Lexus RC 350

 Find the hidden 306 horses in this picture.

The 2015 Lexus RC350. If you have friends whom already owns a BMW 4 series, or Audi A5 (which,I'm guessing you must be rich), and you would like to have a different batch on your motor, this is the car to go with. An aggressive looking, humongous spindle-grill car is sure a head turner.

From the side, the body sure does look like the BMW 4 series. It's a sports 2+2 coupe, an advantage if your already married and have kids but still stubborn  insists on buying sports car, because you married at very young age and don't wanna buy a family sedan until you're 30. 

The spindle grill with chrome finishing is most probably the Lexus noticeable signature on its vehicle's line up. Every lexus sports type model will have this feature, while the 'less sporty' would have the typical horizontal line grille. The RC stands for 'Radical Coupe', and 350 is the engine 3.5 liter abreviation.

Apart from the grille, the 2nd most noticeable feature will be most likely is the head light. I guess  every cars' model can be distinguished by its head light's shape. You'll noticed have its exaggerated wedge shape with 2 round of circle lights, and Audi with its dots of LED light. The RC350 have its signature 3 small box of light group together with v shaped light below. I don't know what's the name of it. Maybe we should call it 'inverted eyebrow'.

Looking at the back, the most probably noticeable feature is most probably the samurai blade- looking rear light, exerted out from the rear body. Though it's a coupe, it sure does have enough boot space to fit in your golf bag.

I would say the best part to view the car is not from the front, but from the side-rear view. A sleek, swoop looking with body with sharp-edged sure does seduces the emotional heart of anyone who passes by the car. But the car's structure isn't all that new. It is actually the combination of floor pan of the IS C, A-pillar from the GS and rear structure from the IS.

Interior

Inside the vehicle, you'll get that premium Lexus feel, with heat-adjustable steering wheel with flappy pedal gear shifter, aluminum pedal LCD screen, multi-button on the steering  and the most importantly, an analogue clock. You don't get that in a Lamborghini.

The standard RC comes with the premium leather seat with adjustable seat with 3 settable positions. It sure does come in handy, especially if you're planning to share it with your parents, your mom and dad sure can have its own seating position themselves.

There are some significant interior features here. There are 3 driving mode( eco, normal, sports) mode with a separate snow driving mode. And the newest feature would the touchpad. Works the same with like your computer touch pad, just flick and click to control the monitor.

Performance

The standard RC 350 comes with 3.5l V6 cylinder engine, enough to give you 277 pounds of torque. The low volume RC F however, is more for the speed junkies , its V8 engine has 161 more horses in it, packing a 389 worth of pounds of torque. The standard RC will go from 0 to 60 in around 5-6 seconds, and RC F can make in 4 . I've test driven the 0-60 Tesla, and believe me, any car that comes around 4 seconds is really fast, it sinks your head in the head rest once you push on the pedal.

Price

The standard RC's price should be ranged around 6 million yen (RM180,000) and upwards. For comparison, This car competes with BMW 4 series which ranged  RM300,000  upwards,  so the price sure does looks competitive.

Car awards

Car awards

I know most of us like football. Whether its premier league, UEFA or world cup, only one team emerges as the winner( on the particular season). Germany won the world cup in 2014,  so its easy to conclude that 'Germany football team was the best team in year 2014'.

But that's not so easy with car awards. Well, everyone wants to win. Every car manufacturer have spent a lot of money on developing, testing, building and marketing the vehicle. So it's quite if all the hard work poured in building the car goes unnoticed. That's where 'car award' came in and serve as the same function with the world cup.

It does serves as a game changer for car companies, as the award does give an instant good impression on the car. The consumer may thought, ' well its pretty tough to win the award. Plus its difficult for me alone to compare the car in terms of safety, fuel consumption, etc…well there must be someone who-are-expert who did the job already, and they nominate this car. So less hassle, lets just buy this one'.

But while football have only one world cup, automotive industry have a lot of.. Well, 'world cup's. some of us may noticed this in the commercials or the media.

I think there's too many awards, since there is no 'standard' award, car producers may well use it to maximize their publicity.

While there may be no standard, there are 3 global level car awards.

1.World Car of the Year

award selected by a jury of 48 international automotive journalists from 22 countries. To compete, the cars considered must be sold in at least five countries on at least two continents prior to 1 January of the year of the award.  

2.International Car of the Year

Awards  for new automobile  models judged to be the best of their generation. This one is presented by the US magazine Road&Travel Magazine.  Awards are given under ten different categories to new vehicles manufactured internationally and available on the US market.

3.Green Car of the Year

Well, the name says it all. The annual best green car.

Well, ICOTY served more in the US market, while WCOTY did have its precondition, that is 'the car must be sold in at least 5 countries on at least 2 continents'.  While most car producer (except Tesla) are still struggling with developing with green tech, I would say at present that WCOTY can be best considered as the same with world cup.

But even within the awards, there are sub-awards given for specific title. In the WCOTY for example, there's also world performance car, world green car, world car design of the year and world luxury car awards.

  Well it's the same thing as 'the golden boot' or 'Most valuable player' awards. Well, more awards, more satisfied people( though they didn't won the grand prize).

Should you make decision based on the award won by the car ? or would you buy based on 'love at the first sight'?

BMW i3 review

Hello guys. This time I'll be making review on the new BMW electric vehicle in one of its new i categories.

The BMW i3.

Surely Tesla is the one who's leading the way in this EV world, and because they proved EV can be desirable, other major car companies are following pursuit. One of it is BMW, which is known for making angry looking cars. And their EV(which have green and friendly impression) line-up sure does looks angry too. More like an angry baby, I guess.

I think what's interesting about  this vehicle lies more in the hi-tech process of making this vehicle, rather than the fact that it is electrically driven car. To start with, some of the production factory, in Leipzig Germany and Moses lake, US , use wind power as a power generator. Plus, some of the panel in the car are made of recyclable material. Disposed plastic bottles, papers, yes.. that kind of stuff.

Lets start with the build process of the body frame. Since its an EV, it uses 'body on frame' structure rather than Unibody design, which is the conventional car's structure. The car's segment is divided into 2 parts, the 'life module' and 'drive module'.

The life module is actually the compartment that holds the driver and passenger seats. It is made up of high tech CFRP( carbon fiber reinforced plastic), 1/4 lighter than steel and 10 times stronger. BMW currently uses RTM( resin transfer molding) process to mass produce this carbon fibre. The process of cutting the parts is done by water jet cutter, which is very precise and doesn't interfere with its inherent structure. Oh, remember those time when you used to play car kit model, attaching pieces together by glue? The same way goes with this car, no bolts or screw used in assembling this module. Just glue.

The drive module, on the other hand, which consists of the battery, powertrain and chassis are made up of aluminum alloy. The i3 comes with 2 models, the standard and the range extender(Rex) and the latter comes with 647cc 2 cylinder engine. Both modules are attached with only 4 bolts and glue.

The door opens up much more similar with the mazda rx8. it also comes with the standard charging port which is in the front of the bonnet( 8 hours charging) and supercharger( 30 minutes)at the rear right side.

What's significant with rear gate is the combination is integrated with the panel, which mean if the light's broken, you have to change the whole rear gate, I guess

                                      

I3 comes with 2 different interior design, the 'loft' and 'suite'. Both come with 5.2 inch LCD cluster and the 10.2 inch display at the center on the dash. It also comes with standard air conditioning, leather wrapped steering wheel, a backup sending system, LED daytime driving lights, USB and auxiliary USB ports, hand free Bluetooth.

 

Maybe because of the fact that its an EV, the interface system does feel different with the standard one. The drive selector is also the same with Tesla model S. the handbrake area is replaced with multimedia and navigation scroll and button. And there's BMW connectivity application available in the app store, so you can have your car's data ( range, battery percentage) on your iPhone.

Price?

The standard i3 will cost you about 5 million yen, about RM151,000,while the range extender is available at 5.46 million yen, which is roughly RM165,400. but this car won't be available in Malaysia, so I must be the lucky one.