Indian Car Blog - Carazoo.com

Tata Nano is one permanent fixture in Carazoo.com for a long time now. This little wonder car has been around in the portal for many reasons and continues to be doing what it does best. Earning rave reviews.

The world’s cheapest car has won one of the most significant awards of the country –Indian Car of the Year aka ICOTY. ICOTY and IMOTY (Indian Motorcycle of the Year) awards are the awards that are unbiased and exhaustive evaluation of all the new cars and motorcycles launched in the calendar year of 2009 in India.

Although Tata Nano was a contender for this award amongst other heavy weights like were the Chevrolet Cruze, Honda Jazz, Fiat Linea, Fiat Grande Punto, Maruti Suzuki Ritz, Mahindra Xylo, Skoda Superb, Tata Indigo Manza, and Toyota Fortuner, Tata Nano emerged victorious in the end garnering 63 points. The Managing Director of Tata Motors, Mr. P.M. Telang, received the award from the Vice Chairman & Managing Director of JK Tyre Industries Ltd., Dr. R. P. Singhania, at a ceremony in New Delhi. Kawasaki Ninja 250R won the IMOTY award with 53 points.

A 11-member expert jury members of the 2010 ICOTY included Yogendra Pratap and Vikrant Singh of Auto Bild India, Gautam Sen and Bob Rupani of Auto India, Bijoy Kumar Y and Srinivas Krishnan of Business Standard Motoring, Aspi Bhathena of Car India, Sirish Chandran and Bertand D’souza of Overdrive and Vardhan Kondvikar and Girish Karkera of Top Gear India.

All these jury members evaluate and test cars as part of their journalistic work and are known for their analytic skills and professional competence. Once a year they come together to vote for the ICOTY.

To qualify for the 2009 awards, only all-new cars and motorcycles, whatever the country of their origin, that went on sale in showrooms across the country before December 1, 2009 were considered. Existing cars and motorcycles that have had mere cosmetic facelifts or small mechanical tweaks do not qualify for consideration.

The jury members judged the cars and motorcycles on various parameters such as price, fuel efficiency, design, comfort, safety, maneuverability, performance, functionality, environmental responsibility and driver/rider satisfaction among others. In addition, technical innovation and value for money were particularly important factors while deciding on the winner.

The selection of the winner is carried out by a simple voting system with each jury member having twenty-five points to allot to at least four cars/bikes. They can give a maximum of 10 points to any one of them. A very fair and transparent system makes the ICOTY and IMOTY amongst the most credible and coveted car and motorcycle awards in India.

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It very much seems like that the expensive luxury vehicles, priced over Rs 15 lakhs and above, including sport utility vehicles and luxury sedans have caught the fancy of car enthusiasts in India. This comes in the time when major car manufacturers in the country are working on the low cost cars.

These luxury cars are so much in demand that the new products are actually overselling the actual estimated units to be sold in India, signaling a huge growth potential in the segment in India. Another interesting thing about this trend is that the once traditional markets for the segment, the US and Europe are fast turning in towards small and fuel efficient cars.

BMW India has already sold 63 units of X6 since its launch in July and another six units of Z4 in October. Thanks to this trend, BMW India’s new products are helping the company exceed its earlier set target of 3,000 units in India in 2009 against 2,908 units in 2008.

BMW India is on cloud number nine, thanks to its newly acquired position as the leader in the segment and attributes this trend to its strong product line up, market expansion and brand building exercise it has done in a while since its advent in India.

While the above mentioned cars are the cars belonging to the high-end luxury segment that revolves around Rs 50 lakh, the demand for the cars in the lower end of the segment like the Volkswagen Passat, Toyota Fortuner and Honda CR-V is also reaching new levels that were beyond expectations.

Toyota Fortuner, which was launched in August, saw a backlog of 3,100 units that were to be delivered in seven months as Toyota Kirloskar Motor’s manufacturing plant could assemble 550 Fotuners a month.

Meanwhile Volkswagen India may end up selling more Passats as against earlier target of 1,000 units.

This certainly comes as a welcome note for the luxury car manufacturers who have always have had high expectation from the emerging new Indian car market as well as the general public who are bored looking at the drab looking small cars plying around in India.

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Riding high on the runaway success of the Toyota Fortuner, Toyota Kirloskar Motors(TKM) wants to bask in the glory of its success by introducing the diesel variant of Prado by mid next year. This step of Toyota’s might be to keep the luxury SUV segment all for itself by strengthening its position in the category. Being greedy Eh?

The upgraded version of Prado diesel will be launched in Japan by this December and might make inroads to the Indian market six months later. TKM desperately wants this SUV to be marketed in India sensing a steady growth of popularity for SUVs in India and is on the verge of wooing the parent company to bring the vehicle here to India. Looks like India has truly arrived in the scene if being a SUV country.

And since Indians still have a soft corner towards diesel versions of any cars, Toyota surely will bank upon this sentiment and bring the diesel version of the Prado to India so that they can sell more units of the same, contrary to the petrol version which sells about 50-60 cars a year.

Prado diesel will certainly be dearer and will cost higher than the petrol variant which is available at Rs 45 lakh. But we assume that Toyota is sane enough to price the SUV right so that the sheen of the vehicle is not lost owing to the price tag that it would carry.

Toyota Fortuner, which in a month's span received 7,000 bookings, and sold over 1,000 cars in less than two months, has the ball rolling for TKM. Lets all hope the same happens with the launch of Toyota Prado diesel in India.

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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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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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