Indian Car Blog - Carazoo.com

The Force India fresh from its win yesterday in the Belgium Grand Prix, courtesy Giancarlo Fisichella who secured a well-earned second place in the race just behind Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen got its much-needed boost for the car to evolve from an underdog team to a much professional-team.

Force India cars have evolved through the years since it was taken over by the Midland group from Eddie Jordan, who was the owner of the Jordan F1 team. The Jordan team owned by Eddie Jordan was named after him. Jordan F1 was active from 1991-2005 during which it was a Formula One Constructor. Eddie had to sell his team later in 2005 to a Russo-Canadian team called Midland Group which was renamed as Midland F1 racing in 2006 and raced their cars in Formula One.

Later the team exchanged hands again when Midland Group sold their Midland F1 racing team to Spyker cars for $106.6 million. Spyker cars renamed the team as Spyker MF1Team in 2006 September and went on again to change the name of the team as Etihad Aldar Spyker Formula One Team. Etihad (Airways) and Aldar (Real Estate Developers) corporates were the main sponsors for the team, from the oil-rich Emirate of Abu Dhabi.

This is when the team scored its first championship point in the 2007 Japanese Grand Prix when the then driver Adrian Sutil finished 9th on the track, but was promoted to 8th place and into the points-scoring position when stewards ruled, post-race, that Toro Rosso's Vitantonio Liuzzi had overtaken Sutil under a yellow flag on lap 55; Liuzzi was subsequently given a 25-second penalty that dropped his time below Sutil's.

Spyker Cars announced in August 2007 that it would have to sell all or part of the team due to a potential split of the team from its parent company and that’s when Indian billionaire Vijay Mallya and Dutch entrepreneur, Michiel Mol pitched in and became the new owners of the Spyker F1 team and the name henceforth was changed again to “Orange India”.

Orange India’s cars were named as VJM01 in 2008 and basically had a B-chassis of the 2007 Spyker Car. Vijay Mallya again officially renamed the company as “Force India” for the 2008 F1 season.

Even though Vijay Mallya put Mike Gascoyne, one of the best in the business to work on the car, it wasn’t enough as Sutil finished the season with most DNFs from all F1 drivers. The team than saw a radical change in terms of managerial and technicality in the early part of 2009 and switched power train suppliers, from Ferrari to McLaren for a new engine, gearbox, KERS unit and hydraulic system.

In the year 2009, a new car named VJM02 came into being which marks a complete change in design philosophy, not only due to the major F1 regulation changes. This car, in spite of its short development cycle, displayed several interesting bits during the first tests.

The sidepods were shaped as tightly as possible, while most other teams tried to make the surface as smooth as they could. The front of the car draws immediate attention because of its high nose, which infact is the highest of the 2009 field.

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What a Race it was and what a result it turned out to be? Everybody who watched the F1 race live on television here in India, and Indians living abroad certainly would have beamed in pride and satisfaction of the thirst which finally had been quenched. Indian fans of Formula One, could not have asked for more.

India’s Force India F1 team, considered to be minnows till yesterday showed its true class and colours by taking the challenge head-on to the big guys in the grid. Force India’s Giancarlo Fisichella, an Italian driving the Indian VJM02 Car powered by German engine (Mclaren-Mercedes) at Spa-Francorchamps F1 circuit in Belgium made the whole wide world stop its busy schedule to take a look at the arrived-with-a-bang team.

Fisi, though lost the first place to Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari who was aided to the finish with Kinectic Energy Recovery System (KERS) during the final second of the race, showed what raw grit, determination and hard work could do when he came in second to take the podium finish.

Vijay Mallya owned Force India F1 team, on its 30th attempt finally finished in the TOP 3 in an F1 race. 36-year-old Giancarlo Fisichella, despite not having the technological prowess of the bigger teams (read KERS) ended just 0.9 seconds behind Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen which earned him 8 points, the first ever won by an India team in F1.

This was nothing short of a tortoise-hare story that we had heard during our childhood. Patience was the key right from the start for Dr. Vijay Mallya’s team which delivered finally and how?

This seems to be a fitting reply to the Government of India which had just last week called F1, a costly entertainment rather than a sport.

Fisi’s collision with a rabbit on Saturday’s practice run probably could have brought him his lady luck that had been hiding in the closet, but it was Fisi’s sheer determination which made him stand in the podium beaming with pride and opening a bubbly to cherish the moment.

India’s tryst with F1 racing started with Vijay Mallya buying the Spyker MF1 team in 2007. Force India F1 team had to race in the Spyker chassis and cars for the entire year of 2008 as the team was acquired in late 2007. But the team started building its own car in the year 2009 and the results have been showing. About 95 per cent of the team sponsorship is being sponsored by Vijay Mallya himself.

It is high time that the Indian Government show the much deserved respect to F1 as a Motor sport and back Force India in whatever way possible.

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It seems like the Indian car makers are in a hiring spree. We agree that they are hiring workers to boost up the productivity, but the ‘hiring spree’ in the first sentence refers to phirang designers.

The desi car makers are planning to spruce up their future car creations with avant-garde designs. This can be attributed to the fact that lately many global car makers have intruded the Indian car market with exciting new cars.

Automobile car manufacturers such as Bajaj Auto, Maruti Suzuki, Mahindra & Mahindra and Tata Motors have had talks with several prominent car designers. The recruiting teams of these companies have conducted various rounds of interviews at the recent Society of Automotive Engineers event with designers from Chrysler and BMW etc.

India’s car leader Maruti Suzuki has shortlisted seven car designers from Detroit recently and these designers will be put into the system from next week. This is the first time that Maruti Suzuki is hiring global designers.

Indian two-wheeler maker Bajaj Auto is likely to hire Edgar Heinrich from BMW Motorcycles to head its design function. Motorcycles from Bajaj now have to compete with Harley Davidson bikes from the beginning of 2010.

Moreover, Mahindra & Mahindra and Tata Motors are following the steps of Maruti Suzuki. Tata Motors recently decided not to join the race of potential Italian design house Pininfarina buyers, because the chief designers of Pininfarina have left the place.

Today’s car buyers in India are laying emphasize on car designs besides performance, quality and costs of a car. The indigenous car makers of India are trying to strengthen their presence in the global market. So, they have to create new models that cater to the skeptical overseas customers.

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The all-new 2011 Bentley Mulsanne can be called the "pinnacle" of luxury cars. The Mulsanne is large, speedy, sophisticated and comfortable. The car is exquisitely tailored and beautifully engineered. Moreover, the new Bentley Mulsanne is powerful and elegant like nothing else on the road.

The design of the car is a blend of a tradition and contemporary style. Bentley promised to endow the luxury sedan with the finest of leather upholstery and a luxurious interior. The front fenders of the Mulsanne draws inspiration from Bentley’s Continental range and its grilles and D-pillar are crafted to allure the fans of Phantom and Maybach towards Bentley’s new creation.

The car company claims that the new Mulsanne is an “epitome of Bentley” and a “fusion of extremes”. The Bentley Mulsanne will deliver an outstanding maneuvering pleasure.

The 2011 Mulsanne can be distinguished as the first flagship car to be independently designed by Bentley Motors in nearly 80 years; the last being W.O. Bentley's iconic 8 litre model in 1930. This new sedan will carry the same 6.75 L V8 engine in a heavily redesigned state. This engine will deliver an astonishing power of 550bhp and will be E85 bio-ethanol compatible.

The name of the car reflects Bentley’s sporting pedigree and unique association with Le Mans. The all new Bentley Mulsanne will go on sale in another one year henceforth. The car will be priced around £200,000.

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The Toyota Land Cruiser is called the ‘King of SUVs.’ If that’s true, then Hummer is the emperor of SUVs. If that is the case, where should we place the latest SUV, the Knight XV? Well, then we have to term the Knight XV as the God of SUVs!

We can already read your mind, dude. You must be thinking that we must be joking, but we are damn serious of what we are writing here. Please let us make things simpler and clearer for you to understand.

Imagine a lightweight boxer standing beside a heavyweight boxer and a WWE wrestler. Now let us name them. The lightweight boxer is the Toyota Land Cruiser, the heavyweight boxer is the Hummer and then this new Knight XV SUV is the WWE wrestler. Are you getting it, now? This Knight XV is huge! If you have to believe our words, just scroll down to see the image of the Hummer parked behind the Knight XV.

Believe us, this SUV from Conquest Vehicles Inc., a Toronto-based company, is colossal; it is gigantic in size. It is the largest Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) on earth weighting 10,000 pounds. This is also the world’s most luxurious SUV. Most importantly and interestingly, the Knight XV is very eco-friendly and runs on bio-fuel. Don’t choke as of yet. We wish a Happy and astonishing further reading.

Conquest Vehicles Inc. is a Toronto based Canadian automobile manufacturer. The company exclusively practices designing and manufacturing of extra-luxurious, fully armoured, handcrafted sport utility vehicles. The company employs award-winning experts in the field of engineering, fabrication, design, armouring and customization to create one-of-a-kind SUVs unrivaled and unmatched in present day’s automotive marketplace. Besides, Conquest Vehicles Inc. provides its clients with auto customization and after-market design for their exotic luxury vehicles.

The hulky Knight XV is powered by a 6.8 liter V10 engine. The engine can deliver a robust power of 400 bhp. The Knight XV is congregated on a super duty Ford modified platform chassis. The Herculean SUV is inspired by the Gurkha military vehicle built by Armet Armored Vehicles. The Gurkha military vehicle is an armoured military vehicle employed by the United States Army, Russian Foreign Ministry, various American police SWAT teams and Canadian Forces.

The fully armoured Knight XV comes with Wilton Wool carpeting, Andrew Muirhead leather, 6-way electric leather boardroom-style seating, tandem sunroof glass with privacy shades, personal side-mounted laptop stations, LED cabin lighting, an Alpine AM, FM, CD, DVD navigation and Bluetooth connectivity, TV monitors, night vision and rear operation camera system, and a PlayStation 3.

The interior of the cabin is humongous with ultra spacious 283-cubic-foot, which obviously is larger than the interior of most SUVs on the road today and can comfortably accommodate six professional basketball players.

One peculiar thing about this Herculean Knight XV is that it is handcrafted. Each car takes 1,500 man hours to be built. This SUV is meticulously built completely by human hands.

The Knight XV is built using ballistic hardened steel making it fully armoured. The SUV comes with ballistic fiberglass fenders and bumpers as well as 64 mm transparent armour glass. The monumental SUV measures 240 inches in length and 98 inches wide with a ground clearance of 14 inches and stands 100 inches tall above ground.

Its wheelbase is 141 and the SUV can hold 40 gallons of fuel and sits on four, LT40X13.50R20 Mickey Thompson Baja Radial ATZ tyres with ballistic run flat tyre system. These 40 inches tyres are wrapped around 20 inches aircraft-grade wheels. In addition, the Knight XV contains an E-85 Ethanol conversion system (Flex Fuel) with California emission certification.

As we have seen, everything about this SUV is superlative… the size, performance, built, fuel efficiency, gadgets, luxury, security and the price as well. Ah, the price, how could we forget that. Well, Folks!!! The SUV is attached to a heavy price tag of $310,000. (The price goes well with its stance!) There are only a handful of overly super rich people who can afford to vroom this leviathan SUV.

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We all know that Formula One is a sport, a motor sports and the best one in that. But Indian Government begs to differ and strongly says that Formula One is not a sport. This is blasphemy at its worst. Right? We all agree with your sentiments.

Well, Formula One is the highest form of motor racing. The “Formula” in the term stands for a set of rules to which all participants and cars must comply. Formula One is a massive television event as well, with a global audience of 600 million people per race. This is the world’s most expensive sport. It has a substantial effect on the economy and there has been a never-ending fight inside F1’s governing bodies.

The Indian Government has put forward its outdated views on the motor sports recently. The Indian Government has turned down a request by Formula 1 promoters to get approval for remittances of $36.5 million to host an F1 race in the country on the ground that it is not a sport. The ministry has dismissed Formula One racing as mere entertainment rather than a sport which is not worthy to be funded.

This view has bewildered all the motor sports fans and bodies around the globe.
Besides, the Ministry also remarked that the Formula One racing does not fulfill the conditions that focus on human endeavour for excelling in competition with others.

This is simply ridiculous because Formula 1 drivers have to endure extreme physical and mental pressure while racing. Here, man and machine has to unite into one to push the body and the car to the limit and beyond and has to come out unhurt. This is what makes Formula One incredible and marvelous compared to other sports on earth.

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Are we asking for more if we expect the new Hyundai Tucson to be launched in India?
Certainly not, in the present condition of the Indian car market has made Indians dare to dream big on the car models that should be available to them. In fact the Indian customers should rejoice about their heavenly plight, where they get what they seek.

Dreams and wishes apart, let us see what the new Hyundai Tucson crossover has in store for the millions of the car craze fraternity worldwide.

As mentioned, it was just a dream to see the new Hyundai Tucson on the Indian roads, it is not an impossible dream though, so let us hope the dream will be soon cherished as what has happened with many other variants lately.

And more over carmakers like Toyota and Nissan are introducing their new car models, Hyundai will consider this new Tucson as a true rival for the many other car brands. But for the Korean car lovers the reality is very flowery and enchanting. The Hyundai has launched its new Hyundai Tucson in Korea, Hyundai’s homeland.

The car is a perfect blend of Hyundai’s new design language and the ix-onic concept car. It also has panoramic glass-roof, downhill brake control (DBC), rear-view camera, hill-start assist control, vehicle dynamic control (VDC).

Available in the driving option of both the front wheel and all wheel the car will be available in one gasoline and one diesel engine. And the most attractive new is that the company has plans to export this new car globally.

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It has been noted that Indian car buyers are showing a preference for cars with automatic transmission. Lately, the automatic variants of cars have risen up the sales charts. Most of the cars launched over the past one and a half year come with five to six speed gear box. These cars show a good fuel efficiency, superior pick up and outstanding performance.

The Hyundai i10 is one of the top-selling cars with automatic gear box. The car is selling over 1,600 automatic transmission variants per month, which is much more than the company's initial estimates. As a result, Hyundai Motors India has introduced an automatic transmission variant in its Verna sedan. In the same way, the Chevrolet Captiva also came up in the automatic variant with a four-wheel drive because of huge demand.

Cars like the Honda City, Hyundai i20, Mahindra Scorpio Mitsubishi Outlander and many more are available in both manual and automatic transmission in the Indian market. While, a number of cars like the Ford Endeavour and the newly launched Toyota Fortuner are expected to be revised with an automatic transmission in future. These cars in the premium segment are currently selling in the manual transmission variant.

An important reason behind brisk sales of automatic transmission is car buyers put emphasize on driving comfort. Moreover, the ‘stop-go-stop’ nature of traffic in metros has forced Indian car buyers to pick up the auto transmissions. Therefore, car buyers do not mind pitching a bit more for driving comfort, especially when it is spread over EMIs. Another point has been noted that a woman driver opts for high-end features and automatic transmission is one of them.

Honda Siel Cars India has revealed that it sells the automatic transmission variants for most of its models like Civic, Accord, City and CRV. In the past, only 5 per cent of the sales belonged to the old model of Honda City with automatic transmission, but now the sales have risen to 14 per cent in the new model of the City with automatic transmission. Moreover, 51 per cent of the Honda Accord sold in India today is with automatic transmission.

Luxury car makers like BMW sells all its cars in its automatic transmission. This German car maker has found out that the buyers from the creamy layer prefer only the automatic transmission variant as they believe that automatic transmission reduces the risk of wear and tear of the car in the long run even if the cars are drove by chauffeurs.

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To move on with the changing trend and times in the luxury car segment, Audi has planned to give its urban butch SUV, Q7, a facelift.

The new 2010 face lifted Q7; will sport a new exterior in the form of new re-designed grille with chrome finished with thick vertical highlights. The SUV will have a new set of headlights, which will have Audi’s LED daytime lights and LED turn indicator. Even the front and rear bumpers and their under protectors have been altered. The Audi Q7 will have a new LED tail lights and has a latest door moulding.

The Q7 will also receive new wheels. So many tweaks here and there will surely bring out a new Q7, which will the Q7 a refreshingly new look and that is exactly what Audi is aiming at.

Not only the outer shell will get a new look, but the interiors of the car will also receive a revival. Audi has taken care to rework and improve the form and finish of the instruments and switchgear and it also new interior moon-lighting. And the SUV will have the latest version of MMI infotainment system which has a 10GB internal hard-drive

The Q7 will still have its 3.0-litre V6 turbo-diesel engine that allows a 6-speed manual transmission. Facelift aside, the new brake energy recovery system adds technicality to the whole refreshment process of the car. This is something that is not very intrusive and so not mentioned about it one would rarely notice it.

The best part about the facelift is that the automaker has concentrated on the needs and opinion from its most valuable customers. The refreshed Audi is expected to hit the Indian roads in 2010, but the price is still not available. And this new Audi Q7 will surely quench the thirst of a die-hard Audi customer.

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The all new Maruti Suzuki Estilo is here with a refreshing look!

The three year old Maruti Suzuki Zen Estilo has undergone a cosmetic surgery as well as a heart transplant and is back with a stunning new look and has been re-christened as Maruti Suzuki Estilo removing that much loved “Zen” prefix in the name. Hence we have an all new Estilo, which is designed to suit the taste of the young generation by Maruti Suzuki India.

The new Maruti Suzuki Estilo comes with a 998 cc K-Series engine which is BS IV compliant. The lightweight aluminum engine has a 5-speed manual transmission that can give a decent power output of 65 bhp. The car is low on maintenance and is also low on fuel consumption with a jaw dropping 18.2km/l. The Detent Pin Transmission Technology and the Cable system offer an extremely smooth gear shifting and great handling taking driving to a next level.

The car has a curvaceous body with aerodynamic contours. The new chrome grille, the elegantly creased hood, futuristic headlamps and the sculpted fog lamps give a new aura to the Estilo. The car also drapes in body coloured door handles and Outside Rear View Mirror (ORVM) and chic wheel caps on its 13 inch wheels.

The interior of the new Maruti Suzuki Estilo is a blend of comfort and sophistication. The interior comes in double tone dashboard in chocolate brown and beige and can comfortably accommodate five persons with ample leg room and head space. The seats are ergonomically designed with adjustable headrest and the rear seats can be folded to hold luggage and store goods. The dash is furnished with an illuminated instrument cluster with silver lining.

Safety features include ABS, Airbags and much more for a safe and secure drive. The all new Maruti Suzuki Estilo comes in three variants: LX, LXi and VXi. The car comes alive in all the eight new colours viz. Superior White, Silky Silver, Dusky Brown, Ecru Beige, Quantum Orange, Bright Red, Emerald Blue and Midnight Black. The car is priced between Rs 3.12 Lakh to Rs 3.95 Lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi).

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A word is out that Maruti 800 will be phased out in 11 Indian cities from January next year as it has failed to meet the required Indian emission norms.

The Maruti 800 has been Maruti Suzuki’s flagship model since the company’s inception in 1983 until Maruti Suzuki Alto replaced it recently. And now the big question is what will happen to Maruti Suzuki with M800 gone.

Tata Motors has launched the low-priced Nano. Will the Tata Nano dominate the small car segment? Most importantly will Maruti Suzuki allow the Nano to rule the small car market? Of course not!

Well, Maruti Suzuki has other alternate plans charted out to continue as the leader in the Indian small car market. The car major is gearing up the Alto at a 'cost down' version to bring it close to the price levels of the M800.

The new upcoming Alto is already in the design stage and will be available in the market in the first quarter of next fiscal. The 'cost down' version Alto will come with the powerful K-Series engine and is likely to be priced close to the Rs 3 Lakh bracket.
Moreover, this version will be made BS-IV compliant. So, six months later a car buyer can choose between the existing Alto and the new, upgraded 'cost down' version.

It is heard that Maruti Suzuki is working on the cost cutting techniques on the car and this could bring the base model of the Alto very near to the Maruti 800 or could even within striking distance of the Nano!

The Maruti Suzuki Alto has been selling on an average of 19,000-20,000 units a month. But sales of the M800 model have been declining day by day and the car company is planning to phase out the model completely in the near future. Maruti Suzuki Omni also will be phased out in a gradual move by the company.

It seems that the time has really come when Maruti Suzuki has to select a successor for the Maruti 800, the once called desi ruler in the small car segment.

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The future seems to be very bright for General Motors in India which is loaded with one new launch after the other. But there is a cloud of uncertainty that is enveloping the car manufacturer as they cannot reach the earlier target that they had set for themselves.

GM India had earlier set a goal of achieving a 10 per cent market share in the passenger car segment. But due to the uncertainty of the parent company GM which was prevailing about a couple of months back, GM India has rescheduled the target giving it another year’s time.

GM India is trying to reassure itself and the customers that missing the target is not a major setback and that the company has the leisure to take its own time before it achieves the target for achieving 10 per cent market share in the passenger car segment.

The once bankruptcy struck parent company of GM India, General Motors, was able to maintain a calm face among the Indian customers and had managed to run its business smoothly in India, in spite of major breakdowns globally. But it is really surprising to know that the Indian arm of the company, which was not struck by the global economic slowdown, was not able to achieve its target.

But leaving this apart, the company is doing seemingly well in the market by having sold over 600 units of it’s newly launched LPG Spark. And the new launches from the company include Chevrolet Cruz, which will be launched in October this year, and Mini cars and both the new models are expected to bring in good business for the company. The company is also planning to start new dealerships within the country.

It seems that GM India’s “There for you, There for India” campaign, launched to boost the business in India when its parent was struck by bankruptcy, should be used again.

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World’s number one car manufacturer Toyota Motor Corporation is planning to expand in India. So, as a part of this expansion drive, it is contemplating to introduce its small car brand Daihatsu in India.

Toyota has been exporting Daihatsu models to the US since February 1992. Daihatsu is Japan’s largest mini car maker and sells cars in over 100 countries. Daihatsu is famous for its mini-cars and are doing very well in the markets of Indonesia and Malaysia. It has recently launched the 660cc Mira Cocoa, which is very suitable for woman drivers. Daihatsu’s passenger car range includes the Materia, the Copen, the Sirion and the Curore or the Charade with engine capacities of up to 1.5 litres.

Now India is going to welcome an all-new mini car by late 2010 from Daihatsu. India’s first Daihatsu car will come with a 600 cc engine.

India is a hub for small cars and Toyota has been eyeing the Indian small car market for some time. Daihatsu will complete against car makers like Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai in India amongst others players.

The Indian arm of Toyota is investing Rs 3200 Crore for a new plant in Karnataka, which will be meant only for its upcoming small car.

Toyota ventured into the Indian car market twelve years ago and has a minimal market share of 3 per cent. Toyota Kirloskar Motors is evaluating to increase its market share by 2015. Last year, Toyota Kirloskar Motors sold around 46,892 units in the domestic market and expects to sell 52,000 for the current year.

After the Land Cruiser and the Prado, Toyota launched its third Sports Utility vehicle (SUV) Fortuner in the Indian market on Monday.

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Toyota Kirloskar Motors Pvt Ltd has finally launched its Toyota Fortuner in India. The Fortuner is a brawny younger brother of the King of Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV), the Land Cruiser.

This new Sport Utility Vehicle comes with a 3.0 Litre TDCI D-4D diesel engine with five speed manual transmission. The massive Fortuner will come with an All-Time Four Wheel Drive.

The engine offers a brilliant performance, superb reliability and exceptional off-road ability. The Fortuner comes with Vehicle Stability Control and Traction Control which provide excellent suspension dynamics. The SUV sports a rear spoiler that contributes to impressive aerodynamics.

The Toyota Fortuner has a typical old-school SUVs design. It has a hood scoop that adds grandeur to its large stance. The powerful headlamps are curved around the grille to create a mesmerizing effect. The front fascia is urban without being gaudy. The same cool look is maintained at the rear end with the large tail lamps. The car stands on 17inch alloy wheels.

The Toyota Fortuner comes with a comfortable and large interior. The interior is furnished with double-tone dashboard and leather upholstery. A touch-screen interface is installed on the dashboard for easy maneuvering of audio system, GPS etc and the Climatronic AC system is placed below it.

The SUV has tilt-adjust steering for maximum driving pleasure. There is ample legroom with comfortable seating arrangements for seven persons in three rows of seat. The seats come with six-directional adjustment.

The third row can be folded sidewise to accommodate more luggage and belongings.
The Fortuner safety includes safety features like Anti-lock Braking System (ABS), SRS front airbags, dynamic safety engineering, laminated glazed windscreen, front and rear side impact door beams, and front/rear seat belts. The car also comes with sonar back feature for easy parking in narrow space.

The Toyota Fortuner will be in competition with the Honda CR-V, Mitsubishi Outlander, Ford Endeavour and Chevrolet Captiva. The Toyota Fortuner is priced at Rs 18.45 Lakh (Ex Showroom, Delhi).

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All the excitement and the dust encompassing Sunday’s European Grand Prix in Valencia have just settled down. But seems the rumour mills are working overtime to churn out the best quality gossips that we haven’t heard in Formula One Racing for quite some time now.

Well, According to the stories that have been flying after Sunday’s Grand Prix, Fernando Alonso is likely to say au revoir to Renault and will join hands with Ferrari for the year 2010.

Fernando Alonso of Renault came in the sixth place in yesterday’s European Grand Prix held at Valencia in Spain.

This rumour still has not been confirmed and will remain unofficial as Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa are still under contract with Scuderia Ferrari. Once the contract is over, we are likely to get the official confirmation of this news.

Ferrari has denied having talks with Fernando Alonso. But the shifting of team is a possibility at a situation surrounding Massa’s injuries and Kimi Raikkonen’s growing interest in driving rally cars as well as the rather slow and desultory performance of Luca Badoer in yesterday’s European Grand Prix. Moreover, in the world of Formula One racing, anything can happen and Ferrari is not afraid to shake things up in and around Formula One.

So guys if the rumour turns out to be true, get ready to see Fernando Alonso with those red jumpsuit-wearing boys from Ferrari next year.

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SkodaAuto is overwhelmed with the success of its Skoda Laura and Superb in India. As a result India will soon see the launch of a performance car in its roads.
The new performance car is called the RS (Rally Sport) and it is the sports edition of all Skoda cars.

The RS is likely to come with both petrol and diesel versions in India. The petrol variant will come with a 2.0-L TSI engine with a power output of 197bhp and the diesel model will be powered by a 2.0-L TDI oil burner that can churn out 167 bhp.

The RS can be perceived as a cozy four-door family sedan as well as a fast car when you want to go like the wind as it has a good aerodynamics and sports suspension.

The new RS is considered to be based on the platform of the Laura and will display similar sporty styling cues on its external body and interiors.

The RS will be available in India only after the introduction of the Yeti, which is expected some time later this year.

SkodaAuto is the only company to launch true-blue “sports” version of its regular sedans in India. Earlier, other car manufacturers such as Honda, Toyota, Ford, Mitsubishi and Maruti Suzuki tried to come up with sports versions of their regular cars.

Honda has introduced the sports version of its Civic and Ford India has its Fiesta 1.6S. Mitsubishi come up with the Cedia Sports and a few months back Toyota too launched a sports version of the Altis.

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It appears as if the Tata Motorsand its much-protected model JLR are back in full swing. Unbelievable right?

But that seems to be the fact; the Indian Automotive giant just two weeks ago was in a pathetic plight seeking a helping hand that would pull their foreign born newly acquired brands out of disaster.

And they finally succeeded in getting a loan of around 600 crore from Burdale Financial Ltd, a member of the Bank of Ireland Group, that the company will be using for the revival purpose of the JLR.

But no one would have thought that everything will fall into place so fast and with so much ease. Suddenly, in a week’s time, everything appears to be so fine, which makes us hard to believe what we witnessed just a week back.

Miraculous no? It is not; you have just witnessed the strength of a global auto giant that hardly needs time to be back in its original self, even after being hit by a hard financial blow.

All seems to be well with the JLR. Tata Motors boasts of having received a huge number of bookings from the customers and there is a waiting list till October this year, and both the models have equal demand. Tata also sees a fruitful overseas market for the JLR.

In the initial months after the launch of JLR, both the models weren’t doing good in sales but the now the new picture of emerging brands has substituted the fading old JLR models.

The only showroom of the Jaguar Land Rover brand in India is in Mumbai and the company is now planning to open a new showroom in Bangalore, a sure sign of expansion and growth.

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All these years, we have been bringing news exclusively for car lovers. This is for the first time; we bring you news on bikes. And its not just bikes, but superbikes and cruisers from Harley-Davidson.

Harley-Davidson superbikes will ride on Indian soil and this could happen in a week. Yeah, you heard it right. The iconic motorcycles will be whirling as early as next week.
The American motorcycle manufacturer got permission from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board to venture into the Indian automobile market back in April 2007.

But the legendary Harley-Davidson discarded its plan to enter India as the import duty structure was not feasible for business. But, the present duty rates appear to be viable for Harley-Davidson to invest in the Indian automobile market.

The superbikes from Harley-Davidson will be priced between Rs 4 Lakh to Rs14 Lakh. Though the bikes are pricey, they will surely attract customers. Of late, the superbike bazaar has been doing well in India.

Motorcycles that are termed as superbikes have a large engine displacement of around 1,000cc and are priced around Rs 9 Lakh to Rs12 Lakh in India.

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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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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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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.

The 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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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Maruti Suzuki’s ‘Ghar Ghar Mein Maruti’ (A Maruti Car in Every Home) campaign has started to pay off. This is not a new initiative from Maruti Suzuki, but it has started to show real results now.

The rural drive was first launched two years back and the company had already planned a well sketched plan on how to penetrate into the rural market, which has now proved successful.

The company initially targeted the Panchayat members and other higher authorities and then slowly moved on to concentrate on the teachers, rural bank members, and healthcare members, and they also made easy availability of finance through public sector and several regional rural banks.

And this rural campaign could be seen as a reason why Maruti Suzuki was able to stand still in spite of the shaky economy which prevailed in the country during the economic slowdown.

The sales in metro had slowed down during the period but the sales from the region showed a growth, and contributed 12 percent of the total sales of the company.
With over 60,000 cars sold in rural markets between April 2008 and February this year it is identified that the rural market has high potentials.

By now Maruti has penetrated into most of the villages in the country and has appointed over 3,000 locals as Resident Dealer Sales Executive who promotes sales of Maruti cars in the region.

This Indian carmaker being in the country for a long time now knows the pulse of the crowd and knows what are their demands and interests even before they voice it, and this could be said as a reason for the company’s successful saga in the country.

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Bentley Motors has launched its Mulsanne at the Pebble Beach Concours D’Elegance in California, in the US. The Bentley Mulsanne is said to have drawn inspiration from the old, massive Bentley 8-litre, which debuted in 1930 and only 100 units of those cars was ever built.

Bentley’s all-new flagship grand tourer, the Mulsanne is crafted, styled and engineered at the luxury car maker’s headquarters in Crewe, England. The car will be made in a new, state-of-the-art manufacturing facility within the Crewe facility unit. The Mulsanne in a completely new avatar will go into production in 2010.

The name of this new car is derived from Bentley's history pages. The Mulsanne Straight is the stretch of the Le Mans racecourse where cars reach their highest speeds and Bentley has five victories at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Bentley's new flagship model brings back the Mulsanne name and will effectively replace the Bentley Arnage.

The 2010 Bentley Mulsanne will come with the iconic 6.75 L (6750 cc/411 in³) V8 engine, although in a reworked model and is rumoured to have a spectacular design line.

The car will be available in the showrooms of US and Europe by mid-2010. Moreover, this car is also expected to be rolled out in India probably by the new of next year.

Bentley recently launched the powerful supercar Continental Flying Spur Speed in India.
Stay tuned for updates on the new Mulsanne at Carazoo.com. The Mulsanne will be displayed at the forthcoming IAA Frankfurt Motor Show from15th to27th September, 2009.

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The new leaner and meaner GM which has come out of bankruptcy is thinking of ways to secure a more stable position in the world market. The company has now laid plans for a new small car launch.

General Motors acquired all the motivation for this new launch from none other than the Indian car giant that is currently a growing player in the American car market, Tata Motors. Of late, the Nano from Tata has been giving ideas to other car companies to launch cheap cars that would push more car sales.

The new car from GM is expected to be priced at Rs 1.95 lakh, not as much cheaper as the Nano which is priced at Rs 1 lakh. The company is not concentrating on launching its ultra-cheap small car in the U.S. car market, but rather in the emerging markets such as India and other Asian countries. And a very good reason for this is that GM now finds countries outside America the best market for its cars, because in the first half of the year the company made most of its sale outside North America.

Nothing much on the specification or other features of the car is available, but it is quite possible that GM might choose its Indian plant to produce its new small car as GM has already made a strong base in the country and that it needs to only pay eight percent of excise duty for small cars.

GM India was still able to maintain a healthy position when its parent company filed bankruptcy and was in a shaky position.

Once the pride of America, General Motors, had filed for bankruptcy way before the economic recession in 2008, and one among the main reasons is the very elaborate labor plans and policies of the company, which very soon became a burden for the company.

But, after filing bankruptcy, GM was well planned and organized as to what are its priorities. Its decision to sell out assets and business ventures by the end of August 2009 holding back the long-term programs has proved beneficial to the company.

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It is better late than never! This should be the phrase that will be bringing a sigh of relief for the luxury carmaker, Audi. When the whole car world seems to be celebrating the coming of the many eco-friendly models, Audi might have felt a little out of place and seriously decided that it also could have its way in the eco-friendly cars department.

This probably is why the company is planning to launch a new ecological car – that was a very light way to say how Audi has to really deck up and launch its expected E1 very soon.

There are more eco-friendly cars that is expected to be launched by Audi in this year such as the whole E series namely the E2, E3, E4, and E5 but this one, E1 seems to be more special than the rest not only because it is the first one in the list but also because of that the E1 belongs to the small car segment and there aren’t many cars from Audi in this segment.

It is not sure whether the car will be available in both petrol and diesel variants or just either one of them but it is expected to be available in gasoline and electric engines. The engine will be powered by a 600cc twin cylinder turbo charged engine. There will be a sibling for the E1, E1 1.2-litre three cylinder.

The E1 will have the typical Audi looks with its alloy wheels, mesh grille, Daylight running headlamps and the big front badge. And there will also be touchscreen device in the car that comprises of features like MP3 player, satellite navigation, and phone. The E1 will have better fuel efficiency with very low carbon dioxide emission.

The E1 is expected to become the best among the city cars and will take over the Ford Ka, and Smart. The car might take another year or two before it gets launched globally.

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Team Ferrari F1 seems to have got the solution to the problem it has been prodding for over a month a now. Ferrari has confirmed that Felipe Massa will be replaced by Luca Badoer for the upcoming European Grand Prix, pulling down the curtains on the most debated issue in the F1 circles of late.

Ferrari has been in distress since Felipe Massa was injured in Hungarian Grand Prix on July 25, 2009 and soon after that it was speculated that Massa would be replaced by the legendary, seven-time world champion Micheal Schumacher.

Schumi who had been recalled for the event by Ferrari soon forced to back out and call off his participation at the Formula One racing because he was haunted by the neck injuries he sustained during a motorcycle race earlier in the year.

Now Ferrari left with no other options, has zeroed on Luca Badoer to replace the injured Felipe Massa at the upcoming European Grand Prix at Valencia. Ferrari has promoted its test driver Badoer to the race position for the next race in Valencia, as a reward for his many years of efforts with the team.

Luca Badoer has been a Ferrari test and reserve driver since 1998 and last raced in 1999 for Minardi. Luca Di Montezemolo has named the 38-year-old Italian to race for the Scuderia.

Luca Badoer is Ferrari's longest ever serving test driver. He holds a distinction of being the only driver who has competed in the 48 Grand Prix without scoring a single point. He was about to achieve his first points finish in the 1999 European Grand Prix, but the gearbox on his Minardi failed with only thirteen laps to go.

Unable to find a satisfactory race seat in Formula One after 1999, Badoer became a permanent test driver for Ferrari. He covers thousands of kilometres at the Mugello and Fiorano test circuits each year and has probably driven more kilometres in a Ferrari Formula One car than any other Italian in history.

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Mercedes-Benz has slipped down from the competition as the going for the brand in India seems tough with BMW already surpassing it as a new market leader in its class.

The growing sales of BMW have really put this luxury carmaker into deep thought of how to stand on par with it. Mercedes-Benz has been showing a decline in sales for the past few months while the sales of BMW is shooting high and has a whole range of new cars that will be launched by the company in the next few months.

Currently in the number two position, Mercedes-Benz has high hopes set on its upcoming model, W1212 also aptly called as the new E-class which is a ninth generation car. Having had launched a new M-class model in the country this year; the E-Class model is expected to hit the Indian roads by the end of September this year and will share its looks with its predecessor W1210.

Both the diesel and petrol variant of the car will be available, but the diesel variant will follow the petrol variant only by the end of the year. And the company really needs to speed up on this as the diesel variants are gaining more popularity than the petrol engine cars.

The petrol version of the car will be powered by 3.5 liter 24valve V6 direct injection gas engine delivering a power of 292 bhp. And the diesel version of the car will have a 320CDi engine.

As of now, neither the price nor any other specifications of the car is available.

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The iconic car has been the witness of a world hit by oil scarcity, problems faced by car industry and many more. It has seen a series of ownership changes. In spite of all the happenings, the Mini still stands upright to tell us the unfortunate tale of its original maker British Leyland.

The company first got nationalized and then privatized and then got demerged, was sold again and before it went bust finally.

In 1968 the Labour government engineered the merger of British Motor Corporation with Leyland and was nationalized in 1975. In the 1980s, Jaguar dominated the stock market and the rest of British Leyland had been sold to British Aerospace which was resold to BMW in 1994. BMW sold the company to the Phoenix Four and MG Rover and the company broke in the subsequent year.

The Mini is a front-wheel drive car with sideways-mounted engine, small wheels and external hinges. It was launched as the Austin Seven in 1959. It was sold as the Morris Mini-Minor, adapting the marque of its decade-old Morris Minor. After a decade it officially became the Mini.

The Mini personified the Swinging Sixties. It has the credit of winning three Monte Carlo rallies and was a favourite among the popstars. The Mini itself became a film star in The Italian Job.

While the Mini was shining, the British motor industry faded. The Mini carried a price tag of £500 without heaters, mirrors, sun-visors or radios. In those days, British cars had wind-up handles and the Mini still had sliding panes, where as most of the foreign cars had electric windows.

The Mini has won many awards over the years. The most notable ones are the "Car of the Century" by the Autocar magazine in 1995, "Number One Classic Car of All Time" by Classic & Sports Car magazine in 1996 and "European Car of the Century" in a worldwide Internet poll run by the prestigious Global Automotive Elections Foundation in 1999. The Mini managed second place, behind the Model T Ford, for "Global Car of the Century" in that same poll.

Around 5.39 million units of the Mini were sold over forty years making it Britain's most popular car. The last old Mini was manufactured in October 2000. But there are still thousands of these cars on the road, with the remaining pre-1980s versions being firmly established as collectors' items.

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The 2010 BMW ActiveHybrid X6 is bundled with technologies. Read on to unfold the features of the new, technology driven car that has it all to boost the future outlook on cars.

The difference between the conventional BMW X6 and the ActiveHybrid X6 is that the ActiveHybrid car will have the twin advantage of the X6 concept and two-mode hybrid version. The new BMW drivetrain integrates power inventor, batteries and electronic system into the transmission.

Being already familiar with the ActiveHybrid X7, it is time to get used to the new member in the family, ActiveHybrid X6. The production of the car has already begun and it will be showcased in the coming month at the Frankfurt Motor Show alongside the ActiveHybrid X7.

BMW was rendered help from General Motors and Daimler Chrysler that co-developed the two-mode hybrid system. The transmission of this hybrid system is based on the ECVT electrical continuously variable transmission and the two modes, one for low and the other for high speeds also has fixed transmission ratio.

Apart from the technicalities, the ActiveHybrid X6 can be distinguished from the regular X6 as light blue paint scheme, unique badging and the 21” wheels gives it a different and distinct face.

The Active Hybrid X6 holds the credit of the world's first Sports Activity Coupe which offers a full hybrid drive. A nickel-metal hydrid (NiMH) battery pack provides energy for the electric motors of ActiveHybrid X6. While in the electricity only mode, the ActiveHybrid X6 can run up to a speed of 60km/h.

All of this with an improved fuel efficiency of upto 20% compared to the other non-hybrid cars.

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Of late, Tata Nano has been making and breaking news in the country and abroad. The term Nano might go over your head, if you listen to that term once again. But we are compelled to do so with regards to the latest great Indian rumour mill working overtime. Nano has always been a favourite amongst the Moto- journo crowd and there is not a single day without a piece of news generated without the Tata Nano being in that in the country.

We all know Tata Motors’ ploy of terming this small giant as the common man’s car. And now as most of the journos have been saying that this “cheapest car in the world” will be expected to replace two-wheelers and bring in the trend of four wheelers, but in reality this concept put out by many including us in Carazoo.com will take some time for this trend to set in as there aren’t many Nano cars available in the market. In fact there will not be many cars in the Indian roads for years, but still the car will still be in news.

What you will read below might as well make you sit in the edge of that chair that you are already sitting reading this blog.

Tata Nano can be a really good Taxi! Yes, we just said it. Blasphemy, you say. Well, we are just keeping a mirroring our thoughts here. Tata Motors who has brought out models like Indica, Sumo or Indigo, never probably thought that their models would be a work horse of many cab-drivers and fleet operators commuting people from their work places. Now with the cheapest car tag attached to Nano, it could be a hot car amongst the taxi drivers.

The fuel efficiency of the car is really tempting and dream like; and best suites the purpose of a taxi. The car has a fuel economy of 22 kmpl in city and 26 kmpl on the highways and this alone can be seen as a reason for it to have a yellow number plates. The car has been booked by many entrepreneurs and the reason could be nothing else but to deck up the Nano and include it in the new list of Taxis.

If Tata Motors might read this blog and if it finds that Taxi version of Tata Nano might be reasonable, Tata Nano might even support the taxi life of Nano by releasing a diesel version of the car or by customizing the styling that best suites a taxi. You might not be surprised to see a Nano as a taxi but nod your head and consider it as a much expected sight. Well, just think what simple thoughts can give way to.

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The Volkswagen Beetle popularly known as the Bug will bite Indian roads in about three months from now.

The Volkswagen Beetle is the world’s longest running and most-produced car of a single design. The time is crucial for Volkswagen which has decided to launch the Beetle in India as BMW has withheld the launch of its Mini in India. It is said that the Volkswagen Beetle would be released in limited numbers in the Indian Car Market.

The Beetle will be powered by a 1.9-litre TDI diesel engine which is mated to a 5-speed manual transmission. The Bug will sport safety featureslike rain sensors, cruise control and acoustic rear parking sensors to fit into the narrow parking slots. It will also boast of having Anti-lock Braking System (ABS), traction control, anti-skid system and standard front and side airbags. The cute Bug will offer a Nano-sized ride with the extravagance of a high-end SUV.

Volkswagen is presently brooding over the pricing of the Volkswagen Beetle which is a big challenge for the car company. Due to the 110% import duty and high safety specifications the Bug is expected to be pricey. It is likely to carry a hefty price tag of Rs 20 Lakh.

Currently, Volkswagen markets the Jetta and the Passat in India and will roll out the Polo by year end.

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Your dream machine can now spend time in a beauty clinic for a makeover, obviously excluding manicure and pedicure! Amazing, right?

The ‘Carz Spa’ is India’s first Car Beauty Clinic, which is now ready to cross the threshold of the South Indian market through Franchise India. This car beauty parlour has been quite a hit in Western India.

Carz Spa, a division of M/s Fortune Multiple Services Pvt. Ltd, is all geared up to expand its franchise business with the biggest integrated franchise and retail solution provider Franchise India Holdings Limited (FIHL).

This Car Beauty Clinic is a Surat based company and is dedicated to Automobile Beautification and Preservation and has franchisees at Bangalore, Hyderabad, Coimbatore and Calicut. The Car Beauty Parlour is poised to be functional in a month and a half.

Carz Spa will help cars to get a facelift with the best car care products, machines and equipments manufactured by the world's leading companies. It will offer services life exterior and interior steam clean; beauty and protection treatments; polymer coatings and other car beauty and hygiene treatments to give the car a shimmering and bold new look.

Carz Spa is famous for providing end-to-end solutions using hi-tech modern instruments and technology to detail cars. Carz Spa is talked about to make your ride germ free using steam-jets. The Beauty Clinic can add a glow to your car with the best of the world products and machineries.

Carz Spa will be opening shortly at Cochin, Mangalore and Chennai as well.

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It seems like Fiat is echoing itself everywhere in the car market. The car manufacturer is running around, in fact throughout the world, and launching new cars. The new car from Fiat, christened Fiorino, is a first type of its kind, a small van car. The name has it all the car is a crossover of a small car and an MPV.

The launch of Fiat Fiorino in Paris can be seen as a very intelligent decision by Fiat as the company enjoys a very stable position in France. This passenger car combined the characteristics of an MPV and a small car in a very elegant fashion.

This five seater crossover can be used for a leisure trip with your family or an adventurous journey with your friends. The car with a length of 3959mm, width of 1216mm and height of 1735mm is a true compact car and echoes the design principal of the car “Free Space”.

The two models - 1.3 liter 75 bhp Multijet and 1.4 liter 73 bhp petrol engines has the option of 5-speed manual or 6-speed automatic transmission. A very distinctive feature of the car is that it has great fuel efficiency and that too with less carbon dioxide emission, which makes the car is a very eco-friendly machine and a people friendly machine too.

And all of this is offered at a very low maintenance cost and buying cost.

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Toyota Yaris has often proved its worth to Toyota as a successful compact car. Yaris is available in three variants viz. a three-door hatchback, a five- door hatchback and the sedan. Now, Toyota is considering rolling out a hybrid version of the Yaris compact car, the Yaris Hybrid.

It is revealed that Toyota is likely to use the current engine and platform offered on the Yaris. The Yaris Hybrid will feature a more cost competitive and fuel-efficient hybrid system than that of the Toyota Prius, which topped the fuel economy cars list this year.

The Japanese car giant Toyota Motor Corporation seems to be busy with the introduction of new models of hybrid cars. We have witnessed the launch of the hybrid Camry and Corolla Hybrid in Thailand.

The Toyota Yaris Hybrid is perceived as the best suitable small car from Toyota’s mill. The Yaris will undergo a small change in order to be a hybrid car. The small alteration is the addition of the hybrid system to the existing fuel powered Yaris. The new hybrid will run on either gas or battery. A plug in version of the Toyota Yaris is also anticipated.

The Yaris Hybrid will be unleashed in the Japanese market in 2011 and subsequently the rest of the world will welcome the hybrid car.

The conventional Toyota Yaris in the forms of small car and sedan will be available in India very soon.

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Tata Motors is all set to roll out a new variant of its successful Indica Vista called Indica Vista Ignis.

The Ignis will be the fourth variant of the Indica Vista; the other three being the Aqua, Terra and Aura.

The new Indica Vista Ignis will boast a bigger 1.4 Litre Saffire engine that can deliver a horsepower of 94 bhp; the same engine which powers the newly launched Fiat Grande Punto. The Ignis will also flaunt a revamped interior with a new dash integrated audio system with Bluetooth connectivity and call answer and reject buttons as well as USB connectivity.

The roomy cabin will sport a new steering wheel with audio controls on it and electrically adjustable Outside Rear View Mirrors (ORVM). Moreover, keyless entry comes as a standard feature.

Tata Motors will equip the Indica Vista Ignis with safety features like the Anti-lock Braking System (ABS) with Electronic Brakeforce Distribution (EBD) and dual front Air Bags.

The new Indica Vista Ignis will carry a price tag between Rs 4.5 - 5.0 Lakh (Ex-Showroom Delhi).

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We had just a couple of days earlier covered on the 1935 Rolls Royce Phantom II 40/50 HP Continental “All-Weather Convertible also called as the ‘Star of India’ that was to be auctioned for 10,000,000 euros. But even before that piece of info settled down, another Indian-Maharaja owned Rolls Royce Phantom has kicked the dust.

We are talking about the 1928 Rolls-Royce Phantom 1 ‘Jarvis Torpedo which RM Auctions were displaying as a prelude to their ‘Automobiles of London’ Auction to be held in October.

This classic beauty bearing the chassis number of 17EX, was originally one of three experimental chassis produced by Rolls Royce during 1928 and was sold to Maharaja Hari Singh Bahadur, the ruler of Jammu and Kashmir. The Maharaja owned the car until 1932 and the car remained in India until 1976 before it was shipped to Europe.

This beautifully restored 1928 Rolls-Royce Phantom I ‘Jarvis Torpedo sure has a glorious and royal past attached to it.

This car has been the toast of the classic car collectors and was showcased in many occasions including the famous 1996 Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este, where it was awarded the Trofeo Rolls-Royce award for the most elegant Rolls-Royce. The car was again displayed in Pebble Beach in 2004 during the 100th anniversary celebrations of the marque.

RM Auctions would also be auctioning the 1914 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost Boattail Skiff, one of the most instantaneously recognizable of all Rolls Royce cars and a 1950 Aston Martin DB2 Team Car ‘VMF 64 that has a legendary race history including the Le Mans and Mille Miglia provenance in the Battersea auction and London auction respectively.

The auction will be conducted by the RM Auctions on 28th October and we are pretty sure that this time the hammer banging the table will produce interesting and astronomical figures so that we can write more on that in our next upcoming blogs. Just watch this space.

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General Motors have long recovered from bankruptcy and rearing to show the world its grit in car manufacturing. The proposed launch of the electric vehicle, like none before, is a very good example of this above statement.

Brushing aside the fact that seeing is believing and taking into consideration the past glory of the company one could believe that the assured car from GM, Chevrolet Volt, will be seen in the roads by 2010, as per the promise.

The car has many peculiarities and it is expected to mark a strong comeback by General Motors. The Volt being an electric car and is also an eco-friendly car. By 2010 or 2011, it is expected that the demand for electric cars will increase and General Motors, as it looks, believes in this prophecy.

The Volt is a hybrid car that runs on lithium-ion batteries, the best to start with to begin the list of specialties. The car, like other electric cars, need not be taken to a station for charging their batteries.

The batteries could be charged through electric power or gasoline engine, at the comfort of your home of office or where ever you are, because it just needs a 120-240V AC electrical outlet. It certainly looks like General Motors has bounced back in the big league once more.

The Chevy Volt is powered by a 150 hp electric motor and a 1.4 liter 4 cylinder engine, and with the fully charged batteries of the Volt one can commute around 40 miles.

With more than a handful of hybrid cars and more to be launched by 2011, it could be a tough sailing for the Volt.

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Tata Motors is all geared up launch its Indicruz Xover, the Multi Purpose Vehicle (MPV) early next year.

Tata Indicruz Xover is modeled on the Tata Safari platform and this MPV gets a bold cutting-edge look. The new Indicruz will flaunt sizzling exterior similar to the Innova from Toyota Kirloskar Motor.

It will come with a more curvaceous roof, mirror mounted indicators, large futuristic headlights and grille design with the corporate logo in the centre that will accentuate the front visage of the muscular car. The car will run on 17" alloy wheels.

The premium MPV will boast an extremely large cabin that can accommodate up to seven people comfortably. The beige interior will house all the amenities required for a comfortable and pleasant driving experience. The Indicruz Xover will house navigation system and safety features like Anti-lock Breaking System (ABS) and airbags.

The Tata Indicruz Xover is expected to borrow the Safari’s 2.2-litre DICOR diesel engine that can churn out a powerful horsepower of 138 bhp. But the engine will be setup different to offer better fuel economy and improved drivability.

The Indicuz Xover will be placed against the Toyota Innova and the Mahindra Xylo in the Indian car market.

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The excitement around the European Grand Prix seems to have just faded with Michael Schumacher cancelling his much hyped Formula One comeback.

The legendary German F1 driver was supposed to step in for the injured Felipe Massa for Ferrari. But he is compelled to call off his participation in the European Grand Prix to due health reasons. Schumacher had a freak motorcycle accident earlier this year in February and had injured his neck.

The seven-time world champion has informed the Ferrari President Luca di Montezemolo and team Principal Stefano Domenicali regarding his unavailability for the race. It was only last week when he took a one-day test in an F2007 to evaluate his fitness levels and to prepare for the race.

He covered 67 laps of Ferrari’s Mugello circuit in Italy. The neck pain poured forth once again and all consequent treatment has failed to ease his distress and the injury will not be able to withstand the extreme stress levels of the Formula One racing.

The 40 year-old former world champion was disheartened to the core and especially for the team and his fans who were anticipating his return.

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Toyota seems to be thinking high and certainly has great plans for future; after all it is the largest carmaker of the world and has always been successful in foreseeing its future and planning it accordingly. The company has now foreseen its future in the diesel cars. Sounds interesting, huh!

The company has of late announced that it is not planning to concentrate on anything apart from its small car for another one year, making itself and the customers very clear about the company’s plan to go lull on launching new cars. But even though the company has not promised anything as of yet , it is expected that it cannot stay away from the market for such a long time, as it will affect the company’s business, and it is sure that the company will be tempted to launch some new variants of the existing models or an upgraded version.

Toyota Motors is planning to make its small car available in the diesel version also understanding the pulse of an Indian customer. As the company has not taken any decision on whether or not it will launch the diesel version of the small car, the factors that govern its decision in going further to make its thoughts into action will be the popularity of diesel cars in India.

And as per the current situation, diesel cars are of great demand in India and more and more diesel car models are been launched. And the reason could be that it is a cheaper fuel compared to petrol and will be more fuel efficient. And another factor that the company would be considering will be the government rules and regulation, but this looks a bit tricky as one never knows what rule will the government bring out next week, leave apart next year.

This small diesel car from Toyota might, if everything goes well, hit the Indian roads by the 2011. And it is even possible that the wait to last longer but we all wish that the wait is worth it.

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Since the time it was displayed in 2008, it will take two solid years before Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution-X will be launched in the Indian market. The Indian car lovers now have plenty of options and this car, which was almost been forgotten, because of the surprising number of car launches, will now find its place in the wish list of the Indian car customers, especially the young crowd.

Mitsubishi had showcased its motor sport derived car, the Evolution-X, in India at the Auto Expo in 2008. The question still lingers as to what took so much time for the company to launch this trendy high speed car in India; it might put the blame on the economic slowdown. Well, now it will be a hardly a year before which the Indian will have this sophisticated machine on road.

The Evo-X will be powered by a 290bhp engine at 6500 rpm and 407Nm torque at 3500 rpm. And the fuel efficiency of the car also looks descent; it has a mileage of 12 kmpl in the city and 15kmpl on the highway.

With the spacing capacity of five, the car has extreme safety features, which is very necessary for a high-speed car. The list of safety features could begin with ABS that has EBS and a whole set of curtain SRS airbag for passengers and driver.

The car will be imported to the company as CBU and till now does not have plans to manufacture the car in India. The car can be afforded by only those who can spend Rs 30 lakhs. And this does not seem to be a welcoming factor, but you never know to what extent the Indians’ car craze can surprise us.

Currently Mitsubishi has sedans like Mitsubishi Lancer, Mitsubishi Cedia and SUV’s such as Mitsubishi Montero, Mitsubishi Outlander and Mitsubishi Pajero in its product lineup for India.

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The famous Italian car design house and coachbuilder Pininfarina is up for sale. If things go right, our desi car maker Tata Motors will secure it. This will be icing on the cake as Tata Motors has recently acquired the luxury marquee brand Jaguar Land Rover.

The company Pininfarina is struggling with financial problems and is losing its influence and command over as one of the most successful car styling companies of the world. So, the decision to put it up for sale came as a part of an agreement to restructure the company's debt.

Currently, the Pininfarina family holds a 50.6 per cent stake in the company and has hired a bank to help it sell its shares. Indian car maker Tata Motors is a strong contender among its potential buyers.

One of Tata Motors’ contenders is a French industrial company called the Bolloré which is presently developing the Bluecar EV with Pininfarina. It has also been rumoured that Ford is also looking at the deal.

Tata Motors is in partnership with Fiat, which has its Ferraris and Maseratis designed by Pininfarina. So, the Indian car company is expected to have a better stand compared to others.

The car styling firm was established as the Società anonima Carrozzeria Pinin Farina in 1930 by Battista "Pinin" Farina. It has designed Ferraris and Maseratis and also other models such the Ford Streetka, Peugeot 406 Coupe, Fiat Coupe, Alfa Romeo Brera and Mitsubishi Shogun Pinin. The famous Pininfarnia has also worked with other major car companies like Peugeot, Alfa Romeo, Cadillac, Jaguar and Volvo over the last seventy-eight years.

Pininfarina also worked on the Tata Prima concept car that was presented at Geneva Motor Show earlier this year.

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Mahindra Renault Logan, an offspring of the joint venture between the Indian car manufacturer Mahindra and Mahindra and the French car manufacturer Renault though fetched good prospects initially for the company, has soon run into trouble and is hardly selling 500 units per month.

The company started realizing that the much hyped model of theirs is not bringing them profit and that their future is at stake. They had realized this some time back but did not bother to look back to rectify the problem as they did not want to figure out the problem!

But now the company is finally ready to accept it and is getting ready to revive the sagging sales of Mahindra Renault Logan. The company currently is in the lookout for more and more options to revive and boost the sales of the car. Of the many options that the company is considering are, to bring in a new model, abandon the Logan, and refresh the Logan and so on.

This mid-sized sedan, which has supported the existence of the joint venture, will not be deserted by the company but instead will be given little tweaks here and there to make it a small car; in fact little tweaks will be too little to do the magic so perhaps some major ones.

Mahindra and Mahindra is in talks with the Renault to see whether they can dress up Logan as a small car and thus reducing the excise duty of the car by including it in the small car sector, which piggy backs on low duty.

Let us all wait for a new Logan which will be not only seen in the green paint with a yellow number plate.

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India’s number one car maker Maruti Suzuki is in its 27th year. The company was established in 1982 as Maruti Udyog after Indian Government joined hands with Japanese car major Suzuki Motor Corporation to produce cars. Maruti Udyog was renamed to Maruti Suzuki India Limited on 17 September 2007.

The Maruti 800 was the flag ship and the first car from Maruti Udyog to be launched in India on 14th December, 1983. This small family car brought in an auto revolution in India. In all these years, the car company has been successful in driving out more than 80 Lakh cars from its Gurgaon and Manesar facilities.

The company began with producing 844 units in the first year in its facility plant at Gurgaon and now in its 27th year of producing cars and after 81,05,228 cars of its 14 models on roads, it is still going strong with the backing of the people of India.

The Maruti 800 alone accounts for over 27 Lakh units and more than 25 Lakh units of this model were sold in the Indian car market and the rest were exported.
Maruti Suzuki achieved the benchmark of one Lakh units in the month of September, 1986. In the next twenty years, it manufactured 40 Lakh units and was effective in making another 40 Lakh units within a period of six years.

Last month the Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL) built 86,630 units, which is the highest ever in a month.

The Indian car giant has contributed about Rs 50,000 Crore to the national exchequer. The company is now undertaking an investment programme of Rs 9,000 Crore which includes adding a new facility at Manesar and increasing the capacity of the Gurgaon plant, besides ramping up Research and Development (R&D) activities and coming up with new variants.

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This car that you see above is the 1935 Rolls Royce Phantom II 40/50 HP Continental “All-Weather Convertible” which was custom made for the erstwhile Maharaja of Rajkot. This is a car which is also known as the “Star of India” amongst the Rolls Royce aficionados.

This Rolls Royce will soon be auctioned for an asking price of 10,000,000 Euros. While you keep counting those zeroes suffixing the numeral One and breaking your head hard to convert it into Indian Rupees we will quickly brief you about this Phantom, er, Car.

This car is one of special cars in the vast private collection of cars belonging to Hans-Günther Zach. Zach has a private museum in Mühlheim, Germany which houses around 27 cars (24 Rolls-Royces and 3 Bentleys) many of which belong to the pre-war period. Mind you, Zach is one crazy Rolls-Royce buff and yes of course it shows.

But now, probably recession has really hit everybody real hard as that shows too because Zach is planning to sell the entire private collection of cars and it is the “Star of India” which will be auctioned for this astronomical sum. If sold at the auctioned price, this Rolls Royce will be the costliest car ever sold in the face of earth.

The body of this Rolls, as we have earlier mentioned was custom built by Thrupp & Maberly and is painted in saffron ochre finish and aluminium. This 7.7-liter pushrod straight-six is a seven-seater with the interiors also decked up in saffron, a colour regarded as auspicious in India and carries a whopping fourteen headlights, which gives the car a superior appearance.

To top it all, this car has on it an inscription which reads “An impartial ruler of men of all faiths.”

Now for the real puzzle, If Zach, being aware of the economic slowdown, still puts a huge price for his Star, then he should be equally confident that he will get a buyer for his precious procession. But, who could be the buyer, who is least affected by the economic meltdown.

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The Volkswagen Polo is expected to be in the Indian car market by the end of next year. Indians have been long expecting the launch of this supermini car. But the wait just a little longer.

It has been reported three years back that the car will be available to the Indian car customers by 2009 and it will be competing against the Maruti Swift, Hyundai Getz and Tata Indica. But when the promised time has just arrived the wait is extended by another one year and the car will have a new set of rivals in the Indian market by the end of 2010.

Let us hope that the wait will finally end this year. The bookings have already begun in Europe for this fifth-generation of Polo. For the European customers, the Polo is a very familiar model and a much loved one also. But for us Indians, we have to wait until Volkswagen plans to deliver this cute hatchback to our shores by sometime in 2010.

For the Indian car customers, there will be modifications in the car so that it will meet their needs the best. But from the master car builder it will be surely some great features, as the Indian customers also have now learned the trick of not getting settled for what has been offered but asking for more.

The exteriors of the car will match its siblings the Volkswagen Jetta and Passat, but mocks at the more serious look of these models with the dual indicators, which gives the car a sportier look. As for the engine options, the base model of the car will be available in a 1.2-litre petrol and there will be a more powerful engine option of 1.2 TSI petrol motor.

The price is expected to be between 4 lakh and 7 lakh which looks quite tempting, but wait and see, what this long wait has in store.

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Car manufacturer majors one after the other are withdrawing from the Formula One legion. Honda was the first, in December last year and it was followed by BMW just last month and there are speculations that the Mercedes Benz is also planning to quit the F1. These withdrawals are very shocking news for the F1 management, Formula One fans and to the world in general.

Indian business tycoon and Force India owner, Vijay Mallya too is worried about the recent Formula One debacle in his own way, particularly his collection of Formula One cars. Mr. Mallya who owns a collection of F1 cars wants to house his collection of cars in a museum.

He has approached the US state of California for the approval of his dream museum to be built in the city of Sausalito in California.

As per the plan, Mr. Mallya will be commissioning a huge 6,600-square-foot car museum designed to look like a wave. The constructional design of the building will be such that it will be using only natural light for illumination and the whole building would be using solar energy and green technology and would have seven car parking slots.

The general public would not have access to the building but people can walk around the museum probably to be constructed using glass panes.

Apart from the collection of Formula One cars, he also has a mammoth collection of 260 luxury and vintage cars. This collection of his does not include his collection of speed boats. Maybe we probably can write on his museum for these beauties also. Just keep a watch on this space for more!!!

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A new affordable sports car from Toyota’s mill is in the making.

The word is out that Japanese automaker Subaru will joins hands with Toyota to manufacture this "exciting" and "fun to drive" sports car, which is nicknamed the "Subieyota".

This car will be initially sold in the United States and will be launched in the market by next year. The company is willing to introduce this sports car in the United States as part of an effort to inject more passion into Toyota’s otherwise conservative lineup.

This model is likely to have a rear-wheel drive coupe, which might be equipped with a choice of a 2-liter or a 2.4-liter engine. Moreover, the car is considered to be compact and lightweight.

Toyota is the largest shareholder in Subaru’s parent, Fuji Heavy Industries. Furthermore, Subaru manufactures the Camry sedans for Toyota at its plant in Lafayette, Indiana.

Toyota has sold sporty vehicles like the MR2 and the Celica in the United States so far. But it didn’t have a sports car in the American lineup of its Toyota brand for several years. Since 2004 , it has traded the Scion tC, a sporty coupe meant for the new young generation. The new sports car is expected to many features similar to the tC.

We are hoping that this sporty car will be unleashed in the Indian market soon after it makes its world debut in the United States.

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The Honda Insight and Toyota Prius come from different car manufacturers all together, but they still come from the same country and that probably is the single matching gene in their design DNA.

They are so much identical in design but Honda probably felt a little offended on this allegation made by design critics and is now in a strict denial mode. Honda says that the design of Honda Insight is much of an accidental design and the Insight looking more like Toyota Prius is just coincidence.

Though the blame of copying the Prius design for Honda’s Insight weighs heavy on Honda, both the cars were introduced along the same time, early this year. And Toyota Prius, in particular, is doing a good job, selling more units than the Honda Insight. The Toyota Prius has been the topper in its category in the sales chart in Japan for the past three months. Honda Insight is not far behind, but there is a considerable difference in the numbers.

Honda Insight had its presence in the car market from 1999 to 2006, but it is the revamped Insight, which is first car to be built based on the Integrated Motor Assist.

Both Insight and Prius are hybrid cars and have been performing well in the market. There are more and more car lovers opting for these eco-friendly cars, which switch between an electric motor and a gas engine, for the concern of a pollution free tomorrow.

Both the companies make dynamic cars but uses different technology and designing techniques. The Honda has a completely different designing approach from Toyota called the “design DNA.” But these dissimilarities apart the onlookers feel both the car look alike.

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In a statement made in the Indian parliament, the Indian government has asked car manufacturers to contemplate on making cars specially designed for physically challenged persons.

Arun Yadav, the Minister of State for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises expressed the will of the Government that it wants the car manufacturers in India to concentrate in making at least one or two models for the physically challenged persons. This step by the Government comes as a welcome sign for people in India as the car manufacturers are being finally waken up from their deep slumber in neglecting the handicapped people.

To top it all, the Government has been doling out excise duty concessions on cars and other vehicles meant for handicapped people. This tax benefits should lure the car manufacturers in India to toy with the idea of coming out with at least a couple of models designed for the physically challenged people.

Some Indian carmakers were earlier providing cars with automatic transmission for physically challenged persons but had to discontinue the same as the demand for such vehicles was very less and occasional and making them available readily in the market is not practical in terms of economy.

But the growing Indian car industry makes such customized cars and other vehicles on specific order to suit the disability of person.

Some of car manufacturers who tune the cars according to the needs of physically challenged drivers are Hyundai with their Santro, Mahindra with their Scorpio, Maruti Suzuki on their Omni, and some of the higher end car manufacturers.

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Luxury carmaker BMW is hovering on to revive the 3-Series, the company’s biggest-selling model. The new 3-Series is expected to make its appearance at the 2011 Paris motor show.

The reintroduction of the 3-Series car was speculated as a result of the ongoing eco-friendly buzz. The new car will deliver excellent aerodynamics, with a drag coefficient of only Cd figure 0.24.

The 2011 3-Series will come with turbocharged three-cylinder engine in petrol and diesel options and will deliver 150bhp. The petrol version will be cheaper compared to the diesel as it does not have the need for emissions kit demanded by a Euro 6-compliant diesel engine.

A remarkable 40 per cent of overall air resistance of the 3-Series will come from the shape and size of the car. And BWM has to meditate on the remaining 60 per cent.
BMW’s will retain its customary front-engined with rear-drive design. BMW has also to render on the lightweight three-cylinder engines which will demand very specific suspension settings.

The 2016 BMW 3-Series are anticipated to be the first BMW to be fitted with a new type of heating system. This version is expected to trap heat from the exhaust system. Moreover, a heat store is a possibility.

BMW is expected to fit the new 3-Series with its new eight-speed automatic transmission, instead of the 6-speed automatic transmission.

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The growing American interest for Indian and Chinese car was a very interesting piece of news. The already proud Indian will be super proud to know about the rocketing Indian car market. And it is also true that this is the right time to venture into the American car market, but it is of course not a now or never situation and we will again get chance to prove ourselves, but it is just a matter of time before we do that.

It seemed like a new era of acceptance of the Indian cars. This was the news that was celebrated by the Indian news media. And it seemed that the Indian car market, clearly knowing its strengths and weaknesses, is working towards a very bright tomorrow in the American industry, even accepting that it is not as strong as the Chinese car market, which has more indigenous cars than the Indian car market.

“The two”, and we deliberately stress on this the two, Indian car brand names are Tata Motors and Mahindra &Mahindra. It seemed to be a challenging journey, but it certainly seemed like a fruitful one. Until yesterday when browsing through some questions asked by Americans, it suddenly seemed to be a very distant dream, the dream to win over the hearts of the American car buyers.

Among the questions asked there were these most troubling ones - What is Tata? Is there a company called Tata? Mmmh! Well, the quick response was to answer all of them with a big yes. And the thoughts followed how it is possible that they don’t even know about the name of the biggest Indian conglomerate with different business interests under its wings.

To comfort oneself, there is this answer – There are at least questions asked about Tata these days, there was a time when they did even know the name to ask such a question.

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Yeti, the new attraction from Skoda, will be unveiled at the 2010 Geneva Auto Expo and will be subsequently launched in India.

The launch of Yeti, in India, is expected sometime in the early 2010, and will be at the 2010 Auto Expo. Yeti is a crossover, the missing link between Fabia and Octavia in India.

Yeti will be a good choice for the Indian roads. It is neither an SUV nor a car and thus a crossover. It has integrated the good qualities from both an SUV and a car. The Yeti, though carries the qualities of an SUV, is not as bulky as one and has a very trendy look. In spite of being a two-wheel drive, the Yeti has high ground clearance and long suspension.

The Yeti is built based on the Volkswagen Golf platform and borrows mechanics and features from Skoda Laura, Skoda Fabia, and Skoda Roomster. The looks of the Yeti resembles more of Skoda Fabia, with its grille, which can be easily recognized, and it has the suspension of the Fabia. And it is also expected to have the brakes and transmission of Roomster.

The Yeti has a very intelligently designed interiors and it also has a very interesting option of a bike carrier.

Both the petrol and diesel versions of the Skoda Yeti are expected to be launched in India. The petrol variant will be powered by a 1.6-litre to 2.0-litre engines and the diesel version comes with a 1.9-litre turbo diesel engine.

The competitors of Yeti in the Indian car market would be Mahindra Scorpio, Tata Indicruz, and Tata Safari. The car is expected to carry a price tag of Rs 10 lakh, which is slightly on the higher side.

The Skoda Yeti will be brought as CKD to India and will be assembled at the Skoda’s Aurangabad plant using the kits from Skoda’s Kvasiny plant in the Czech Republic.

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The “Baby Swan” adds a new feather to Aston Martin’s cap. Baby Swan? We are talking about the new concept car by Aston Martin. And we all know a baby swan is called a Cygnet.

The Cygnet is said to be a derivative of the Toyota iQ. This car has been developed by the British supercar maker to abide by the strict emissions rule of the European Union.

The Aston Martin Cygnet is a small car which will have 1.0 litre three-cylinder petrol engine similar to the iQ. The car will also come with the Toyota iQ’s innovative three- plus-one seating arrangement. The tiny car is the result of a joint venture between Aston Martin and the Japanese giant.

The Cygnet can pride itself on a Euro NCAP five-star crash safety rating. Moreover, Aston has fitted the baby swan with a low-emission and highly economical engine to meet those harsh environmental rules.

The 3-metre long Cygnet will sport exquisite style taken from Aston Martin’s supercar range. In addition, this car will also flaunt leather-clad cabin featuring the very best materials, along with an Emotion Control Unit (ECU) that plugs into the centre console, replacing a traditional key.

The Cygnet will go on sale in 2010 and Aston Martin aims at selling atleast 4000 of these cars per year, across its global market.

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Toyota is in for a great change in the way it thinks. And the wait-and-see attitude of the company will certainly do good for the company’s expected small car that is that will be launched in 2010. Hope the customers who are yearning for the car will never get disappointed with Toyota as it has a history of satisfying its customers through their cars.

It seems that this perfect picture about a small car will have shades of Tata also in it. It does not sound surprising for sure as Tata has been supplying nearly 90 per cent of its auto-grade steel and has also been helping out Toyota to choose the most accurate steel for Toyota’s largest selling MUV in India, Toyota Innova. And now Tata might also supply skin panel for the proposed small car from Toyota.

This is not a probability, as it can be almost certain that Tata will be supplying steel for the skin panel of the small car. The skin panel shapes the outer part of the car and gives the car a fine look.

But it should also be strong, thin and formable which makes it very necessary the steel should be of very high quality. And Tata being fifth largest steel producer and already supplying steel for the skin panels for itself, Tata Motors, Honda, Maruti, and Hyundai, Toyota might not waste time searching for another steel supplier.

Toyota launched the face lifted Toyota Camry just a week ago and has already given the word that it will launch its SUV Fortuner on August 24th, much before its expected launch in the month of September.

It is also expected that except for the relauch and new variants of the existing cars, Toyota is not thinking about any other car until it delivers its small car. And all of this, for the cause of bringing out its small car by the end of 2010.

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It’s just a week since BMW officially bade farewell to the Formula 1 circuit, and now the rumour mill is working overtime with the reports that it would the Mercedes-Benz backed McLaren F1 team which is next in line to say adios to F1.

This has been inferred as a result of the ongoing global economic recession and the conflicts encompassing Formula One.

Mercedes Benz is yet to confirm its engagement with F1. Honda quit the F1 racing track citing economic recession last year in December followed by BMW last month.

Recently, the automakers have questioned the relevance and benefits of competing in F1. Perhaps if relevance is what Mercedes is looking for, it may go back to sports car racing which is increasingly embracing alternative drive trains, particularly in the American Le Mans Series.

Mercedes Benz owns 40 per cent of the McLaren team and supplies engines to both McLaren and Brawn. If Mercedes does decide to pull out, it is not clear how that would affect McLaren.

McLaren was an F1 stalwart long before Mercedes came on board and could conceivably continue, perhaps using engines from Cosworth. Interestingly, the withdrawal of automakers could take F1 back to the 1970s when most of the teams were independent and aside from Ferrari and Renault most used Cosworth DFV V8 engines.

McLaren-Mercedes won several constructors’ world titles over the past years and three drivers’ crowns from Mika Hakkinen (1998, 1999) and Lewis Hamilton (2008).

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India can now boast to have one more world’s fastest car on its roads. The Bentley Continental Flying Spur Speed was launched in India on 14th July.

This super luxury sedan is a sportier cousin of the Continental Flying Spur that came to India in 2006. Super luxury car maker Bentley claims that the Continental Flying Spur Speed is the most powerful sedan ever built by the company.

The car is endowed with massive 6.0-litre W12 engine. The engine is paired with a 6-speed automatic gearbox that enables the car to get to the top speed of 322 km/h and puts out 600bhp. The car can cover 100 km from inertia in an amazing 4.8 seconds.

The Bentley Continental Flying Spur Speed adorns an exterior with subtle designs and a luxurious interior to entice customers. It has a leather-wrapped steering wheel and a Naim 1100W custom-made audio unit. The other features, though optional, without additional cost, are a bright chromed grille, piano black and dark stained Burr Walnut veneers, diamond-quilted leather to seat facings and doors, headrests with embroidered Bentley logo and “Speed” tread plates to all the doors.

This supercar is a four-door variant of the Bentley Continental GT Speed. It stands on 20 –inch Pirelli PZero performance tyres fitted multi-spoke alloys in bright silver or darkened tungsten and provides an option of carbon-ceramic disc brakes. The car has a self-adjusting air suspension with thicker front and rear stabilizer bars.

Moreover, it comes with the revised Servotronic steering system of the Flying Spur. The car’s radar-based Adaptive Cruise Control has also been refurbished with follow-to-stop precision and five time-gap settings.

The Continental Flying Spur Speed is priced at Rs 2.45 crore (ex-showroom Delhi). With the launch of the new Speed variant, the company hopes that it will sell ten units of the Flying Spur every month. Currently there are four Bentley variants being sold in India.

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Chrysler under GM when filed for bankruptcy, on April 30, 2009, did not have many hopes for a brighter future. But when Chrysler thought everything was down and out, Fiat pitched in and Chrysler was able to strike a deal with Fiat, which made Fiat the joint owner of Chrysler.

This will in future be a very profitable business for both the companies, a give and take policy. By joining hands with Chrysler, Fiat has gained an easy access to the American automobile market and Chrysler has had the benefit of learning new technologies from Fiat, which will help it to make more new-generation cars than ever in the near future.

But it appeared to be a tough journey for Chrysler and Fiat when the sale was delayed by the Supreme Court following an appeal by the consumer groups, Indiana pension and construction funds, and others to stop the transaction.

But luckily everything started falling into place when Supreme Court cleared the path for the deal and Chrysler sold its assets to Fiat group SpA. Chrysler, with this sale, has been freed from the clutches of bankruptcy.

Chrysler has never gone through a similar situation. Even though Chrysler was on the verge of filing a bankruptcy more than once, it has never happened during its 80 years of business.

This plight of the company is mainly due to its inability to think in a contemporary fashion. Chrysler failed to bring out new looks and technology in its cars, it was stuck with the long gone design and features. This didn’t impress the car buyers who were flooded with plenty of options to choose from. This brought down the sale of the company and this finally ended up in the filing of bankruptcy.

Now with a new lease of life being imparted to Chrysler, It should come out with innovative car designs and features that could charm the car buyers to Chrysler’s showrooms.

Chrysler is a big name for America and now with the US government supporting the Chrysler-Fiat partnership, Chrysler should regain its lost glory. But even months after Chrysler joined hands with Fiat, there are not many clear cut plans announced by both the companies. But let’s hope a real come back from this master carmaker.

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Formula One racer Lewis Hamilton acclaimed as the world’s youngest F1 champion was in Delhi, recently. No! No! There was no F1 race here. He was here to play cricket. As a brand ambassador for telecom giant Vodafone, he was part of the Team Vodafone which played against the local team Delhi 6.

The game consisting of two overs each was played and Delhi 6 took home a trophy, but Lewis Hamilton dazzled the crowds with his presence. The formula one ace driver was even courteous to meet the thrilled F1 enthusiasts and shared some time with them. Though it was a short stay, he left a mark on India’s F1 cheerers.

Lewis Hamilton, who races for the McLaren-Mercedes team, has taken a special interest in the upcoming European Grand Prix 2009 which will see the comeback of F1 legend Michael Schumacher.

Hamilton as the youngest F1 driver and Schumacher the oldest F1 racer in that event are going to test their skills there.

On August 23 when the race gets underway, the world will witness the clash of titans. On his part, he has promised to give his best shot against Schumacher.

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Americans are finally ready to buy Asian cars. And no we are not speaking about the Japanese and Korean cars, but the Indian and Chinese cars.

This was revealed during a survey conducted by an American agency with a sample size of 30,000 people.

Americans had always considered themselves to be leaders in car market. But the global meltdown had made it impossible to revive the automobile industry for a long time to come. They are now looking at car brands from beyond their shores.

While European, Japanese and Korean cars have already established themselves, Chinese and Indian car manufacturers are yet to find their foothold. The new brands might find it difficult to gain market share, due to heavy competition from other Asian car companies.

China’s car market is several times bigger than Indian car market. It has several homegrown companies apart from acquisitions and takeovers.

On the other hand India has only two homegrown auto majors like the Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra. Maruti Suzuki is already available as Suzuki products in that market. Thanks to acquisition of JLR, the world is now aware of the names like Tata Motors from India. Mahindra had forayed into United States market last year as SUV and pick-up manufacturer.

These companies are yet to gain any goodwill for their products. Further they are yet to upgrade their car models to suit the stringent United States safety and emergency measures.

However, they can cash in on the willingness to buy Indian cars after all. Both countries will have to overcome their own drawbacks to make world class products. It is a divine opportunity!

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It has been always a case of hard nut to crack when it came to designing a car exclusively for the use of the law enforcement agencies. Customizing a car to meet the needs of the police has been always challenging especially when converting a passenger car to a police car, but the new initiative of a Police car by Carbon Motors Corporation, a new homeland security company, says that not only are the police worried about an exclusive car for them, but there are people around who thinks well for them.

The police car market has nothing attractive to offer and that could be the reason why most of the automakers conveniently neglected it, but the necessity is far beyond to be avoided.

This car “To protect and to serve” has sophisticated and most modern features that are awe inspiring. Carbon E7 is the world’s first purpose built law enforcement patrol car and will be a true companion of the police. Designed exclusively to meet the needs of a police, the cars has features that one would have seen in action and adventure series and would never have imagined come live, but only in the distant future.

The car is powered by a 3.0-litre, 300bhp diesel engine and a few among the amusing list of the features of the police car are automatic license plate recognition system, night vision cameras, backseat audio and video surveillance, air ducts equipped to detect radiation, voice activation for onboard system.

The Carbon E7 is self sufficient with all the facilities a convict or accused would wish to not have in a police car. This car will in no way stop a person from committing a crime but not give him room to escape! It is not a wonder car, but it will surely help police perform wonders.

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The Indian car market seems to be a safe haven for many car manufacturers especially the luxury car manufacturers. The fascination of Indian car customers for luxury cars is growing every other day and this can be very obvious from the number of new luxury cars launched and the launch of the face lifted version of the existing luxury car model.

A survey conducted recently clearly shows the growing interest for luxury cars among the Indians, and how the Indian car buyers prefer a luxury car over a green car. But I don’t think this piece of news will anyway change the mindset of the Indian car manufacturers and will force them to think away from rolling out good electric cars that looks into the future of a more environment friendly tomorrow.

The Indian market even though is not rich in electric cars, the future of electric cars in the Indian market seems to be promising. Maini Reva has been enjoying the supreme position of the sole electric car manufacturer in the country since the time it was commercialized in 2001.

The Reva is a low maintenance vehicle which moves on batteries. The car till now has thousands of satisfied customers and this number will only increase in the future as the charm of the luxury cars will not lure the customers more, rather the detoriating environment conditions will not let it happen.

Bavina cars, seem to be breaking the dominance of Reva electric cars by launching their own electric cars for Indian car market. Bavina has already started working towards setting up operations in Tamil Nadu. The car is expected to launch by 2011 is expected to cause some threat to the existing Reva. Unlike Reva, which is a two seater, Bavina will be a four seater hatchback, a city car with a maximum speed of 55 kilometers per hour.

This is not all, The Indian car manufacturing giant, Tata motors is also planning for a safe, eco-friendly tomorrow. It is planning to roll out electric versions of Nano and Indica.

With more options of such eco-friendly cars, Indian car buyers will dream of luxury cars, but will buy a green car.

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Shedding over hundreds of pounds, it’s Audi’s turn now to lose weight and reshape itself. Audi is getting ready to bring in a new era of car engineering and together with it an ultra-modern view of cars. Audi has always been experimenting on ways to bring out more comfortable, stylish and hi-tech cars. Hoping positive results, Audi is getting ready for a new race.

It should be noted that this weight-reduction program is not alien to Audi but, Audi has been, for years, trying to bring down the weight of its cars. Audi’s experiments in 1994 proved successful in bringing out weight-reduced cars such Audi A2 and Audi R8. And now Audi is getting ready to do more wonders by making its car lighter than ever.

This evolutionary shift in thought will benefit the car business a great deal.
It is the conventionally powered cars of Audi that is going to gain from the weight reduction program. This step by Audi is very valuable for making its cars hybrid and electric power trains.

Audi is concentrating on cutting down the pounds of its outer shell, whereby it believes to reduce more weight. More and more tests are being conducted on this and Audi is successful in bringing out an S5 that weighs 880 pounds lesser that the original version. The new S5 has aluminum body and is built with hybrid steel.

The next-generation-car dream of Audi appears very apt during this time of recession, when most of the brands are trying to bring out their best and prove their unbeatable stand in the automobile market. With this kind of innovative thinking, Audi leaves space for the car lovers to dream of a bright future.

Any specific features of this next-generation car are still unknown. Even though Audi for the time being is concentrating on developing light-weight cars, it is not ready to compromise on other important factors such as performance, safety, and elegance.

Audi considers this as a very important phase for a better tomorrow. The launching date of this new invention is yet to be decided. This new less-weight version is expected to be launched in all the countries including Brazil, India, and China where it runs its business.

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The company had just launched its new model, a face lifted Toyota 2010 Camry, in the Indian market on July 31st.

And in not even a month’s time, another model from Toyota Kirloskar will make its debut in the Indian car market, the wait is finally over and Toyota Kirloskar Motors (TKM) will bring out Toyota Fortuner in India on August 24th, much earlier than its scheduled launch time, sometime in September of this year.

Toyota is aiming high with its new SUV, Fortuner; the company is aiming at accomplishing a market share of 50% in the SUV segment in the Indian market and to sell out almost 2,000 units by the end of the year.

The Toyota Fortuner has a fulltime four-wheeler drive which is powered by a 3-litre Advanced Common-Rail Diesel engine. Being a luxury vehicle, the SUV is also expected to charm many customers, mainly the urban customers and so it will be primarily targeted at this section.

This sports utility vehicle will be brought to India by TKM as a knocked down unit and will be then assembled at its plant in Bidadi. The car is expected to be available at a price of Rs 20 lakh. This new Toyota is expected to pose good competition for Ford Endeavour and Chevrolet Captiva in India.

After this launch, customers will have to wait for some time for another model from Toyota, as it will be then concentrating mainly on launching compact car and will not be thinking about another launch till it launches its compact car next year. But we still can expect limited editions and new variants of the already existing models.

Accepted worldwide, Fortuner is expecting to bring new fortunes for Toyota’s business in India.

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Tata Motors has been contemplating to relook at the price tag of its newly acquired Jaguar Land Rover cars. This perception came to the Indian car behemoth as a result of fall in luxury car sales due to the ongoing global slump.

The most important thing in these rainy days is to sustain manufacturing of these luxury cars. So, Tata Motors have decided that upcoming models from Jaguar Land Rover will cost less. The future cars from Jaguar Land Rover will come in light-weight aluminum bodies to reduce weight and cut CO2 emissions.

Moreover, a hybrid powertrain is also in the pipeline that will be introduced in future models of Jaguar and Land Rover. Many new models are under development and will be rolled out in near future to revive the sale of luxury cars. All the new features will be developed in India to reduce the cost of these high-end cars.

Tata Motors believe that a slash in price is likely to boost the sale of luxury cars in the global market. Except for India and China, the luxury car markets in the US, Europe and Japan have witnessed a decline by 16%. In India Jaguar Land Rover cars are showing a steady sale of one car per day since the day these cars have been launched.

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is a British automotive business owned by Tata Motors of India. It was structured as a single unit to manage the businesses of both Jaguar Cars and Land Rover, which were acquired by Tata Motors from the Ford Motor Company in 2008.

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Nissan Motors has turned over a new leaf unveiling an electric car named the “Leaf”. The new Leaf is an eco-car that was showcased at Nissan’s new global headquarters in Yokohama, Japan on Sunday.

The car was inaugurated to the public in a grand style. The Nissan Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn and former Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi along with three other delegates rode in a “blue earth” colored Leaf.

The Leaf is expected to be an instant hit once it enters the market. The car does not look like other green cars and its occupants do not have to compromise on the space inside the cabin. The roomy cabin can accommodate five adults comfortably.

This hatchback comes in a sporty design with a recharging opening in the front.
The Leaf, an electric car, can run a remarkable 160 km on a single charge and the car can give a wonderful zero-emission of CO2. The cell has to be charged for seven hours although a 30 minute quick charge can get batteries back up to 80%.

As the battery is pricey, Nissan has planned to lease the batteries to customers rather than try to sell the car at an inflated price. Moreover, the cost of leasing the batteries and the electricity used to charge the cells will be much lesser than what customers spend on gasoline for regular cars. The price of the battery is expected to go down once sale of the car boosts up.

Nissan is the third Japanese car manufacturer to drive in a green car after its rival Toyota and Honda. The Leaf will be available in the showrooms of Japan, the U.S. and Europe next year. The company is targeting initial annual production of 50,000 units for the Leaf at its Oppama plant in Yokohama, including export models.

Moreover, the eco-friendly hatchback will go into mass-production as a global model in 2012.

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