Licence to Speed - For Malaysian Automotive

Sunday, February 27, 2011

18" VS 19" Rims: The Pros & Cons (Best Motoring International)

Many motoring enthusiasts love to up-size their original rims: from 14 inch on a Proton Wira to 16 inch, or even 17 inch is not uncommon in Malaysia.

Not very pothole friendly! (Source)

Sure looks nice, but is it practical? (Source)

New Taiwanese Automotive Company: Lexgen

On my trip to Taiwan last December, I saw a new vehicle on the road. Thinking it was a rebadge, I did not pay much attention to it. However, on subsequent visits to a shopping mall, I saw the vehicle again on display. On further inspection it was a new company, a local Taiwanese product. Taiwan, under Yulon, had tried to make their own automobile before, but it failed pretty badly. Yulon had prior experiences assembling Nissan, Chrysler, GM, Mercedes Benz, Mitsubishi vehicles and corroborated effort with Nissan in research and development.

Unlike Proton from Malaysia which received local government support, Yulon did not had such luxuries and had to stop making their own designed vehicles. Instead, they remained as a major assembler of vehicles for other established brands like Nissan, Chrysler, GM, Mercedes Benz, Mitsubishi. Apart from assembly, they import Infiniti, Renault, and higher end Nissan into Taiwan.

After much more experience in manufacturing cars for established makes, Yulon decided to venture into self-developed vehicles using a new company called Luxgen. The first vehicle debuted in August 2009, the Luxgen7 MPV. It aims to be the Lexus of Taiwan. The cars are loaded with modern day technology, such as GPS, HTC powered voice controlled system, onboard windows CE computer, electronic stability system, and 3.5G mobile internet connection. The newer MPV even has night vision aid system, 360 degree surround imaging system (just like the one found on the Porsche Panamera!), blind spot monitoring system, and lane departure warning system (it will give a warning if you are too near to the lane divider lines WITHOUT giving signal !). All these will make any geek have wet dreams!Of course reverse camera is standard.

So far, Lexgen has sold quite a number of their vehicles in 2 years time, as I see it quite often there. Furthermore, the car is not cheap; the SUV retails for NT$798,000 up to NT$1,068,000, around RM80k to RM107k (USD 27,000 to 36,000). For the same price, one could purchase a Toyota Camry brand new (Retails for NT$82.9k for 2.0E, with 2.4G costing NT$104k)