By Leow Ju-Len

FOR NIGH UNTO 20 years, Gunther Holtorf has explored pretty much every corner of the world, not as you or I might have done it, but from behind the wheel of ‘Otto’, his faithful 1988 Mercedes-Benz 300GD. That’s some 686,000km and counting - about 200,000km of it off-road, by his reckoning.

The intrepid traveler passed through here recently as part of a Southeast Asian tour that took him through Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and then Cambodia, skirting the Burmese and Chinese borders along the way. Otto will then be shipped to Taiwan and then Japan, after which the trusty Merc heads overland back to Europe along the trans-Siberian railway.

Holtorf, looking sprightly for his 72 years, decided to explore the world by road after his career in the aviation business made him curious about what he was missing. “I’ve seen the world from overhead,” he says. “I always said to myself, ‘One day I will be at flight level zero and see what’s down there.’”

So together with his wife Christine, he packed it all in and retired, then did as Nike’s slogan suggested and headed to Africa from his native Germany. “I was very happy and yet, looking back, was very happy having dropped all that to be independent and free and able to this,” he says in perfect English.

Holtorf’s travels, it’s worth mentioning, have been completely self-funded, so there are neither sponsors to please nor corporate messages to spread.

“The intention was very simple, to travel Africa north-south, nothing else,” he says of that first trip 20 years ago. “Somehow… you know, we got our tongues wet, let’s put it that way. So we stayed a little longer, and finally we stayed five years in Africa.” Five years then became 20, and Africa became, well, the rest of the world.

Otto serves as both hotel and restaurant. Holtorf picks up local produce wherever he is, and cooks meals off a gas-fired stove rigged up to the back of the Merc. That might sound a touch unglamorous, but mobility has its benefits. “With this car the advantage is that we could stay in interesting places,” he says. One time, Holtorf decided to spend a week with a pride of lions, and simply followed them around in the safety of Otto.

Naturally, there have been harrowing moments along the way. Holtorf has talked his way out of a confrontation with gun-wielding extortionists in Ethiopia, come face to face with a spotted hyena in the middle of the night, and taken it all in his stride.

So, too, has Otto. “We had an elephant scratching his back against the car,” chuckles Holtorf.

Despite that sort of thing, the old Merc is in remarkably rude health. The 300GD is still running on its original engine, gearbox and transfer cases.

Fittingly, then, Otto is destined to become a museum piece. Once he completes a tour of China next year, Holtorf will make a final journey into Stuttgart, hand Otto over to the Mercedes-Benz museum curators and simply call it a day. “We’ll just close the lid and that will be the end of the tour,” he says casually.

Holtorf says he might write a book about his journey, but I reckon he should open a workshop. Sure, the 300GD is legendary for robustness, but any man who can keep a car running perfectly for that sort of distance would get my business right away.

Words of wisdom

STARTING TO FEEL a bit of wanderlust yourself? You’d do well to heed the advice of a man who’s done it all…

ON IMPROVISING

“We had these lions all around us, and the problem is you can’t open the doors, you can’t even lower the windows. At some point you need to get relief, you know, so you have to do it in the car. We cut open a plastic bottle and used that. You have to find solutions, right?”

HOW TO DEAL WITH GUN NUTS

“We had a gunpoint situation in Northern Ethiopia. In the real dry bush, everybody is running with a Kalashnikov. They saw us, a group of guys with guns. We were packing to leave and they came over. These people, they only want to get money. The important point to avoid is a build up of tension, so you keep smiling.”

WHY MOBILE PHONES ARE A PEST

“This email and Internet situation gives you the obligation to do something. For that reason we don’t carry a cellular phone. We don’t carry a satellite phone. We don’t carry a laptop. We try to take it easy. When there is a chance we phone Europe, or we’ll use an Internet café, just to give a positional report.”

WHY THE INTERNET IS A PEST

“We don’t operate a website or homepage. I always say it doesn’t make sense to tell the world that our house is empty for the time being. To be quite honest, it is a burden to contact or to get into an Internet café every day to keep the world up to date on our progress. Everybody has a different view on it, but our view is that we are not that important that we need to tell the world what we are doing. The important point is to do it.”

ON HOW TO KEEP GOING

“Whatever happens, never happens in front of the workshop. It happens when you’re close to the shit in the bush. It’s like that, you know. We carry about 400, 450 different spare parts on board, so whatever you may need, we have it on board. The biggest parts are a set of shock absorbers. The smallest one may be a small o-ring for the clutch actuator piston, but that may be a lifesaver. We never got stuck.”

ON THE NECESSARY MINDSET

“You must be prepared to forget your civilised life. That’s the most important point. You must be happy even with the very, very basics. It doesn’t work when you try to transfer your civlised life into the wilderness. In the wilderness, you need to live a type of wilderness.”

WHAT TO BRING

“We are down to nuts and bolts, and that is a good philosophy. I know of a number of people who follow the same philosophy, and they don’t have any major difficulties. Those people who travel in luxury, carry their fridge and all the modern electronic equipment… they always have difficulties.”

By Andy Hum

CUSTOMERS LOOKING TO buy used Audis, Minis or even Porsches will have an easier time now, with the recent openings of both Audi and the Eurokars Group’s used car showrooms.

The Audi Used Car Centre is located at 6 Kung Chong Road (directly behind the AXS HQ building on Leng Kee Road) and was opened by Audi Singapore and Premium Automobiles. It can display up to 15 cars.

The Eurokars Pre-Owned showroom is also in the prime automotive area, and is located on the ground floor of The Alexcier building, at 237 Alexandra Road. Cars being sold by the Eurokars Group include Mini, Opel, Porsche, Rolls-Royce and Saab. The centre will also sell cars of other makes, but will likely focus on the European marques.

While both Audi and the Eurokars Group said that the cars they will sell will first have to undergo thorough assessments. Eurokars Group, however, added that as they can only certify cars from their own brands, the cars of other makes will not have warranty packages as comprehensive as their own brands.

For Audi, whose sales figures have been growing steadily in recent years, the move is part of bigger plans.

Managing director of Audi Singapore, Reinhold Carl, said, “The opening of Audi’s new Used Car centre is an important milestone for the brand’s development in Singapore. While other carmakers are recovering from the effects of the global uncertainty, we will continue to step up growth and investment in the brand.”

The German car brand is also about to convert its service centre at Ubi (which also used to be its used car centre) to focus instead on aftersales. Renovations have already begun and will be complete by April this year. Expect to see a new Audi quattro accessories shop there is in the pipeline.

By Andy Hum

AFTER MORE DRAMA than a sappy serial, the sale of Swedish car-maker Saab to Dutch supercar makers, Spyker Cars, has concluded. Under the deal, Spyker will pay US$74 million in cash, and General Motors (GM) will also get US$326 million worth of shares in Saab, but that amount also only entitles them to ‘less than one percent of the voting rights in the capital of Saab’.

Many news reports have stated that part of the delay was because a certain Russian, Alexander Antonov, who was until recently a major shareholder in the Spyker Group, was rumoured to be involved with the Russian mafia.

Spyker founder, Victor Muller, has since taken over the stake previously owned by Antonov. GM vice president for corporate planning and alliances, John Smith, said, “as part of finding a sustainable solution for Saab, we are happy with the structures of the company that Victor Muller has put in place for Saab Spyker and I’ll just leave it at that.”

The deal is also a happy ending to all the drama that local Saab dealer Auto Eurokars, which belongs to the Eurokars Group, had to endure.

David Chung, assistant marketing manager for Auto Eurokars, said that it was good news and that they are awaiting further directions from Europe. Chung said, “However, we are still positive about having the new Saab 95 on our shores as planned.”

“The Saab 93 models continue to be available. In the meantime, it is business as usual for our aftersales department in support all our existing customers,“ he added.

By Daryl Lee

ON JANUARY 26, Borneo Motors, the exclusive distributor for Lexus cars here officially unveiled the face-lifted LS Hybrid luxury sedan at the One°15 Marina Club in Sentosa.

Also known as the ‘LS 600h L’ here, the LS Hybrid will take pride of place at the top of Lexus’ product line-up here, and is the priciest Lexus you can buy at a starting price of $394,000 with COE. Deliveries have already begun, and at that price range, its rivals include Audi’s A8 L 4.2, BMW’s 750i and the Mercedes-Benz S 500 L, with the Lexus being the only hybrid in this category of large luxury limousines.

It boasts a 5.0-litre V8 engine supplemented with an electric motor, one which the Japanese automaker dubs ‘Lexus Hybrid Drive’, endowing the large limousine with what Lexus claims has the ‘power of a 6.0-litre V12’ with the ‘low emission of a 3.0-litre V6’. Together, both motors make up to 438bhp and a maximum torque of 520Nm.

It will be able to run in full electric mode for short distances and has a claimed fuel consumption rating of around 10.7km/L. Not bad, when you consider that the 5.15m-long car weighs 2,320kg and even has four-wheel drive.

Despite the size and weight, it’s still blisteringly quick. It’ll reach a top speed of 250km/h and will do 0-100km/h in 6.3 seconds.

Luxury and refinement, though, will be the key consideration. With four-zone independent climate control, a Mark Levinson 5.1 surround sound system, a nine-inch ceiling-mounted LCD screen for rear passengers and a self-parking feature, it shouldn’t disappoint. An ‘Ottoman’ massage seat is also an available option.

ON 29 JANUARY, Mazda Motor Singapore, the official distributor for Mazda cars here opened up its second showroom with a total floor area of around 51,000 square feet along Alexandra Road, including almost 20,000 square feet of showroom space that can display up to 14 cars.

This adds on to Mazda’s already established showroom off MacPherson Road and adds a much-needed presence along the main Leng Kee/Alexandra automotive sales area of Singapore and “will further enhance the standard of customer care and services”, says Mr Phng Hooi Chay, Mazda Motor Singapore’s managing director.

Other highlights at the showroom’s launch was the local debut of the face-lifted CX-7 sport utility vehicle that has a new 2.5-litre engine (see review on page 10), and the unveiling of the stunning Mazda Kiyora concept car which first debuted at the 2008 Paris Motor Show.

Also present at the event was Mr Kazuhiko Hayashi, general manager of Mazda’s asia & pacific overseas sales division, whom CarBuyer spoke to and found out more about the future of the brand here.

Q&A with Kazuhiko Hayashi, general manager of Mazda’s asia and pacific overseas sales division

CB: In a local context, where do you see the Mazda brand now and where do you see it heading in the future?

KH: We are not one of the bigger players, but we see ourselves as a unique brand with our ‘Zoom-Zoom’ philosophy.

CB: Could you tell us more about this Mazda way?

KH: We have come up with a design language and are constantly evolving this, while still keeping the essence of our current styling trends. The Kiyora is a good example of this employing our Nagare (Japanese for ‘flow’) design language.

CB: What are the key tactics you use to market your cars in Singapore?

KH: Key tactics will be building up Mazda’s brand image and to make it appeal to customers who enjoy good driving dynamics. Also, we place a very large premium on customer satisfaction.

CB: Obviously a future Mazda will have to tie in with environmental consciousness as well. What is Mazda doing with regards to hybrids and alternative power?

KH: Of course, we are developing hybrids, hydrogen fuel cells and electric-powered vehicles. Still, there is no firm trend established throughout the industry as to which will be the powertrain of the future. What we are focusing on now is enhancing the efficiency of the conventional internal combustion engine and we feel it’s a good way utilising existing technology to pursue environmental consciousness while reining in development costs.

CB: What kind of qualities will a Mazda of the future embody?

KH: I can definitely say the future will be an evolution of our current strategy. It will feel fun to drive and be driven very much by design as well.

CB: What will be the future of ‘Zoom-Zoom’?

KH: A bigger “wow” factor than what we have now! (laughs).

Call Cycle & Carriage at 6427-8888 for more information. Terms and conditions apply.

Mercedes-Benz
Cycle & Carriage is having a Mercedes-Benz ‘Double 8’ promotion for this weekend. Book selected Mercedes-Benz models and receive $8,000 worth of benefits or an 8 percent trade-in booster, which adds 8 percent to the value of your used car. You will also receive an 8 percent cash rebate and subsidised interest rate.

Call Cycle & Carriage at 6298-1818 for more information. Terms and conditions apply.

Opel
Every customer that takes an Opel test drive walks away with a free Opel premium.

Call Auto Eurokars at 6749-0300 for more information. Terms and conditions apply.

Skoda
Harvest Automobiles is running a promotion for the Skoda Superb and Octavia VRS models, which will come with free insurance, 1-year’s road tax and 3 scheduled servicing (worth up to $5,000 total).

Call Harvest Automobiles at 6472-1188 for more information. Terms and conditions apply.

Suzuki
Enjoy a ‘Super Upgrade Promo Price’ on the Suzuki Swift 1.5 GL. There’s also an additional $2,000 discount for selected colours of the Swift 1.5 GLX automatic and Swift Sport 1.6 manual/automatic. There’s also a $1,000 discount on the Grand Vitara 2WD.

Also enjoy a Lunar New Year promotion which includes a $3,888 cash Hong Pao, free petrol vouchers worth $300, free leather seats and 3M Solar Film, free servicing for the first year and a special low interest rate of 2.20 percent. Also, book a Swift 1.3 automatic and get a free upgrade to a Swift 1.5 GL automatic.

Call Champion Motors at 6774-9773 for more information. Terms and conditions apply.

Toyota
Borneo Motors is continuing its Chinese New Year deal this weekend, so it’s your last chance to enjoy up to $6,000 discount on selected Toyota models.

Call Borneo Motors at 6475-1288 for more information. Terms and conditions apply.

LOCAL NISSAN DISTRIBUTOR, Tan Chong Motor, is now offering the 2.5-litre Nissan Murano sport utility vehicle (SUV) and the 3.7-litre 370Z Roadster.

For SUV lovers, especially those who like the Murano for its plush characteristics but not its tax-unfriendly 3.5-litre V6 engine, the new 2.5-litre four-cylinder engine should make it more appealing. The new powerplant produces 170bhp and 245Nm of torque and will be mated to Nissan’s Xtronic continuously variable transmission. Goodies include a factory-fitted reverse camera, Bose audio system, 18-inch wheels and an electrically-powered tailgate lifter, while a sunroof is an available option.

Nissan’s other model, the 370Z Roadster, should be even more electrifying. It has the same 333bhp 3.7-litre V6 engine as the 370Z Coupe, but it has a retractable soft-top, so drivers and passengers can get a better sensation of its performance.

Both manual and automatic transmission versions of the 370Z Roadster are available, and the cars will come with xenon headlamps, keyless entry, a Bose sound system and 19-inch sport rims. Air-conditioned seats are also available as options.

Pre-launch prices for the Nissan Murano 2.5 start from $126,000, and the 370Z Roadster with manual transmission will cost from $172,800, while the automatic is $3,000 more. All prices include COE.

“THE BEST of three worlds” is how Audi is describing the new A5 Sportback, which it says has the ‘emotion and elegance of a coupe, the comfort of a sedan and the practicality of a station wagon.’ The new four-door version of the A5 was launched on January at the Singapore Turf Club.

Managing director of Audi Singapore, Reinhold Carl, is confident of this model, saying, “This means we’re creating a new market segment with the A5 Sportback and it doesn’t have any direct competitors.” With Mercedes’ CLS costing about a hundred grand more and no confirmation yet about BMW’s 5 GT making its way here, the A5 Sportback should face little competition.

The sleek curve on its rear end may give some the impression that it’s a model built from scratch, but the A5 Sportback actually shares several major components with the A4. Its wheelbase is 2,810mm-long (just 2mm more than the A4) and its overall length is just 8mm longer. Both models even have the same 480-litre boot size.

While it does resemble the A4 saloon at the front, its selling point comes from its rear. From the roofline, what would have been a more upright C-pillar on the A4 is now a gentle gradient that flows towards the boot edge. This design also means that the rear windscreen is part of the bootlid, like on the four-door Porsche Panamera.

Two variants of the A5 Sportback are available: a 2.0 TFSI quattro and a 3.2 FSI quattro. The former is powered by a turbocharged 211bhp 2.0-litre in-line four engine, like the ones found in the A4, A5 Coupe and the Q5 crossover, while the latter gets a 265bhp 3.2-litre V6. Both will be fitted with Audi’s seven-speed S tronic dual-clutch gearbox, allowing both cars to get from 0-100km/h in about 6.6 seconds.

Standard equipment in both models include the ‘Audi drive select’ system, which allows drivers to change the vehicle dynamics at the push of a button, and also xenon headlights. The more expensive 3.2 FSI quattro model gets a navigation system, 19-inch rims, a Bang & Olufsen sound system and the S line exterior package, which includes sportier aesthetic bits and front sports seats.

Prices for the A5 Sportback 2.0 TFSI quattro start from $174,500 with COE and $201,800 with COE for the 3.2 FSI quattro.