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Hi, I posted for advice at the Jazz and Mazda thread, but no good response, thought of starting this thread for some advice. I am going into sales early next year, so will need a form of own transportation. This is the first time I am buying a car, and I am looking at resale rather than new. Can I request for some advice and help here? what I need is a Automatic compact car(saloon or hatchback ), easy to drive, easy to maintain, and easy to park ( very bad at parking). haha I will have $1000 transport allowance, $500 petrol allowance, parking and ERP is claim as use. I want to keep the car expenses within this budget,is it possible? I have in mind Honda Jazz and Mazda2, any other recommendations welcome. Thank you all.

The production version of Volkswagen's up! Small city car has been officially revealed ahead of its world premiere at the Frankfurt Motor Show. The mini VW measures just 3.54 m long and 1.64 m wide, making it some 400mm shorter and 40mm narrower than the Polo. The production version will adopt a front-engine, front-wheel drive setup. At launch, it will be offered with a new 1.0-liter three-cylinder gasoline engine available with either 60 hp or 75 hp. When opted with VW's BlueMotion Technology that includes an auto stop/start system, the 60 hp version returns a combined fuel consumption figure of 4.2L/100km while the 75hp version drinks a little more at 4.3L/100km. Both versions are said to emit less than 100 g/km CO2. A natural gas engine with 68 hp will follow at a later date. Despite its compact dimensions, the up! promises to offer accommodation for four adults thanks to the long 2.42 m wheelbase and the forward mounting of the engine which maximizes interior space. The German automaker noted that the up! Will be the only model in its class to offer the City Emergency Braking System. The latter is an active safety system that operates automatically at speeds under 18 mph and uses a laser sensor to assess the risk of an accident. If the driver doesn

Citing the Asian expansion and the increasing popularity of small cars as reasons, Ford Motor Co. predicts that its global sales will increase by 50% by 2015 to 8 million each year. In an e-mail, spokesman John Stoll said that Ford anticipates that by 2020, small cars will make up 55% of sales and that one-third of sales will come from Asia. In an interview with CNBC, Ford CEO Alan Mulally gave confirmation of this goal. A source said last October that in private, executives are working to meet this target by 2015. In 2010, Ford sold 5.3 million vehicles worldwide. In the CNBC interview, Mulally said that the sales plan

[extract] It looks like going micro is the

I bring you readers more sad news about the automotive industry. After 54 years of doing so Subaru will stop producing their own small vehicles early next year. Those that remember Subaru's history will note that the company started making minicars at first. The tiny Subaru 360 was the first car ever built by Fuji Heavy Industries, a.k.a Subaru and now they will stop designing their own small cars but sell rebadged Toyota/Daihatsu since Toyota is now a major shareholder in Subaru. The reason is that in 2010, Subaru only managed to sell 93,000 small cars. Most of the cars are sold in Japan and according to the management, it isn't feasible to continue manuafacturing their own cars. It seems that rebadging a Daihatsu Boon/Sirion makes more sense economically. Of course it does. But they're so utterly predictable and dull vehicles. Take the Toyota Passo a.k.a Daihatsu Sirion/Boon a.k.a Perodua Myvi a.k.a Subaru Justy. They may look slightly different with different eylashes, skirts or jewellery, but they are basically the same shape. Everyone knows they're actually buying the same car and why they bought the certain model depended on whether the sales person managed to convince them or that they just didn't care what car they bought. Compare that with the Subaru R2 (which is already replaced by the Daihatsu Tanto) and the R1 above. Now these are really cute little cars that I'd like to drive. But I can't anymore since Subaru started rebadging the Sirion as a Justy. In fact there are quite a few R1s running around Singapore and I seriously hope that some survive the vehicle scrapping within the next few years so that people can still see how good looking these cars really are in years to come. And this little fact also made me realize that this is the real reason why the latest Subaru Impreza (pictured below) looks kind of unimpressive or slightly dull to some people. It has 'TOYOTA' written all over it. Can anyone in here name me an interesting Toyota that has been launched and in production in 2010 and 2011 aside from it being a Lexus? No. I don't think so. Subaru has hit a new level of blandness (and a new low in terms of car production) and I blame it on the general dullness of Toyota. It is as simple as that.

Cars have grown in size over the years. In the late 1960s the Toyota Corolla was a tiny, tiny car. It was about the size of a peanut, or a Perodua Kelisa with a boot. It then grew into something the size of a decent sized 4 door car in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s. It was basically the size of the current Toyota Vios or the earlier Soluna. And then by the 1990s, it grew into something slightly larger, more comfortable and heavier. By 2010, the Corolla had grown into a bulbous car the size of a 1980s Toyota Corona, which was the large family sedan of that era. So everything has up-sized and new models like the Vios has had to come in to fill the original gap left by the Corolla. And there you have newer and newer small models. Now those that remember will note that the Vios was originally called the Soluna, a basic mid-sized 4 door sedan that was built to a certain specification and budgetary standard. It was basically a no frills car for those on a budget. It was actually conceived to fill in a gap that the Corolla left vacant when it went slightly upscale (from a point of view) and when it went up in size. And now, if you readers have noticed, the Soluna was replaced by the Vios and now in its second generation Vios form, is pretty well equipped and certain variants aren't exactly cheap anymore, especially for emerging economies and third world countries. So what we now see is another gap that would need to be filled. Hence the low cost, newly produced Toyota Etios, made specifically for emerging markets like India, China, Brazil, Indonesia and Thailand. The 4.265mm long sedan has a 595liters sized boot and is powered by a newly developed 1.5L, 16V DOHC engine coupled to a 5-Speed manual transmission (and most probably the hardest and maybe the thinnest possible of all plastics ever to appear on a car's dashboard). Currently in production in India, the Etios will be available in four variants, J, G, V and VX, with prices ranging between 4.96 Lakhs and 6.9 Lakhs making it Toyota's most affordable offering in India (and it is also Toyota's first major sales offensive in the Indian family car market). The thing is, who's to say that it won't be sold in Singapore or even Malaysia? It will be built from cheaper plastics and more rudimentary technology (but I dig the fluted roof design - adding rigidity but using thinner steel?), but it would certainly keep its Toyota derived quality control which would make it a decent (but not memorable or great) to drive. If newer generations of the Vios ends up going slightly more upscale and larger there would certainly be another gap to fill. The Etios could end up on sale in more developed and sophisticated car markets. What do you readers think? Would any of you go for a Toyota sedan that is cheaper but more crude?

A new small car will soon join the ranks of Mitsubish's passenger car lineup. Teased in these renderings for the first time, the global small vehicle will be produced in a new factory currently being built in Thailand and will go on sale at the end of next year. The subcompact hatch will make use of a new platform and will be offered with 1.0-1.2-liter engines. Mitsubishi said that the "global small" car will be positioned as an entry-level model in MMC's model lineup. The plans are to export the vehicle from Thailand to markets worldwide although the Japanese automaker did not reveal any details about country-specific availability. The production version of the low-cost city car will most likely be revealed at the upcoming Geneva Salon in March 2011.