Category Archives: Personal input

Dream it Build it Written Form

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I want to teach my kids to dream
To dream the impossible dreams
So one day they can realize it
Even if they cannot reach it
They will never be left with nothing

If one day I left this world
I will leave it with a smile on my face
Just knowing that they have
Already on the path to achieving their dream

One day maybe if I’m lucky enough
To witness my children realized their dream
I want to lay back and asked how is the journey
Because my journey
Because my dream
Is so that my children can achieve their dreams

Driving The Hotness – Honda Freed 3258 Km Later

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*photos coming next

Driving the Freed is very nice, but emphasis on the word nice. It’s not great, the seat could use more bolster, the steer only tilts not telescopic and the driver seat only has reclining and sliding adjustment, no seat height adjustment. At first I thought it’s going to be hell for me to find perfect seat position… In fact, I was ready to visit my masseur on monthly basis… But I was wrong dead period. The seat is already raised and the steering wheel already extended nicely towards the driver. During my time driving, I can slide my seat back and forth without compromising too much of my comfort, especially during all seat occupied scenario and some tall guy seats behind me (the driver). So yeah, love the seat even though I can’t tell for every person out thfere since the seat perfect for me but maybe not for the fickle who wanted to get a low driving position.

The Freed has a commanding view of the road thanks to its raised seat position, as such, view of the road is great and the slanted angle front windshield makes turning view less obstructed than a car with high angle a-pillar *cough*SX-4*cough*. 3258 Kilometers later, my love for the driving position is reminded over and over again every time I drive this car. The a-pillar angle is very slanted thus view angle through the a-pillar is satisfying as the port windshield is large enough while the thickness of the frame is acceptable. Rear view is acceptable as the rear window frame is quite thick, but changing lane is still good since you can take a look through the rear passenger window which is quite big.

Driving the car, I don’t feel that the Freed is big and lumbering, in fact I found it a little bit nimble, too nimble even. The steering ratio is a bit low making the steer a tad light, so any movement is translated in gusto to wheel movement, making the car easy to maneuver in tight spot and making less than buff driver able to steer the car effortlessly.

Power came from a revised 1.5L i-VTEC engine from the famous L-series that powers the millions of Honda Jazz/Fit around the world (2 millions since last counted by Honda in 2007) which now powers the second generation Jazz/Fit and the new City. The car has a high strung characteristic as it achieves its maximum power of 118ps at 6600 RPM, something that is not liked for the majority of family hauler buyers. In my daily drives, I indeed need to wind the engine up to about 4000 RPM to get significant push when trying to overtake on highway or city driving. But this is the characteristic of the engine; Honda engines needs to be pushed to its limit because it can, and because it likes it (naughty wink). Coupled that with eager to downshift automatic gearbox, I generally do not have any problem with how the engine delivers it powers.

One thing to note about the gearbox is that although it has 5 gears, when the gear downshifts it only selects one gear down from the highest selected gear. So when you’re on the 5th gear and hit the pedal, you’ll get 4th gear and slight hum from the engine, quite annoying on high speed. If you still want to force the gearbox to shift two gears down, you need to press on the gas pedal for about 3 seconds or so. You will feel the gearbox selects lower gear by the higher RPMs and then it will selects yet a lower gear when you wait enough. So for whatever reason you need to go fast and furious, you want to press the D3 button (at whatever speed) and hit the gas from there to downshift. Still, Honda designs this car for efficiency so driving fast and furious is out of the question.

Talking about efficiency, the Freed has plenty of it. The significant contributor for Freed’s efficiency is definitely its 5 speed automatic gearbox. The fifth gear on the car allows for a second overdrive gear which allows the wheels spun much faster than the engine, increasing its efficiency… It’s funny when people still thinks that overdrive is some kind of a term to make the car goes faster.

How efficient the car can go? Driving alone I once hit 21.9 Kilometers per liter or 51.5 MPG (US) on highway at average speed of 60 Kilometers per hour… Well, I might violate the minimum speed which is 70 KpH, and I employ slight hypermiling techniques (tip toeing and coasting, a/c on though) but I get 21.9 KpL, so shove it government, you and your crazy tax for hybrids. Still, it’’s a bit cheating, and generally I get about 15-16 KpL or 35 MPG (US) on the highway with speeds ranging from 90 KpH to 100 KpH, with about 4 adults cut that by half a Kilometer per Liter.  Still a respectable number.

On inner city traffic… Well, it’s a different story… My trips around the city involves mad traffic, and when I say mad, I mean 50% of the time I’m on the road, the car doesn’t move and average speed is about 20 KpH. So at best, I can only managed 8.5 KpL or 19.9 MPG (US) for inner city driving. I can push it up a notch or two to 8.7 KpL or 9.0 KpL by turning off the A/C, but in this weather… You’ll smell funny before you hit 9.0 KpL. Off course there’s the occasional sane traffic where I can get up to 11-12 KpL average, but it’s few and far between the crazy traffic, and that number was achieved averaging the time I got stuck in crazy traffic, could get better but it’s not the norm.

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Coming up next, comfort and utility write up

Honda Fit/Jazz Hybrid Official Pictures And Some Facts (plus estimated price)

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The MOST anticipated entry level hybrid from Honda is coming in hot and Autocar jumped the gun on the media embargo and present the Jazz Hybrid to be unveiled at Paris Motor Show next month. Please visit Autocar website for better resolution pictures of the car here. You can also check at your other favorite auto blogs or online automotive news about the Jazz hybrid.

As you can see, the difference is merely cosmetics, different grill, bumper and blue shaded headlights differentiating the regular and the hybrid Fit. The rear also receives similar cosmetic changes with clear taillights, accented bumper and chrome accented trunk garnish.

Without the hybrid plaque on the rear, you will surely miss this hybrid on the road… Which is good, because you don’t want to attract attention to criminals whose MO is to puncture your tire with a hollow nail and rob you silly (because you don’t have spare tire).

It has been confirmed that the Fit/Jazz hybrid will be sporting the same engine used on the Insight 2.0, a 1.3L i-VTEC with IMA producing around 100ps. Interior pictures are still kept secret from Honda, but words are circulating that the Fit/Jazz Hybrid will have single color dashboard and blue lit dials. You can check out my entry about Honda Insight engine here, but for peace of mind sake, I’ll divulge a bit about the heart of Honda hybrid system.

Honda hybrid system or Integrated Motor Assist (IMA) is a simple system where an electric motor is sandwiched between the internal combustion motor and the driving wheel, in Honda case it’s always the front wheel to date. Back when it was introduced with the 2000 Honda Insight, the IMA doesn’t have the ability to purely run on electric motor. However, when the Insight 2.0 launched early last year, the IMA system was updated to purely run on electric motor albeit with a very strict condition… Steady cruise speed without any inclination… Any degree of inclination, then the motor kicks in again. Still good anyway.

A cut out of Honda IMA system, notice how the engine’s width is very narrow

Honda called its hybrid system IMA for a good reason, it simply “assists” the internal combustion engine at low speed and when the car is accelerating fast. A good thing because the nature of electric motor to produce maximum torque at just 1000 RPM means the engine doesn’t have to burn unnecessary excessive fuel to launch the car at stop and go driving. The IMA also acts as a starter motor because the whole engine has the ability to be turned off at idle (traffic lights) automatically and restarts at the press of the gas pedal.

To produce electricity, the IMA system itself is a cylindrical generator system that spins with the internal combustion engine. At steady speed, the IMA recharge the battery and when there’s a forward movement usually caused by braking the IMA also captures this momentum to spin the generator the opposite way and producing electricity.

A complete Honda IMA engine + transmission, the IMA system is marked yellow at the bottom picture

Something to note is that Honda engineers can’t magically insert an IMA system to an existing engine *snap* like that. The IMA takes considerable space inside the engine bay, therefore something got to give and it’s usually the engine that gets the shorter end of the straw. Honda hybrid system uses a specifically designed narrow engine to allow the placement of the IMA system next to the gearbox.

Now for the million Pesos/Ringgit/Sing Dollar/Rupiah/Baht/Dong question for us Asia Pacific residents… Will we get it? We don’t get the Insight, the CR-Z and the Civic Hybrid costs an arm and a leg. Are we getting the cream again instead of a bite of the cake? Not quite! We’ve seen the almost miraculous Honda Freed launched in the Asia Pacific, exclusive even outside of Japan… And why? Because the Freed is produced in the Asia Pacific region to gain advantage of AFTA. The Fit/Jazz has been produced in Indonesia for quite sometime, so you see where I’m going, it’s too easy for Honda to just import the hybrid engine and assembled it in Indonesia and imports it to other country in ASEAN. If this is inline with Honda global plan to be the leading automaker of hybrids (it’s in the CEO midyear speech which I’m going to cover soon), then, we will see a near simultaneous release of the Fit hybrid all over the world; Europe, America, Australia and Asia.

So when? The Fit hybrid in Europe will be announced at the Paris Motor Show next month and launched early 2011, in the United States it’s still unconfirmed but it will be there around 2011 as 2012 model, nope, it’s totally unconfirmed. The United States might even missed the hybrid Fit/Jazz totally… A bit of a “huh” moment, because the Europeans will get it although they already has the Insight 2.0 just like the Americans. On the other side of the world, Japan’s Nikkei confirmed that the Fit hybrid will be launched around Fall in Japan. Using Freed’s launch time frame, then it’s just a matter of 1 to 1.5 years before us ASEANs can drive a genuine affordable hybrid courtesy of Honda. So expect the Fit/Jazz hybrid to announced at the end of 2011 and available at the latest early 2012 in ASEAN.

How much? Now this is the interesting part… Because of difference in currency and taxes, I’m just going to use Indonesia expected price and price estimate slot, which will be universal. Honda Jazz RS in Indonesia is priced at Rp. 222 Million (2 Million Yen) while the Japanese Fit RS is priced at 1.69 Million Yen, specs are the same except we use 5AT instead of CVT, price difference between both automatic transmission should be negligible. The Freed in Indonesia is priced at Rp. 258 Million (2.4 Million Yen) while the same Freed is priced at 1.99 Million Yen in Japan, again specs are the same (digital AC control & power retractable mirror just recently added), except for the use of 5AT instead of CVT and the lack of HID.

Let’s do a simple math, now both the Fit/Jazz RS and the Freed in Indonesia reflects a 18 & 20% mark up in price compared with its Japanese brothers, let’s take 20% as our baseline number. Now let’s take Nikkei’s reported Fit hybrid price which starts at  a cool 1.59 Million Yen, in Indonesia, the Jazz hybrid will be priced starting at Rp. 202 Million… Now I suspect that it will be a manual version, so add the usual 10-14 Million for an automatic version, and voila! The estimated Honda Jazz hybrid automatic will be offered in Indonesia for around Rp. 216 Million (roughly US$22K), hell! Round that up to Rp. 220 Million and people will still buy it! Now let’s say Honda decided to go greedy or wanted to add the RS trim to the Jazz hybrid. In Indonesia, the Jazz RS commands Rp. 13 Million more than the baseline Jazz, so added to the baseline Jazz hybrid, the Jazz hybrid RS will still worth Rp. 229 Million… And that my friends are something totally purchasable.

If, and this is just another silly if from me… If Honda wanted to play “screw you all, this is the first commercially affordable hybrid in ASEAN, I’m putting price premium to you suckers!”, the Jazz hybrid will still be below Freed’s price  or at the very least, the same. Still, I’m buying one if I don’t have any car by that time. The Jazz hybrid reported fuel consumption is 26 Km/L or 61 MPG (US), but I suspect it’s just highway number. For inner city driving, I expect that number to drop to half at 13 Km/L or 30,5 MPG (US)… Again, that number is already phenomenal, my 1.5L SX4 automatic only manages an average of 8,4 Km/L or 19,7 MPG (US) for pure inner city driving.

Personally, I’m betting that the Jazz hybrid price range will be around Rp. 220 Million to Rp. 230 Million. It will be priced at Jazz RS level, and complement each other. One you pay premium for exhilarating drive and the other if you are down with the earth and stuff. Tax wise, the car wouldn’t be a luxury import because it is based on an existing car… So if there’s any different tax imposed, I’m really speechless.

Update: 26 August 2010 – more info from other online media

Source:

Autocar.co.uk: Honda launches new Jazz hybrid

The car connection: Honda Jazz hybrid will start a price war

Electric vehicles: Forward to the past

Honda Insight is Hout!

EGMcarTech: Jazz Hybrid Unveiled, No US Plans

Electric Vehicles: Forward To The Past!

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We can’t ignore it anymore, alternative fueled cars are in desperate needs in the not so distant future. With mother earth’s limited oil supply, we are going to  see a steep oil price increase again once the economy has recover. Honda and Toyota effort of introducing hybrid technology in cars are still wayward in term of reception by the consumers… Mostly because of the price, but mostly because it’s still uses fuel. Logically speaking, rather than spending a US$20K  (in the United States) to buy a Honda Insight, most people can just do purchasing a Fit for US$5K less, and use that US$5K to fuel the car for years to come.

Let’s look back home here in Indonesia. Honda Civic Hybrid and Toyota Prius can be had for… Prepare… Rp. 500 Million or roughly US$50K!!! That’s more than twice the price of Yaris or Fit/Jazz! The Yaris can be had for Rp. 200 Million (US$20K), and the Fit/Jazz can be had for 220 Million (US$22K)… Let’s all relax and make a very simple calculation here…

You want me? Pay me…

My SX4 consumes around 1 Liter for 9 Kilometer (21 US MPG) of full inner city driving. With fuel price (grade 92) is hovering steady at Rp. 6500 (US$ 0.65) per Liter, I pay around Rp 300.000,00 (US$30) per week, and totaling Rp. 1.2 Million (US$ 120) per month. Considering that fuel prices might gone up in the next months because of recovering world economy, I might just bloat the number to 1.5 or Rp 1.8 Million (US$ 180) per month. Then, considering people uses a car up to 4 years (or until their lease is up), I’m  going to multiply my monthly fuel costs by 4 years (given I work somewhere near my old office, even then, 1:9 is already astronomically low)… And voila! I have to pay around Rp 108 Million (US$1008). Do mind I got the car for Rp 169 Million (US$16900), combined with 4 years of fuel, my operational and initial cost of ownership of my car is a measly Rp 277 Million (US$27700), still far less than buying a hybrid in Indonesia. So it goes to say, it’s silly to buy a hybrid, at least in Indonesia. Most people didn’t know this, they just arrogantly purchase the car to say they help the environment or crap… They certainly help made Honda and Toyota wallet grew thicker along the process.

Cheaper to own and fuel for 4 years than a hybrid… Figure it out yourself

Still though, price aside, Hybrids do return insane amount of fuel economy. Then again, it still rely on fuel… So it cannot have the “car of the future” title. One of the most hype alternative energy nowadays is the revival of electric vehicles. You take a hybrid, and lop off the internal combustion engine. Make the car plugable to any existing electrical terminal and voila! Electric cars.

Chevrolet Volt leads the way in this field. Volt is the first full electric vehicle with the biggest twist in the story as any M. Night Shyamalan movies. It is through and through an electric vehicle… But wait! It also has an internal combustion engine… Err… What’s an internal combustion engine doing in an electric vehicle? Ha! Told you it has a twist. The internal combustion engine is not called an engine because it doesn’t the drive the car, instead, it’s a generator that burns fuel to recharge the battery that propels the Volt electric engine. Crazy science! Thus, the car’s battery can be recharged through traditional home outlet, or it can be recharge along the way with its fuel burning generator.

Chevrolet claims 230 MPG or 1 Liter for 97 Kilometers for the car using US EPA estimate. Obscenely fantastic figure. But then, the Internet and automotive in general came with an uproar for the claim. Frankly I find it misleading too. Volt electric engine uses electricity (d’oh) which doesn’t equal to EPA measurement which measures a car’s fuel consumption using fuel. When the Volt is fully charged, it uses no fuel whatsoever, until the battery charge is at 30%, then the generator kicks in and recharge the battery. With that said, Chevrolet should just mention the range of the car using fully charged battery and full tank not the fuel consumption. But still, Chevrolet has the right to call the 230 MPG claim because the car after all consumes fuel (if needed), at least not as preposterous as our next subject…

A smirk of truth

Enter Nissan Leaf, a fully deck through and through electric car. It doesn’t have a generator built in like the Volt… And you know what? Nissan claims 367 MPG or 1 Liter for 156 Kilometers… Atrociously misleading for me. The car is an electric car and doesn’t use any fuel whatsoever, so why does there’s a fuel consumption estimate there? It’s just wrong. Some people (probably a Nissan fan) argue that the claim is right. You take into account the KwH to charge the car, convert it into energy equivalent of fuel and other miscellaneous number crunching few knew. Bill Ford, executive chairman of Ford motor company even had a say on this fiasco. He say that the rating is meaningless and “this question devolves into madness”. Madness…

Blue madness

I call this whole Electric Vehicle phenomenon as silly. Because before the Internet was a hit in the late 90s, Honda, Toyota , Ford and even GM already had Electric Cars back in 1997 in the States. Honda EV+, Toyota Rav4-EV, Ford Ranger EV and GM EV1 was at that time the pinnacle of electric cars breakthrough. The cars wasn’t made public, rather it’s available as a special lease for very special people (and rich people) in America. The cost of lease ranged from US$399 to US$599 monthly, a very pricey lease indeed. However, like Nissan Leaf, the cars have an average of 100 Miles of range… And that’s 12 years ago (does Nissan improves anything except adding another set of door on the Leaf?).

This dinky car served as Honda advanced future projects

However, America was only graced by the might of electric cars for just a short while… Shorter still than even Honda lease plan of three years. Introduced in 1997, Honda EV+ was canceled by 1999 to be replaced by first generation Insight. But the true story behind it was far more darker.

According to HondaEV website, there’s political force in play shutting down all oil independent cars in production. Back then, the amount of battery needed to solely power electric cars are a lot, and there’s only one specific battery that is capable to power these cars, and it’s called Toyota-Panasonic EV95. General Motors, back in 1994 bought the patent rights to these batteries, and with single low blow in 2000 sell the rights to Texaco, that’s right A FREAKING OIL COMPANY… GM sell alternative energy technology to a company that sells mainstream energy… Good work GM. The next move by Texaco for these oil free cars are to off course, SUE Toyota-Panasonic for the batteries, and Honda EV+ is floating around without a battery. A quote from HondaEV site couldn’t be more heartbreaking for electric car fans…

On Oct. 10, 2000, GM sold control of the patent rights needed for the EV-95 batteries to Texaco. On Oct. 16, Texaco announced it would merge into Chevron (Standard Oil). The next year, Chevron funded a lawsuit against Toyota-Panasonic et al., and the battery production line for the EV-95 batteries was halted.

Toyota paid $30,000,000 and received the right to make small batteries for the Prius, too small to plug in. Toyota shamefully made a virtue of its defeat by bragging that the Prius could not be plugged in. In reality, it was a great disgrace for Toyota to have to bow and scrape to Chevron’s unit that controlled the patents.

The HondaEV suddenly had no battery, no more could be made or sold.

Honda EV+ was left without any battery, and Toyota bows down to the pressure, making the Prius without any ability to be powered by the battery alone even after US$30 Million settlement. So folks, this is why your beloved Prius cannot operate in full battery mode, politics, not technological limit.

There’s also another barrier for entry on these electric cars, and that’s price. Back in 1997, Honda EV+ was unofficially priced at US$53900 (based on calculation of lease). Probably because it was a limited production model, as only 300 or so models produced. Still, it’s 1997 and US$53900 is nothing to sneezed at, times inflation, today the EV+ would costs around US$72000 (US Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator). Now, Nissan hasn’t disclosed any price yet for its Leaf electric car… But do they have the technology to mass produce cheap electric technology? The thing is, battery and  high output reliable electric motors are expensive because both didn’t had its spot on the stage yet, so mass production (economy of scale) hasn’t been achieved. Electric cars will be expensive that’s for sure. At the very very very very very very very least, Nissan will have to heavily subsidize the car, and even so, personally I think Nissan would have to sell the car at US$30000… And that’s quite a lot.

Still though, does electric car is our future? If anything goes by… Yes, you can just plug it in at your home and you drive it the next morning… But it does have its own drawbacks. What do you think current electrical power plant uses as fuel? Hydro? Wind? Geo thermal? Anything renewable? Not quite. Developed countries power plants uses nuclear which produces toxic waste, and most developing countries still relies on old fashioned fossil fuel and coal. If your community is powered using renewable power source then it’s fine and dandy if you use electric cars. But what happens when your community is still powered using fossil fuel? You just hide behind all those fancy electric car gimmick and behind that all, you are still contributing to the use of fossil fuel. Nissan account this notion, that’s why they put MPG rating on the Leaf… But how they come it with the number is between Nissan, the fans, mother earth, the hippies and God.

One proposed alternative energy is to use Hydrogen, as Honda, Mercedes Benz and countless automotive company has proven with their concept cars, it is the fuel of the future. Yes, hydrogen is converted to electricity, making it somewhat an electric car allover again but still, it’s hydrogen. Any 5th grader would know, hydrogen is two part of molecule that forms water (H2O), that’s right folks, hydrogen can be extracted from water (and the last time I waddled through flooded local roads, we have lots of it). However, producing hydrogen is not easy, and in regular cases it takes more energy to produce usable amount of hydrogen through the act of electrolysis. Advance research is underway to extract hydrogen from water with the help of algae, but still usable amount extracted using this method is still a long way down.

Blue Efficiency? The car is green, get it, green because it emits water vapor exhaust…

Honda, Mercedes Benz and leading automotive makers has interest on hydrogen powered economy. Honda already even made FCX Clarity, world’s first dedicated-designed-commercially available (although only through lease) vehicle to be powered using hydrogen. Dedicated because they built a car specific to the engine, with fancy aerodynamics. Unlike Mercedes Benz ‘s F-Cell line of cars, which is an engine option on top of existing line of cars, primarily the A-Class and the B-Class (future dedicated model is coming based upon the B-Class though).

Honda FCX Clarity named 2009 Green World Car

So electric vehicles… Why forward to the past? Because technically, every known electric vehicle technology is just recycled or just improved upon from its predecessors. Nissan Leaf bull crap MPG comment aside, it has a range of 100 Miles, the same like Honda EV+ 12 years ago. The same technology can be found on FCX Clarity electric motor, taken straight from Honda EV+, although modified.

All in all, fancy terms and whatever, it’s nothing when real world driving experience falls short of the claims. Worse still, claims that are mind boggling to begin with. Nissan, stick to your GoTziRa.

Source:

Nissan unveils zero emission “Leaf”

Chevrolet “Volt” & Nissan “Leaf”  MPG claim under fire from Bill Ford

Honda EV+ complete history

US Bureau of Labor Statistic inflation calculator

Honda FCX Clarity Japanese website

Honda FCX Clarity named 2009 World Green Car

Honda Freed Real Life Fuel Consumption

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Here it is folks, real life consumption of Honda Freed ASEAN edition. One local Indonesian automotive magazine has extensively tested the car fuel consumption on highway and inner city driving. The result is mind boggling, but… Well, here it is…

The magazine test result nets 1 liter for 10-12 Km of inner city driving and 1 liter for 15 Km of highway driving. The fuel used is not mentioned, but safe to assume they use RON 91 92 (thanks Frozen_Heart) grade fuel, as previous road tests are done using RON 91 92. So the million dollar question is… Is it good enough? And the answer is a simple yes.

Mind you that the car is as aerodynamic as brick with slanted front window. No matter how hard Honda engineers try to make the car efficient with the standard 5 gear autobox, the car physiques is it drawback in term of fuel consumption. 1 liter for 10-12 Km of inner city driving is very very very respectable number… Hell, my automatic SX4 hatch barely manages 1:10 on perfect day. But the 1:15 for highway driving? Meh… This is where Freed users pays for its awesome interior space.

The Freed is taller and heavier than the Fit/City while still using the same engine (and detuned). Honda never stated its coefficient drag number for Freed, but let’s say that it’s not very good… And this goes to tall haulers like Elysion, Alphard and Elgrand for which Freed emulates. Wind resistance doesn’t take its toll on slow moving cars, it is when the car goes up to speed that you will feel the resistance. As such, Freed highway mileage suffers by a bit… Just a bit because most 1.5L haulers manages 1:16 at the minimum. To take into retrospect, my SX4 hatch manages 1:16 of highway cruise. This shows that the inclusion of 5 gear autobox on the Freed is a must, if not for the 5th overdrive, the car might be sluggish on slower speed (*cough*like my SX4*cough*).

All in all, the Freed is truly a must have. Tall cabin = very good shoulder and head room, something that few of its competitors manage to give but with a compromise. Although for its roominess Freed users must pay with slightly off highway cruise fuel consumption of its peers, the car still scores very well. Sure there’s that no rear aircon thing, but just turn the AC fan to 2 and put good quality window film.

New Honda President: No FR Sedans! But…

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Straight from Honda new President, Takanobu Ito, Honda cancels development of rear wheel drive cars.  A sad news for many enthusiasts because they balked at the fact that the previous Honda President, Takeo Fukui announced exciting projects for Honda, namely a new flagship rear wheel drive sedan, powered with a new V8 engine and the arrival of the most awaited replacement for Honda supercar, NSX. Spy shots of the new rear wheel drive mule car are abound, and the NSX replacement, sporting its V10 engine is screaming around the test track, everything is ready… Until Takanobu Ito arrives on the scene. Takanobu Ito is no stranger to Honda spirited roots, he is in fact, the guy in charge of creating NSX all aluminum body. So he knows a thing or two about what makes a great car (not an excessive engine).

The move is warranted though, not because Ito-san hates the enthusiasts or something, it’s just Honda couldn’t afford making these so called “question marks” products… At least according to BCG high growth/low demand matrix. The halo effect is there positively, but how is the demand? Let’s take a look at Honda profit ending 2008… 20 Billion Yen… WOWZA! A lot of cash no? No! Ending 2007, Honda profit is roughly 200 Billion Yen, 10 times of that last year. What Honda needs are cash cow products, products that makes profit like well, Fit/Jazz, Accord, Freed, and anything in between.

The new flagship sedan would just create costs and like any late comers, it will not sell well. Honda will need to cover for loss of the new car, something that Honda simply just couldn’t afford. What they can afford though is the creation of car variants from existing platform, that’s why the ZDX came to be, because it’s just a bigger Accord.

So what if Honda doesn’t have a 370Z, RX-8, ZR-1, SLK? What Honda needs now is to survive and that’s a priority over slow selling (albeit super sexy) cars anytime, anytime. Takanobu Ito will have a tough time and will have his photo on the target range of any misled Honda fans. But for true fans who understand the situation, he is actually a savior who dares to take the seat and all the responsibility (and one of the responsibilities is to take shit from enthusiasts).

But there’s still good news though; the NSX replacement is shelved, but that’s just the V10 version. There is news about Honda going to create another supercar… A hybrid supercar. Yep, Honda is rumored to scrap the V10 engine for a V6 hybrid system, just like Toyota planned hybrid Supra revival. But unlike Toyota’s hybrid 400 horsepower engine, Honda own super hybrid will generate up to 450 horsepower. This new bigger hybrid system will also found its way onto family friendly cars, probably destined to found its way under Acura hoods.

My take on the cancellation of anything rear wheel coming out from Honda is not the end all devastating news. So what if Honda or Acura is not becoming like Mercedes, BMW or even Toyota/Lexus? Honda well, they are going after Audi and Volvo… At least they both have the same front wheel vanilla cars and AWD spicier version. However both Audi and Volvo are not so stingy with their engine offering, at least there’s turbo and big V8s on Volvo side, and Audi have like what… V8, V10, W12… Acura could have gone the way of the Audis and I would care less just add more engines… A-VTEC would be nice Ito-san!

Source:

Rumored Honda super hybrid is coming

Takanobu Ito: FR Sedans are lame

Ito as new Honda President: Red marks all over

Suplemen Vitamin E, Vitamin “junk food”?

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Tidak perlu diragukan, vitamin E adalah vitamin yang sangat berguna untuk tubuh. Khasiat antioksidan yang tinggi merupakan kunci menuju kehidupan yang sehat karena tubuh dapat dengan mudah bertahan akan radikal bebas. Akan tetapi, Universitas Berkeley negara bagian California Amerika Serikat yang menemukan vitamin E ini pada tahun 1922 menyatakan bahwa vitamin E dalam bentuk suplemen makanan tidak memiliki kegunaan sama sekali. Ingin tahu lebih lanjut? Continue reading →

Guesstimating Indonesia Honda Freed Price

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Okay, since I have a lot of unapproved messages and readers asking about the new Honda Freed price in Indonesia, I’m going to one up Honda Indonesia and try to guess the Freed price. Frankly, I didn’t know the price, I have contacts in the “inner circle” but not that kind of inner circle, just friends at the dealership and media, so my best info will be your best info from local auto magazines.

I don’t know much how Honda Indonesia established their product price, but it is safe to assume that the Freed will be priced around Jazz price. Why? Because:

  1. Honda Jazz and Honda Freed are both locally assembled.
  2. Honda Freed is basically a stretch Jazz.
  3. Both car shares the same engine and transmission.

The most expensive Honda Jazz, the RS, is priced at Rp. 221,5 Million. Now taking into account that the Freed is basically a stretched Jazz, the Freed shares most of its inner working with Jazz such as engine, transmission, and even suspension. The latter might be modified to handle Freed extra weight, but it is still the same McPherson Strut front and H-Shaped torsion beam back. So the changes might be just a different absorber and spring size.

So, the extra cost for Honda mostly comes in the form of sheet metal, plastics, and window, given as the Freed is bigger than the Jazz. Also for the automatic sliding door mechanism…

Do mind that Honda Indonesia only assemble the cars here, that’s why we call it CKD (completely knock down). So a lot of contents are still imported. Remember the basic economic equation of orders? When you buy something from period A, you sell it with period A price + margin. So if Honda purchases Freed components then when the dollar is at its highest, it’s not their fault… It’s the forex speculant’s.

So how much do you think the Freed will be priced? Personally, I guess the price will start at Rp. 240 Million, and topping out at Rp. 260 Million. This is actually a very conservative guess because even at Rp. 240 Million, Honda will sell a ton of this car. Because with just a premium of 8% from Jazz RS, you got a bigger capacity car and I see LOTS of Jazz RS running around Indonesia capital.

Why a conservative guess again? Because of the competition. At Rp. 240 Million Indonesian can just buy Toyota Innova, the venerable car of choice in Indonesia; 8 seater, 2L engine, enormous utility, high ground clearance. Then at Rp. 270 Million you can buy yourself an entry level Nissan Serena; 7 seater, 2L engine, bigger than Freed,  same exquisite FF platform. So, Honda Indonesia needs to play its card right. Thankfully, Honda brand equity in Indonesia warrant a price premium, although not much… Pricing the Freed over Nissan Serena level will be suicide, and Honda Indonesia should know better. So that’s why I personally guess the price will not go over Rp. 270 Million.

For trim level I’m guessing that Indonesian Freed will have two trims. The standard and top of the line. With automatic as standard, and the top of the line model featuring automatic sliding doors. The seating capacity will be strictly 7 seater captain seat variant.

With the economy is still in the red and buying capability of the market still low, it’s best for Honda to aim for the top with the Freed. 7 seater cars are synonimous with luxury people movers such as Honda Elysion, Toyota Alphard and Nissan Elgrand. With Freed’s premium pricing strategy, it’s best for Honda Indonesia to target a specific market than to cater to wider demographics.

But still, these are just plain guessing. I’m not affiiliated whatsoever with Honda Indonesia. So, the car is on track to its release date and the car is already booked in many dealers, have you booked yours today?

Phenylpropanolamine: Otak Anda, Hidung Anda dan Hoax Ketinggalan Jaman

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Hari minggu lalu, saya mendapatkan SMS dari Ibu mertua saya yang menyebutkan seperti ini:

PHENYLPROPANOLAMINE obat influenza(decongestant) ditarik oleh badan pengawasan obat dan pangan Amerika(FDA) pada tanggal 1 maret 2009 karena terbukti sebabkan PENDARAHAN DI OTAK. Berikut obat2 di Indonesia yg mengandung PHENYLPROPANOLAMINE 1.DECOLGEN 2.DECOLSIN 3.SINUTAB 4.ALLERIN 5.BODREXIN 6.CONTAC500 7.COSYR 8.FLUCYL 9.FLUDANE 10.FLUGESIC 11.INZA 12.KOMIX 13.MIXAFLU 14.MIXAGRIP 15.NALGESTAN 16.NEOZEP FORTE 17.NODROF 18.PARASUTIN 19.PROCOLD 20.RHINOTUSSAL 21.SANAFLU 22.SILADEX 23.STOPCOLD 24.TRIAMIN. Bri tau teman2 & saudara

Tampaknya, di era informasi ini masih banyak orang-orang yang tampaknya senang menyebabkan kegaduhan dalam sistem tatanan masyarakat yang teratur. Seperti film Batman: The Dark Knight, dimana sang pengurus rumah tangga setia, Alfred menyatakan bahwa ada beberapa orang yang ingin melihat dunia hancur tanpa keuntungan bagi pelakunya sedikitpun.

Berita hoax ini bahkan sudah menyebar melalui chat client populer… (gak mau promosi ah)… Cukup untuk dikatakan bahwa saya telah mendapatkan beberapa pesan yang diforward oleh teman-teman saya. Tentu saja, saya membalas pesan ini untuk menenangkan teman-teman saya yang kebingungan dan panik.

Phenylpropanolamine benar merupakan zat berbahaya, menyebabkan pendarahan otak, dan benar telah dilarang oleh pihak FDA.  Namun selain kenyataan pada kalimat pembuka paragraf ini, semua isi pesan mengenai Phenylpropanolamine tidak memiliki basis kenyataan. Phenylpropanolamine sendiri sudah dilarang digunakan semenjak tahun 2000, BUKAN 1 Maret 2009. Karena riset membuktikan bahwa bahan tersebut menyebabkan pendarahan otak pada kebanyakan wanita. Phenylpropanolamine BUKAN obat, melainkan sebuah bahan baku pembuatan obat saja, jelas… Kalimat pembukaan pesan hoax ini sudah salah.

Apakah Phenylpropanolamine digunakan oleh obat-obat yang digunakan diatas saya tidak tahu. Tapi yang jelas, saya baru saja sembuh dari pilek berkepanjangan dan saya selalu minum Stopcold. Mendapatkan pesan ini, saya langsung melihat daftar bahan pembuat Stopcold yang tertera pada bungkusnya. Cukup menenangkan bahwa Phenylpropanolamine tidak disebutkan dalam daftar bahan pembuat obat ini.

Yang perlu diperhatikan dan disimak disini adalah kondisi masyarakat kita yang mudah terpengaruh komunikasi getok tular tanpa melalui proses logika terlebih dahulu. Apakah Anda benar-benar percaya, bahwa Badan Pengawas Obat dan Makanan Indonesia begitu bodohnya untuk meloloskan sebuah zat yang sangat berbahaya ini 9 tahun lamanya? Aturan baku oleh BPOM, FDA dan badan pengawas obat dan makanan lainnya, menyatakan bahwa bahan baku pembuat obat dan makanan harus tertera secara jelas pada bungkus kemasannya. Penggunaan kata “bahan lainnya” pun sudah mulai jarang tertera pada bungkus obat dan makanan. Jadi, apabila perusahaan obat ataupun makanan gagal menyertakan informasi yang lengkap, maka perusahaan tersebut sudah melanggar hukum. Setidaknya, tidak ada bahan Phenylpropanolamine pada obat Stopcold.

Berikut adalah pernyataan resmi dari pihak FDA mengenai berita kebohongan yang beredar ini…

FDA is aware of emails circulating widely that list many products allegedly containing PPA. These emails, however, generally contain dated and inaccurate information and should be ignored.

Dan tanggal berapa pesan tersebut dilansir oleh pihak FDA? 23 Desember 2005. Jauh dari 1 Maret 2009 yang disebut dalam pesan hoax yang beredar.

Pesan saya hanya satu, stop menelan informasi publik secara bulat-bulat bila dilansir oleh sumber yang tak dikenal. Telaah informasi yang Anda terima dengan seksama, cari bukti pendukung lainnya, dan ambil kesimpulan dengan tenang. Saya yakin, Anda pun mencari opini kedua bila pergi memeriksa kesehatan apabila penyakitnya serius… Lalu, kenapa tidak mencari informasi pendukung kenyataan yang Anda dapatkan dari sumber tak dikenal? Mudah percaya bukanlah sebuah hal baik dalam dunia yang penuh dengan kebohongan ini.

Sumber:

Informasi resmi FDA mengenai Phenylpropanolamine

Pernyataan FDA membantah surat kaleng mengenai Phenylpropanolamine

Informasi hoax Phenylpropanolamine

Officially Official: Honda Freed Is Coming NEXT JUNE!

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Well, so much for the hoolabaloo… It seems that today is just the day Honda Indonesia sent out a press release about going to sell the Freed in Indonesia. At least we have a timeframe, it’s June and it’s confirmed the car would be available with i-VTEC engine and 5 speed automatic transmission. No further information is available regarding the car, on whether it will be offered with the 8 seat variant or the 7 seat variant nor would it be avaible in manual transmission.

For the time being, I’m going to write about Freed specification in comparison with its competitors, namely Xenia/Avanza, Grand Livina, APV and Gran Max Luxio.