Official Press Release from Edaran Tan Chong Motor Sdn Bhd

Edaran Tan Chong Motor Sdn Bhd (ETCM) is offering the following attractive interest rates to purchasers of Nissan Sylphy, Grand Livina, Sentra, X-Trail and Serena (for private registration only, valid for Peninsular and East Malaysia):

• 1 to 2 years   – 1.98% per annum
• 3 to 4 years   – 2.28% per annum
• Interest rates for loan period of more than 4 years will be based on prevailing market rates

Nissan Grand Livina

The special interest rates are offered by Tan Chong Capital Resources (TCCR). For the Grand Livina and Sentra models, the special interest rates are also offered by its participating panel of financiers.

This promotion is valid from 1^st March 2010 till 31^st March 2010.

For more information, please call Nissan Careline toll free at 1-800-88-8368 or visit www.nissan.com.my

Nissan Sylphy

It’s recall season in the US, with beleaguered Toyota having to make another recall last week. Already with four massive recalls in its hands – floor mat, stuck accelerator, hybrid ABS, and power steering hose – a fifth issue surfaced last week, forcing the recall of 8,000 Toyota Tacoma pick-up trucks on 12 Feb 2010.

According to PickupTrucks.com, a manufacturing defect might cause the front drive-shaft of the four-wheel drive pick-up to come apart on the move without warning. Fortunately for Toyota, majority of the affected vehicles are still sitting in their stockyards.

Toyota Tacoma (source: toyota.com)

Another report, by The Detroit Bureau, further elaborated that the defective shafts were sourced from Dana, who sold 34,000 with this defect, with Toyota accounting for only 8,000 of them. Of the remaining 26,000 shafts, 17,000 were sold to Ford, who used them in the Ford Escape, Mercury Mariner, and Mazda Tribute. The remaining 9,000 went to Nissan.

Ford Escape: North American version (left, source: ford.com) vs Asia-Pacific version (right)

A subsequent report, also by The Detroit Bureau, reported Nissan is already looking into the matter, with 2010 models of several Nissan and Infiniti trucks potentially affected, speculating that the affected models are the Frontier and Titan.

Once again, consumers in Malaysia have little cause for concern, as the Toyota Tacoma is not sold in our markets, and neither is the Nissan Titan. Owners of the Ford Escape and Mazda Tribute in Malaysia have little to worry either, as the versions sold in North America are completely different from what we get here.

The Nissan Frontier is essentially the Nissan Navara that we get here, though it must be noted that the North American versions are petrol powered, and are thus mechanically different from ours.

Nissan Frontier is among affected model in US, but we expect the slightly different Navara to fare better.

KON

Official Press Release from Edaran Tan Chong Motor Sdn Bhd

Edaran Tan Chong Motor Sdn Bhd (ETCM) is offering the following attractive interest rates to purchase the Nissan X-Trail, Sylphy and Serena (for private registration only):

• Up to 4 years   – 1.99% per annum
• 5 years to 7 years   – 2.49% per annum
• 8 years (maximum) – 2.69% per annum

The low interest rates are offered by Tan Chong Capital Resources and the promotion is valid till 28^th Feb 2010.

For more information, please call Nissan Careline toll free at 1-800-88-8368 or visit www.nissan.com.my

Recently, a fleet of 100 supercars were parked outside Starhill Gallery, KL, for the A Journey Through Time III exhibition of luxury watches and jewelleries. We bring you the official photos from the organizers.

A Journey Through Time III… in the busy streets of KL.

Interesting paint scheme for the GT-R

An endless line of supercars …

Kon’s favourite car name – the Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano

We wonder if that’s its real plate, or a decorative one.

Porsche lurks behind the F355

Matt black GT-R. That’s cool.

The cam whores were having a field day too…

Edaran Tan Chong Motor has announced lowered interest rates for selected models financed under Tan Chong Capital Resources. The promotion is valid for the entire month of December, ending on 31 Dec 2009.

X-Trail, Sylphy and Serena – (for private registration only)

• Low interest rate with Tan Chong Capital Resources, loan period starts from:
  • Up to 4 years   – 1.99% per annum
  • 5 years to 7 years   – 2.49% per annum
  • 8 years (maximum) – 2.69% per annum

Grand Livina - (for private registration only)

• Low interest rate with Tan Chong Capital Resources, loan period starts from:
  • 3 years to 5 years   – 2.78% per annum
  • 6 years to 7 years   – 2.98% per annum
  • 8 years (maximum) – 3.45% per annum

Official Press Release from Edaran Tan Chong Motor Sdn Bhd

YOKOHAMA (Oct. 23, 2009) – Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. is proud to announce that its much-loved sports car, Nissan Fairlady Z (known as the Nissan 370Z in Malaysia), has won the Most Fun Award, one of the most coveted categories of Car of the Year Japan 2009-2010.

Nissan Fairlady Z a.k.a. Nissan 370Z

The Car of the Year Japan winners were announced at the Car of the Year Japan Special Exhibition commemorating its 30th Anniversary located at the 41^st Tokyo Motor Show. Voting and final counting of votes were conducted on October 21 with the awards presented on the October 22nd, 2009.

The Nissan Fairlady Z celebrates its 30^th anniversary this year. The car, first introduced in 1969, has gained fans worldwide for its fun-to-drive characteristic and evolving style through the years.

This is the second time the Fairlady Z series has bagged the Car of the Year Japan’s Most Fun Award since 2002-2003.

A letter of understanding, jointly signed by Hyundai Motor, Kia Motors, Daimler AG, Ford Motor Company, General Motors / Opel, Honda Motor Co., Renault SA, Nissan Motor Corporation, and Toyota Motor Corporation, was recently submitted to all oil & energy companies and government organizations calling for accelerated development of hydrogen fuelling infrastructure.

It is the stand of the signatory companies that the concerted development of accessible and affordable hydrogen fuelling facilities would enable the successful introduction of fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEV) in the future.

“A hydrogen infrastructure network with sufficient density is required by 2015,” the automakers said in a joint press release today. “The network should be built-up from metropolitan areas via corridors into area-wide coverage.” The companies “strongly support the idea of building-up a hydrogen infrastructure in Europe, with Germany as starting point and at the same time developing similar concepts for the market penetration of hydrogen infrastructure in other regions of the world, with one US market, Japan and Korea as further starting points,” according to the joint release.

Hyundai’s FCEV program, part of their Blue Drive strategy, is on track to expand its demo fleet of FCEVs to 200 units by 2010, with plans to commence limited series production by 2012. As per an official press release published in Autoworld earlier, Hyundai is set to introduce a trio of Blue Drive models at the upcoming IAA 2009 in Frankfurt.

KON

Recent and future customers of Nissan’s Grand Livina, Latio and Sylphy can now have added peace of mind secure in the knowledge that the plant manufacturing their cars have been double-certified according to ISO standards. The TCMA’s plant in Serendah, which manufactures the aforementioned models, recently received ISO 14001:2004 Environmental Management System (EMS) and ISO 9001:2000 Quality Management System (QMS) certifications, the first auto plant in Malaysia to receive both certifications simultaneously.

Low(L) picks up the ISO 14001 cert from Mohinder(R) first,

…then the 9001 as well, witnessed by Dr Ang Bon Beng, Executive Director of Edaran Tan Chong Motor.

“Within the community where we operate and work in, it is indeed our social obligation to be a responsible neighbour and to be able to operate in a sustainable manner and be one with the environment.” said Mr. Low Seng Chee, Executive Director of TCMA during the ISO 14001:2004 and ISO 9001:2000 certificates presentation ceremony.

“In line with our corporate sense of responsibility as well as fulfilling Nissan’s EMS policy, the journey towards certification begun in June 2008 for ISO 14001. Similarly for ISO 9001 we started from Oct 2008.” added Low.

These awards are the culmination of a year’s worth of effort on TCMA’s part in putting themselves through gruelling internal and external audits. For external audits, TCMA secured the services of Moody International and SIRIM.

A small ceremony was held at the TCMA Serendah plant, where Dato Dr Mohinder Singh, Chairman of the Certification Advisory Board of Moody International, and Mr Parama Iswara Subramaniam, Senior GM of SIRIM QAS International Sdn Bhd presented the ISO certs to Low.

However, even in the euphoria of this recognition, TCMA are not resting on their laurels yet. Plans are currently afoot to bring themselves up from the ISO 9001:2000 they just received to ISO 9001:2008 by 2010.

Well, you all know the drill with this one. The customary on stage group photo of the VIPs. L-R: Low, Ang, Mohinder, and Parama

KON

The Nissan lineup is perceived by many to be sturdy, but otherwise unspectacular cars, with little to entice the enthusiast. While products like the GT-R and 370Z provide physics-defying excitement, offerings like the Sentra, Latio, Sylphy and Grand Livina are sometimes ridiculed as “uncle’s” cars. It is a perception that local Nissan distributor Tan Chong wishes to change with the launch of the new “I’m Nissan Crazy” marketing campaign, with massive amounts of advertisements to be swiftly accompanied by a swathe of marketing activities.

Central to this promotion is a newly setup website www.iamnissancrazy.com.my, which has a wide variety of interactive content for the users to engage themselves in. Upon opening the website, you would be greeted by a diaspora of images of people and various objects on a small piece of land floating on air. Moving your mouse over the images enables you to access various titbits of behind-the-scenes information on how a Nissan car is developed, manufactured and eventually sold the public.

“Transparency equals trust, and as such we have created an online platform to showcase how passionate we (Nissan and ETCM) are to produce and deliver high quality vehicles” said Dato’ Dr. Ang Bon Beng, Executive Director of ETCM.

The I’m Nissan Crazy website.

At the bottom right corner of the site is a link to the “I’m Nissan Crazy” online game contest, with three rounds to put your sight, memory and hearing to the test. The novel part of the game is that you get to specify what would be the first, second and third prizes that you would be inline to win. You first start with a “Spot the Difference” contest, before moving on to a “Sight and Sound” quiz, where questions and answers are based on a played audio/visual clip. The final test, to differentiate the true Nissan fans from the rest is to arrange 12 Nissan models from the oldest to the latest.

Then, and this was how it all started, at the top right corner of the main site is an innocuous link labelled “Real People, Real Stories”. Clicking on this opens you to the real life (claimed to be) unedited testimonies of six Nissan owners to talk about the passion they feel for their Nissan cars. Our favourite of the six is En Azmizan Ali from Dungun, who had a mattress custom-fitted to fit into his Grand Livina with all its seats folded down. The idea here is that if you think Nissans are for dull and lifeless people, you need to think again.

“The “I’m Nissan Crazy” Campaign enables public at large to interact with the Nissan brand in different ways. As a result, they can engage with a series of activities and most importantly to build their trust, loyalty and love with the Nissan brand!” added Dr Ang.

Finally, in conjunction with the campaign, Tan Chong is also running a Nissan Crazy contest for all customers who purchase a Nissan car in the period starting from 1 June 2009 and ending 31 March 2010. Customers taking delivery of their cars between 1 June and 30 September 2009 are in the running to win a Grand Livina 1.6(A), while those getting their cars between 1 October and 31 December 2009 will be entered into the draw for a Sylphy. Finally, the prize for the contest period 1 January – 31 March 2010 is a Murano 3.5.

KON

The Super GT Round 4 in Sepang International Circuit today started off with a wet practice session in the morning when the heavens decided to open up. This is good news for the spectators as it brought down the temperature a few degree Celsius. Unfortunately, the ‘normal’ SIC heat builts up again in the afternoon when the qualifying session starts.

The MOTUL AUTECH GT-R driven by Satoshi Motoyama and Benoit Treluyer set the fastest qualifying time for the GT500 class and Kazuki Hoshino and Masataka Yanagida set the fastest qualifying time in their S Road MOLA Z for the GT300 class.

Attach below are the full qualifying results.

Discuss more at the Super GT forum here.