X4 xDrive30d

4 cylinder in-line diesel engine with 190hp and 400Nm of torque

Goes from 0-62mph in 8 seconds

It has a top speed of 132mph (212km/h)

Fuel consumption: 50.4-54.3mpg / Automatic: 52.3-56.5mpg

CO2 emissions of 136-146g/km

Others options include a full-colour Head-up display, surround-view which offers the driver a bird's eye view of the area around the vehicle as well as reversing assist camera which shows the area behind the vehicle.

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Safety risk of Heavy Quadricycles

Quadricycles, which as the name suggest, were originally derived from motorcycles. They have emerged as a new class of sub-compact vehicles in Europe.

They are small and fuel-efficient. I have recently noticed several Universities here in the UK using street-legal quadricycles. These include the Club Car Villager 2+2 LSV, the Renault Twizy 80, the Tazzari ZERO and the Ligier IXO J LINE 4 Places

Their safety tests are different from other cars as they do not have to pass any of the rigorous crash tests to which cars are subjected. However,according to a recent report from the EURO NCAP, frontal and side impacts at 50km/h, revealed severe safety problems for all four cars.

The vehicles were scored primarily on data from crash dummies but penalties were also given for poor performance of the structure or restraints. The Ligier and the Tazzari had major failings of their restraint systems in the frontal test. In the Ligier, the upper connection of the driver’s seatbelt pulled out of the structure, leaving the dummy unrestrained and leading to a high risk of injury.

In the Tazzari, the driver seatbelt broke and the driver’s head hit the steering wheel with a force that indicated a high risk of serious or fatal injury. The structure of the Club Car virtually collapsed in the frontal impact. The Renault Twizy - the only vehicle of the four tested to have an airbag as standard - scored best but its stiff structure and restraint system resulted in some dangerously high dummy readings.



Read more here: Euro NCAP

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