Editor’s Note April 2024 – Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri!

Greetings, readers!

I believe many of you who’ve been following us long enough know by now that Editor’s Note entries like this are rare – they come as and when needed, like this festive holiday I am sure many of you are enjoying.

If you are reading this whilst you’re savouring some scrumptious Hari Raya foods, then you, along wit the rest who’ve been following and supporting us, deserves our endless gratitude. To which, I thank all of you on behalf of the CariCarz.com Media Team.

The Tesla Cybertruck was showcase in Malaysia two days before Hari Raya Aidilfitri.

As you can see, the holy month or Ramadan wasn’t a quiet one for our industry. In fact, a lot of major players kept us busy. Amongst them was a particular American powerhouse that decided it couldn’t wait to show Malaysians a vehicle it plans NOT to sell here.

The reasons to showcase such a statement piece is something I can’t ever personally understand. Nevertheless, you can read my honest reporting about it and decide for yourself about said brand’s intentions.

Newcomers MG Malaysia (left) and established fighters GWM Malaysia (right) electrified Ramadan - literally - with their EV launches, all with attractive prices too.

Also announced and set to enter the local premium EV space soon are both the BMW iX2 (left) and Kia EV9 (right).

Did you also catch the slew of high-end new models Mercedes-Benz Malaysia launched and previewed recently?

Whilst on the EV front still, Ramadan in Malaysia was no barrier for the likes of newcomers MG Malaysia, left-field stalwarts GWM Malaysia, segment leaders BMW Malaysia, as well as left-field Korean marque Kia via distributors BAuto, from announcing and debuting new wares.

On the combustion side of things, the likes of Mercedes-Benz Malaysia, Chery Malaysia and its new luxury arm Jaecoo, not forgetting Volkswagen Passenger Cars Malaysia (PHSAM), also kept us busy during this holy month.

As always, you can recap on all their new launches by clicking the links highlighted in the text above. Aside from covering new launches, we’ve also kept ourselves busy reviewing several cars the last four weeks – both electrified and ICE.

Have you read or in-depth test-drive reports of the face-lifted Mazda CX-5 2.2D High (left) and smart #1 Premium?

By the way, have you also checked out our latest review video featuring the Audi e-tron GT quattro? Are you enjoying this new widescreen filming format we've adopted?

From which, there were two stand-out cars that left quite the impressions in both myself and my colleague Mukhlis. They are the smart #1 Premium, as well as the face-lifted Mazda CX-5 2.2D High. You can read our respective takes of both by clicking here and here.

That aside, both Mukhlis and I find ourselves piloting the recently re-specced 2024MY Kia Carnival 2.2D 8-Seater High and the face-lifted Mercedes-Benz A200 Sedan. In fact, you can see both cars featured in our special Hari Raya Aidilfitri video we just published on our social media platforms. If you’ve missed it, I’ve got you covered below:

By the way, I hope you’ve noticed the increase in quality with our social- and mobile-friendly videos, as well as the switch to widescreen filming format for our feature reviews. Do share your thoughts and comments on them so we can do better for you.

Lastly, as you can probably guess, our content frequency will pause for a bit as the bulk of the CariCarz.com Editorial team enjoy a much-needed break to be with our loved ones during this festive holiday.

On that note, I shall end this address and let you continue enjoy the festivities as well. In the meantime, do enjoy what we’ve already published, and we will be back soon. Once again, from all of us at CariCarz.com…

Selamat Hari Raya, Maaf Zahir Dan Batin.

Sincerely,

Thoriq Azmi

Senior Editor, CariCarz.com
E: thoriq@caricarz.com