Indian Autos blog

Our sources in the automotive industry, who prefer to remain anonymous, tell us the facelifted Toyota Land Cruiser Prado shown at the ongoing Frankfurt Motor Show will be launched in India “shortly.”

The Toyota Land Cruiser Prado is sold in India as a CBU and only with a petrol engine. Toyota has sold only 40 units of the LC Prado in India this year and this facelift (along with the Fortuner’s diesel engine?) could place it right in the middle of the Q5-X5 battle.

Should we care to explain? We’ve tracked the Chevrolet Cruze like how a weather satellite tracks a storm. You can read our coverage on the Chevrolet Cruze by visiting the Chevrolet Cruze category page. You can even view exclusive spyshots of the Cruze which we picked up earlier in the month.

If there is one category of market in India that’s getting hotter by the day, it has to be the SUV market. After countless new SUVs this year (new Scorpio, Land Rovers, Toyota Fortuner, new Ford Endeavour) and many more to come (Hyundai Santa Fe, PAL’s SUV, Skoda Yeti, revamped Safari) a new Land Rover is getting ready to meet the Indian lensman (read Ritesh Madhok) on the 22nd of this month.

The lifestyle 4WD SUV manufactured in Britain, like every other Land Rover, arrives in India via the CBU route (means it will attract 100-odd percent duty). What sets it apart from many other SUVs is its construction – it is built around a monocoque frame like a hatchback or a sedan.

The Freelander shares its platform with the Ford Mondeo, which is speculated as another car in the pipline that leads to India.

Details on its pricing is not available, but it is widely speculated that it will be priced at Rs. 35 lakh (ex-showroom Mumbai).

We’ll be there to bring you exclusive images. So tune in on the 22nd for more details.

TV Commercial and Image slideshow of the Mahindra Duro, powered by an 8-hp 125cc engine and costs Rs 38,299 (ex-showroom Pune) which is available in the 300 Mahindra Two Wheelers dealerships across India.

click through to see the image slideshow

Reports in the media insist Force India will put two Indians – Chandok and Jani – in a Formula 1 simulator to assess their driving skill in the coming weeks. It isn’t Chandhok’s first encounter in F1. He briefly tested for Red Bull two years ago.

The Simulator owned by Mclaren, is considered as one the most realistic and sophisticated race car simulators. The current season drivers Liuzzi and Sutil have both spent time in the simulator recently.

Karun Chandhok at present is competing in the GP2 championships with Ocean Racing Technology, while Neel Jani (born to an Indian father) drives in the A1 GP championships for Switzerland.

After Liuzzi’s sizzling performance which was cut short by a mechanical problem, the competition for the job has gotten stiffer. Next year, Force India is very likely to retain its current drivers and register either Jani or Chandhok as the reserve driver.

After going through 29 races without putting up even a single point on the board, Force India did it, and did it in style by registering a podium finish at the 2009 Belgian Grand Prix and shocked the F1 world once again with a well fought fourth position in the following race at Monza, Italy.

This has come to our notice just now.

Royal Enfield has just finished conducting a four day road show in Thailand. It was organized to showcase the range of Bullet motorcycles and to seek interested distributors in South East Asia.

Apart from distributors, the company is also looking for parts suppliers to help raise production and reach its targets. The Chennai based company is planning to ramp up production to 100,000 units over the next three years and export its motorcycles to other markets as well. The parts for these motorcycles have to come from somewhere, no?

At the Frankfurt Motor Show this year, Hyundai revealed an important model for the Indian market. The brand new 2010 Hyundai Santa Fe will come to India next year, but if you are reading this from Korea, you can take a look at it in the nearest dealer showroom.

The facelifted Santa Fe sports a handful of retouches new bumpers, reshaped front grille, new front fog lights and redesigned head and tail lights.

Look at those twin exhaust pipes!

Hoping to corner a market share, Hyundai have also changed a lot of things inside – a new instrument panel, a navigation system and a rear view camera is now available as an option.

Under the hood sits the new 2.2-liter CRDi turbo unit that produces 197 horsepower and 422 Nm of torque between 1,800 and 2,500 rpm. This is what we Indians will hopefully get albeit lower power and torque ratings.

This engine is coupled to a 6-speed manual transmission and allows to do the zer0 to sixty run in 9.5 seconds, with a top speed of 190 km/h.

The 2.4-liter petrol unit that develops 174 horsepower and is mated to a manual transmission (a 6-speed automatic gearbox offered as an option) might not appeal to Indians as much as the diesel.

The chiseled Volkswagen Polo with its Scirocco inspired styling will debut at the Delhi Auto Expo next year in both petrol and diesel options. The company’s new facility in Pune will manufacture the hatchback and follow it up with a sedan and possibly a MPV and station wagon in the future.

The India-spec Polo in addition to the manual transmission, will be supplemented with an automatic transmission. Production of the Polo is set to begin early next year.

The sedan variant of the Polo, as we reported earlier, will be longer and wider to offer more legroom and comfort to rear passengers. This particular variant could compete with the likes of the Dzire, Indigo and Fiesta when it comes out next year.

Right from the beginning, VW is targeting a localization level of fifty percent for the hatchback. The Chakan plant in Pune, in full flow, will have an annual capacity of 1.1 lakh cars which it says will take 4 to 6 years to reach.

The company is eyeing a 8-10 percent market share by this period. After the Polo, the company is also planning on introducing a whole crate of other VW models from hatchbacks to imports.