Kia has released their flagship, known as the K9 in Korea.  For all the dog lovers, it will get another name for its export markets.  The Kia Kitty perhaps?  (Pussy was rejected on obvious grounds.)

The Retro Championships have been flooded with BMW E30’s this year.  The drive(r) behind this is Gavin Charlesworth from EBC Brakes who presented six E30’s at the Nitto 3K Retro meeting at the beginning of this month.

Well, before we even saw them line up in the grid on Sunday, we had already seen that Qualifying has become a total farce.  Cars doing one lap because they have to save their tyres for the race!  Schumacher has gone down on record to say that the “racing” is no longer full on, but just tyre management.  I agree, and so do millions of other spectators.  It is the difference between “racing” and a high speed parade.

The new Ford plant at Rayong has had its official opening and production has commenced of the Ford Focus and derivatives from the Focus platform, such as the small SUV Kuga.

Last week I asked what car does the cartoon character Granny drive in the Sylvester and Tweety mysteries?  Clue: ask your children under 10 years of age!  The car she uses in the cartoons is a Nash Metropolitan, with those funny “cut outs” on the doors.

We broke the genetic code when we unraveled the human genome, but that most certainly is not the end of the research that needs to be done on us, the species that prides itself on being the top of the food chain.

Twelve months ago I wrote about the Spanish GP at Catalunya in this column stating, “The Alonso fans will be out in full voice, hoping that this will be the GP at which Ferrari comes on even stronger, and the Spaniard fulfills all their dreams, even if Massa was dragging the chain two weeks ago.”  It would appear that despite four different winners in four races, in the Ferrari garage, it is much of the same as 12 months ago.

The J.D. Power and Associates 2012 U.S. Automotive Emerging Technologies Study has shown that vehicle owners have come to expect additional safety features and are now turning their attention more to infotainment technologies in their vehicle.

The best and most authoritative e-publication available on the Thai auto industry is the Thai Auto Book 2012 (thaiautobook. blogspot.com) compiled by the Automotive Focus Group president Uli Kaiser.

Last week I informed you that in 1912 a manufacturer built cars alongside domestic appliances.  I asked what was the manufacturer and how many did they build?  In 1912, Miele & Cie.