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In case any of you have driven into Malaysia on or after the 1st of August 2010 and intend on filling up your fuel tank with Malaysian petrol you would have found out that there is a new directive stating that beginning 1st August 2010, all non-Malaysian registered vehicles will not be able to pump petrol with RON95 grade within Malaysia. Enforcement officers are supposedly on patrol around border towns, especially in Johore Bahru and at Bukit Kayu Hitam at the Thai-Malaysia border. The reason for this action is that RON95 is highly subsidized by the Malaysian government and because of this, the price of RON95 is only RM1.85 per liter. It was slightly cheaper before 15th July 2010 but has since had a 5sen increase due to increasing petrol costs. All foreign registered cars can however pump as much RON97 as this is now on a controlled float pricing instead of being subsidized. Basically RON95 is for Malaysians due to the subsidized price and due to this subsidy, a lot of motorists from Thailand and some from Singapore take advantage of the cheap fuel. But the main culprits who take advantage of the cheap fuel are those at the Thai border where there is no restriction on how much petrol a Thai registered car has to have before leaving Thailand. This is unlike Singapore where Singapore registered vehicles must have at least

In case any of you readers intend to travel down to Kuala Lumpur in the month of December do take note that the KL International Motor Show 2010 (KLIMS 2010) will be held on the 3rd to the 12th of December 2010 at the Putra World Trade Center (PWTC). From what I gather, the main highlights of the event will be Hyundai's South East Asian preview of the new Avante and there is a chance for visitors to win a Toyota Prius as well as two Proton Saga cars. Hyundai will preview their IX-Metro city car concept, the aforementioned Avante and the new Santa Fe. The other highlights could be Proton's preview of the facelifted Proton Saga (which I hope makes the car look less tall and less disproportionate) and some movie vehicles

New Delhi is a metropolis which is mainly famous for being the capital of India and its ridiculously bad traffic. So much so that we have now heard from the New York Times that the traffic police there have resorted to using facebook to let people post traffic offenders so that action can be taken against these offenders. If you've ever watched on YouTube or gone to New Delhi for a first hand look at the traffic scenario there you would know that traffic laws are blatantly disregarded. There will be jaywalkers throughout the whole length of the road, scooters, motorcycles and bicycles weaving in and out of traffic and cars doing the same too. Motorcyclists will be going around the city without helmets and traffic lights ignored. Sometimes you could see the pedestrians crossing a four lane city street with the skills of a contortionist, yoga master and a gymnast as they usually see to bend and twist as they avoid passing vehicles of various sorts. So the New Delhi traffic police had started a Facebook page in June 2010 so that the public can interact with them. And since photographs of motorists flaunting the law has been posted, the police have issued 665 traffic violation summonses. The Facebook page also has about 19,200 people liking it when I last checked. There are also 3,000 photographs for the Delhi police to vet through also. The photo below is from the site and shows a motorcyclist riding without a helmet. Of course there are those who now complain that giving out summons via 'proof' from a social networking site is an invasion of privacy and that the authenticity of the photographs may be questionable. But in any case, there are those that support and those that do not. Actually it isn't something so outrageous, we've heard that people not getting jobs when companies opened up their social networking site and found photographs showing them to be very drunk, overtly social or just plain stupid. If employers are looking through such social networking accounts, this isn't something strange indeed. Now the question is whether we would be seeing something like this on the local front; the local traffic police having their own Facebook sites and summons being issued based on a photograph posted on Facebook. If you happen to know anyone working in one of the above law enforcement agencies, point them in some other direction and not to this piece of news. It may give them ideas if you get what I mean.

In case any of you readers happen to be going to, or are already in Indonesia you could head over to the 18th Indonesia International Motor Show (IIMS 2010) which was officially opened by Vice President of the Republic of Indonesia, Prof. DR. Budiono on the 24th of July 2010. The event will be held at the Jakarta International Expo at Kemayoran, Jakarta until the 1st of August 2010. IIMS 2010 Exhibition would be held for 10 days starting from 23rd of July until 1st of August 2010, with a theme of "Eco-Technology Motoring". This theme will showcase environmentally friendly aspects of automotive industry players in Indonesia from raw material, technology, machinery and equipment, and low exhaust emission levels. Mr. Johnny Darmawan, Chief Organizer IIMS 2010, explained that the exhibition is attended by 203 companies of which 18 manufacturer of cars and four of trucks. These include Audi, BMW, Chevrolet, Daihatsu, Ford, Photon, Fuso, Hino, Honda, Hyundai, Isuzu, Kia, Mazda, Mercedes Benz, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Nissan Diesel, Proton, Subaru, Suzuki, Toyota and VW. For the visitors the motorshow will have of programs including Night Drag Race, Achilles Drift Show & Battle, Subaru-Achilles Russ Swift Stuntman Show on the 24th and 25th only (somewhat like the show Mr Swift put on at the Singapore Motor Show recently as if you take a look at the picture above taken on the 24th of July at the show), Subaru Palm Challenge (like the one held yearly in Singapore