BELLAMYBUDIMAN

I just don’t know why this seems like a national-wide plague in automotive service centers, but it seems that everyone that is working there doesn’t seem to know what they’re doing. Back when I’m still using the Avanza, when I needed a new synchronizer ring replacement, the Auto 2000 spare parts officer doesn’t seem to know what a synchronizer ring is, and in fact, he asked me, “Itu di bagian mananya ya, Pak?” Awesome.

Today, my friend Taja and I met the same situation in Ford Jaksel with our Fiestas. The story goes like this, Taja’s Fiesta cannot connect to the iPhone and have songs playing in the car without connecting it with this cable:

It has to be connected to the car via USB and the AUX port at the same time, while mine works perfectly with a normal iPod USB cable. Coincidentally, I was there to claim a broken windshield seal rubber, and he was there to make them fix this annoying USB cable problem. On his first attempt, the tech said that every single Fiesta is like that, and people need to purchase this cable from them for 500k. Although it’s a fact that many of the first Fiestas in the country are experiencing this problem, this is just simply bull crap.

We then went comparing our cars side by side, and proved that the normal iPod USB cable connection worked flawlessly in my car. A truly on-your-face moment for the tech, and Mr. Schmuck seems to feel that he’s not the smartest guy anymore, beaten by a couple of customers, and proving that his “cable solution” is in fact, a dumb solution. He then went to ask me on what software did I install in my car. Software? It’s been like that since day one, and it is funny since Taja’s Fiesta is newer than mine, there’s no reason why it has an older firmware. However, even after “diagnosing” my car for “special settings”, the tech can’t seem to answer this.

After a few more minutes without answers from the tech, I decided to leave and told Taja to fix the car himself. I then told the tech to go to this site, download the firmware update, and then he can probably help other customers in the future. Basically a polite version of “You’re an idiot, you should know this. You’re the goddamned tech.” The Ford Mobile Connectivity website has been circulating around in various local and foreign forums and it fixes exactly that problem. The tech even tried applying the settings file he copied from my car to Taja’s. As predicted, it wasn’t really a spectacular result.

The fix is actually easy, and Taja can do this by himself for probably less than an hour (which he did at home and succeeded), but that is not the point. Authorized technicians should know better about the cars they sell, no? This proves that service providers in this country has very little knowledge in the products they sell. This is stupid. Imagine the cost that uninformed customers have to pay just to fix a minuscule problem like this, 500k for a stupid cable that doesn’t fix the actual problem? We can now conclude that if you want to have something fixed, then try fixing it yourself. It actually works better most of the time.

Reviewing cars for reference is one of the hobbies I like to do with Nyonyo, especially in a country where the option on buying cars are rather limited. Yesterday, while waiting for Nyonyo’s bike to complete its assembly, we went to Kia Bintaro to see if we can get a hands-on on the new Kia Sportage. It is a good thing that the only car they have on display was the Sportage, although it’s too bad that they don’t have a test drive unit (which is a problem that almost all car dealers here have), so we can’t exactly know how the car feels on the road. Now on to the pros and cons of the car.

Back in the days, Kia was not actually known for its good build quality. I like to call them crappy, in fact. Now, they’ve come a long way to improve this problem, and the Sportage is not excluded. The body structure is good and was made from first grade materials, I can say that it is better than Protons and in fact, better than some Toyotas. Body linings are well-aligned unlike the Kia Sephia, so you can truly see how far they did to enhance their quality.

Design-wise, the Sportage is probably one of the best looking cars we can have today. Sure, it shared the same platform with the Hyundai Tucson, but these two cars are good cars in different design spectrums. I really like how Kia made all their new cars in tune with the tiger-inspired grill and fascia, in this area, they excelled far than most of their Japanese competitors, which at most times, couldn’t even make two cars to appear like they come from the same brand. However, I’m not too keen on the amount of chrome-plated elements in this car, and while the 18″ rims do give a good stance for the car, I still think that a single-colored rim would look better. Our version of the Sportage doesn’t come with a panoramic roof as well, not that it is a necessity here.

Interior quality is top notch, it is covered with well-made materials, and it does feel expensive for a car in this price range. I haven’t seen how the Tucson’s interior looks like, but Nyonyo said it is better than the Sportage. But that doesn’t mean it’s bad. Yes, it’s probably below Volkswagen’s quality and craftsmanship, but it does give most Japanese cars a run for their money. They also managed to put a tilt-steering system that doesn’t rattle when adjusted, and a glove box that opens elegantly. Nice little touch.

Driving position is also good, although you cannot compare this with cars like the Innova, which gives you a much better view to the front end of the car. A gripe I have here is that with its sloping roof line, the size of the rear windshield must be sacrificed and therefore, hindering your view. This gets worse when the headrests of the back seats are set fully up, so buyers would really have to adjust to this.

Kia is also kind enough to provide an electrically-adjustable driver’s seat, but it’s quite disappointing that you would still have to adjust the passenger’s seat manually. Other interior equipments are also satisfactory as it includes most of what modern cars should have, including USB, AUX input, ample storage space, as well as dual airbags as a standard.

Going to the back seats, the space this car provides is also impressive. Leg room is adequate even with the front seats fully set to the back, and head room is surprisingly quite large even for a large person.

Kia is selling only two versions of the car, the automatic transmission or the manual. I can tell you that this simplifies your buying options greatly, which is a good thing. But having said that, it’s too bad that they don’t actually provide you with the option of the 2.4L engine.

To conclude the article, the 2011 Kia Sportage is highly impressive, and it certainly gives a nice alternative to Japanese cars, especially with a price that is not even 300 million. I certainly hope that we could get the chance to try the test drive unit sometime in the future.

Image credit: Wikipedia

No, it’s not a major incident, nor an incident that causes damage to my car whatsoever. The story goes like this. I went to Shell Karawaci to top up my fuel, left the car there and told the attendant that I want it to be filled up until it reaches the nozzle sensor. Then I went to the restroom.

When I returned, there was this huge pool of gasoline underneath my car. The supervisor in charge told me that the nozzle sensor didn’t register itself, and the fuel leaked out. I suspected that there was around 3 liters of fuel down there.

I then gave the guy my credit card to pay for the fuel, and the supervisor said that everything was free of charge. It was a pure incident, and they don’t know how much fuel exactly went in to the tank, and how much was wasted. So even when I insisted, the supervisor insisted back that it was free fuel day for me today.

I must say that this is the first time this thing ever happened to me, and I really do admire the supervisor’s swift decision making when handling incidents like this. Incidentally or not, should this happened in Pertamina, I’m pretty sure that they would ask me to pay for every bit of fuel that’s on the floor.

Good job, Shell. Nice to see a company here with good service.

I have to admit that car prices in Indonesia suck monkey balls, and this is what mainly keeps us from having good cars like Volkswagens or BMWs anywhere near affordable. But in the midst of those horrendously-priced cars (even Avanzas are no longer “that” affordable now), Nyonyo and I have done a small research for the past couple of months. We tried to determine which cars are actually worth buying.

First and foremost, I won’t say that this is a scientific research of any kind. This is a research from a financial, design and an automotive-enthusiast point of view, given the conditions of living in Indonesia. So I’m not going to include cars that are priced more than 400 million into this list. For example, the latest BMW 520d or the Mercedes-Benz C-Class are exceptional cars in terms of performance, design, and usage, but they are so highly priced that most of regular Indonesians would have a hard time buying it.

So, here are the cars in mind, sorted from the cheapest to the most expensive:

Ford Fiesta Sport 1.6L A/T
Here’s why it’s worth buying: Even the Sport model is cheaper than a Honda Jazz, it has a better engine, dual-clutch transmission, and a good gas mileage of around 16 KM/L. On top of that, it sure looks better than its Japanese counterpart, the Mazda 2, or any Japanese hatchbacks of the same class available here, and it gives a bonus of a good interior quality with semi-bucket front seats. Something you won’t find in a Yaris, a Jazz, or a Swift.

Hyundai i20 GL A/T
Surprise, surprise. Hyundai has got it together nowadays. In fact, almost all of its lineup looks better than the Toyota, and some of the cars are engineered better, too. Why is it worth buying? First and foremost, it has a diesel option. Second, it’s still a CBU. Third, it’s still cheaper than even the Fiesta Sport.

Ford Focus 1.8S A/T
Performance of a Corolla with the price of a Honda Freed. It may not be the latest model, but at 241 million, it gives you the bang for the buck for a compact 5-door hatchback. Just don’t buy the TDCi version just yet, as it is 100 million Rupiahs more expensive.

Volkswagen Golf TSI
If you’re looking for the reason to buy this car, it’s easy. This is truly a proof of a good German engineering achievement. First of all, with a cheaper price than the cheapest Corolla Altis, you’ll get a solid German car with exceptional exterior and interior craftsmanship. Second, it has a dual-clutch gearbox, 7-speed, and a whopping 160 BHP power despite of it having a small 1.4 L engine, which also in return, gives you a 16 KM/L gas mileage. So, is it better than a Corolla? Yes. Is it better than a Civic? Most definitely.

There’s also one more car that you might want to consider if you’re looking for a family van. And no, it’s not the Volkswagen Caravelle (which is a shame, because it’s so highly-priced) and no, it’s not the Alphard, the Vellfire, or whatever unimportant iteration that Toyota has to offer. Besides, we have too many Alphards on the road anyway and it’s actually not a van. It is a Camry with a body of a van. The car I’m talking about here is the Hyundai H-1.

Surprising? Yes. Despite the lack of good looks, the Hyundai H-1 is actually engineered better than an Alphard. There are three reasons for this. It’s RWD, it has a diesel version, and if you’re looking for something way cheaper than the cheapest Alphard, this is the car for you.

So, why isn’t there any Japanese car in the list? Is it because I hate them? No. In fact, I’m still using a Japanese car for five years and running now. But I do hate the fact that most Japanese cars drive like crap, they lack the craftsmanship (something that a Japanese product should have), and most of them are simply beige cars. They are no longer exciting to drive and they lack the performance despite the notorious misleading advertisements.

I think it’s time to move on from praising Japanese cars and give them time to get themselves together. I also think that it’s time that we move away from the paradigm of buying a Japanese car solely because of its resale value. This is just pathetic. If we were to invest millions of Rupiahs for a car, we might as well get a good one, and use it until it is no longer useable. But not by selling it and buying a new one every 3 years. I thought we’re trying to become environmentally-friendly people, yet we keep piling up the carbon footprint behind us.

PS: For those asking me if the Toyota Prius is worth buying or not. Well,
FUCK NO.

Pertamax is somehow cheaper than Shell’s Super so I thought I’d give Pertamina another chance and topped up my tank there tonight. Not that I’m being particularly stingy about the fuel price, but I thought it was a perfect time to see whether turning back to Pertamina is really worth it or not.

Tonight, I bought 38.22 liters of fuel. That is something which I have to pay for IDR 275,184 to Shell. They charge Super for IDR 7,200 a liter right now, while Pertamina charges Pertamax for IDR 7,050 per liter. At that point in the gas station, I’m expecting to pay Pertamina IDR 269,430 for the fuel.

No.

Instead, they charged me IDR 275,430. I asked the attendant why and he said that for every IDR 50,000 worth of fuel, Pertamina charges you an additional IDR 1,000 if you’re paying with a credit card. This would probably be okay if the rule was written somewhere within the vicinity, like maybe posted on every fucking fuel pump there, but no, there was nothing written there at all. So to me, this is clearly a ripoff. For the record, I was never charged for any extra fee when filling up with Shell or Total. So props to them (and they have much better customer service, too).

Nice try, Pertamina. If by good service means ripping off customers a thousand for every fifty without even telling them, then fuck you for stealing. To me, it’s not about the amount of money that you ripped off, but in a sane world, there is this thing that you call business ethics. But then again, this is a state-run company. What can you expect?