Kuala Lumpur-Cameron Highlands 600 km Test Drive (Part 1)

Updated from home 2.5 hours earlier :
Wifey's Forte is somewhat decorated with dust and water stains from the daily torrents of rainstorm in KL and I was debating if I should send it to the hubby-powered drive-thru car wash (manned by yours truly :) or leave it for another... say, 600 km or so. Which coincidentally, was the approximate distance to and fro Cameron Highlands.

Smells like nature's call... for an adventure, that is...

Now, to get to Cameron Highlands, you could choose to tackle the long and winding roads by going green (the bicycle, not the soon-to-be-reduced-pricing-thanks-to-2011-budget RM140k Prius, you nimwit!) or at least trying to go green with a fuel-efficient but fun car.

"Take me home, country road"

Hmmm, sounds like wifey's Forte SX was in the running then.

Situated at 1520m above sea level, Cameron Highlands is Malaysia's green bowl supplying vegetables to the local major cities and Singapore. The cool climate makes it an excellent tea growing area and indeed the Cameron tea (Boh and Cameron Bharat comes to mind!) is highly prized in the world market. With temperatures ranging between 25 and 10 degrees Celsius, this place is popular all year round with tourists.

 

Cameron Highlands is the premier hill top holiday spot at Pahang. Discovered by a British surveyor, William Cameron in 1885, this highland paradise still retains much of the charm of an English village. Thus, European cottages are very common at in Cameron Highlands.

Places of interest are the Robinson Falls, the Rose Garden nurseries and the strawberry and vegetable farms. A visit to the tea plantation is well worthwhile, to see how one of the world’s favourite beverages is processed fresh from the plantations. Stroll around and admire the old colonial buildings such as the Old Smokehouse. This hill station is surrounded by jungles and trails are marked for jungle trekking. There are various villages inhabited by Orang Asli, the indigenous people of the hills.

To tackle the long and winding roads,  I could drive sanely- using all ounces of the Forte SX's security features, while humming and listening to the over-played "My Heart Will Go On". Or I could insert 6 Linkin Park CDs into the CD changer and drive like a nimwit ala Initial D drifting, but with my limited driving skills, I'll probably be steering the Forte SX towards bad press then.

Initial D air filter? Checked!

Dirt and grass? Checked!

Turttle-powered roof top? Checked!

Right, since I'd be ferrying wifey, my in-laws and naughty lil' Alex, turning turtle is not a desirable option; so it's a big "Yes" to sane driving- so I'd need to squeeze every bit of juice from the Forte's 1.6 engine and 17" sports rims and suspension setup to enjoy the drive, while ensuring that my very-important passengers are comfortable and snoring away (least that I get an earful!).

Updated from the hotel 2.5 hours later :
It kinda helped that along the way, I was joined by enthusiastic Mazda 3 and Lancer EX drivers about 50 km from Exit 132 (Tapah); so having companions "battling" it out en-route kinda helped cut short the overall ETA of 3.5 hours. The Forte was stable and well-spirited along the national highway limit (of course, I can't make "unsubstantiated theoretical comments" that it was stable at 140 kmph least that I get a saman ekor ;p) and when the winding roads begun, the rims and suspension setup was well-tuned to soak up the corners brilliantly.

Unofficial Champion : Mazda 3

Unofficial 1st Runner-Up : Kia Forte SX

Unofficial 2nd Runner-Up : Mitsubishi Lancer EX

It was a fun, friendly competition and before long, the Mazda 3 was taking the lead, the Forte SX closely-following and the Lancer EX seriously-tailgating behind. The Forte could probably gain a lil' more lead if it wasn't that I had a full load and need to ensure that I drove in a "sane enough" manner that I don't attract twisting of earlobes; but then again, if the other drivers had more balls, they probably could drive even more aggressively and leave me well behind.

When we separated at Tanah Rata towards different hotels, I could well-opined that all 3 rides gave a fair fight and probably made us looked like better drivers that we really were, and presented themselves as good driving machines.

Miles miles behind the real ultimate driving machine perhaps... but at a fraction of such prices, a real gem nevertheless.

Just for Laughs : Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)?

Hellboy missed his test...

The following is an actual question given on a University of Washington chemistry mid-term exam. The answer by one student was so "profound" that the professor shared it with colleagues, via the Internet, which is, of course, why we now have the pleasure of enjoying it as well... 

Here is the "Bonus Question" on the exam: "Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)?" Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle's Law (gas cools when it expands and heats when it is compressed) or some variant. One student, however, wrote the following:

First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So we need to know the rate at which souls are moving into Hell and the rate at which they are leaving. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving. As for how many souls are entering Hell, let's look at the different Religions that exist in the world today. Most of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell. Since there is more than one of these religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all souls go to Hell.

With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially.

Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyle's Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand proportionately as souls are added. This gives two possibilities:

1. If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose.

2. If Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over.

So which is it? If we accept the postulate given to me by Teresa (a girlfriend of mine during my Freshman year) that, "it will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you", and take into account the fact that I slept with her last night, then number 2 must be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic and has already frozen over.

The corollary of this theory is that since Hell has frozen over, it follows that it is not accepting any more souls and is therefore, extinct...leaving only Heaven, thereby proving the existence of a divine being which explains why, last night, Teresa kept shouting "Oh my God."

THIS STUDENT RECEIVED THE ONLY "A."

Bounce Bounce Bounce... the sequel (temporarily solved)

Further to my Bounce Bounce Bounce!!! posting, I have visited my resident tyre specialists to see if they could assist me to improve the comfort and harshness of my ride, without sacrificing on the handling and performance capabilities.

Thus far, I must say that I have been driving the Forte rather enthusiastically at times (perhaps I thought that since it looks this good, it could perform equivalent to my previous RM180k Coop) and if you factor in the overall package, it has performed well beyond every reasonable doubts and continuously strengthened my confidence towards this lil' marvel of a ride. I mean, for its asking price of RM82k, you're simply hard-pressed to get another C-segment car that performs as well (until the Inspira comes along next month, that is- since it has been well-received by many car journalists and is said to be miles better than the Lancer GT's rather nervous ride at higher speeds).

I lamented about the bounciness, and asked the sifus if they could play around with the settings for a more comfortable ride without invalidating the factory warranty. Below are some of the trials and errors that went towards the tweaking of the Forte in our pursuit for comfort :

1) Changing the standard springs to Eibach improved the cornering and handling capabilities even further, but also contributed to the harshness of the ride. A subsequent change to H&R provided a smoother and softer ride, but not necessarily too significant compared to the standard ones so it may not be worth the monies to be spent.

Verdict : Reverted to the original setup so that the optimum height was maintained.

2) Changing the tyres and rims from 17" to 15" immediately brought severe improvements to the harshness of the ride; but it was generally felt that the car was more nervous at high speeds and cornering thereafter (could be due to reverse psychology?). In any case, it was agreed that the 17" sports rims was more suitable for the Forte's C-segment size and simply looked better.

Verdict : Reverted to the original 17" sports rims. Sucker maybe?

3) The sifus believed that changing the provided Kumhos to other brands, albeit the models that promote comfort and quietness eg Goodyear F1 Asy or Michelin PS3, would improve the comfort of the ride tremendously. However, as the suggested tyres are new and can't be tested just for the fun of our lil' experiment, and my Kumhos still have 90% thread left, they decided to lower the tyre pressure from the initial 34 psi to 32 psi- and voila, the ride was immediately improved upon and was more comparable to the benchmark set as my friend's Altis 1.8.

Verdict : Looks like 32 psi is going to be the new setting adopted until the F1 Asy or PS3 becomes the Forte's new shoes in future.

With the new comfort level, the passengers are more agreeable with the choice of using the Forte SX for our city runabouts instead of the other rides. Funny how much benefits could be derived from 2 packets of tea tarik, 3 hours of experiment and a bunch of motor-heads.

R3's High Performance Inspira in the Works?

Re-directing to Zerotohundred's Inspira Scoop ...

The new Proton Inspira is a blessing for those aspiring to own a Mitsubishi Lancer and a bit of a thorn on the side of those who already own a Lancer. There's no doubt that it's a good car; it's built by Mitsubishi so there's certain standards that it has to adhere to.

While bookings are already open, deliveries have not started as yet, but as soon as that happens, it will also mark the beginning of a culture that comes with the release of any new Proton model - modification.

My guess is the first thing that will be replaced is the Proton badge for a Mitsubishi tri-diamond. Other than that, there will be the usual case of Lancer front and rear bumpers, side skirts, and perhaps even the entire Evo treatment of a large rear wing, rear diffuser, overgrown exhausts, I'm sure you get it.

While this may be true, there are also rumours that Proton's own tuning division has something up its pipeline as well. Race, Rally, Research, or better known as R3 is said to be working on what we know as the Inspira-X.

There are no further details on this but considering that R3 has already been working on its own turbocharging system for a while now, and the equipment list on the Satria Neo Lotus Racing Edition is enough to make any hardcore Japanese enthusiast envious, the Inspira-X, if it ever happens, could just turn out to be the icing on the cake for Proton.

While we wait around and hunt for more information, here's a little something that Tom whipped up when we asked him how he thought the Inspira-X may look like, the man prefers to let his pictures do the talking, we hope he's right because that could just be the best looking Proton in a while.

Movie : The Other Guys

It's date night and wifey's gonna drive us in her Forte SX to watch "The Other Guys". The reviews say that it's a good movie- let's hope that our first movie alone in 2 years' time would be a good one!

(Haha, if you have a young toddler at home, you would know how we feel ;p)

I haven't had car runs in Malaysia at late nights for a good few years already. Let's have the Kia Forte vs The Other Guys tonight ;p

Mitsubishi Lancer GT vs Proton Inspira vs Kia Forte SX???

Question :
A fellow reader, RallyArtMan wrote that he has been a fan of the Mitsubishi Lancer GT but has not bought into the model as he wasn't keen to be living on a shoestring budget in order to service the higher hire purchase loan. His monthly salary is RM6,800 and he has decided that he could allocate a budget of approximately RM90k for his new car purchase, which has the Kia Forte SX looking as THE better bet.

However, of late, he noticed that of late, there were many "relatively new" units up for sale at between RM85k - RM95k. The Lancer GT is therefore within his hire purchase means, albeit with a higher interest given the used car standing; so he is in a dilemma as to whether he should go for a used Lancer GT now, wait for the Proton Inspira in November 2010 or plunk the deposit down for a spanking new Forte SX.

Answer :
Haha, this feels like an agony aunt but here goes... Dear RallyArtMan, you are indeed in a lil' bit of a fix, albeit a good type of fix. Imagine, just 2 years back, the Lancer GT would not have been in your reach. Just 2 months back, your only logical selection would have been the Forte SX. But today, all three are within your reach; although the Lancer GT is only available used (no difference than new actually, if the adverts that you saw included a 2009/10 model as the unit is essentially less than a year old even!)

I myself was a fan of the Lancer GT when it was first launched, and nearby plonk down the monies for it but I needed a more convincing business car and the Camry became the selected choice then for a lil' bit extra moolah. The Lancer GT still looks like a handsome car even after so many years and still sells in volume all over the world.

Next to a Forte SX, its looks are a lil' bit aged but its Evo X-DNA dictates that it has an aggressive stance even when stationery. A friend whom owned the Lancer GT revealed that he sold off the car a year back because while it looked great, it was slow to pick up OTR and its CVT transmission was relatively costlier to service and was not exactly as sporty as expected. As such, he traded in the Lancer GT for a Mazda 3, and was happy as bird.

Now, the 1 or 2-year old Lancer GT would have made a good purchase at RM85k, provided that the Proton Inspira has not been in the works. With the Inspira in the works, the whole equation would have been totally mixed-up. Here was a CBU Lancer re-badged as Proton, with the local contents in the form of the front and rear bumpers, sports rims and tyres. Make no mistake, it may be selling as a Proton; but the chasis, engine and transmission systems are pure Mitsubishi and brought in from Japan, not made in Tanjung Malim. Heck, it even has Lotus' engineering works in its suspension setup and Continental chipped in to design a tyre that would maximise the Lancer's chasis setup (and these were all not available when it was a genuine thorough-bred Lancer GT). Proton even had the standard foglights on the Inspira taken from MMC's RallyArt division, something that the Lancer GT owners had to upgrade by themselves.

And most importantly, if you are a driver whom have the capability to use a manual transmission, you can essentially go for the Inspira 1.8M, which coupled the bullet-proof 4B10 engine with a 5-speed manual for what-should-be-a-great-driving-experience. All these for just a mere RM80k even!

So if it was me, between a used Lancer GT (RM85k) and a new Inspira 1.8M (RM80k), I would go for the latter and utilise the RM5k savings on upgrades for the Inspira. Read the reviews from many car magazines' journalists and you would realized that most reported that the Inspira is a more inspiring drive compared to the older Lancer GT, as the Inspira is the improved version.

And if you're one of those whom drool after the Evo X looks like many Lancer GT owners, you would be able to transform the looks of your Inspira to a Evo X with that sum of monies, although that may invalidate your warranty.

Then, between the Inspira and Forte SX at sub-RM80k, I would be biased towards the Forte SX as the design board is fresher with nice European curves, and it has more features and specifications (please refer to my earlier postings) compared with the Inspira (which I would assume would assimilate the Lancer GT's, although I could stand corrected in November 2010 when the Inapira's features are known for sure). Throw in the newly-offered 5-years warranty and your purchase of the Forte SX would be a no-brainer decision actually. Or simply hold on to next year for the Kia Koup, the sportier 2-door version of the Forte.

Haha, at the end of the day, you would sleep in the bed you make; so any of the 2 almost-ultimate driving machines ie Proton Inspira or Kia Forte SX, would both be well-worth your monies.

(And if you still hanker over the Lancer GT, wait a few more months after the Inspira is officially launched and the used car pricing should dip even further- much to the owners' aghast!)

5 Years Warranty from 1st October 2010 onwards

Haha, I probably should be asking Naza to pay me a small token of appreciation as I seem to be doing it a favour by my positive updates of Kia Forte at the moment. I now have yet another sale for Naza courtesy of this blog.

 
A FB contact asked me if Kia Forte would make a good car for her as she was keen to trade-in her 10-year old European marque, which demanded for a fair bit of TLC plus the need to make a prayer that it starts in a fuss-free manner everytime before she starts the car. I then asked if she has ever test drove a Forte and she replied in the negative; so I told her that she would best test drive the car  before asking any questions as it's her decision at the end of the day.

Buying a car can be a very personal buying experience, not unlike how one may feel when she buys her first piece of Louis Vutton. (I would know, as my better half enjoys her Louis Vutton bags and all her collections are genuine pieces.)

She thus drove to a nearby Kia showroom, brought the EX and SX for a spin and came back looking confused.

"Why the confused look?", I asked.

Still bewildered, she exclaimed, "It wasn't what I expected a Korean car to feel like, and it doesn't feel like the cheap car that I thought it would be!"

I chuckled and thought of how I felt when I first saw and tested the Forte, especially at the prices that it was selling at then (and now). The only thing that I was slightly concerned then during the decision-making process for my purchase of my SX was that the local warranty was inferior compared to overseas' 5-years warranty. But after further considerations, I decided that a good product like the Forte was still way worth its under-priced price tag so I just succumbed to its charms. I have not looked back since.

The SC informed my friend that all Fortes registered after 1st October 2010 would now come with an unlimited mileage 5-years warranty. I smiled upon hearing that as that means that the Forte would inspire a lot more confidence in potential buyers; as the new 5-years warranty will make the decision-making process a lot easier for potential buyers.

It's just simple economics for Naza- not many cars are going to fail within the warranty period and the extension would have little probabilities of being claimed; so the increase in volume from the warranty mentality would outweigh the warranty cost.

Naza probably needs to make Fortes even more competitive now that the Proton Inspira is out and competing in the same C-segment with similar pricing. So it's just a business decision; not a personal one to fault the earlier purchasers.

Put it this way, if I was given to choose whether to have the 1st batch of 500 units of Korean CBU Fortes with 2 years warranty, as opposed to the current "slightly-CKD" Fortes with 5 years warranty, it makes not much difference to me and I would still be okay with the CBU Forte.

Current Forte owners are said to be able to upgrade their 2 years warranty to another 3 years by paying an additional premium of RM600+, provided that their cars are below 1-year old and mileage less than 30,000 at the point of purchase of additional warranty. Still sounds like a fair deal to me, and I'll be glad to fork out that additional premium to gain the extra 3-years of peace of mind.

With the new 5-years warranty in place, it was practically a no-brainer of a purchase decision and there is now another person in queue for the delivery of her Kia Forte SX.

Forte and City @ Brothers Kelana Jaya

" 'Bang, why is it that you're not interested in dressing up my Forte?", asked my better half in her foreign accent.



I pondered for a moment and realized that she was right. I have been a car lover all my life and would always find ways to dress up my previous rides. With the Iswara, there were so many possibilities. With the Civic, it was Mugen-this and Mugen-that. With the 4WDs, there were so many aftermarket macho add-ons. With the Coop, there were the Abarth-this and Abarth-that.

Yet with the Forte, there had been no interest thus far to dress this lil' miss kimchi up in any ways. "Why was that so?", I wondered aloud. Since this was missus' car, I decided that we could take a little drive to Brothers Kelana Jaya for us to peruse the car accessories there for anything that looks good and befitting.

When we have parked our car, along came a friend in his City i-VTEC whom had came to look for accessories too. He came and looked at our ride and asked which variant was it; to which we informed him that it was the higher-spec SX. We did an impromptu owners comparo- checking each others' rides exterior and interior-wise.

(A very spacious feel)

Both rides costs d in the region of more than RM80k. But the Forte feels bigger and better equipped between the two; and the other mate was especially impressed with the Forte's cool remote control and push start button. Given another choice, he declared that he would have chosen the Forte SX for its specifications; but that the Honda would still rule as it has the VTEC tune, something unique to only the marque.

After the friendly comparo, missus and I went into Brothers to look around. Admist the neon lights and stick-ons and all the rest, I suddenly realized that the reason I had not been shopping around for accessories was because... the Forte looks good enough as it is. There was simply no reasons for me to mess up with its sleek designs internally and externally. Now, that realization was simply priceless.

(Although in all fairness, it could just be that I'm getting into an old fart and growing out of my Import Tuner days ;p)

Question from Reader : Kia Forte SX or Honda City i-VTEC?

I received a fair bit of questions and e-mails (kiafortesx@gmail.com) from my fellow readers vide this blogsite. One of the more prevalent question was for my opinion on a comparison between different makes/marques as opposed to Kia Forte SX. And since the Honda City i-VTEC has surfaced in these recent questions for a few times already, let's take a look at this bread-and-butter model from Honda against the Kia Forte SX.

I have a few friends using the City i-VTEC and I would just state first and foremost that I have been a fan of Honda since ages ago- this can be evident from the fact that I bought into the brand since its Civic EG times of umpteen years back.

 
The current City is a handsome car (especially when compared back-to-back with the previous model)- and it was largely compared to the Transformers autobots when the model was last year.

It is a B-segment car, so you can't quite fault it for its lack of spaciousness against the Forte SX, which is a C-segment car. Even so, its ride and handling is remarkable for its price range (if you preferred a more sporty ride, that is- otherwise, you would find the Toyota Vios for comfortable and forgiving) but it's engine notes are a lil' coarse from the upper-mid revs onwards. That could be due to the lack of grunt being milked from the 1.5 engine coupled with a far-and-wide 5 gear ratios. However, it is a good city runabout and makes value-for-money when it was launched.

I made a few calls and got a City owner to meet me at Brothers for a lil' back-to-back test drive along the LDP and for both to examine each others' models' specifications for a more neutral feedback. He especially loved the remote control unit ("very slick!") and push-start ignition.

(Honda City's key looks bland next to Kia Forte's stylish keyless system)

Overall, it was agreed that the Forte SX beats the City in terms of pick-up, spaciousness, better specifications and driveability; although we were unable to have a consensual agreement on the design (as it was subjective given that beauty is in the eyes of the beholder- as the owner stated, "Your Forte looks nowhere near an Optimus Prime!") and brand snobbishness (I honestly thought that Kia was as good as a Japanese brand these days while he begged to differ).

 (Both displays sporty instrument panels)

That was why, given the RM85k all over again, I would still go for the Kia Forte SX while he would go for his Honda City i-VTEC. That would be a fair game then, as both cars attract its own fans and that is an important element for carmakers to continue improving their own car designs over time. A wasted review and bandwith then, since we failed to come out with a conclusive answer on which among the two is a better buy?

I would say, "No" and it is best that you test drive both cars before you come to your own conclusions. For me, both are good cars although I do think that one is better than the other.

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