Home - Piston.my

Piston.my

Latest News

F1 (Round 1): Preview & Starting Positions Of 2023 Bahrain Grand Prix

After much anticipation over the past few months, a new Formula 1 season has started. Bahrain again has the honour of being season-opener where it used to be towards the end of the season and it was Australia that started the season.

Apart from the new cars, there are also three new faces – Oscar Piastri with the McLaren F1 Team, Logan Sargeant with Williams Racing, and Nyck de Vries with Scuderia AlphaTauri. While the first two drivers are making their debut in F1, de Vries (who also raced in Formula E) actually made his unplanned debut last year at the Italian GP. He took over Alexander Albon’s place in the Williams team when the Thai driver had appendicitis and could not race. 27 years old then, the Dutch driver did well to ninth position, scoring points on his first F1 outing.

(more…)

Proton Maintains Positive Upward Trajectory In Growing Market

With the car market continuing its steady recovery, helped by two festive seasons that will occur during the first quarter of the year, sales for Proton have been booming. Compared to the same month in 2022, the February sales volume this year was 52% higher with 14,033 units (domestic and export) delivered.

The volume was 20.1% higher than January while for the first two months of the year, the year-to-date volume has increased to 88% to 25,714 units. Where market share is concerned, it was estimated to be 22.7% as the official market data has not been released by the Malaysian Automotive Association (MAA) yet.

(more…)

Honda Civic Hybrid Fuel Test: 29.4 km per Liter Is Astonishing!

It is common knowledge that today’s prices of goods are not what they used to be. Fifty cents could get this writer a lunch meal in school back in the late 90s, but today fifty cents does not even get an MRT ticket nor a bottle of water.

According to the website worlddata.info, RM1,000 in 2010 was worth RM1,234 in 2020. And that just goes to show that it is quite normal to pay more for something after a few years thanks to the magic of inflation.

(more…)

Dinamikjaya Motors Launches New Kia Sorento As Second Locally-Assembled Model

When BAuto took over the Kia franchise in April 2021 and established subsidiary Dinamikjaya Motors to handle the Korean brand, local assembly was already being planned. Unlike some other new brands where the carmaker may want to wait a while and see how fast their volume grows, Kia Motors had already decided to use Malaysia as a regional production hub and wanted local assembly to commence as soon as possible.

They revealed a 5-year plan which showed the models that would be assembled for the Malaysian market, and the chart showed that the first two models would be the Carnival and Sorento. The Carnival started rolling out of the Inokom plant in Kedah in July last year and now comes the Sorento.

(more…)

Grecale GT Hybrid Joins Maserati’s SUV Range in Malaysia

As Maserati heads towards a fully electric model range by the end of the decade, it is passing through a transitional stage of electrification where hybrid powertrains will be offered. The first hybrid model was the Ghibli saloon in 2020, followed by the Levante and then the Grecale GT Hybrid.

Following the launch of the Grecale in Malaysia last year, Naza Italia has now added the GT Hybrid version to the range with a price of RM598,000 (inclusive of duties but excluding insurance). The price includes 3 years warranty coverage with no mileage restriction.

(more…)

Putrajaya Gets Serious About Airlines Sticking To Flight Schedules; Penalties Considered

Most airlines take pride in being able to depart airports on time, as scheduled. Passengers are entitled to expect this and while technical problems that cause delays are understandable – no one would like to fly with a known engine problem – cancellations of flights are likely to be human problems that can surely be addressed.

Unfortunately, meeting scheduled times appears to be something the airlines of Malaysia seem to aspire to as can be seen from the numerous complaints in the media. Thousands of passengers are inconvenienced each year due to flights being cancelled suddenly or rescheduled, and if they are entitled to compensation, the refund process is very frustrating.

This issue was mentioned by the hardworking Transport Minister, Anthony Loke, in response to a query by Tuaran MP, Datuk Seri Wilfred Madius Tangau, on what measures are being taken by the government to put a halt to the common occurrences of flight rescheduling.

(more…)