MINI CROSSES OVER TO SUV

Mini crosses over to SUV

MINI plans to extend its range with a compact SUV study featuring four doors, four-wheel drive and four single seats. The concept car (pix) was unveiled at the Paris Motor Show which opened on Oct 4 until Oct 19.

Planned for production in 2010, the BMW subsidiary’s model features two conventional doors positioned on the passenger side with a third for the driver. The fourth door, for the rear passenger on the driver’s side, slides back along the outside of the car for convenient access and loading.

The rear door has a frameless, retractable window and when open, swivels to one side to facilitate the loading of long items, such as skis, snowboards and surfboards. Capacity can be increased by folding the roof cover which extends across the whole length of the roof.

The four single seats can be adjusted forwards and backwards by up to 13cm in the rear – allowing more legroom for the rear passengers.

The front and rear seats are linked visually by a matt-polished aluminium fastening rail which extends from the dashboard through the middle of the car, to the rear.

In the dashboard, there is a a new display and control console which hosts all major entertainment, telecommunication and navigation functions. This three-dimensional globe can be personalised independently by both the driver and passenger as the display is shown in two hemispheres – allowing the passenger to surf the Internet while the driver follows the navigation.

Operated by a touch-sensitive surface, the Mini Centre Globe can also be programmed by a trackball on the steering wheel, buttons or slide controls in the lower section of the globe or even by a keyboard which extends out from the dashboard on the passenger’s side.

The Mini Centre Globe also hosts the stop/start function, whereby the driver inserts a Keyball into the upper edge to start and switch off the engine. – dpa

source:   the sun online

MELAMINE-LACED MILK

MELAMINE-LACED MILK:

53 China-made food items sent for testing 

By : Regina Lee 

Datuk Liow Tiong Lai showing one of the food items to be tested.

PUTRAJAYA: The Health Ministry has sealed 53 milk-related products produced in China for testing.

Samples of the items, including chocolate, candy, yogurt and biscuits, have been sent to the Chemistry Department for tests on suspicion that they may contain milk tainted by the banned substance, melamine.

Household names, including distributors of M&M's chocolates, Snickers chocolate bars and the White Rabbit creamy candy, will know their fate when the tests results are released today.

The ministry will also start seizing products off shelves if the test results show that they contain dangerous amounts of the substance.

"But, this is no cause for alarm at the moment. We are doing our best to check everything and we hope to get cooperation from the manufacturers, importers and retailers," Health Minister Datuk Liow Tiong Lai said yesterday.
He also said other food products imported from China and suspected of containing melamine had been placed on Level 5 of the six-level Food Safety Information System of Malaysia, which requires that products be detained pending results of sample analysis.

Milk-related products from China have been placed at the Level 6 alert since Sept 13, which means an automatic rejection.

Liow confirmed that there were no dairy products (milk or milk powder) from China sold in Malaysia since last year.

"To sell milk here, you would need a special licence from the Veterinary Services Department. The department has said that none had been given to Chinese companies since last year." 

Liow said it was normal for food items to contain a small amount of melamine as a result of using plastic wrappers. A directive from the European Commission said up to 30 parts per million (ppm) of the substance was still safe.

Powdered milk produced by China's largest dairy producer, Sanlu Group, was found to have a melamine content of up to 2,563ppm.

Liow urged doctors who come across kidney disorders suspected to be caused by tainted milk products to report the cases to the ministry.

SOURCE:  http://www.nst.com.my

NEW MYVI

Friday, August 22, 2008

Perodua introduces facelifted Myvi

Posted by: Anthony Lim

Perodua today introduced its facelifted Myvi, and the freshened up hatchback features a decent number of revisions and refinements, all of which should help to keep the quarter-million volume seller a winner.

New face - it's a meatier front.

Exterior-wise, the car gets a minor style reworking - at the front, there's a new, beefier looking nose section courtesy of a new hood, with corresponding grille, logo and front bumper in tow.

At the rear, there's a new, wider bumper and the styling of the two reflectors on it have been revised. Also, the rear lamp assembly now features the use of LEDs. The car also features the use of new glass, which offer improved ultraviolet rejection, with up to 91% reduction.

Inside, while the cabin layout remains pretty much unchanged, the updated vehicle features a new interior colour as well as new seat fabric upholstery, and a new colour Optitron instrument cluster, which features three instrument meters as opposed to the two on the previous version.

Can you spell Optitron?

Oh, and there's a new entertaiment system to boot - this one is M3/WMA-capable, has a USB port and offers Bluetooth connectability.

What else? Well, on the Premium version, you get a shopping hook on the backrest of the front passenger seat, perfect for carrying takeaways, as well as a seat height adjuster.

The choice of 1.3l and 1.0l twin-cam DVVT powertrains and auto/manual drivetrains continue as before, but two new body colours have been added, these being Medallion Grey and Caribbean Blue, and join Glittering Silver, Klasik Gold, Ebony Black, Pearl White, Mistik Red and Ivory White in the entire 1.3L variant lineup (the 1.0SR model has all but the special metallic Pearl White as a colour choice).

And what the rear looks like.

Prices for the five variant lineup (on the road, with insurance and road tax, in Peninsular Malaysia) are:

1.0 SR (five-speed manual only) - RM38,924 (solid), RM39,447 (metallic)

1.3 SX (five-speed manual) - RM43,400 (solid), RM43,900 (metallic)

1.3 EZ (four-speed auto) - RM46,400 (solid), RM46,900 (metallic)

1.3 SXi (five-speed manual) - RM46,200 (solid), RM46,700 (metallic)

1.3 EZi (four-speed auto) - RM49,200 (solid), RM49,700 (metallic)

ARTICLES SOURCE: http://star-motoring.com