Indian Autos blog

Skoda’s new city car would be based on the parent company VW’s Up! platform. The new car might be named “Popular.”

The Popular is aimed at developing parts of the world where there is an ever lasting demand for small and economical cars. The city-runabout would make its first appearance in 2012, and we’ve dug up evidence proposing its Indian connection a while ago.

Skoda is looking to establish itself as a compact car maker. It does have SUVs and grand sedans in the line-up, but its plans going into the future insists there will be more budget than frills and flair. There’s the bigger hatchback that will slot inbetween the Fabia and the Octavia and plans to make a low-cost Octavia for India and other Asian countries.

click through to read the rest

Mercedes-Benz is supposedly developing a new V12 engine (so much for all the 6-cylinder + turbocharger = V12 performance+lower emissions bull shit theory).

This new powerplant is likely to make appearance in the next S-Class, and Aston Martin has also inked a deal with Mercedes for this engine.

Mercedes-Benz’ V12 unit will be used in the Aston Martin DB9 and upcoming Rapide after its 2012 release.

Aston Martin at present uses a 6.0-liter V12 Duratec engine sourced from Ford (If you are reading this for the first time, your Fiesta immediately develops a Bond car connection).

It is widely believed that the Aston Martin Rapide would use the same Ford-sourced V12 unit when it embarks production. In the future, Aston might swap the Merc engine in place of the Duratec. People are even saying Aston could delay production dates to bring in the Merc V12 from day one.

Things are muddled but one thing is clear. Aston Martins from 2012 will use Mercedes engines.

Toyota is looking at its new small car as the driver for growth in India. The compact car, codenamed 800 L, will try to capture the fort that its competition Maruti, Hyundai and Tata Motors are fighting for.

Just like on the global front, the same competitors will try and choke them here. Ford is preparing its small car while Honda has one coming up in 2011.

The 800L has been a boon for Indian engineers who had the opportunity of working with their Japanese counterparts to make this car. Toyota believes lessons learned by Indians would be put to use in the future products that roll out locally.

Through the first two weeks of next month, the attention will roll towards Tata. No, it won’t be for the Nano, but for the promising Indica Vista EV concept which it plans to explore European colonies with, in the next few years.

The Indica Vista EV was displayed at the Geneva show earlier in the year while the Indica EV gathered crowds at the Barcelona show.

The Midlands Motor Show takes place at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry, and the Vista EV will be displayed along with cars like a Smart EV and Mitsubishi iMIEV.

Over 40 manufacturers will display their innovations and concepts at the show which the British consider as their biggest auto show of 2009 since the British Motor Show was scrapped this year citing the unfavourable economic conditions.

Visit www.midlandsmotorshow.co.uk to be familiar with the show. If you are in or around Coventry, you could take a look at this year’s exhibits by buying your tickets online.

click through for Indica Vista EV Image Slideshow

Ford suddenly looks as if it realized the pulse of car buyers in India who prefer small cars. Cars that are smaller than the Ikon make up major chunks of sales, and Ford is planning big by bringing in the small.

Recently, reports in the media claim Ford is “looking at multiple platforms, including cars in the European line-up” for India. Ford is referring to hatchbacks that are popular among car buyers India.

Ford expresses its desire to compete with expert brands Tata, Maruti and Hyundai who sell the major volume in that segment that adds up to 85,000 units a month. Cars like the Fiesta and Ka could be in India by the middle of the next decade. Ford has not ruled out the introduction of the Mazda 2 either, a famous hatchback in Europe with all the ingredients for a perfect Indian small car recipe.

This is independent of the small car scheduled for a 2010 launch. It will export 10% of the cars manufactured to Europe, South Africa and Asia-Pacific regions.

The good thing about this gadget is it takes up little space, and for people who travel long distances particularly during the night, this is an essential gadget you need to have in your boot.

Introducing the Collapsible Solar-powered traffic cone. It costs $55 and it works with solar energy to lights the LED’s inside the cone. If you are stuck on the road when the light is poor, place this cone a few feet behind your car. The LEDs flash and provide you and your car with a safe territory.

Otherwise, it can be tucked in somewhere in your car’s boot.

Answer to the previous question – Suzuki Swift

Congratulations to Shoeb, keshavaraj, Raj, sudarsanan, Sudhir Rajan, guru, Priyansh, Felixx, Vivek Shukla, Shakti, Monty Singh, Gurudatta, Aditya Prakash, prabakaran spide, Hapinder Harry, Monty Singh, Fiat Fan, rajesh, krishna, Jishnu Sasidharan V, Naveen, Adithya Arikere, Satish, Motorbeam.com, The Automotive India, Harish Kumar, Sushil, Lalit, deepam, modifii, Happy

Today’s Question -

Which car’s fog light and tires are these?

Clue – It is a SUV, sold in India.

Click on the title of the post, and then fill in your answers in the comment box below. Come back tomorrow to check whether you’ve guessed correctly along with another challenge.

Shown here are the first and the most convincing computer generated renderings of the 2011 Mercedes Benz CLS. We have seen a few test mules in the past, but all heavily camouflaged. The artist responsible for creating these images is said to have taken clues from the Spy shots that we featured two months back.

The front end looks bang-on, would perfectly fit under the camoulfage. We’re not so sure about the ultra-long tail section though. It makes the car look more like a sedan than a coupe. Having said that, we’ll have to make do with the renderings, until the offical images are released in 2010.