Toll rates for five highways to go up on Jan 1

KUALA LUMPUR: Toll rates for five highways will go up on Jan 1 next year as the Government can no longer afford to subsidise toll increases, Works Minister Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu said Monday.

– news from The Star newspaper

I spent a lot of time on the highway on the last two weekends and there were loads of construction on the highway, mainly to expand additional lane making the highway into a 3 lane highway. I was thinking to myself that the toll rates might increase since there were upgrades, this was only yesterday. And today, the star reports increase of toll charges.

When I was at the M’cca-KL north south highway, there were some parts closed to just one lane. This caused a bumper to bumper jam on the highway, it took me 2 hours while usually the journey would take 1.5 hour. Could we take any legal action against the highway operator for causing jam? for not delivering to the promise of safe and fast travel? Why would I want to pay to go on to the highway, and travel at 20kmph? I could have done that on the trunk road.

The toll increase covers 5 highways, and in my opinion, this is something the government do upon themselves. Firstly, the contract between the government and the toll operators are shabby, the contracts seam to be favoring to the toll operators, rather than the rakyat, especially on the clause where the toll operators are allowed to increase the toll at every certain number of years, this means the government are bound by contract to allow the toll operators to increase toll, and when the rakyat complains, the government take it upon themselves to subsidies the toll. Now the government cannot afford the RM2bil of subsidy, they are forced to allow the toll increase. For me, if the government were to make any contract with any companies to provide service to the rakyat, it is the responsibility of the government to ensure that the contract favors the rakyat, and still allow the companies to make a decent money. I don’t see this happening….

A good read below..

Privatization of Highways in Malaysia: The Peril of not Consulting End-Users – A.-R. Abdul-Aziz

Combing through the Honda City forums, I found an interesting thred about Reverse Sensor Malfunction, that later leads to an interesting news about the Battery.  The thred started off with a complain about the reverse sensor malfunction, where it continiously gives a single long beep during reverse.  Then many users feedback on the reverse sensor sensitivity and sometimes dirt or misalign sensors could appear faulty.
Summary:
- Loud One tone beep non-stop during reverse
- Sensor is sensitive, dirty or lip damage on sensor will affect performance
- Warranty for Reverse Sensor is only 1 year or 40k
- Battery Warranty Period 2 years or 40k
- To detect low battery, check meter light after engine start, if light is unstable, eg. dim, bright, dim, bright, battery is low

Autoworld Forum

Summary:
- Risk of rear window tint removal/change: Demister damage
- If Vkool tinting done with Honda Malaysia: Got 6 months warranty if Demister Damage
- Honda Malaysia graciously replace Rear Window & Tinting during Warranty Period
- Rear Window Price : Rm800
- Demister can be repaired DIY with Silver Epoxy: buy online, cheaper than replace entire rear window

Autoworld Forum

I went over to Renault showroom recently and was smitten by the MPV Kangoo. Something about the car gets me excited over it and I can’t pin point what it is. My wife seams to think it is because of the mykangooclub.com but I disagree. The car is not exactly slick looking, and frankly, it is rather ugly, but somehow with the right color (Tango Yellow/Tango Orange), the car does look unique.

Kangoo is Renault’s answer to the Mini-MPV market segment and it has been in the market since 1999. There is a commercial model, that comes without back windows and selling at RM4xK and there is a passenger model, that comes with back windows and selling at RM68K without insurance. This MPV only comes with 1.4l in Malaysia. There is a Manual and Automatic model and the difference in price is almost RM5K.

The car comes with some nifty features, ABS, Proactive Automatic transmission with 9 shift patterns that adapts to the driving style, engine immobilizer, automatic lock when the car moves and adjustable headlight height.

From some of the forums, the car has problems with the automatic transmission where it needs some reset at times, built quality problems like many Malaysian made proton (Kangoo is now a CKD by Tan Chong Motors) and a lousy sound system and the engine immobilizer additional keys need to order from France.

With all this, I am still excited to have a test drive this weekend. Who knows, I may make a rash decision this weekend….