Indian Autos blog

Suzuki wants to take on the competition in the sub-compact car segment in Australia and what a way to embark on the challenge.

Last week, Suzuki released its global city car Alto down under. For the price as low as $12,490 the car becomes the cheapest four door car in Australia. This is the price for the base model, GL manual.

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When Mr.Ravi Santhanam said there would be a “bond-like” car from the house of Mitsubishi shortly, I was startled. Disbelief could not be felt stronger.

You know why.

Sources close to Mitsubishi have told Indian Autos Blog that the small car Colt might be showcased at the Delhi Auto Expo and subsequently launched next year.

We are not sure if the Mitsubishi Colt is the Bond car which they are referring to, but we’re keeping a close track on any developments.

We’ve also driven the Outlander recently and will share our thoughts with you on that in a while.

click through for Mitsubishi Colt slideshow

If you ask me, Ford’s getting too excited about prospects of its small car in India. I know, it is a Monday morning and people reading my blog need to leave with a lot of positive energy (which is always the idea). But on this Monday morning, I’d like you all to leave with a question to answer.

Ford’s been in India for more than ten years now. It sold the Escort and then the Ikon, which to the Indian janta, were luxury sedans in its time. I remember there was very little competition for these cars, and Ford’s got their image carved back then as not an ordinary man’s car.

The Daewoo Cielo was a car on a similar lines, and the company’s second car was a mass market car, which we call as the Spark today. Another company which debuted subsequently was Hyundai who started off with the Santro.

The Toyota Innova was the replacement for the Qualis which was selling very well. To replace the best seller is a tricky task, if it goes wrong, criticism will kill the new product.

The Innova not only was the ideal replacement but it outsold the Qualis’ figures. The Innova was face-lifted a few months back and we have it in our garage for the week. So why not join us as we figure why the Innova’s an ideal highway cruiser?

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We’ll arrive to the point straight- The Fiat Linea’s engine isn’t a blast to drive.

Fiat’s tried a thing or two by introducing the Palio 1.6 Sport and the Adventure station wagon, which reached the point of single digit sales figures. We sensed Fiat’s step-back strategy with the Palio 1.1 Stile, which is widely accepted as an under-powered but fuel efficient motor.

With such a car, Fiat wants to back in the reckoning with fuel-efficient, A-B motors instead of the spine-chilling or bone-crushing torque monsters.

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We’ve been stuck with another issue, which needed out total attention. Since time is limited, we felt we would address it, figure out the fix, and then return back to keyboard to resume updating the blog.

We’ll be back today evening with news, and the engine, gearbox part of the Linea review.

Today the focus shifts towards the unique Blue & Me system that’s on the Linea and all of Fiat’s new cars around the world. Let me first explain what the B&M really is-

This system is developed by Microsoft for application on Fiats. The basic characteristic of this system is its highly advanced voice recognition system through which one can answer his mobile calls, listen to sms’ browse through a mobile phone’s contact book using its display on the dashboard (display between the Speedo and RPM) all through inputs using the buttons provided on the steering wheel. He can also play music from mobile phone all when his hands are still on the steering wheel.

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In order to further improve the sales of its FZ series, Yamaha has come up with a new offer for its customers on FZ-16 and FZ-S. If you are an owner of any of the Yamaha bike or a student then this one is for you. One offer is the Customer Referral benefit for FZ series and the other is the Student benefit offer (FZ 16 & FZ S)

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