Driven : Compacts & a few others

Kia Rio(2010) , Cerato(2011) & Optima(2010)
Till a few years ago when you heard the word 'Kia' an image similar to the one below would have popped into your mind :

A collage of some not so memorable, ugly and poorly built Kias of yesteryear

Kia is actually a pretty old company, it was founded in 1944 and its core business was bicycle parts!! After about a decade of building cycle parts they gradually expanded into motorcycles, trucks and finally by 1974 they started manufacturing cars. They partnered with Ford for the technical know-how and produced several re-branded Mazda models (Ford has maintained a stake in Mazda from the '60s and even now has a small piece of the company) and in a few years entered the then biggest automotive market, the holy grail for car manufacturers - the US of A. Their models were downright ugly, pathetically built, poorly marketed and not at all fun to own. But all that changed because in a few years Kia was declaring bankruptcy!! The present global economic recession has everybody fearing the worst but if you actually look closely there have been major setbacks to the economies of some parts of the world for quite some time now. During the 1997 Asian Economic crisis, Kia just could not keep itself afloat. Even though they blame the crisis for their failure I personally think it was a blessing in disguise, because not only were their ugly models out of the showrooms and roads, but they also got a new  investor, none other than their major competitior - the Hyundai Motor Company. From then on Kia and Hyundai have been sharing platforms and other resources and at one point of time it was very evident because their models looked so very similar to one another's which can be seen to some extent even now, check out the 2011 Kia models (on the left) and their similar platform-shared Hyundai models (on the right) :

The similarities are quite evident. The main difference between both the model line-ups is the design philosophy and this where Kia managed quite a coup. They managed to get the legendary Peter Schreyer on board as the Chief Design Officer. Peter Schreyer is the design maverick behind many of Audi's and Volkswagen's most beautiful models including the Audi TT and the Volkswagen New Beetle.

Some of Peter Schreyer's work with his previous employer

While Hyundai adopted a curvaceous approach, Peter Schreyer's aggressive sleek design lines for the Kia made it stand out. Kia got an easily identifiable 'Tiger Nose' grill and people began appreciating and even admiring Kias for their bold designs and vastly improved quality. The best part of Kia is still its price and now with such other amazing traits, choosing a Kia is really a no-brainer and fleet owners are flocking to the nearest distributors. The very fact that the one of the most recognized distributors of Toyota in Oman and worldwide, Saud Bahwan Autmotive, grabbed Kia from another smaller distributor, built a massive dedicated showroom for Kia and made the Kia buying and servicing experience as good as their other marques which include Lexus, Toyota, Mercury and Ford amongst many others. Some readers may seem skeptical when I said that Saud Bahwan is a globally recognized Toyota distributor, but believe me, in India, every employee of a Toyota distributor learns the Saud Bahwan story as a case study during their training!! So while working in Oman I got the opportunity to drive many Kias and for long durations of thousands of kilometers. First the Kia Rio 2010.

This is a nimble fuel efficient car, best suited for the city but can handle long drives quite well. Well I got loads to tell you about this car and a lot more but will have to be continued later, gotta run now. 

What a GP!!!

The Valecia MotoGP was simply spectacular!!! What an exciting race!!! Crashes, splendid overtaking maneuvers and a photo finish victory for Casey Stoner, you really cannot ask for any more action. The top 5 really fought for their positions and and the battle for the podium places were pure drama.

Lloyd's Cars

Beuatiful isn't it??? The shiny new Merc CLS

The gay Lloyd ;-)

Entourage is really a superb show. If you haven't watched it already then you must, its supercool!!! For the ignorant, 'Entourage' is about the life of a successful movie star and his buddies who live with him, the series is loosely based on the life of Mark Wahlberg (he's an exec producer on the show BTW), and there are so many details that are simply amazing but let's start with cars, cause whoever is responsible for picking out the rides for the stars is doing an amazing job. While the main ensemble of Vincent Chase and his buddies are spoilt with exotic rides like the brand new Mercedes SLS, Hummers, Ferraris, Astons, Harleys and the celebrity favourite Cadillac Escalade, their agent Ari Gold gets to play with a new luxury ride every season, he's had it all, the Merc S-Class, BMW 7 Series, Lexus Hybrid and the stunning new Mercedes CLS.

But the most interesting choice of rides is for Lloyd, Ari's gay assistant. Only two times in the whole show we have been able to see Lloyd in his own car, the first time was long back in the first or second season when Lloyd drove around in an import tuner(looked like a Hyundai ;-)) and the recently Lloyd was spotted driving in a spanking new Chevrolet Volt. I guess the message is pretty clear : Cheap imports and Electric/Hybrids are for queers!!! ;-)  Japanese cars are almost like the gold standard now, so cheap imports very clearly means over modified Korean & Chinese shit, at least according to this blog ;-)

Lloyd's ride shown in the earlier seasons (not really but very close!)

Lloyd's latest baby

Hey before you bash me for not being green, I gotta tell you I love all kinds of cars, even electric, but these kind :

Tesla Model S

Tesla Roadster 2.5

Ad Backfire

Subaru is one of the most confused auto manufacturers in the world at least when it comes to design and marketing. They have some of the best technological know-how, thanks mainly to their amazing success in WRC and their motorsport partner responsible for their success, Prodrive. But their commercial cars have been mostly a joke for the last few years. They transformed a beautiful & capable Impreza into an ugly & gay  hatch, made a ridiculously useless & ugly 'SUV' called the Outback and have throughout their history re-badged models from other manufacturers to varying degrees of success. Most major auto brands have some kind of visual or non-visual recall feature that strikes a chord with auto enthusiasts : the famous 3-pointed hood ornament of Mercedes, the dual radiator grille of BMW, amazing engine refinement of Hondas, the clean design of Audis, the perfomance and styling of Porsches and so on. For Subaru, there is only one feature that is consistent throughout their model range for the last few years, they all are frickin UGLY!!!! Subaru is also known for their pathetic advertisements throughout the world, but their latest 'Mediocrity 2011' campaign takes the cake for being their most stupid, unimaginative, boring and just plain bullshit effort yet.

What the brilliant ad gurus at Subaru's trashy marketing agency have done is that they have taken a Kia Optima, tried to dress up the logos with their own 'Mediocrity' ones, and there you have it :  a very mediocre, run-of-the-mill, boring family sedan. I really have no clue what they are trying to imply here, because the car they have selceted is a 2005 Kia Optima which for some reason they have named as Mediocrity 2011. Now you might think that Subaru being a multiple times WRC champion might want to hint that their cars are way more sportier than the Kias and Medicoritys of this world. But take a look at their not-at-all mediocre attempt, the 2011 Subaru Legacy (the mediocrity campaign was designed for this model)  :

Looks familiar? Now take a look at the best selling mid-sizes :

The Toyota Camry :

and the Honda Accord :

So when you compare the 2011 Subaru Legacy with these other models, it almost looks as mediocre if not worse than the others! The Kia which the Subaru ad guys used was 2 generations old, so you want to know about the 2011 model of the Kia Optima? Check it out:

The brand new Optima looks like a stunner and is available in all kinds of options including Hybrid. 'Nuff Said. Go get your act together Subaru & way to go Kia!!!


Note : Many thanks to The Truth About Cars, a brilliant automotive website.

New Nissan Sunny

Last year a buddy of mine was car shopping and we had a lot of fun in the initial stages coz we were test driving some of the really high end models like the then brand new Nissan Maxima, which is a superawesome car btw, and the Nissan Altima Coupe amongst others, yup I know these are not really 'high end' cars but they are really cool cars especially for my friend who was a total novice driver with a shiny new driving licence. Well due to some unexplainable reason my dreams of test driving all the awesome cars in Oman were cut short and my buddy surprised or rather shocked me by picking up a 2010 Nissan Sunny (this model name refers to Nissan Sunny in Oman, its called the Nissan Almera in other parts of the world, and in some places its called the Nissan Pulsar or Sentra). One of the major reason cited was that the car would fetch a good resale value when sold the next year, the plan was to upgrade to a bigger and better car once the basics of driving were mastered. Well this gave me an opportunity to learn a lot more about Nissan and the particular model in question, the Nissan Sunny.

Nissan as a company is a very very cautious player, they have seen both the highest peaks of automotive success and the lowest valleys of failure. Their VQ series of engines have been placed in the Ward's 10 best engines for 14 straight years! Despite having a pretty awesome market-share and technical expertise, they were up to their eyeballs in financial woes towards the end of the 20th century (dramatic isn't it, when we say end of the 20th century? its actually simply the year 1999 that I was referring to ;-) ). Nissan made a stunning and dramatic fairy-tale recovery led by the then Renault COO and now Japanese superstar Carlos Ghosn, pretty accurately decribed in the Nissan Wikipedia entry :

"Under CEO Ghosn's "Nissan Revival Plan" (NRP), the company has rebounded in what many leading economists consider to be one of the most spectacular corporate turnarounds in history, catapulting Nissan to record profits and a dramatic revitalization of both its Nissan and Infiniti model line-ups. In 2001, the company initiated Nissan 180, capitalizing on the success of the NRP. The targets set with 180 were an additional sale of 1 million cars, achieving operating margins of 8%, and to have zero automotive debts. Ghosn has been recognized in Japan for the company's turnaround in the midst of an ailing Japanese economy. Ghosn and the Nissan turnaround were featured in Japanese manga and popular culture. His achievements in revitalizing Nissan were noted by Japanese Government, which awarded him the Japan Medal with Blue Ribbon in 2004."


To cut a long story short, there were a lot changes in Nissan and its product portfolio, but they really were not in a position to revamp their entire model lineup nor could they introduce a new model every year or two, like their biggest rival Toyota was doing. But I guess the wait was worth it because now not only is Nissan a business success, but their models are some of the best in their respective classes. The Nissan Maxima and the GT-R are prime examples. Well you can't deny that they have made a few gigantic unforgivable mistakes as well like the Nissan Micra, Richard Hammond of TopGear actually masked his face with a paper bag while test-driving it coz the Micra looked so disgusting (and yeah he ditched the car midway through the test coz he just couldn't go on)! Well the Nissan Sunny is a car that has been around for a long time. Once a major threat to the Corollas and the Civics of the world, they were soon too out dated to be a threat for even entry-level cars. It may seem unbelievable and blasphemy but Nissan have been selling almost the exact same car from 1995 to mid 2011. That's a whopping 16 years of running the same model!!! There have obviously been a few cosmetic changes but it clearly wasn't enough to entice the average buyer. Most of the purchases were by either government or fleet customers who cared only about the price of the car and nothing else.

From 1995

To 2011

Well after all those years, Nissan has finally decided to introduce a new Nissan Sunny and it looks pretty good. The rear is definitely inspired by the Maxima while the front bears more than a passing resemblance to the outgoing model. Everything has been made completely up to date. I believe there is a lot in common with the new Sunny and the Renault models, particularly the Fluence. Well my buddy who bought the older Sunny right about when it was going to be phased out is in for a shock, because its resale value has gone for a toss now with this spanking new model out, but if nothing else, the older model is sturdy, coz it has made it across quite a few pavements, traffic light islands and unpaved roads in one piece and in the hands of a wannabe rally driver ;-)!

The New Nissan Sunny....It's not a Car it's Caaaaar (The Indian ad sucks I tell you!!!)

Why is Toyota THE best???

Check out these videos....I don't think you will need further proof of the Toyota quality!!!

Cricket Gift

Andrew Flintoff is now the brand ambassador of Audi for the middle east sector. Andrew Flintoff !! If there are any middle eastern people reading this they would be wondering who the hell is this guy !!! Cricket is the last sport arabs have on their minds and Flintoof is definitely not the first cricketer that they would connect with. Probably the fact that Flintoff has been living in Dubai for sometime now with his family led to Audi's decision. Anyways he's got 2 Dubai plated Q7's as a gift !!

The happiness is pretty obvious !!!!

F1 Gift

The beautiful sculpture in metal that you see above is the beast that propelled the young 23-year old Sebastian Vettel to the 2nd position in the 2009 F1 World Championship. This car played a major role in him setting a lot of new lap records, breaking a lot of F1 records and him being nicknamed the 'New Schumacher'. 


Red Bull Racing was born from the ashes of the failed Jaguar Racing team and the major force behind getting this team to be a serious title contender was the Chief Technical Officer Adrian Newey who was poached from the McLaren team in 2006. Adrian Newey is considered a genius in F1 design. This is what is written about him on the Red Bull Racing website :


" During 30 years in motorsport Adrian Newey has developed something of a legend. He’s heralded as an original thinker, a maverick designer, the heir to the legacy of Colin Chapman and a softly-spoken genius. But the thing he’s best known for is winning...


...It’s a widely-held belief that Adrian does his best work whenever F1 undergoes one of its periodic regulatory upheavals, moving development away from number crunching and briefly allowing creativity and intuition to come back to the fore. 2009 demonstrated that in ample measure: Red Bull Racing’s breakthrough season had Adrian’s RB5 taking five pole positions and score six victories....


...The idea of a clean sheet of paper isn’t just a metaphor. Despite the non-stop technological advancement of F1, Adrian still likes to use the drawing board rather than a supercomputer when he’s feeling creative. Away from the office he indulges a passion for classic sports cars, as both a keen collect and amateur racer. Not one to let the laws of physics stand in the way of a borderline overtaking opportunity, he’s had some high-profile scraps in recent years, but - undaunted by the bruises and occasional concussion - has progressed to more serious racing, finishing a highly creditable fourth in class and 22nd overall in the 2007 24 Heures Du Mans while driving an AF Corse Ferrari F430. He also won the 2009 Goodwood Revival TT Race, sharing his Lightweight E-Type Jaguar with his old friend, Bobby Rahal."

So when the car he designed secured 6 wins from 17 races with 5 pole positions and 6 lap records broken, what did Red Bull do ?? They gave him the car as a gift at the Goodwood festival of speed last week !!! When Red Bull secured 1-2 victories at China & Britain Adrian celebrated by donuting a Ferrari California on Team Principal Christian Horner's lawn and partially ruining it....this time around rumours are that the grass is gonna totally come off, or worse the tremendous torque for RB5 might cause the planet to spin the opposite direction !!!

Some of the information and all of the pictures were taken from the Red Bull Racing Website. Thank you Red Bull !!!

I hate Lotus !!!

Well guys after nearly a decade of not blogging I am trying to break back into blogosphere. I thought I would make it really interesting by starting the new innings with the coverage of the launch of Lotus cars in Oman. Let me be very frank, I was never a big fan of Lotus or in fact of British cars in general especially the ones that started their life in a shed/garage, or as in the case of Lotus in a stable behind a railway hotel !!!! After several owners washed their hands off it, including GM and the owners of Bugatti, guess who owns Lotus now ??......the world-renowned-high-quality-perfomance car manufacturer........The one and only Malaysia based Proton !!!!!!! Yup, WTF is the exact feeling that went through my mind also when I heard this news.

The famous Proton of Malaysia...You will find hundreds of them...but only in Malaysia

Now you may or may not be wondering why I am so anti-Lotus, but to be fair to them I have to tell you the truth, Lotus is a very well acclaimed manufacturer of premium sports 'drivers' cars. They are actually powered by Toyota engines, and unlike the W12, 1 million bhp and 1000.6 litre engines in most sports cars, the Lotus babies have just 1.6 and max to max 1.8 litre Toyota engines in the most premium model. A 1.6 litre Toyota that is going to set you back at least R.O. 20,000 (to put things into perspective let me point out the fact that a Toyota Yaris has a 1.5 litre engine and the old Toyota Echo used to have a 1.3 litre one !! ). These cars are not at all meant for the daily driver. A lot of amenities that most petrolheads in the middle east love are not even on the options list simply because this car is meant to perform on the tracks and not meant for showing off to a lady friend or for a long drive to Salalah (unless you don't mind having a backside that feels like bricks by the time you reach your destination !!).

Another beautiful Proton, the Wira....what a name and what a backside....looks like somebody gave it a sound thrashing !

Well the real reason behind my hatred towards the Lotus brand, other than the facts that they are pathetic looking wannabes and that they are British, is that yesterday was the launch of Lotus in Oman. They organised a media launch inviting the few journos in Oman who knew how to drive a manual and the event was held at the Oman Automobile Association tracks at Seeb. Whichever pea-brain organised this event forgot that Lotus has absolutely no brand following in Oman and most people here don't even know what a Lotus looks like.....and so guess what they did ??? They banned  all public from the event......and not just public.....but hardcore, die-hard, ascertained petrolheads like me and many others were not even allowed inside the premises to even catch a glimpse of the beasts....I really doubt whether they were having a test drive inside or were providing some other 'services' to high net worth individuals in order to cajole them to buy a Lotus or two !!!!!

I was there at the venue even before the organisers were and those nitwits didn't even consider my continued plea for an entry into the place....finally I decided to break in.....did a 360 degree scan of the OAA premises and found a nice little spot where I could jump in and watch the whole show ( 'Prison Break' is really giving me a little too many ideas thats gonna get me into some serious trouble sometime soon !)....

The ROP guys standing guard at the venue....;-) just kidding...just a poor traffic cop...

...well I almost did break in, if not for the fact that the very next property adjacent to the OAA is some buildings belonging to none other than the ROP and the whole place was milling with people in Khakis ( The vehicle registration center and vehicle inspection centres are right next to the OAA plot ). Damn man, I could hear those babies screaming and howling on the tracks and all I could do was fantasize about the lucky privileged basketballs driving them around the tracks.....and guess what ?? as soon as I left the main entrance a 3 ton truck drove into the huge cut-outs placed in the front of venue and tore them apart...hehehe....and the tragedy doesn't end there......it seems that one of the journos who couldn't actually drive a manual drove one of the Lotus onto the tires placed at the sides of the track and broke the car......and he blamed it on the brakes not functioning properly......You deserve it Lotus......for not knowing the fact  that every car that has become a supercar is because a million teenagers have put posters of those cars besides their beds and dreamt about them day and night, and one day when those very same teenagers made it really big, they went and bought those crazy toys which they could not when they were much younger (How else can you explain the crack successes of Hummers and Lambos, and to an extent every supercar on this planet.....they all tickle the inner child within us). So next time if any carmaker wants to assure a good public opinion or at least a good review on this blog, BETTER LET US IN !!!! All I got was a lousy pic of the lights of the events (there were 2 laser beacons that were lit up to make it look more attractive but god knows for what since nobody was invited anyways) from the rear side of OAA.....for the time being guys be satisfied with this......I promise you that there will be an amazing article coming up this friday, post the Red Bull Drift competition....at least those guys know how to market a product well.....Well guys honestly saying Lotus may not be that bad a brand, and all the comparisons that I made earlier to other Toyotas are totally irrelevant as you must have already guessed or known, in the car world, god is in the details, F1 races have been lost just due to different tyre manufacturers !!! So simply comparing a highly engineered product like the Lotus to a Yaris may be unfair...but say what you may what they did was not right, period.

Yup...this is all I could get....obviously I cannot share the sounds of tht nite... so for now this is it !