Some of the world’s smallest cars and bikes, small in terms of both size and engine capacity are found right here in India. We are not believers of the line ‘the more the better’ in any from unless it’s about say gas mileage.
If you go back to the late 90′s, 800cc was adequate and anything above that was a luxury and sometimes unnecessary.
In case of bikes, more than 70% of the commuters make do with 100cc and you enter the Premium or Sports category once you cross the 150cc barrier. Even today the scenario with bikes hasn’t changed by much.
Sources tell IndianAutosBlog.com that the country’s second largest car manufacturer Hyundai plans to bring back the 800cc car in late October.
You have already seen spy pics along with the lowdown on the interiors. To help out our existing readers, we’ll go through the details of the Hyundai HA again -
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The 2012 BMW 3 Series has been captured on camera as it was driven on public roads during its advertisement filming. The ad shooting was set in Spain while an eagle eyed BMW fan snapped it, from a height, captured the uncamouflaged vehicle.
The design ideology is clearly copied from the 5 Series. If not for some character lines, the new BMW 3 Series (codename – F30) will be termed as a minimized 5 Series.
The ad film car has features like corona rings with full LED treatment. The current 3 Series lacks the dramatic styling or the panache of the replacement you see here. This is a step forward for BMW.
Until the all-new C-Class and the next generation A4 arrive in the market a few years down the line, the BMW 3 Series will have the freshest interior and exterior. We believe this will be the biggest selling point.
BMW also plans to improve rear seat comfort by lengthening the wheelbase and providing better seats. The 3 Series is not your car for 8 hour journeys but the improvement is necessary if the car wants to make inroads in countries like India where back seat travel is frequent.
Will BMW India bring in the 3 Series long wheelbase edition? That will make the ultimate corporate edition model for tourism companies and hotels.
The new 3 Series has generation firsts too. It will feature indicators on the outside mirrors.
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At the Beat Diesel press conference, IndianAutosBlog.com asked the GM India management about their plans for the later half of the year. The management responded that GM India wants to become a key volumes player in India. In order to achieve that goal, a distinct plan has been established – to tap the semi urban and rural markets to maximize volumes with affordable cars.
If I am honest this is really a no-brainer considering Maruti Suzuki has already tried this strategy and it has worked for them. The tendency to think alike comes due to two important reasons – car sales in metro regions have shown a considerable drop owing to rising interest rates and many people in the rural areas don’t opt in for car loans and hence are less affected by interest rates fluctuations.
The company currently has 250 sales outlets and is planning to inaugurate another 50 by this year end. GM India currently sells 60 percent of its cars in the urban areas. With the new strategy the company wants to sell 70 percent of its cars in the rural areas. That is a paradigm shift in sales distribution.
GM plans to get there with two low cost vans, a mini lorry and affordable passenger cars. These vehicles will be brought in from China and fitted with diesel engines.
The company has set a target of 1.4 lakh units this year as compared to 1.1 lakh units last year. Rural areas will play a key role in making sure that GM India achieves its target.
As Frankfurt Motorshow draws closer, Skoda India’s C-Segment Fabia sedan program has shifted into high gear. Although the Skoda Fabia sedan will use the hatchback’s underpinnings, it does not look like a ‘Bolt-on’ Job like the Swift Dzire.
The skin of the Skoda Fabia sedan is based on the VW Vento which in turn is based on the Polo. However, just like the Vento, the Skoda sedan will feature a streamlined body. Because the wheelbase is extended, we can expect more rear legroom and boot space in the sedan.
The front of the car features somewhat Skoda Fabia’s Leaf like head lamps but a bit bigger. It will feature Skoda’s distinct bulge on the center on the bonnet within which the new logo would sit. Because this Skoda sedan is not inspired by the Vision D concept, we can expect the familiar Skoda grill as well. The rear of the car is heavily inspired by the current Skoda Laura.
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Force Motors has announced the launch date of One – It’s August 19.
Force One will be Force Motors’ first foray in the personal car segment. The company is betting big on Force One, and expecting it to do well, it has planned a family van for 2012.
The Force One has been under testing for a year now. Essentially Force Motors has leveraged on its Daimler connections to complete this project. The Force One uses Daimler’s CRDI engine with the capacity of 2.2L and an output of 140 PS @3800 RPM along with 315Nm@1600-2400rpm. The engine will be mated to a manual transmission – G 32/5 from Daimler to be precise.
The same engine is offered on the Mercedes C-Class model with two different outputs.
Force One will boast supreme handling skills because its suspension is fine tuned by Lotus Engineering – the same company that worked on Tata Aria and Mahindra Scorpio.
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The next big launch from BMW India is going to be the BMW X3 on 25th August in Pune. The X3 has been under testing in India for quite sometime now.
We have seen test vehicles earlier this year with minimal camouflage around Chennai. The X3 will take on the Audi Q5, Volvo XC60 and Land Rover Freelander2. We’ve heard that it will be priced under the Audi Q5. BMW will play the price card with the X3 as well.
Like the BMW X1, the X3 was also the segment first by BMW. It was presented as a concept at the Detroit Auto Show in 2003. Like the X1, the X3 is based on the 3 Series platform but has a bigger road presence than the X1.
Codenamed the F25, the 2011 BMW X3 has been majorly improved over the previous generation model.
The old X3 was a bit of a boredom with those silly spectacle headlamps. The new X3 gets a significantly new front fascia which is more aerodynamic and pleasing to the eye. You get the typical chrome finished kidney grill at the front with corona rings headlamps.
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July has been a dull and damp month for car sales in India. Rising petrol prices combined by rising interest rates made sure that the Indian market met with a decline of 16% as compared to July last year.
Every manufacturer took a hit on their sales figures. Of course, the bigger players got hurt more than the smaller ones. Maruti Suzuki, the largest player in India in India was hurt quite badly.
Maruti Suzuki sold only 75,300 vehicles in July compared with 100,857 units a year earlier. Because of the decline in sales the company’s dealers had an inventory pile up leading to a lot of funds being stuck in operating cost.
Maruti Suzuki finally decided to cut the production of its high volumes models such as Alto, WagonR, Estilo and Ritz to rationalize the inventory. To keep the inventory at normal levels, Maruti has tweaked production plans.
This is the highest drop in car sales in the last two and a half years. However, Maruti Suzuki believes that this is only a short term decline and the demand will catch up in the festive month of September. The company has enough inventories to cope up with the festive demand.
Maruti has lined up three products – Swift, Swift Dzire and R3 MPV for the next six months for introduction.
Weight loss seems to be the ‘in’ thing these days. Everyone is running around to their nutritionists and dieticians to make sure that they are slim and trim. Well cars are no different to humans. Case in point, Audi is planning to put the next generation Q5 and Q7 on some serious weight loss program.
The 2 crossovers from Audi – Q5 and Q7 have been the cherry of the eye for the German czar. Globally, the company sold and eye popping 155,000 Q5s along with 47,700 Q7s. Even though these models are highly successful the company is working on new models for the Q5 and Q7 and it is planning to reduce some serious flab from these fat boys.
The Q5 will shed some serious weight – 220 pounds to be precise and if you think that’s astonishing, the Q7 is set to lose 650 pounds thanks to a new aluminum chassis. Less weight means for power per tone and better fuel economy. That not all!
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Some of the world’s smallest cars and bikes, small in terms of both size and engine capacity are found right here in India. We are not believers of the line ‘the more the better’ in any from unless it’s about say gas mileage.
