Family Rides - 2018 Kia Sportage GT-Line

Another member of my family just took possession of the latest face-lifted KIA Sportage GT-Line.  This is the 2nd KIAs in the family!  Maybe one day I will get a KIA too, if I do it will be the almighty STINGER!

We did look for other car options but this car came up high in the list due to two things. First, the equipment it came with and secondly, the price!  This top spec GT-Line came with pano-roof, e-brake, LED front and rear tail lights, full leather seats and many mores.  At the time of writing, 2 years insurance is also included by the dealer.  The price is BND$38K+++.

My sibling who bought this car is not into cars and all he needed was a small SUV within his price bracket.  So I recommended the KIA Sportage and he was sold. 

I have not driven this car yet but I am loving the interior and the new refresh looks.

 

Family Rides - Mercedes Benz S320 "Substitute" Lamp

I was driving my family Mercedes Benz S320 recently and a warning sign just pop out of no where from the central instrument.  It said " TURN SIGNAL L, SUBSTITUTE LAMP ON!"

Obviously one of the turn signal had kaput but what puzzle me is the "SUBSTITUTE LAMP ON!".  I had been driving for more than 20years and had never encounter a substitute lamp when a lamp went busted.

So I stopped the car and put on the emergency lights.  If you see the picture above and the picture below you will understand.  The above pic is showing how the car is using the reverse lights as a substitute for the busted indicator!

If you look at the picture below you can see the differences in the indicator locations.  The left side is using the reverse lights as left indicator.  The one on the right is working fine so it's blinking from its original location.

Here is the busted bulb that I took out from the car and had replaced a new bulb from HuaHo Kiulap.  It cost only BND$3.00

Our New Mercedes-Benz CLA200 AMG Line

**THIS IS NOT MY CAR! :)

One of my family just bought this red beauty Mercedes Benz CLA200 AMG LINE.  I was approached to help select a car within a budget of $70k.  She wanted a small yet sporty sedan so it is a no brainer to suggest the Klasse CLA from Mercedes Benz.

The car is priced at BND$69900 at Jati Transport (sole dealer for Mercedes Benz in Brunei).  She waited 2 months for this car to arrive because they were all sold out.  This new batch that arrived actually has new interior face-lifted that is different from earlier model.  It also has added new options that is no-cost to customer.

This car is fitted with AMG Line full aero-kits that comprised of the front bumper, rear bumper and side skirts.

 

It also come with AMG 18" Sports Wheels.

"Diamond Grille", a must feature for all A-Class & CLA-Class Owners

Updated interior with  new steering wheel, new central console design and larger LCD

The user interface is also new to CLA!

It was a rainy day and the owner was too lazy to collect the car so I took the privilege to deliver the car to the owner!

Our new KIA Forte Koup!

NOTE : THIS IS NOT MY CAR!!! 

I don't usually post picture of my family ride's but I feel the need for this particular new purchases.  You are looking at the 2014 KIA Forte Koup, our family first KDM!  This is my youngest sibling first car.  Lots of different models were taken into consideration but the winning decision went to KIA.  How did we came up with this conclusion?  Please read on as I am going to point out the reasons below.

Just a brief through about this car, the color chosen here is Snow White Pearl which looks awesome under the sun!  The car cost about BND$27000++ O.T.R!  It has a 2000cc, 4 cyclinders engine with 6 speed paddle automatics and 17" alloys wheels.  Standard equipment includes DRL,  HID headlamp, LED tail lights, alloys wheels and sunroof(!).  Interior equipment includes Bluetooth, reverse camera, bucket-type front seats and a 4.3" touchscreen LCD screen for the infortainment.  At this price and these specifications not even the Japanese counterpart can compete. 

The car specification is not the exact main point I want to focus on.  The main point here I want to share is the services and customer interaction provided by Grand Motors Sdn Bhd.  When we confirmed wanting to the buy KIA Koup, I immediately look for my relative who had purchased a few KIA before from this particular salesperson.  I managed to get hold of his contact and called him up and immediately the following day he visited me privately at my shop.  He provided me a brochure and run through what specifications and colors is available.  The color and gearbox were chosen and  then I was told the car will be ready with all the paper work and procedures in 4 days.  I was skeptical about delivering car in 4 days.  Nevertheless,  we received the car on the 6th day after confirmation and payment.  Damn! I was so surprised it took them less then 1 week to get the car register and have it on the road!  

Why am I surprise you say?  Well, JEEP took over one month to be registered(1 month 2 weeks to be exact!),   my Dodge about 3 weeks, my MINI about 2 weeks and my previous Peugeot took the agent almost a month to be deliver to me.  Talk about comparing fast and slow services!  I don't know why it took these dealers so damn long to register a car when KIA can do it in 6 days!

Next point,  before collecting the car on the delivery day.  We were greeted at the showroom because the sale rep would like to go through the final paper work and a demonstration of a few features to my sibling.  After that we were greeted by another lady, who runs through all the warranty and what-not to my sister. I am really impress with this kind of thorough services.  I don't recall Mercedes Benz, BMW or Porsche providing this kind of services when we bought our cars! 

And the best part of buying KIA is the peace of mind of 5 years factory warranty!  The only company in Brunei that gives out more then 4 years warranty is FORD.  The remaining players in Brunei only provide 2-3years warranty.  Yes, I ain't kidding.  BMW, MINI and Porsche only provided 2 years warranty!   

I finally understand why KIA has risen from nothing to something around the world.  They truly had step-up big time to compete with the Japanese and maybe the German with their K900 which we do not get in Brunei.

Gong Xi Fa Chai 2010 !!!!

Yes yes, I know Chinese New Year 2010 was so 3 months ago and that doesn't stop me. Hehe. I am sure most of the Chinese community know what these lion dancers are doing when they see the first picture. For those people who has no knowledge, I will give you a brief explanation of what is going here on during Chinese New Year culture!

Lion dancers are usually invited to home during the two weeks Chinese New Year celebration. We believe that by doing so it will cleanse the home for the coming New Year. By cleanse we are referring waving-off bad luck and evil spirit. In doing so we can bring in good luck, wealth, prosperity and good health to every members of the families in the home for the remaining 2010!

I will skip the home cleansing pictures and go straight to our car cleansing! LOL. The lions here are "cleansing" our cars for the arrival of CNY 2010. One of the main reason of doing so is protecting ourselves when we are driving in our car(s).


First up for cleansing is the red Z4.....


..... follow by Boxster S.....


.....then IS300.....


.....lastly on big brother R34!


The yellow lion "do" the Boxster from behind!


The orange lion looking for more cleansing


The pink lion rubbing its arse on the IS300


After our cars they marched to our second garage and do more cleansing on my family rides.


The guy in the middle orchestrated every moves and dances on all 3 lions


The little Indian boy in the middle is our neighbour. He was more excited then I am!!!


The whole process plus home cleansing took about 1 hour plus and they marched off to another home awaiting them!

BMW Z4

These is my family car, BMW Z4, my parent bought it around 2004. I used to drive this thing around before my younger brother came back from oversea. It is his daily car now. These one here is 3.0 Straight six and has a five speed auto tranny. The car is dead stock only some minor accessories like M- Pedals and M clear indicators all round.

Product Review - Soft 99 LightOne

Every motorists knows that our equatorial weather are freaking hot, it is bad for our cars. Especially the headlamps, nowadays manufacturer had the headlamp molded from plastic instead of the traditional glass headlamp. Partly because of the production costs. One big disadvantage of plastic headlamp is that without proper care it will turn yellowish from the outer layer of the headlamp. And you and me know it is very hard to remove that stubborn stain. Well, now you don't have to worry no more. I purchased this product called Soft 99 LightOne, which was introduced by a good friend of mine. It removed all those stubborn yellowish stain on the headlamps with ease. Read further

Here is the front headlamp of my brother 2003 BMW Z4. Nope, those are not overnight rain stains, those are actual stubborn stains which had been their for quite sometimes.


.... u can see the stains around the indicator section too....

...introducing SOFT99 Light One, costing only BND15.00....

....comes with two solutions and cottons for removing the stains

Tada!!! Here are the results, I am very impress as it removed almost 95% of the stubborn stains.(well the other 5%, lets just say my bro didn't take good care of this car)

....highly recommended for all car motorists and car purist!


....of course, my little ER34 get both headlamps treated too!

....it removed 100% of the stubborn stains on ER34! Looking like brand new...hahaha