He was MD before, now Nadicorp’s boss Datuk Nadzmi Salleh is back a the national carmaker, Proton as Chairman.

I hope he can work well with Datuk Syed Zainal Aidin Tahir and take the company to a new level. Hopefully their recent deals in Iran and China will help the company weather teh bad economic storm and come out stronger.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELASE

DATO’ MOHD NADZMI MOHD SALLEH APPOINTED AS PROTON GROUP CHAIRMAN

PROTON Holdings Bhd is pleased to announce the appointment of Dato’ Nadzmi Mohd Salleh as the new Chairman for the company effective from 1
January 2009.

Dato’ Nadzmi will replace the outgoing chairman Dato’ Mohd Azlan Hashim who has been in PROTON since December 2004. Dato’ Azlan, 51 was
appointed PROTON Director on 17 December 2004 and assumed the position of Chairman on 7 February 2005.

Dato’ Nadzmi, 54 is currently the executive chairman of Nadicorp Holdings Sdn Bhd.

Dato’ Nadzmi graduated with Master of Arts in Economics and Statistics from Miami University, Florida as well as Bachelor Degree in Arts in
Economics and Bachelor Degree in Science in Chemistry and Mathematics from Ohio University.

He is no stranger to PROTON, having served as Managing Director of Perusahaan Otomobil Nasional Sdn Bhd from 1993 to 1996 and was Deputy
Managing Director of the company from 2 November 1992. He has also held various senior positions in Edaran Otomobil Nasional Bhd, including as
Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer.

Dato’ Nadzmi is a director of several companies including Ranhill Utilities Bhd, JT International Bhd, VS Industry Bhd, Kumpulan Kenderaan
Malaysian Bhd, Syarikat Kenderaan Melayu Kelantan. He was also appointed as Director and Deputy Chairman of Proton Edar Sdn Bhd with effect from
22 September 2005.

Dato’ Nazdmi is currently the President of The Badminton Association of Malaysia.

At the PROTON Board of Directors meeting held earlier today, Dato’ Azlan noted that he is pleased with how PROTON has progressed in the last four
years.

“Although there remains a lot to be done, PROTON today is undoubtedly on a better foundation to move forward and better compete with other
automotive companies.”

Dato’ Azlan further added that this progress has been made possible as a result of the strong support of the Government, the shareholders, the
wider automotive community (including component vendors and dealers), the Directors, Management and the entire staff of PROTON. He then went
on to thank all those who have made this possible and urged them to extend the same level of cooperation to Dato’ Nadzmi.

Car buffs like us are no strangers to reading spec-sheets from the manufacturers and magazines. Some of us can even write them too. There are people out there with an encyclopedic knowledge of the torque and horsepower figure of almost every car you can think of. I have seen car spec-sheets with more numbers written on it than balance sheets – top speed, 0-100, displacement, fuel consumption, gear ratios et. al.

These numbers provide us with a useful means to rate and compare the abilities of different cars. The performance oriented freaks will examine the power ratings, the torque output, the top speed and the 0-100 times. Those with fuel economy in mind will look at consumption figures. Those who specifically buy cars based on size will examine the dimensions, but these are rare. Usually, the figures that matter most to people are all the drivetrain related figures.

However, there is a little inconvenient reality to all this. For one, manufacturers often quote figures with different units. How do you compare the power output of a car whose manufacturer quoted 100kW against another quoted at 139bhp? How do you see which car uses less fuel? 7.6l/100km or 27mpg? The other question is, what really is the meaning behind all these figures? It’s all good to know that your BMW M5 produces 500bhp, but what is a brake-horsepower?

Let’s look at a shortened spec-sheet of the Peugeot 407 and see what each of these figures mean.

Displacement, Bore & Stroke.

Or engine capacity, as some would prefer. This is the total volume of that’s being swept by the pistons as they move from their top dead centre position to bottom dead centre. To obtain this figure, one needs to calculate the volume swept by the piston of one cylinder, and then multiply that figure by the number of cylinders. As such, we have

But, how do you calculate the volume swept by a cylinder? That’s where the next set of figures, the bore and stroke come in. The bore is quite simply the diameter of the combustion chamber, hence it’s usual measurement in terms of the millimetre. The stroke meanwhile, is the length of the straight-line distance between the piston’s top dead centre and bottom dead centre positions as illustrated below.

Going back to Form 5 mathematics, the volume of a cylinder is pi multiplied by the square of its radius(r) multplied by its height(h). In the context of our combustion chamber, the radius of the cylinder is half the bore, while the height is the stroke, allowing us to calculate the volume of one combustion chamber with the following formula:

As such (pardon the maths lesson), working all the algebraic thingamagics, we have,

As you can see from the formula, the cylinder’s bore contributes a square term to the equation, and as such, reboring your cylinder by even half a millimetre each can lead to a significant increase in engine capacity compared to an equivalent amount of restroking.

Taking the figures of the 4-cylinder 407 with its 85mm bore and 88mm stroke, you will arrive at a figure of 1,997,425mm³, which is not a figure used by anyone on this planet to measure engine capacity. I am sure you all know that everyone measures engine capacity by way of cc or litres. How much is one cc? How much is one litre? First, cc stands for cubic centimetre, and if you want to follow the SI way of writing it should be cm³.

So, in order to get the 1,997cc figure in the brochure, all you have to do is to convert your bore and stroke figures to cm, and you’ll get your answer. Then, we all know the conversion from cc to litres is just dividing the former number by 1,000. Of course, we always see people mixing these units up and telling us their Proton Wira’s engine is 1.5cc.

There is another unit used to measure engine capacity, but only in America, which is the cubic inch (abbreviated cu. in.) and it’s obtained (obviously) when you calculate your displacement using the bore and stroke values measured in inches. An inch is about 2.54cm, so a cubic inch is roughly equivalent to 16.4cc. The diagram below should help your conversions.

So, going back to our example of the 407, the bore, stroke and displacement figures in the various units are listed below.

As noted earlier most American cars quote their engine displacement using the cubic inch unit. It was a great nuisance to me when I first started out reading about their muscle cars being so used to comparing in terms of either cc or litres, the cubic inch unit was completely meaningless to me. Now, knowing the 2.0-litre 407 displaces a mere 122 cu. in., it puts the size of motors like the 426 cu. in. Hemi nicely into perspective.

Power

The most basic definition of the term power is the rate of work done, but that’s a definition used by physicists, and while it’s also a correct definition in relation to our cars, it’s not a very useful one for us to understand in too much detail. Suffice for us to understand that higher power output would roughly translate to a higher top speed.

The most commonly used unit to measure power in our part of the world is the horsepower, which although popular, isn’t actually the best unit of choice. This is because the term horsepower alone consists of several definitions and measurement methods. Relevant to us petrolheads are the metric and mechanical horsepowers. The mechanical horsepower was the original definition of the horsepower unit, as coined by James Watt, and roughly equals 0.746kW

The Germans introduced the metric horsepower in the 19th century and it is defined as being equivalent to 0.735kW, roughly 98.6% of the mechanical horsepower. The metric horsepower is often indicated using the abbreviation PS, which stands for pferdestarke, the German word for horsepower. The unit brake-horsepower (bhp) meanwhile, simply indicates that the figure is the engine’s horsepower on crank.

Among my very first car reading materials was the owner’s manual of my parents’ Proton Wira, which quotes power output in terms of kilowatts (kW), making the kilowatt the first unit of power that I was familiar with. I also know for a fact that Australian publications all use kilowatts in their specs sheets. Honda and Nissan prefers to use PS, while everyone else here favours horsepower.

The presence two different, but yet very close horsepower units creates quite a bit of confusion among readers. As a personal rule, for all my future writings, hp and bhp will refer to mechanical horsepower, while PS while refer to the metric horsepower. Personally, with the ambiguities surrounding the horsepower unit, I am in favour of using the kilowatt although it doesn’t sound as cool saying, ”My car produces 220kW” compared to “I’ve got 300 horses under the hood.”

Once again, using the 407 as an example..

Torque

Going into the definition of torque given by the physicists will leave most in a daze, so suffice to summarize it laymen’s terms that torque is equivalent to what you would call a twisting force. Where a force causes an object to accelerate in a straight line, torque would twist it about a certain axis. In the case of cars, the torque from the engine, transmitted via the gearbox and driveshafts, would twist the wheels about the axles.

The quantity torque is obtained as a product of force multiplied by distance, hence the units to measure torque would consist of a force unit multiplied by a distance unit. Three units are commonly used: Newton-metre (Nm), kilogram(force)-metre (kg.m), and pound-foot (lb.ft). My personal preference, along with most car manufacturers here, is to quote torque figures in Nm.

It must be said that the unit kilogram(force)-metre unit to measure torque isn’t a fully acceptable one, as in this case, the force term is measured by kilograms, which is a measurement of mass, rather than by Newtons, the universally accepted unit to measure force. Some manufacturers also quote in this unit using the abbreviation kgf.m, but they are exactly the same. Fortunately, the conversion from this unit to Nm is a simple matter of multiplying with 9.81, the value of the acceleration due to gravity.

A more complicated one is the pound-foot unit preferred by the Americans and the Brits. If done manually, you need to consider two seperate conversion factors, one to convert the force term, another to convert the distance term. Converting from imperial to metric units was never straight forward to begin with, and to convert a product of two quantities is quite a headache. Factoring in both conversions, 1 lb.ft is roughly equivalent to 1.36Nm.

As far as this writer is concerned, all of my personal future writings will quote torque figures using Nm without exception. Once again, bringing out the 407…

Speed

I am sure we all know what speed is – it’s the rate of covering distance. Quite simply put saying your car is travelling at 100km/h is saying that ‘if we maintain this speed indefinitely, the car would travel 100km every 1 hour.’ Some writers, me include, also like to use the abbreviation kph to denote the same unit. It’s not a scientifically acceptable abbreviation, mind you, but it is understood.

The other speed unit commonly used of course, is miles per hour (mph). This unit is another one favoured by the Americans and the Brits, while the rest of the world talk in terms of kilometres per hour. The conversion between these two units is straightforward, though not necessarily accurate. One kilometre is roughly equal to 0.621 miles, and the conversion between kph and mph would follow the same factor.

The 407’s top speed of 206km/h would translate to 128mph, and in case if you’re wondering, the DeLorean needs to hit 142km/h in order to activate its flux capacitor.

Fuel consumption

For the purposes of this article, consumption in terms of money per unit distance will be ignored, but even then, there’s still quite a bit to talk about, as not only are there several different units, some are quoted as volume of fuel per distance travelled, and some are quoted as distance travelled per volume of fuel.

My personal spreadsheet to monitor my own car’s consumption has four columns quoting FCs at different units: RM/km, l/km, km/l, and km/60l. For my personal use, the most useful number is actually the km/60l figure which gives me the full range for one tank in my Waja’s 60l tank.

In Malaysia, the commonly used unit is litres per 100km travelled. The reason for using this in opposed to just litre/km is probably to shift the numbers to the 5-15 range, which is more useful for our visualisation purposes. Equally popular in this part of the world is the reverse kilometres per litre unit.

There is also the famous miles per gallon (mpg), and here’s where you need to be careful, as the US and UK gallons differ by 20%. The mpg is actually of no consequence to us, but since many of us here watch shows like Top Gear and Fifth Gear, and not to mention read magazines with Top Gear Malaysia, Autocar Asean and Evo with British roots, a passing familiarity with this unit might be useful.

Our good old friend, the 407, has the following consumption figures:

Tyre Size

To the uninitiated, the tyre size code can be an incomprehensible series of numbers. The important dimensions in a tyre are the width of the tyre, the thickness of the sidewall, and the diameter of the rim that will fit in it. There is one number denoting each of these dimensions, and they are all of different units, as illustrated below.

So, for the last time, using the 407 as an example, the 407 comes in tyres that measure 215mm in width. The tyre sidewall thickness, is 55% of 215mm, which is 118.25mm. Then finally, in the middle is a rim that measures 17″ in diameter. It is fortunate that the industry has managed to adopt a single system worldwide to codify tyre dimensions, or it would be quite a riot trying to understand each system.

Finally

This post was written as an attempt on my part to make some sense of all the myriad of units out there you’ll find when reading car materials. It’s especially confusing sometimes when some parties decide to use SI units, and some want to stick with the old Imperial units. I personally prefer to use SI units as much as possible, being educated in them. Also, converting units in SI is a far simpler affair as all multiplications and divisions are done by factors of 10.

The most important use for all these numbers, as far as us plain simple motorists are concerned, are simply to provide a means to compare the abilities of various cars side-by-side. It would be good if everyone in the industry agree on the same common set of units, but until that happens, we’ll need to know how to convert between them.

The bad news continues to pour in from all over the world’s auto industry players. Honda has pulled out of F1 in anticipation of restricted cash flow. Suzuki and Subaru has both pulled out of WRC. Toyota has announced its first ever year of an operating loss in its 70 year history. Things continue to look bleak for the Big Three despite US senate finally approving a bailout package worth US$17.4b. That sales figures have dropped for everyone goes without saying, and hence it was no surprise that Mazda Motor Corp announced drops in sales and production figures for Nov 2008.

While the total yearly figures have increased, in the context of the current auto industry crisis, one needs to compare between corresponding periods of 2007 and 2008. While there was a 9.1% increase in overall production figures for the period of Jan-Nov 2008 compared to Jan-Nov 2007, comparing Nov 2007 against Nov 2008 paints a bleaker picture – a massive 17.9% decrease.

Preventing an even bigger slide is the increased production of the highly acclaimed and capable Mazda6, accounting for 13,597 of the total 23,297 vehicles rolling out of Mazda’s overseas plants. Adding on to the 10,781 Mazda Atenzas (JDM Mazda6) rolling out from Japan, the 6 accounted for 24% of Mazda’s total global production. Year-on-year (Nov ‘07 vs Nov ‘08) the 6’s production actually increased by 3.8% in Japan and an impressive 13.3% overseas.

Mazda6 accounts for 24% of Mazda’s worldwide production

Note: As of January 2007, overseas production figures are based on Mazda brand units coming off the production line (does not include CKD units).

Also seeing a production increase was the Mazda2, which saw an 8.9% year-on-year increase for its JDM production to 18,374 units for Nov ‘08. However, this production increase did not translate to a sales increase, as only 3,387 of those cars found their way into Japanese homes – a massive 34.4% year-on-year decrease, corresponding to a 28% decrease in total JDM sales.

Increase in production for Mazda2 did not translate to increase in sales.

The export figures are a little more encouraging, but not by much, with total year-on-year export registering a 14.9% drop to 62,535 cars. It is here we learn that the Mazda2’s increase in demand was fuelled primarily by overseas demand, with a 1.4% increase in shipment to 11,656 units. Unfortunately, with the other models not performing as strongly, notably the 3 which registered a 5.8% year-on-year drop, overall exports were hit.

3 didn’t perform so well, bad economy, or are people just waiting for the new model?

In the current economic climate, a drop in sales is definitely to be expected, and Mazda has no need to ring the alarm bells yet, though they would do well to brace for what will be a very rough impact as 2009 unfolds. Perhaps it is in anticipation of that that they have announced a shake-up of their management which would take effect on 1 Jan 2009.

The goals of the change are to improve business efficiency and maintain Mazda’s strategic relationship with Ford. The changes will support collaborative projects, joint programs, and other business concerned with product and technology development and basic technologies. To meet that goal, an R&D Liaison Office has been established to enhance communication functions between Mazda R&D and Ford PD. These functions have been transferred from the R&D Technical Administration Division and the Program Management Division.

The changes saw the removal of three key personnel: one executive and two GM level officers, and the remaining ones taking up increased responsibility. Quite a few people are actually being promoted to being full General Managers. There seems to be a lot of attention being paid to China, as no less than four of the listed changes directly involve Mazda’s China operations.

See list below for full details.

Executive officers

General managers and above

With that, I hereby conclude this post wishing all AW readers a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2009.

Over the weekend of 26-28 Dec, Kelab Autoshow has brought the International Xtreme Autoshow right to our doorsteps at the Putra Stadium at Bkt Jalil. Backed by solid support in the form Tourism Malaysia, the organisers touted the event as ‘the largest gathering of international extreme modified cars ever.’ The press release placed the full stop there, but I suspect that the sentence should have concluded with the words ‘… in Malaysia.’

If all goes according to plan, this would be just the first in a series of annual Malaysian Motor Shows on par with SEMA Las Vegas and Essen Germany, aiming to attract up to tens of thousands of visitors per year. It’s a laudable goal, but the organisers have their work cut out to bridge the gap with the said benchmarks. Visitors this year were expected to shell out no less than RM30 for admission, though their kids would have been admitted for RM15.

Being supported by Tourism Malaysia, it was no surprise that the event was officiated by Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Azalina Othman. In her opening speech, Azalina noted that Malaysia has become the only country in the Asia-Pacific region organise such a large gathering of extreme customized cars. Extreme, they are indeed, as it is a safe bet that many of the cars in there are unlikely to be road legal.

It’s car-modding mixed with artistry gone berserk, and personifying this mentality is renowned Kustomizer, Big Daddy, who, donning a batik, graced with Wax Daddy and the rest of his accomplices. During the launching ceremony, Wax even charmed the crowd with his brilliant rendition of Frank Sinatra’s My Way, before Azalina made her way up to deliver her opening speech.

After her speech, the minister was taken on a round tour of the exhibition, which included witnessing the complete burning of an old Volvo 240 to the ground in a stunt called the ‘melt-down’, where a modified Kia Carnival spit exhaust flames over the petrol-doused Volvo, lighting it up in flames and sending plumes of black smoke into the atmosphere. Not one for the green minded, and not a stunt I particularly approve of either.

This motor show is not for those petrolheads who delve into horsepower, top speed and 0-100 times. Indeed, the emphasis is on the term ’show’ as it is what most of these cars here seem to be built for. They define ‘bling’, they define ‘outrageous’, and they define ‘pimp’ but they have little use beyond that. The most important function that they serve are as means for owners to express their creativity and character.

There exists a huge interest in these ‘bling’ cars, and the Tourism Ministry did well to exploit that as a tourist attraction. However, this year’s edition does not seem sufficient to attract tourists here in any appreciable volume. It’s a good start, but future editions must feature more cars, and have more publicity. If they want to continue this next year, they need to make it much bigger, or don’t bother.

Same league as SEMA and Essen?

Watch your head!

An Iswara cabriolet

What some people do with a Toyota Hilux

With parts cannibalised from the Starship Enterprise. 

Toyota Yaris with dual controls!

This Honda Jazz owner couldn’t care less about Ultra-Seats

An E46 BMW 3-series… truck…

The local boys strutting their stuff.

If the devil had a MyVi

Overview of exhibition area.

Is this thing road legal?

Audi’s latest prototype?

Don’t hold your breath, it’s a Proton Wira. Lower dash and door pillar shape give it away.

Azalina arriving in her Smart Fortwo.

Big Daddy & Wax Daddy

Trying to get a shot of the VIPs.

Models doing the catwalk.

“I did it, myy waayyyyy….”

Azalina delivering her opening speech.

She didn’t seem too interested…

“This one got JPJ approval or not?”

Azalina and Big Daddy sharing a moment.

“What are YOU looking at?”

Pictures by Jonathan Lim

With all the hoo-haa surrounding the City’s launch on 18 Dec, the Honda showrooms all over the country braced themselves for what was going to be an extremely packed weekend, as car buffs and buyers flock to check the new car out. Traveling in disguise, I headed to the premises of Tenaga Setia Resources Sdn Bhd, better known as the ‘Honda Jalan 222 showroom’.

It is one of the more famous navigational landmarks around Petaling Jaya, and being prominently located right alongside one of the busiest roads of the city. As such, it’s one of the first Honda showrooms to cross people’s minds. This, together with the limited amount of space in and around its premises leads to cars of visitors parked by the road side becoming traffic hazards.

“You turn at Jalan 222, and then you see the Honda showroom there, bla bla bla…”

I arrived at the showroom at 3:30pm on Sunday, and it still had a very healthy crowd. There were two display cars in the showroom, both being the Grade S variant. It was not the smartest setup, as this deprived visitors of the opportunity to compare both spec variants live. As a result, the salespeople were seen escorting people outside to view the Grade E test car between test drives. The test car was also decked in the Modulo bodykit and sport rims, that would add over RM7k to the retail price – think properly before ticking these options!

Plenty of visitors even at 3:30pm. Had to wait for over an hour for my test drive.

Only Grade S City on display.

A customer gets ready to take the City for a spin.

Due to the sheer number of customers present, it was over an hour before I got a chance to take the car out for a quick spin. This gave me plenty of time to examine the car in much closer detail, observe the actions of other visitors and also put some of the salespeople to test with their product knowledge.

Having pored through the entire press and technical release kit I picked up from the launch, I also have a reasonable degree of familiarity with the City’s features and technical bits. However, most people (me included) still have no idea of what the gear ratios are, as this piece of information was not available anywhere in the sales catalogs or press kits.

I am not looking for accuracy of each ratio to four decimal places, but I was curious whether the fourth gear was a 1.000 or an overdrive ratio. When quizzed about this, the salesperson I asked told me that there was ‘no overdrive, only got paddle shift.’ Well, I saw no point proceeding further, and I was none the wiser.

While the salespeople were not expecting to face someone secretly armed with info from Honda’s press release, they seemed more than ready to face the rest of the masses, as I saw all of them talking customers into nods. How many of those nods translated into bookings, only they would know, but we could see the Malaysian car inspection culture at its meticulous best – anything that can move was tested to its full range of motion. Every panel was felt to its entire length. The doors, and the boot were opened and closed more times in that one day than what most cars get in a year.

“Engine powerful or not? Save petrol or not?”

With the brighter lighting in the showroom compared to during the launch at Mandarin Oriental, I was able to get a better look at some of the smaller things in the car. The gadget-happy folks will be glad to know that their iPODs will dock with the audio units of both variants. And, as highlighted in the brochures, there were plenty of storage spaces for small objects, though the centre console box is shockingly tiny, being definitely smaller than even those found in a Wira.

iPOD dock available even in Grade S trim.

I had a bigger centre console box in my Wira.

In what was definitely the most shocking omission from a car’s spec sheet of all time, good old UMW Toyota actually specified the Vios J without intermittent wipers. Thankfully, Honda did not go down that route in the cost-cutting stakes, and kindly included intermittent wipers as standard. However, with the Grade S, you don’t get variable speed adjustment, and you have a stalk that so obviously blanked out that feature.

You at least get intermittent wipers, but no variable speed though.

Fortunately, for the rest of the car, there didn’t appear to be many obvious cost-cutting measures that can be deemed unreasonable at this part of the market. However, the rear shelf panel does appear to be rather cheap being made of a rough grade of hard plastic, and for the Grade S, there was just empty space which made me wonder how much would the underseat tray specified for the Grade E variant have cost.

Honda claimed that they have shifted the pedals of the new City 15mm to the right from the outgoing one, though I am not sure why they even bothered. The reason for this shift was to accomodate a footrest for the left foot, but having did all the hardwork redesigning the geometry of the linkages, all Honda did was slap a rubber piece which almost blends into the floor. It really didn’t feel like it was even there.

You call that a footrest?

For the rest of the interior, I have few complaints, though it seems that the rear headroom has been reduced, with my head now just touching the roof when sitting upright. Reduced practicality aside, this is still a well-designed and well-built interior – definitely superior in quality and equipment compared to the Toyota Vios even in the RM89k 1.5S trim.

In case you didn’t know, the new City’s bootspace increased from the outgoing model by a total of six litres, bringing it to 506 litres of bootspace. Access to those 506 litres is facilitated by opening a bootlid that has an inverted Y-shape shutline, and a C-shaped type hinge. In order to avert interference between the bootlid and taillights when opening, the geometry of the bootlid’s opening motion was engineered to come slightly outwards before going up. The C-shaped hinges also do not intrude too much into the bootspace, which is a problem I trust Proton Waja owners will definitely be familiar with.

“Upside-down Y” shutline consumed many engineering hours.

Finally, time to hit the road. As I reversed the car out of the parking spot, and maneuvered to exit the showroom premises, I immediately noticed that the steering is weightier and had more feel than the previous City. Thumbs up to Honda for addressing that one. I remember when testing the old City, I almost ‘over-steered’ the car onto the kerb, being not used to the degree of assist from the electric power steering (EPS).

The new 1.5 i-VTEC engine packs sufficient punch when pressed. The engine does roar a bit past 4,000rpm, which might not be to everyone’s taste, though it’s not as gruff as, say, the Waja/Lancer 4G18. The response of the paddle shifts were quick enough under hard acceleration, with only a very minor delay in shifting time. There wasn’t sufficient time to draw a proper conclusion, but the powertrain’s performance is adequate for most city and even PLUS highway driving conditions.

Whether this City is an improvement to the old is a matter of debate. Some argue it is, some argue it isn’t, both for, amazingly, very same reasons. Some like the sportier edge of the new model, others moan the sacrifice of the old model’s renowned practicality. Some think dropping the CVT for a 5A/T is a great idea, while others think the opposite. The outgoing City was more practical, and had a lot of clever and thoughtful ideas. The new one drops a few of these ideas and embraces a more outgoing image – more conventional, yet more aggressive. It’s hardly a better car, though in the eyes of many, it’s probably more likeable.

As with any car launch, members of the press are showered with stacks of technical & promotional material in an attempt to ensure that all the finest attributes of their cars go into print.

It goes without saying that the folks at the Honda press relations department did their homework well, and furnished us with tonnes of stuff to write about how wonderful the all-new City is. As you read on, you would no doubt find some of their sales language to be rather over-enthusiastic, but don’t worry, I’ll water them down for you and filter it down to the bare essentials.

Despite losing out in terms of sales volume to the Toyota Vios, the outgoing City accounted for a sizable portion of Honda Malaysia’s sales, and it’s therefore essential, especially in the current climate, that no one in the whole setup mucks this one up.

Being the fourth market (after India, China and Thailand) to receive the new fifth generation City, many enthusiasts in Malaysia are already well aware of the new City’s features and specifications via the Internet. Honda Malaysia cleverly used this awareness and stirred up the public’s excitement over what actually is a bread-and-butter model.

Despite boasting what was a superbly designed interior, unparalleled in terms of space and practicality, and also a fuel thrifty drivetrain, the fourth generation City lost out many sales to the Toyota Vios due its awkward looks and its perceived lack of sportiness compared to its competitor from the big T.

Having test driven a couple of units of the outgoing City, I too felt that, while it was an ingeniously packaged product, full of brilliant touches, it wasn’t terribly interesting or exciting to drive. The weird shape no doubt put off many younger buyers too.

The irony of that was not lost on Honda and this time round, they have given the City a sharper edge, with more aggressive styling, more enthusiastic aura and more powerful marketing language. In this post, I shall attempt to examine and dissect the contents and boasts of the new City’s spec-sheet.

I don’t doubt its style, but let’s examine its substance.

First Impressions

Honda went out of its way to build a sportier and more energetic image for the new City – evident in repeated use of words such as ’style’, ‘excitement’, and ‘dynamic’ in the whole launch affair. There was a lot of enthusiasm and energy emanating from the Honda camp on this product.

On style and image alone, the new City is definitely a leaps-and-bounds improvement over the old. The design language revolves around what Honda terms as the “Arrowshot Form”, in which the City’s overall profile is supposedly reminiscent of an archer ready to fire his bow.

The all-new Honda City.

Where the outgoing City was offered with the choice of two 1.5-litre engines coupled with a CVT, the new one comes with only one powertrain option: a 1.5-litre i-VTEC engine with a conventional 5-speed automatic transmission. No consumption figures are available at the moment, but one can expect a slight increase compared to the old model at the very least.

1.5-litre i-VTEC engine.

For the interior, the engineers has also decided to forego some of the renowned practicality of the old model and infuse a bit more style into the cabin. The dash no longer features dual gloveboxes to start with, and the omission of Ultra-Seats was most unfortunate, being replaced with a conventional 60:40 split-folding rear seat back that could also recline.

Interior sacrifices a little on practicality for style.

Trim Level & Prices

The new City comes available with two trim levels, priced at RM5,000 apart from each other with the Grade S going for RM84,980 and the Grade E going for RM89,980. Mechanically identical, the two variants are also not far apart in terms of specification levels, with the cheaper Grade S also having twin airbags and rear disc brakes as standard.

Differentiating them are items such as rim sizes, fog lights, side-mirror signal lights, chrome finish exhausts, transmission paddle shift, steering wheel audio control, leather finishing for the steering and gear knob and auto retract door mirrors. A big miss for those opting the Grade S variant will be the split-folding rear seats, as they will be getting fixed rear seat backs. The extra RM5k Honda asks for the Grade E isn’t a lot, but the Grade S is pretty much all the car you need.

HM has also made available to customers the option of specifying their cars with Modulo accessories designed specially for the City. The accessories can be ordered individually, or lumped together into a RM4,750 full bodykit package. Not being a fan of non-performance enhancing parts, it’s not an option box that I’m too keen to tick.

City specified with RM4,750 Modulo bodykit.

The 16″ Modulo rims, available only for the Grade E is a nice alternative to the stock rims, but rather pricey at RM2,480. The good news of course, is that all these (rather pricey) little goodies are covered by the car’s standard warranty.

Concept & Philosophy

Throughout the whole launch event, those present were fed with a diet of words coated with a high dose of enthusiasm (some of them a little over the top). Indeed, there was no mistaking the fact that Honda went out of its way in its attempt to create a strong enthusiastic appeal for the new City.

According to Mr Takeshi Nakamura, Chief Engineer of Honda R&D Co. Ltd., “We identified key words that capture the ideas of visual appeal, performance and comfort. The expression of a ’strong’ appearance is especially essential. From there, we created the concept of Advanced Proud Sedan.”

Powerful words there, Nakamura-san. Three important cornerstones were named in the design brief of the City, they were stylish design, smart package, and smooth driving. The goal was to create a car that had enthusiastic, performance and practical appeal all-in-one. Laudable goals indeed, but a tough one to pull off.

The philosophy behind the new City – a brief too big to fill?

Honda got the stylish design part right, and they got it very right. Inside and out the new City has far greater presence and aura than the outgoing model, but it isn’t as smart a package with the removal of quite a few key features that defined its predecessor. The smooth driving part will be investigated in greater detail over a test drive.

Exterior Design

Compared to the bulbous and often criticized shape of the outgoing City, the new City goes back to far more conventional sedan proportions and is peppered with more aggressive and advanced details.

Being the first City marketed in Europe, it’s not surprising that the front end borrows heavy design cues from the European version Civic hatch and Accord Euro. This gives the City a far more distinctive and futuristic look from the front, with the headlights and grille forming a one-piece illusion.

More distinctive front end.

The side profile is where the City looks its best. It now looks like Honda really designed the City from ground up as a car on its own rather than apparently slapping a huge boot on the Jazz for the previous City.

The City’s best angle.

The rear end does not look too exciting, despite Honda’s description of it being the ‘unforgettable rear view’. In fact, when viewed from the rear three-quarter angle with a lowered perspective, it looks rather top heavy. How Honda feels that this design look suggests ‘greater stability’ is rather beyond me.

Hardly the best view of the car.

It may not look much, but the design of the bootlid probably consumed far greater engineering hours than we would imagine, thanks to the “upside down Y-shape” (Honda’s words, and it took me a while to figure it out too) cut-off line between the lid and the tail lamps. In order to avoid any interference with the tail lights when opening, the hinges and opening motion of the bootlid had to be engineered in precise detail.

For the wheels Honda specified two different and distinctive rim designs to differentiate the two model variants. The simpler 15 x 5.5J rims of the Grade S actually look better than the more elaborate 16 x 6J versions equipped for the Grade E. Oddly however, the tyre sizes specified are not of the commonly available variants: 175/65 R15 and 185/55 R16. Good luck when hunting for replacements.

Unusual tyre sizes: Grade S gets 15″ rims shod in 175/65 tyres, while Grade E gets 16″ rims shod in 185/55 tyres. This writer prefers simpler rim design of 15″ set.

Interior

The interior of the new City is created based on the concept of a ‘Cool Lounge‘, which supposedly creates a (warning: marketing jargon alert) ‘relaxing atmosphere with strength and character.’

Honda also claims that ‘colours and materials were carefully selected to complete a cabin that instantly relaxes and cools down passengers as soon as they get into the car.’ Well, at least we know they’ve done their marketing survey as far as Malaysia is concerned.

The outgoing City trumped all competitors from its class and beyond in its interior packaging. That Honda managed to fit a hugely spacious cabin into a rather small body was amazing enough, it also incorporated many ingenious features and touches that demonstrated amazing thoughtfulness on the part of its engineers.

However, inline with the new City’s overall more aggressive design stance, some of the clever practicalities of the previous car were jettisoned in the name of style. Two gloveboxes were reduced to one, and the Ultra-Seats, a defining feature of the previous City were dropped.

Dash now features only 1 glovebox. Steering wheel with tilt & telescopic adjustment borrowed from Civic.

The centre console is given a brushed metal finish and features an integrated audio head unit with three big dials to control the air-conditioning unit. It’s plain looking, but being simple & uncluttered it doesn’t take a genius to operate, a welcome contrast to the confusing buttons galore on the Accord I tested last weekend.

Centre console with iPOD dock.

The instrument cluster consists of three gauges: the speedometer in the centre flanked by the tachometer and the fuel gauge. Like in the previous City, Honda has chosen not to include a water temperature gauge, which is an unacceptable omission in my view. The digital trip computer display shows the odometer, tripmeter, fuel consumption indicator and range indicator. In surely what was unrestrained overstatement, Honda proclaims it as an ‘Advanced Meter Design‘. You decide.

Look advanced to you?

In place of the sorely-missed Ultra-Seats are the 60:40 split-folding rear seatbacks that can also recline. There is also a huge underseat tray below the rear seats to compensate for the reduced storage capacity. However, neither of these items will be available with the Grade S trim, which makes do with fixed rear seats.

60:40 split-folding and reclining rear seats

Under-seat tray to stash your… umbrellas.

During the press conference, it was explained that the Ultra-Seats were omitted because it compromised on rear occupant comfort and that the 60:40 folding seats were adequate compensation for their deletion. Surprisingly though, Honda didn’t even bother to engineer the folding seats to create a flat-floor with the boot. The reclining seatbacks are a nice novelty, but I’d take the Ultra-Seats any day.

Fortunately, Honda still left many other thoughtful touches in the cabin in form of tiny storage areas all over the car. There are a total of three cupholders (plus two in the centre armrest, available only for Grade S), the centre console box, a little slot beneath the driver air-con vent, front seat pockets and door pockets each side still ensuring ample storage space for loose items.

A little piece of irony, I actually hitched a ride from a friend driving a 1996 Honda City to the launch of this new City. While in her car, a little thought crossed my mind when I was holding my phone on my left hand, resting on the door armrestwith the phone over the position of the power window switch, I thought it would be nice if there was a cubby hole there just to fit my phone. Hence, I was both amazed and amused when I found that the new City does indeed have a little slot just behind the passenger’s power window switch just big enough for a handphone.

The Powertrain

The City’s drivetrain, according to Honda’s engineers, is engineered to provide a ‘gutsy & relaxing’ feel. The claim is that the City is going to deliver responsive performance when prodded and yet cruise in comfort. Once again, big words – but the numbers supporting them are encouraging.

Under the hood is a 1,497cc 16-valve SOHC i-VTEC engine producing 120PS @ 6,600rpm and 145Nm @ 4,800rpm. Putting that figure into perspective, the outgoing City VTEC’s engine produces 110PS @ 5,800rpm and 143Nm @ 4,800rpm. A more telling comparison is that Proton’s 1.6 Campro CPS powerplant is only slightly more powerful being rated at 125bhp and 150Nm.

(Note: PS stands for Pferdestarke, which is the German term for horsepower.)

Besides being armed with Honda’s i-VTEC system, the engine also features a host of technological improvements such as drive-by-wire technology, high-strength light weight con-rods and rocker arms, patterned piston coating and an auto tensioner to regulate belt tension.

All the abovementioned technology, and others, help to chart out an impressive power and torque curve for the engine, ensuring a minimum 120Nm of torque available at all RPMs. A laughable claim is that a torque dip at 3,500rpm is engineered to engine’s character to deliver ’smoother driving performance’. I drive a Waja Campro, and I know for a fact that dips in the torque curve don’t contribute to smoother driving.

Power & Torque Curve compared to old City. A minimum of 120Nm of torque available across the range. Torque dip at 3,500rpm ’smoothens driving performance’. Beat that.

For the Malaysian market, Honda is specifying the City with only one transmission, a 5-speed automatic. While still a class leading specification, it is still unfortunate that we will be missing out on the 5-speed manual version or the 6-speed i-SHIFT automated manual transmission that is available in Europe.

Buyers of the Grade S variant will get a straight forward [P R N D D3 2 1] gear interface. There is no OD OFF button to block off only the fifth gear, with drivers only having the option of manually selecting the first three gears. If you opt for the Grade E spec, your gear interface is a simpler [P R N D S], and you get paddle shifters to enable you to manually select each of the five gears.

I used to be a big fan of semi-auto transmissions, but the truth is, after a while the novelty of these things wear off, because at the heart of it, it’s still an auto. Nonetheless, it’s still useful in an auto that the driver has the option of manually selecting any gear of his/her choice, which is why in the case of the City, the paddle shifters would actually be useful.

5-speed auto standard. Paddle shifters available for Grade E only.

Chassis

New chassis

Honda claims to have successfully increased the rigidity of the City’s chassis compared to the outgoing model while maintaining the same overall weight. It incorporates the best features of Honda’s advanced chassis engineering such as G-Force Control Technology(G-CON) and Advanced Compatibility Engineering (ACE) – features which scored the Accord Euro a five-star EuroNCAP rating.

Like its predecessor, the City does not get independent suspension all-round. It’s the same old story of the MacPherson struts up front and a torsion beam rear axle – not something boast too loud about to your friends who drive Proton Wiras and Personas with multi-link rear suspension.

The electric power steering system also stays, but Honda claims that they have reworked the system to give it a more ’steady and direct steering feel.’ Whatever they mean by that, it had better be a substantial improvement over the dead-feeling and over-assisted steering of the outgoing City.

Stopping power is provided by four disc brakes supplemented by ABS, EBD and Brake Assist (BA), which to Honda’s enormous credit, are all standard for both trim variants. Should that fail to stop you in time for a collision, twin airbags (standard on both variants) will deploy to increase your chances of survival considerably.

Finally…

Without a proper test drive, it is impossible and inappropriate to give a car a proper verdict. The specs sheet give a positive first impression, and the reported 3,000 bookings received by Honda Malaysia is testimonial to Honda’s badge credibility.

Overall, the new City looks like a far more exciting product than the outgoing car, despite dropping a few of the old car’s unique selling points – the CVT and Ultra-Seats being notable omissions. Where the old car was marketed purely on its clever and practical features, the new one sacrifices some of that in the name of style and desirability.

On paper alone, the new City remains a very competitive, and very capable car. Honda set itself a target to come up with a car to be all of practical, sporty and stylish at the same time. The boys at Honda are obviously very proud of it, but I am wondering if they have given the City too big a brief to fill.

Only a test drive will tell.

One of the most eagerly anticipated car launches of 2008, the Honda City was finally launched for the Malaysian market at Mandarin Oriental, KL on 18 Oct.

With dozens of cameras taking aim, the new City was driven onto the stage by Mr. Atsushi Fujimoto, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer of Honda Malaysia. With him in the car were Mr. Takeshi Nakamura, Chief Engineer & Large Project Leader, Honda R&D Co. Ltd. at the front seat, and Honda Malaysia chiefs at the back seat:  En. Azman Bin Idris (President & COO) and Mr. Ikuo Kanazawa (Vice President).

Powered by a 1.5-litre i-VTEC engine, the City is available in two trim levels, both featuring a 5-speed automatic transmission in place of the outgoing model’s CVT.

The entry-level Grade S is priced at RM84,980, while the Grade E version would cost potential buyers an extra RM5k. Customers also have the option of specifying their City with Modulo accessories (read: skirts and spoilers) that adds RM4,750 to their purchase price.

Click here to read YS Khong’s report of the launch in the AW main pages. Scroll down for more pictures from the launch.

An eagerly anticipating crowd signing up to get in.

MC Stephanie Chai

The tension is rising, photographers eagerly await the car’s arrival.

And here it comes…

Honda chiefs stepping out of the car…

While the rest of the media jostles for a good picture, I took the easy way out…

Fujimoto-san and Nakamura-san… for posterity.

1,497cc i-VTEC powerplant produces 120PS @ 6,600rpm and 145Nm @ 4,800rpm sent to front wheels via a conventional 5-speed torque converter type auto transmission. Grade E gets paddle shifts for manual override.

Rear discs standard even on cheaper Grade S

No independent rear suspension though.

Full-sized cutaway of the City.

Compared to outgoing City, new car’s interior is far more stylish, but significantly less practical.

Underseat tray somewhat compensates for omission of Ultra-Seats

Twin airbags are standard for both trim levels. Interior now makes do with one glovebox.

This is a very thoughtful feature. I want to credit the engineer who thought of this.

506 litres of boot space.

60:40 split folding and reclining rear seats for Grade E.

Grade E(r) gets front fogs and 16″ rims, while Grade S(l) makes do with a simpler five-spoke 15-incher.

Grade E(r) has chrome finish on tailpipes. Grade S(l) gets a bare tailpipe, not unlike the Proton Persona B-Line.

One last beauty shot – the car, of course.

UPDATE 2

Oil dripped further to USD35.62…. freefall eh…

I am still betting it will not last… I hope I am wrong

UPDATE 1

Oil dropped to USD39.91 after OPEC announced production cut. Apparently two million barrels less a day is not scaring the market to stocking up..

ORIGINAL POST
Dramatic cut barely moved oil above USD44 per barrel

Not everyone is enjoying cheap oil. OPEC members decided on a huge production cut to stop oil price from sliding on the downward graph of the global economy.

The 2.2 barrel pinch is the largest on record but it was not enough to convince the market and speculators that supply will better match spiraling demand

At the current price 11 of Opec’s 14 members will face budget deficits so they are desperate to help prop it up and are aiming at USD60 per barrel to remain comfortable.

Apparently current production is so mismatched to demand that some suppliers are are having to keep their oil in tankers because buyers are not ready to receive them.

According to reports, the slight blip in price is due to the fact that Opec’s decision has been expected by the market and they have priced it in.

Expect further, possibly more dramatic production cuts. Some observers expect that production may be cut by 4 million barrels by the end of January jsut to keep oil prices nearer the USD50 per barrel

Collapse of US and Europe market blamed for first ever operating loss in 10 years. NSX gets the chop but Green Tech is on course

Car and motorcycle maker Honda issued a warning to investors that its second half performance for 2008 may result in red ink on its books. This will be the company’s first operating loss since the Asian financial crisis.

CEO Takeo Fukui warns that the worst may not be over yet and expects the new year to be equally, if not more challenging as economic data from all around the world are painting a very gloomy picture.

Mind you, Honda was considered a very healthy and agile company able to weather the storm better than others so the profit warning and red ink caution is taking everyone by surprise, not just Honda.

Speaking to reporters earlier today, Fukui said that they are expecting profits to plunge from the $5.5, already a downward-revised figure announced just six weeks ago to $2.1 billion with the second half in the red. Deep red.

Sales are now expected to plunge $4.5 billion, to $131 billion, 10.3% worse than previously expected. That means Honda expects to lose more than $2.1 billion in the six months through March 2009 after making $4.2 billion during the first half. “The situation is worsening every day in all regions,” Fukui told a packed press conference at the company’s Tokyo headquarters.

In an earlier announcement, Nissan (NSANY) said it would cut production in Japan by a further 78,000 from January, which means it has now announced cuts of 238,000 vehicles in Japan. Nissan, which started the fiscal year in April with 2,000 temporary employees, also said it will employ none by March 2009. Toyota (TM) is delaying the opening of a new Prius plant in Mississippi.
Among the Japanese carmaker’s worst enemy right now is the falling dollar which now trades at 89 yen, a 13-year high .

The strong yen is a double whammy becuase it makes Japanese cars less attractive to buyers and when they bring back the money from shrinking sales, it transalates to even less yen.

Honda’s sales year-to-date are down only 5.4% which is better than what the others are suffering but its November numbers in the US is far more telling of the deepenign crisis, they recorded a startling 32% dive in sales.

“The impact of November says everything,” Honda Senior Managing Director Koichi Kondo said at the press conference when asked why Honda had slashed its projections so soon after the last revision.

Apart from cost cutting and deferring the openign of their new flagship plant, they will also postpone investment sin India and Turkey.

The worst news for car enthusiast was the decision to put the new NSX in the cold. Running prototypes have been spotted indicating that the project is at a very advanced stage, but with the money ebbing away this rxtravagant display of Honda’s engineering prowess is probably only going to contribute to the red ink.

Honda management will share some of the pain through a 10 per cent pay cut for all directors and they can expect to see year-end bonuses slashed.

So far honda has kept retrenchment at bay but 760 temporary workers have been told that their contract will not be renewedbeyond december while another batch of 460 will be released when their contract expires.

The good news is that Honda will put the FCX Clarity Hydrogen fuel cell demonstrator on sale as planned next year and they wil continue with research work on environmetnally friendly technologies.

Honda Malaysia is launchign theri new City tomorrow(Thursday) and they are probably banking on the new model to keep the company on course for the year. We will get theri reactions at the launch.

Don’t get too excited about RM1.80 petrol, it may not last that long

Firstly Opec is not going to stand for subUSD50 oil for long. The reality is that oil will still be profitable even at sub USD40 per barrel but since all the oil producers are used to high prices, they are not likely to let the taps run for less than USD50 per barrel for long.

My guess is that they will pinch supply until prices creep up to the mid USD50s or low USD60s per barrel, which is a fair middle ground.

When I say fair middle ground it means that that is about as much pain as consumers are going to put up with without groaning too much,  at aroudn USD60, petrol will probably float back up to RM2 per litre. That’s not cheap but after RM2.70 petrol that will look reasonable.

Environmentalists will also puch for dearer oil because, lets face it, there is very good argument for making petrol a bit dear because it will help to control our consumption and promote environmentaly friendly technologies.

My bet is that oil will go back to USD60 around February or March and stay there for most of 2009 before rising slightly again. I am betting on an upturn at the end of the first quarter because this is when most experts expect the economic downturn to bottom out and once this happens everyone can start planning for a rebuilding and that will mean increased demand and consumption

I have said it before and will say it again that in the new decade oil price will stabilise between USD60 and USD80