Maruti Suzuki is facing delays in acquiring permission from Fiat to fit a 1.6-liter Multi-jet diesel engine into its SX4. Fiat apparently wants to release a more powerful Lineawith the same engine and then grant the license to Maruti Suzuki. Maruti is not willing to plonk the 1.9-liter engine that the European SX4 uses since costs would go out of hand.
In the last six months, Honda managed to sell 15,000 Cities while Maruti sold just 8000 SX4s. The agony is Suzuki’s in-house candidate, the Swift Dzire, has diverted buyers away from the SX4.
Expect to see a SX4 diesel in India next year. Expect to see a more powerful Fiat Linea before that.
The new city car from GM, which will be in India by this year end, rolled out of Daewoo’s plant in Korea as the Matiz a few days ago. The production of the rebadged Chevrolet Spark with a different grill, will be launched in Korea with a 1.0-liter and 1.2-liter petrol engine capable of delivering 66 PS and 78 PS respectively.
The Mahindra Xylo is a feature-rich car, convincing even sedan shoppers in our country with its pricing. It has worked for Mahindra, I see a million Xylos on the roads of Chennai everyday. I’m sure that is the case in your city too.
GM India will adopt a similar approach on its Cruze sedan. The new car is already available in markets like Korea and China. It was launched in China two months back and 20,000 cars have been sold already. It is not a fair comparison, but it hints the Cruze’ capability.
GM India says the Cruze will have “luxury features” found in premium models at a “lower” price. It will be launched sometime in October and will create an “intermediate” segment. It will be manufactured at the company’s Halol facility.
Could someone tell us if the Optra will be replaced by the Cruze.
The iPhone 3G might be the hottest thing in the mobile phone industry, but it is setting things on fire once it reaches its end user.
An unsuspecting dutch iPhone 3G owner made a big mistake by leaving his new iPhone inside his car. He laid it on the passenger seat and when he returned, he found his windshield tinted. His nightmare was confirmed as he opened the door to find his iPhone 3G charred, and taking a portion of the seat along with it into the atmosphere.
The phone was not connected to the charger. It was left alone in the seat. The amount of time he had left the phone inside the car is not known. Regardless of that, you don’t expect to come back to your car to see your phone in ashes.
Whether sunlight was instrumental in triggering the fire is not known. But as a safety and also security measure, remember to leave your iPhone away from direct sun light.
Here’s a clip of the “economy” luxury sedan Suzuki Kizashi outlining the average age of a Mercedes and Lexus owner. Is it going to make a difference with its comparitively lower price tag? Would a cheaper Lexus or Mercedes gain acceptance in the image-dependent luxury sedan market in the U.S? We don’t know, do you?
The Renault Logan is speeding into the book of extinct cars. If Renault does not act fast, the 500 cars a month they are selling now, will turn to 10-15.
The Logan needs a face-lift, which was launched in other countries more than a year back, and a Euro 4 compliant engine to keep it from sharing space with the Dodo bird.
Its charm is lost, nowadays people look at cars like the Dzire and Indigo which can be serviced via a larger and better service network.
The Logan is the sole product in the Renault line-up. The Sandero was supposed to join the Logan under Mahindra, but that is also uncertain as either of the partners have not spoken about it recently.
An announcement is expected by the 2010 Auto Expo in Delhi on the future of Renault in India.
Tata Motors declared it delivered 2,475 Nano cars to customers in India over the past fortnight. The company delivered the first car to Ashok Raghunath, a resident of Mumbai (we where there to capture the moment)
The Nano is manufactured at the company’s Pantnagar plant. The Sanand plant, which is the primary plant, will start operation next year making 250,000 cars in its first year.
Sources close to Bajaj tell us the company is half way through the development of a 350cc Pulsar scheduled for 2011-12. The new motorcycle would come with a liquid cooled engine, and the engineers are finding it hard to design a proper cooling system, which is inevitable for this high capacity engine.
Bajaj engineers are using an oil cooled system as it would occupy lesser space than water cooled setup. Moreover, the oil cooled system would be more efficient with heat transfer and weigh lesser, aiding handling and acceleration of the bike. The Pulsar 220 employs an oil cooler, and the company is likely to take the same route with this bigger motorcycle.
The 350cc platform would spawn several variants which Bajaj is banking on to get a grip in countries other than India.
