25/01/2026

theSunday Special XV ON SUNDAY JAN 25, 2026

Let’s go back to basics

ised that necessitating the change of an entire headlight cluster rather than repairing parts of it increases wastage and as such a company’s eco foot print as well. This in turn does not do well for ecological tax credits. Mercedes-Benz for one has decided that it is going to go back to basics by re-introducing screws to its headlights. This allows technicians to repair parts of the headlight rather than change the entire thing. In case you were wondering, mod ern headlights are held together by heavy duty glue to hold together the lens, housing and electronics. So, sometime in the not-so-distant future, you will be able to repair the headlight of your Mercedes-Benz rather than change the entire thing simply because a stone chip has damaged the housing. This also begs the question – are cars overly complicated these days? Judging from some of the backtrack ing that car makers are doing, I think so.

IF you have never stepped into a new car, particularly an electric car, then perhaps you should walk into a nearby showroom to take a closer look at one. Not to tempt yourself into buying one, but to marvel at how much technology has progressed. For one, you may be dumbfounded at the lack of buttons. It is true, some cars like Tesla and XPeng have none to minimal buttons. Almost all key controls of the car are located in the giant infotainment system. Some of them even require you to dive deep into the software to simply adjust the position of the side view mirror. Then there are car makers that have rather odd buttons that vibrate when you press or slide over them. These are called haptic or capacitive buttons, and they are the most evil of them all because they do not work if you have sweaty palms – like I do. Car makers like Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz have had a long, arduous affair with haptic buttons.

Apple Carplay or Android Auto? Chinese car makers were notorious for this, but they’re slowly coming around and offering the tech for models sold in foreign markets. And then there is the hardware? Has anyone noticed that you can no

Journalists and fans have consistently berated them for trudging along with the horrible choice of buttons, but the German car makers have been defiant. However, early in 2025, Volkswagen reassured car buyers that it is working on reintroducing simple, hum

WRITTEN BY KESHY DHILLON

longer repair parts of a broken head lights but must instead change the entire headlight cluster? This has been going on for many years and has given rise to a new aftermarket industry that offer cheap headlights that do the same job. Some of the original headlights can cost up to RM20,000, particularly the more sophisticated ones like laser lights. But apparently that too is about to change. Some car makers have real

ble buttons to its cars. And it is not just PR talk to satiate the press and fans, Volkswagen has introduced the new ID.Polo and it is thankfully packed with good old buttons. I hope more car makers follow suit soon and perhaps should refrain from over complicating cars. There are some things that do not need to be over-engineered. Like why do some car makers insist on creating their own mapping sys tems when they can simply offer

More for less New Kia Carnival but still beats with the same heart

SINCE taking over the helm of Kia distributorship in the country, Kia Sales Malaysia’s (KSM) first action was to launch the facelifted 2026 Kia Carnival. Despite being assembled locally at the Inokom plant in Kulim, Kedah, our norther neighbours Thailand received the model three months before us. Nonetheless, it is here now and comes in two variants with KSM’s updated five-year/150,000km warranty. More seats does not equals more money as the Carnival 11-seater is priced at RM189,849 while the Carnival 7-seater goes for RM249,849.

The Carnival here soldiers on with the tried-and-tested 2.2-litre Smartstream turbodiesel engine, even though the Thai version assembled here can be had with the 1.6-litre hybrid mill. That’s 202PS and 440Nm of torque paired to the same eight speed automatic driving the front wheels. Kia claims it will return 6.5 litres per 100km. Leading the list of upgrades is the new front fascia with Kia’s ‘tiger nose’ grille with L-shaped LED headlights on either side that also house four cube-shaped projec tors stacked vertically as Kia’s Star Map LED DRLs. For the rear, it sports full-width LED taillights with the Star Map graphics.

The rear bumper gets refreshed with a silver bar to complement the front bumper. Equipment wise, the 11-seater rolls on 18-inch turbine-inspired wheels while the 7-seater rocks up with some 19 inch pieces in an eye catching cubic design. Both do get roof rails

Auto and Apple CarPlay. Below the full

width air-conditioning vents sit the controls that are now integrated with the audio into a single switchable touch panel. This frees up space for larger cubby holes. Finally, the seven USB ports are now updated to the newer USB-C type. Exclusive to the seven-seater is a Bose 12-speaker system. Both vari ants get eight airbags and a suite of Adas features. In the seven-seater, the middle row gets power-adjustable captain’s chairs with a one-touch Premium Relaxation recline func tion. The pair can be slid fore and aft or even side to side. Both variants get eight-way power adjustable front seats with lumbar adjustment but the more premium seven-seater adds on driver’s side four-way lumbar adjustment, mem ory, heating and ventilation as well.

and a hands-free powered tailgate as well as the slid ing doors. It might not seem obvious but the 11 seater’s side-view mirrors are actually taller and more squarish than the 7 seater. Not much has changed on the inside. The 11-seater now gets a digital instru ment cluster as well, previ ously running on an ana logue unit. Both the cluster and infotainment displays are now integrated into a single curved display. The infotainment runs on a faster software and supports wireless Android