Indian Autos blog

The upcoming Chevrolet Aveo U-VA should debut in India by the end of 2011 after the next gen Aveo sedan, and that doesn’t mean the existing Aveo twins will be shown the door. Both generations could co-exist and for that to happen peacefully, the cars shouldn’t have major similarities.

The next generation Aveo will be sold in India with a locally-manufactured 1.3-liter diesel engine. It will also use a petrol engine, which could be a derivative of the 1.2 S-Tec motor on the Chevy Beat.

The sub-compact segment away from India has zero-tolerance for mediocre and half-baked hatches. When you have cars like the Toyota Yaris and Honda Fit, not to mention Ford’s new Fiesta, you better cross over to the battle field with weapons that can destroy.

The next gen Aveo U-VA/Aveo sedan will use the 300 Series platform (same as Beat, Cruze). You don’t have to look hard to understand styling cues will carry over from those two.

Renault’s next generation Clio, speculated to be manufactured at the Renault-Nissan plant in Oragadam, Chennai, will use a dual clutch mechanism, reports Autocar UK.

The twin clutch mechanism, weighs 20kg more than the conventional transmission but will be fun to drive and offer better fuel efficiency. The twin-clutch box is currently used only on the Megane, which is a premium hatchback.

Interestingly, Auto Express reports that Nissan’s Micra will also adopt the same gearbox at a later date.

What looks like an over-sized shopping cart is actually a wireframe Nissan Micra. This wireframe Nissan Micra was spotted at the pavilion of the Oberon Mall in Cochin, Kerala.

Nissan has always been low-profile ever since it entered the Indian market. But now Nissan needs some exposure and should reach the masses, with their new small car Micra to be launched officially next month. The wireframe Nissan Micra is a complex architecture of metal tubes with chrome Nissan logos at the front and back.

Nissan’s novel way of kindling the interest of passerby’s worked well as a number of people inquired the promoters about the wireframe and were surprised to know it was an artistic representation of Nissan’s new small car Micra to be launched tentatively on July 14, 2010.

Nissan succeeded in catching the attention of the public and Nissan would be traveling across all major cities displaying the wifreframe Micra to create brand awareness before the Micra’s official launch.

With novel campaigns like these and roping in Bollywood star Ranbir Kapoor as their brand ambassador, Nissan is leaving no stone unturned to ensure the success of the Micra.

The wireframe Nissan Micra is the brainchild of Faisal Nensey, owner of ‘Executive Modcar Trendz’, a car modification firm in Mumbai. Faisal and his team took about 4000 hours and 208 kgs of steel rods to complete the wireframe Micra. Whats astonishing is that, they built the model with just photos of the Micra for reference.

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Click HERE to see the 1.5 lakh rupee Lamborghini
Click HERE to see the 1.5 lakh rupee Lamborghini
Click HERE to see the 1.5 lakh rupee Lamborghini

Even after the Mitusbishi Lancer has almost gone off the shelves of the showrooms, one particular Lancer simply wouldn’t go off its owner’s heart. That is why he has gone to great extents to painstakingly modify his ride into the mean machine you can see in the picture above.

Modifying a car requires immense dedication and attention to detail. And of course a very deep pocket. The car has been given a major revamp to make this seventh generation mundane Lancer challenge the soon to be launched Lancer Evo X?

This featured Lancer has been completely modded under the hood, over the hood, inside, outside and pretty much every side that the car has. The result is a terrific machine which looks more like the iconic Godzilla (last gen Nissan GT-R) than a showy modded Lancer.

The car’s engine has been given new manifolds, headers, and a K & N Performance air-filter to boost performance. The exteriors of the car have been done up very well with sporty bumper up front and back and a very glossy black paint job. The yellow strip which runs on the side exudes some understated sportiness without being brash.

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The Micra is a class-defining product and I am particularly excited, as it has been designed for city driving. It boasts of many features that are first in its class. I am confident that this product will redefine mobility for many in India. I look forward to an exciting journey with them.

Bollywood hero Ranbir Kapoor noted when Nissan introduced him as their brand ambassador in India, in Mumbai this afternoon.

The new Nissan Micra supermini due to go on sale in the Europe in November, 2010 is unlikely to score the ‘esteemed’ 5-star Euro NCAP rating. The 2011 Nissan Micra would most probably settle with a 4-star rating.

The reason for the Nissan Micra’s inability to get the 5th star is because of the revised crash safety scoring system by Euro NCAP for 2010. As per the new norms only a vehicle with stability control as standard on most of its versions would get a Euro NCAP 5.

The latest Nissan Micra has been designed mostly for the developing markets unlike its predecessor, so the focus of the new Micra is more on simplicity, functionality and low production and running costs.

Vincent Cobee, Project Director for the new Nissan Micra -

We want to be competitive on safety, but to achieve the new five-star rating becomes outrageous. We are making no definitive statement on the rating we expect, but let us say that three stars would not put us in the right competitive set.

Does the fifth star really matter for the Indians? No, not at all. Even if Nissan goes all the way to get the stability control on the Micras and get a Euro NCAP 5-star, the Indian version would still come with the basic safety features- just two front airbags and ABS (that too only in the end version), while side curtain airbags, stability control would be ignored for the Indian market.

So a Euro NCAP 5-star on the European versions of a car doesn’t really help improve the safety standards of the same car sold in India.

Lets take the ‘uber-cool’ Hyundai i20 for example. Hyundai is aggressively marketing as a Euro NCAP 5-star rated car and many i20s have a ‘Euro NCAP 5-star’ sticker on the rear windscreen. But the specs of the car sold here in India would qualify only for a 4-star rating because there is no stability control and side curtain airbags are available only in the top-end variant. So the Indian i20 isn’t a ‘Euro NCAP 5-star rated’ car.

It is time for the Indian consumers to wake up and question companies’ shrewd marketing strategies. Or at least people should not believe the lies they are selling in the name of marketing.

An eagle eyed car aficionado in Hungary has caught the 2011 Suzuki Swift with no camouflage while it was being transported in a hauler. The vehicles, stacked tightly, can be easily mistaken for the current generation Swift, if not for the flab-y bumper and placement of badges.

Hardly a few hours ago, we posted a video of two 2011 Swifts testing somewhere in Europe.

Suzuki’s Hungarian plant in the town of Esztergom, about 60 km north of Budapest will manufacture the new Swift for European customers. We expect the new Swift to debut in India next year.

The undisguised new generation Suzuki Swift is a design evolution of the current model. On first glance, the new Swift seems to have put on body mass. Its rear tail lamp is much like the existing car, except for the transparent patch over the indicator bulb.

Another noticeable change is the shape of the rear window. The four door model snapped here has the same rear window design as the existing 3-door model (above). The stop light on the bumper has slipped further down. The rear wiper and windshield appears to have been carried over. The “Swift” font style and size is different, if you look closely.

No head-on shots are available at the moment. but we have a photoshopped image with the Kizashi-nose stuck to the new Swift’s front-end that’ll give you a rough idea.

The new Suzuki Swift could be unveiled officially on Thursday (June 10). Stay tuned for more.