Peugeot 207 - Not Quite the Attention Stealer

It's been over a year since the Peugeot 207 was launched. Almost predictably, it hasn't been able to steal market share from either the Toyota Vios or the Honda City, two of the leading non-Malaysian cars that dominate the 1.5L - 1.6L sedan market for non-national cars.

And I must say, I'm not surprised. The chief reason is most likely the Peugeot 207 sedan's hard-to-like looks.

Granted that certain car designs take some getting used to, such that, after a certain time has passed, they epitomise the desired look of the time. While that can be said of the Peugeot 206 when it first came out, the Peugeot 207 has been another story altogether.

Simply put, the 207 sedan is like a 206 hatchback mated to the ugly butt taken from some weird never-before-seen French car.

Note that I'm not referring to the Peugeot 207cc. This two-seater hard-top convertible looks suitably stylish, a description which cannot be easily used for the Peugeot 207 sedan.

Of course, the narrative on the Peugeot 207 sedan at the Peugeot website would make you think otherwise, at least initially. But that's the effect of good copy writing, which doesn't always reflect reality.

"Whenever you travel, the dynamic design of the Peugeot 207 demands that other drivers sneak a second look. At first sight it has an assured and muscular presence, with its sporty curved lines. But take a closer look and you'll be drawn to its stylish and perfectly integrated feline appearance, a characteristic that gives the 207 an undeniably unique Peugeot appeal," says the description.
(see http://www.peugeot.com.my/discover/model=207/)

Really? Emm... I don't think so.

As the "other" driver, I never sneak a second look at the 207 sedan. Rather, I gawk in bewilderment almost every time I see a Peugeot 207 and can't help but say, "God! That's really ugly" most of the time.

And while an owner of the 207 sedan would have to be someone who is really self-assured, the car is far from muscular. Being rather tall, bulbous in many places and narrow in width, the Peugeot 207 does not exude the kind of toughness associated with muscle cars.

Of course, if you make the car look sporty, the Peugeot 207 sedan could look muscular and exciting, but then, you can do that with just about any car if you have enough money. And why should you have to? You might as well get a good, sporty looking car right off the production line, which isn't what the stock Peugeot 207 sedan is about.

Perhaps Peugeot's designers thought that all they had to do to have another winner was to rehash the award-winning, highly acclaimed Peugeot 206 by getting rid of its hatchback and giving it a sedan rear.

Well, clearly, that hasn't worked out very well, has it?

Peugeot may even try to redo the commercial for the 206 and rehash it for the 207 sedan. I doubt that a lot of people would be amused, not because the commercial's storyline is no longer novel, but because many people would simply go "huh?"

For those who haven't watched the 206 commercial, it's about an Indian dude who reshapes his old banger into a 206 because its design was so desirable, he was bound to get lucky with women.

Well, best of luck with the 207 sedan if that's what you're expecting to achieve.

Nexen ZR Tyres - Surprisingly Good

Ever since a whole bunch of no-name (no brand value) tyres were imported into Malaysia and passed off as "ZR" performance tyres, I've been wary of buying other than established brands. As a result, I've been sticking largely with Yokohama tyres for their good performance and reasonable price.

Then, one day, the tyre shop I usually go to ran out of my preferred Yokohama tyre, the R1 A-Drive 235/45ZR17*. And since I was in a hurry, I had to settle for a relatively unknown, if not lesser known, NEXEN tyre, the N3000 235/45ZR17. It also helped that it was about RM100 cheaper than the RM400 Yokohama R1 A-Drive.

Lucky for me, the N3000 felt better than R1 A-Drive. So, almost instantly I was hooked.

At corners, the N3000 felt far more responsive than the R1 A-Drive - the grip was firmer and steadier.

On straights, the N3000 felt far more comforting and relaxing compared to the often bouncy R1 A-Drive.

In the wet, the V-pattern of the N3000 makes fast driving through the rain an enjoyable feat, whereas R1 A-Drive felt like it would more likely hydroplane if I don't slow down. The fact that R1 A-Drive tends to bounce and jolt doesn't help much either.

Perhaps the only major drawback the N3000 has is that it is not as quiet as the R1 A-Drive. It can be quite noisy when it rolls actually - like pieces of thick hide being slapped onto the pavement. Maybe this is because of the tyre's V-pattern.

Still, the N3000 is far better than the R1 A-Drive and gives better value for money.

And with around RM90 more, you get a better NEXEN tyre, that is the N8000. Like the N3000, the N8000 is very firm and steady around corners, and very smooth on straights, if not smoother. In the wet, it's also very sure-footed, owing in no small part to the wide troughs between the tyre treads. And it's a lot quieter than the N3000, perhaps due to the tyre's in-line pattern.

So, moving forward, I won't be going back to buying the Yokohama R1 A-Drive any time soon, not when I have the Nexen N8000, which performs a lot better and costs just as much as the Yokohama R1 A-Drive.


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*235 being the width measurement, 45 being the height and 17 being the size of the rim in inches to which the tyre would be fitted.

Proton Finally Admits that It has Problems wth Power Window

Finally! Proton has acknowledged the long standing complaint about Proton cars having problematic power windows, albeit indirectly.

In the five years that I owned a Proton Waja, I repaired its driver-side power window twice. And I was considered lucky.

In the six, nearly seven years since buying her Proton Wira SE, my mother had to repair her power window around twice as well.

Well, thanks to the many complaints coming from people who suffer from power window issues with Proton cars, new Proton car owners now get a lifetime warranty for power windows. Otherwise, even more people would simply give voice to Proton's power window image problem, I suppose.

Still, while it is good for new Proton cars to have a lifetime warranty for power windows, it's better to not have power window issues at all - judging from my own experience with my Waja, the window could fail when I least expected it and getting it fixed would be time consuming.

In the five years that my wife owned the first generation Mazda 6, she never had a problem with any of the power windows in her car.

In the three years I owned the dreaded Ford Focus, I never experienced the slightest problem with the Focus' power windows.

This is something Proton should really take note of if it wants to survive in an open market.

Resetting My Page View Counter

For the longest time, I've been having problems with my Page View Counter.

Blogger didn't seenm to care about providing one for free.

The free ones tend to mulfunction over time.

This the the fourth time I've put in a Page View Counter and each time I do this I have to reset the counter to ZERO.

Oh, well... Here's hoping I don't have to reset the dang thing again.

This is where I got the latest one:
http://statcounter.com/blogger/

I Love My Car – Beauty in the Eye of the Beholder

When I ask my wife what she thinks of my Kia Forte, she’ll usually have something not-so-nice to say about it. It would rankle me because I really like the Forte.

But then, there’s always something I say in this blog site about the cars I review that would rankle someone somewhere – like the guys who are so angry with me for rubbishing the Mahindra Scorpio, for instance; or the people who don’t like how I extol Kia while rubbishing Proton (directly or indirectly).

Regardless, folks, there are only two things that matter in the end when it comes to cars. If we’re really honest about the subject, these two things are beauty and affordability.

Reliability? Yes, well, it’s interconnected with affordability pretty much – you can’t afford to lose too much time and money fixing a badly produced car after all.

And between the two, beauty is far more important than affordability – you can afford a whole bunch of cars within a certain price range, but you only go for what you think is the most beautiful among them.

For me, at the time of buying my Forte, I had also considered other cars like the Peugeot 308, Chevrolet Cruze and the Mitsubishi Lancer. But I chose the Forte because, features aside, the tipping factor was its beauty.

That is to say, to me, the Forte had been the most beautiful car I could afford at the time.

I still feel greatly satisfied when I look at my Forte these days. When the light hits it just right, when it’s sitting low and pretty on its 17-inch rims, my Forte – to my eyes - looks far more beautiful than the most fanciful Mercedes or BMW, or Audi or VW.

So, all you guys and gals out there? Don’t feel bad if someone (like yours truly) rubbishes your “beautiful” car. Take pride in your beauty of a car.

It may be a piece of junk to others, but it’s your beautiful “piece of junk”. In the end, that’s all that matters.

Among the cars that I’ve considered beautiful includes the Proton Saga Aeroback, Mazda 626 Hatchback, Volvo 244 GL, Proton Satria, Mercedes 250 (1982), Datsun 120Y, Peugeot 404, Morris Minor, and Proton Waja – cars that have been in my immediate family.