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SINGAPORE - The Woodlands Checkpoint will be expanded, in a move that will see nine Housing Board blocks nearby acquired. Blocks 210 to 218 at Marsiling Crescent/Lane will be acquired as part of the massive redevelopment and expansion. HDB said this covers 732 sold flats, 53 rental flats, one rental kiosk, six rental shops and one rental eating house. The Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) which announced updated plans for the checkpoint on Thursday (May 26), said the expansion will address traffic congestion and meet a projected 40 per cent increase in traffic volumes by 2050. In 2017, the ICA had said that the land checkpoint would be expanded to take in the Old Woodlands Town Centre. The checkpoint has to be extended further, the authority said on Thursday, noting that travel volume at Woodlands has returned to more than 90 per cent of pre-pandemic levels during weekends with the full reopening of land borders since April 1. Traffic volume is expected to return to the daily average of 300,000 travellers soon, and continue to increase thereafter, it added. "If the overall capacity is not increased, the travel time for vehicular traffic could increase by more than 60 to 70 per cent during peak periods by 2050," ICA said. In a media briefing, ICA's Deputy Commissioner Hsu Sin Yun said: "The main aim of this extension of Woodlands Checkpoint is to bring the clearance time during peak hours from the 60 minutes pre-Covid to 15 minutes eventually, even considering the increase in traffic that we project coming to the Checkpoint." HDB said flat owners at Blocks 212 to 218 will be offered the same benefits as those under the Selective En bloc Redevelopment Scheme (Sers), including compensation based on the market value of their flats and the option to buy a new flat with a fresh 99-year lease. Residents will have to move out by the second quarter of 2028. About 1,100 replacement flats will be built at Woodlands Street 13. Construction will begin in the third quarter of 2023 and should be completed by the fourth quarter of 2027. A study is ongoing to come up with an optimal design to clear heavy goods vehicles and motorcycles at the checkpoint, ICA said. As part of the expansion, the Bukit Timah Expressway (BKE) will be extended and upgraded to channel traffic directly to and from the Old Woodlands Town Centre extension, the authority added. The surrounding local road network will also be upgraded, it said. Beyond alleviating congestion, ICA said the extension aims to significantly reduce travel time - by as much as four times - by incorporating greater automation and flexi-lanes that can be toggled to either clear cars or motorcycles. The extension will also allow vehicle checks to be conducted in an area away from the main parts of the checkpoint, in a move to boost security. 9 blocks of residents in Marsiling celebrating! 😅 https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/9-hdb-blocks-in-marsiling-to-make-way-for-woodlands-checkpoint-expansion

Thanks to its Chinese owner Geely, Lotus now has the resources to expand and is looking to add 200 new engineers to its workforce as part of its plan to increase production. As reported by The Telegraph, the British sports car company plans to triple production to 5,000 cars a year and will also open an engineering center in the Midlands. It will also be launching a hypercar dubbed ‘Type 130’ that will be unveiled later this year. The hypercar will have an output of around 1000bhp and will be powered by an all-electric powertrain developed by Williams Advanced Engineering. Back in 2017, Geely bought over Lotus as part of a £100 million (S$177 million) deal and its boss, billionaire Li Shufu aims to turn Lotus around and make it a credible rival to the world’s best supercar makers.

Hi, Would appreciate some advice here. Mine is a 2007 BMW 523i. A few days ago the warning light came on with "engine oil level too low" so on Sunday I topped up about 2L (maybe a bit more) of Shell Helix 5w40. Today when my wife drove it home the car started to shake badly, and after parking there was a lot of yellow/brownish liquid on the floor. I opened the bonnet and saw what appears to be coolant oozing out of the expansion tank. The tank cap still looked intact, though. The tank is a genuine BMW one and was replaced a few months ago only. As the car was still hot I didn't dare to open the expansion tank cap. Could this be due to engine oil overfill? But why would that cause coolant overflowing? Or the expansion tank or somewhere in the cooling system leaked (it seemed to be slowly leaking so I topped up with distilled water some time ago)? Could that cause the car to shake? No engine overheat warning came up, though. Any advice will be appreciated!

wooooo. time to go patch my client and wait liao ...

Kia Motors is benchmarking Volkswagen as it aims to become the world's best-loved car brand, said the company's vice president Hyoung-Keun (Hank) Lee. Kia wants to be a "people's brand" like Volkswagen, Lee told Automotive News Europe in an interview. He said to achieve the goal the company is using Volkswagen models as its standard for the development of new cars. For the new Kia Cee'd compact car that will go on sale in Europe next year, Kia's target "in terms of ride and handling is the VW Golf," Lee said. "We want to become the world's best-loved brand. This will automatically translate into sales volume and market share," he added. Kia aims to increase its annual global car sales to 2.8 million in 2014 from an expected 2.4 million this year, Lee said. This year, the company's global production will be more than 2.5 million vehicles, including some Hyundai models that Kia produces in its plants in the United States and Slovakia. Kia will increase production in the United States from 280,000 to 360,000 units next year and it also has ambitious sales goals in the country. Lee said Kia is aiming for a record 500,000 car sales in the U.S. in 2012 from an expected 470,000 this year. Kia will not expand production capacity too fast, Lee said. The company has learned from Toyota which ran into quality issues as it expanded global production rapidly to become the top global automaker. Said Lee: "If we increase our capacity too fast, there is the risk of a lot of mistakes like at Toyota. They grew too fast. Their employees and suppliers couldn't follow and they couldn't keep their original system."

Volkswagen will increase its investment in the coming five years as it sets its sight to overtake General Motors and Toyota as the world's largest auto maker within the next 10 years. Europe's largest car maker aims to sell more than 10 million vehicles by 2018 and achieve a pre-tax profit margin of at least 8 percent, which would equate to a return on investment in their core Automotive Division of over 16 percent. Although VW's supervisory board meets every autumn to decide on the rolling investment plan, this year's 62.4 billion euros plan represents a significant jump compared with the 51.6 billion euro investment over five years targeted last November. "The overall figure sounds spectacularly high, but one has to remember that 4 to 5 percent capital expenditure-to-sales ratios are relatively normal in the industry," said UniCredit analyst Georg Stuerzer, pointing to a figure that has fluctuated between 4.6 and 6.6 percent at VW between 2007 and 2010. According to data from annual reports, VW's capital expenditure at its core Automotive Division amounted to 5.0 percent of sales last year, less than the 6.0 percent rival Daimler invested in its Mercedes-Benz cars division. Volkswagen met a setback in its bid to dominate the industry when Suzuki Motor said that it wanted to end an alliance that would have boosted the German group's small-car presence in India. In addition, VW also called off a merger with financial holding Porsche SE this year because of legal issues and is now examining other options to integrate the holding's 51 percent stake in Porsche sports cars. In its bid to be world

hi all suddenyl i feel like playing rotk 11, and the expansion, so any 1 of you sell? i am willing to self collect and buy it at the orginal pricing.

After completing the Volvo takeover, the guys over at Geely have become much more optimistic and ambitious with their goals. The Geely group intends to grow more than ever this year, with a clear goal to become one of the top 500 companies in the world. "This year we will expand Geely's production capacity to over ten trillion units, enough to be one of the world's top 500 enterprises," said Yang Jian, president of Geely Holding Group, according to a report by Gasgoo.com. As for the auto branch in particular, Geely expects sales to have good growth in the next few years as the Volvo product range will be launched both in the domestic markets and in other unexplored regions. The company wants to double its market share in China, with sales to reach 2 million cars per year by 2015. More than 40 new models based on 15 platforms with be launched by its core brands in China such as Emgrand, Gleagle and Englon. To cater for the projected increase in sales, the dealership network will also be increased, with new stores to deliver not only models sold under its Chinese brands, but also vehicles wearing Volvo's badge. Geely reminds me of the Hyundai group in the 1980s. However, I believe Geely has a more uphill task than Hyundai in establishing its branding overseas due to its Chinese roots, which is infamous for unscrupulous manufacturers of tainted milk powder and harmful toys.

[extract] In my earlier post, it was reported that Audi has set a new sales record for year 2010. It looked like Audi is confident of the future and will be investing a total of

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ST, 27/09/06 Firm will improve training and review resource allocation: Camry chief engineer TOYOTA Motor expanded too rapidly and, as a result, did not devote enough time to maintaining quality for some of its products, admitted the carmaker's chief engineer for the new Camry. Mr Yasuyuki Kawamoto, who unveiled the new executive sedan at the Ritz-Carlton, Millenia Singapore yesterday, said rapid expansion was the reason for the spate of recalls that Toyota had to initiate in the last few months. 'I believe we've expanded fast, and as our volume increased, our development work could not catch up,' said the 48-year-old, who is one of Toyota's youngest chief engineers. From being the world's fourth-largest vehicle maker in 1999, Toyota has overtaken Volkswagen and Ford to become No. 2. It is now on the verge of beating No. 1 General Motors (GM). To achieve this, it makes cars in various countries, primarily the United States, Europe, Thailand and China. More than half of the nine million vehicles it produces are made outside of Japan. Mr Kawamoto said that maintaining consistent quality is a top priority. 'This is the main challenge of globalisation. 'Whether we overtake GM is not that important. We must have the range of cars that people want and maintain our standard of quality.'' He added that Toyota has realised its mistake and is making 'drastic adjustments' to address the quality issue. 'If there are models we can delay, we will delay. Also, we are reviewing our allocation of resources,' he said, referring, in particular, to outsourcing. 'Some of these outside resources are not used to the Toyota way.' From within, the company will raise efforts to nurture and impart know-how to younger workers whom, he admitted, were 'a little different' from the older generation. There had been reports blaming Japan's quality lapse on the country's repudiation of lifelong employment and a seniority-based system for American-style performance-based rewards. This had apparently led to workers taking a short-term view of their careers, with little or no loyalty to the company. Meanwhile, quality lapses have prompted the Japanese government to call on Toyota and Sony - which had to recall faulty laptop batteries - to buck up. Influential motoring quality consultants JD Power has even placed South Korea's Hyundai ahead of Toyota at the top spot for the first time in a recent poll. Mr Kawamoto said, however, that the Camry is still one step ahead of the Hyundai Sonata - its direct South Korean rival. 'Before Hyundai made the new Sonata, it studied the previous Camry closely. But before we made the new Camry, we studied the new Sonata closely. On the surface, the quality of the two cars looks very similar. But deep down, the Camry has better durability,' he said. Buyers here seem to agree. Since Toyota agent Borneo Motors started taking orders for the car in June, it has collected more than 1,300 bookings - or 350 units a month. In the first eight months of the year, Hyundai sold 560 Sonatas, or about 70 a month.