Malaysiaminilover

Author: Angelina Soul

  • Kia Ray EV launched: Korean’s first electric car

    The Kia Ray EV has launched today in South Korea. The Kia Ray EV is the first 100% Korean made plug-in electric car that has the sound of petrol engine. The first EV car in Korea had give a promise to their customers that the car is able to travel up to 86 miles (139 km) on a single charge depending on the driving style. A normal charging time is six hours from normal 220V household electric plug. A fast-charge option is also available for the Kia Ray for whoever wants to refill the electricity in just 25 minutes.

    The Kia Ray shares the same production line with the 1.0-liter petrol powered Ray CUV in order to supply to the domestic Koreamarket. This is good because when Kia developing the EV, they can still adopt the characteristic of what a petrol-powered car should has especially the exhaust sound!

    Kia Ray EV dimension

    What about the design? The Kia Gay EV, Opps, sorry, it is the Kia Ray. For us, it did looks a little bit gay with the dimension of 1,595 mm in width x 3,595 mm in length x 1,710 mm in height. The car is design to look just like the petrol-powered Ray. It has a petrol cap just like others but it is the inlet for fast recharge mode. Both front doors have the word “Zero Emissions EV”. With a square design, 14-inch alloy wheels are best for it. There is also an inlet for the normal charging which hide behind the front grill. As for the boot, it can’t fit in an extra large luggage. At most it can only fit in a new shoe boxes.

    What about the interior? The interior is quite beautiful. It has a three round meter in front of driver with beautiful lights. It is spacious for passengers head due to its height.

    Kia Ray EV interior

    What about the performance? Kia Ray EV is a front-wheel drive car powered by a 50kW electric motor. Sounds a little weird because most of the time we will say “powered by a 4-liter V8 engine”, but soon we may have to compare cars with kW. The main battery used in the car is a high-capacity 16.4 kWh lithium ion polymer battery and it is hiding under the rear seat and cabin floor. The battery is also said to have a 10-year life cycle. Let’s review it again in 2021. From zero to hundred, the record is 15.9 seconds and the top speed is 130 km/h (81 mph).

    Whatever the performance is, we always give our full support to EV because of the zero-emmissions. Remember that previous we mentioned that we want a muscle car EV in our world that has everything just like ‘60s muscle cars including the V8 sound? At least the Kia Ray did it with recorded gasoline engine noises. It is an EV with petrol engine sound which not only makes the car lively but also to alert pedestrians.

    What about safety features? The Kia Ray EV has six air-bags, electronic stability features, and downhill assists control.

    Any special features? The car features an EV navigation system which tells the driver the where the closest recharging stations are. This is quite helpful because within few years there won’t be much electric recharging stations. The car features two driving preference, ‘E’ for eco and ‘B’ for brake. ‘B’ is specially design for the car to handle downhill or mountain roads like Touge. The way to open the car door is special, why? For the driver side, both door handles are stick together. The driver door open as usual but the rear is sliding door. On another side, both doors are opened like usual car. This is what makes this car “special” in open.

    Kia Ray EV’s competitor or similar car: Nissan Leaf, BMW MINI E, Citroen C-Zero, Mitsubishi I MiEV, Smart ED, Tango, Tesla Roadster, Chevrolet Volt, and Th!nk City.

    This is the first trial for an EV in South Korea, so don’t expect the Kia Ray EV will reach our country in a short time. South Korea is far from us to travel by an EV.

  • The most viewed car commercial on YouTube in 2011

    It isn’t a viral video that creates millions of viewer over night. It is “The Force” Volkswagen commercial to promote the all-new 2012 Volkswagen Passat. The video featured a kid wearing like Darth Vader and imagine that he has the power of what Darth has. He tries to control everything by his hand to an exercise bike, dog, and his sandwich. All of them were failed.

    He was a little upset until his father came back with the 2012 Volkswagen Passat, he tries to start it, and the car did start! His magic is work now! At the end of the video, the commercial shows that it is the father who pressed on a remote start to start up the engine within the given range. This is a great feature for consumer especially during winter time or cold early morning. You can start the car from home to heat up the car engine before driving it so that time could be saved. For hot day, remote starter can also very useful to start up the car and let the AC cool down the interior before you get in.

    The commercial is only 1 minute long but it has successfully attract more than 45 millions viewer in Youtube and make it to the number 9 in the most viewed YouTube video in 2011. This is really a very creative commercial. It is another achievement for Volkswagen in 2011 after the company slipped into top 47 of the top 100 brands of 2011.

  • Toyota Estima: A reliable MPV that serves its passenger until heaven

    Okay, we have no intention to frighten you not to buy this car. We are going to review the Toyota Estima based on it’s performance, features, outlook, engine, and talk about what isn’t so good about this car as well as it’s competitor.

    Toyota Estima or more commonly known as Toyota Previa in the US or Toyota Tarago in Australia was an MPV introduced in 1990 by Toyota. Within 21 years of time frame, the car received a total number of three generations until today. First generation was from 1990 to 2000, second generation was from 2000 to 2006, and third generation was from 2006 until today.

    We would really like to say this is a very spacious and roomy car otherwise the Nirvana Memorial group will not pick this as one of the main car to deliver corpse in coffin or casket. The average length of a standard casket is about 84 inches long, 28 inches wide and 23 inches tall. So we say the Toyota Estima is really spacious.

    What about the outlook? Big, spacious, and gorgeous. In 2009, the car received a new facelift. The front look of the car is slanting. It looks like the elephantnose fish where it has a long chin but it is nice.

    What about the features? A car that is so spacious will be hard to drive without some special features. The Estima feature an automatic parallel and back-in parking, where drivers can easily get the car park with the control panel. The second row is fitted with automatic footrest and third row seats are power-fold.

    What about the engine? The latest Estima is available in 2.4 L or 3.5 L. 3.5 L has enough torque and you will undeniably enjoy the driving. However, most of the people who purchased an Estima is prepare to have a chauffeur isn’t? The Toyota Estima is also available in hybrid version where you can buy it from Naza for RM 268,000.

    What isn’t so good about this car? Such a huge car with the curb weight at 1,845 kg without any passenger, consumer who owns the 2.4 L always claims that the car is lack of torque.

    Toyota Estima’s competitor or similar car: Toyota Sienna, Seat Alhambra, Peugeot 5008, Citroen C3 Picasso, Volkswagen Sharan, Dodge Caravan, Honda Odyssey, and Ford S-Max.

    As one of the best selling MPV in the market, there are more than 1000 units of used Toyota Estima available for sale at most of the time. In conclusion, the reliability, endurance, and maintenance of this car are without a doubt gets a good score. Otherwise Nirvana Memorial group will not choose this car as the main car to give their customer the last ride to the heaven.

  • A man wins a Lamborghini Murcielago and wrecked it after hours

    Remember that few days ago we asked “What are you planning to do if you own a Lamborghini Murcielago?” In just few days we got another answer from an Utahan, the answer is “I will crash it!”

    The Utahan, David Dopp, is truck driver and is also a father of six. He won a 650-hp lime green Lamborghini Murcielago on Saturday from a giveaway sponsored by Mavrick gas stations and teamgive.org. It was suppose to be a thanksgiving present but he wrecked it just after hours since he gets the key of a 650-hp exotic car.

    As usual, when one get a huge lucky present like what Dopp gets, the neighborhood is going to celebrate with a convoy run with him in the exotic. Imagine that Dopp gets into a 650 hp from what he used to have. He may get a little bit excited with the power the car delivers. Dopp lost control during the ride. The car went over a curb and hopping off the road and stay 75 feet into the field. Luckily Dopp has a full insurance coverage otherwise he may have to pay a huge amount for the repair although the cost is still unknown.

    A report says that the car bumper has been damaged, oil pan has been broken, but both passengers in the car are safe. One official says the accident was speed related but Dopp keep saying he hit a patch of black ice or gravel.

    “Yeah, I got it on Saturday and I wrecked it on Saturday,” Dopp said, “We were coming up a hill, going around a corner; and as soon as we came up the hill, we either hit some black ice or loose gravel or something, and all of a sudden we just started spinning,” said the Lucky Winner.

    The lucky winner describe the day as “An emotional roller coaster”. Drift King Keiichi Tsuchiya used to say, “What is power without control? It’s not all power boy!” Don’t believe what Keiichi says? You can see the 1.2 million Bugatti Veyron crashes into lake because of “angry birds”.

    Although this is a Lamborghini, it isn’t the most expensive car crashes of the year of 2011 compared to the recent exotic car crashes in Japan.

  • Eleven most famous car brands slipped into the top 100 brands of 2011

    Few more days we going to say good bye to the year of 2011 and welcome 2012. Again, it is time to look back what we did and plan for what we are going to do. This year, the top ten most famous car brands including Toyota, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Honda, Volkswagen, Ford, Audi, Hyundai, Porsche, Nissan, and Ferrari have slipped into the top 100 brands of 2011 with the total brand value of 138.7 billion. (more…)