Car manufacturers are chasing the bottom-line these days. It is all about profits and staying in the black rather than in the red. This is obviously good business practise as who the heck goes into business to lose money. And because of this we have Mitsubishi deciding to soldier on with the Lancer for a good while longer and companies like Peugeot deciding to cut its current range of 26 cars to a slender 13. Cost cutting really rears its head here.



We're going to see cars like the 108, 208, 308, 408 and the 508 as well as the crossovers and people carriers. Sadly we're not going to see a new RCZ. Peugeot head honcho Maxime Picat told Autocar recently that  they're not going to replace that stunning return to form coupe.

"I love the RCZ, but I want us to focus on making the best of our core models, from Peugeot 108 upwards, and to exploit what we then have to the best of our abilities. For each of those cars we can choose attributes and be the best. Chasing niches is for premium brands; for us it has been a distraction.” said Picat.


Now aside from its seriously good looks for a small and relatively affordable coupe this car is fun to drive (in the 190hp manual form and not the 156hp automatic version - which needs the extra horses to go wild). It has really been awhile that a Peugeot has been true to its roots. These days their cars do not actually glide over bumps and potholes nor do many of their warmer hatches actually like cocking up a rear wheel in anger. Let's just hope the RCZ stays in production awhile longer. Let's also hope that manufacturers go crazy once in awhile too.

Hello folks. Welcome to the first post of 2015. Yes, yes I have been busy doing nothing much in terms of writing over the past month or so. The reason being the recent school holidays and that I was just plain lazy. It takes a whole lot of effort on my part to actually sit down and type something out as you all would agree that thumb twiddling, latte drinking, shopping, meeting up with friends and other non-productive things to do are so much fun. And when you actually add the fact that keeping this website up to date does not actually pay me a whole bunch of Ringgit every month you can see why I have neglected posting anything over the last thirty days or so. So let's start 2015 with an introduction of why motoring-malaysia.blogspot.com actually started in the first place.


Now way back in 2005-2006 or so I was intrigued with editorials and articles written by great British automotive journos like Clarkson, Setright, May and a few others including those who had written for EVO magazine like a certain Mr Chris Harris. I basically thought to myself and asked "How hard can it be?"

It wasn't so hard at all in the end as whilst working for a friend/boss/ partner I had the means to do so. So write I did. A couple of years after that I was good enough to write for a handful of websites, notably the Singapore based myautoblog.org (under the SGcarmart group) and now the hugely popular Carthrottle.com (wrote for them for a while and had to stop as they were catering for the younger and more Eurocentric/American type of crowd). I also managed to ghost write for a number of websites, which I do not want to mention here as some were start-ups and have ceased to exist. Oh well, the writing did pay some bills and opened doors.

And then,  my time for writing for the websites mentioned above came to an end. I then decided to put a little more effort into motoring-malaysia and see what can be done. I suppose I did okay as I somehow managed to gain some recognition locally by winning a 'Best Auto Blog' award at the Malaysian Social Media Awards 2014. I could have done better, but what this meant was for less 'Me Time' and more writing and slogging. Those that personally know me would tell you folks out there that it would be unbecoming of me to have less personal time than anything else. Yup. I suppose I am one of those dignified thumb twiddlers out there and I can afford not concentrating my efforts here. There are my other business pursuits I have to handle to you know...but last December was just a plain ol' break away from writing as it does takes its toll.

Anyway, luckily for me (but not you readers) I can afford to take a break. Actually, it is the fact that I can afford to take a break that some of the stuff published here can be a little bit spicy to some. The amount of brickbats, complaints about me trashing some of the cars by unsatisfied owners and even by some manufacturers is a lot. The cake has to be the PR people at Nissan (not naming names of course) who called me asking me why I called one of their cars a venereal disease. Of course, I don't get invited to any Nissan events. But life goes on. It's not as if I cannot get my hands on any Nissan if I wanted to. But at this moment, aside from the GTR, the local crop of Nissans are extremely dull and uncle-like. Oh, at 42, I am uncle of age too, but my attitude is far from it. And I do believe that since the Teana is no longer equipped with a V6 locally, they don't really interest me as much as before.

So let me now relate a car test drive experience to you folks out there. I think starting off 2015 with a review of a sports car is a nice thing. I remember driving a Peugeot RCZ a couple of years ago and while the drive was a memorable one (and the fact that I took notes after the drive), I have not written about it.


First launched in 2009 the Peugeot RCZ is a beautiful creature. This was a car that actually made it in its entirety from motorshow concept car to production model without any major changes. The only major change in the exterior was the exhausts were positioned to the left of the car from the middle. Peugeot even kept the Zagato-like double bubble roof which actually makes the car super exotic looking. When I first saw one on the road in 2010 it was like looking at something that costed a million Ringgit. It was stunning. It had curves in all the right places. I was actually quite keen in procuring one for myself in 2012 if not for the fact and more logical reasoning that I needed a proper luxury sedan to ferry my family around.

Anyway, it did not stop me from actually taking a drive in one to satisfy my curiosity and whether there was a chance in hell it could be a family car. It could. If you didn't really car whether your then eight year old daughter and 68 year old mother could fit in the rear. There are rear seats, the kid might fit, but there could be some issues if my mother were to come along for our jaunts to Penang or Singapore.

But of course there is bound to be issues with the RCZ. It is a sports car. One that had actually won quite a number of awards from publications like Top Gear and Auto Express. It is beautiful to look at and while it may only be a Peugeot which some brand snobs turn their nose away from I have to state that snobs should actually drive the car before deciding so.

The RCZ I drove was a 1.6liter turbocharged 6 speed automatic (THP156). This means that it has 156hp instead of the 200hp in the THP200 6 speed manual. Torque of the automatic is 240Nm over 275Nm of the manual. This translates to a leisurely 0-100km/h time of 8.4secs (7.5secs manual) and a top speed of 212kmh. But I have to say that in a purpose built sports car, it isn't all about the figures but how the car makes you feel. And the Peugeot RCZ does make you feel like you're driving something exotic from the way it looks.


Now while the exterior looks like a million Ringgit, the actual platform used by the RCZ is based on the Peugeot 308 that we see on the roads of Malaysia. You do sit lower in the RCZ than the bulbous 308 and you also see the familiar 308 dashboard in a lower setting with a clock in place of the middle air vent. The dials have more trimming on them too. You do get leatherette wrap for the whole dashboard making the interior look more upmarket than it really is. But those who actually own a 308 would feel that it is quite similar to one on the inside.

As for driving the RCZ I have to state that the chassis is remarkable but if you want to let it work hard then you have to stay away from the lowly powered RCZ automatic. The car on its standard 19inch wheels sticks to the road so much and you have to be really stupid to unstick it. It is front wheel driven and it will change direction pretty quickly. Overall feel is that the RCZ automatic is much more planted, secure than the entry level front wheel drive Audi TT Mk2 2.0TFSI. Now while the TT driver will have more power to lay down, the RCZ could make up by being more surefooted in and around the bends. Somehow, a stock TT rolls more and is more twitchy at higher speeds than this. For the average driver, the RCZ is more confidence inspiring and I also remembered that the THP200 could actually do a better lap time than the TT when tested by EVO magazine UK.

So do not judge a Pug by it merely looking good. It is a bloody good driver's car too in manual form. Here in automatic, it merely looks its part, does high speed cruising well but don't go chasing Golf GTIs in one folks. Buy it to look good. And sometime in 2013, Peugeot had reworked its nose and it isn't so smiley these days. Still a looker though.

The RCZ costs over RM248,000 new these days. Used ones go for between RM135,000-158,000. They are not that troublesome to maintain as they are mechanically similar to the 308 Turbo. What you need to do is ensure you use a thicker grade of oil -w40 INSTEAD of the recommended w30, service regularly, ensure you use good petrol and occasionally use fuel additives. You'll want good oil to keep the turbo lubricated but not thin until it cannot stand our Malaysian climate and use better quality fuel (Caltex and BHP comes to mind) so that no excessive dirt ruins the turbo. This is a bugbear of the 1.6liter Peugeot engine. But hey, if the car looks this good, Spend abit more on it.

I have been following my ol' pal Adlis K on a hunt for another car to replace his tiny (but very nice to drive) Mazda MX-5 Roadster. For the past few weeks we have been scouring Motor Trader and other on-line sites for a coupe with rear seats. The reason for Adlis K wanting a change is the need for rear seats. But I honestly think that he is just itchy for a new ride as he has owned a total of six cars since 2005.

Anyway, good for him as he does get to indulge on his passion for motoring. But folks, in order to indulge the way he does one must actually have a decent paying job that allows such liberties. If you are just sitting on your arse and not trying to find some way of becoming slightly wealthy, you will never even get the chance to catch a whiff of the tailpipes of the car pictured above. So there you have it, a moral to this story right at the start of this article.

And now for the actual reason for this little article - a usable 2+2 coupe around the RM200,000 price. We've come to conclude that for around this price a Malaysian can buy the following gray imports - the BMW E92 3series coupe (320i or 325i in M Sport configuration at about RM185K), an Audi A5 2.0TFSi in basic, small 17inch wheel and tyre combo (at around RM210K), a Mercedes CLK200 or CLK280 in AMG Sport spec (at around RM188K). The new cars include the VW Scirocco 1.4TSI (at around RM195K including insurance which VW never seems to advertise in their adverts) and the sublime Peugeot RCZ (at RM220K or thereabouts).

What we found out is that usable rear seats can only be found in the Scirocco, the BMW and the Mercedes Benz. To some extent the Audi A5 has such seats, but this larger car isn't spacious at the rear. It may be bigger than the BMW or the Mercedes, but it is actually smaller inside. But the car is actually more refined. I suppose this is because the A5 is newer (launched in 2007) than the Mercedes (launched in 2003) and the BMW (launched in 2006).

The RCZ is actually a 2 seater, and if you want to ferry people in its rear seats make sure they are small children or hobbits. If you want to carry full sized adults, you must chop of their legs or break their legs to make them fit. But if you like torturing people, I don't see why not.

Anyway, whilst the VW Scirocco is a nice car to drive and is very well made, it isn't a coupe per se. It still has that hatchback looks instead of having all out coupe styling. I actually don't quite like this car because it looks like a 1990s Honda Civic EG hatchback with wide arches. Trust me. It does.

Anyway, that leaves the BMW E92 coupe and the venerable and slightly old Mercedes Benz CLK. The BMW 320i is a decent enough car but that 2.0liter 4 cylinder is lame against the Audi A5's 2.0liter TFSI engine and lame even with the slightly noisy 1.8like Kompressor that the CLK200 uses. It is lame because it makes less power than both cars and even though its handling is sublime (at this price range) is isn't enough.

The Audi  and Mercedes are slightly more inert in feel and other driver/machine interaction but to the normal road user, you won't be pushing any of the cars mentioned above. 95% of the time the cars will be used to plow through the streets of Kuala Lumpur fighting traffic instead of fighting bends. And even the time used to attack such bends most of you Malaysians out there won't even know what the heck an apex is or what the correct line is. In this case, that final 5% of tactility would never be noticed by most of the people who bought this car. All they would feel is that the car is fast and quiet at speed. Sometimes, what they'll say is "Wahh, my car so good that suddenly I am going at 200km/h without noticing". And because of that, it actually makes no difference whether you 're driving the 'Ultimate Driving Machine' or something slightly lesser, like the Mercedes Benz CLK280.

I really like this car. It may not be as capable as the BMW in the bends or as slick as the Audi A5 but it is actually quite a decent cruiser with its 3.0liter V6 engine. With 230bhp or thereabouts it is entertaining enough and those fat 245series 18 inch tyres still does not allow oversteer in the dry (assisted by traction control which you cannot fully turn off as I presume since its a Mercedes Benz from a certain era). So it has enough poke to keep you entertained as does its V6 soundtrack (slightly muted but this helps its overall refinement). Handling isn't on par with say, the current W204 Mercedes C-class. That car is a better car to drive than this which rolls (and lurches) a bit more as it is based on the W203 C-class chassis. But again, this isn't a deal breaker, it still is a good rear-wheel drive coupe especially with the v6 engine.

And the rear seats are good. It isn't claustrophobic and even a chubby boy like me can fit in it well. I especially love the rear windows that wind down giving the car that classic Mercedes Benz pillarless look coupe. The car is a 2006 model and whilst the CLK came from an era where Mercedes Benz wrongly decided that it need not build cars that last a thousand years (like the W124 and the W201 cars), the interior still felt good even if it did look slightly outdated compared to the current crop of Mercedes Benz cars.

The only problem is that if one were an older adult, entering and exiting the rear seats will make you look slightly undignified. But then again, the rear seats are for the occasional passenger. Who cares about their dignity if you OWN the car.

But anyway, the hunt is still ongoing for Adlis K. Car hunting is indeed fun.