Throughout my days as a car nut watching out for and attending various car events, I notice that these things have a natural tendency to come out together. It’s like there are magnets around certain dates which cause the manufacturers and dealers to pick them. A good example was the last weekend, where this writer attended no less than five events throughout the Klang Valley.

Among the five, is the Naza Carnival 2008 at the Naza Auto Mall along the Federal Highway. I usually don’t care much for showroom events organised by Naza Motors, because for all the glamorous machines they have on display, all you’ll ever do is just to look at the cars and do nothing more.

Carnival atmosphere here for two days.

The thing about me is this, as crazy as I am about cars, the idea of just seeing a car without driving it doesn’t excite me terribly - no matter how ’up there’ it is. As such, I usually give events without test drives a skip.

So, you’d probably understand that I did not go to the Naza Carnival 2008 on Sunday at Naza Auto Mall with bags of enthusiasm, even though there was a test drive for the Peugeot 407 available, part of the 407 Test Drive Me campaign, and a row of Kia test cars parked in front of the showroom.

Available for test drive.

My companion and I tested none of those. Instead, we went around looking, admiring and photographing the what everyone knows to be the largest collection of the finest and most exotic automobiles in the country. My personal guess is that the nett worth of their cars is probably worth, no, not a house, but a whole premier housing estate.

Each more expensive than an average house.

As we were walking, a young (and reasonably attractive) lady approached me to give me a little sticker, assuring me that it’s absolutely free, and then convincing me to part with forty one and a half of my ringgits for an RM36 Shell petrol card, a Shell James Bond Aston Martin DBS collector’s toy car and a total of RM60 worth of lubricant vouchers. It was a reasonable deal, if only for the lubricant vouchers, though I must admit that a male salesperson won’t stand half a chance sealing the deal.

Not long after handing over my cash to the lady, there was the cracking sound of a Ferrari V8 engine nearby. They were having a ‘Product Presentation’ session for the Ferrari F430. There was also another one for the 599 GTB Fiorano scheduled earlier, but I missed that one.

Presenting the F430 & 599 GTB Fiorano

And here’s my opinion on the ‘Product Presentation’: it was not up to scratch. The presenter was fumbling through his ‘cheat sheet’ stammering through words. It begs the question why an entity of Naza’s considerable resources did not spend more of it to train him better before going on stage.

However, that presentation, together with our up close encounters with the likes of the Nissan GT-R, the BMW M3, the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren, the Ferrari Enzo, the Maserati MC-12, and many others, faded into obscure memory for me and my companion as we came across something a lot more astonishing - at the Peugeot section!

Nissan GT-R

BMW M3

Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren

Ferrari Enzo - yours for RM6.68m

Oi, don’t touch la, cannot read ar?

Maserati MC-12

All the money went to the cars, leaving nothing for the plumbing.

Surprisingly, but by far, the best part of the show was here.

Believe it or not, on our way home, our thoughts were dominated by the humble Naza 206 Bestari. In all my years following the car industry, never before in my life, have I ever come across a deal that reads like this: RM0 downpayment, 0% interest for 12 years. Yes, that’s right.. 12 YEARS! The amount of time needed to raise kids, and we have a loan package that lasts that long and charges no interest.

Staring in disbelief, we scratched our heads at the incredulity of the deal and pressed the poor salesgirl serving us to reveal all the fine print. There was none. You pay an RM100 booking fee, you wait one week, you drive the car away - just like that. Then each month, for the next 144 months, you pay RM390 (M/T) or RM425(A/T) back to Naza Credit, you get yourself a brand new Naza 206 Bestari.

We pressed to ask if the offer was just 0% interest for the first one or two years, but the salesgirl firmly said 0% for 12 years - a claim verified by her colleague. Now, I am used to hearing all sorts of baseless claims from salespeople, but the black and white on the pamphlets are clear: 0% interest for 12 years - no fine print whatsoever.

Here’s the most astonishing thing: after adding up the total instalments of RM390 and RM425 respectively over 12 months times 12 years, we arrived at a figure LOWER than the advertised price. There was no indication how long this offer is going to last, but I’d recommend anyone shopping for a car to check this deal out. I am not recommending whether you buy it or you don’t, but this is too amazing not to even look at it.

Thinking of getting one?

Now, do you still recall the Ferraris, the M3 or the GT-R earlier in this post? Don’t worry, neither did I.

Those of you who participated in the Peugeot 407 ‘Test Drive Me’ campaign a couple of weeks back might have received a letter from Nasim which reached my mailbox today. The letter, with a printed signature of the General Manager thanked (of course) my participation of the event and hoped that the 407 met my expectations on what a ‘Prestigious and Luxurious automobile constitutes with its complement of luxurious fittings.’

The rest of the letter is pretty much standard sales and marketing talk as well. Also included in the packaged mailed to me was a little booklet pitting the 407 against a couple of ‘anonymous’ competitors from the D-segment code-named TC and HA. The little booklet, titled Let’s talk cars - The real facts…, contains a list of features that comes with the 407 and compares it against the TC (in its 2.0E and 2.0G guise) and the HA 2.0VTi. Any idea who these competitors are?

Most of the comparisons were valid, though some were irrelevant as well. Of course, it goes without saying chinks of the 407’s armour against these ‘mysterious’ competitors were not mentioned in great detail. I was impressed that the 407 had 2 side airbags, 2 curtain airbags & 1 knee bag in addition to the usual twin airbags, while its competitors only make do with the twins. The 407 is also certified with a 5-star rating by EuroNCAP while the new TC and HA have both yet to be tested by EuroNCAP - so, if TC and HA also scores 5-stars, then what?

Another trump of the 407 over the TC and HA is the impressive 7″ LCD with touch screen. While the 407’s screen includes control of the GPS, trip computer, ICE system and air-con, the TC’s display only shows the trip computer and exterior temperature. The HA does not even have one. The 407 also has rear seats with ISOFIX child seat mounts and 60:40 split folding seat backs, features that both competitors also do without.

The 407 also has the following features which the 2 competitors don’t: headlamp washers, cruise control, leather seats, and the list goes on, and at a glance, it looks like a comprehensive victory for the 407, but is it? I mean, are 17″ rims really that much of an advantage over the competitor’s 16 inchers? The booklet even goes on to compare the windshield wiping patterns, shape of the wiper blades, the ICE and a few other stuff that seems rather irrelevant.

It highlights the fact that the 407 has more torque than the competition (200Nm vs 190Nm (TC) and 179Nm(HA)) but only makes a small note that the TC & HA has 7 and 9 hp more than the 407 respectively. It highlights how the 407’s auto gearbox was software engineered by Porsche and features manual control. Let me tell you something, I used to go all giddy with these semi-auto boxes, but after a while, the novelty runs out. Except for a brief mention at the specs-sheet behind, there was no indication that the 407’s auto also happened to be a 4-speeder rather than the current industry standard of 5.

The little booklet was an entertaining read, and a cheeky dig at the aforementioned competitors. However, if those two cars are what I think they are (I can only guess, they’re being so ‘mysterious’ about it), I think they don’t belong in the same league as the 407. An interesting match-up would see the 407 pitted against the new Mazda6 2.0. Now, that’s a comparison I’d like to see.

407 goes against a couple of ‘mysterious’ competitors

It was a busy weekend in the car industry, with the NZWheels Autohaus relaunch, the Mazda RX-8 facelift launch, the Volvo roadshow in Sunway Pyramid and also the Peugeot 407 test drive campaign organised over the weekend at Peugeot’s Glenmarie and Bangsar Blue Boxes. Yours truly concluded his long weekend with a spin in the newly introduced CKD Peugeot 407 at the Glenmarie Blue Box.

Arriving at the Blue Box

It wasn’t really in my personal agenda, as I had already tested the 407 twice when it was still under the C&C umbrella, but was prompted to do so anyway. Indeed, my test drive of the CBU 407 was sufficiently long ago that I don’t quite recall how it feels like compared to the CKD version I test drove today. When I arrived at the Blue Box at 4pm, there was only a moderate crowd present and I needed not wait for a test drive, although I opted to linger around for a while.

The 407’s appearance (interior and exterior) remains unchanged, which is no bad thing, considering there’s nothing wrong with the way it looks. The interior is well put together, and customers can opt for leather seats and an excellent built-in sat-nav system.  Unfortunately, closer inspection does reveal a couple of glaring imperfections, most of all in versions equipped with the sat-nav, the multifunction display housing mounted on top of the dashboard was poorly moulded, revealing jagged edges that have no place in a car like this.

The test cars await prospective buyers

The standard interior

Poor molding of plastic pieces - not acceptable

However, if you can live with the jagged edges, then you would be wise to spend the RM8k uprating your car to include the sat-nav, which comes with a touch-screen interface that seems not too dissimilar from Apple-based systems. I was given a brief demo by the salesperson, and features include a system that stores notes ‘handwritten’ to the screen, interface between the ICE and video output devices, besides the GPS. A very impressive system, trust me.

An extra RM8k gives you the built-in sat-nav and leather seats.

The car looks the part, but does it drive the part? I can only say, I guess so, because like most public test drives, the route was just a simple spin round the block that usually tells you nothing of the car’s true abilities. On a straight road, flooring the accelerator produces brisk, though not jaw-breaking acceleration. However, I felt the car is a tad on the underpowered side, as the car struggled up a 25 degree slope with the transmission held in 2nd gear. On flat roads however, the engine was sufficiently responsive to cater to town driving needs and long distance relaxed cruising.

Two-litre 140bhp motor struggles to pull 407 up steeper slopes, despite uprated output.

Despite being equipped with Tiptronic-style manual shifting, the 4-speed automatic gearbox felt like a dated unit. It shifted gears smoothly enough, but 4-speeders belong to the lower end of the market these days, and the push-up, pull-down action to change gears manually is hardly the most intuitive setup for spirited driving. Having said that, I did not have the chance to test the gearbox in its ‘Sports and ‘Winter’ modes, perhaps it has a few surprises in there!

Ride and handling characteristics are pretty much what you would expect from a continental car, with excellent balance between comfort and tautness. You can push the car hard at corners, yet you don’t have to worry about being shaken by the next pothole. However, I felt the steering was overly light, robbing it of the much acclaimed ‘feel’ among motoring enthusiasts.

At RM126k - RM134k, the CKD 407 strikes deep into Honda and Toyota territory. While it is unlikely to rob the Camry and Accord of any significant sales, it does present buyers at this price bracket more interesting options. Being a Peugeot, it will still be bogged down by concerns of second-hand prices and maintenance costs. However, for those who are willing to forego those considerations, they are in for a treat.

Verdict:

(+): Ageing design still looks up-to-date, fantastic value for money (your friends are likely to perceive your car as being a good RM40-50k more expensive than it really is), brilliant touch-screen sat-nav. Most importantly, sets you apart from the crowd.

(-): Slightly underpowered (more powerful engine options please…), only 4-speeds, built quality can still be improved. 

More photos from the event:

 
Another 407 on display outside the showroom… and what’s that besides…?

The 308 GT.. coming to a showroom in due course.

The 308’s interior, with six speeds and three pedals.

Some other releases prior to the launch by Shamsul Yunos:-
Peugeot 407 – new specifications and pre-launch bookings.

Or talk about it in Peugeot Forum here.