The Malaysian Reserve reports on its front page today that Naza and PSA Peugeot-Citroen are looking at introducing a 1.6 liter entry level car that will be sold in Malaysia and also assembled and exported from here to other ASEAN regions. This solidifies plans for Naza to turn Malaysia into Peugeot’s assembly hub for the region.
Naza currently already exports the 206 to various countries including Nepal. It is in line with Peugeot’s international entry level car strategy for this to be some variation of the 206 and since we already have the 206 in 1.4 liter variety, perhaps the new compact car will be the 207 Sedan which is essentially a 206 sedan with 207 aesthetics. A 1.6 liter engine will be good news. Ideally it should be priced around the new Hyundai Accent’s level, but who knows. There is also a 307 Sedan that exists.
Look after the jump for more shots of the 207 Sedan.
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.
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.
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.
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.
