The Polo is the European Car of the Year 2009. It will debut locally at Expo ’10
I haven’t known a car that’s held the honor of being the European car of the year as well as carrying ‘Made In India’ tag. Well, my wish is going to come true next year as the Volkswagen Polo was officially chosen as the 2010 European Car of the Year.
The Polo didn’t win it hands down. It narrowly escaped defeat by scoring slightly more than the Toyota iQ for the award.
The cars that went till the last round were the Opel/Vauxhall Astra, Skoda Yeti, Mercedes-Benz E-Class, Peugeot 3008, and the Citroen C3 Picasso.
VW’s Polo despite being 7.5 percent lighter than the previous model, holds a five-star safety rating, a bigger body and slightly larger boot. Six different engine options are offered on the Polo in Europe.
click through to read the press release
Ratan Tata conveys Nano hybrid will be cheap to buy and cheap to run
Chairman of the Tata Group, Ratan Tata, revealed a definite variant of the Tata Nano to a South Korean newspaper. Tata said the company’s engineering team is working on a hybrid powertrain for the Tata Nano.
Ratan Tata -
Low-priced goods would create stronger demand than high-end products in India, and the so-called low-price revolution would continue across the world
Obviously, Mr.Tata is trying to convey that the Nano hybrid will cost less, despite having a complex engineering side to it. Earlier this year, sections of the Indian media carried stories on Tata Motors testing start-stop technology on the Nano. If not for the shutdown of the Singur plant, we could have seen a lot more variants of the Nano by now. Due to the unfortunate incidents in the now defunct West Bengal plant, Tata can only produce limited Nanos out of their existing facilities, and they have clearly stated their concentration and efforts are presently going towards meeting the demands of the waiting Indian customers.
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The City is a big hit in India with over 2.8 lakh sold since 1998
Honda City is one of the most popular cars in India. Don’t agree? Just look at the sales figure projected by Honda in a recent press release – it has crossed sales of 50,000 units in just 12 months.
The third generation Honda City was launched in September last year and ever since its fuel efficiency, refined engine and performance has been appreciated by the masses. The third generation Honda city employs a 1.5 litre 4-cylinder iVTEC engine that produces 118PS power and overall fuel economy of 16kmpl. The Honda Jazz has also played its part by acting as a bait to bring in new customers into Honda showrooms.
Masahiro Takedagawa President and CEO Honda Siel cars India -
We are very pleased with this milestone and would like to thank our customers for their trust and confidence in our product. Since its launch in 1998 the three generations of Honda city have sold around 2.8 lakh units in the country making it Honda’s best seller in the country.
The Fiat Strada Sporting comes with special paint and tweaked suspension
Fiat is seriously bringing on some heat in Brazil. They’ve just revealed a sport version of the Palio pickup truck (name: strada sporting) in Brazil with masked headlamps, special red paint, body kit and 16-inch alloy wheels.
Don’t think the ‘sporting’ version is all show. The suspension has been lowered and as a result, you get tighter handling. The interiors have a rush of uniqueness with red stitching on steering wheel, drilled pedals and red safety belts.
The Strada Sport comes with a 1.8-liter engine good for 115hp.
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Honda’s small car might not even be close to this, but a brief inspection of the competition led us to this image
Our photoshop master SRK was handed the task of compiling a drawing of Honda’s upcoming small car meant for the Indian market. Codenamed 2CV, our sources tell us the the upcoming small car might use a 1.1-liter petrol engine, with no diesel in the equation. We were also informed that the engine could share commonalities with the 1.2-liter unit on Jazz. The use of Honda’s cutting-edge VTEC technology was not confirmed.
Honda has not spoken about the car’s specification, so the above is purely speculation.
The Honda 2CV will be is engineered to outrun the Swift and Ritz from the Suzuki stable, which command a high market share in its segment.
SRK designed the Honda 2CV after going through some of its competitors which includes Suzuki Swift, Hyundai i10, Fiat Punto, Tata Indica and Suzuki Ritz/Splash.
The Honda CBF Stunner gets a new color scheme in Europe. Perhaps it will await us at the Expo ’10?
Honda, earlier in this month, launched a new white and black color scheme for its CBF 125 (known as CBF Stunner in India) in the European market. The CBF 125 was launched last year to replace the old CG 125 in the Europe.
The White-black paint scheme looks attractive and it wouldnt be a bad move to launch this color scheme in India as well. As we all know that the CBF-Stunner in the 125cc segment, is popular among the youth. This color scheme would provide another reason for the people to go for this bike in its segment.
So lets wait and watch if this color arrives in India as well, may be we’ll see it in 2010 Auto Expo?
Oberdan Bezzi, who is an expert motorcycle designer, has thought of an idea for a Royal Enfield Bullet 500. He calls it the Enduro and as per him, the bike is not only traditional but also qualifies to be an enduro motorcycle by providing a decent mileage and less maintenance. The reason being that the motorcycle is powered by a single cylinder engine which can be as reliable as they were a few decades ago.
The idea of reviving the old Royal Enfield looks really exciting and testing it off road would be an amazing experience.
The Royal Enfield Bullet Enduro 500 is just a computer generated sketch. From a Bulleteer’s perspective, translating it in the real world, and into a work of art, can be easily done by finding help from bike builders who are rapidly rising in number, here in India.
The Volvo XC60 SUV will come to India next year
Swedish car manufacturer Volvo Cars which has rechristened its firm’s name to Volvo Auto India Private Limited will not be participating at the Delhi Auto Expo in January 2010 but has plans for India next year.
The Swedish firm plans to launch the 2010-spec S80 luxury sedan in India priced at around 40-lakh rupees and is likely to hit Indian shores by January 2010. The company is also drawing up plans to unleash the XC60 compact SUV in the first half of 2010 and the S60 saloon which should boost sales of the brand in India.
Volvo Auto India sold 900 cars last year and is confident that it will beat the 10 per cent increase it had earlier projected for the current year.
Volvo is also keen on setting up an assembly unit in India, if its annual figures touch 2,000 units. After opening outlets in Delhi, Mumbai, Chandigarh, Hyderabad, Cochin, Chennai and Pune currently in India, the company is now looking to expand its base to Goa, Kolkata, Bangalore and Ahmedabad and Coimbatore.
click through to view Volvo XC60 Image Slideshow
