see what i saw

KARZ

I have been into the car industry for nine months now. I am no professional yet (not even close), but I think I would not have left out in car-related conversations now.

Good Car / Bad Car?

First off, “Continental vs Oriental”.

I think,continental cars versus oriental cars is like, ‘classic versus contemporary’.

Let’s put it this way, imagine you see a ten-year-old BMW 3-series and a ten-year-old Honda Accord side by side in front of you now. What would your eyes tell you?

I bet, the former ones is ‘old and stylish’, and the later, ‘old and obsolete’.

                                 

1996 BMW 3-series        

                            

1995 Honda Accord

The continental - When the car designers and the car architects create new cars, they keep the original flavor into the new ones as much as it possibly can, and yet one is chic’er than the previous. Look at the interior of two different generations of BMW, they are almost similar, but only voguish to fit into the modern-day.

As for the oriental, they go for the contemporary most ‘in’ approach, ‘what is the trend now?’, ‘which is hot now?’, etc. The shape can be totally different from the predecessor; it depends on what is the contemporary favourite—rounder/sharper contour, mini/giant, buttons/turner tuner, shapes and sizes, patterns and design of the features (both interior and exterior) may have a total changed. And you know…trendy stuff is easier to get olds in time, very soon.

“CKD vs CBU”

CKD = Completely Knock-Down (aka locally assembled)

CBU = Completely Built-Up (fully imported. * Be ware, there are CBU made-in-Germany, CBU made-in-Thailand, etc ;p)

This is easy. Hmm, have you noticed that– Pringles – the American brand chips is now product made-in-Malaysia? Could you taste the difference? Well, they are baked out of the same recipe!!! Or, you could DIY mom’s recipe of nasi goreng kampung!

What makes one buys an expensive car?

Porsche Cayenne

He may be buying its brand. But he’s buying more than just that:

Better handling

Easier to drive

Excellent gripping on the ground

Superior braking system

Thrilling sound of the car

Bigger power, and

The FEATURES: Sunroof, vacuum doors, sunblind, rain sensor, zenon-headlight, power-seats with lumbar support, DVD, Multifunction-display, anti-dazzle-mirror, etc.

The interior of Volkswagen Touareg

                                                                                                     

                                                                                      

These are values in the car that people are buying now… they want comfy, cozy, and as pleasant as a vehicle could offer.

At the slope of 45 degree, can other cars do this? (Don’t try blindly ;p)

What are the specifications to look at when buying a car?

After the love at first sight, next has to be the personality lah!! As for cars, it means the specifications.

The displacement (how many cc ar?). 

If the model that you are looking at comes in a few different displacements; per say the BMW 5-series consists of 520i, 525i, 530i, 540i, and 545i. Try not to go for the lowest cc of its class. The entry model may (usually) face problems of underpower (for its’ size&weight of the car). Besides, the smaller cc model might consume more fuel than the other, due to the lack of power.

The cylinders:

4 cylinders, 6 in-line cylinders, V6, V8, V10, V12? For your information the Formula 1 cars are using V8 engine this season.

The horsepower. 

The bigger the horsepower, the better? Of course lah! Do you know the most expensive sport cars in the world now is Bugatti Veyron? And it also has the biggest horsepower on cars ever, 1001 bhp babe!!! Does that make it the fastest? You bet! (To compared, a BMW 525i has 218 bhp).

Bugatti Veyron: It costs over 800 thousand pounds.

**a BMW X5 (4.8is) costs only 50 over thousands pounds. (You do the math)

The torque. 

Torque is crucial for heavy vehicles like buses and trucks which they need the extra torque to get the vehicle move from static. While the street cars are getting lighter then ever these days. (Lighter cars enhance speeding, and improve braking)

The transmission.

Now, latest Mercedes S-class has come with 7-speed automatic transmission, so does the BMW M5. Therefore, the 6-speed is entering the past-it generations soon. However, most of ‘us’ are still using 5-speed automatic transmission ;p

BMW M5 – 7-speed Steptronic                                                             

Mercedes Benz S350

The acceleration of the automatic transmission is usually slower then the manual. However, with the enhancement of the better technologies these days, Porsche has proven that, the statement is no longer a fact. The acceleration (0-100km/h) for the latest 911 Turbo (Porsche 997) automatic transmission (3.7 s) is faster than its manual transmission (3.9s) by 0.2 seconds.

997 Porsche  911 Turbo: Officially launched in KL, July 2006; Asking for 1.5M

The safety and technology. This is one important factor that buyers are looking at when shopping for cars these days: Airbags, crash sensor, park distance control with visual (displaying at the multifunction display), adaptive headlights (automatically adjust the light to match the direction of travel), xDrive (for the all wheel drive), Dynamic Traction Control (DTC), Anti-lock Braking System (ABS).

These are crapsss on KRAZ, crapped by ong soo hua ;p

while she’s day dreaming of a X3, or maybe a M5 now ^.^

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 22nd, 2006 at 10:57 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.