This is to officially announce that i have moved my blog to:

www.mygirlfriendhatescars.com

Please update your links and bookmarks thank you!

THE MINI COOPER

Definitely number 1 on this list. Hardly ever seen or heard any girl who thought that this car is uncool or one that does’nt match the pair of carefully selected shoes..

Could it be this one?

nah.. its this one!

The Mini will always be a classic no matter how many I see on the road so any girl who drives one is cool. Just as long as she doesnt think that shes being ‘unique’ by driving one.. she should drive it because not only does it look good, it drives well too.

At number 2..

The Mercedes SLK

This one I don’t really like. Why.. because the girls in them are usually those who drive with high heels.. wear those riduculously big sunglasses when the roof is down and probably carries an oversized Prada. Irritating. I think this car is very good looking though.

It has the clever folding metal roof and it looks fantastic in any surrounding and its bonnet has obvious hints from the Mclaren SLR and thats cool..

At number 3..

The Fiat 500 Barbie

The ultimate cute car of all time. I don’t think any other car can compete with this one and the only reason why its number 3 is because I just don’t think girls know about this one.. sorry. but now u do! hope this can bump it up to number one and kick that mini off the throne!

At number 4..

The Peugeot 307 CC

Looks pretty from the front but rather fat from the back but it has.. yet again.. another folding metal roof! Tons of girls drive this car and usually with their friends in the back singing along to the Jo Bros or something who knows. But this says a lot about the girl.. they’re willing to share the fun with friends.. and not with dumb Prada.

Finally at number 5..

The Alfa Romeo Mito

I feel sad putting this at number 5 because i think this is a great car, but that alone says a lot. Its at number 5 because guys like this car as well which just incidentally bumps this down all the way down the list. I hope girls like this.. because sooner or later some bengs will modify it and try to turn it into something catastrophically hideous. Like what some guys do to the Honda Jazz, or the Toyota Vios. I think modifying those cars is just pointless and stupid. I’d rather kill myself than make my car look like one of them. Hopefully i can get some pictures of them under the category (coming soon) ‘Cars That Make My Eyes Bleed’.

Its cute and pretty/handsome. So girls, just say i do..

Well thats it! Hope you like it.

A new site is on the way, so if you want to check it out the link is here!

the all new address is:

www.mygirlfriendhatescars.com

Its still not fully done up yet but the main bulk of the stuff is there.

And there’s more to look forward to!

All in the coming weeks, see you there!

I don’t think anyone could have ever imagined that Pokemon land could come up with such a menacing monster of a car. The engineers at Nissan must have thrown ‘kawaii’ out the window and brought back their WWII tenacity and pure viciousness. They have created something the Euro boys have no choice but to stand back in awe and wait for the GTR to vaporize them in its wake because the sheer speed of the thing is astonishing. The car is quintessentially “Japanese” with the degree of attention to detail, the interior which seems to have been lifted from a sci-fi movie, the computer systems which can probably get you to the dark side of the moon and looks like it was designed by computers and engineers who suffer from OCD because they needed rulers to design the exterior and nothing else. Paintbrushes must have been a no-no, only fine tip pencils allowed…Maybe.

You see, Nissan created the “Godzilla” or the Skyline 40 years ago in 1969 and it enjoyed much success both on and off the track. It was a perfect blend of track-worthiness and road-going comfort. And hardly any other Japanese car manufacturer could match it. And the high performance versions were always called the GTR, but with the Skyline badge as well, but this doesn’t. There was the R32, the R34, so i guess this is the R35. The interesting thing is, the GTR is named GTR. Nissan is darn serious about this one to alienate it from its older cousins, rightly so too. This car owns all of them, it is a one of a kind.

The old Skyline looked a bit like a soap-box with wheels and lights on it, but this one is radically built to look like it could eat you any minute with that gaping front grille. And it does. The GTR devours its rivals like the Porsche 911 Turbo (which it has already done round the Nurburgring in Germany, 7 mins 29s to be exact), the Mclaren Mercedes and even a Koenigsegg. Every bit of its exterior is there for the purpose of making the GTR more aerodynamic. There are even creases in the side mirrors to channel air to the big rear spoiler to increase the downforce of the car. Even though the car may not look as flambouyant as a Lamborghini or as smooth as a Porsche 911, it is astoundingly clinical and designed discipline, all in the name of speed.

There’s nothing much to say about the way it drives because all it does is smash your face with G-forces as you go round the corners. It grips and grips, and just when you think its going to go, it smashes your eyes against your skull and makes your ears bleed. The GTR’s technology is way above any other road going car of its kind which makes it rather useless for me to describe it and also because I will never understand any of it. I think you’d need a doctorate in Engineering to understand all of it. There’s also a ‘secret’ method to enable ‘launch control’ which somehow or the other spoils the transmission a bit by turning off the Vehicle Dynamic Control (VDC) ,holding the brakes down and revving the engine to 4500rpm and once you lift off the brakes, you’ll be gone in a second. The 3.8l Twin- Turbo V6 engines are all handmade, as with the gear boxes which make each GTR unique. So the amount of horsepower ranges from about 450bhp to 500bhp which is strangely ‘un-Japanese’… where did the consistency go? But who cares. It still does 0-100km/h with the ‘launch control’ in under 4 seconds, and in a straight line it can top 300km/h. You could challenge Jenson Button in one of these and you’d be the cooler guy because his is a ‘Brawn’ while yours is a GTR from Japan.. beat that.

Moving on from all that fiddly nonsense which most people won’t really care so much about. The interior is an exquisite place to be. It is seriously full of knobs and switches which makes you feel that you’re in a computer game, or you are a fighter pilot. Interestingly enough, the graphics for the G sensors, Yaw sensors and all the other displays from the LCD screen was designed by the man who created the Gran Turismo game. So you are actually in a computer game.. sort of. What’s more, the car is very much a practical one compared to its rivals because it has four seats, a big boot and it feels civilized when traveling at legal road speeds, not too noisy and it feels very comfortable. It actually takes a lot before this car starts to show its true colours. And i doubt in Singapore you will ever get a chance to push it to its limits. Best to try it on the Malaysian highways or even better, in Sepang.

Lastly, Tan Chong motors has finally decided to bring in the GTR ‘officially’. I think that this was a rather obvious decision because if they didn’t, they’d be better off feeding the Parallel Importers with money everyday for each GTR that they sold. And even better news, at under S$300,000, you can own one of these hand-built, magnificent feat of engineering. This is the GTR’s main attraction. Its price. It has outclassed its rivals in terms of value for money; a Lamborghini or Ferrari in Singapore will cost close to a million and you will have to pay even more for repairs because the noses are so low that they will scrape speed humps but in the GTR, none of this will ever happen. Neither can they beat the practicality of the GTR, you can bring your whole family along on a nice road trip but in the Italian Stallions and Bulls, none of this will ever be reality. For the speed freaks, this is also good to know that the ‘official’ GTR from Tan Chong motors does not have the 180km/h speed limiter, so you can smile all the way to the show room and get one to kill yourself… if you choose to race here in Singapore.

So what Nissan has done is created a new benchmark for supercars, one that is practical, reasonably priced, yet incredibly good. The best part of the car actually is the saddest thing, Nissan has made the GTR so good, that they have overdone it, because none of us can realistically push it to the point that it feels like it is man and machine in perfect harmony.

However, there is a monumental problem with this car. The price. may cost as little as only 8000 pounds in the UK, but here in  Singapore, its entry level model is priced at S$76000 and above!  Yes, it is a good car, yes it looks fantastic and yes it beats the Mini and  costs less than the Mini, but the Mini is not anywhere near cheap to  start with and this is not cheap either. Buying this car in another  country will make you look smart for buying such a good car at a low  price and it is good value for money, but here in Singapore, poeple will think you are a rich little snob with too much money in your bank account and you feel like buying yourself a big

fashion accessory. Its just overpriced! And that’s painful to me because I want one but I will never buy it here because its just stupid to pay so much when the car is meant to be cheaper. And i can just imagine the type of guy who buys this car; highlighted waxed up hair, the big sunglasses, skinny berms or shorts or whatever you want to call it, tight v-neck t-shirt and carries an i-Phone wherever he goes listening to New Age music or something. And I don’t want to look like them.

So sadly, even though this is a great car with a great personality, I doubt I’ll ever own one here in Singapore.

Just in from the factories in Poland.

The all new Fiat 500.

Coming soon.

1. Delfi Orchard (the guy’s name is Jacky and his shop is on the 3rd floor)

2. Far East Shopping Centre 1st floor (this has tons of Autoart stuff which is good but try to be a member and you get 30% off)

3. Millenia Walk Nikko (this is probably the most expensive of the 3, the Bugatti Veyron cost S$380 here while it only cost S$300 at jacky’s shop)

If anyone else knows any other place please leave a comment! I will try to find more places if anyone is interested. So meanwhile… enjoy!

I was walking down town recently and I happened to stop by at the Raffles Hotel. It is an amazing building with so much history and its generally regarded as one of the premier hotels in Singapore or even the region. Theres tradition, culture, style and sheer class of the hotel that draws tourists to it no matter the time of year. Then, as I got into the car at Raffles City and took it for a drive, I eventually drove past the magnificent St. Regis hotel and it struck me; both hotels were spectacular in their own right. Raffles Hotel was laded with tradtion and history which gave it an aura of a classical splendour with years and years of uncompromising quality and service while the St. Regis on the other hand, is a modern marvel of class with new age style and lavishness. So both have prized themselves above the rest… and both are marks of supreme quality. That defintely rings some bells here.

Volkswagen have been producing cars since the Dodos existed and they have never been short of performance or quality. They produced and engineered the Bugatti Veyron for crying out loud. And for those of you ignorant enough to not know what the Bugatti Veyron is, you ought to be shot. It is the fastest and most incredible production car ever known to mankind. But today,   I’m dealing with something a bit more closer to home.

A shootout between the new Volkswagen Golf GTI and the Volkswagen Scirocco 2.0 Sport TSI DSG.

Lets start with the mighty Golf GTI. After 6 generations of evolution, the GTI has become synonymous with ‘hot hatch’ perfection and with its 33 year history, I find it hard to see anything wrong with it. You see, most men have the dream of owning a supercar one day but obviously that dream hardly ever becomes reality. Why? You may ask. The answer is simple. Man runs a business, earns loads of money, gets married, suddenly a kid is along the way and there goes the supercar dream because there is no way in hell his wife is going to let him spend a million dollars on a car when all it can do in Singapore is inch its way through traffic jams and even when the highway is clear, it will probably get loads of speeding tickets since it reaches the speed limit in like 3 seconds. And most importantly, the kid probably has to sit on the roof because there are only 2 seats.

So there goes the dream. And here’s where the GTI comes in. It is the ultimate car to have for someone who has a family still wants to drive a relatively fast and sporty car without any of the supercar drawbacks. The GTI is fast car. It does the century sprint in 6.9s and produces 208bhp, so you get 8 more horses than the previous GTI. It can accomodate 5 people in relative comfort and has a boot that can fit Randy Jackson. Its huge for a car in this class! Furthermore, the DSG 6 speed automatic gearbox works like a charm and the paddle shifters actually work although they could be a bit bigger because now they’re just about the size for a Hobbit’s finger. And when it comes to corners, the GTI handles them brilliantly and there’s so much grip that at high speeds, your face gets thrown around from the G forces but the stiff suspension setup keeps body roll to a minimum. One of the best things about the GTI is how it sips petrol rather than gulping it down. At 13.4km/l, it is comparable to its so-called efficient Japanese rivals like the Subaru WRX and the immense amount of torque at such a low rpm range makes overtaking a breeze.

So, the man with a family still gets to have his super/family car cake and eat it. But, is this really the ultimate choice? Because there’s one alternative.

The Volkswagen Scirocco 2.0 Sport TSI DSG. You see, I think this car is a thing of beauty with curves coming from Picasso’s paintbrush and with a sense of understated style and character, the Scirocco is the GTI’s main rival. Why did Volkswagen think of creating their own civil war I don’t know but there’s bound to be a fight. The most obvious difference is in the pricing. The Scirocco 2.0 Sport costs S$119,800 while the GTI costs a whopping 11k more at S$131,300 for the 5 door version and slightly less at S$127,800 for the 3 door version. And this is a problem for the GTI because things get worse for the Golf when comparing the entry level models as well. The entry level Golf costs S$87,300 while the 1.4l Scirocco (which is twin turbo charged and produces 160bhp) costs a mere S$93,300 and has brilliant performance figures starting with the way it races to 100km/h in 8s which is faster than the Golf at 9s.

So lets move on to the way it handles. The car is lower and wider which inevitably lowers the center of gravity and this is evident in the way it goes round the corners. The Scirocco is composed and takes on the bends with ease and i dare say it is even better than the GTI with surprisingly less body roll. Moreover, while the GTI is a ‘hot hatch’, this is a ‘coupe’. And that difference in labelling means a lot. Theres a control button called DCC which essentially is the Adaptive Chassis Control and this wonderful circle of plastic allows the driver to select 3 different drive settings; Comfort, Normal, and Sport. I like this. Something the Golf has as well. And the good thing is these settings really work so its not just a stupid gimmick.

Drawbacks? Well, the back seat occupants cannot have legs as long as Yao Ming but they will fit the average Singaporean comfortably, and the interior is not as exciting as it could have been judging from the looks of the exterior though the quality of the panels are similar to the GTI. But the biggest challenge the Scirocco has is remaining special. At a price which is relatively affordable, looks brilliant and rides fantastic, i just hope it doesn’t become too common on Singapore roads. That will just destroy the character and charisma of the Scirocco.

Both the GTI and the Scircocco have amazing attributes, drive really well and are brilliant cars overall. Just like the two hotels; the Golf is the classic, original epitome of the hot hatch which does not compromise practicality with perfomance while the Scirocco is modern even with its Guigaro origins with its passionate styling yet having the same or even better attributes than the GTI, best of all it looks amazing. The Golf is like the Porsche 911, adopting the ‘if it ain’t broke why fix it’ attitude, and improved over time yet retaining its roots as a hot hatch while the Scirocco is a flaming Ferrari, dynamic and refined.

But I like the fact that Volkswagen have created this internal battle because I now have options, it used to be just the GTI but now I have a choice between the 2, and I’d choose the Scirocco.

for those who hate it.. there’s always another option.

hmmm..

what can it be? or what can they be?

Return soon to find out!

Renault Laguna Coupe

The curves, the grill and the tail-lights are all reminiscent of the Aston Martin DB9.. and with that bold front grille the Laguna Coupe is a stunning car to behold. Never before has Renault ever crafted a car so beautiful and yet practical. At about a $130000, you get a turbo-charged 2.0l Automatic gearbox which churns out 170bhp which is not bad really. From the looks of it you wont expect it to hunt down Lambos or Ferraris, those are the red hot chillis of the automotive world. But for the Renault, its more like a creme brule, crisp on the outside and utterly smooth and soft on the inside. The car is fully equipped with cruise control, climate control and everything else that a regular middle-upper class coupe may have, but its real party piece is the way passengers proceed to the back which have real space and not like other 2 door ‘four seaters’ with room at the rear for the width of golf clubs. Just pull a lever on the front seat and they slide effortlessly towards the front leaving ample room for human beings to enter. And once they’re in, pull the lever again and the seat will slide back to its original position as it utilizes the memory settings in the car. Another thing that most people did not notice is that when you open the doors, the pillarless windows actually wind down just a tiny bit just so that opening and closing the doors do not damage the windows. That’s pretty neat.

Nice rear..

Though the interior may have been thrown over from the four door family saloon version, its still a very comfortable place to be in. With a cabin that even Hitler would approve of, i have absolutely no complaints… except the steering wheel shape is a bit weird for a ‘sporty’ coupe. French cars usually have mad and impractical centre consoles with revolutionary style where function was placed at the bottom of the priority list, but in this it looks almost German with German quality plastics and buttons which actually feel nice to press. It even has that clever LCD screen in the middle telling the driver all the essential trip information. Sadly though, there is no GPS system or a reverse camera fitted in this car and fitting one in the dash would be as good as adding curry to fondue and just destroy the looks of the entire interior. So please… if you buy one, don’t be a cock to do such a thing. Even if you do want to have one make sure it looks good inside or else this car will hate you. If you are a family man with a young one in tow, there are ISOFIX points for that baby seat, and super practical split folding rear seats. And not forgetting safety. Crashing this car will just make you feel like you’re in a pillow fight because there are 8 airbags all round to make sure you enjoy the crash.

So if this car can sit four people in comfort, including the baby, looks amazing, its a two door car so people won’t think you’re giving up on life just yet, and its safe, why would anyone buy the four door version? If anyone did sorry to say, you picked Ugly Betty to be your wife instead of Jennifer Aniston or something.

Are you drooling yet?

On to the way it drives. Under the bonnet is a turbo-charged 170bhp engine which automatically eliminates this car from the  supercar/sports car category. I would label it a Gran Tourer where you just want to keep driving this car on and on and on… it just makes you realize the joy of driving and being caught up in a traffic jam won’t seem like a drag anymore, you fall in love with it. Girlfriends beware. With 270Nm @ 3250rpm, overtaking is a breeze and the car feels light and powerful off the line which is ideal in Singapore roads where there’s a traffic light every 5m. What’s more, the car won’t burn a hole in your pocket for drinking too much petrol, its more of a social drinker rather than a hardcore clubber. The car has 6 gears and has a feature called the ‘self-shifter’ which senses the amount of throttle and shifts gear to rev-match with the previous rpm to enable silky smooth gear changes. The worst thing about this car is the way the steering feels. Its as lifeless as Fann Wong’s face. There’s just no feel when you turn which may lead to over or understeer. But other than that, the Laguna Coupe can complete the century sprint in 9.6 seconds which is neither too fast nor slow for a car in this class.

The end

All in all, this car is simply epic. With a price tag as attractive as that for the value you get, German quality finish, Japanese practicality, French/Italian/British looks and the undeniable attention to detail, the Laguna Coupe is definitely a class above the rest. Renault has outclassed its Japanese rivals like Honda or any of its French counterparts. They have shot for the sky with this one, aiming to be at least on par with the Germans. If Hitler was still around, his face won’t be so smug in that fat old Mercedes anymore, here comes General Charles De Gaulle in a Renault.