Monthly Archives: April 2009

Nano in the Virtual World

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Nano is creating benchmarks in all arenas. Small but this smart car has surpassed the boundaries of marketing and promotion to reach every part of the globe.


Tata Motors has adopted new schemes and strategies to market its small wonder. The move towards online marketing through facebook, orkut, and other social marketing websites was commendable. It was amazingly the first car that was made online and won success through the medium.


Maintaining the online growth and strategy of marketing, Tata Motors has also associated the car with the renowned online game portal, zapak.com to help Nano lovers take a virtual tour of the car. Through the new online game, buyers can maneuver the world’s cheapest car with desirable colours and accessories. Car enthusiasts can just log on and play for free if they wish to drive the Nano in the virtual world.


It is believed that after the Nano was launched in March, its website has received about millions of hits and now the newly launched online game portal has experienced about 1 million gamers taking Nano on a virtual tour.

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ICML Postpones World Car Plan

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Eyeing the current slowdown in the car market, ICML (International Cars & Motors Limited) has postponed its plans to introduce small car in India. Supposed to be marketed in Europe, U.S. and India, the ICML’s world car was earlier expected by 2010.


The company feels that it is not the right time to introduce the cars as the industry is under the strain of tremendous recession. Hence, it has deferred its world car project which focused on export and domestic market. However, the plan to introduce a concept car ‘Inspire’ unveiled at the 2008 Auto Expo in India is going well and is expected to arrive by 2010.


The company is working with the Italian design house Pininfarina for its world car project and has invested around Rs 700 Crore for the design as well production front. The current model Rhino Rx is doing well in the Indian car market and the new cars from company’s stable will certainly help to boost its performance.

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Hyundai Wants to Tap Rural Markets

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After making a foothold in the urban and semi-urban areas, Hyundai Motors now desires to grasp India’s rural markets which are untapped by small car manufacturers so far. To start with the plan, the company has recently organized a programme called Hyundai Utsav to push sales in rural areas of Andhra Pradesh and Punjab.


Hyundai has intelligently chosen the ‘mandi’, a local wholesale marketplace, where thousands of people congregate on a daily basis. It wants to reach to the prosperous farmers, money lenders, local business communities, private companies, government employees, doctors, lawyers and others.


The programme kicked off on April 18 in over 50 venues in Andhra Pradesh and Punjab will last for 42 days. Under the Hyundai Utsav scheme, well-trained teams will be sent to non-dealership towns. They will be stationed across all the intended locations and will be responsible for activities like-taking care of visitors, offer test drives, and create awareness about loan schemes. At the end of the programme, the team will collate local consumer data which will help the company to execute future plans.


The scheme can work wonders for the company which has been trying for years to gain the No.1 position in India. But the challenges for providing after sales services, maintenance and spares will be a huge task. However, the company will have an advantage to penetrate a largely untapped market for passenger cars.

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Imitated Rolls-Royce Phantom

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Imitated Rolls-Royce Phantom has amazed car manufacturers across the globe. Rolls-Royce Phantom is one such car that many car buyers just dream to buy. For such dreamers a Chinese car manufacturer has introduced an imitated version of the Phantom that looks strikingly similar to the expensive beauty on wheels but is much cheaper.


The imitated copy is actually the Chinese philosophy of repeating what the west is doing and creating outstanding copies of beautiful and original creations. Named as Geely GE, the artistically copied Phantom has dazzled the car enthusiasts. The shape, design, cues, and the style are all similar to the traditionally unique Phantom. Even the large chrome grille, slender tail lamps, and sculpture of a winged creature on the nose are all similar to what adorns the beauty of the Phantom.


The interior of the car is quite different from the beautiful ambience of the Phantom. Though it holds some elegance, it is a bit eccentric and is still comfortable to make worthwhile ride. With all similar features to the original Phantom and an affordable price tag, the car worth the purchase.

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Questioning Safety in Small Cars

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There are many small car buyers who sacrifice safety for the cause of higher efficiency and smaller car size. Small cars are revolutionizing the entire industry with new agendas and aspirations. But the fact that driving small cars can cause fatality is ignored. Though they provide reduced emissions and good mileage, the question remains are they actually safe?


Recently an insurance company in U.S. conducted a safety test by slamming three mini car models into a midsized car. The three models Honda Fit, Toyota Yaris, and SmartForTwo were slammed into Honda Accord, Toyota Camry, and Mercedes-Benz C-Class. All the six car models were travelling at a speed of 64 km/h. And what shocked everyone was that all the three mini-cars experienced severe impact of the accident. They were all fared poorly in the accident whereas the midsized car into which the three were banged fared acceptably well.


Weight versus safety has always been an arguing discussion in the car market. To introduce small cars that are peppy in traffic and are wondrous in performance, car manufacturers have to downsize the cars. And this downsizing and down-weighting actually makes them unsafe on roads.

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Tata, Maruti Hunt for Auto Engineers

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Tata Motors and Maruti Suzuki are now looking for world class engineers to steer their automotive fortunes. They will attend the 2009 World Congress Career Fare on April 20-21 to hunt for prospective auto engineers. The meet is organized by Society of Auto Engineers (SAE) in Detroit.

For several years, the Auto Congress has attracted hundreds of auto engineers from United States. With the economic recession and massive unemployment, the career fair is expected to give the Detroit engineers a new lease of life. Indian companies stand to gain the best of U.S., as the auto crisis is deepening in the country and many mainstream companies are refraining from the job fair. The SAE job fair could provide re-employment for many engineers. As the saying goes, a loss for somebody is someone else’s gain. The Indian automotive world could gain some potential resources as U.S. crisis continues.

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Winning Spree of Volkswagen Golf

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The Volkswagen MK VI Golf has received the prestigious ‘World Car of the Year’ award at the New York Auto Show.

All the countries around the world have their nation specific or continent specific awards that acclaim a car based on its performance and response received by car buyers of that specific region. But the World Car of the Year award is something different from all. The award covers and nominates all the cars that are on sale in atleast 2 continents around the world. The jury who ranks the car comprises automotive journalists from 22 different countries.

This year the jury selected the new iteration of the Volkswagen Golf to bestow the award. The car outshines models like the Ford Fiesta and the Toyota iQ. Winning spree of the VW Golf is an age old history that holds rich and cherished memories for Volkswagen. Amazingly, the car has lived an illustrious 35 years in the industry. It has undergone many generations and the Golf that won the prestigious award is the sixth generation Golf. Par excellence the Volkswagen MK VI Golf has created a new benchmark in the industry with its excellence in safety, designing skills, and technological creativity.

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Pamper Your Pets in Car

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Cars are becoming so friendly that now you can even pamper your pets in your car. It is believed that most of the Americans are crazy for pets especially dogs and to suit their requirement Honda has introduced a dog-friendly car.

Dog-friendly car? Sounds too strange but that’s what Honda calls its new car that comes with a cushioned dog bed in the trunk fitted with a built-in water bowl and fan. It also has a ramp to help less agile dogs get into the car.

The pet-friendly car is designed on the platform of Honda’s Element utility vehicle that was showcased at the New York Auto Show. Surprisingly, the car was unveiled with the help of a rescue dog named Sammy.

Pets have now become more like family for many and this has increases a demand for a special pet-friendly car in the market. Apart from refined features for comfort of the pet the dog-friendly version of Element also comes with easy-wash seat covers so that even if the pet makes it dirty it can be easily cleaned. The most interesting part is the fitted dog bed with restraints to ensure safety of the pet.

The car manufacturer is still to add more pet-friendly features in the car that is expected to go on sale in U.S. by the end of this year but no clues whether it will ever come to India. If it does it would be really interesting and incredible.

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Spyker Race Cars Coming to India

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At a time when Indian car racing is gaining international acceptance with teams like the Force India on F1 circuit, renowned racing car manufacturers are eyeing India as a potential market for their products.

Spyker, a well-known name in the racing world is planning to enter the Indian car market with its fascinating car models. Its first offering will be the Spyker C8 Aileron which is widely popular among racing enthusiasts in western countries.

Spyker cars are completely bespoke handcrafted cars which offer ultimate exclusivity. The Spyker C8 Aileron is expected to come with a heavy price tag of Rs 3 Crore and above including the custom duties. Initially, the company may sell only two-three cars annually in India. The Indian car market has seen some serious race car markets with brands like Ferrari, Porsche, Lamborghini, Mercedes-Benz, and BMW. This expensive car will certainly attract the super rich class who like to flaunt their garages of exclusive cars of the world.

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Maruti Suzuki’s Special Website for Swift

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Swift owners can now relish their car ownership with a new web portal exclusively designed for the customers. Eyeing the growing popularity of various forums, blogs, and social networking sites, Maruti Suzuki has recently revealed its plan to launch a website that will entirely focus on the car model Swift. It is estimated that of the 2,000 various communities on Orkut, 50,000 users are Swift owners. This clearly depicts the increasing dependency of car enthusiasts on internet to share and discuss their knowhow of cars.

As per a recent joint survey by media agencies, Maruti’s expenditure per vehicle is around Rs 4,000. This is comparatively lower than Hyundai which spends Rs 8,000 and Tata Motors that spends Rs 16,000. The total expenditure is for test drives, road shows, promotions, financing options and others. Now the company has increased their digital ad expenditure by 4-5 percent, compared to print.

Maruti Suzuki wants to bring down the per-car-spend by accessing internet communities and social networking sites. However, there is no confirmation about when the portal will be launched.

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