A special edition Suzuki Swift has been launched in Argentina with decals and a 8GB iPod touch. Surprisingly, the sp.ed costs just $130 more than the standard car. The 8GB iPod touch costs $230 in the market, a direct $100 savings if your looking out for a fun car and a reliable mp3/video player. Read More- Argentina Auto Blog
Archive for May, 2009
Force India F1′s boss VIjay Mallya announced the introduction of new aero upgrades and a different diffuser at this weekend’s race in Barcelona. Mallya is sounding confident and the team is looking very promising for a point scoring performance very soon. Read More- World Car Fans
BMW says it would not be possible to sell the Mini brand of cars in India in BMW dealerships. It anticipates to sell 100 cars a year, but the investment needed to set up dedicated shops isn’t going to come till the end of this year. Read More- Hindustan Times
In case you thought that the four-door four-seater Bugatti Royale was merely a speculation, these images from Auto Express confirming its existance will prove you wrong.
To mark 100 years of Bugatti, the Bugatti Veyron Royale will be unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September.
The new Veyron is said to have been inspired by the legendary 1927 Type 41 Royale, and will be sold only to the company’s most loyal customers.
Bugatti Veyron Royale – Work in Progress…
- Bugatti and Bentley are to jointly develop a new front-engined limousine platform, that will serve the Royale as well as the next Bently Arnage.
- Veyron DNA such as its four-wheel-drive system and 8.0-litre quad-turbo W16 engine will be retained. However, the engine will be mounted at the front.
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It has been officially confirmed that Jaguar and Land Rover are to start selling their respective premium cars and Sports Utility Vehicles in India this year.
On Friday, Tata Motors entered into an agreement with JLR to manage the import and sales of the marques’ cars in India. As an effect, a new luxury car division has been formed in the Tata Motors Passenger Car unit, which will be headed by Rohit Suri.
After an exhaustive dealership search for four months, JLR has finalised that the first few cars will be sold at Mumbai’s Ceejay House in Worli this June. It is not known if some existing Tata dealerships would accomodate JLR cars, but it would be very strange to see premium exotic cars being sold alongside the world’s cheapest car – the Tata Nano.
We’ve test driven the Tata Nano, but few others have had the opportunity to do it since dealerships across India have been provided with just one or two display cars, and they have to be protected till the next batch arrives in July.
However all is not lost. If you haven’t driven the Nano in the real world, why not try it in the virtual world? Over 1.2 million virtual test drives of the Tata Nano have already been recorded!
The Official Tata Nano game can be played at http://www.tatanano.com. It features three levels, not before you customize your Nano and give it the best alloys and decals. Level one demands you to drive sensibly, negotiating a public bus, motorcyclist and pedestrians, the usual suspects who bog you down on Indian roads.
The second level demands you to be in a party in time after picking up 4 Sumo wrestlers. The 4 Sumos will have space inside the Nano since its built that way, but we are questioning the Nano’s pickup, wait, will the 624cc engine even move the wheels with 4 Sumos in the real world?
The game is nevertheless fun to play and you’ve got to have wait for it to load as a million others are taking the Nano challenge at the same time.
click through for Press Release
One of our readers sent this rendering to us today telling us this is possibly how Ford’s small car for India would look like. The Verve concept-based small car will have as high as 75% localization to keep costs in check and will host a sub 1.2-liter petrol and sub 1.5-liter diesel engine. Ford plans to make use of this car to make a sedan in the future, much like its peers Tata and Maruti Suzuki.
The hatchback, planned for a release later this year, will also be less than four meters in overall length to avail the small car cost advantages from the government. This car is thoroughly designed and developed for Indian conditions and might be exported to nations like Brazil in the future.
Michael Boneham, MD and president of Ford India-
It will the first offering from Ford in the mass-market segment and we are making efforts to keep it cost-competitive while making it a great value proposition
As per the company, despite the recovering economic conditions, its $500 million investment in the country stays unaltered. Ford has been developing this car for more than two years and plans to attack the entry level hatchback segment currently dominated by Hyundai, Tata Motors and Maruti Suzuki.
The 2009 Barcelona Motor Show (which will be held in Barcelona 
) has the Audi Q3 prototype on display to gather crowds and journalists. The other star attraction of the show will be at the Tata stall. Yep, the Nano Europa is going to Barcelona next week. The show begins on the 9th and goes on till the 17th.
Interpress Motor reports apart from the 3-cylinder Nano Europa, the Indica Vista EV, Sumo Grande, Safari, Xenon, Ace Electric and the Indigo will be present.
Are they referring to the Indigo Vista? Or will they display the normal Indigo? I remember Tata choosing Bologna in 2007 to unveil the Safari 2.2 VTT. I wonder if they’ll show the Indigo Vista in Barcelona.
