Not sure if you should get yourself an Audi or a BMW? Here’s a nice comparison test between the 2010 Audi S4 that comes with a nice supercharged V6 engine that produces a healthy 333 hp and 325 lb-ft of torque, and the 2009 BMW 335i that sports 300hp and 300 lb-ft of torque, with both using a six-speed manual gearbox.
Source: Alex Ion
Dirty Nissan 200sx s13 Drifter
Source: Alex Ion
Replacing Stem Oil Seals and Inserting Valves
Source: Alex Ion
Head Refacing Lapping Valves and Engine Strip Down
Source: Alex Ion
Head Stripping and Hydraulic Lifter Refurbish
Source: DieterMuller
How to pay your traffic fines online
It’s no fun being caught speeding or getting a parking fine. It’s even less fun being summoned to go to court after ignoring the notices! There is a new service available that you can use to view and pay your fines online. In case you want to dispute the fine they also provide the traffic camera photo for your convenience – there is quite a few of myself sitting cozy in the drivers seat.
I just logged in and saw a few outstanding fines on my name. All you need is your ID number. There are two sites depending on your area – Payfines.co.za for Jozi and viewfines.co.za for Cape Town. C’mon be a good citizen and pay your fines!
Source: Charl Norman
The Bentley Continental GT’s new styling package has finally been revealed by Vorsteiner. Customers are going to be delighted to find that the package has been designed with “vacuum bagged dry carbon fiber technology”, and it includes everything you need to turn your car into a completely new vision with style. You’ll get a new front bumper, as well as a rear one, both of which have been drastically lowered as opposed to their original counterparts; aerodynamic side skirts; and a new spoiler. Additionally, you may opt for a customized paint job, pick between glosse or matte finishing for the interior, and also custom 22-inch wheels complete with a set of Michelin Pilot Sport PS2 tires.
Source: Alex Ion
“Turbulent” wouldn’t properly describe the recent flight path of national flag carrier Japan Airlines, in a spiralling game of chicken with its retirees and unions over a $3.7 billion pension shortfall.
President Haruka Nishimatsu, who needs a pension deal to get bridge loans and bailout money from the state, is asking for an average 40 percent cut from retirees and current employees.
“If we can’t, risks to our survival will increase, including the possibility of a court-led reorganisation,” he said on Monday to a gathering of unions and retirees.
The merits for the 17,000 current staff and some 9,000 retirees, who can block any pension cut if more than one-third object, are not compelling to everyone.
“I feel an attachment to the company, but on the other hand I have my own life. I have been banking on that corporate pension to make ends meet,” said a 59-year-old male retiree.
The government, which first raised the prospect of court-protected bankruptcy and in so doing helped send JAL shares tumbling, has played equal hardball with its staff, saying it may try to revise the law to forcibly implement pension cuts, which would most likely put the whole issue in a legal circling pattern.
Would a nation with a growing number of pensioners be supportive of such a move, which may then become a blueprint for their own weaker returns? I wouldn’t put money on it. But for a carrier with more than $15 billion in debt as well as shares at record lows and falling, someone needs to blink — and soon.
Photo credit: REUTERS/Issei Kato
Source: Daniel Sloan
For some of Japan’s retailers trying to jumpstart consumer spending, setting prices is like doing the limbo: How low can they go?
Japanese retailers reported mostly dismal first-half earnings results, with the industry stuck in a slump as shoppers remain reluctant to open their wallets even as the economy emerges from recession.
With no sales pick-up in sight, stores seem to have no choice but to continue their race to undercut rivals, with prices dropping for everything from cars to clothes to milk.
On the surface it sounds like a shopper’s paradise: Who wouldn’t mind paying less than 1,000 yen ($11) for a pair of jeans?
But it could also lead to a deflationary spiral in which consumers put off spending in hopes of further falls in prices.
And what’s more, these price cuts are slicing into already razor-thin profits at companies, which are then forced to pass on the pain to employees in the form of lower paychecks.
“It’s a death march,” said Junji Ueda, CEO of FamilyMart, Japan’s No. 3 convenience store chain.
“Manufacturers and transportation companies can’t make profits, and retail workers can’t get pay rises, or even worse, deflation will get to the point where they can’t keep their jobs.”
But some retail managers say price cuts are not hurting their businesses and there is room for even more markdowns.
“Some say we are cutting prices at the expense of profits, but such an argument is groundless. The problem is how to control inventory efficiency,” said Motoya Okada, president of Japan’s No. 2 retailing group Aeon Co Ltd, which runs the Jusco chain of supermarkets.
“Some wonder how we can sell jeans at 880 yen, but at the same time, there are many who think they are still expensive. Recently, I visited Vietnam and was surprised to see items better than ours are sold at half our prices.”
Tadashi Yanai, CEO of Fast Retailing, maintains rivals’ efforts to undercut each other are self-destructive, although the firm’s casual-clothing chain Uniqlo is seen by some as one of the very culprits for fanning the deflationary trend with ultra-cheap apparel.
Fast Retailing is among the few Japanese retailers that have reported robust profit growth, buoyed by strong sales at the Uniqlo stores.
“Our 990 yen jeans created value, but those that followed, like the ones for 880 yen and 850 yen, — I guess jeans will be sold for free eventually – did not produce value at all. I think our rivals will end up hurting themselves through such moves,” Yanai said.
I am a bargain hunter and always happy to pay less, but I’m just hoping my salary doesn’t decline like the prices of the goods in my shopping cart.
Photo credits: REUTERS/Issei Kato
Source: Taiga Uranaka
Word is that the Jaguar XKR is the world’s best drifting car. But if you’re Jeremy Clarkson you’ll obviously need to test that yourself, see if it’s true, or not. So he did it by wearing flippers! So here’s how you do it …
Source: Alex Ion