Monthly Archives: December 2009

Tata To Reveal Indicruz At Auto Expo

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Tata IndicruzTata Motors, the largest automaker in India will showcase its Indicruz, a crossover, at the Delhi Auto Expo to be held from Jan 05-11, 2010.

But this crossover, an ambitious project of Tata Motors to tear the competition of the competitors apart will be revealed on the first day of the Expo itself. Indicruz though has taken a long time coming into the actual Indian motoring scene since the idea was originally inceptionalised, the vehicle is nothing short of marvel by itself.

All we know about this car is that, based on a brand new platform with a generous wheelbase of 2750 mm, this crossover is sure to offer terrific interior space and comfort that runs in the genes of all Tata Vehicles. The Indicruz will share the Tata Safari’s 2.2 L Dicor engine, though it will be tuned for efficiency rather than outright performance. Styling also seems to be well-executed by engineers and designers in Tata Motors.

According to industry estimates the price of the Indicruz was likely to be 20 per cent more than Sumo Grande MK II, which carries a price tag of Rs 6.65-7.66 lakh at Mumbai dealerships.

We also hear that the Indicruz which also would be the company’s first multi-purpose vehicle (MUV) would be positioned in the market to compete with Volvo XC90, Honda CRV and Chevrolet Captiva. Indicruz will have features like airbags, cruise control and automatic climate control.
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Land Rover Freelander 2 Special Edition

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Land Rover Freelander 2 “White and Black Special Edition”Guess what, Black and White is back and how? No, not the number played by the King of Pop Michael Jackson. No, we’re not even talking about the premium blended Scotch whisky… Well, this guessing certainly is giving us a high.

Allow us to break the suspense. Land Rover owned by Tata Motors has come up with a special edition aptly named “White and Black” for its Freelander 2. As far as the information that we received goes, this special edition will be launched as an entry level to the Freelander 2 range for the year 2010. The special Edition will be priced around £ 19,500 approximately and to begin with will be available in the UK only.

This special edition Land Rover Freelander 2 promises to come with standard features that includes six-speed manual 2.2 L diesel engine, keyless starter button, privacy glass, 17” alloy wheels, load space cover and of course Land Rover’s very own intelligent Stop/Start technology which delivers a overall fuel economy of 42.2mpg.

The colours in which the special edition is supposed to hit the road is in the Alaska White and Santorini Black.

This is how John Edwards, Managing Director of Land Rover UK said about the special edition Freelander 2: “With a price less than £20,000 and the economical yet powerful diesel engine, the Freelander 2 ‘White & Black’ Special Editions represent exceptional value for money in the compact SUV sector. Couple this with the vehicle’s enhanced styling and specification, the ‘Special Editions’ not only offer the Freelander 2’s trademark ever-ready versatility, but are pleasing to the pocket and to the discerning eye.”

As one of the best selling model on its stable since its launch in UK the company has sold more than 44000 units and dominates 16% of market share in its segment.
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Aston Martin Cygnet Concept

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Aston Martin Cygnet's Official First ImagesEven the big Goliath had to bow down in front of puny David and the auto industry is not an exception for this. The recession that hit Motoring in the late 2008 and continued up till mid-2009 has left many car manufacturers scarred.

As cut-throat competition increased in the Motown, car manufacturers throughout the world, in a last bid to stay afloat in the Recession hit world, had to make a lot of compromises, sacrifices and came up with innovative ideas that seemed highly unlikely several years ago. Just look no further than Porsche and their Cayenne SUV to see a perfect example of a vehicle that everyone baulked at until its release, which actually ended up a resounding success, both financially and for the brand itself.

Aston Martin, a cult status fast car maker from UK also has acted no different in its pursuit of attracting new markets. The company has just released the first official images of their new Cygnet concept, a tiny commuter that at first glance seems to go against everything the company stands for, lavish supercars capable of breakneck speed.

Remember the Aston Martin Cygnet ? We had covered a blog and also posted an image of this diminutive luxury car in the early days of August 2009.

Now after almost 5 months after we had posted that blog, comes the first official image of the Aston Martin Cygnet. “Cygnet”, the chaste English term for a young swan will be cemented in the lexicon of every automobile fan henceforth.
Aston Martin Cygnet's First Official Images
This small concept car from Aston Martin is based on Toyota iQ. Cygnet has the front looks of Aston Martin DBS, complete with the company’s open grill-work and hood vents. But that’s where the similarities stop as designers have made a complete exit from their famous Aston Martin theme in the making of the Cygnet. Though the car carries almost nothing of the design cues of Aston Martin, the DNA of the famous marquee is still very visible as the car looks outstanding.

For those who were short of moolah but always wished for an Aston Martin to adorn their garages, this is the Aston that they can lay their hands on.

The interiors is one hell of a superb design job where the cabin is bathed in red and black leather with the fit and finish we are accustomed to from this British supercar maker.

The Cygnet concept represents a creative, environmentally conscious solution, being small, yet with presence and yes highly fuel efficient (that’s what we expect from the Toyota iQ engine), now combined with the prestige of Aston Martin’s luxury brand ownership.

Even though Aston Martin has indicated that the Cygnet is a concept only, the company has stated that it hoped that the car if ever became a production reality; the car will be available for the European market. Look what the green movement has done to the automotive world (we’re not complaining.
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Audi Becomes A1 to Launch A1 Car Online

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Audi A1Come February 2010 and Audi is all set to reveal its long-awaited city car, a hatchback in that, the A1 at the Geneva Auto Show.

We assure you that the launch certainly is a going to be a gala event as Audi has stepped aside from the stereotype and monotonous car launches elsewhere and is banking the new technology to take the centre stage for this launch. The Audi A1 is being launched online. Yes, you read that just right. Online.

This small car when launched would have a long list of contenders to take on in the market, starting with the retro car, BMW’s Mini. Though Audi A1 would not have the cult status like the Mini, it certainly is a first premium car in the sub-compact segment as claimed by Audi and Audi is heavily banking on this new unexplored segment, when it launches the Audi A1.

We are speculating that A1 would probably be rigged with engine range comprising of 1.2L which produces 86 bhp, 1.4L with 122 bhp, turbocharged 1.4 Litre that spurts out 170 bhp and 1.6 L that spews out 90 bhp petrol engines or 2.0 L common rail diesel engines.

Although initially thought to be based on Volkswagen Group’s MQB (Modular Transverse Matrix) platform, the A1 was later reported to be based on the PQ25 platform, the same platform used in the SEAT Ibiza Mk4 and the VW Polo Mk5. Audi famous Quattro technology also might be there in the offering in the Audi A1. We do know for sure that A1 looks very much like that of the existing A3, but probably a size smaller than that. Expect Audi to release more information gradually in coming weeks.
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Chronicles of Nano

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New Tata Nano Cars in IndiaAh Yes, Tata Nano, How can we ever miss out on the wonder car in our blog today with all of those German biggies hankering for space in Carazoo blogs (Read the earlier published blogs on Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Porsche). Today has been a very special day for the Nano as it did hit the headlines of many newspapers for various reasons.

Among the first of many Nano stories, Durr India Pvt Ltd is setting up a paint shop using robots to cut carbon-di-oxide (CO2) emissions at the Sanand plant in Gujarat, where the first painted body unit of Tata Nano is expected to be completed by June 2010.

Durr India Pvt Ltd is setting up the paint shop on turnkey basis for Tata Motors. The paint shop is one amongst the units of the Nano’s manufacturing plant. The Lean compact technology as the insiders at Tata call uses robots to paint India’s small and cheapest car.


Nano is one of the contenders in Autocar’s ‘Car of the Decade’ poll

Tata Nano has managed to fit itself in, in the list of contenders for the coveted ‘Car of the Decade’ poll which is being run by renowned
British car magazine, Autocar.

Does Nano stand a chance in this poll with heavy weights like that of Audi R8, Bugatti Veyron, Nissan GT-R, Porsche GT3 and the Rolls-Royce Ghost are different question all together? But think of this, while the other contenders for the title in the list here are either high-performance cars or very high-end luxury cars are made by so many manufacturers across the world, there’s only one car that offers affordable motoring to families that may otherwise be confined to a two-wheeler. Yes indeed, No guesses there, we are speaking of and for Tata Nano.

If you love the Nano as much as we do, we suggest you visit the Autocar website and cheer for the car by casting your vote the great little car now! Go Nano. Go.


Egypt invites Tata Motors to build Nano plant

Singur’s loss is Sanand’s gain is the thing of the past now. With the Nano, it is just not the states in India which are lobbying to donate space for the construction of Tata Nano’s production plant, but contenders from world over have just started to pour in.

After raising eyebrows in India, the humble Nano is all set to speed up to the ‘Dark Continent’ even before the dust has completely settled. Egypt has extended its invitation to India’s Tata Motors to build a factory to make the Nano, the world’s cheapest car in the African country for the local market and sales elsewhere if we are to go by what a reputed daily of India has to say.

“Egypt is seeking consent of Tata for left-hand drive Nano to be produced in Egypt, where a huge market is expected not only internally, but in the left-hand drive market in the Middle East and in Europe,” the paper quoted Egypt’s ambassador to India, Mohamed Higazy, as saying. Higazy is claimed to have said the paper that the company would consider the proposal after the initial phase of the Nano launch.

Well, Tata Motors in the meanwhile also have come up with a email statement saying “While Tata Motors has said that the Tata Nano and its variants will also be introduced in other countries, the company has not decided on its manufacturing strategy (in other countries), let alone Egypt”.

Tata launched the Nano in March this year and is expected to take it to Europe by 2011 and to the United States later.

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10000th Porsche Panamera Rolled Out

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Porsche Panamera Finishes 10000 Units
Its celebration time for Porsche and yet another feather in the cap for its flagship model, Panamera.

As a part of a significant milestone for Porsche, 10,000th Panamera was rolled out on Wednesday from the production line in Leipzip plant in Stuttgart, Germany’s just after three months after the Panamera went on sale. The Platinum silver metallic Porsche Panamera Turbo with 4.8 L V8 engine that produces 500 bhp@6000rpm is the 10,000th car that will be delivered to a lucky customer in Singapore.

Speaking on the occasion, Michael Macht, Chairman of the Board of Porsche AG said that the sales of the Panamera has realy taken off and claimed that Porsche had already secured over 9,000 confirmed orders for the Panamera.

The Gran Tuismo Porsche Panamera won the coveted “Goldenes Lenkrad” or the “Golden Steering Wheel” and “Auto Trophy” awards in Germany. It also has won many international prizes. The Panamera 4S is proving particularly popular and has a share of 44 per cent , putting it ahead of the Turbo (36 per cent) and the Panamera S (20 per cent).

The company plans to build 20,000 Panamera per year across the whole product cycle. The fourth Porsche model series is being manufactured at the Leipzig plant in the so-called model mix, sharing a production line with the Cayenne SUV. The innovative, highly streamlined production is seen as a model of technological and economic excellence for the automobile industry worldwide.

One of the important markets of sports car, United States is still waiting for a date with the Panamera. Porsche is all set to utilize the upswing of the market sentiments. They have already started capacity expansion of their existing plant in Stuttgart, Germany.

In India, the car is available in Mumbai against orders.
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BMW 7-Series To Fire From Six-Cylinders

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BMW 7-SeriesWhile we were speaking about Mercedes in the earlier blog, we also hit on this story that sounded equally amazing. Hope, you also will be amazed.

Green is in and HOW? Just like Mercedes-Benz, its compatriot BMW seems like it had been working very hard to give something clean in return to the nature. We have known that BMW is already working very hard on its new “EfficientDynamics” engineering philosophy which if simplified means cleaner vehicle technology.

BMW, in a move to make its cars more eco-friendly has announced that the upcoming 2011 BMW 7-Series luxury car will be available with a twin-turbo-six-cylinder engine in North America. This certainly is a big step ahead for BMW which has always vouched by its big V8 engine for 7-Series.

BMW 740i and 740Li of 2011 will be available with BMW’s universally acclaimed straight-six engine that produces 315 horsepower at 5,800rpm and 440Nm of torque at 1,600-4,500rpm. BMW claims the 740i and 740Li will be among the most powerful six-cylinder luxury sedans in the world with this all-aluminium engine doubled with twin-turbos, features high precision direct fuel injection and double-VANOS variable camshaft technology.

We guess, like the small cars which is gaining popularity amongst the people, smaller engines also is gaining popularity with the manufacturers of high-end luxury cars in Europe and America. This is in order to reduce fuel consumption and cut back on emissions, while still retaining the drivability that bigger engines offer.
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Mercedes S-Class with 1.8L Diesel in 2010

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Mercedes Benz S-ClassGood news for those who drool at the sight of big German luxury set of wheels.

Mercedes-Benz has hit upon an idea to strengthen its hold on the luxury car market of the world. The big guys in Merc have planned to bring in a cheaper variant of its highly successful super luxury S-Class by next year.Well, this probably might be a piece of news that the competitors were dreading to hear.

Our sources say that Mercedes is piggy backing the green theme which is a roaring hit of 2009 across the globe. This new car we hear will possibly reduce the average emissions and damage to the green world. The new cheaper variant of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class which will be called S300 CDI, will sport a 1.8l 4-cylinder diesel engine of the E250 CDI that pumps out 201bhp and more than 470Nm of torque. The S-Class for its weight still will do a 0-100 in 8.5-9 seconds with a top speed of 235kph. Whoa, all this magic numbers from an oil-burner?

This certainly is welcome news for those rich guys who love nature and diesel at the same time and who also like to be chauffeured around the city in a big Merc. We also hear that the car will have endless list of options that a wannabe S-Class owner might look up to.

This is not all; this wonder car might fetch a minimum price tag of 70 lakhs if it ever came to India. We, on behalf of the automotive brethren desperately beg Mercedes-Benz-India to introduce this model in India and also give a free tip that this move by them will widen the appeal of the S-class thereby increasing its sales.
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Tata Motors Might Help Mallya Build Next-Gen F1 Car

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Team Force India F1 in ActionThis is news that we all have been waiting to hear for a long time now. An Indian car manufacturer made F1 car. This dream of countless Indian F1 fans is about to turn into reality if Tata Motors would collaborate with Vijay Mallya’s Force India F1 team to churn out an all-Indian made F1 car.

India’s liquor baron Vijay Mallya, also the chairman of Force India Formula One te¬am, is all set to race against time to make a mark in the upcoming FIA Formula One World Championship which starts in March 2010. Mallya’s Force India is designing next generation Formula One cars to take on competitors.

“Force India, based in Silverstone, UK, is a ‘non-resident Indian’, but I want to Indianise it and win the motor race soon,” Mallya, chairman of UB Group and Kingfisher Airlines, said. He would invest in this sport and there was “no compromise”, he said. “My dream is to find an Indian Lewis Hamilton,” he said. Lewis Hamilton is the British F1 car racer who also is the youngest winner of the FIA Formula One World Championship in 2008 at 23.

Mallya said the partnership offered his team a fully automated computational fluid dynamics (CFD) solution to design the team’s next generation race cars.

“Now with access to ‘eka’, India’s fastest super computer ranked fourth in the world with the capability of 133 trillion calculations per second would help improve aerodynamic efficiency of the inherited Spyker racing cars,” he said.

Mallya said the tie up with CRL would give an immediate 200 per cent increase in the CFD processing capability, which would rise to 800 per cent by the end of 2010. “We have integrated our own CFD methods, whi­ch are a critical part of Force India’s car design process, with the CRL facility to allow Force India’s CFD engineers to seamlessly interface between the UK and India effectively,” he said.

After buying the Spyker Formula One team from Spyker Cars NV in October 2007, the “King of Good Times” christened the team as Force India after its debut in 2008. “In the second competition in 2009, we secured one pole, one podium, one fastest lap and were placed ninth in the championship,” Mallya said.

Mallya always had held motor sports in high esteem and says motor racing is his passion, and it is in his blood and wants to meet the aspirations of the next generation of Indians, adding that he would build a big fan following for the sport through merchandising and other activities. India Force has a three-year (2009-2011) technical tie up with McLaren, UK and Mercedes, Germany for gear boxes, hydraulics and engines.

Mallya said 2010 has a line up of 19 motor races around the world till November and competitors were fighting to win the race with a lead of one hundredth of a second.
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More Cars Heading for India

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India is going to add more cars for its domestic market.

With Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation Group (SAIC) joining hands with General Motors, the players in the Indian small car market are getting another competitor. This is the second time that a Chinese auto maker is venturing to Indian car market after the Zotye Autos, which brought in the Rio in collaboration with India’s Premier Auto.

The company formed out of this joint partnership has been named as General Motors SAIC Investment Limited (GMSIL) which is based in Hong Kong.

SAIC and General Motors are exploring the viable options for them in the Indian car market and they feel that launching an entry-level low-cost car will help them get a foot hold of the Indian car market. Moreover, they will roll out a compact car in India too. The compact car will be placed below the Chevrolet Spark and will cost around Rs 2 Lakh.

However, it has been revealed that GMSIL has no immediate plans for its entry-level low cost car for the Indian market. When it will be launched, it will surely be rolled out from General Motors India’s Talegaon unit and would be exported to other emerging markets also.

The formation of this joint venture will help GM India take SAIC’s expertise in manufacturing cost-effective small cars and vans in China and use it to develop suitable products for the domestic market here in India.

The first offering from this partnership will be a passenger mini van in India. Later, GMSIL will also look at introducing other SAIC products including Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs).

Carazoo.com would like to mention that SAIC’s product line-up in China ranges from low-cost small cars and multipurpose vehicles to expensive sedans. SAIC sells the Roewe brand of cars and a premium-end sports coupe under the MG brand. Under its partnership with GM, it manufactures and sells GM’s Buick, Chevrolet, Cadillac and Saab brands.
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