Indian Autos blog

In a state of confusion, most of us neglect to check and drive for miles with less pressure in our car’s tires. When is it best to check and correct tire pressures? Once a week? Once a fortnight? Once everyday?

Here’s the cheapest way to know the answer.

For a nothing-sum of $8, you could get a tire pressure indicator cap which fits into the tire valve which displays the existing air pressure in the tire. If you notice the readings are lower than the manufacturer’s prescribed values, you head to the petrol station and fill them up. Easy.

Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, India’s largest car maker, unveiled an all-new BS-IV compliant K12M engine at its Gurgaon plant. The 1.2L all-aluminium engine is second in the K-series and is said to have technological superiority and higher fuel efficiency over the K10B engine that powers Maruti Suzuki’s A-Star.

The K12M engine has been specifically designed for Indian applications. Maruti Suzuki’s engineers worked as part of Suzuki’s Engine Design team for the design, calibration and testing of the engine in Japan and in India. It will be put to use in the new Ritz hatchback (a.k.a Splash) which is slated for launch in May ’09.

The definition of a city car is satisfied only if it has almost nil of those harmful emissions. The Fiat 500 qualifies as a perfect city car- It’s compact, it has a small turning circle radius, it has swift acceleration coupled to start-stop system for better fuel economy. But is it a low, or let me put it better- a “no” emissions car?

Not quite.

But eco-friendly Sweden, where the Indica Vista EV will go through a demonstration program, urges to make the change. Fiat, Alelion Batteries and Autoadapt AB, former a L-Ion battery supplier and the latter a Swedish company known for building innovative vehicles, will tie-up and manufacture an electric powertrain for the Fiat 500. The engine, exhaust system and fuel tank are done away with in the whole process.

Is the BMW 3 Series worthy of being a loner car?

The BMW 3 Series is the object of desire for many international tuning companies. Recently BMW released its performance kit for the 335i. Before that, there was the Miranda winter series for the 320d, Wald International’s body kit for the BMW 3 Series and Inside Performance’s tuning kit.

So is the RDSport RS35 Biturbo BMW 335i all fizz?

Not exactly. The RDSport RS35 Biturbo BMW 335i like it sounds, has a twin turbo that puts out 414 bhp and 404 lb/ft of torque. That’s more than the BMW M3!

How do you get 414 bhp in the first place?

The RDSport RS35 Biturbo BMW 335i revised ECU tuning, a free-flow intake system, a new intercooler and a new exhaust system with stainless sport silencers with quad tips (don’t think that effects performance what so ever)

Kunal Suryavanshi, an avid Indian Autos Blog reader, pleasantly surprised us by sending Tata Nano‘s official product preview in the form of a PowerPoint presentation. This very presentation he said, was meant only for the Tata officials to peruse in order to have themselves equipped for the Nano’s launch on March 23rd.

The entire presentation contains huge volumes of info about the Nano. Only the most important slides have been displayed in the form of images.

Be warned though, it conveys only Tata’s part of the Nano story.

Designer Jorge Fernandez today published a projection of how this could be the future Fiat Uno, which in his words, could also appear at the end of 2009.

We are talking about the 326 project, which together with the 327 project, a renewal of the Palio hatchback, the family would give new impetus to the popular Italian brand.

The project 326 will initially be available in Europe under the brand Innocenti, not to mix with the sales of successful Fiat models such as the Panda, Punto and 500.

Do you remember the Audi Q7 that was spied with new bumpers and headlamps earlier in the month? Audi has officially announced the 2010 Audi Q7 today, and the press release in our inbox, proved a lot more than wheels and bumpers are new.

If you want to record something in front of you while driving, you no longer have to drive using one hand and hold a camera in the other. The rear view mirror integrated video camera gadget can offer you just the solution.