Indian Car Blog - Carazoo.com

It so much seems like the Good Times are here to stay. Since the dawn of this New Year we have seen that almost all the car makers in India are reporting good sales of their products which could also mean that this good run of auto sales might be there for the rest of the year as well.

The German luxury car maker Audi has just announced that it has made a great start to 2010 with an impressive 181 percent growth in India for January 2010. Audi India has sold 306 cars this January when compared to a mere 109 units sold last year during January. Audi India has also shown a record sale of 1,659 cars in 2009 which reds out a 58 percent growth for the calendar year 2009.

“Audi India posted continuous sales growth all through 2009 and we start the New Year with record sales. In January 2010 our sales more than doubled from last year. We look forward to keeping this momentum through the rest of the year. In keeping with our India strategy, our focus this year will be on network expansion and consolidation. We plan to expand our dealership network to mini-metro cities in addition to introducing new offerings. This reaffirms our commitment of superior performance and great value, to the Indian customer, which is at the core of our philosophy of 'Vorsprung durch Technik’." said Benoit Tiers, managing director, Audi India.

Audi India has already charted out its next growth target for 2010 at 40 percent more than the previous year which means Audi is targeting the sale of 2,300 cars by the end of this financial year. This does not seem like Blue Moon considering Audi India’s performance in the month of January itself.

Audi India’s current portfolio includes the Audi A4, the new Audi A6, the Audi A8, the Audi Q5, the new Audi Q7, the Audi TT and the super sports car Audi R8 which are sold in eight showrooms across the country: in Gurgaon, Chandigarh, Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Kochi. Early 2010 will witness the opening of new showrooms in Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai (West), Jaipur, Chennai, Ludhiana. Further developments include Lucknow, Coimbatore and Nagpur.

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Hold on for this piece of information. 2011 Porsche Cayenne seems to be in a hurry to come out of the closet.

Just a couple of months before its planned unveiling at the 2010 Geneva Auto Show, this 2011 Porsche Cayenne which shares the ladder-frame with that of the Volkswagen Touareg, has been described in the German press after a private introduction to the German press on Dec 15.

As per the official information that we have gathered from Porsche, 2011 Porsche Cayenne will come in three engine options, a turbocharged, 500 bhp, 4.8 L V8, a 400-hp 4.8-liter V8 and a 300-hp 3.6-liter V6. So what’s new in the 2011 Porsche Cayenne? The 2011 edition Cayenne comes with improved fuel efficient engines and has shed its unwanted flab. Read 10 per cent of the weight reduced compared to the current Cayenne. Diesel and Hybrid versions of the same, though is planned will not make inroads to US of A.

There will be a successor to the recently introduced Cayenne diesel model with a turbocharged, 240-bhp 3.9-liter common-rail diesel seen in the diesel version of the 2010 Audi Q7.

In addition, the Porsche Cayenne will also use the Hybrid power train adopted for the forthcoming Volkswagen Touareg Hybrid, which combines an Audi-engineered combination of a supercharged 330-hp 3.0-liter V6 with a 47-hp electric motor powered by a lithium-ion battery pack. But Volkswagen has not yet planned any of these to American market.

All the Cayennes will come with an eight-speed automatic transmission while the European models will incorporate the automatic start-stop feature. This 2011 Cayenne will lack the gene it always flaunted proudly; off-roading capacities since the low-speed transfer case will be deleted making the Cayenne a pure-on-road vehicle. Blasphemy, you screech? Yes I understand, we in Carazoo.com are equally shocked.

Well Porsche compensates the absence of off-roadability with its new fuel-efficient engines. Porsche claims to have reduced the fuel-consumption up to 23 per cent in their gasoline-powered engines. Porsche also claims that the new Cayenne Hybrid will achieve 28.7 mpg on the European driving cycle, plus it will meet the European standard for C02 emissions of 200 gm/kilometer, which will significantly reduce its tax burden and thus increase sales.

Porsche seems to have hit the gym to cut out the unnecessary flab it had all these years to get back in shape.
The 2011 Cayenne loses 10 per cent of its current weight with the Cayenne S having shed an impressive 396 pounds to weigh just 4,553 pounds. Even so, Porsche says the Cayenne includes more than 154 pounds of assorted new features.

On which diet did Porsche go to achieve this super figure, you might ask? Well, this dramatic reduction in weight has been achieved through a regime of quick thinking exercises. These exercises include a new production process for the doors that saves 86 pounds, the deletion of the two-speed transfer case and an increased number of aluminum chassis components which shaves a further 146 pounds. This new generation Cayenne also combines a chassis with high-strength steel with aluminium hood, doors and a tailgate.

As with its predecessor, the second-generation Cayenne will be manufactured in a two-stage process that begins at Volkswagen's plant in Bratislava, Slovakia, alongside the Audi Q7 and Volkswagen Touareg and then ends with final assembly at Porsche's factory in Leipzig, Germany.

The first public outing for the 2011 Porsche Cayenne will still be at the Geneva auto show in March. North American sales are planned to begin in May 2010.

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Who says stars do not guide the future? Audi has proved to the world that stars do play an important part in determining the fate.

Our stars, our dear Bollywood stars, are responsible for Audi’s sales in India. As a result, Audi is now looking at a 50 per cent growth in India this year.

Audi has been a favourite among the in the Mumbai film industry. Mega stars like Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Bipasha Basu, Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif and many more are in favour of the German luxury car maker.

Moreover, Audi has many other clients in India too which are not a part of the big Indian cinema company. But, the marketing head of Audi in India vouches that Mumbai filmdom is still an important market for Audi as it gives that extra boost for Audi’s market in India.

Salman Khan is the latest star who bought an Audi A8 for himself, while Neil Nitin Mukesh owns Q7, a recently launched SUV by Audi.

Audi Q7 can cost anything from Rs 63 –Rs 76 Lakh while an Audi A8 starts from Rs 71 Lakh and can go up to Rs 1 Crore in India. The company currently offers a bouquet of seven cars, including sedans, SUVs, coupe and sports cars. It is considering launching more models in the coming years.

To promote the brand, Audi India has been partnering with Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week (WIFW) for the last four seasons. WIFW provides an ideal platform for Audi to meet “right and influential” people who can become potential buyers.

Earlier this month, Audi organised an amateur golf tournament called Quattro Cup.

This was the second tournament sponsored by the company and the finals were held in Hyderabad and the winners will be taken to Sydney in December.

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Move aside BMW and Mercedes-Benz, Audi is here (with a bang). German Luxury car manufacturer, Audi has been making its presence felt in India ever since it first came to the country.

The German company when first started its operations in India though had high hopes on the Indian market, never probably thought that it will be welcomed by its Indian customers with arms wide open.

Audi posted its best-ever sales results of 205 cars for the month of September 2009, thereby registering an extra-ordinary growth of 153 per cent considering it sold 81 cars in September 2008. Now that’s called growth.

Audi’s chief boss here in India Mr. Benoit Tiers is indeed a happy man. Beaming with pride while looking at the sales charts for the month of September, he says Audi India has continued its growth momentum pretty well. He also is pleased that Audi as a brand has finally arrived as brand Audi is getting popular amongst the car enthusiast in India.

Audi always raised the ante in terms of refinement, elegance and luxury in keeping with its philosophy of “Vorsprung durch Technik” and it is this commitment that has won the confidence of Audi customers.

Audi India has recorded strong growth all year around in spite of the difficult market conditions. The year-to-date growth stood at an impressive 72 percent (Jan-Sep 2009: 1,333 cars; Jan-Sep 2008: 777 cars).

Much of the credit for Audi’s unhindered progress in India goes to the terrific response to the new additions to its portfolio – the all new Audi Q5, the new Audi A6, the introduction of three new engine offerings to the Audi A4 and the new Audi Q7 which was launched in September 2009. Audi India has already surpassed last year’s annual sales of 1,050 cars by recording a total of 1,128 car sales in the period of January to August 2009.

The entire Audi model range, comprising the new Audi Q7, the Audi Q5, the new Audi A6, the Audi A8, the Audi A4, the Audi TT and the super sports car Audi R8, is available at 12 dealerships across the country: in Delhi, Gurgaon, Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata and Kochi.

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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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