Tribute to the NSX - the most important modern supercar

As mentioned earlier, the NSX replacement, initially set for launch in 2010 has been cancelled by Honda. Motorheads around the world, including yours truly, didn't react very well to that news. But it is not difficult to understand Honda's justification. Japanese automakers are seeing worst plunge in auto sales since the post-war era while financial houses and even countries (Iceland, once a financial services powerhouse is now technically bankrupt) around the world are falling over like a deck of cards. For a mass-market manufacturer like Honda to continue pouring money on an ostentious V10 supercar project like this is just plain reckless.

The plain hard truth is that now is not the time to discuss about products with high emotional appeal for brand building but to shore up resources and brace for the worst decade in the car business.

With no replacement in sight for the NSX, this could play into the hands of existing NSX owners. We could be seeing the making of a modern classic, whose value may appreciate in the future. But this is difficult to predict as the classic car market have not been very warm towards Japanese classics - case in point are 1970 Nissan 240Z (the original Nissan "Z" car), 1967 Toyota 2000GT (Japan's translation for a Jaguar E-Type) which was even featured in James Bond's You Only Lived Twice. Great Japanese cars from the 60s, but not appreciated as much as European classics at the concours shows / auctions.

NSX - rumoured to be short for "New Sports-car eXperimental." I love it for its slightly maverick reputation because it thumbed its nose against the Italians and Germans who thought they knew everything about building a supercar. NSX came out at a time when the Americans were blaming higher quality Japanese imports for the slump in the American car industry. The Europeans, have difficulty accepting that the Japanese can build a car that starts up without fail on every cold morning, with doors that are aligned properly. The Italians and the Germans continue to believe in their superiority in the power and speed game.


NSX debut in USA as the Acura NSX in the 1989 Chicago Auto Show.

When the NSX was launched in 1989, overnight it made a Ferrari 348 looked like an exercise for the mascohistic male who relishes a torturing drive. It made the widow-maker Porsche 911 looked like a car for those who loved to play a suicidal game of "who gets wrapped round a tree next by an engine at the wrong place" game.

“I think the company wanted a car that could bridge its mass production FF models and F-1 cars. They needed a car that would become the new face of Honda. Plus, we’d been contacted several times by those who were planning the Acura Division at American Honda concerning similar requests.”- Shigeru Uehara, NSX LPL (Large Project Leader, Honda's lingo for chief engineer). Uehara-san is also the father of S2000 roadster.

The NSX is docile enough to be driven by a grandmother, yet have enough muscle in reserve to be called up for when needed. It makes you wonder why must all other supercars look nice but must be such a pain to drive? And best still, none of the other competing Italian and German rivals can boast of having their supercar developed by a F1 world champion; the late Aryton Senna honed the NSX to perfection. It would be almost 2 decades later before Michael Schumacher developed the F430 and Enzo for Ferrari.

Even Gordon Murray, creator of the McLaren F1 liked the NSX so much that he bought one for himself and even used it as a benchmark in designing the Mclaren F1. It is safe to assume that had it not for the NSX, supercars breed would not have improved to today's standards.

"...the moment I drove the “little” NSX, all the benchmark cars–Ferrari, Porsche, Lamborghini–I had been using as references in the development of my car vanished from my mind. Of course the car we would create, the McLaren F1, needed to be faster than the NSX, but the NSX’s ride quality and handling would become our new design target." Gordon Murray, creator of McLaren F1, "automotive rockstar."

More on Gordon Murray's thoughts on the NSX here, translated from here.

Personally I am very fond of the original 1989 NSX. Yes there is the faster NSX-R later into the model life, but for many, the original version will always have a certain mystique to it. And if you have lived through the 80s, how can you not love those pop-up headlamps? Later models have a more conventional fixed headlamps due to aerodynamic, crash regulation and safety concerns.

The NSX was created at a time when Japan was awashed with great optimism. Japan was quickly picking itself up after the war. It started with the building of Tokyo Tower, hosting of 1964 Tokyo Olympics, the Shinkansen bullet train. Japan exported its culture via Sony Walkman, Nintendo video games, kaizen philosophy, etc etc. The NSX was Japan's expression that it is capable of taking of the world's best supercars, and then do it one step better.

Today, Japan has to resigned to the fact that it is no longer the economic powerhouse it once was. Japanese economic growth have been largely flat since the Japanese property bubble burst of the 90s. The most significant area of technology growth - the Internet is largely driven by Google and the other Bay Area start-ups, many of them Indian too, with very little Japanese input. China is where all the capital are headed to and Chinese universities are fast racking up patent registration to match American universities, never mind about Japan. Sony no longer makes the coolest personal music player, that honour now goes to Apple. Taiwan now manufactures most of the world's microchips. Socially, effects of their workaholic work-culture is finally getting back on them as Japan's birth rate is now the lowest in the world, with a social security time-bomb ticking away as there won't be enough young workers to pay for social benefits of the large ageing population.

In case you wondering of the Nissan GT-R, well the last R34 GT-R was killed by the Japanese themselves, as Nissan's bottom line went from bad to worse. It took a French-Brazilian-Lebanese by the name of Carlos Ghosn with French capital from the Renault to revive the GT-R badge. Yes it was built and designed by Japanese craftsmen, even driven by a certain Tochio Suzuki to lap around the Nurburgring faster than a 911, on its home ground. But the Japanese initially gave up on the car and it took a foreigner to rescue it. Come to think about it, GT-R is the best example of automotive globalisation. How much more global can you get?

Even if Honda were to resurrect the NSX replacement sometime in the future, it will never quite capture the same spirit as the original. The world has changed a lot from the time when the original NSX was released. Market pressures would dictate that the car will now have to appeal to fat rich playboys, oil barons and investment bankers who will form the bulk of buyers - meaning it must be large, most probably front-engined, more GT-cruiser, loaded with lots of toys. Honda never really made much money out of the original mid-engined NSX, simply because it was never really meant to. Instead it was meant to wow the public, to make a statement of Honda's technological prowess and Japan's coming of age to take on the best of Italy and Germany, never mind USA. Today's highly competitive industry however will have no space for any of such nonsense marketing bullcrap. The current rule of thumb for the industry is that there is no sacred cows, if the car is not making money it will have no reason to justify its existance in a car company's product line-up.


All images from Honda Motor Co and Nihoncar.

As Autocar once said on the NSX, "...like James Dean, it’s legend will only truly come alive after its death. And then it will become known as the most influential and important supercar of the late 20th century, the one that helped make all the others better."

NSX and Aryton Senna, two automotive legends, now immortalised after their death. Watch the video below, an amazing car and an amazing man gifted with the god-like hands and feet control.

Tata Nano on sale by March 2009

The Tata Nano, a dimunitive Indian micro-car that has stoked much interest as well as controversy all over the world will go on sale by early March 2009. After a series of setbacks due to land rights dispute, production has finally started in November 2008 at Tata's Pantnagar facility while the Nano's main production site at Sanand, Gujarat is being completed.

Read more about the rebuttals against critics of the Nano here.

Passo Sette / Sirion Luminas - preview to Perodua's MPV

A follow up to an earlier entry here. Toyota and Daihatsu today jointly launched their new 7-seater MPV, based on the Toyota Passo / Daihatsu Sirion (Boon) hatchback.

The new MPV will be jointly sold under the Toyota badge as Passo Sette and Daihatsu badge as Sirion Luminas. Previously most of the English speaking automotive blogs speculated that the Daihatsu version will be called Sirion Ruminous. Obviously we got it wrong due to some dodgy translation. One of the reason why online information should be taken with discretion.

More importantly to Malaysian readers, this new MPV will be a "preview" to Perodua's new MPV which is set to launch around the Q4 2009. Perodua is Daihatsu's outpost in Malaysia in the same way Maruti is to Suzuki in India.

Looking at the dimensions, the new MPV will be 430mm longer than the standard Passo / Sirion / Myvi (Perodua).

Power will come from a 1.5-litre 3SZ-VE powerplant, which is  now already servicing Avanza / Xenia MPV and Bego / Rush / Terios and SUV. Only one transmission option will be available - a 4-speed automatic while Japan domestic models will have optional 4WD.

While the press release does not clearly state a flat folding second and third row seats, it does suggest the feature, along with a 150mm sliding second row seat. In typical Japanese compact-MPV fashion, the front seats will feature bench seat setup. But it is unlikely that this feature will be adopted in overseas / export models due to local regulation compliance. 

Fuel economy is officially rated at 15.6km/l under the Japanese 10-15 test cycle, which I have to add is not a very realistic representation of actual fuel consumption in real world driving.

More information can also be obtained at Nihoncar.com. The Japanese domestic market models feature a lot of fancy bells and whistles from their in-car entertainment and convenience features. Don't expect these to be included when Perodua localises the same model for the Indonesian and Malaysian market.

What surprises me is that the Daihatsu version is sold at a higher price than the Toyota version. Typically, Toyota badged equivalent models comes with a higher specs and a price premium. The Toyota Passo Sette starts from 1.49 million yen while Daihatsu Sirion Luminas starts from 1.535 million yen. The Toyota Passo which forms the basis for this MPV retails in Japan for around 1.3 million yen. Ignoring local tax structure which will be slapped on Perodua MPV, you can roughly estimate that Perodua's MPV will retail at around 15% to 20% higher than the current top of the line Myvi SE (RM53k). Expect a retail price of between RM60k to RM70k, which puts it within the firing range of Malaysia's best selling MPV - Toyota's Avanza which starts at RM62k. Currently the Toyota Avanza in Malaysia, sold by local distributor UMW Toyota is assembled under OEM contract by Daihatsu's outpost in Malaysia - Perodua. It is also worth noting that like Passo Sette / Sirion Luminas, the Avanza is another product jointly developed by Toyota and Daihatsu, and it is specifically developed for sale emerging developing markets. It is sold by Daihatsu as the Xenia in Indonesia. Perodua also assembles and exports the Indonesian market Daihatsu Sirion, under an agreement with the Indonesian Daihatsu distributor Astra Daihatsu Motor.

With Perodua's new MPV, this would mean that Perodua will be assembling two MPV models at its Rawang plant, that will be competing with each other. It doesn't really make sense. Sales of the Avanza and Perodua MPV are bound to cannibalize each other as they both target the same entry level MPV buyers segment. It is left to be seen how will this OEM arrangement between UMW Toyota Motor and Perodua accomodate Perodua's new MPV. Platform sharing with cross-branding agreement is workable in saturated markets of Europe and Japan (i.e. PSA-Toyota's partnership in Czech republic, PSA-Mitsubishi's Outlander / C-Crosser / 4007). In the case of Xenia / Avanza in Indonesia, Indonesia is the largest MPV market in the region, thus the "pie" is big enough to be shared between Daihatsu and Toyota dealers, with the Xenia and Avanza targetting slightly different ends of the market. Malaysia however is still a predominantly passenger car market, with over 70% vehicles sold here are of sedan / hatchback body type.


All images courtesy of nihoncar and responce.jp via autoincar.com.

For those who find the designs a bit tame, they may be interested to draw some bodykit styling ideas from Toyota's Modelista styling package, only available in Japan though. Currently Perodua already offers bodykits for its Myvi (Sirion) and Kenari (Move) models, there is no reason why they can't offer something similar if the demand is sufficient.




Image via autoincar.

Related link :
Undisguised Images of Proton MPV
Proton MPV, March 2009

Big 3 Bailout

From left, UAW president Ron Gettelfinger, Ford CEO Alan Mulally, Chrysler CEO Robert Nardelli, GM CEO Rick Wagoner pause during a Senate hearing on the automotive industry bailout request. Image from AP Photo.

So as expected, Big 3 got what it wanted. Well almost what they wanted, USD 17.4 billion each for GM and Chrysler (Ford only requested for a credit line as its company restructuring loan package have been finalized last year). Prior to this, a friend was telling me that all the big hoo-ho about the CEOs from Big 3 being grilled by the White House and Senate, are all nothing but a political show - politicians way of showing to their constituents that they are careful in managing tax payer's money. I couldn't agree more.

It's not just about Big 3 forming the pillar of American manufacturing industry and is a bedrock of millions of jobs, billions worth of parts supply and other services industry contracts and forms the backbone of many local American communities. The American car industry, along with oil industry are the two main donors at American political campaigns. The beneficiaries, the Presidents and Senators have an "indirect obligation" to protect their interest. Together, the American oil and car industry form a very strong political lobby group.

Just look at the way CEOs from GM, Ford and Chrysler conducted themselves during their hearings at the White House. Which CEO of a business the size of Big 3 will allow themselves to attend a hearing in front of the Senate without any well thought out action plan? All the 3 CEOs seem to be doing their own thing, as though they are each facing three seperate crisis. Until now, we have not hear of any concrete plan to restructure the entire ailing organization or clear plans to deal with the problem head on.

All the Big 3 CEOs speeches are related to "we are launching hybrids by this year etc etc, we are cutting cost here etc etc, we are building smaller fuel efficient cars, we are renegotiatiing labour wages etc etc." These are not a crisis aversion plan, these are merely organizational improvement efforts which you should have been doing all this while, continuously. I still remember about 10 years ago Rick Wagoner was talking of the future of car business being more trucks, less cars. GM's product development czar Bob Lutz famously called global warming a "crock of shit" and thought of the Prius as an interesting "experiment."

Japanese automakers too form an informal alliance amongst themselves in lobbying for certain government trade policies / financial assistance to favor them, but unlike the Americans, Japanese automakers will work amongst themselves to ensure that everybody is speaking the same lingo. There is a strong effort by everybody to deliver cohesive action plan, one that is made in the interest of the nation rather than just for their individual companies.

On other hand, Rick Wagoner, Allan Mulally and Robert Nardelli simply cruised from Detroit to Washington in their seperate private jets and took their seats at the floor and gave their individual speeches that says nothing about how the 3 of them will come together to fix this mess they created in the first place! One can't help but get the feeling that they are just there to tell the government - "if you don't give me money I will close my business and millions of people will be thrown out of work. You wouldn't want that do you? Now show me the money."

The other thing is about Chrysler. Cerebus Capital bought Chrysler from Daimler AG after a failed marriage between the two cross Atlantic automakers. But Cerebus is a private equity investment firm, a fancy name for a company which deals with what Warren Buffet calls "financial weapons of mass destruction." Private equity firms are monsters of greed that are not subjected to the same kind of regulation and public accountability that traditional financial firms are. They see businesses not as sources of employment but "assets" to be sucked for profit and disposed off as soon as possible. Cerebus Capital however does not want to dig inside its own deep slush fund to inject capital into Chrysler, instead it wants to use US Federal government's USD 700 billion bail out package.

It's the typical story of corporate America - big guys in suits are eager to see quick returns on their investment, CEOs look at short term outlook and say to hell with the next 10 years because that's the next guy's problem, the everyday man on the street gets thrown out of his job for mistakes which he is not part of at all.


I have seen many weird religious nut case. But this has got to be among the top ten.
Greater Grace Temple in Detroit, Mich., held a special service Sunday called "A Hybrid Hope." Bishop Charles Ellis brought a special message entitled "A Hybrid Hope," calling people to pray for the auto industry. Image from WSJ.

Civic Hybrid To Star With Keanu Reeves

WETA/Twentieth Century Fox

In the latest automotive product placement exercise by Hollywood, the Honda Civic Hybrid will be featured in Keanu Reeves's latest movie "The Day The Earth Stood Still." The Civic Hybrid will be driven by co-star Jennifer Connelly, who is playing the role astrobiologist Helen Benson.

6 Civic Hybrids were supplied for filming, out of which 2 had to be cut open to facilitate filming. According to wikipedia, producers of the movie went to great lengths to be as carbon neutral as possible. To reduce waste, props and sets were posted up on a website for viewing by crew members before finalizing the actual design. Hybrid cars were also used and crew members were directed to turn off the engine if they sat inside idling for longer than 3 minutes. Clothes and other reusable materials were either kept for future use or donated away.

The Day The Earth Stood Still is the latest environmental theme movies, a trend started off by Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth and Leonardo DiCaprio's 11th Hour.


Image from Honda UK.

Sharp eyed readers might notice that the Civic Hybrid pictured above is missing the trademark spokeless aerodynamic wheels that is fitted on Civic Hybrids sold in most parts of the world. However the picture above is a UK specs model and for some reason the UK Civic Hybrid is specified with conventional 5 spokes alloy wheels.

In real life, Keanu Reeves is an avid biker, particularly classic British bikes. He is very fond of his 1974 Norton Commando bike. He also has a Porsche 911 C4 but that was quite sometime ago, he could have switched cars by now.

Source : Via Indianautosblog.com

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Honda City Malaysia launch

UPDATE : Price of the City have been confirmed.
RM 84,980 for 1.5S
RM 89,980 for 1.5E

I find the model naming convention rather odd. I would immediately associate S to be the higher grade (S for sporty, E for economy?) but Honda believes in the reverse. Maybe it's just me. More info at Motor Trader Malaysia, terato.com. Launch event video can also be found at CBT

In response to the City's introduction, UMW Toyota have introduced a new White paint, which is the rage nowadays. Also it has a basic specs 1.5J version with a manual transmission, targetted at the younger buyers / those looking for a non-national Proton / Perodua badged car alternative. As a company product, Vios has a wider appeal and is a more "durable" product to weather a slow market, with 5 models covering a wide price range from RM69k to RM88k. In contrast, the City is targetted at a narrow RM5k price band, from RM85k to RM89k. I hope they have more variants (i.e. manual transmission / basic specs) that will be introduced later into the model life to expand the City's appeal. Because for now this clearly looks like a poorly thought out product strategy with only 2 model grades. With the current gloomy economic climate, now is not the time to talk about image. You don't sell enough cars your factory shuts down and dealers go bust. It's that simple.
 
Below is an earlier write up made prior to the launch.


Honda Malaysia Sdn. Bhd. (HMSB) will be launching the third generation City today. It is unclear however if the new City is available for viewing in showrooms nationwide starting from today.

Looking at the price positioning in Thailand and Singapore, expect to pay a significantly higher price premium over the competing Toyota Vios. But for the extra cash you will be getting a 5-speed automatic transmission, steering wheel mounted paddle shift transmission for the top end model, class leading 506-litre (methodology unknown) boot space, an interior which is said to be bigger than a Civic, slightly more powerful engine, steering wheel which adjusts for both reach and rake and of course the most important factor to many yuppies and wanabes that populate the B-segment sedan market - a far better looking car than the Vios.

Based on reviews in Thailand and Singapore, areas of concern for the City include nasty hard plastics in the interior, rough sounding engine, and a steeply raked A-pillar which looks good but compromises the driver's view and entry. Take a look at the center console area, the fake metallic surrounds are so shiny (and large!) you can even see your own reflection! Also, some reviewers have mentioned that it is difficult to get an ideal driving position, due to the mentioned A-pillar issue and higher placed seats (possibly related to the City's Global Small Car platform centrally located fuel tank or the lowered roof line). It is best to try out the actual car for yourself and see if you can accept these minor "problems." After all, no car is perfect. Not even a Veyron. The Vios has its own issues as well - the same nasty hard plastics, noisy and rough sounding engine (the two new models seem to suffer from a noisier engine than the previous models despite using the same engine block, very odd). I personally find the seats unsupportive and steering to be extremely dead on feel but others might find them acceptable. Vios interior is clearly more crammed and the manual transmission version has some of the worst clutch feel I have tested in recent time.

Honda's Ayutthaya plant in Thailand is the "global production hub" or as Honda calls it "leader plant" for the City. Honda expects the Autthaya plant to manufacture 35,000 units of the City over the next year. 24,000 of these will exported to markets across Asia, Africa, Middle-East, Europe, Australia. Even the Japanese domestic market City (Fit Aria) is exported from Thailand. For the Malaysian market however, the City will be assembled at Honda's plant in Pegoh, Melaka.

And by the way, about the increases in price - every car manufacturer faces this problem. Whenever a new car is launched and prices are higher, some, especially the lesser educated ones, will start accusing car companies of being greedy, cheating, etc etc. These people seem to think that car prices are set in the same way the price of a plate of char kuay teow or a loaf of bread is set. Toyota and Perodua have launched the most replacement models over the last 2 years and they have been at the receiving end of such critics, particularly on Viva, Vios and Corolla.

Truth is commodity prices including steel and fuel have been skyrocketing. The current reduction in steel and fuel prices are only temporary, partly due to the credit crisis. Some number crunchers are even suggesting that the current low fuel prices are only a prelude to a coming "super-spike" in fuel prices. Not much is still being done to curb speculation of crude oil by commodity traders, and not enough is done to reduce our dependence on fossil fuel. It takes about about 18 - 24 months to develop a new car, and this is excluding the underlying marketing and product planning job of setting the vehicle's design direction, product concept and identifying target customers. The City was developed at a very challenging time, at least from the cost point of view. Their pull out from F1 and cancellation of the supercar NSX replacement project should be an indication of how urgent the situation is. I am quite sure a lot of cost cutting have been done in areas hidden away from the naked eye, i.e. wire harness, electronic modules, production control, etc. Greedy maybe a term used for American car companies run by fat cat CEOs who cash in massive bonus payouts despite driving their companies close to bankruptcy. The same however does not apply to the more prudent Japanese companies, whose leaders tend to be less flamboyant or over compensate themselves in relation to their staffs.

Currency fluctuation is another issue. In Australia, car prices will be increased by all major car makers from Holden and Ford to Toyota and Mazda begining 1-Jan 2009, mainly due to currency exchange issues. In the age of global supply chain sourcing, no one single car is built completely in one country. Parts may come from as far away as China and India or Japan. Fluctuations in US dollars, Japanese Yen and Thai bhat have an impact even on cars that are assembled locally. For reasons far beyond the scope of this blog and area of expertise of this blogger, do expect further increase in prices of many more new models.

This however brings some good news to owners of the current City. With increase in prices, expect to fetch better resale value for your current City. Residual values of cars are usually pulled up by higher prices of a new replacement model. For many families looking for a reliable, affordable decent family sedan, the previous (second generation) City is an obvious choice against the Vios, with its larger interior and boot space and amazing number of storage bins count. By the way, if you are looking for large interior space in a sub RM90k B-segment sedan - give the Latio a thought. The Nissan has what I think the largest interior size in its class. I find the cabin to be the best to sit in (not drive) too, if you ignore the horrible fabric pattern. Somehow family run local Nissan distributor Edaran Tan Chong Motor is not marketing the car the right way and the Latio is left picking up whatever "sales crumbs" left over between the City and Vios. 

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Suzuki, Subaru pulls WRC plug and the problem with Subaru.

The motorsports community is facing more woes steeming from the credit crunch crisis. Earlier, Toyota F1 announced that it will be drastically cutting down its F1 budget, to the extent of foregoing a conventional glitzy launch for the 2009 F1 season for a far lower cost "online Internet launch." Then Honda dropped the bomb shell that it will be pulling out of F1. Mercedes later announced that it aims to cut F1 cost by at least 50% over the next two years.

The effect has now trickled down from the realm of open-wheel racing to closed wheel racing series. The World Rally Championship WRC series is the latest victim with both Suzuki and Subaru announcing that their withdrawal from the WRC series on the same day.

Below is an excerpt from their respective company's press release.

Image and press release from worldcarfans.com

In responding to the contraction of the automotive sales caused by recent global economic turmoil, Suzuki has been promptly taking possible countermeasures including the reassessment of its global production output. The company, however, foresees the shrinking trend in longer periods of time rather than a short-term phenomenon. To secure its own business environment for tomorrow, the organization reviews every aspect of the operations and decided to focus on the core business functions such as the manufacturing system, environment technologies, and development of new-generation powertrains. As a result, Suzuki concluded to suspend the WRC activities from 2009. - Suzuki Motor Corp.

FHI (Fuji Heavy Industries, parent company of Subaru Motors) considers it has achieved its original target in WRC participation. However, while considering positioning the WRC activity in Subaru branding strategy towards the future, our business environment has been dramatically changed due to the quick deterioration of the global economy. In order to optimize the management resources and to strengthen further the Subaru brand, FHI decided to withdraw from WRC activities at the earliest timing. - Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd.

Both Suzuki and Subaru have been long time participants of the world rallying with Suzuki being synonymous with drivers Nobuhiro "Monster" Tajima and Subaru with both the late Colin McRae and Richard Burns.

Both Suzuki and Subaru has work cut out for them, but among the two Suzuki is in a clearly better shape. Suzuki, in partnership with Indian car maker Maruti is the top selling foreign car brand in India, and is also among the best selling motorcycle brand is the fast rising BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) markets. Suzuki's motorcycle business gives it a unique edge against other car makers (except Honda) as first time car buyers in developing markets and upgraders from motorcycles are already familiar with the brand. Over the next decade, many industry analysts expect car sales in BRIC regions to account close to 50% of global new car sales as demand in developed markets stagnate, due to a combination of saturated market and slowing population growth. In the kei car segment in Japan, Suzuki is the segment leader, and kei cars are the largest market segment in Japan. In terms of overall sales in Japan, Suzuki trails behind the far larger Honda by only a whisker. Suzuki will hit some bumps along the way but they will come out fine minus some scratches.


Image from Nihoncar.com

I have long wanted to write something about Subaru's disconnected brand image and direction of its new product development against the current automotive trend, but was not able to due to other commitments.

In short, Subaru have always prided itself with its superior mechanical prowess - from their boxer engine configuration and all-wheel-drive powertrain setup. Its heavy involvement in WRC have propelled the brand into every wanabe racer boy and adolescent's poster car. But racer boys and pin-up poster cars don't sustain a car company. After all, Toyota became the largest and most powerful car maker by building incredibly boring cars, but those are cars that meet probably 95% of car buyer market's requirement.

Subaru's management realised they have a problem moving forward into the next 20 years. It needs to draw in more customers, current owners of other car brands. To do so it needs to widen Subaru's appeal, not just to rally fans crowd. So they tried to make the iconic Impreza more mainstream, less racer boy, more Ford Focus or Golf GTi. The results weren't pretty and the new "softened Impreza" alienated many of Subaru's core customer base - the English blokes at the pub always looking for a fight, the techno-song blasting and more blue lights than a Boeing jet Chinese Ah Beng in metro cities of Hong Kong or Singapore, the ricer boys with baseball caps in America and Australia.

Image from nihoncar.com

Subaru has two problem - its brand is too synonymous with a very niche appeal (performance and rally pedigree) and very little else, and secondly a flip-flopped decision making structure which is unable to make a correct decision and follow through it.

On their niche appeal, Subaru kept banging on its strength in AWD and boxer engines that it completely ignored the need for product line-up expansion, platform sharing / consolidation and alternative energy powertrain. These should be the 3 key focus for the future growth of any car company. But Subaru completely ignored all that, and basked in their glory of AWD and world rally success. AWD is good for handling but it is poor on fuel economy due to additional weight and mechanical friction. In an era of advance chassis control electronics, some 90% of AWD traction function can now be replicated by ESP (electronic stability programme). The EU government is hard clamping down vehicular CO2 emission and USA has mandated minimum average fleet wide fuel economy. How relevant is fuel thirsty AWD and boxer engines in the current automotive trend? More importantly, how relevant is Subaru?

You may say that Subaru's very reason of success is also their reason of failure to innovate into the future. If Subaru never wanted to appeal to the mainstream buyer then it should not be in the car business in the first place. Even brands like Maserati and Ferrari is thinking about expanding sales. Being niche is just a catch phrase, the fact is that car industry is a volume game. Fiat Group CEO Sergio Marchionne suggested that car makers need to sell between 5 to 6 million cars annually to stay in business. Why else did you think would Porsche want to buy VW? After all, they did build an SUV and now a sedan to bring in the money for the 911 right?

On their decision making, look at the evolution of the Impreza, from the iconic early MY95 models to the later bug-eyed MY03 and then "airplane inspired" flying wings MY05 models. Where is the design direction man? Same goes to the Tribeca SUV. First they wanted to make it controversial and attention grabbing, then they reverted to a conventional styling. Make up your mind Subaru! Such kind of flip-flop direction only confuses potential customers.

The controversial launch model B9 Tribeca. Its airplane inspired front is supposed to be Subaru's new corporate identity, harking back to Subaru's history in making airplanes. It was quickly abandoned by the next model update.

Facelifted Tribeca with a more conventional front.
Images from Subaru of America.

Subaru should have learn from marketers at BMW, Mercedes and even Volkswagen in brand management. All of them have a high performance "halo car"; cars to lift the brand image appeal but fits in nicely to the rest of the mainstream models. BMW's M series, Mercedes AMG models and Volkswagen's iconic GTi and R series. These brands never lost their mainstream appeal. Subaru marketers should instead create a sub-brand for its high performance models and use them for branding appeal. The way BMW, Mercedes, Audi and even Volkswagen uses their M, AMG, S-line and RS, GTi and R series. That way the image and positioning of the primary brand is not blurred but yet has a wide appeal to the public. Mercedes-Benz's luxury image is not blurred by its hard riding torque monster AMG and AMG Black series cars. Even arch rival Mitsubishi is doing a slightly better job at marketing their Lancers. Subaru cars carries an assorted brand names - STi, WRX and Prodrive. What do you expect average Joe public to make out of these? When a customer is confused he doesn't bother to keep the car in his consideration list anymore, he moves on to a model he is more familiar with. All this is decided before he even steps into a sales showroom.

Now that Subaru has dropped its WRC baggage, this is an opportunity for Subaru to remake itself. I would start off with the mainstream Legacy sedan. I would suggest to make this into a Ford Mondeo challenger. The Legacy makes a lot more sense for mainstream appeal than the redesigned Impreza, it would be an ideal car to represent the new Subaru brand. The Legacy is less deeply fixated into one area of appeal, making it easier to take it on a different future design path. Personally I think Subaru should have worked on this car instead of the extreme rally bred Impreza. Demand for large SUVs are waning and the once popular wagons have yet to pick up the slack from slowing SUV sales (customers prefer smaller urban SUVs). So Tribeca and Foresters are out. And stop those rally inspired ads. Do a market survey and gauge for yourself what the average public thinks about rallying and if they find it appealing at all. Keep banging on mud splattered Imprezas and you are stuck with the same small group of buyers forever.

The Subaru Legacy.

About 15 years ago Mazda was in a situation not too different from Subaru. It was known for its rotary engine RX-7 and Miata MX-5 sports cars and little else. Today Mazda 3 is the third best selling passenger car and best selling privately purchased car in Australia. Instead of putting money in fancy AWD mechanicals and playing around with mud and snow in rally stages, put money instead on design. Price, brand and design are always the 3 most important factors determining a vehicle's purchase in any car market, irrespective of local taste and culture. This was the strategy Mazda used, to be mainstream and yet diffentiate itself from giants of Toyota and Honda. Mazda knows it would get slaughtered if it were to take these 2 giants head one. Mazda hired the best designers they could get and invested heavily into ground breaking design concepts that embraced its Japanese heritage rather than trying too hard to emulate European designs, like many Asian / American car companies are doing. The Subaru brand and engineering talents have a lot of untapped potential. Mechanically nothing is really wrong with their cars. They just need better leaders. That's all.

Perodua MPV aka Passo Sette / Sirion Ruminous. More pictures

Updated here : Sirion Luminas and Passo Sette unveiled

Early last month, we were tipped off on the Passo Sette / Sirion Ruminous rumour, that Daihatsu and Toyota will launch the jointly developed 7-seater MPV based on the Toyota Passo / Daihatsu Sirion hatch. More photos have since leaked out, including an interior shot of the instrument cluster.


The current Passo / Sirion is also manufactured by Malaysian car maker and Daihatsu's affiliated company Perodua. The Passo / Sirion was jointly developed by Toyota and its sister company Daihatsu. Malaysian Perodua engineers were also involved from the beginning of the project and thus it was designed to accomodate design changes to suit local tastes. With changes to the dashboard and instrument cluster, Perodua manufactures an ASEAN specs version of the vehicle for the Malaysian and Indonesian market under the badge Perodua Myvi (Malaysia) and Daihatsu Sirion (Indonesia)



With Indonesia being largest MPV market in the South East Asian region, and a growing demand for more sophisticated monocoque (unibody) frame car-based MPV particularly in Malaysia, it is only logical for Perodua to present a strong business case to locally assemble the Passo Sette / Sirion Ruminous. The next generation Avanza still far away (Toyota just launched a "micro-change" model update of the Avanza about 2 months ago). At the same time Nissan is enjoying strong demand for its B-platform based (Latio / Tiida / Versa / Sylphy) Grand Livina. Even Proton too will be launching an MPV based on its GX platform. The growing MPV market is ripe for Perodua's taking.


Images from corism via autoincar.com

Of course, the image above refers to the Toyota badged Japanese domestic market version. Expect the ASEAN specs Perodua made version to have a slightly different interior.

In an interview today with NST-Business Times, Perodua's MD Syed Hafiz revealed that Perodua will be launching an MPV by the fourth quarter of 2009. Meanwhile Proton is poised to launch its MPV by March 2009.

Related link :
Sirion Luminas and Passo Sette launched
Passo Sette / Sirion Ruminous hints to MyVi based MPV?
Proton MPV 2009
Undisguised Images of Proton MPV
Honda Freed 2009

Lancer Evolution Police Car

Last week, the Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM) announced that they will be taking delivery of 25 units of Mitsubishi's 4-door fire breathing Lancer Evolution sedan as their new pursuit and VIP escort vehicle. PDRM is not alone in this purchase. UK's Southern Yorkshire police will also be taking delivery of their new Evos as part of their Road Crime Unit.


PDRM's Lancer Evolution high speed pursuit units will serve alongside their standard Proton Waja (Impian in Europe) patrol cars. Besides the Waja, a few units of Satria GTis and not too long ago, the ridiculously fast wagon Volvo 850-T5 were also used as pursuit vehicles.



The South Yorkshire Police in UK are already operating an existing fleet of previous generation Lancer Evolutions for their Road Crime Unit.


UK police vehicles are fitted with a PNC (police national computer) terminal (pictured above) that allows them to connect to the police department's database to retrieve any required information of the suspect's vehicle. An ANPR (automatic number plate recognition) camera continuously scan vehicle's number plates for suspicious backgrounds. It is unclear what equipment levels will be fitted to the PDRM Lancer Evolutions, but all the existing Proton Waja patrol units are equipped with a notebook computer. It's connectivity and usage is unclear though.

So, soon we will have 25 units of Evos in police livery prowling our highways and streets. And therein lies my concern. While there is no perfect police force in this world (though Germany's Autobahnpolizei comes pretty close in my opinion), I have my reservations against putting these machines at the hands of the Malaysian police. The Malaysian police force may be tasked of upholding traffic laws, but all too often I see police patrol cars switching lanes without proper signalling, and they don't even bother to wear seatbelts! Yes I am aware that some private security organizations direct their personnels not to wear seatbelts for fear of impeding their quick actions. But private organizations make their own rules of operation. As far as government security forces go, every single one of them from the British SAS commandos in their Range Rovers to Porsche 911 driving German autobahn polizei wear their seatbelts. Period. You are not going to do any good if you get hurt in an offsensive maneuver from a suspect. 

The local press states that police personnels tasked with the Evos will be given special training, then again I am pretty sure those guys in the Wajas are trained in both tactical offensive and defensive driving as well. Doesn't seem to make any difference does it?

Not much is known on the details of the advance driver training these Evo driving police personnel will been given. But I do hope it will mirror more like the British and less like the Americans. See in the case of the British police, there are very clear rules of engagement when it comes to high speed pursuits. Safety of the public is the first priority, then only comes the job of apprehending the suspect. The Yanks however believe in the reverse. American TV networks glorifies high speed police chases with their "breaking news." The British police pursuit units primary task is to keep up with the suspect and relay information to the control center via radio before deciding to continue or terminate the pursuit. British police use their Evos in "packs" to hunt down the suspect and the modus operandi is usually lining up alongside it to "box" it in.

The first video is a typical American police pursuit. So some guy stole some car. Big deal. Why do they have to engage the suspect in such a way that puts so many civilians in danger? If the TV network helicam is able to follow the suspect, why can't the police chopper? Or to seal off exits lay stingers on the ground and puncture the suspect's tires? The danger to the public in high speed police chases on criminals is different from the kind of danger street racers pose to the public in their immature loud Hondas, Toyotas and Protons. The former is a desperate attempt to escape from the law while the latter is an immature contest of who has the bigger balls. In their desperation, criminals will not hesitate to hurt / endanger other civilian road users.

Watch how in a desperate attempt to escape the suspect nearly collided a cyclist and another truck at an intersection. And the American police continue to barge their way through heavy traffic, at one point going against traffic!

The way the British handles a high speed pursuit is below. Note the different role of the Brit pursuit units - to keep the suspect in view until helicopter arrives or until reinforcement units arrive to take down the suspect in a safe manner. And also the constant relaying of information to the control center in deciding whether to continue pursuit or to terminate. Air support from the helicam meanwhile relays information on traffic situation ahead for the pursuit police vehicle. Undercover vehicles are also used extensively.


Watch the video below of a British police Lancer Evolution in pursuit of a stolen BMW 6 series.


Note the differences with the American cops when the suspect went against traffic in the oppossite lane. The British police terminated the pursuit and figured it is not worth the risk. They managed to recover the car later. So you lose the bad guy this time. But criminals like these, they are bound to come back. They always do. You will just have to nab them the next time.


Short vid on police driver training class starts at 4:30 mark.

UK police is far from perfect. But they sure make a lot more sense compared to the Yanks. Either way, I don't look forward to seeing any of these police liveried Evos in our local roads until the regular police I see on the roads up their driving discipline.

DuPont 2008 Automotive Colour Popularity Report

When you are a commodity-like business like paint, it can be very challenging to differentiate yourself from your competitors. In a way, marketing paint products is even more difficult than many FMCG products. At least when it comes to food, beverages, bodycare, etc etc, there is an element of personal preferences.

But how do you differentiate your paint from your competitors. As far as consumers are concerned, the only differences most will appreciate is the brand and price point. The manufacturers / OEM clients will have their production / body paint experts that can tell one shade from another but one can't just rely on OEM clients as vehicle collision body repairs and after-market body painting is a huge business, especially in the growing developing markets where lifespan of cars tend to be longer than developed markets of North America / Europe / Japan.

DuPont uses a novel marketing approach by releasing an annual colour popularity report as an alternative way to brand DuPont as a trusted authority in automotive paints. This year's 2008 Automotive Colour Popularity Report has just been released. For the full press release go here.

Below are some of the summaries for the main automotive markets of Asia-Pacific region.

Silver and black remains the traditional favourites across most markets but in the long term DuPont expects silver and light gray shades to be going out of fashion. White is the new black. Popularity of white and white effects (pearl / iridescent) continue to gain popularity in most markets, especially in North America and India. White also leads in Japan, but nothing surprising about that as white has been the dominant colour for many salarymen Corollas and senior management Crowns for many years. The Japanese must be wondering what's with the world's latest infatuation with the most safe and boring car colour.


The only market that bucks the "white" trend is China. Chinese car owners didn't caught up to the "white is the new black" fad. 

The "other" China - India has a different story though. White is the most popular colour there but take note also the relative popularity of red against other main car markets in the region.


Visit here for more colour popularity charts of other markets.

DuPont also mentions that blue is slowly gaining popularity, inline with the industry's increasing focus on environmentally friendly theme. DuPont suggests that Blue is particularly suitable for car models which makes a strong environmentally friendly theme, or even for lifestyle oriented vehicles like compact SUVs.


White is the new black. An E92 BMW M3 Coupe in Alpine White paint.


Blue to be the new green? Toyota FJ Cruiser in Voodoo Blue.

Honda Bids Farewell to F1

It's game over for Honda F1, the first of the many more impact of the deepening global financial crisis on motorsports.

What a pity end to a team that powered legends like John Surtees and the late Aryton Senna to numerous Grand Prix victories. It would be some consolation if Honda could still remain as an engine supplier, as it did to Aryton Senna when he was with Lotus-Honda and later Mclaren-Honda. But this is no longer possible with the winding up of Honda powered privateer Super Aguri F1 team earlier this year.

The full press release from Honda Motor Co. can be found here.

We, Honda Motor Co., Ltd., have come to the conclusion that we will withdraw from all Formula One activities, making 2008 the last season of participation.

This difficult decision has been made in light of the quickly deteriorating operating environment facing the global auto industry, brought on by the sub-prime problem in the United States, the deepening credit crisis and the sudden contraction of the world economies.

Honda must protect its core business activities and secure the long term as widespread uncertainties in the economies around the globe continue to mount. A recovery is expected to take some time.

The drastic step taken by Honda is understandable, and also a wise one. Honda is not alone. Toyota too is drastically cutting down F1 spending. It has announced that there will be no fancy red carpet and celebrities filled high glamour launch event this year for its 2009 F1 car; the TF109. Instead TMC will be having an "online launch" with images of the new TF109 with 2009 sponsors livery released simultaneously on all major F1 related websites.

None of the German brands (Mercedes and BMW) have announced any scaling back of their F1 activities. And neither Mercedes nor BMW is in any better financial situation than Honda or Toyota. In fact, they are faring a lot more worse than Honda or Toyota, with their out of touch with times high powered German luxury models. But unlike Mclaren-Mercedes or BMW F1, both Honda F1 and Toyota F1 have had very limited success in recent years. The decision to cut their investments is much easier to make. Plus, the Japanese are not engaged in the sort German civil horsepower wars like Mercedes and BMW are with their ridiculously powerful AMG and M models (Lets not forget Audi's RS models too). Motorsports involvement is very much part of these two brands identity and their heritage.

It will be interesting to watch how long will the Germans stick it out. There can be no motorsports until you start selling real cars for profit. The late Mr Enzo Ferrari was famously quoted of explaining his business plan as "race on Sunday sell on Monday." Obviously that sort of mentality has no place in today's competitive car market. If you need any further proof - Ferrari is now owned by Fiat. Porsche is the only independent sports car maker, and they build small little Boxsters to attract poor Porsche fans, the 911 on stilts Cayenne SUV for fat men who can't fit into a real 911 because they prefer golf and lunching than keeping fit on the race track, and of course the upcoming Panamera sedan for the pimps, rappers and celebrities. All are sold with the underlying goal of bringing in the cash to continue developing the next 911. Honda knows this very well, even though Soichiro Honda once said that if there is no racing there is no Honda. Then again, Enzo also says that he sees himself as an artisan, not a businessman or an industrialist.

But anyway, with the pull out of Honda only 18 out of 22 possible cars now fill the F1 starting grid. I get a feeling that this is a retribution to FIA supremo Bernie Ecclestone for failing to stop F1 costs spiralling out of control, desecrating the sport into a money game despite numerous pleas from privateer team owners like Eddie Jordan and Paul Stoddart. See, car manufacturers have very little commitment to the sport. They see F1 as nothing more than a marketing tool. Privateer F1 teams meanwhile, are the ones who will stick with the sport through thick and thin. These people live, breathe and eat Formula 1. As the sport slowly turned into a money game, these smaller teams can no longer afford to compete. We have lost many legendary teams with a long illustrious history in Formula One. Teams who contributed a lot to the growth of the sport and nurturing fresh new talents - Tyrell, Minardi, Jordan are among the casualties I can remember off hand. Car manufacturers on the other hand will come and go as they please. They exist to make money by selling cars while privateer teams exist to race. I hope the last remaining "old school" privateer team Williams F1 don't go bust too. Already, the sport is now only a mere shadow of itself. It has lost all the sportsmanship, at a time when drivers have self-respect and pride, drivers with an attitudes. Not the kind of "manufactured drivers we see today." 


Richie Ginther delivered Honda's first GP win in Mexico 1965.


Williams-Honda driven by Keke Rosberg, Nico Rosberg's father.


Lotus-Honda of the late Aryron Senna.


Late Aryton Senna's Mclaren-Honda.


Williams-Honda of Nelson Piquet.


Honda's 200th GP with BAR-Honda team and Jacques Villenueve

Proton to jointly develop Waja II with Mitsubishi

Early this year, this blog have speculated that the replacement for the Proton Waja model could very likely be coming from Mitsubishi. After the failed VW merger talks (mainly due to the last minute "stunt" from the Malaysian government), it is very unlikely that any other foreign partner will want to waste time in any further negotiations with Proton. New model development easily runs into hundreds of millions, and after spending money on Persona and MPV, it is unclear if Proton still have sufficient financial backing to spend money on development of Waja II. Despite strong sales of the Persona and new Saga, car industry is a volume game and Proton certainly lacks the necessary sales volume to amortise their new model tooling cost and to recoup their invesments fast enough.

The only party who is still willing to work with Proton is Proton's former technical partner Mitsubishi, which have a relatively good working relationship with Proton.

Today, Proton's Managing Director Syed Zainal Abidin revealed this to the press :

Proton Holdings Bhd and Mitsubishi Motors Corp have agreed on a product collaboration that would see Proton source a vehicle from Japan to replace the Waja and Mitsubishi take the Persona and Proton’s upcoming MPV (multi purpose vehicle) to be marketed as Mitsubishis in certain markets.

The agreement would also see Proton and Mitsubishi Motors jointly develop a small hatchback car that is slated to be introduced after 2010.

The small hatchback should be the next generation Savvy. Sales of the current Savvy has been poor in Proton's home market. But in neighbouring Thailand, the Savvy has been relatively well received, even beating Proton's own relatively modest expectations.

Related link : Waja Replacement Model by 2010

Proton MPV 2009

Terato.com has posted a series of spyshots of the upcoming Proton MPV, due by March 2009. For more pics, go over to terato.com. Note the different wheels (alloys vs wheel caps) and tire sizes on the two cars. The black car should be a lower priced M-line or Base-line model.

There is another picture of the Proton MPV in undisguised form that is making rounds on the Internet. But Proton has some really ridiculous history of threatening legal actions against a distinguished local journalist who posted a spyshot of their new model. But that was decades ago, I am not sure if the same bunch of PR monkeys are still in Proton today. Anyway, the undisguised Proton MPV photo was posted by somebody else on an imageshack server, here. So don't bother coming after this blogger.

As speculated earlier, the MPV is not exactly a clone of the Wish. Spyshots of development mules spotted with a Toyota Wish body are only used for powertrain and component validation purposes only. Proton does however draw inspirations from the product concept of many passenger car based MPVs. Unlike the Wish, Proton's MPV will not feature a sloping roofline which looks good but seriously compromises rear headroom space. Toyota's Wish is a 5+2 seater (which is suitable in developed markets with smaller nuclear family sizes) while Proton's MPV is a bona fide 7 seater (developing markets generally have larger family sizes). The Proton MPV should be based on Proton's modular GX platform (cannot be confirmed at this point of time) which has already spawned models like Waja (Impian in UK), Gen2 and Persona sedan. Any similarities with other car-based MPVs are due to engineering constraints of such type of vehicles and the common market needs. It's not a case of who copies who. By the way, info on 2009 Toyota Wish can be found here

When launched in March 2009, the Proton MPV will face-off with local favourites in the Midi MPV segment - Toyota's Avanza (best-selling non-national car in Malaysia) and Nissan's Grand Livina. Protected by the local government's protectionist policies, the Proton MPV will soon have the crown of Malaysia's best selling MPV almost handed to Proton on a silverplate. However, until and only the car achieves commercial success in Indonesia (ASEAN region's largest MPV market), it will be nothing more than another jaguh kampung (village champion) from Proton.

Related link :

Undisguised Images of Proton MPV
Passo Sette and Sirion Luminas launched, previews Perodua 2009 MPV
Perodua MPV 2009. More pictures.
Honda Freed