Indian Autos blog

Despite recalls, the Toyota Prius has managed to attract customers in India

The world’s largest selling hybrid car Toyota Prius has received 80 confirmed bookings in India and the first batch of 24 have reached customers already. Toyota had settled for 200 cars to be imported from Japan for 2010, but after seeing the demand, it may need to rethink that number.

Sandeep Singh, deputy managing director (marketing), Toyota Kirloskar Motors -

We are happy with the demand for the car and believe that once the cars hit the road demand will go up further. Bookings are robust and should go beyond the 200 cars that we have asked for from TMC, though we are not likely to get any more cars this year. Next year we will definitely order more cars… maybe 400 or 500.

Most of the cars sold so far belong to entrepreneurs and industrialists. Toyota expects Bollywood artists to join the camp soon as the Prius customer, according to the company, makes a statement and stands out of the crowd. Toyota believes this will start happening as soon as cars are available at dealerships for test drives.

The new Ford Fiesta sedan is one of the quietest cars in its segment

Ford India sold more cars in March than Honda & Toyota. The Figo was the reason – a great hatch available both in petrol and diesel variants at a killer price tag. This has instilled a lot of confidence in the company and it has ambitious plans for the future.

Back in the US too Ford is playing strong, & has overtaken GM in terms of sales. It is preparing itself to launch the Fiesta hatch and sedan back there & is marketing it to the best of their abilities.The latest trick – Ford claims that the Fiesta has the best in class NVH levels, comparable to some of the larger cars. They say drivers will enjoy being inside the Fiesta as it has a very quite cabin.

This marketing technique might not be applied in India considering the fact that there would be cost cuttings for this price sensitive market and the NVH levels may not be as good. Correct. We are getting the brand new fiesta very soon.

Test mules of the hatch are already doing rounds around Chennai, and locals can very soon expect to see the disguised sedan too. The sedan is expected to be launched in Early 2011 & the hatch in mid 2011.

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Call it looking a little too far, but what Motor Authority has presented here is a drawing of how the Mercedes Benz C-Class will look in 2014.

Showing clear styling influences from the F800 Style concept car that Mercedes introduced as a container with bits and pieces of future C- Class styling, the new C-Class has all the ingredients to set it apart from the competition when it arrives at the arena in 2014.

We’re more than four years away from the release, and it is premature to decide what goes under the hood of this futuristic Merc. We safely expect a diesel hybrid, plug-in hybrids and a highly efficient (possibly 3-cylinder) diesel engine on this car. The AMG variant will also be available, but that isn’t going to sell in India anyway.

What is going to be special about this Mercedes? Well, we hope they’ll not discount the fun, and at the same time maintain the level of comfort and luxury that the C-Class’ rear seat offers. With the addition of a smaller diesel, the C-Class is going to be more fuel efficient, and thanks to advancement in material sciences, we can expect the C-Class to weigh much lesser.

Shoeb’s not worried too much with the body structure as it is reportedly identical

Reports are already out on the Japanese media concerning the next generation Civic (ninth generation) that premieres as a 2012 model year car in September 2011. Honda will adhere to the existing strategy of having more than one version of the Civic internationally.

The European markets will get the upgrade to the hatch, while markets like ours will have the sedan replacement, which is being examined here.

A report on a Japanese magazine discusses the smaller dimensions of the new model, which is codenamed 2HC. Due to excise benefits for thinner cars in Japan, the Civic’s width reduction brings it down to 1695 mm. The overall shape and construction of the new Civic will not be an extreme departure from the current model, quite like the 2011 Suzuki Swift which retains its shape. There is no mention of a diesel heart but we assume Honda will introduce a small and efficient diesel which should be a good answer to Toyota’s Corolla diesel.

As usual, the Civic will also get a hybrid powertrain. This is the same powertrain used on the Honda CR-Z – a 1.5-liter gasoline engine is paired to Honda’s Integrated Motor Assist. The hybrid can be bought either as a manual or an automatic variant.

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The BMW X1 brought to the local dealership to act as a show piece

Thanks to our reader from Chennai V.Swaroop who was passing by a BMW dealership with eagle eyes, we’re able to bring you the first picture of the BMW X1 at a local dealership. The BMW X1 we’re told is slated for a year end launch but few cars have reached dealerships apparently for secret display to exclusive customers and help in the product training to sales and service personnel.

The BMW X1 will be locally assembled bringing down the final cost. Expected to be priced at around 25 lakh rupees, the X1 is looking good to displace the Toyota Fortuner from the numero uno spot in that category.

BMW X1 xDrive20d specifications:

* Four-cylinder diesel engine with all-aluminium crankcase,
* variable intake geometry turbocharger and common rail direct fuel injection
* Capacity: 1995cc
* Max output: 177PS at 4000rpm
* Max torque: 350Nm from 1750 – 3000rpm
* Acceleration 0-100km/h: 8.4 s
* Top speed: 205 km/h

Locally manufactured Chevrolet Cruze, RHD Captiva not affected by recalls

This missed our eye.

A week ago, General Motors India has assured that the Captiva and Cruze sold in India are not affected by the global recalls as they are right hand drive models and manufactured post the date of manufacture of recalled vehicles.

P Balendran, Vice President (Corporate Affairs), General Motors India -

There is absolutely no connection of the recalls in Korea to the Indian operations and as such there are no recalls here. The recalls only cover left hand drive vehicles while India is a right hand drive market. Though the Captiva is imported into the country as complete built unit from Korea, the car anyway was launched later than the time frame for which the recalls are stipulated.

GM recalled 45,957 units of Winstorm (Captiva) sports utlilty vehicles and 12,604 units of Lacetti Premiere (Cruze) compact sedans due to problems in their steering wheels or fuel hoses.

The Chinese banker can stretch his legs after a long day of earning money

BMW has just launched an extended wheelbase variant of the new 5 Series exclusively for China. What has captured our attention is the growing number of 5 Series owners in India, and they relaxing in the backseat of their new expensive ride.

During a chat with Volvo India Managing Director Paul De Voijs, he pointed out that customers show interest in long wheelbase models and the company has started arranging these vehicles specially for them. Volvo sells a fraction of what Mercedes Benz manages, and the demand for long wheelbase cars would be more, going by that stat.

With the average age of the Mercedes Benz owner in 35-40 years range, one starts to question why Mercedes hasn’t introduced long wheelbase vehicles for the Indian market. Many Mercedes Benz owners prefer to be driven and tell me, by the time someone reaches forty, will he have the same urge which he possessed during his college days to drive, negotiate traffic to find that one stretch where he’ll satisfy his craving for a burst of torque. Maybe not all forty year olds fall in this category, which is exactly why Mercedes should offer the E-Class L as an option.

Coming back to the spyshot, China Car Times states Audi’s successful launches A4L and A6L have prompted Mercedes and BMW to bring in their competitors with more legroom. The powertrain options on the new lengthened Mercedes should be no different and the equipment level would also remain same.

Last year Maruti Suzuki aired a Suzuki A-Star TV commercial having many cars pulling off spectacular stunts. Maybe that didn’t work prompting Maruti to transmit information on various aspects including fuel economy along with a touch of art in the latest ad.

See how differently the A-Star (Alto for foreigners) is marketed in Australia. It projects the character of the A-Star which honestly was hidden from the public eye here in India.