A fully loaded Chevrolet Beat is what Chile terms as the Chevrolet Spark GT. This recent promotional video released by General Motors features a peppy sound track and visuals bringing out the cool and youthful character of GM’s smaller product in its present portfolio. The Spark GT comes with defogger, driver’s airbag, an MP3 music system with USB input, a height adjustable steering wheel and fog lamps.
Archive for July, 2010
We believe these two share much DNA, but they have somewhat different characters. Range Rovers are luxurious and can command a premium; Land Rovers have a more practical toughness about them. They’ll always be related, but the two brands can go in slightly different directions.
Tata Motors Group boss Carl-Peter Forster talking to Autocar India about the thickening line between Land Rover and Range Rover models.
General Motors India has sold 3,415 units of the Chevrolet Beat in June. The demand for the Beat has been impressive, and it has to remembered that the diesel variant is not yet placed on the market.
GM’s sales chart last month reads a happy picture. It sold 9,539 units in June 2010 against 4,492 units in June 2009. It sold 3,415 units of Chevrolet Beat, 2,911 units of the Chevrolet Spark, 773 units of the Chevrolet Cruze, 1,423 units of the Chevrolet Tavera, 398 Units of Chevrolet Aveo, 387 units of Chevrolet Aveo U-VA, 139 units of the Chevrolet Captiva and 93 units of Chevrolet Optra.
click through to read the press release. Special credit to Chandan for nominating this story!
Mercedes Benz recently achieved the milestone of having produced 1 million (yeah! 1 000 000!) V6 engines at its Berlin facility. The Berlin factory is the oldest factory of the Daimler group.
Thomas Uhr, Plant Manager -
Although this is the oldest plant in the Daimler Group in historical terms, the magnificent enthusiasm and commitment of our workforce has kept it young and dynamic.
To celebrate this event Mercedes Benz had the children from their plant’s creche to paint a papier-mache wall which was built for the 1 millionth engine can crash out of it as it comes out of its production line.
The V6 engines on the Mercedes Benz E-Class offered in India, the 350 CGI petrol and the 350 CDI diesel are all produce at this facility in Berlin. It is to be noted that Mercedes Benz was one of the first luxury car makers to introduce the V6 engine into India.
Mercedes Benz also stated that it would begin producing a V12 engine with an electric motor integrated to its transmission at this facility soon.
Hyundai could soon begin selling the new Hyundai Avante (Elantra) to India. The Avante will sit between the new Verna RB and the Sonata YF, just like it does in South Korea, where its premiere was conducted a few weeks ago and shortly go on sale.
The Avante is loaded with advanced technology and futuristic styling. Take for example its engine – the 1.6-liter direct injection petrol engine produces 136hp and 166Nm of torque.
The 1.6 litre petrol engine is married to an all new six-speed automatic transmission which also appears on the Santa Fe, another Hyundai that’s traveling to India.
The Avante will have features like HID headlights with LED tail lights. Heated rear seats, puddle lamps and a full-colour TFT LCD display in the instrument cluster are on the feature list.
There is no talk of a diesel variant on the Avante which the competition in India is hurriedly preparing. The segment leader Chevrolet Cruze is available only in diesel and the Corolla Altis will get one this month. The Skoda Laura enjoys its company already and only the Honda Civic has missed out.
The title explains our intention. Have you come across something interesting today that you think will fit perfectly on Indian Autos Blog? Have you read an interesting article? Have you seen spyshots posted on another blog? Have you spotted something today on the road which will be of interest to us?
Send in your nominations to notjustshrawan (at) gmail.com
If we post your suggestion/entry, we will give full credit to you!
Toyota Kirloskar Motor in a press release issued yesterday stated that it will reopen Fortuner bookings from July 1. The company had not been accepting any bookings from January after several thousand customers had put in their reservations.
Mr. Sandeep Singh, Deputy Managing Director-Marketing -
We would like to thank our customers for the extremely encouraging response till date. The resounding success of the Fortuner in India also meant a backlog of customer orders and high waiting periods. We have now increased the production of the vehicle to more than 950 units to clear the present backlog of less than 4000 customer orders by this September. We are happy to reopen the bookings from the 1st of July for a limited period, and will start deliveries of the vehicle from October until December 2010.
Launched back in August 2009, the Fortuner has surpassed all expectations. 8,500 vehicles have been delivered to customers and production, which was at 500 units per month, has been boosted to 950 following the response.
click through to read the press release
