Proton Commerce, a joint venture between Proton’s sales arm Proton Edar, and CIMB Bank announced today that it disbursed a total of 27,288 loans to Proton car buyers in Malaysia in 2023. The figure is a new high for Proton Commerce, rising in tandem with Proton’s recent record of 154,611 units sold – its highest since 2012. This also means that 18 percent of Proton cars sold last year were financed by Proton Commerce. The Proton Saga is the financing arm’s most important model, contributing 61 p

BMW Group Malaysia delivered 15,012 units of BMW and MINI vehicles, including BMW Motorrad motorcycles. The figure is 3.8 percent higher than 2022. The group also ended the year as Malaysia’s No.1 premium automaker, for the fourth consecutive year. One third of the sales are financed by BMW Financial Services. Of the 15,000 total units delivered, the group’s namesake BMW brand contributed 11,699 cars, which is slightly lower than last year’s 11,800 units. MINI showed an impressive 42 percent gro

Water and oil don’t mix, neither do water and electricity. Short of driving an amphibious vehicle, cars are not boats (or submarines). At the same time, flash floods are becoming more common, a combination of climate change and unchecked urban development. The recently announced Toyota Corolla Cross Hybrid will be locally-assembled in Bukit Raja, with an estimated price of RM 137k. Compared to the regular combustion engine Corolla Cross 1.8G and 1.8V variants, how well does the 1.8 Hybrid handle

Volvo Car Malaysia has launched the locally-assembled (CKD) 2022 Volvo XC60 facelift. Two variants are available at launch – B5 Momentum and Recharge T8 Inscription Plus. The B5 Momentum is priced at RM 292,266 and while Recharge T8 is priced at RM 325,449, prices are with SST exemption. Previously, the XC60 T5 Momentum and Recharge T8 Inscription Plus were priced at RM 278,915 and RM 324,656 respectively. Globally revealed earlier this year in March, the facelifted Volvo XC60 gets a subtly revi

Alongside the JCW 3 Door facelift, MINI Malaysia has also launched the 2021 MINI JCW Countryman facelift. As before, it’s fully imported from the UK and is priced at RM 383,463 (OTR without insurance, inclusive of SST discount and extended warranty with service package). Powertrain remains unchanged; the B48 2.0-litre turbocharged engine makes 306 PS and 450 Nm of torque (up by 114 PS/170 Nm from the Cooper S version). Drive is sent to all four wheels via an 8-speed automatic transmission. 0-100

Since the Proton-Geely partnership in 2017, we have witnessed two popular SUVs bearing the Proton badge - the Proton X70 and Proton X50. A third Geely-based model is due for 2021, and it is most likely the Proton X90, based on the Geely Haoyue, a 7-seater SUV. We’ve talked about the Proton V70/Geely Jiaji as a viable candidate previously, but the agreement to purchase the Jiaji will lapse by 31-Dec 2020 and the MPV segment is a diminishing one. With images of the Geely Haoyue at hand, we took th