Luxury car fans will now keep themselves away from using them. The government has recently imposed an additional excise duty on cars with larger engines – those with a capacity of above 1500 cc. This move is taken to encourage the use of small cars in the face of rising fuel costs. All car segments other than the small cars were already affected by the excise duty imposed previously after the announcement of the 2008 Union budget.
Luxury car models are definitely affected by this. However, in the under 20-lakh range of models, the most affected segments are the SUVs and MUVs. The cost of these car models could go up by Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000. This step will particularly makes a difference in sales of these cars in the remote markets where they are more popular.
Car manufacturers such as Hyundai and Maruti will not be perturbed about this new change because they mostly deal in small cars. But manufacturers like Skoda, Honda, Toyota, Mahindra, and Chevrolet could find sales go down because of this. Small cars are anyways more favourite among price conscious Indian buyers.
This is getting a bit more subjective, but I much prefer the Zune Marketplace. The interface is colorful, has more flair, and some cool features like ‘Mixview’ that let you quickly see related albums, songs, or other users related to what you’re listening to. Clicking on one of those will center on that item, and another set of “neighbors” will come into view, allowing you to navigate around exploring by similar artists, songs, or users. Speaking of users, the Zune “Social” is also great fun, letting you find others with shared tastes and becoming friends with them. You then can listen to a playlist created based on an amalgamation of what all your friends are listening to, which is also enjoyable. Those concerned with privacy will be relieved to know you can prevent the public from seeing your personal listening habits if you so choose.