BMW= "Burn My Wallet"?

Please... Be My Wife.

There is a usual dogma associated with with BMWs or affectionately referred to as “Beemers” as cars that would lovingly tear your wallet to shred along with whatever money that’s left in it. I have personally seen a T-shirt which says BMW= BURN MY WALLET. However is this really true?? Well driving a Beemer myself, I would admit that the cost of the maintenance is a tad bit higher compared to your average Japanese or Asian brand of automakers but in some way it makes it all worth it. Further the parts isn’t as expensive as they are notoriously made out to be. A good comparison would be that if you were to pay Rm500 on your average Proton service, a Bmw service would cost you about rm700. But for the rm200 extra that you are forking out you are getting the pleasure of a good drive and the parts would last you a good 5 years.

Bayersiche Motoren Werke (Bavarian Motor Works), or BMW has been enthralling the hearts of motor heads the world over for years. The MAIN reason why the cars are so expensive in Malaysia is because of the tax that’s levied. In the UK, a brand new M5 would go for about £ 66,295  so even if you convert the currecency when the pound was at its strongest the car should cost about  about rm464,065 but the on-the-road price is rm888,888 which might be a good number in terms of feng shui but is ridiculous to pay. But there must be a reason why people continue to buy them. Let me list down the reason why in my view why we Beemer lovers would fork out our hard earned money for them.

 

·         The pleasure of the drive. Beemers have a distinct sound that would make your jaw drop at a rev but yet it would sound sophisticated and distinguished. Try revving a proton with some done up exhaust system and compare it to the older cars even for example the older versions like the e30 or the e39 and you will know the difference.

·         The looks. There isn’t any car in its class that could compare with it in terms of looks. (Don’t compare Ferrari’s all la). The e30 (which is what I drive) has the look that has stood the test of time. It’s still in demand today because of its looks and characteristics. To me the most gorgeous BMW ever made has to be the e60 M5. JUST LOOK AT IT. No Merc, Jaguar or anything that’s an executive sedan can come close.

·         The people. BMW drivers are a bred of their own. They love helping each other out although they are strangers. Just look at a BMW club or even at the mechanic. I myself have made a few friends just by talking about Beemers at the mechanic shop. They would gladly give you tips on how to improve your car, maintain it and how to drive it better.

·         If you want attention from people around, a Beemer will do the job. Of course if you drive a Lambo or a Ferrari you are going to get a long glance from passer by’s who are secretly wishing they could be you, but having a Beemer would get them to stare at for about 5 seconds ogling at the beauty of the car even if you look like one of the 3 stooges.

Wake up to this everyday and life would be a spectacle.

                                                                      

I would highly encourage more people to get BMWs. Although I admit that it’s more expensive than your average car it’s worth it as long as you have a good mechanic (I would highly suggest ah fei of Optimum Motorsports in Kayu Ara Damansara ) and you have a good amount of capital to invest in it. Also be sure to join a club like the BMW CLUB MALAYSIA as they are a helpful lot and it’s good to make friends with them.

We Ride The Mediterranean Wind

      The Scirocco, an all-inclusive name given to hot and subsequently humid southeast to southwest winds originating as hot, dry desert-air over Northern Africa, flowing northward into the southern Mediterranean basin... scarcely interesting, why even bother writing about it? The Scirocco, an all-inclusive name given to a hot and sexy hatchback mated with a 197bhp, 4-cylinder turbocharged (aaah, it's such a joy to type that out, turbocharged) engine, originating from Germany and flowing to customers all over the globe... now that's more like it.

      Yes, we had a go in the Volkswagen Scirocco and came away mightily impressed. It's such an all-rounder, the 2.0 litre petrol engine well cultured as you pootle yet serves up seamless acceleration when you're at it with a heavy right foot. We began journey behind the Roc's wheel driving through a narrow back-alley with a road riddled with pot-holes with its suspension set in "Comfort" mode. Although the ride could have been better when the wheels met the potholes, the car seemed completely indifferent towards irregular road surfaces and cracks. Leaving back-alleys behind, we finally hit the main roads where the tarmac is smooth and covers three lanes. Immediately the 'Roc feels right at home, overtaking cars as if it was born to do that and that alone!

       The DSG transmission is brilliant, those precise gearchanges, excellent manual override with a choice of paddle-clicking with your fingers or gear-lever-shifting with your left hand and the superb exhaust note during those excellent downshifts, although it does jerk a split second before driving away from a stationary state. This reminds us that Volkswagen pioneered the road-car application of the twin-clutch gearbox. The brakes are over-servoed though, too grabby even with the softest prod of your foot against the pedal, providing no feel whatsoever... very very synthetic. I needed some getting used to when applying the brakes, only the seat belt restraining me and my head from getting acquainted with the face of the steering wheel, physically, painfully.

     Back to the drive now. As i said earlier, the car was absolutely zippy and would take on any hot hatch currently in the market and would probably have the latter wincing after its done with it! A corner approached and i did NOT want to brake (I told you the brakes were lifeless and too grabby) so what did i do? Ease off the throttle a bit, shift down to third and throttle all the way through the corner, that's exactly what I did and my oh my what grip! The 'Roc not only would eat up most of the mundane cars found driving on Malaysian roads, it gobbles down corners for dessert right after and aims for its next main course of family sedans and even some hot hatches.The steering’s weighty and accurate, though as with most hatch-derived coupes hardly brimming with genuine feel, and the car corners flat and neutral.

     After more pedal-to-the-metal action, we finally came to a rest at a traffic light. It was then I began to take in the interior of the car, plastics with excellent feel and the finish of every surface was simply superb. But, yes there's always a but isn't there, it had no sense of occasion, nothing to imply that I was sitting in an absolute stunner of a car. If i were to be blindfolded, shoved into the 'Roc, had my sight back right after and was asked to guess what car I was in, I'd have gone "Oh I think it's the Passat, or the Passat CC. Right?". The Scirocco would've never across my mind for a split second. Black leather seats with red stitching anyone? I'd be first in line to tick that in the options list if only it were listed. Although the interior definitely doesn't look the part, the 'Roc does come with electronically adjustable driver's seat, in-dash 6-disc CD changer, MEDIA-IN multimedia interface for iPod, USB drive and AUX-in, RCD 510 touch screen radio and vienna leather upholstery (available in black or truffle).

    Having scared half the motorists in Kuala Lumpur with our deep-black test unit we finally parked the car and got off after having to bend and twist, not an exceptionally easy car to get out of if you are 6-feet and above or maybe we were just feeling a bit stiff that morning. It's after the drive I realized how perfectly formed this car was, the best looking hot hatch ever to roll out of any factory, period! The 'Roc sits low and looks ever so poised for action, ready to pounce at the next corner its aimed at especially with those wider rear tracks, making it look extra stable. The lines on this beauty are clean and smooth, the flow of the lines reminding one of silent streams of clear water. I took a while to take in this car from the outside, it's everything the interior isn't.

      If you are in the market for a 2-door coupe/ hot hatch, don't think twice, get the 'Roc. All VWs handle well, and the Volkswagen Scirocco is no exception. All models have a hill control function, plus an ESP package that includes driver steering recommendation, brake assist, Electronic Differential Lock (EDL), Anti-Slip Regulator (ASR) and ABS brakes. It does the century sprint in just 7.1 seconds and would keep going until it reaches a top speed of 233kph. It all looks good on paper, it feels spectacular in the flesh or more accurately in this case, in the metal. VW should give the brakes and the steering more feel if there's going to be a mid-life face lift (which I doubt) in the near future. All-in-all, the 'Roc is definitely a winner. 

Supercar - Made In Japan

It's like being shoved into an oven with the temperature set to the max and the temperature control knob pulled out lately. It makes one think, "Could it get any hotter?". For me, it did... it got way hotter. The bright (not to mention scorching) morning sun brought out every detail and subtle line for my eyes to feast on. Parked in front of me along with a fleet of gorgeous cars was the Nissan GT-R. In the looks department, the GT-R lags behind it's European cousins but not too far. The car does look fast but not brutally like a Lamborghini or Ferrari. It is a car with capabilities of mammoth proportions but somehow it doesn't quite look the part. It is however the most exotic looking car to roll out of a Japanese factory, without doubt. Here's the funny part... this car does the magical century faster than its menacingly styled Italian rivals although it is substantially bigger and it does it in a way words simply cannot describe. Forget about looks because this car is meant for one thing and one thing only... speed! A purpose-built supercar for the man with subtle taste.

                                                                                  not a bad start to the day..

The angular exterior styling isn't for everyone but who cares when it's performance figures on paper seem like they belong to something that dropped out of the sky through a wormhole from the future! Sit in the car and all those performance figures start running in your mind simultaneously, gibberish to your understanding but all you are compelled to do is press the bright red button that brings the car to life! The car starts up, but in a manner that completely baffles ones mind! The anticipated growl of the quad tail-pipes  hardly audible at all. No loud rumble... almost nothing. And then it hits me why this car is so different, so special. A one of a kind day-to-day use supercar this is. The most practical supercar that outperforms all it's rivals, some of which couldn't possibly know the meaning of practicality let alone practice it. Drive off in it and you might as well be sitting inside your dad's saloon car, that easy! All round visibility is excellent and the car handles rough roads without sending spine numbing vibrations up my rear end. The rear seats cannot accomodate adults on long journeys unless you want them permanently damaging their spines. Besides that, all is well.
Daily usability: check.

                                                                               push to be blasted away!

Lights turn red and the car's doing 100kph? Not an issue at all... 100-0kph in just 3.3 seconds. Lights about to turn green and have a heavy right foot? That's when the magic happens. The only remaining vision in my memory bank is of the lights turning green. Everything else is just a blur of colours, just like the view from a cockpit of a spaceship from Star Wars hopping galaxies. The rear mounted dual-clutch gearbox went through the gears with seamless precision. With 4 men in the car, it not only hauled us effortlessly, it had us all speech deprived for a few moments. Nope, launch control was not activated. Need I say more? It's capable of attaining the 0-100 sprint in just 3.4 seconds. Neck snapping accelaration: check!

The maneuverability of this mother-of-all monster wasn't put through its paces but it is extremely rooted to the road, almost as if it were running on a track laid out in front of it. Rapid turnings in this car might have you on an ambulance with a neck brace and the car unscathed, very very brutal. Nissan did not fit the GT-R with swiveling head lamps because the motors couldn't keep up with the speed the car changed directions.The car has epic handling capabilities but we weren't able to bring out the best of it.... yet.

In short, the GT-R is a thrill to drive, a brutal beast when you decide floor it or a humble coupe when you decide to go for an evening drive. At RM630,000 for a brand new car and RM580,000 for a reconditioned one, it is a bargain. If you had that amount of money lying around somewhere, take a drive to the Maju Muhibbah showroom in Prima Damansara (between Bandar Sri Damansara and Damansara Damai) and get yourself one. You would never stop smiling behind the wheels of the Godzilla.

Enter The Godzilla With Jeremy...

Before we do what the title states, the Dash-Board would like to thank Maju Muhibbah SDN BHD for granting us access to the most spectacular fleet of cars known to man. Thanks to Mr Jalil, the manager of the showroom and Mr Khair for giving us this opportunity. Let's now enter the Godzilla.










Jeremy: 

sizing up the car..

What happens when 3 young lads stumble upon the one of the most anticipated cars of 2008?? Well first of all we would have to apologize to the nice people of Bandar Sri Damansara for turning their quiet and peaceful suburb into a noisy track smelling of burnt rubber with our self proclaimed ‘Stigs’ behind of the wheel of the 480 hp monster the 2009 NISSAN GTR (yes all the alphabets were in capital for a reason i.e. to reflect the sheer power of the car)

So we started our day by getting the cars inline to take pictures of the cars. The front pieces as you will see, features the 2008 BMW 7 Series, the Merc CLS and the Nissan GTR. Then the ever pleasing Mr Khair brought the keys to the GTR and said “lets go guys” at which point Ravind’s face just gleamed like a kid on Christmas morning. But he approached me and said “Macha if we damage this car even if we sell ourselves we wont be able to pay for it” and then it hit me, we were about to drive a Rm700,000 super car. YES SUPERCAR.

                                      quite a sight..

 

Now those who know us would obviously note that we aren’t the most petite of people yet we all squeezed into the two door. I ADMIT it was tight and we didn’t have place to move our heads but having sat in an Aston Martin I would definitely say that the GTR offers slightly more room but you would have to be an Ooompa Loompa to be comfortable in it. But then again anyone who knows anything about the car would say WHO THE HELL CARES ABOUT COMFORT when you have 478 horses that are willing to run at the tap of the accelerator. This is what I felt at the backseat when Ravind floored the throttle and suddenly the car which felt like your everyday two door sports car came alive and almost bit our heads off. Just in a matter of seconds we were doing 140km/h but Malaysian traffic being as awesome as it is made us brake for every other car that was in the way.

                                                godzilla and me...

Then the moment of truth came when Ravind parked the car near a golf club and says “bro she is all yours”. The moment you get into the car you get a sense of the amount of time and brains that were put into the making of the car. The steering wheel had easily 15 buttons on it which I had no idea what to do with but say “aww that looks nice”. The computer on the car was displaying Japanese characters so I had no idea what it was saying on the huge screen. I put on my seat belt (for any of the cops who are reading) and headed to the main road and slammed my foot on the accelerator which made the car make the most beautiful sound that a car freak could ever ask for. The car accelerates effortlessly and hits 150 just like that. The V6 VR38DETT engine that powers the car is superb aided by the six-speed BorgWarner dual clutch semi-automatic transmission which delivers smooth power and control with minimum jerking. Need I even mention the twin turbos?? 

 

thats how you look when driving such a beast... beastly..

The braking and cornering on the car is like a dream. The car decelerates from 100-0km/h in 3.3 seconds and we needed that due to the fact that there were people who felt that the Malaysia Boleh spirit was with them in crossing a busy road.

 

it's safe to say the experience was a pleasant one then?

In summing up, if any of you could afford the car, I would seriously recommend it to you. It’s a beast that could match a Ferrari or a 911 any day at half the price added to the fact that you can use this as an everyday car which you don’t have the liberty of doing with a Ferrari. But what ever you do just, don’t cause anymore injustice in this world by buying it and putting a P sticker on it. Cheers people.

The Ferrari man is on the Mercedes site.Check this out

Road Sloths

Fast drivers can be a nuisance on public roads (if so then I'm a big nuisance). However the unusually speedy (not to mention dangerous) drivers are quite uncommon. There is however another breed of drivers with an uncanny ability to drive exceptionally slow. Although they do not directly cause turmoil on the road, if met by an impatient man behind the wheel of the car in their rear view mirror, it could be catastrophic.

       Worst case scenario:

"As the impatient driver drives along the fast lane, he is forced to slam on the brakes because dead ahead is what seems to be a stalled car! His initial reaction of panic is taken over by rage as he realizes the car ahead is actually moving at a snails pace. Any slower, the car ahead might start moving backwards. With the furious driver's mind taken over by rage, brains the size of a golfball and balls the size of mars,  he changes lanes without looking out to overtake the slothful driver not realizing a motorcyclist had been in the blind spot of his mirror. CRASH!!"

..... need I say more? The lethargic ignorant driver caused the life of a motorist. The reason? Driving too slow in the fast lane! Come on slow coaches the slow lane is constructed for a reason... YOU! And this is NOT America where slow drivers keep to their right!


-r a v i n d-

The Malaysian public transportation system: the very reason why we need our own cars.

Before I start my onslaught on the Malaysian system of public transportation would want to firstly say that my comments are mostly directed at the KTM(Kereta Api Tanah Melayu) or as some would call it Kereta api Tak Tahu Masa and secondly I would like to invite anyone who thinks that my post is too brutal or that I am overdoing it with my comments to try and take the the train at peek hours from any of stations such as KL Sentral, KL, Bank Negara headed towards any destination for that matter and prove me wrong.




Well first of all, ask any person who frequently takes the train and they would tell you that the piece of shit has no sense of punctuality. Waiting for two hours which is most likely UN heard of in countries like Japan and Singapore is an everyday occurrence in the Malaysian front. The amount of classes that I have missed thanks to this excellent network of morons guiding trains around in the past few years is quite a few. Well how about those who are working?? How many times are you gona be able to tell your superior that you are late due to the train service before he starts thinking that you trying to pull one over his head??



Yesterday I was rushing home after class to due to the fact that I was supposed to send a friend to the airport for a flight that was leaving at 10:30pm.My class finished at 5:30pm and I was in the station by 5:45pm. Well the train only came at 6:45pm and yes I happily waited for an hour in the overly crowded station which is still alright in my books having experienced the awesome system of timing that KTM has to offer over the years. When the train came it headed towards KL station at its own sweet pace and suddenly stopped after KL station for about 20 minutes. We could feel that something was wrong because the train was tilted on its side. Suddenly a train from the opposite side of the tracks brushed through and it hit the door of the train causing sparks of fire and violently jolted the train. At this point the air conditioning system stopped working and we were stranded in the middle of nowhere in a train which didn’t have air supply. After 20 minutes people were starting to suffocate (which as bad as it seems is a usual occurrence during rush hour in trains which the air cond isn’t working properly). I couldn’t stand the heat anymore and opened the emergency doors to let some air in. We were in the middle of a jungle at 7:30 pm at it was pitch dark. There was a number printed at the side of the train in which it was stated that in case of an emergency to call that number. I called the number and to my surprise it rang for abit and the line was cut of on the other side. The bastards actually cut off an emergency number!!! Even the moron that was working on the train did nothing. He just got of the train and walked of leaving all the passengers on their own without knowing what was going on. I knew that it would take ages for them to get the train going so I got out and walked in the dark all the way to the previous station.



To make matter worst, KTM has the policy of employing the stupidest specimens of human being that’s the can find. The workers do not have a policy of helping the customers and are usually chatting among each other or trying to flirt with female passengers as they pass by. At peek hours, the ticketing counters have only one person tending to it and that person is usually texting or talking on his phone. The ticketing machines that are placed there work when they feel like working and it’s the passengers who are left in the lurch.



If I had my way I would fire each and every KTM worker and sell the entire thing to the private company who can run the system efficiently like how the PUTRA is being run. GET A CLUE LA MORONS