What’s the Viper doing here?

It was a balmy evening at Clark Quay last Friday, and it got even hotter when nubile leather-clad dancers came out whirling torches, and smoke started to ooze out of the steel container at centre stage. After even more smoke (not haze, which was also present), headlamps came on, and the striking silhouette of the first Dodge in Singapore, the Caliber, started to emerge. Dodge may not be a familiar brand here, but most of us would be familiar with cars that bear its name. The Viper, the ultimate hairy-chested sports car with its lusty V-10 truck engine, is a Dodge, as is “The Bandit”, the red-and-white Dodge Challenger from the TV Series “The Dukes of Hazard”. Dodge is the brand from the Chrysler Group that counts some of the most the exciting and aggressively sporty cars in American history. Dodge is now in Singapore, and DaimlerChrysler Asia organized an unforgettable launch at Clark Quay to announce its arrival. The Dodge launched was the Caliber, a model that has been specifically developed to appeal to European and Asian markets. It doesn’t have a gas guzzling HEMI under its bonnet but it does have the drama and style that makes its origins undeniable. Instead, there is a 16-valve 2.0-litre engine under the bonnet, mated to a CVT transmission. Apart from eye-catching styling, the Caliber is also a unique concept – combining the rugged off-road stance of an SUV, with the compact size of a standard family hatchback. Oneshift.com certainly looks forward to taking out the Dodge Caliber for a test-drive, so watch this space. Dodge joins the other North American DaimlerChrysler brands the Chrysler Jeep showroom along Leng Kee Road.

Whether or not the newly launched Nissan Qashqai will be making its way to Singapore, Nissan UK has launched an exciting new website for the vehicle at www.nissan-qashqai.co.uk. As the Qashqai breaks the mould in that it is neither a full-fledged SUV or a conventional station wagon, but is somewhere in between (like the Dodge Caliber, in many ways). The website allows viewers to customise not just the car, but also choose different types of roads and environment to drive through. Will Nissan import the European designed Qashqai to Singapore? We’ll have to wait till the Motorshow next month to find out. It would make a suitable replacement for the X-Trail, since owners of this SUV seldom venture off-road anyway.

Having one’s cake and eating it too is indeed a luxury, and Lexus has managed to do just that with its new RX400h. After introducing the 2nd generation Toyota Prius earlier this year, in late September it was Lexus’ turn to launch its eco-friendly petrol/electric hybrid model. Unlike the Prius, instead of having a combination of a small engine with an electric motor and battery to power the vehicle, the RX400h makes use of the same basic 3.3-litre V6 on the RX330 (which is not sold in Singapore), coupled to two electric motors – one located in front and one in the rear – and a battery pack. All three power units combine to give the RX400h a maximum output of 208bhp and 288Nm of torque, similar to that of a 4.0-litre V8 engine. Its 7.9 second 0-100km/h acceleration is also very impressive. So where does the eco-friendly aspect of this Lexus come in? The 400h’s complex powerplant has been engineered to idle and move off with the petrol engine off, and it only kicks in when speed and the road conditions need more juice. The other intelligent aspect of this Lexus is that it uses the rear electric motor to supply power to the rear wheels to supplement the front ones that are connected to the engine and electric motor. It definitely isn’t your conventional all-wheel-drive power unit. Oneshift.com is certainly looking forward to testing this state-of-the-art hybrid vehicle. Watch this space for a complete review.