Archive for May, 2009

Spied – Tata Indicruz

Spied – Tata Indicruz

It’s been a while since we have heard anything on the Tata Indicruz’s whereabouts, till our friends at TAI emailed us the link to new spy shot which has a group of camouflaged Indicruzes parked. The testers could have pulled over for tea. A Safari escort vehicle is also partly seen.

The Indicruz had been spotted cold weather testing and now it appears to be in the final stages of its development. We expect the Tata Indicruz to reach showrooms by the end of 2010. The Indicruz could also be offered in Europe next year and who knows, it might use a Land Rover engine.

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Entry posted on May 31st, 2009 and filed under Spy pictures, Tata

Honda Jazz and Hyundai i20 are military tanks, literally ;-)

The latest EuroNCAP safety results are out and 5 out of 6 new cars crash-tested scored 5-Stars of which, we’re interested in only three cars; Honda Jazz, Hyundai i20, Suzuki Alto/A-Star (the cars sold/yet to be sold here in India).

Euro NCAP’s new rating scheme focuses on the vehicle’s overall safety performance which gives consumers an easy to understand single score. The new system considers passenger protection during impact to the front, side and rear of the car, and pole (if the car impacts with a tree or other fixed narrow object). Child protection, pedestrian protection and the availability of driver safety aids are also considered.

This post is a compilation of crash-test statistics, pictures, videos and some amazing revelations based on the indexes provided by EuroNCAP, car by car.

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Entry posted on May 30th, 2009 and filed under Hyundai, Maruti Suzuki, honda jazz

Diesel Toyota Prado to be launched on 9th June

Toyota Kirloskar Motors has decided to launch a diesel version of SUV Land Cruiser Prado in Mumbai on 9th June ‘09. Just like the petrol version, the diesel Prado will be imported as a CBU from Japan and will cost Rs. 40-50 lakh (4.5L V8 Diesel/282Bhp/662Nm)

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Entry posted on May 30th, 2009 and filed under Sideblog

Reports of Fiat 500 Station wagon are rubbish; its a SUV people!

Reports of Fiat 500 Station wagon are rubbish; its a SUV people!

Bad News – The Fiat 500 station wagon which we are tracking turns out to be tale of asking and predicting directions to the city that isn’t there.

Good News – The next Fiat 500 variant, post 500C, is a Fiat 500 junior SUV, sort of.

The Fiat 500 SUV will borrow extra items from the Fiat Panda parts bin. The chic hatch already shares the platform with the low-cost Panda (but is a high-cost car in India as it is a CBU). The new Fiat 500 SUV will use Panda’s four wheel drive and could remain a 3-door model.

4 doors could scratch the looks of this car which people around the world (including a global warming scientist named Jeremy Clarkson in Britain, who finds most beautiful cars appalling) accept and approve it for its cute, cuddly and charming looks. So let Fiat build it with two doors only.

Scissor door and soft top variants are also rumoured, but no confirmation yet. We’re hunting for more, so watch this space.

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Entry posted on May 29th, 2009 and filed under Fiat, Renderings

Test Drive – BMW X3 2.0d

Now, once that we are through the prism of the recession, lifestyle choices that once seemed so vital now really don’t seem to be that crucial and this message has been picked up correctly by a lot of car makers. It’s time to cut the fat and bring to size cars that have bloated out of proportion and according to me, just don’t make a lot of sense.

Big humongous SUV’s that will live their entire life on the road rather being off it are more of a lifestyle statement and of late, a lot of car makers are trying to cut this statement short.

Behold the BMW X3 diesel, effective, with all the meat without that extra cheese, it is shaped and downsized keeping its elder siblings, X5 in mind. Even though BMW wouldn’t possible know of the impending recession, the X3 diesel makes more sense in India now than ever!

click through to read all of it

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Entry posted on May 29th, 2009 and filed under BMW, Car Reviews

Suzuki Alto (A-Star) gets only 3 star Euro NCAP crash test rating

Suzuki Alto (A-Star) gets only 3 star Euro NCAP crash test rating

A few years ago, I think the Daewoo Matiz (Chevrolet Spark to recent followers) also scored 3 stars in the Euro NCAP crash tests.

The Alto hatchback (locally called A-Star), built at Suzuki’s Indian facility in Manesar and rebadged as the Pixo for Europe, received 46%, 25% and 39% for adult passenger protection, child protection and safety assistance performance respectively.

To give you an example of the result, the Hyundai i20, which is a class higher than the Alto received maximum five stars and its peer i10 scored four stars in its recent test.

The Euro NCAP tests assist manufacturers in knowing where it loses out to the competition. As a remedy to the low score, Suzuki immediately offers ESP as an option on one of the base models.

Many Indians believe in fate, so this option would be a joke to customers in here.

Source- Euro NCAP

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Entry posted on May 29th, 2009 and filed under Suzuki

Rendering – 2012 Renault Clio

Rendering – 2012 Renault Clio

We reported on the leaked 2012 Renault Clio clay models last month and speculated on the chances of the compact hatchback arriving in India.

Well, we’ve got more news to share.

A French Auto magazine has published images of what it claims will be the 2012 Renault Clio. A good scoop and a very good photoshop work.

The 2012 Renualt Clio could use inspiration from its bigger brother Megane and borrow those boomeranged shape indicator lamps embedded on its brake lights. From a certain angle, the tail lamp looks like a lump on a bruised head. The red color connotes the blood clot ;)

click through for a images

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Entry posted on May 29th, 2009 and filed under Renault, Renderings

2010 Honda CR-V reaches Italian dealerships

The refreshed Honda CR-V with new bumpers and grille has been set afloat in the Italian market. Dubbed the CR-V Action Sky and CR-V Action Trend, the new variants feature nothing more than new bumpers and the fog lights pushed a little back has these two parallel plastic slabs that look like an afterthought to me.

Level of equipment has gone slightly up and the addition is worthy of mention. A new radar system mounted up front judges if the car is going to collide with an obstruction in front and brakes automatically. This system is similar to Mercedes Benz’s Distronic Plus system which has saved innumerable lives.

The debate of the automatic braking system subtracting driver involvement is beyond the scope of this blog post.

The face of the Honda CR-V can suitably be described as being similar to a white’s tree frog post this minor cosmetic surgery.

Source – Auto Italy

click through for images

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Entry posted on May 29th, 2009 and filed under Facelift, Honda

Rendering – 2010 Toyota Prado

Rendering – 2010 Toyota Prado

Yet again, some Japanese car magazine’s published a computer-generated rendering of what they say could possibly be the 2010 Toyota Prado. We’re just hoping Toyota has nothing to do with this!

The current version of the Toyota Prado has been around for six years. With the new 2010 version, the company planned to give some tough competition to Audi Q5, BMW X3, and Mitsubishi Montero. Sadly, the rendered Prado shown here doesn’t look even half as good as the Mitsubishi Montero (no point comparing it with Audi Q5), and you wouldn’t be wrong if you call it a Tata Sumo Grande with an uglier Toyota Innova grille.

But then, one can never say, given the Prado’s superior off-road capabilities, looks wouldn’t matter that much to the Sheiks!

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Entry posted on May 29th, 2009 and filed under Renderings, Toyota

We are back! Let the games begin ;-)

We realized one thing while we were on our holiday- We can’t holiday for very long. All we could think of in the past few days is when we could get back to our blog.
We’ve got a ton of emails and comments to reply to, so we’ll finish that first and then put posts [...]

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Entry posted on May 29th, 2009 and filed under Uncategorized

Bajaj to launch a low-cost 125cc motorcycle

Bajaj Auto’s Rajiv Bajaj said that a new 125cc bike costing between Rs 20,000 and Rs 24,000, will be available soon. Production of this 125 cc motorcycle has started in an assembly plant in China. Sources say, Hero Honda is also working on a similar motorcycle that would cost between Rs 17,000 and Rs [...]

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Entry posted on May 25th, 2009 and filed under Sideblog

Maruti Suzuki to facelift Zen Estilo

With the Versa platform-based O2 MPV, Maruti plans to release a Zen Estilo facelift in October 09. The facelift will include minor cosmetic changes in exteriors and in interiors alongwith a Bharat Stage IV compatible engine.

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Entry posted on May 25th, 2009 and filed under Sideblog

Indian Autos Blog will resume posting on May 29

The Indian Autos Blog team is on vacation and will be back on the 29th. We’ve been doing a lot of posting in the last month and postponed our vacation indefinitely.
But the time has come to take some time off and enjoy doing things that we otherwise don’t do. We’ll be back on the [...]

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Entry posted on May 25th, 2009 and filed under Uncategorized
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