A friend popped me this question over lunch recently. Didn’t really give this a serious thought in the past but guess I should start thinking as friends around me are having their own dream cars or other forms of transport.

I guess the car should have decent performance, moderate to high reliability, good fuel economy, packed with safety features and definitely good looks! Daniel, no offense, but I do agree with Ricky that Picanto don’t really fair well for the last point.

Volkswagen new Polo

Volkswagen new Polo looks pretty decent – I like its compactness and I find small cars cute! Don’t you think so? So what do I like about the car?

Safety

Volkswagen packed big safety features into a small package. It comes with ABS (Anti-lock Braking System) and ESP (Electronic Stability Program).

ABS would allow the driver to maintain steering control under heavy braking, preventing a skid. Well, it is the monsoon season now and it is raining cats and dogs everyday like nobody’s business. Wet roads are everywhere so ABS is necessary! ESP detects critical situations at an early stage, and takes action to help bring the car safely back under control.

Just in case you don’t know, the Polo snatched a maximum 5-star safety rating in the latest, more stringent Euro NCAP tests. Now, that’s what I call unrivaled safety for compact cars.

Automatic with Manual feel

I am a fan of manual gearbox and this 7-Speed DSG dual-clutch gearbox with tiptronic transmission caught my attention. Putting into simple words, it means that there are two clutches in the gear box – one controlling the odd gears and the other controlling the even ones. So when shifting up or down, the gears changes instantaneously and keeps the power delivery from the engine to the transmission constant! When the tiptronic system is activated, the driver is in control of the gear shifts! This allows the driver to have more control of the car’s performance while keeping the car as easy to drive as an automatic.

State-of-the-art technologies

The 7-speed DSG dual-clutch gearbox with tiptronic transmission shows that Volkswagen makes highly innovative technology available to all drivers.

Interested in the VW Polo after hearing all these? Head down to Volkswagen Centre Singapore and arrange for a test drive. Alternatively, you can book a test drive online here. Price of the VW Polo starts at $63,300.

So would your next car be a VW?

If you are like me whose mind can only think of “The New Beetle” whenever people talk about Volkswagen. It is time to add one more car to your dictionary (and also to mine) – The Volkswagen Polo. Wow! New car! So what’s new? The Polo has been completely overhauled in terms of design and performance.

Volkswagen is currently having a campaign for the new Polo. Yeap. They planned a series of activities and attractive prizes can be won.

Take part in the online contest and win Zoukout tickets!

For those party animals out there, did you know you can win a pair of Zoukout 2009 tickets from VW online contest?

To win a pair of Zoukout tickets, simply think of a non-stop 24-hours schedule of activities to do with the new Polo from Volkswagen. The first leg of the contest is open from now (yes now!) until to 19th November. If you can’t think of any interesting activities during this period of time. Fret not! You still can catch the second leg of the contest which runs from 20th November to 3rd December. The judges will select the most interesting and unique non-stop weekend itineraries as winners! For more information on the contest, check out the official website.

So what’s your idea of a perfect weekend?

Goodie bags to be won too!

Mr Brown would be driving around Singapore on a 30-hours non-stop rally from the 21st to 22nd of November. He will be stopping over at 10 checkpoints to give out Volkswagen Polo goodie bags, play games, and take pictures with the public (and of course the VW Polo). 30-hours sounds really long but don’t worry, time have been set aside for sleeping. For his rally route, check out the website.

So if you really want the VW Polo goodie bags, make sure you bump into him at those locations. I really wonder what’s in the goodie bag. Probably I should try my luck at East Coast Park.

Was trying to update myself with mobile technologies then saw something interesting – 3D S-Class UI. This innovative and dynamic 3D S-Class UI from LG was specifically designed to further the advantages of touch screen phones and make them easier to use by providing four customizable home screens. The screens are the side of a cube and each of these screens are customizable! Imagine twisting a cube left and right. I just love customization. Imagine having different usage for each screen – One for messaging, one for multimedia, one for doing work, etc.

Switching between screens with a simple flick

The LG KM900 Arena

Did some Googling and found that the LG Arena is the first phone that is using this S-Class Interface. Looking at the various reviews, it seems like switching between the screens requires just a simple flick of your finger on the screen. It is similar to HTC’s TouchFlo interface. And oh, the LG Arena is powered by AMD processor so the transitions would be snappy!

Reel rolling to the desired contact

Some other powerful UI tricks include Elastic List and Reel Rolling. From my research, Elastic List allows you to simply select/touch any items and additional information expands onto the same screen, allowing you to edit or view more information right on the spot. No more waiting for screen changes. Reel rolling allows you to scroll through menu items on a film-like reel so you simply drag your finger across the reel until you get to your desired contact or multimedia.

Elastic list allows me to display more info about Monica on the same screen

The rich 3D graphics, touch sensitivity and multimedia capabilities will truly make LG Arena a fully loaded multimedia phone. Check out the below commercial on LG Arena. It features the 3D cube interface at the start, Elastic List at 0:04 and Reel rolling at 0:25. It looks really snappy!

I agree commercials can be biased at times. So try it yourself! Check out the LG Arena emulator.

What’s the next phone on the block?

How about a transparent phone? Nah, I am not joking. Check out the LG GD900 Crystal. It would be officially launched during CommunicAsia 2009.

Win a free LG Arena!

LG would be giving free LG Arena! Yes! Free! Those who are interested in winning the LG Arena better check out the LG S-Class UI website. Participate in the 3D game and user with the best score (in the week) wins! For those who are less gaming inclined (like me), don’t fret. We still got a chance – simply download the 3D widget for our desktop and we stand to win the LG Arena daily! Yes! Daily!

The campaign runs for 1 month starting from 15th June 2009.

A peek at the 3D desktop widget

Free 3D screen saver

Beside desktop widget, LG has got a customizable screensaver for desktops. By using the 3D transitions of the S-Class UI as a design motif, the clock screen saver becomes more unique, dynamic and fun because it is interactive!

Check out my cool customized screen saver.