2010-12-28

2010-12-28: 3G connection is finally happening on the mobile device

Finally got my 3G connection on my portable Internet device.
My mistake of not turning on the 3G button! Silly me!





Streaming all my favourite stations using Tunein Radio app.

Speedwise, nothing to shout about. With the Celcom 512Kb/s cap, getting such results below is acceptable I guess, but is less than half of what the Canadians would expect. Won't dare to see the comparison with Seoul, South Korea!




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Jalan Tembaga,Kuala Lumpur,Malaysia

2010-10-31

iPad ANTI GLARE Screen Protectors for sale - cheapest in Malaysia

Get your HIGH QUALITY iPad screen protectors here.

You can check out Low Yat, Midvalley stalls selling at RM 60 to 80 each.

Protect your iPads at RM 50 only!

There are other polythene sheets out there which are cheaper, but you will get "GLAD WRAP" quality. Good for covering your leftovers in the fridge!

Bulk discounts for orders of 10 and above negotiable.

CASH on DELIVERY and FACE to FACE transactions in Klang Valley only.
If you are NOT in Klang Valley, get your friend to contact me!
Sorry, no postal / courier services here!

2010-07-20

20100719 Nuke da Duke?

Typical current state of affairs in our transport planning department. Malaysia Boleh all the way. This was the scenario I was stuck in this morning on the Duke highway after I exited from the house at 8am.
Pic 1: toll

Believe it or not, there was a queue. Not surprising, since the 2 million working class tax payers had to join the rat race every morning! But this not just the "tunai" lane, but ALL lanes including the Touch 'N Go lanes. All this crap in the name of proper traffic planning and efficiency! Look at all the suckers priming the cash cow. 2 phuqs per entry per booth. There's 8 booths so u get about 10 phuqs/second since it's not really sophisticated enough to have real time collection like Singapore's ERP or Dubai's 4 dirham toll gantries! Hey, we are not far off, paying half of Dubai and 5x more in car prices with a per capita income of 4x less than them! Great economics at work!
Pic 2
So wutz da fuss

2010-04-17

2010-04-18: PC Fair 1

The annual fest is here again for the 1st tranche in the Klang Valley.

So today is the LAST DAY of this IT Fiesta in our capital

Here are some highlights.
27" Full HD LCD @ RM 1,100
32" Philips Full HD LCD (with USB support for RMVB!!!) @ RM 1,500
56" Philips super duper LCD with 21:9 aspect ratio (only one in the world) @ under RM 20k!
Memory prices not moving much. 8/16Gb thumb drives & SD cards in the RM 50/100 arena. U can imagine the MemStick Pros & CF prices!
HD prices still a bit sticky at about RM 300 for 1 Tb and RM 538 for 2 Tb. Looks like 1.5 Tb is best bang for da buck at RM 365.
800VA UPS for under RM 200
Buffalo 2 bay NAS below RM 300
Dlink has a nice Wifi-n router with 4 port GIGABIT for half da price of Airport Extreme! Woo hoo! Great for connection DROBOs or NAS with GIGABIT! No need eSATA / USB 2 or 3 / FW 800!
Projector prices down to RM 1,500 with free 6*6 manual screens. I know I'm eyeing the Viewsonic with 3D support (Superb! Who need's the baby sized 55" Samsung 3D TV @ over RM 15k?)

The usual suspects were all there:
A to Z PC / Camera brands (Nikon D90 with 18-105 kit plunges to below RM 3,500!)
Lots of DSLR trigger happy dudes snapping all the "booth babes" with the Chinese RPG online gaming ones sporting the best costumes.
Small techie shops, with Thundermatch stealing the limelight this year
All the telcos mashed into the last quadrant at Hall 5, just as u r about to exit.
Don't bother asking about HSBB @ Telekom stall. No difference in deployment. Just wait for 2010Q4 for further progress (Yawn!)

Photos here at PICASA

2009-12-26

20091226: My Birthday blog

OK, yeah, another year has passed. I thank all those who have assisted me in pulling through this tough year, especially for me.
Talking about tough, I went to Jusco Mid Valley to hunt for mumsie's birthday present. I was looking for this GADGET which my mumsie wanted. The price was right too, as it plunged from RM 3xx to RM 2xx now. Problem was it that stocks were diminished and they have not replenished!
Feel unabated, I recalled that Best Denki also sold lots of electrical appliances @ LG. So there I went. Believing that every cloud has a silver lining, I was blessed with that lining, as they had stocks, er STOCK, 'cos I took the LAST one! Better yet, they were also another RM 10 cheaper.
Since there was an Xmas promotion going on, I had to use my Mastercard credit card to amass RM 250 worth before I could redeem a token. So I had to grab a 4 pack of Sanyo's Eneloop AA 2000 mAh batteries, that cost a staggering RM 66!
With the token, I redeemed a nice wine glass, and on top of that, was given a Lancome voucher to redeem extra skincare freebies from the counter within Metrojaya.
Before I met my friend for lunch, I then lugged this gift up to Gardens Club, which provided me FREE gift wrapping. Timing was good, as the scheduled movie at 2pm, would only end just before 5pm.
Thus when all the goodies were left with the Concierge, I then proceeded to ISETAN which provided another freebie, courtesy of UNCA UNUNDA. Yeah, cut out a coupon and redeem a full bottle of Davidoff's ECHO Shower gel, worth > RM 100 (apparently). So there's all the freebies to date.
I went to watch AVATAR in 3D, costing a staggering RM 18. The morning queue was also outstanding. A long line of at least 200 people were in line prior to the box office opening at 10am! Effects were astounding, and it was Dejavu to see James Cameron team up with Supa Mama, Sigourney since the 1st ALIENS day.
Wrapping up in a cocoon incubator, now, doesn't that bring back memories? And all the robots, which are just ALIENS "cut & paste". Easy for ILM and Weta Studios!

In summary, it's LORD of the RINGS, mashed up with ALIENS running about in the Forest of Endor (remember the Ewoks?) killing each other at the end, Terminator style!

2009-12-24

20091224: Xmas eve coffee break reunion


After 25 years, we meet back @ Starbucks, Bangsar Village on Xmas eve.
Yeah, known Bala and Alvin since 1984 from the VI days!
Bala has really moved on, being one of the senior honchos in Posterscope, whilst Alvin is another senior dude @ IBM Singapore.

2009-12-23

Ian Cheong has invited you to Dropbox

We're excited to let you know that Ian Cheong has invited you to Dropbox!

Ian Cheong has been using Dropbox to sync and share files online and across computers, and thought you might want it too.

Visit www.dropbox.com to get started.

- The Dropbox Team

2009-12-07

20091207: Malaysian TV Channels

Finally got the Philips DVD recorder for my relatives to replace the aging Panasonic VCR!
Since blank DVD-RWs are cheaper than Video tapes anyway, so wuddaheck. The SLP recording mode can record up to 6 hours per disc too!
Better still, it has a USB port to plug in a thumb drive or hard disks to watch loads of DVix movies.

However, life still goes on by recording some lame terrestrial programmes over our 6 local TV stations. My relatives are reluctant to line more of Uncle Ununda's coffers, unlike a silly ME!
Thus no Astro & Wah Lai Toi for them!

I then found out that this superb Philips recorder actually scans the frequencies (AND DISPLAYS THEM) during the channel search function in the tuner.

So this is the conclusion for our local television channels. All of them transmit in NICAM stereo now.

VHF Channels 2-12: PAL System B
TV1: 175.25 Mhz
TV2 (started on 17 Nov 1969): 196.25 Mhz

UHF Channels 21-69: PAL System G
TV3: 535.25 Mhz
NTV7: 599.25 Mhz
8TV: 519.25 Mhz
TV9: 639.25 Mhz

More technical details are shown here

Anyone else know of OTHER recorders which display the frequencies?

2009-10-30

20091030: Low Mac and iPod prices

Low price indeed for my "Museum" artefact, just 60 Sing bucks according to the Mac2Sell site.


Even my iPods are valued more.


However, my "ageing" MacBook is still holding on well, garnering > 15x the value of the Cube.
Anybody interested, can email me directly!

2009-10-18

20091017: ASTRO - are we taken for a ride?

After spending 2 months down here in BROKEN BANGLE (aka Gelang Patah) in the southern part of Johor, I've come to learn a few things about public broadcasting.


Johoreans, particularly the southerners along our causeway, spanning from Gelang Patah to Pasir Gudang can attest to ONE FREEBIE, i.e the receipt of Singaporean TV, broadcasted by Mediacorp.


As a layman, I don't conduct many public surveys. However, don't be surprised that if a poll for Astro subscribers was ever conducted down here in this region, I'm quite sure that the numbers won't be that favourable to the bean counters, as compared to the other regions in Malaysia, which are "broadcast deficient".


Why am I being so sarcastic? Do I have anything against our Unca Ununda?

Well, not that because the following programmes are being broadcast FREE OF CHARGE i.e no monthly subscription from Mediacorp, nor that because we are not getting HD broadcasts.


Amazing Race | CSI | Chef in Black | Heroes | Project Runway 6 | Samantha Brown's Passport to China | Survivor Samoa | Smallville


Then there are the 2 new Asian premieres: Flash Forward (You can get the latest season off iTunes Store now) and Legend of the Seeker (excellent series written by Terry Goodkind)


In addition, there is also another channel featuring high quality documentaries to the like of Crime & Investigation, National Geographic and the Discovery Channel. This is OKTO.

In addition to the high quality productions, there are weekend concerts (read: full orchestra & operas) every Saturday and Sunday evening.


So, the time has come to terminate my WAH LAI TOI subscription which is still broadcasting NON-HD programmes, whilst charging the Chinese viewers EXORBITANT rates. Anyone done any analysis?

It's ONLY the Chinese who have to succumb this "financial" torture, even though they constitute less than a quarter of the nation's population. I don't see any premiums imposed upon the Malay and Indian Channels.

My deepest sympathies to the Astro On Demand subscribers! Typically they are the local housewives who are just yearning for the next drama episode, but not the quality of the STANDARD DEFINITION broadcast!


Worse still, channels which are broadcast FOC in ALL OTHER PARTS of the world which can receive DIRECT satellite broadcasts such as BBC and CNN are also CHARGED in the BASIC package.


The Middle East, normally perceived to be backwards in civilisation as compared to the WESTERN world, is another testimonial to all this Astro hoax subscriptions.

In Qatar, satellite dishes are legal. You can purchase the dishes the size of a dining table large enough for a gourmet meal for 10 at Tai Thong, down to the standard KUALI sized parabolic pans we are using.

The set top boxes (STB) are also a dime a dozen. You can get different variations from about RM 150 to RM 1000 from the electronic racks of Carrefour! The cheap ones will allow you to receive all the FREE Satellite channels in the world, known as the FREEVIEW service.

Likewise for Dubai, however, with a slight notch of regulation. The only thing you will pay are the SPORTS telecasts and movie channels! I think that is fair! But not to pay for FREE Channels!


Here in Malaysia, we choose channels with ONE Satellite. In the Mid East, you get to CHOOSE which SATELLITE you want to view, then only do you choose the channels. Replacement transponders cost less than RM 50 each!

Even our decoders are like 2 decades old. Back in 1990, decoders in the UK already had STBs accepting 2 or more subscription cards (Ours has 2 slots, but we only have ONE choice!) To determine how outdated our sets are, there exists the ancient PARALLEL and SERIAL ports in the rear (for those who were pioneer subscribers like me, can attest to this)


I will urge those who have not been to the Mid East, visit Qatar and Dubai to VIEW 1st world nation channels! How many know that there is also FASHION TV Arabia and MTV Arabia, whereby lots of gorgeous Lebanese girls pelt our the latest Arabic hits. I can attest that most of them can outdo Mariah Carey, such as Nancy Ajram. However, Malaysia will NEVER show us MTV Arabia!


Can I find supporters to AXE & Cut off WLT? Just like how P1 Wimax is trying to get the masses to SNIP off STREAMYX?


Those pursuing an Economics course and need material on the subject matter of MONOPOLY, this is a great place to start gathering your thesis material.


Finally, I am still pissed that my favourite FREE channels are not available such as FASHION TV and Channel News Asia.


2009-09-17

20090917: 1 Malaysia 1 Megabit! - Regional broadband speeds

Unbelievable but true, we have come a long way since the modem days. It's now known as NARROWBAND.
For those who have used BBSes prior to the WORLD WIDE WEB back in the early 90s, will know what is meant by BAUD RATE. I think current IT techies would think it's a JURASSIC term.
During my early infancy days of internet in Malaysia, I had the chance of using equipment from a lowly 9600 baud modem, then slowly inching up with 14.4K, then to 28.8, 33.6 and finally 56k modems. Even my Nokia Communicator 9000 managed only a 9.6k connection (at least I received faxes on it, which the current one cannot, however I digress!)
After that, the 128k ISDN era dawned upon us, but resulted as a sunset technology.
Streamyx then entered the market, and from the modem heydays, we finally managed to meet Mr ADSL in the late 90s.
Fast forward till today, our VISION 2020 and HSBB initatives are "trying" their very best to get out of the 1 Megabit threshold, which is quite a norm now. (I still use a 384 to 512 K Streamyx connection at home, just to update my iPod touch RSS feeds, only when my Wiggy fails me!)
Some places get a FASTER 2 Mb and for those who have excess cash can dole out RM 268 for a 4 Megabit line! Boy am I glad I'm getting my 10 Megabit Wiggy for under RM 100 / month!

Then when you travel abroad, you open your eyes. I for one, have friends in neighbouring countries who tell me their fabled stories of their connection. Fabled because it remains as a "fairy tale" to most of us over here in the peninsular.
Just next door, our southern neighbour as whizzed past the maximum threshold of ADSL2+.
What is that, some may ask?
For those technically challenged, you can massage your cranial activity by checking this out, or just to know that current ADSL maxes out at about 8 Mb. ADSL2+ pushes the envelope to 24 Mb!
Now that's fast. But it can get faster!
Our internal office wired networking was just 230Kb (with Appletalk / Localtalk days in the 80s and early 90s). Then Ethernet surfaced with 10-Base-2 with BNC coaxial connectors and then 10-Base-T using twisted pair connections. My NeXT Workstation still uses both of them.
This has then ballooned to 100 Mb, and then 1000 Mb (otherwise known as 1 Gigabit).
Some advanced servers today are having 10 Gbits connectivity already.

Coming back to broadband, would you believe that our neighbours already have a staggering 100 Mb?
To believe it, look at the promotion here from STARHUB Singapore! They have been enjoying this for the past 2 months, albeit, currently from local sites only! At least the local content can really pump out HD movies as highlighted here!
For that amount of money, you are getting the subscription PLUS cable modem and MORE thrown in.
Even with our depreciating ringgit, that translates to RM 213 per month at today's rate of RM 2.45 to the dollar. Pro-rate that. We will be paying just over RM 2 PER Megabit.

And what do we have here? Just jog your memory here.

Incidentally, I also Skyped my buddy in Kowloon, Hong Kong, who informs me that nobody uses Satellite dishes anymore. That's for REMOTE areas (like Kampung) where CABLE technology is difficult. Now you know why Singapore has no use of these unsightly dishes anymore.

There, he was also enjoying 100 Mbits also. To prove that he was not pulling my leg, I requested for a SPEEDTEST.NET screenshot, and here is the EVIDENCE!


FLABBERGASTED? UNBELIEVABLE BUT TRUE!
Even with that performance, they just get a 2.6/5 rating! Should ours be like 0.026/5 since it's 100x slower?

Update: 20090103
2 weeks later, an Oxonian report puts us # 48 out of 66 in a 24 million record poll.

Thankfully I still have the little Wiggy to get jiggy with. Got an all time high of over 8 Mb download yesterday!
Alas, the Mac OS X driver installer dmg is still not out yet after 6 months of its deployment!

2009-09-16

20090916: Samsung phones and cameras!

This is a cute one from the KOREANS.Integrating Analog dials into digital cameras! Check it out here!

Review here!

I dunno why, but this month, I just had a fancy for SAMSUNG, as I just got a great deal on the world's thinnest 3G phone (8.4 mm) with VIDEO CALL (Hello Apple, are u reading this???) that supports Bluetooth and also MicroSD card support (Not SDHC though).

The price, below RM 300! Unbelievable. Lelong still retailing at about RM 500. Here is the phone.

2009-07-14

20090714: Notice of the DEATH of BUBBLESHARE


All good things must come to an end!

My favourite photo sharing site is going down the drain in 3 months from today. They have served their quarter notice today!

The flash animations were the spiffiest and the storage was UNLIMITED.

For those who stil wanna see how they fared over the years, do check them out here. (while they are still around)

My 40 albums since May 2007, will still remain in there till it's deathbed.

However, they will be transported over and posted into my DotMac account soon. The Picasa album is great, but the 1 Gb space limitation isn't!

I guess all the other photo sites like Picasa, Flickr and Facebook have made world domination over the past 2 years.

The following transcript is their eulogy for their own site:

Dear Bubbleshare member –

As of November 15, 2009, Bubbleshare.com will no longer be available and all links to all albums and photos will cease to function (including existing links within emails, blogs, etc). To access your photos in the future you will need to download your photos prior to November 15, 2009.

To save your images to your desktop, simply click the "Download Album" link next to your albums and double click on original photos. Your photos will then be saved to your desktop.

Again, all photos and albums must be removed prior to November 15, 2009. Effective immediately, you will no longer be able to upload any new photos or albums.

We apologize for the inconvenience. It was our pleasure to assist you with your photo sharing needs.
Thank you.

Sincerely,
The
Bubbleshare Team

2009-07-11

20090711 - P1 Wimax remarkable performance!

Unbelievable but true,

Achieved a remarkable 7.9 Mb/s on P1 Wimax this morning! Evidence below!

Click on image for larger version.

No wonder those 90 - 100 Mb Harry Potter HD trailers downloaded so quickly!

2009-07-05

20090704: Dinner chaos @ Dome, KLCC due to digital disaster

This is my first time dining @ Dome, KLCC. Not really a fanboy of RM 4 water bottles, and RM 25 meals, which can be obtained easily for half the price. But hey, you are paying premium for the location and ambience. Soothing chill-out tunes could be heard throughout the evening.
Seating was comfy, with ample plug points underneath the cubicle settee to charge your netbook, tethered to the internet via Michael LAI's free Wireless@KL Wifi service!

So much for chilling out for dinner @ Dome, KLCC to take advantage of Nazir's CIMB points redemption promotion, until a SERIOUS technical glitch occured!

I had no choice but to draft a complaint to CIMB via their web response portal.

The transcript is as follows:
I was dining @ Dome, KLCC last night (Sat) to try out your promotion for points redemption. I checked my status prior to dinner, which had more than sufficient to cover the dinner. When I paid at 945pm, the manager return to say that the redemption was rejected, after a few trials. I then called customer service, and she told me that the system is DOWN after 10pm. As a life long customer (as your cards are free for life), I find this really UNACCEPTABLE and I put CIMB fully accountable and responsible for this SERIOUS error and oversight. I was so embarassed in front of my international guests, thinking that my credit limit is barred. In fact, it was all due to your computer system. There is NO mention whatsover of such a technical LIMITATION in any of your promotion literature. As a result, I had NO choice but to pay the full amount. I would expect a full written explanation to this matter, and please suggest a means of appeasing your customer, to ensure continued support for your banking services.

Well, let's see what's their response is next week!

CAVEAT EMPTOR or start washing dishes, if u truly depend on dining with the card only

At least, upon departure, I get my MELIUM Contest vouchers! Here's to good luck for a wardrobe makeover!

2009-06-27

20090627: Continental Test Drives

Phew, my First Aid test finished earlier than I thought! That leaves my Saturday afternoon free for something pressing in my TO DO LIST!

AUDI 1.8 T (RM 250k) | UK: 24,200
Finally get to visit the Audi showroom in Glenmarie.
Was met by this 4-eyed salesgirl, who kinda made the entire Audi experience totally embarrassing to say the least. Virtually every answer to my question was "I don't know?" Did she just "graduate" from government departments?
And to make matters worse, her name card had "liquid paper" over another person's name! Sheesh, talk about LOW QUALITY!
Anyway the Audi A4 was under the spotlight here. Nothing much to shout about. Just a 1.8 litre car, OVER RM 200k! I think my brain is overheating and my IQ is faltering here! Yeah, so it's turbocharged. Big deal! Isn't the Lancer GT also FULLY IMPORTED and is cheaper too? And if you are thinking TRANSPORTER 3, forget it! Not an A8 in sight. Just a basic A6 in the front of the showroom, with a new TT in the rear. There wasn't even a Q5 for show! Unbelievable!

Pros: Rear arm rest with cup holders, radio indicator in dash LCD, stereo kit with bluetooth support (Exora also got!).
Cons: Rear seats cannot fold. No Ski hole. LCD has NO GPS function! You are paying about RM 100k in taxes! Yeah!

Only good news is that the 2.0 Turbo variant will be later this year!

ALFA ROMEO 159 2.2 litre "GUILIA" (RM 188k) | UK: 24,650
Popped over to another Sime Darby outlet, this time to the new Alfa showroom in Section 14.
Very good service here. Young chap knows his stuff. Twin injector pumps vs single pumps!
Tested the Alfa 159, which is FULLY imported (CBU) from Italy, and CHEAPER than a LOCALLY ASSEMBLED (CKD) BMW 3 series! Sorry, I almost failed my Economics, thus I really can't explain this phenomenon!

Pros: Sunroof! Yeah! Skihole in rear centre seat, folding wing mirrors, auto anti-glare, non eed for separate engine start/stop button. Just press the ignition key! Unlimited mileage warranty
Cons: First to 2nd gear shift a bit jerky. Have to get used to this! Only 2 year warranty. Low headroom for rear passengers. No centre LCD

The sales dude did mention that a forthcoming promotion is underway, with the inclusion of a Bluetooth enabled GPS with Wide screen LCD and a wireless reverse camera support

2009-06-26

20090626 - Wiggy Firmware Update Chaos

Darn,
Updated the Wiggy modem firmware today!

And ALL the connection logs and statistics were wiped out without warning!

Email sent to Michael Lai's complaint department!

Furthermore, the Mac OS X drivers and updaters are still UNRESOLVED!

Wussumatter with these programmers?
Let's see what develops!

2009-05-31

20090530: Jaya Demolition collapse - news from the ground

As a construction engineer, I was really intrigued by this occurrence. Alas, your freelance reporter on foot caught these on Saturday afternoon.

    YOU can view all the 4 Mb at the Picasa Web Gallery here

The shots are taken from GROUND level and you can see that many spectators are having a grandstand view from their balconies!


SOME BACKGROUND HISTORY
The original contractor who constructed the building which is NOW listed on our BURSA Malaysia, never intended for the structure to be occupied with heavy machinery on its roof top.

Each of those excavators weigh anything from about 30 tonnes each. So do the math!

As comparison, a small car weighs about 1 to 2 tonnes only!

From reliable sources and eye-witnesses (familiar with the construction industry) who were present in the vicinity a few days before the account (patronising Digital Mall), they too, looked worried when they saw huge excavators beginning to demolish the building FROM the top WHILST the bottom was also being dismantled manually. Is this a sign of NEGLIGENCE here?

What ought to have occured as a quick and swift operation, as those seen in professional American demolition works (where the whole building can come down safely within minutes) was once again MUCH delayed! Apparently the professional demolition contractors were already specified and pre-qualified (investigators can check with the contractor on this!) but were finally given the rejection by the local government, as they were prohibited from bringing in their own explosives.

Thus the other option was to PURCHASE the explosives from local sources. However to due to APPARENT reasons (beyond the scope of this blog) whose news was "politically linked" last year, the option to purchase the equipment local was ALSO prohibited.

So, if bring in ALSO cannot and BUY locally ALSO cannot, what to do next? Well, have to resort back to CAVEMAN methods and hack down the whole building lah!

But with our "stringent" safety guidelines, this is the result to be seen!

However the news as of today (SUNDAY), many residents have been requested to evacuate and will stay in a nearby hotel fully subsidized by the contractor (I doubt they'd pay for PJ Hilton!). On top of that, they are to get a RM 150 per diem, just enough to cover basic meals for a small family.

2009-05-21

20090521: HONDA MALAYSIA Quality issues on Wheel Hub Bearing

I've driven a few cars in Malaysia: These are paid with hard earned salary though.

1983 Honda Quintet, Japan, CBU MANUAL - SOLD, STOLEN
1990 BMW 318i, E30, Germany, CKD MANUAL - SOLD, TRADE-IN
1995 Nissan X-trail 2.0, Japan, CKD AUTO - SOLD, TRADE-IN
2004 Hyundai Accent, Korea, CKD AUTO - ACTIVE

So far, touch wood, none of them have had any major problems.
I did change a fuel pump for the Beemer which was thrashed for over 200,000km over it's 10 years life span, and that cost me just under RM 1k!

Apart from that, it's just the basic oil change and servicing.

Then comes along good old HONDA CITY.

Yeah, this belongs to da missus.
2004 HONDA CITY, Japan, CKD, ACTIVE

So far it's clocked just over 65,000km and noises started appearing.
Upon inspection at the service centre, they first diagnosed it as something "from the engine".
So they proceeded to "fix" the problem.
Of course with their "educated" guess, all was NOT WELL!
So the second round, they put their ears to the floor and then found out it was the WHEEL BEARINGS?

WHEEL BEARINGS? Made of what? High Density plastic? Just after 65,000km and you have SEVERE wear and tear? Unbelievable!

After some checks on line, our INDIAN counterparts have suffered similar problems, even at LOWER mileage, around 30-35,000 km as attested here!
In fact, a quick check with my regular mechanic showed that he's even changed some with just about 25,000km on the clock!

So much for quality control. But the worst part is the PRICE: About RM 500 each. Quite close to the 6,000 rupees in India! (Actual price was RM 569.39 less 15% = 483.98!)
The part number changed was 42200-SAA G51.
More expensinve in EUROPE @ 190 Euros! Can buy from here or here too!
(An alternative site had similar ones bearing the number 42200-R3-A06, no pun intended!)

So for you NEW Honda City fellas who are paying about RM 40,000 PREMIUM for the car, please be beware!

2009-04-27

New BMW Z4 - E89

The new Beemer Z4.




Explore the American dream here if u have a spare USD$ 50k and above!

Production has been moved back to Germany from USA!

Blend automotive pleasure with divine expressionism in art here.

You can download the App from the iTunes Store for your iPhone or iPod Touch too!

Posted with LifeCast