summer showers

I had a wonderful experience recently. Washing the car in the rain.

You know those light drizzles? Holding your umbrella in one hand and the scrub in the other? That's my alien looking scrubber I bought for my car by the way. And if you're wondering, yes, it does make me feel cool while cleaning the Uncleanable.

(I really wanted to name it something attractive like Denzel or Mr T or Chubby Mc Chubby... but looks like it really is the Uncleanable)

I don't really remember what's my point. But I'm happy to report that I am now officially obsessed with cleaning even the slightest bit of dirt from it. It's almost like I'm reading from the car bible - love thy car as thyself. Which if you haven't heard, I just made it up.

car number two, kelisa

It was a bright sunny morning when I woke up to see, sitting on my front porch, a purple Perodua Kelisa. That was 4 years before I got it from my mom as a replacement for the Kancil.

It was a really good car, but with age catching up, it was better for me to replace it this year. I think it looked so much more better when I was driving it (hah!)

So to end my week of automotive posts, I dolled up the Kelisa and took it for one last ride around town. And of course, one last photoshoot to remember it by.

Goodbye Barney on wheels, its like I hardly got to know you.

Perodua Kelisa, 2006 - 2008

memories, first car

From the very revy manual gear to the aircond that only has 2 levels, soft and really loud.... I loved this car. It was my first and it's what people call a "practice car". The kinda car that has to take all the crap from his punk ass owner. But apart from a major accident which happened in the first 7 days, I think I did a pretty good job being a P driver.

The blue paint was repainted just weeks before selling off the car, the manual stick always made a loud "krraaakkk" and the center panel was way ahead of it's time.

This car saw me through my first relationship, brought me on my numerous outstation trips and had fetched tons of people for YouthAflame. It was an awesome time.

Perodua Kancil, 2003 - 2006

malaysian drivers

A couple of idiotic-ness that I abslutely need to highlight. Not that I really want people to know what I've been going through this whole week, but rather I want a select group of people in this world to realize that they really, should, just go to hell.

The Touch & Go Retard
You know why they have long lines at the Touch & Go lanes. It totally defeats the purpose of having a Touch & Go lane if I have to wait while 20 cars pass me by smoothly in the cash lane before I can even reach the bloody booth.

It's because of the idiot that doesn't check his card's blance!

He keeps waving his card in front of the detector while the "baki kad anda tidak mencukupi" sign keeps flashing on the board in front of him. He presses the intercom but then we have to wait for the attendent to walk from the other side of the world to come and settle this retard's problem.

Why?? Why can't you just reload your card? If you keep forgetting, just use cash!

Don't get me started on old ladies who wait to reach the booth, wind down the window, search for their card all over the car, find it, tut tut, puts it back into their purse, look at the mirror, apply a new layer of lipstick, thennnn leave! My God, why don't you just go into labour while you're at it? Or how about do some online banking and investments?

The Never-See-Before-Reversing Champion
You know you're in trouble when you see a big, black, expensive car in front of you... and the driver inside is some chick who is wearing sunglasses in the middle of the night, or a middle age Chinese "tai lo" wannabe that has the stupidest hair from God knows which era.

Am I generalizing too much here? No.

Seriously, these kind of drivers are the ones who just reverse without looking - not slowly and carefully - more like "When reversing, we should jam on the accelerator. It's the only thing to do riiigghhttt??"

2 incidences this week. One BMW with a girl trying to put her parking ticket into the machine but it wasn't working. So the only logical thing for her (I'm guessing) was just to slam on the reverse like all the 10 cars behind you is going to fantagically make way for your huge ass. I honked like hell! No bump, I was lucky.

2nd one, not so lucky. I was trying to do a U-Turn and I landed behind this black Vios. He wasn't parked properly, but with his butt coming out into the road if you can imagine. So I was going to reverse to complete the U-Turn and get out of there when SUDDENLY his reverse lights came on and his car flew backwards hitting into mine! He basically went from N to R and stepped on the pedal without even looking. And if you can't see a purple Kelisa, you must be really blind. It's like fracking Barney on wheels.

It wasn't serious. But it was a bump. I quickly reversed and moved my car to the side. He looked at me and showed me the finger and shit from inside, with his whole family. Which brings me to....

The Ones You Would Love To See Dead In An Accident
Why do older men always think they're right? Is it because they need to compensate for their shrinking manhood? Or that they really have no brains? Was it because they're Dad whacked them to bits when they were younger, fracturing the part of their brain required to function like a proper human being? I don't know. But I do know that there are loads of people like this.

You are the bane of human existence. Please realize that you are not the law and you are not always right. No, having a bigger car than me doesn't make you more righter. Neither does your stinking old age make any difference. If you're wrong, you're wrong.

The Honda Accord at Marine Bay, Singapore

I spent the whole weekend down here. Got to see my grandfather turn 82, despite not looking his age at all. He looks 60+ at best. I have lots more pictures to share, but for now, a picture I took before the dinner on Saturday.

The Numbers Speak For Themselves, Proton Super Confident Now

There are over 8,000 bookings and 2,000 prebooking(!) for the Persona based on Paul Tan's report. That's 8,000 people who likes what they are seeing and 2,000 people who really really trusted Proton (maybe employees? haha.. don't quote me ok, k-i-d-d-i-n-g only). And if you do click on the report, you'll be able to see a quote from Proton's MD being all pr-ish.

I just want to say this: if I never saw the Gen2 before, the Persona would look pretty good to me. It has good, strong, muscley looks (yeah, even in person) and hey, its freaking affordable for 1.6l car. BUT, because I know what a Gen2 is and how it looks like, the Persona just looks likes a Gen2 with a saggy butt. And I'm trying my uber best not to be mean here.

After looking at this car in the flesh, I don't think of it as a joke anymore, I take that back. I just think that Proton could've done better in differentiating its looks from its older brother, the Gen2.

p.s. and what's up with their pricing? every car in their lineup now has price points all over the place. Waja is around 50-60k and has almost the same specs with the Persona if I'm not mistaken. Not to mention that the Gen2 now is right in the middle of these two. Thank God I'm not in the market for a car now. I would have one hell of a time deciding, and I'm already very indecisive even in a food court.

p.s.2 I didn't know that a Saga replacement model was on the way until I read this:the BLM. I just love all these spy shots, and the coolest part? they usually turn up to be pretty accurate.

After All The Teasing, Its Finally Out

The punchline to the joke that is Proton

I'm using a very nice, stylized press picture of the Proton Persona so that my blog doesn't look like crap. If you do see the car in person, you'll know that the real car looks nothing like this. I usually don't write about cars, so I'll leave you with a couple of links to more pictures (or rather, real pictures of the car) and early impressions from much better sources.

Paul Tan's test drive
Zero to Hundred coverage on the launch day