Latest Insights

The Cars Of Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad

Insights

Hans  |  June 04, 2018

Tucked away in a quiet corner just outside the heart of Kuala Lumpur’s city centre is Galeria Sri Perdana. It’s one of those places that are popular among tourists but many locals have never even set foot in it.The site was originally the...

Lake Wörthersee - Where The World Unites To Celebrate The Love For All Things VW

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Hans  |  May 23, 2018

Some of the biggest entries in modern history centre on some of the unlikeliest candidates, people without clout or big budgets, but whose accounts are richer in faith and passion than dollars and cents. Microsoft was upstaged by a couple of post-...

Zero GST - The Rich Will Gain Most, The Poor And Middle Class Less So

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Hans  |  May 18, 2018

In keeping with Pakatan Harapan’s election manifesto, the newly formed Malaysian government under the leadership of Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad has since announced that come 1-June 2018, all items currently taxable by GST will become zero rated. It is good...

Did Mercedes-Benz Played A Quiet Role At The Korean Peace Summit?

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Hans  |  April 30, 2018

The biggest news last week had to be the historic peace summit between North and South Korea, a major step forward by the two Koreas which have been technically at war since 1950 as no peace treaty was signed following a call for truce.We will leave...

AD: 5 Things We Love About The All-New BMW X3

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Aswan  |  April 26, 2018

With the launch of the all-new BMW X3, the mid-sized luxury SUV market has a fierce new competitor. There are many reasons to love the BMW X3, and here are our top five picks.The PowertrainAt launch, the BMW X3 is offered in one powertrain specification...

Local Assembly Of AMG 43 Models - A Joint Effort Between Thailand And Malaysia

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Hans  |  April 26, 2018

The biggest local news this week has to be the launch of not one but two locally-assembled AMG models in Malaysia. It’s a major milestone not just for Mercedes-Benz’s performance sub-brand AMG, but also for Mercedes-Benz’s local offices in Thailand and...

Volvo Wants To Reduce Road Fatalities To Zero, But This Is What Annoys Them Most

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Hans  |  April 13, 2018

About ten years ago on July 2008, Volvo Car Corporation announced a rather outlandish ambition for itself – that by 2020 no one should be killed or injured in a new Volvo car. Typical of Sweden’s human-centric and noble culture, Volvo argued that society...

How Turning On The Wipers Can Alter The Way Mazda’s Predictive i-Activ AWD Works

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Hans  |  March 27, 2018

Having spent most of my driving life in the tropics, I don’t consciously make a distinction between driving on snow and on ice - something which I need to fix immediately if I am to drive safely in this minus 10 degrees Celsius weather in Hokkaido....

Why Mazda Thinks Everyone Is Wrong About EVs, And Here’s Their Solution

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Hans  |  March 20, 2018

Before anyone jumps to the conclusion that Mazda is being a Luddite, let’s be clear that Mazda will be introducing fully-electric vehicles in 2019 and plug-in hybrid models from 2021 onwards.In fact, Mazda’s first attempt at a full-hybrid vehicle, the...

Five Things We’ve Learned From Toshio Asahi, Chief Engineer For The Fifth Generation Lexus LS

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Hans  |  March 16, 2018

At the sidelines of yesterday’s launch of the all-new fifth generation Lexus LS in Malaysia, we caught up with Toshio Asahi, chief engineer of Lexus’ latest flagship limousine. Prior to his current position, Asahi-san was the chief engineer for the...

How Lexus Owned Customer Service, And Redefined Quality

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Hans  |  March 14, 2018

In the realm of marketing, some brands own and control a particular narrative better than others. Coca Cola equates to soft drinks and Rolex to luxury timepieces.BMW is best known for driving pleasure while Mercedes-Benz still commands luxury...

The Story Of Mazda's SKYACTIV-X

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Aswan  |  March 03, 2018

A year or two ago, word on the street was that Mazda was developing an engine that operated on the principles of HCCI. It’s an acronym that stands for Homogenous Charge Compression Ignition – in simple terms, it’s making a petrol engine function like a...

How Volkswagen Gambled With A Young Outsider To Create The Golf Legend And Rewrote The Rules

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Hans  |  March 02, 2018

The year was 1968. The Volkswagen Beetle had been in production for 23 years already but despite its age, sales weren’t slowing down at all. In fact, production numbers for the Beetle would continue to increase, peaking in 1971 with 1,291,612 units made...

Borneo Safari 2017: A Test Of Isuzu Metal and Mettle

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Arvind  |  February 12, 2018

I always try to resist this temptation – to be overly philosophical or emotional when trying to surmise my thoughts or to tell my story, this one in particular.And, I tell this story for the third time. And no two years have ever been the same.What...

X-Mode In The All-New Subaru XV - A Quick Look At The Tech

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Siew Weng  |  February 09, 2018

The all-new Subaru XV was launched with standard fitment of their superior terrain driving system called X-Mode.X-Mode Demonstration In this specially made roller-ramp demonstration, three out of four wheel contact corners are on free spinning rollers,...

This Ice-Cooled, 736 PS Mercedes-Benz W125 Hit 432.7 km/h, Back In 1938!

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Hans  |  February 01, 2018

Slightly less than a week ago was the 80th anniversary of racing driver Rudolf Caracciola’s record setting drive on the German autobahn, where he was clocked at 432.7 km/h in a 5.6-litre V12 736 PS Mercedes-Benz W125 world speed record car.To put the...

The Legacy of Bridgestone’s Founder Include The Nissan Leaf and GT-R

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Hans  |  February 01, 2018

Born on this day 1-February in 1889 to a family of tailors in the city of Kurume, Japan, Shojiro Ishibashi’s name is often lost in the footnotes of any discussions involving icons of Japan’s automobile industry. Many are aware of names like Soichiro...

We Visit The World’s Only Source Of Honda Hybrid Dual Clutch Transmissions

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Hans  |  January 03, 2018

Established in 1960, Honda Motor’s Suzuka plant is its third oldest. Only the the Saitama plant (opened in 1950, now combined with Saitama Factory) and Hamamatsu Factory (currently known as Hamamatsu Transmission Factory) predates the Suzuka plant. Today...