Cars are growing bigger in size. Part of the reason is safety, as thicker and wider steel and iron sections become unavoidable in making a safe car.
Maybe the size of the average man has also got to do something, which we are not able to verify at this moment.
Then of course there is space and comfort. Almost every car in India today is bigger than what it was previously. The Indica, Alto, Verna, Laura have grown in dimensions and there is nothing wrong in saying the future models will marginally grow.
Someday in the future, the Fiat Palio will be born, again. It will be bigger, more stylish, more powerful and more fuel efficient. It will be more comfortable, more spacious, more stylish and more popular among Indian buyers.
Well, maybe.
The future Fiat Palio should utilize the services of the Multijet 2 engine, which if reports can be trusted, debuts on the Fiat 500C this year.
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Chevrolet’s new Spark (codenamed M300) a.k.a Chevrolet Mini was caught by an Autocar India reader, while undergoing fuel economy testing in Chennai. The new Spark, which happens to be Chevrolet‘s second car for this year following the Cruze, will be launched in the end of this year (maybe sooner).
Since a greater part of the car will be built at GM’s Talegaon facility near Pune, the new Spark/Mini will sport a more modest price tag ranging from Rs 3.5-4.5 lakhs.
The car measures 3640mm in length and will be powered by a 1.2L petrol engine. There are also talks of retaining the old Spark’s 1.0L petrol engine as well as introducing a new three-cylinder diesel variant.
The Thai-assembled Toyota Camry hybrid which was displayed yesterday in a special ceremony will reportedly ship to India next year.
The Toyota Camry hybrid has its own tail lamp, headlamp and bumper, the three chief features apart from the ‘Hybrid Synergy Drive’ badge setting it apart from the regular petrol model. 9,000 of these cars will roll out of the Gateway plant in Thailand in the first phase with local deliveries scheduled in August.
This is not the first time we’re showing you a hybrid Camry on Indian Autos Blog. Don’t think so? Check out the Toyota Camry HC-CV from the Melbourne Motor Show earlier this year.
The automobile engineering under the skin of this Camry is surprisingly still hidden from the media. Whether the U.S Toyota Camry‘s 2.4 liter-engine producing 147 horsepower at 6,000rpm and 187Nm of torque at 4,400rpm, paired to a 30kW (40 horses) electric motor with 270Nm of torque goes for the Thai Camry is anybody’s guess.
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Tip of the day – The Honda Jazz hybrid’s price is what we Indians are going to pay for the 1.2-liter petrol model.
Honda‘s renewed commitment to the environment is known to us right from the time of the first Insight to the recent Civic hybrid, working for long hours in laboratories, fighting their way through the barriers namely weight, density, Toyota Prius, cost and what not.
The next car with hybrid technology to don the Honda badge is none other than the hugely successful Honda Jazz. The nature of the powertrain at this juncture is unknown. It might use the Insight’s motor and battery pack or Honda could have developed one specifically for this car.
Nevertheless Honda decided to revise the launch date of the Honda Jazz hybrid after seeing the demand for fuel efficient cars. The revised date as of now stands at autumn of 2010, about a year and half ahead of the original schedule.
The Yamaha FZ16 turned around Yamaha’s Indian tale. For Yamaha, it was either perform or perish and most of us sensed very little hope for the Japanese company, which for some reason got into selling all the wrong bikes.
To our pleasant surprise, Yamaha recovered and is climbing its way up the hill,thanks to the whimsical FZ16 and the YZF-R15 which charted its own territory and has built up enough strength to counter attack opponents.
And both of them are expecting company.
click through to read more/view Yamaha FZ 150 spyshot
Ford’s new car will come in both petrol/diesel and hatchback/sedan variants. It will be Ford’s entry level car in India and will be manufactured at the company’s facility in Chennai where vehicles like the hugely successful Fiesta and Ikon are currently manufactured.
Ford’s Indian small car as you can refer from the snaps, borrow styling cues from the Verve concept.
Ford India confirmed earlier that their new small car will have high localization content (75% or more) to control costs. A sub 1.2-liter petrol and sub 1.5-liter diesel engine will be the sole power units initially; more powerful engines and automatic transmissions might be added to the lineup after the launch.
click through for analysis and images
The Chevrolet Captiva, when I last checked, was the best selling SUV in India ahead of its peers CR-V, Endevour and Pajero. In other parts of the world the story isn’t very different, like in Malaysia for instance.
To continue its good run in the Malaysian market, General Motors has unveiled a new feature-rich variants of the Captiva to extend the gap to the X-Trail and CR-V.
Several versions of the Chevrolet Captiva 7-seater are on sale in Malaysia but all of them come with either the 2.0-liter turbo diesel that produces 320Nm of torque from 2,000rpm making it easy to drive in the city or the 2.4-liter petrol that is good for 136hp and 220Nm at 2,200rpm. Both engines share relationships with the same 5-speed auto box.
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The Honda Jazz steals our spotlight since it goes on sale next month in India. Reports pertaining to the Jazz’s cost have severed buying hopes fueled controversy, and yet again we are posting a figure, which isn’t its price tag.
In the international arena, the Honda Jazz hasn’t put a foot wrong. 500,000 cars have been sold in Europe alone since the arrival back in 2002. The supermini has 335 liters of boot space that is comparable to sedans of the same price range, and offers interior room that is comparable to cars on the bigger side in India.
A major slice of its success is attributed to its space and comfort. The Honda Jazz is credited with B-segment size, value and frugality combined with C-segment passenger space and boot capacity. In the recent crash test evaluation, the Jazz scored the maximum five stars, which signified its crashworthiness.
It is a ballsy daring move by Honda to drive a hatchback into the Indian market and price it above all the existing hatches including its classmates. The Jazz mounts on the new City‘s platform and a tailor-made 1.2-liter petrol engine for Indian customers sits under the bonnet.
The Tata Indica’s success is often traced back to its unbeatable comfort/space combination. But another factor that helped the Indica take off was its price advantage, which operates against the Jazz.
What do ya think?
click through for press release and Image Gallery
