The Logan has tasted massive success. It had a humble beginning. It was called as the “McDonald’s of cars.” It was an inexpensive form of transport designed for the Romanian traders and farmers. It was designed to carry pigs and potatoes as revealed by its designer in an interview few years ago.
The Logan has reached other parts of the world and with the value for money it offers, not many could stay away from it despite its refrigerator looks. In India, the Logan won many hearts after its introduction. It offered more rear seat comfort and boot space than the competition. It was very fuel efficient and was a perfect low-cost sedan for our roads.
Over the last one year, the Logan received a facelift in many countries include Russia and Romania. Prosperous sales figures haven’t stopped Dacia/Renault to develop the next generation Logan (code – X52) scheduled for 2012-13.
The 2012 Logan will not be severely low cost like the current model. Features like LED daytime running lights, swept back headlamps, character lines along the doors, a curvy rear-end, engines re-worked for better fuel economy and fewer emissions are being talked about. The rendering shown here is heavily inspired by the Fluence, which is heading to India next year.
Thanks to our friend Marlos Nay Vidal, we’re able to bring you more spy photographs of the Fiat Palio replacement, which we assume is the small car Fiat’s bringing to India in the next two years. Fiat India has confirmed that its small car will have a 1.0-liter petrol engine.
The 2012 Palio has been designed in Italy. Key engineering inputs have arrived from Fiat India’s engineers. The vehicle will be slotted under the Palio, which by then could be phased out of the Indian market.
This will be Fiat’s Palio replacement globally. We are sure Fiat India will avoid using the “Palio” branding. They are trying to distance themselves from the Palio, so we feel they’d give this new model a completely new identity.
The vehicle shown here was spotted near Fiat Brazil’s factory in Betim. Marlos has spotted the heavily camouflaged mules several times in this location where Fiat engineers are testing the different systems on this vehicle.
Marlos, who has seen the car in action, claims the rear seat comfort on the Novo Palio will be good. The roofline doesn’t slope and hence the rear passengers will have ample headroom. Marlos adds Fiat will launch both two and four-door variants.
Interestingly he says the car will not have a conventional radiator grill. The intake will be from the area between the fog lamps.
The headlamps and tail lamps will be miniature versions of the Punto‘s. The door handles on the test mules were from the current Palio. The glass area is more, so occupants will have more light and visibility. The tires, as expected, are skinny.
Click here to see IAB’s earlier rendering of the 2012 Palio
Based on the spyshots that emerged recently from China, we decided to try unmasking Nissan’s next major launch for the Indian market. Nissan’s second offering from the V-Platform, clearly visible from the spyshots, uses several components from the Nissan Micra.
We’re unable to ascertain how the rear of this sedan will look like. The Micra is very rounded and curvy, hence we believe the rear will be more like the Hyundai Verna than say a Ford Fiesta.
The Micra-based sedanwill have a 1.5-liter diesel engine. We are not very sure what Nissan is going to offer for petrol lovers, they could very well use the same 1.2-liter engine tuned for more horsepower. We could also see automatic transmission offered on this model.
The front doors, wheels, wing mirrors, instrument cluster, bonnet and windshield come straight from the Micra’s inventory. According to reports on the internet, the dimensions of the Micra-based sedan are 4200-4390*1690*1490 MM (L*W*H), so expect more rear legroom and a good boot volume.
Should Nissan speak more on this model, we’ll bring it at once on to our front page. Stay tuned!
If you’re asking yourself that question, here’s your answer -
Today on Indian Autos Blog, apart from the regular updates, you’ll get to see
1) Spyshot of VW Golf testing in India
2) Artist drawing of the Nissan Micra-based sedan
3) Spyshots of the Mahindra’s World SUV
4) Details on Mitsubishi’s Eco car that could come to India very soon
5) Fast 5 facts on an interesting topic
6) An interesting statistic of the week
7) Mind-boggling creations of designers and very interesting car-related creations from our international blog
Entry posted on July 27, 2010 by
Shrawan Raja;
Read More on Ford
We’re no wildlife experts and we’ve spent no time in our lives studying birds. We chanced upon this video on youtube where a graceful peacock finds a green Figo disturbing. It tries pecking (in bird’s terms – attacking) the Ford Figo, perhaps in envy?
Is it because of the Ford Figo or is it the peacock’s own reflection?
We are not Ford or Tata and this is how we retain our exclusivity. Having said that, we know that India is primarily a chauffeur-driven market and back in Germany, the company recognizes the fact that very often a customer is not willing to wait long before buying a vehicle.
In an interview with Carwale, Mr. James Bourne, Regional Operational Manager, Porsche Middle East talks about the exclusivity of Porsche cars.
The Nissan Micra-based sedan will be introduced in India next year and here are the first spyshots of the vehicle undergoing real-world testing in China.
The Micra-based sedan or V-Platform sedan, we’re informed, will not just be a Micra will a boot. It will be more like the Honda City-Jazz relationship. The mechanicals will largely stay the same while some of the sheet metal panels and detailing will be different. The quality levels are also expected to be much better. The feature list will be longer, we suppose.
We’re expecting the Micra-based sedan to come with a 1.5-liter diesel engine (lifted from the Renault Logan). We could even see the same 1.2-liter petrol engine tuned for more power and torque on the base variant. What Nissan must try doing is have variants across a wide price band. This means a more powerful petrol engine (perhaps a 1.6-liter petrol?) needs to be brought in.
From the spyshots, we infer that the front doors, wheels, wing mirrors, instrument cluster, bonnet and windshield come from the hatchback’s parts bin.
The dimensions of the vehicle, according to previous reports, are 4200-4390*1690*1490 MM (L*W*H), so expect more rear legroom and decent boot space.
We expect Nissan to offer automatic transmission option. We also believe that the wheelbase will be longer. The vehicle could end up looking like a mini Teana.
