Monthly Archives: August 2009

Suzuki Kizashi To Come With A Hybrid Variant

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Suzuki Motor Corporation seems to very busy days. The reason behind this is that the Japanese car maker is developing a hybrid version of the newly-launched Kizashi.

The Suzuki Kizashi made its first global public debut on 30th July’09 in the U.S. The mid-size sedan is available with a 2.4-Liter 4-cylinder engine with a 6-speed manual transmission and front-wheel-drive as a standard feature. The sedan also has an option of automatic transmission and all-wheel-drive.

The Suzuki Kizashi can be best described as a sedan that can offer “Japanese quality with European flair.”

The more fuel efficient hybrid version of the Kizashi is added to the lineup in the future. This is an earnest move of the world’s ninth largest car maker to compete with the Koreans in the car market with an entry-level hybrid sedan.

Right now we have no news about the hybrid technology involved in the new version of the Kizashi, but we promise you to keep you in the loop with more news about this car.
The 2010 Suzuki Kizashi sedan will be available in the showrooms by Christmas in the U.S.

This handsome sedan will come on the Indian stage by 2010 and is believed to be priced at around Rs.10 Lakhs. The hybrid Kizashi sedan should be introduced in two years.
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Farewell Zen

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Maruti Suzuki is in the process of rebuilding and rejuvenating itself to meet the changing era, interest of cars. The largest carmaker in India is coming up with more elaborate plans to win over the Indian hearts.

To match the growing expectations of the Indian crowd, Maruti Suzuki is even ready to forget its past, a small slice from its glorious past. The company is now getting ready to erase off Zen as a brand name from the memories of the Indian crowd. But it is quite obvious that even the company and people of India in general cannot forget the iconic Zen at any cost as it is still a favourite car for many and will stay the same for many decades to come.

The cute, chubby Zen had been one the most loved car from Maruti and was appreciated along with its other much-loved models Alto, and Maruti 800. Zen, which was a luxury compact car during its era, is also considered to be one of the pioneers of the small car industry of the country from Maruti. The model brought good business for the company and constitutes a good percentage of the sales the company has made in the country till date.

The original model Zen was replaced by Zen Estilo, but the new Zen didn’t fare well in the Indian car market as much as its predecessor which has now forced the company to come up a facelifted version of the Zen Estilo with a change in engine. Just to give exclusivity for this new version of the car, Maruti Suzuki has to sacrifice with the brand Zen and just retain the suffix as the name for the car.

Therefore Zen Estilo will hence forth probably just be called as Maruti Suzuki Estilo.
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Civic,City Gets A Mid-Life Tweak From Honda

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New Honda City Cars in India
Both Honda City and Honda Civic are the crowd pulling models from Honda in India.

The two models have won numerous awards and kudos from the critics and aficionados at the same time. But the company is not planning to settle down with all the appreciations and back tapping exercise as Honda is getting ready to deliver more to the consumers, by launching a facelifted Civic and an upgraded City.

The reason for this can be that Honda wants to stop the grumbling customers as well as critics who find the cars’ interior designs not up to the mark with the usage of poorer quality plastic and lack of kit.

But don’t you dare expecting the company to change only the so called complaining factors – plastic and kit. The company has plans to add on more features to upgrade the car and give no room for complaints from an unhappy customer. In other words, Honda just does not want any unhappy customer.

New Honda Civic Cars in IndiaThe upgraded Honda City will be available from October, 2009, it is not a long wait, but the facelifted Civic will be available a month before the updated City hits the market, ie, by September.

A quick browse through the new features of both the car reveals that Honda City will have two new variants namely 1.5 V MT and 1.5 V AT together with the existing 1.5 S MT.
The existing model, the S version will get a new set of colour option with new better quality interiors, it will also have rotary controls for the air-conditioning.

The V version will have leather interiors, fog lamp, 15-inch alloy wheels and all the new look which its S variant has received. There is expected to be a price change in the S variant and the V models as it will be priced between Rs 9.2 to 9.7 lakh.

With a small increase in price, the Honda Civic will be available with a minor facelift. The Civic will have new alloy wheels, front bumper, grille, and fog lamp and there will be an option of USB port and of course, the Civic will get more colour options.
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BMW Z4, X1 India Bound

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More news in the pipeline for BMW fans!

German luxury car maker BMW is planning to introduce two more cars in India by the end of this year. Yes, two cars, the BMW Z4 and the X1, the first Sports Activity Vehicle (SAV) in the compact class from BMW.

The BMW Z4 is a replacement of the BMW Z3 and was first produced in 2002. This car is available in two versions viz., convertible and coupe. The two-door Z4 will be available in the sDrive 30i trim.

The 3.0-L In-line-6 engine has the capacity to churn out 258 bhp which surely takes driving into the next level. The car can speed up to a top speed of 250 km/h and can accelerate 0-100 km in just 5.8 seconds.

The BMW Z4 has almost done with the official registration process and other formalities in India before the grand launch that should happen anytime by Diwali this year.

The latest SUV from BMW, the X1 is expected in another six months. The X1 is the smallest in the Sports Activity Vehicles (SAVs) segment. It is placed as an alternative to BMW’s best seller 3-Series.

The X1 should carry a price tag between Rs 29-32 Lakh. Currently BMW sells its BMW X6 which also is a Sports Activity Vehicle in India.

The BMW X1 will be available in two engine options in India. The X1 xdrive1.8d engine will churn out a horsepower of 143 bhp while the X1 xdrive1.8i engine will give around 140 bhp. Though the X1 is an AWD, it is tuned for road-biased driving and is not much fun for off-road driving.
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Hyundai i10 EV

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New Jaguar XKR Cars in India
A regular reader, who updates himself on everything related to cars, will find it a little awkward to find him reading about electric cars on and on and on.

In fact he should also be realizing that the trends for more electric and eco-friendly cars are just beginning to set in. Companies, one after the other, are launching or announcing the launch of new electric cars.

The new one in the legion is none other than the Korean carmaker, Hyundai. The company after much trials and experiments is all ready to showcase a green car in the upcoming Frankfurt Auto Show that will be held in September.

The company has already announced its plans to unveil its new electric car, but nothing more about the specifications or features of the car is available. But yes, one thing has been made clear by the company is that it would be their successful small car model Hyundai i10 that would go green.

Hyundai i10 will not be the only model that will have a green heart but the i20 is also expected to follow its sibling in this line very soon. These models might take a year or two, or even more, before it will be available for the customers, but the mere thought that it has taken an initiative will bring in a sigh of relief for the company, as it reminds itself that it is on its way to be the fourth largest green carmaker.

Hyundai also has plans to launch three cars, an electric vehicle, a fuel cell, and a hybrid version, but for all of this the company is asking for a time period of three years.

So let’s hope by 2012, it will be an eco-friendly environment for Hyundai. But curiosity grows on to know when Hyundai cars will paint India green.
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Nostalgic BMW Isetta

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BMW Isetta is a name of the classic micro car which was made by BMW.

BMW Isetta is one of the most successful micro cars that ever came to the world post World War II. This ultra-small car was designed in Italy, but manufactured in a number of different countries such as Spain, Belgium, France, Brazil, Germany and the United Kingdom.

The BMW Isetta caused a furore when it was first launched in November 1953 by an Italian firm of Iso SpA. The car resembles an egg and measured only 2.3m long and 1.4m wide. The entire front end of the car hinged outwards to allow access into it and it car has cute bubble-like windows. Hence, the Isetta is nicknamed as the bubble car.

The car is powered by a 236 cc engine that can give out 9.5 bhp. Moreover, the manual gearbox provided four forward speeds and reverse. The steering wheel and the instrument panel are built on the single front opening door. The car can accommodate two persons comfortably.

A large parcel shelf is built behind the seat for storage and to accommodate the spare wheel. The car is also called ‘Sarwagen’ or ‘coffin car’ because of its small size.
The first BMW Isetta appeared in April 1955. In May 1962, BMW ceased the production of Isettas. A total of 161,728 units had been built.

In an era of fast cars and luxury cars, the Isetta is still yearned for by car collectors.

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Honda Zeppelin 2030

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Honda Zeppelin
It seems like nobody is interested to live in the present. The car makers look to be more enthralled with the future than they are with the present, it will not be a problem until they completely abandon the present.

Preparing for a for a better tomorrow is always good but trying to foresee the future may not always spin things in ones favour, as others are also trying to do the same.

Honda has designed a futuristic concept car, not five or ten years ahead of us but twenty years ahead. It has designed a car for 2030. The 2030 luxury sports sedan will be built on the zeppelin concept. The car design has used the fundamentals of the aerodynamic form with hi-technology dynamics. And thus the car has a strikingly similar look of an airship.

The car is designed by a final year student, Myung Jin Jung, as a part of his thesis. This Honda Zeppelin, as we would call it now, has great features that will add on to the styling and designing of the car. The car will have an asymmetric styling line running from the hood to the rear and for a better view for the driver; the car will have a slit-like windscreen that is attached to the video display.

Almost all the features of the car are automatic, which leaves the driver with more times to spend on other things than on driving. The car will not have a dashboard and the car will provide all the necessary information needed while driving through its inter panel display. There is also the voice recognition technology which asks for less movement while in the car.

The fuel options or other features are not known, but it is surely an eco-friendly car. This car will be the icon of future cars, but only till another car maker has another model designed for 2050.
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A New Drive from Ford

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Ford India has come up with a new drive. Don’t confuse this new drive with a car model.

This is a campaign where Ford is promoting road safety in the country and has introduced the ‘Driving Skills for Life’ (DSFL) programme. This campaign in the first phase is given for its 1,000 + employees at the company’s Maraimalai Nagar factory near Chennai in Tamil Nadu.

Tamil Nadu’s Principal Secretary and Transport Commissioner was joined by senior Ford executives and Ford’s DSFL partner, Hubert Ebner (India) Private Limited to announce the programme’s official introduction to the Indian market on Tuesday.

Ford India is considering on putting its employees through the DSFL driver’s education training for the next eight months as part of the initial phase of the programme.

‘Driving Skills for Life’ is offered free to programme trainees that mixes classroom learning and practical training to help increase awareness of safe driving techniques that also help improve fuel efficiency. The training has been arranged especially for India to reflect the local driving environment and road conditions.

This programme will help to reduce the toll of road traffic accidents across the country. The number of deaths from car accidents in India will rise to 150,000 by 2015 with the expansion of the car market in India. Road accidents in India claimed more than 100,000 lives in 2008.

The ‘Driving Skills for Life’ programme will help drivers to be more aware of the conditions around them and will reinforce the fact of how important their actions are to road safety.

The campaign will be driven in multiple phases in India. The first phase will provide training to more than 2,000 employees of Ford’s car manufacturing operations through the remainder of the year.

In the following phases the programme, the training will be conducted with more than 3,000 Ford staff in accounting and IT businesses, Ford dealerships, retail and fleet customers.
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Hyundai-Kia Supersedes Ford

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It is official. Hyundai-Kia is now the world’s fourth largest car manufacturer. This is, in fact, an amazing piece of information!

This year the South-Korean Auto giant, Hyundai-Kia jumped up a rank above forcing Ford Motors to take the fifth position in the list of top ten car makers in the world.

Now Hyundai-Kia is preceded by Toyota in the first place followed by General Motors and Volkswagen in the third position. The data come from the Automotive News Data Center.

Ford is succeeded by PSA-Peugeot-Citroen, while Honda and Nissan take the seventh and eight places, respectively. Suzuki is in the ninth place and Renault is ranked tenth.
The Korean car maker showed global sales for the first half of 2009 at 2,153,000 units, just edging out Ford’s 2,145,000 units so far this year.

It has to be noted that these numbers count the Nissan-Renault Alliance as two separate units, with 1.5 million and 1.1 million units, respectively. If combined they would replace Hyundai’s fourth and Ford’s fifth positions with over 2.6 million units.

Hyundai Motors India is the India’s second largest car manufacturer, while Maruti Suzuki securely holds the first position.
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Ford’s Will Let its Electric Cars Talk

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The alternative fuel vehicle seems to be the “in” thing now. Everybody wants to have a chunk of electric car market. Ford Motors also have jumped into the bandwagon with gusto and to prove a point in the electric car segment.

But Ford Motors have a different way of producing things and currently Ford is highly future focused on technology in the electric car and wants it to talk and communicate with the power grids. Sounds awesome right? A talking car in the making.

This futuristic feature will in reality be very helpful to car owners as it permits them to charge the vehicle at a given time limit. Transit Connect, the first battery electric vehicle from Ford is due for the release in America and this new facility will only strengthen the sales of their electric commercial van.

The company seems to be very concerned about the comfort of its customers; as it has signed two-year collaboration with almost 10 utility companies and Department of Energy to develop a system that would be very beneficial to the alternative fuel customers.
Even though the grid is now ready for use, the company is working on further developing the technology.

It can be of a slight issue that most of the customers are not equipped for a latest technology like this, but in the next one year’s time the stage will be set for a successful launch of the system.

GM’s Chevrolet Volt can be a great competitor for the Ford’s Transit Connect, but the company still hopes high. The Transit Connect will not be equipped with a combustion engine and mileage of the car will depend on the size of the battery Ford installs in the car.

Let us wait for a better tomorrow with more eco-friendly cars that are user friendly too.
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