After looking at the Passat 1.9 TDI at the show and reading further about the vehicle, I think the VeeDub people might have just done it. The Passat is well built in the typical VW Teutonic fashion, and the new TDI diesel engine looks a beauty. It develops 130 bhp, enough to propel the Passat 0-100 kays in a shade over 11 seconds. Not neck snapping, but do you need anything faster than it round town?

The other amazing feature of this engine is the torque factor. 310 Nm at 1,900 RPM. That would be enough to tow City Hall to the Dolphin Roundabout, no sweat. Those are the kind of torque figures you would expect of a 3 litre gasoline engine.

Passat

The other week I mentioned the ‘state of the art’ European diesels, and this is one of them. Powerful and economical. VW quote “real” fuel consumption figure of 14 km per litre, which works out as a shade over 30 mpg in the old money. And it is amazingly “eco” green too, with fewer emissions than a similar gasoline engine.

I have not been to Germany for many years, so I am not aware what they are currently using for taxis, but this TDI Passat would have to be a good choice.

After looking at the Honda stand at the show, I am sure Honda has lost the plot. A very lack-lustre bunch of rapidly dated motor cars. The Hybrid Civic is nothing new, though I would have thought that with a bit of imagination they could at least have had a bunch of hybrid katoeys to demonstrate the product. The Insight thing with the rear spats has been shown before and is hideous. They also had another beastly thing called the Bulldog, which should have been put down at birth and had its mother spayed to stop breeding again.

They too didn’t have any English language press kits, so there was nothing for me at Honda, unless you like almost ten year old Honda Legends. There was no comparison between the Honda stand and the Toyota stand, which featured an Eff Wun mock-up and the new Camry. More about Toyota next week.

There is no doubt about the fact that GM are trying very hard to make the Zafira ‘world-car’ an appealing range of motor vehicles. The latest to join the line-up are the Zafira Sport 2.2 and the Zafira 1.8 GL.

The GL is designed as a real entry level MPV priced at under the 1 million baht decision line. (Even though it scrapes in by a mere 11,000 baht.)

Zafira sport

The top of the line Zafira Sport goes out the door at 1,329,000 baht, but is infinitely better appointed and has the bigger engine. While I somehow doubt its “sportiness” being after all an MPV, it would certainly be better off the mark than the smaller engined ones.

GeeEmm claim total domestic sales of 2,216 units last year, an increase of 43% over year 2000 sales figures and president and managing director William Botwick is predicting another 50% increase for this year.

The General is the big mover at present, with the Eastern Seaboard plant about to make the Alfa Romeo 156’s, the Isuzu pick-ups - and - and - (wait for it) something from Suzuki, if my spies have it right, as well as the Zafira’s.

Isuzu Kai

On the Isuzu stand there was this giant Lego block thing called a Kai. The blurb the nice lady gave me (and in English too, thank you darling) states that the Kai styling is a combination of traditional Japanese aesthetics, the texture of modern architecture and the functional beauty of the chassis frame. It looked a reasonably sturdy 4WD, even if a trifle “military” in external panel work. Referring back to the blurb, “The Kai returns to the basics, but in a spiral form.” And a bit further down the page, “The simple surfaces look almost as if they have been incised with a sharp tool. Character lines emphasize controlled vitality and express inner strength.” Give me strength! The vehicle looks OK, but shoot the copywriter! Or perhaps better, just run over him with a Kai.