BMW Safety 360 Degree Program Kickstarted

KUALA LUMPUR: BMW Group Malaysia has decided to begin the second series of the BMW Safety 360 degree Program and the two cars-the 120i M Spot and the all new 220i Gran Tourer are launched. With this program, awareness on safety technologies and responsible practices are promoted by BMW. The Safety 360 degree program have covered BMW Motorcycles prior to this, due to its hardest hit in reference to the road accidents. According to the report of MIROS statistics, road accidents due to motorcycles, last year alone were as high as 476,196, among them around 11,000 cases were incurable.

Recently, the focus of BMW Malaysia is on child safety. According to the Managing Director of BMW Group, Malaysia, in 2009, at least 61 percent of children under age of 5 are exposed to serious injury or risk of death in road accidents. The chances of a serious injury or death can be reduced by appropriate measures such as child's safety restraint.

Today BMW launches two of them. The first is the BMW 120I M Sport which is new and locally assembled. As BMW Malaysia have relinquished the 116i and the 118i which is the new entry level BMW 1 Series. For the models mentioned, there have been slow sales, therefore BMW Malaysia have decided to provide one variant.

The BMW M Sport package involves the M Leather Steering Wheel, the M Aerodynamic Kit, M Sport Suspension and 18-inch M Sport alloy wheels with M Sport Suspension as standard. Apart from this, with more features the 1 Series has been upgraded. It has more dynamic design with redesigned headlights, wider kidney grille elements, LED daytime running lights, new tailgate with two-part LED taillights, BMW Navigation System Professional with Touch Controller, Comfort Access and new instrument cluster as standard. It has 1.6liter turbocharged 4 cylinder petrol engine with 177hp and 250Nm torque, it gets a brilliant 8 speed ZF Automatic gearbox which boasts of 0-100kmh in 7.2 seconds and a top speed of 222kmh.

Price of this is going to be RM219,000+. With more performance parts, it is possible to spec the car. The model 120i is a major improvement in reference of offering in Malaysia when it comes to 1 Series. Some descriptions such as 19 inch wheel and tyre combo, which make look of the car even more superior, cost RM16,999.

More preferable car by users is a seven seater BMW family car, the BMW 220I Gran Tourer. This premium compact MPV from BMW has the capacity of seven passengers seating in its rear seats.