Yes, PETRONAS has a Sense of Humour

This year's PETRONAS Raya ad is no tear jerker. Breaking away from the formula used in previous PETRONAS adverts, this year's Raya ad is hilarious bordering on irreverent, whilst carrying an important social message - give and take.

I love how the male actor in the ad sounds a lot like and even looks a little like the late Tan Sri P Ramlee. And the whole retro setting is classic!

At the same time, the give and take message can be applied to other social considerations, including driving carefully and considerately on the road.

I love this ad. I think it's the best ad since the passing of the late Yasmin Ahmad.

And yes, PETRONAS has a sense of humour.

Zoom, Zooming with the New Mazda 6

The new Mazda 6 is not a new car, at least not in terms of launch date. Be that as it may, it's still one of the best looking non-Continental executive saloons in the Malaysian market.

With its Kinetic design approach, the Mazda 6 quickly outshone the Toyota Camry's straight-line, less curvaceous design. Of course, Toyota Camry lovers disagree, but as we can see, the Kinetic design is so compelling that Hyundai has adopted it as a strategy to capture market share from Toyota using its newly designed Sonata.

Hyundai does nothing special to hide its copycat strategy, simply calling its design approach "It flows" (which is another way of describing 'kinetic'). And as a result, many a reviewer have hailed the new Sonata as being better looking than the Camry - and some have hailed it as being better than the Mazda 6 (e.g. Cars, Bikes & Trucks).

Anyway, having owned a Mazda 6 for several months now, I dare say, the car not only looks great, it feels great too. It has a commanding presence on the road, but not too much that every other racer boy or wannabe racer feels compelled to race with it.

That is to say, while it looks sporty, its not a sports car; not like how the previous Mazda 6 was set up to be.

You see, the previous Mazda 6 appeared to have been designed as a sports car first and then tuned down to be a family saloon. As a result, the suspension and handling still had a lot of hard characteristics that you'd find in a sports car - which was why some have described the old Mazda 6 as a sports car trying very hard to be a family saloon.

The new Mazda 6 is more of a luxury saloon, but not of the sort you'd expect to cater to old people. Staying true to Mazda's "Zoom zoom" approach to designing cars, the Mazda 6 feels less like a sports car but still responds well when you need to put peddle-to-the-metal.

The Mazda 6 in Malaysia comes in two variants - 2.5L with 18-inch rims and 2.0L with 16-inch rims, at RM175,000+ and RM150,000+ respectively. The prices are a bit steep for most people, but if you can afford them, I say both variants are worth the price you pay.

This is especially so because you get quality comparable to German marquees like VW, Mercedes, BMW and Audi, but without paying as much. And that is simply great if you share in my belief that you should always get the best value from the money you spend on cars.

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Addendum: Notice that I didn't mention the new Honda Accord. Well, that's because I don't think it's a very good car. Its expensive and tries hard to be in the Camry-Sonata-Mazda 6 league, but doesn't quite make the cut.

The new Honda Accord's seemingly random design approach makes the car hideous (especially the bulbous headlights) and anything but sleek. It's 2.4L engine is under-powered, such that a car far less expensive and less powerful like the Kia Forte 2.0SX can out-accelerate it, which doesn't bode well for the 2.0L version of the Accord.

Perhaps the only major thing the Accord has that's worth considering is the Honda badge.

The quicker the next variant of the Honda Accord comes out, the better.

Raise the Flag, Everyone, Regarldless of Your Political Leanings

Have you noticed how fewer and fewer flags are adorning cars in the month of August each year? While these cheap plastic flags are still found in abundance, people have not taken to them like they used to back in the 1990s.

I'm sure everyone who doesn't do it has his or her reasons. My reason is that my car travels at such high speeds that the flags can't withstand the wind that flows over the car, often blowing them off altogether.

Nonetheless, I suspect that for many people, the reason why they don't do it is because the flag has been politicised by certain political factions against rival factions. As a result, many people who are loathed to such politics no longer put flags on their cars.

Well, whatever your political leanings, this country belongs to all of us. For a day in year, we celebrate our country regardless of our political beliefs.

So, on Merdeka day, let us put aside our political differences and raise the flag as one nation.

Raise the flag, people of Malaysia. Raise the flag.

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Addendum: The picture above features a patriotic cabbie who has decorated his cab so marvellously that he deserves a big pat on the back - several in fact.

(see NST Online, 31 Aug 2010 at http://www.nst.com.my/#)

Let Down by AdSense

I must have infringed some kind of weird rule because my AdSense account has been disabled even though I didn't do anything to cheat the system, at least nothing that I know of or comprehend. After all, no reason was given other than that I've done something wrong.

Oh, well. I wasn't really planning on making money out of this blog site. I was simply curious to see how it would work.

If I really wanted to make money, I would have laid out a proper Return on Investments plan - something I'm not quite ready to do because I don't have the time or energy to spare.

For now, I'm just contented with blogging. Maybe someday I'll find a proper way of making money out of this endeavour - just not today.

Big Ass Honda Accord vs Kia Forte

If you are into pissing competitions on the road, here's a bit of advice. Don't buy a big-ass heavy Honda Accord that costs more than RM172,800+.

Why? Because when you meet up with a car like the Kia Forte 2.0SX, you're bound to feel really inadequate.

At slightly more than half the price of the Honda Accord 2.4L, the light-weight Forte 2.0SX has more than enough brake horsepower (BHp) and torque to out-accelerate the Accord 2.4L without really trying so hard.

And how would I know? This morning, on the way to work, an idiot in an Accord 2.4L felt compelled to test his car against my Forte 2.0SX (for whatever reason). Not content with hogging the fast lane, he felt it necessary to cut me off each time I tried to overtake.

"It's ok," I said to myself. "When we reach the toll houses, I'll leave you behind."

As both our cars got through the TAG toll gate, I accelerated my Forte and was overtaking the idiot's Accord. Despite having more BHp under the hood, his Accord was having trouble picking up enough speed to keep my Forte from overtaking.

So, what did the idiot Accord driver do to save his pride, he swerved into my lane and cut me off yet again.

I kept my cool - it's Ramadan or the fasting month after all. And so, I continued to drive at my usual brisk pace, while the idiot Accord driver was doing his level best at zipping in and out of lanes just to keep me from getting ahead.

But you see, when you're driving a big ass Honda Accord 2.4L with inferior acceleration, you're bound to be caught up in traffic. And that's what happened to the idiot in his Accord.

By chance, the lane I was in was relatively clearer than his. And so, I overtook him, finally.

Not content with just letting things be, the idiot did whatever he could to catch up. By then, I was already indicating to get into a via-duct, which clearly meant that the pissing competition was over and that the idiot in his Accord had lost.

Guess what the LOSER did? He blared his honk as he passed, probably out of frustration.

Disgraceful.

And I wasn't even trying so hard in my Forte 2.0SX.

When Not Enough Attention is Paid to Public Transport - 9 Day Jam

The ultimate in traffic congestion ridiculousness can be found in China where there is such a thing as a 9-day jam. According to an AFP report, thousands of vehicles were bogged down yesterday in a more than 100-kilometre (62-mile) traffic jam leading to Beijing. But the jam began 9 days ealier, resulting in many being stuck in the crawl, presumably, for days.

I can't imagine this happening in Malaysia, but the reality is that it could. So many roads have been built to connect KL to the suburbs and beyond. Yet very little attention is paid to improving public transport run by different private operators using different ticketing systems.

Already the Stormwater Management and Road Tunnel (SMART) is turning out to be not so smart because of the terrible congestion inside it during rush hour.

The same goes for the not-so-smart-for- someone-to-use-during-rush-hour MEX linking Kesas highway to KLCC.

If something doesn't happen to discourage people from driving to and from work, no matter how good the tunnels or highways are, they're going to be congested to the brim. And one day, people would get stuck for more than several hours.

The solution lies in removing fuel subsidies for private transport. When people feel the fuel pinch, they'll turn to public transport. When public transport companies make good money, they'll improve their service, provided there is a unified body that looks into the matter - not different government agencies for different aspects of public transport.

Ultimately, the idea is so that we can all increase national productivity - when you spend less time on the road, your employer stands to make more money with you being in the office and in a good state of mind. And you, as a person, would have better life-work balance.

(see http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100823/sc_afp/chinaroadtraffic).

Be Careful Which Car You Buy Next - Oil Price Set to Go Past USD147

Nice car this BMW, yes? If you could afford to buy one, would you get it without a second thought? Well, unless you're super-duper rich, you'd better have second thoughts.

Why? Because of high fuel prices.

If you think you're rich enough to afford high fuel prices, well, wait till the price of oil skyrockets to pre-2008 downturn highs and beyond. Unless you're super-duper rich, you'd likely regret feeling comfortable about current fuel prices.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) is forecasting that world oil demand will set a new record next year when is smashes through 2008’s pre-recession high of about USD147 per barrel, warning that the “era of cheap oil is over.”

Basically, the argument is that, although market volatility may well bring about episodic price collapses, demand for oil will continue to grow each time the world puts in measures to stave off economic collapse. And since the output of non-OPEC countries cannot be increased fast enough to meet this rising demand - deepwater and oil sands cannot be relied on to pick up the slack, despite the media hoopla - the world would have to rely even more heavily on OPEC's spare capacity. If this begins to dwindle by 2013, as the IEA suggests – which OPEC denies – then the world should expect a period of extreme market volatility, soaring prices and, most likely, a marked downturn in the rather fragile global economic recovery.

So, would it be wise for you to invest in fuel guzzling, high-performance cars like BMWs, Mercedeses, Audis, etc or, worse, big and heavy premium SUVs and MPVs? Apparently not. That is to say, no one in his or her right mind should simply want to buy cars without really thinking about what the oil prices would be like in the future.

Yes, you could be rich, but even the rich worry about children's education, retirement, hospital bills, etc. This is why we can see a lot of BMW drivers driving more slowly on highways, obviously to conserve the RON 97 fuel in their tanks - BMWs don't do so well with the cheaper RON 95 fuel and RON 97 is a lot more expensive these days.

For that matter, those who have become rich by working hard for their money should be even more sensitive about the fact that cars give the least amount of returns on investment, due to their high depreciation rate.

So, for most people, this means buying the most fuel efficient car you can afford and, I suspect, they would exclude cars like BMWs, Mercedeses, Audis and the like.

And this is why I don't bother reviewing such cars on my blogsite. Rather, I prefer to concentrate on, to borrow somewhat ironically from BMW's tag-line, "the future of the automobile", which are low-to-mid-range cars that give you far more kilometres per litre than high-range performance cars.

And hey, if you want to experience high performance cars by proxy, you can always turn to motoring shows like Top Gear and Fifth Gear.

Simply put, if you're dreaming of that BMW or VW GTI but feel rather reluctant about sinking your hard earned savings into one, then consider yourself wise. Harder times are coming and the smarter thing to do is to put your money in something that helps you save fuel and maintenance cost.