The Naza Group of Companies wants to move from being a family owned institution of management to that of an organization of 23 companies adhering to a multinational organization culture of focusing on improvements.

The latest in a series of steps taken is an effort to “upgrade” its human resources or staff – a signing with Motorola University, where 1,000 of the Naza Group’s employees will be trained and developed to improve their skills focusing on increasing productivity and revenue. The training will be provided by Motorola University based on programs that Motorola has developed on the way of becoming a Fortune 500 company.

Naza will offer these programs to employees of all 23 Naza companies under SM Faisal, which will include leadership development, lean manufacturing, customer driven total solutions and the Motorola Six Sigma Program series.

There are many big companies who are actually family-owned but are managed and run by trained professionals. One example very close to Naza is the BMW group, which has been majority (about 46%) owned by the Quandt family since the 50s. It is a proven formula that works.

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UPDATE: The Kia Forte has been launched in Malaysia. Follow the link for more details on specs and price.

Reader acesDSI spotted this Kia Forte with JPJ plates roaming the streets of Batu 3 Shah Alam heading towards Section 20 Shah Alam. It looks like the good-looking Kia Forte is going to be launched soon, and sources in Naza say it’s most likely to be offered in CKD locally assembled form.

Although we cannot really see the badge on the car because of the resolution of the photos, the photographer said the car had Naza badges on, so maybe what we’re going to get is a Naza Forte instead of a Kia Forte.

There are positive and negative points about that, firstly having a Naza badge on is likely to give the company more bargaining power with duties resulting in a lower price, which is ultimately beneficial for consumers if a simple badge swap (that could even be supplier by showrooms) will “fix” it. Secondly it will stop potential customers from waiting for Naza Kia to Naza-ize a Kia Forte in anticipation of further price drops.

If the Naza Forte is to become a proper bread and butter sedan for Naza Kia it has to replace the Spectra in the product range so expect it to come with a 1.6 liter engine, with larger engines reserved for the Kia Koup 2-door coupe which I tested in South Korea recently.

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Thanks to readers the for alerting me about a new update for the Naza Citra, or should we call it the Naza Citra 1.5 now since there is a Citra 2 Rondo and this particular version is an update to the Citra 1. The old second generation Kia Carens has been given a new breath of life  which is also lower priced than the Citra 2 Rondo.

It has a design  between the upper and lower center grille on the front end, and the rear design features a new rear bumper with an integrated diffuser design.

Prices from RM65,888, making this one of the cheapest 2.0 liter MPVs around, though what you’ll be getting is a model that first debuted in 2002.

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This is the new Naza Picanto, just launched by Naza Kia Sdn Bhd a few days ago at The Curve. Yes, this is the CKD Picanto that was previously called the Naza Suria, but now the Suria name has been dropped and replaced by the Kia name, though the Naza badge remains. The Suria name was probably inspired by the Picanto’s Korean market name, which is the Kia Morning.

The most obvious change is of course the aesthetic update to the latest look that has been available from Kia internationally. With the latest facelift in Korea, there were actually two different front ends available but Naza has picked the version with the rounded foglamps to sell here. There is another one with leaf-shaped look foglamps and funkier alloy wheels, probably some kind of special edition.

On the inside, the interior has been updated with orange backlighting for the controls and meter cluster. The meter cluster is complete with an RPM meter but there is no water temp meter. The head unit provided is a 1-DIN design with USB support so you can read your MP3 files off a USB thumbdrive and do away with carrying CDs in your Picanto. The 1.1 liter engine revs up to 6k RPM and puts out a peak of 64 PS at 5,500rpm and 96Nm of torque at 2,800rpm. I like the fact that peak torque is made under 3,000rpm, which is usually the point an automatic car would shift gears if driven gently. But in any case acceleration from 0 to 100km/h will take a long 15.1 seconds.

In terms of safety, the front passenger and driver get two airbags – one each. The airbags are only available on the more expensive EX model. None of the models have ABS. There are four 3-point belts and a lap belt for the rear center. Wheels are 14 inch steels for the LS and 15 inch alloys for the EX, wrapped with 165/60R14 and 175/50R15 tyres respectively. The EX goes for RM46,800 while the LS goes for RM44,500. If you are in the market for one I’d recommend you just go for the EX since you get alloys and two airbags for a premium of RM2,300.

Also note that the Picanto is basically the original car that the Hyundai i10 was based on, and the i10 is sold at a higher price of RM48,888 in Malaysia. But the i10 comes with ABS brakes and a 5-year warranty while from the Naza Kia website it appears the Picanto gets 2 years, though it looks like a (optional?) 2 year extended warranty program is also available. Also, the i10’s CKD packs come from India, while the Picanto’s CKD packs probably come from Korea.

Look after the jump for an E-Brochure and a gallery of the Picanto.

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This colour is unavailable in Malaysia.

UPDATE: Kia Forte 1.6 Test Drive Review

The gorgeos new Kia Forte is now in Malaysia, or at least in the official sense after its launch at the Pavilion KL which will happen later this evening. We’ve already seen the Kia Forte on Malaysian roads as early as May this year when it was spotted in Shah Alam with JPJ plates.

The Forte is pretty much a game changer for Kia, but this ‘renaissance’ did not start with the Forte. Personally for me from a consumer point of view, the first Kia that I had a desire to consider as a daily driver was the Kia Optima. The Optima was just chock full of equipment, including a very nice Infinity surround sound system. It also had a very nice black interior with aluminium trim all over. The Optima’s 2.0 liter engine based on the GEMA platform was nice and spritely, and the car’s road behaviour didn’t fall short either. The only thing that I could complain about was the rather drab exterior looks.

But the Forte has been the first Kia that had emotional appeal – it has a really good design – something that you would look forward to being parked in your driveway every morning. The Koup is even better. It has such a sporty stance and looks good even in a boring silver colour, as seen in South Korea earlier this year (read my short test drive report).

Three models will be available, the 1.6 EX, the 1.6 SX and the 2.0 SX. The cheapest variant is the EX, priced at RM75,800 OTR, while the SX goes for RM81,800 for the 1.6 liter model and RM93,800 for the 2.0 liter model. Just as a comparison, the i30 goes for a much more expensive price, between RM92,388 for the basic 1.6 manual up to RM112,888 for the 2.0 liter automatic. The Elantra/Avante (which you could consider the Hyundai equivalent to the Forte) goes for RM95,301.80 and that’s without OTR costs. So the Forte has actually got very good competitive pricing. It’s a C-segment sedan (Civic, Lancer, etc) but no doubt alot of people will be cross-shopping between Japanese B-segment cars and the Forte.

Like its price indicates, the 2.0 SX is the range topping version. The 2.0 liter engine that you get is of the newer GEMA type that’s also found in the Optima. The Mitsubishi Lancer’s 2.0 liter engine is also derived from the GEMA project. Kia calls theirs the Theta engine. It is not the latest version with the 165 PS rating though, due to the fact that the engine is the version with single variable valve timing. The 165 PS engine has dual variable valve timing on both the intake and exhaust.

The 2.0 liter engine makes 156 PS at 6,200rpm and 194.2Nm of torque at 4,200rpm. The 1.6 liter engine is from the Gamma family (not to be confused with GEMA) and produces 126 PS at 6,300rpm and 157Nm of torque at 4,200rpm.

Click image for enlarged version

Click image for enlarged version

The 2.0 is chock full of equipment (you can refer to the full specs table I’ve put above) but let me give you a list in one breath. You get disc brakes all-round, driver, passenger, side and curtain airbags (a total of 6), ABS brakes, a black interior, a metal-look for the dash fascia, a Supervision cluster (Kia’s version of Optitron), leather-wrapped 3-spoke steering, electric power steering (the 1.6 liter models get the hydraulic version), tilt and telescopic steering column adjustment, steering wheel audio, keyless entry and ignition (yes, a start button), full auto climate control air cond, leather seats, active headrests, 17 inch wheels wrapped with 215/45R17 tyres, a 4 sensor reverse sensor with a distance display on the multi-info trip computer display (no need to just listen to the beeps), electrically-adjustable heated wing mirrors, etc.

Even with the 1.6 SX, you still get stability control, although the airbag count has dropped to 2 for the driver and passenger. The baseline 1.6 EX model has steel wheels but it is not extremely ‘baseline’ to the fact that there are no safety features – there is still 2 airbags, and all three models have ABS anti-lock brakes.

The Forte 2.0 SX is the only sedan you can get under RM100,000 with 6 airbags and ESC stability control. It’s price versus equipment value beats even that other C-segment vehicle under the Naza stables, the Peugeot 308, but the 308 has that fantastic BMW-PSA Prince direct injection turbo engine of course.

The Forte will be available in 6 colours – Bright Silver, Metal Bronze, Ebony Black, Titanium Silver, Spicy Red, and Clear White. We will have another report coming later tonight with coverage from the Forte’s launch in Pavilion, so stay tuned.

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