Mercedes-Benz A45 AMG

Now I had to admit that this isn't a WRX STi, which is not due until next year and this wasn't even a Subaru because this one's German and expensive. This is a Mercedes-Benz hatchback suitable for those who are rich enough to ditch their Scoobys and Evos. This is the new A45 AMG...

2014 Mercedes-Benz A45 AMG

So, what exactly is this new kid on the block doing on the Mercedes-AMG range which consists of hardcore models that came from the skunk works of AMG? Well, what they did on the current-generation A-Class is inject it with a newly developed M133 2.0L twin turbo engine, which is known to be the most powerful series production four-cylinder turbo engine in the world, add some AMG DNA on it, and then slap some four-wheel drive on it, which makes the A45 AMG the millionaire boy racer's take on Subaru's WRX STi and Mitsubishi Lancer Evo because both of them are four-wheel drive?

Okay, so how does it compare to those four-wheel drive kamikazees? Of course because those guys have 2.0L turbo engines but while the Evo and the STi produces over 300PS of power, the A45 develops 360PS of power, which is almost 60 more than those JDM 4WD samurais and in a middle of a drag race, the A45 bids sayonnara to those because 0-100kph time for the A45 is 4.6 seconds while top speed is normally limited to 255kph or when the A45 AMG comes with a AMG Performance Package, the limit is raised to 270 km/h.

So, yes, while this car is more powerful than the Evo and the STi, let's not forget, this was made for the millionaire boy racers because it costs more than both of these Japanese 4WD cars. 49,683 Euros to be exact so it's not what you called cheap but it's priced on the same sort of price bracket as a Mercedes-Benz C350 BlueEfficiency so if you had to choose one, either that or an ordinary C-Class. Surprisingly, this is much more expensive than the xDrive version of BMW's M135i, in case you forgot.

2014 Mercedes-Benz A45 AMG interior

So, while the A45 AMG is the performance-oriented version of the A-Class because it's always the driver-centered car made for the unnecessary selfies in mind, how about what is like to be as a driver's car? Judging from the interior, it feels like it's been messed up by someone goes by the name "Mabel" or "Sable" and look at the screen. It's so small, even for a man with a spectacles can't see the directions from its sat-nav. Also, the seats aren't very lovely to sit, it's like seating in a sofa with a tag on it. And then, the seatbelts are colored red. I mean, Imagine if you're in an expensive suit. The whole formal wear's been ruined by the color of the red seats but it's not all bad if you're in casuals and not on the color that contrasts the color of the seatbelt. The more you know.

On the track, the A45's four-wheel drive provides great traction and it is as good as a Lancer Evolution, making it a very sharp car for the track days but on the normal roads, it's not quite as civilized as an executive saloon car. Being a hot hatch that is made to be usable for everyday use, the A45 wasn't quite ripe for this stint because it's still as angry as Groundskeeper Willie from The Simpsons and (sigh) as horrible as eating haggis.

Despite the downside, the A45 AMG is an accessible one because from now on, you can now have an AMG that is a lot more fun for a whole lot less.

Available colors: Zirrusweiss, Kosmosschwarz, Jupiterrot, Mountaingrau, Mountaingrau Magno, Monolithgrau, Nachtschwarz, Nordlichtviolett, Polarsilber, Sudseeblau, and Universumblau.

Photo: Mercedes-Benz

Threats from North Korea - A Week in Review (June 8, 2013)

And now, the week in review of what's what at the Korean peninsula...

June 3, 2013

- South Korea and the United States began extended negotiations on renewing their civilian nuclear pact, with Seoul pushing for the right to produce its own nuclear fuel.

The current accord, signed in 1974, had been due to expire in 2014, but was extended in April for two years after failing to make progress on the South's demand to reprocess spent fuel rods.

June 4, 2013

- South Korean president Park Geun-hye pledged to raise the employment rate to 70 percent since before coming to office earlier this year.

- South Korean president Park Geun-hye met with visiting Mozambican counterpart Armando Guebuza...with the two agreeing to strengthening bilateral cooperation on energy, natural resources, trade, and investment.

- Korea and USA finished their seventh round of negotiations on the revision of their bilateral civilian nuclear pact

June 5, 2013

- The Korea Power Exchange raised the power shortage alert level to two at 11:20 am KST after the country's power reserves dipped below 3.5 million kW. Roughly 40 minutes later, it brought the warning level back down to one, and kept it there for the rest of the afternoon.

- Korea's Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning announced its plans to spend some 40 trillion Won over the next 5 years to foster the so-called creative industries.

- Military leaders of South Korea and China jointly voiced their commitment to not tolerate North Korea's nuclear program.

- North Korea condemned Seoul for trying to help nine young North Koreans who were repatriated after trying to defect...characterizing it as an attempt to "lure and kidnap" them.

June 6, 2013

- North Korea's Committee for Peaceful Reunification of Korea released a statement that proposing government-level talks on normalizing the halted Kaesong complex and stalled tourism business near Mt. Geumgang.

June 7, 2013

- South Korean Unification Minister Ryoo Kil-jae proposed a ministerial-level meeting with the North in Seoul for next week. The proposed talks on June 12 will be to resolve inter-Korean issues such as the Kaesong complex, Mt. Geumgang tourism, and the reunions of separated families.

- South Korea accepted government-level working talks proposed by North Korea but called for the meeting to be held at the truce village of Panmunjom.

"Shh"

On the June 7, 2013 episode of Bubble Gang...

- Katipunan gags

- Arguments are swapping at each other's ears

- Food for thought from Tata Lino

1) Di naman masakit malaman ang katotohanan. Nagiging masakit lang ito pag hindi naaayon sa iyong kagustuhan.

2) Wag masyado maging pihikan. Di ka naman masyadong kagwapuhan...

3) Ang lollipop, maraming gustong tumikim dyan pero nawawalan sila ng gana kung una mong lalawayan.

4) Di lahat ng gwapo ay may girlfriend. Ang iba sa kanila, meron ding boyfriend.

- Shhh! Bubble Gang does San Miguel Beer by spoofing as SAN PIGIL BEER!

- An alternate history when Katipuneros became techies...

- Chariz Solomon exposed!

- Parents dream something odd to their son...

- This guy tries to pass off the security check by labeling!

Ravyer Cruz, IHAW NA!

On the June 6, 2013's Banana Nite's IHAW NA segment, we saw Tito Bhoy interview guest actor Rayver Cruz. We even heard Rayver about why he came from a showbiz dynasty, his progress in television, and something else...

Meanwhile, there's more funny stuff in another ETO NA POST! Funny pics include use your friend's feet as a chair, use half of the car as a horse carriage, gambling underwater, too much plugging, and eggs sold as boneless chicken!

Let's Do The News! (June 7, 2013)

(cheers and applause)

2014 Audi RS6 Avant

JC: What?

RH: What?

JC: What?

RH: Well, Mr. Harshy Pants, look what you just did to this... See this?

JC: Well, it's a teddy bear. I just bought it in the thrift store for actual demonstration of how much torque it can pull on the RS6. I tell you what...even with the quattro all-wheel drive, it still acts like a Brainiac for a sport wagon like this and with so much torque...I can't even tell what's next for Angry Mom to do with her kid when he reached strike three...

(audience laughing)

JC: All in the name of metaphors, of course...

(audience laughing)

RH: Yeah, right. All in the name of tortured metaphors like we always do all the time. Are you sure you really want the RS6 Avant to be sold only for angry parents who wants their kids to deserve severe provocations when they did something wrong?

(audience laughing)

JC: Anyway, can we do the news now?

JM: Okay, the news and hey! Does anyone watched the first game of the NBA finals? The one where last year's champs Miami Heat faces of against San Antonio Spurs?

JC: Oh yeah. Since you're a Heat fan, shame on you because the Spurs took Game One against Heat at the score of 92 to 88.

RH: Yeah, not bad for Spurs! We're on their side not like you, you were supporting on the side where Lebron James is king of the court.

(audience laughing)

JC: Yeah, you know. It was a great start at this year's NBA Finals for the San Antonio Spurs, probably thanks to Tony Parker's 21 point lead against the Heat. Anyway, post-game reactions, I've been looking at so many negative comments about this game and here's the latest I found on the net...

(audience laughing)

JC: Oh wait! There's more negative post-game comments...

(audience laughing)

RH: Wow! That's a lot of negative comments regarding Spurs taking over Game One against heat and when Spurs' own Tony Parker unleashed everything he got! Geez...aren't there any more negative post-game comments in the net out there?

JC: Well, a lot. But don't worry. There's more drama to this 2013 NBA Finals out there for Heat and Spurs as game one happens this Sunday (Monday if you're in Asia), thank you very much...

(audience laughing)

JC: Now, yesterday, we tackled more about the new generation Mitsubishi eK Wagon and its Nissan twin, the Dayz but there's more news to these two...and it's a bad one for the newbies...

(audience laughing)

RH: What do you mean, bad? They were there a day ago!

JC: Yes but we kinda forgot the other news regarding these newbies out there because during the launch date, there has been a recall for the new eK Wagon and Dayz and the recall involves on the problem with the installation of the high-mounted stop lamp that is installed on the upper tailgate.

(audience laughing)

RH: Now that's quite a minor setback for the newcomers.

JC: Yeah. Quite a major mistake to issue a recall for a new car when it reaches its launch date. Hopefully, that will never happen again and if that happen, that will became a commercial flop...

(audience laughing)

JM: Big news!

JC: What?

JM: I just heard that the guy who played counter-terrorist agent Jack Bauer from 24 has been given the role as the English dub for Snake in the upcoming Metal Gear Solid V!

(huh)

JC: No...but...huh...wait! Seriously?

JM: Not a joke. It's the real deal! They mean it during the Konami Pre-E3 conference because ever since longtime English dubber of Snake, David Hayter, announced his retirement, many are speculating who will be the English voice of Snake in the upcoming MGSV: The Phantom Pain. There has been numerous candidates but the recommendation for the new Snake came from Avi Arad, who was very busy at the moment producing the Metal Gear movie. He said "Oh wait! Why don't you choose Kiefer Sutherland to be Snake for the upcoming sequel?" and then Kojima agreed to the decision from the movie producer.

JC: Kiefer Sutherland? The actor from 24 and Touch, gets to play as Snake on MGSV? That's quite an absurd idea but I like it. Having Jack Bauer playing as Snake would sound more dramatic and as dramatic as the Japanese 24 promo plugs with something that goes "ore wa Jack Bauer!"

(audience laughing)

RH: That's cool and this would be like "Ore wa Snake!" (speaking indistinct Japanese)

(audience laughing)

JC: Now anyway, while on the Pre-E3 for Konami, they even announced an upcoming Winning Eleven 2014 and Castlevania Lords of Shadow 2 as well. Now what fascinates me about the upcoming WE2014 is that they're using a new kind of game engine that broadly similar to the one used on Metal Gear Solid V.

JM: What? You mean the FOX Engine?

JC: Uh...a bit more than that but the new game engine that will be using on the new game adds fluidity on the motion and it feels more like they're in reality even though they're virtual. I kinda like the way Konami tries to make their games feel like it came to life. Now as for the Castlevania Lords of Shadow 2, it picks up where the epilogue from the original Lords of Shadow left off and in the sequel, you get to play as Dracula as you're fighting your way against immortality.

RH: Wha? Play as Dracula? No bleeding way man! That was utter cool!

JC: I know...Getting to play the role of a vampire is fun for this sequel, except of course some of the monsters on the sequel now has shields and requires precise attacking strategy to take down those new kind of enemies...

RH: Would there be zombies?

(audience laughing)

JC: Not sure but let's hope they're be zombies like the last one...

(audience laughing)

JC: Anyway, back in December 2012, we bid farewell to the Lexus LFA supercar ever since the 500th and the last LFA was made and it was very sad to see it go. Anyway, here's another fitting tribute video on what makes the Lexus LFA great. Here it is...

(cheers and applause)

JC: Thank you and goodbye, Lexus LFA! Thank you and goodbye! And that is the end...of the news!

Audi RS6 Avant (C7)

2014 Audi RS6 Avant

Quite a rare opportunity to have one of these, the all-new RS6 Avant from Audi is what happens when you take a posh station wagon for European moms whose husbands spend most of their nights getting pints of lager and then transform it into a swagger wagon where moms had changed and then turn their swagger on to beat up their husbands and their friends.

Think of it like...um...this wagon's fueled with so many Braniacs on it. So many Braniacs in it, you are gonna regret that you're going to abuse this wagon more and more until it screams "uncle" in German. The question is, how "Braniac" can this new RS6 Avant be? First of all, it started in life as an ordinary A6 Avant and then what just happened is when you let someone named "Mabel" goof off with the wagon until it turned into a monster wagon that is the total equivalent of the most hateful comic book hero named Deadpool. Seriously, how come they're some morons became fans of Deadpool? I wonder...

But it's not all about having a Deadpool-style personality that matched the RS6's exterior but the interior feels like it's been smothered in leather jumpsuits.

2014 Audi RS6 Avant interior

I mean look at the interior. It's about as dark as a monolith while the panels are made to look like carbon fiber. Now that's uncanny and that's not the end of it because RS sport seats with pronounced side bolsters and integrated head restraints really add character to the RS6's interior. Honestly, being a hardcore station wagon made for very aggressive moms is just plain stupid. I mean, imagine when you're fetching your kids at school and when you heard that when your kid just got detention, not only you got mad because of this, and then you're going to slap him at home, but the punishment for this makes him scare by pulling some deadly stunts until your kid gets too intense and crying loudly. Wow, that's even more punishing than spanking him with a leather belt or for worse, cutting off the head of his favorite teddy bear.

No wait....rather than using either a scissor or a knife to cut off the head of his beloved teddy bear that he often cuddled during bedtime, perhaps the only way to cut off Mr. Teddy Bear's head rather than the knife or scissors is raw performance of the RS6 because of the monster that lives under the bonnet.

It has the same 4.0L TFSi engine that you'll get on the Audi S8 so it produces about a meat cleaver-ish 560 hp of power and if you are using the English metric system...the torque output is 700 Nm, that's more torque than the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Black Series and if you strapped his favorite teddy bear onto the tires, be prepared because the torque's too much to shred the poor teddy bear into bits. So, the kid's finally learned his lesson? Not quite yet because there's more to that than ruining his teddy bear using the torque from the RS6's V8 twin-turbo engine. What else can Angry Mom rip off? There's only one answer...another one of his son's plushies! He he he...

Anyway, enough about that because this is getting too sensible and too intense. It's going to feel like you've been spending all night reading too many Deadpool volumes but if all goes too wrong...the only way for a little bit of "RAGE QUIT" is to drive the RS6 Avant because "RAGE QUIT" is what it does best because, with so many torques on such a 5-door wagon body, this is not the nicest wagon for you to drive if you are very polite. This RS6 Avant wants more Edgar Allan Poe-ish and more Hannibal Lecter-ish and with the expensive pricing of 107,900 euros, rated SPG as well. SPG as in...STRONG PARENTAL GUIDANCE.

You got to love the new RS6 Avant because, with so much torque, the biggest punishment you'll ever give next time when your son gets a strike three is...well, you know what to do...

Okay... You know what, this is getting a bit too much Deadpool on this review. I think I should call this one a wrap.

Available colors: Ibisweiß, Suzukagrau Metallic, Daytonagrau Perleffekt, Misanorot Perleffekt, Phantomschwarz Perleffekt, Estorilblau Kristalleffekt, Pantherschwarz Kristalleffekt, and Prismasilber Kristalleffekt.

Photo: AUDI AG

Kia Cee-Apostrophe-D to leave Top Gear

Kia Cee'd

Just like Matt Smith leaving Doctor Who before the year ends, BBC's Top Gear confirmed that the first-generation Kia Cee'd, the reasonably priced car since Series 15 back in the summer of 2010, will be leaving the Top Gear Test Track for good.

This reasonably priced car first stepped Top Gear in 2010 since its predecessor, the Chevrolet Lacetti got crushed by a demolished chimney, and during its tenure, many high-profile celebs drove the Cee-Apostrophe-D round the track, including the likes of Matt Le Blanc, Rowan Atkinson, Jonathan Ross, Slash, Eleventh Doctor Matt Smith, Rupert Grint (Ron from the Harry Potter films), Ryan Reynolds, Amy MacDonald, Sir John Prescott, Louis Walsh, and so much more.

Earlier, Top Gear assembled a range of likely successors at a top secret venue in Surrey and The Stig gave them a run on their money. Moments later, they found it but what is it? What will the new reasonably priced car be? What would the Cee-Apostrophe-D's spectacular exit be?

Find out the answer when Series 20 of Top Gear airs this late June...

Story: http://transmission.blogs.topgear.com/2013/06/06/weve-got-a-new-reasonably-priced-car/