BMW recalls 1.3million cars worldwide over battery fault

By Gaby Leslie | Yahoo! Cars News

http://uk.cars.yahoo.com/news/bmw-recalls-1-3million-cars-worldwide-over-battery-fault.html

German car maker BMW is recalling 1.3 million cars over problems with a battery cable cover which could in extreme cases cause a fire. The cable is found in the boot of the car.

The worldwide recall affects 5 and 6-Series models made between 2003 and 2010 and includes 109,000 cars in the UK.

The world’s largest luxury car manufacturer said: "In some remote cases, the battery cable cover inside the boot of these vehicles may be incorrectly mounted.

"This can result in the electrical system malfunctioning, the vehicle failing to start and, in some cases, to charring or fire."

The issue came to light through the continuous testing and development of BMW vehicles and some customer feedback. No incidents of this kind have so far been reported, the car maker added.

BMW said that it would be writing to car owners to warn them about the defect.

I have an on going love affair with BMWs so obviously this news breaks my heart especially because it involves the E60, a car very high on my wish list.

Last Friday I was at Auto Bavaria Glenmarie to see the new F30. Some of you must think I’m bullshitting because the car was only officially launched on Saturday but just take my word for it – I saw the new F30 a day before it was launched. There is nothing much to brag about really, I’m sure many others had the same opportunity, I think.

Anyway, I saw the 335i sports, 328i luxury and the spartan 320d. I love them all! Rumour has it that the CKD version will be on sale come June. Maybe it’s time to retire the E90?

Political Assets and Liabilities

The 13^th General Election is around the corner. Or so everyone says. Who will win? BN supporters will say BN and Pakatan supporters will say PR, obviously. My 2 cents is probably irrelevant but I won’t be surprised if I’m not the only one with the following views.

Retirement Planning

Retirement means not working and not working means not earning any income. Without an income, how can one survive? Some might respond with – what a stupid question, we have our EPF savings, don’t we? Yes we do and civil servants have their pensions. The next not so stupid question is – is it enough? The life expectancy in Malaysia is about 72-73 years and private sector retirement age is currently still at 55 which means a person has to spend almost 20 years totally dependant on his EPF savings. I guess it would not be a problem if you retire a senior general manager with an EPF saving of 2-3 million ringgit but what if you retire in middle management and after withdrawing your savings to fully settle your housing loan and pay for your children’s tuition fees’, you are left with only a couple of hundred thousand to live on?

Why the West Wants a War With Iran

Rothschilds Want Iran’s Banks

By Pete Papaherakles [original article here]

February 25, 2012

Could gaining control of the Central Bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran (CBI) be one of the main reasons that Iran is being targeted by Western and Israeli powers?

Rothchilds and 9/11

Source: http://www.iamthewitness.com/listeners/What.2.countries.DID.NOT.have.a.Rothschild.owned.Central.Bank.htm

Before 9/11 guess what 2 countries DID NOT have a Rothschild owned and started Central Bank; Afghanistan and Iraq.

World Trade Center is an act by Israel with the complicity of Britain and America, under the orders of the Rothschild. Why? These are the reasons:

Iran, Israel, Nuclear Weapons

I have come across many articles debating whether the United States should attack Iran and attempt to eliminate its nuclear facilities. Many of the articles include the opinions of Israel in deliberating whether to attack Iran or not. Strangely, writings on nuclear issues in North Korea rarely include attacking the rouge state, the only party threatening a nuclear attack is the North Koreans.

The absence of a nuclear threat on North Korea could stem from her close relationship with another nuclear powerhouse, China. Any attack on North Korea could force China to retaliate and would result in dire consequences.

On the other hand, the USA seems to be ever ready to assist Israel if the latter decides to attack Iran. Why is the different stance? It sort of makes it very obvious that Israel has the mighty USA in its pockets.

Voltaire and Winston Churchill - Islam Haters

Voltaire and Churchill – Islam Haters

Haters – I’m not sure if there is such a word and to clarify, I define it as “to hate something”.

Referring to Prophet Muhammad s.a.w., in a letter to Frederick II of Prussia in December 1740, Voltaire said:

But that a camel-merchant should stir up insurrection in his village; that in league with some miserable followers he persuades them that he talks with the angel Gabriel; that he boasts of having been carried to heaven, where he received in part this unintelligible book, each page of which makes common sense shudder; that, to pay homage to this book, he delivers his country to iron and flame; that he cuts the throats of fathers and kidnaps daughters; that he gives to the defeated the choice of his religion or death: this is assuredly nothing any man can excuse, at least if he was not born a Turk, or if superstition has not extinguished all natural light in him.

[published in Oeuvres complètes de Voltaire, Vol. 7 (1869), edited by Georges Avenel, p. 105]

Noh Omar Has Lots of Evidence on the Selangor Sand Mining Scandal

Has he?

If he has the evidence and is determined seek justice for Selangor and her people why has he not come forward with documentary evidence on the alleged corruption? We cannot continue to take his word for it, he has to show us real proof.

The Selangor state government gave him a good opportunity to bare all on the sand mining scandal thing at the SELCAT but he refused. Instead he called SELCAT a kangaroo court.

A kangaroo court? SELCAT is not even a court.

I take it the Hon. Minister is questioning the legitimacy of SELCAT. In other words he is saying he will not testify in an illegitimate, illegal proceeding. He should tell his esteemed comrade YB Sulaiman bin Abdul Razak (ADUN Permatang) to stop attending the proceedings then.

My hunch is Noh doesn’t know much, if anything, about the sand mining thing.

Did Shahrizat Resign?

On Monday 12 March, The Star online edition posted a newspiece titled “It is my own decision to give up post as minister, says Shahrizat” [here].

The MCA controlled daily reported that: Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil has announced she will relinquish her post as Women, Family and Community Development Minister when her senatorship ends on April 8.

However, the embattled Cabinet member will continue her duties as Wanita Umno chief.

“I want to do the right thing. And I feel that the right thing for me to do is to step down from my position as minister,” she told a packed press conference at the Taman Desa Waterpark here yesterday.

Sometimes I feel like telling Rafizi, Zuraida and Tony to stop harassing Shahrizat and her family. Not because I support the Shahrizats or sympathise with them but I think we should try to not force Salleh, Shahrizat and co to further humiliate themselves. Every time they open their mouths, they end up making a bigger fool of themselves and in the process dig a bigger grave.

But I can’t resist commenting on Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil’s resignation.

Air Asia X Dropping More Routes

AirAsia X, the long-haul arm of AirAsia, Asia’s largest low cost airline has announced it will drop flights to Christchurch, New Zealand as part of the carrier’s plan to realign its network to meet demand better.

Holiday Plans

I don’t think I know anyone who doesn’t like to travel. Maybe it’s because I don’t know that many people. But most people I know seem to be talking about going for their next holiday. I too am one of them. The difference between me and some of the people I know is that when I travel I want to see places. When they travel, their objective is to shop till they drop, or when their credit card is maxed.

For those who fall under the shopper-traveller group, this posting is not for you.

For those who like to see new places, read on.

Liverpool fc 2012 – sam speaks

I, like most Liverpool fans were hoping 2011/12 would be a better year but it turns out (so far) it has been relatively similar to the past 10 – 20 years, save for a few good seasons in between.

Yes, we won the Carling Cup, our first trophy in six years but the Carling Cup despite offering a Europa league spot is not a Cup taken very seriously by most of the top teams. It is more of an exposure tournament for their younger players. No disrespect but two Championship teams got into the semi finals and that says a lot.

What is wrong with LFC? Spending 100 million on players doesn’t guarantee success, especially if you can only get expensive second choices.

Uncouth Singaporean Drivers on Malaysian Roads

I was on the North South Expressway near Seremban when I came across a very rude, uncouth Singaporean driver. I’m assuming he is Singaporean because he was driving a Singapore registered car, a black Cefiro 230 bearing the number 4010 (I think that was the number, I can’t recall the alphabets but it was on a black plate with white letters/numbers). He was obviously travelling way beyond the speed limit and even at one point was using the emergency lane to overtake. I guess he is in a hurry to meet his maker. The decadent car turned off into the Elite highway and continued to drive like his father owns the road. I know because I too turned into Elite and saw him disappear into the horizon. How I wished he had disappeared into oblivion.

I am sick of Singaporean drivers driving like wild hogs on Malaysian roads. It’s bad enough that we have Malaysians who drive recklessly and dangerously above the speed limit but Singaporeans doing it just adds salt (lots of it) to the wound. And to think that these very same Singaporeans wouldn’t dare drive 0.5 km/h above the speed limit back home.

My First Home Scheme - The PM Doesn't Know What Goes On on the Ground

A house buyers’ group has labelled the My First Home scheme an “ill-advised” policy after it was reported this week that not a single loan application has been approved under Putrajaya’s home ownership scheme for low-income earners.

The scheme, launched by Datuk Seri Najib Razak a year ago, has come to a grinding halt as banks are unwilling to hand out 100 per cent financing for property worth up to RM400,000 to applicants earning less than RM3,000 a month.

National Homebuyers Association (HBA) honorary secretary-general Chang Kim Loong told The Malaysian Insider that setting a ceiling of RM400,000 under a scheme for “affordable housing” was “ridiculous and somebody must have told the prime minister the wrong facts.”

“It is obvious that our honourable PM was ill-advised by parties with vested interest on setting the price range of RM400,000 for income earners below RM3,000,” he said in an interview. (TMI, 9 Mar 2012)


A 400,000 loan over 25 years will yield a monthly instalment of 2,577.21 per month. The PM expects people earning 3,000 (gross) to spend 85% of their salary on house instalments? What would this people eat?

Gold is Not a Commodity

Gold is not a commodity and hence it should not have a price. Most of the commentators on the issue of using gold as currency still see gold as a commodity and as long gold is seen as a commodity, it will NEVER be a measure or store of value. Gold should not have a price; it should be valued based on what it can obtain. Gold would not achieve its purpose of being a medium of exchange if it continues to valued in fiat money terms.

I found an ‘interesting’ article in the electronic version of The Guardian (here) on Gold Dinar written by Nazry Bahrawi. I find the article to be short of knowledge on what Gold is and I also find the writer as someone who is very ‘anti-Malaysia’ (he is a Singaporean Malay btw).

Basically what the gold expert Nazry said was that any efforts to re-introduce gold as a medium of exchange are;

An Ear and A Shoulder is All We/They Need

Often, when people come to us feeling depressed, our first reaction is to offer advice and suggest solutions. We think we are helping but in actual fact we may make things worse. You see, people who are depressed do not want answers or solutions; they just want a place to express their feelings, share their anxieties and most of all, to let everything out of their chest.

I heard something to that effect on the radio.

To Buy or Not to Buy? – That is the Question

What Car?  advised car buyers to be wary of some cars which have a low price tag, but a hefty three-year cost. They singled out the Perouda Myvi 1.3 SXI as a model with a low target price of £6,999 but a high level of depreciation – the car loses 75% of its value over three years.

The magazine also said the Proton Satria Neo 1.6 GSX may cost less than a Fiesta initially - it has a target price of £7,867 – but over a three-year term, will cost the same as the Ford.

*What Car? is a car magazine