Update – In a late night chat, one of our sources tells us the launch is slated on August 10.
Sent by an anonymous reader, this image confirms that the new generation Mercedes Benz SLK 350 has reached Indian shores. There’s no update available on the launch date or the location of the spotting, but something is cooking at Mercedes India.
Our source tells us the first variant for our market is the SLK350 which comes with a 3.6-liter V6 engine generating 306hp paired to a 7G tronic transmission. Features will include the Magic Sky Control sunroof (a option available on the Vario Roof which turns the roof from transparent to opaque in a click).
The estimated ex-showroom price is 61.99 lakh rupees.
The new SLK is a retractable hardtop. Sharing similarities with the Mercedes Benz SLS, it doesn’t look a world apart from its predecessors. Make no mistake, it will not sell by the hundreds in India. There will be a handful of buyers for it but the model’s objective is to build the brand and show India a different or unique Mercedes Benz. It will make people draw out their mobile phones to click their next wallpaper.
Going by the pictures, red and black colors will be available.
If celebrities and famous socialites are seen in the SLK 350, it wins Mercedes Benz fame and publicity.
Exotic car photographer and founder of Supercars & Exotics In India Suraj Arumugam has posted high quality spy shots of the new Audi Q3 in Mumbai. Last week IndianAutosBlog.com brought readers two sets of images (Motorbeam’s pics and OnCars’ pics) of the same vehicle testing in Mumbai. It even prompted our friends at Motoroids.com to speculate if an early launch is on the cards.
Audi has gone on record that an early 2012 launch is their plan, but seeing the unshakable BMW X1 having the entire segment to itself could have triggered the panic button at the Audi India office.
What’s expected under the hood of Audi Q3?
The 2.0-liter TDI from the VW Jetta/Passat, Skoda Laura/Superb will sit under the Q3′s hood sending at least 140PS to the rear wheels. This should be paired to a 7-speed DSG. The 2.0-liter TFSI is the engine for the petrol lover sending not less than 170PS to the rear wheels. Audi hasn’t sold a car under 30 lakh rupees in India, but that shouldn’t stop them from pricing the Q3 at 30 lakh rupees.
It is a good idea for Audi to have a special screening of the Q3 before the Auto Expo as chances are it might get lost in the crowd. Unless Audi’s planning a (shock) price announcement at the Auto Expo, the Q3 will not draw the eyeballs it will on other days.
Agree with me?
click through to see three high quality Q3 pics
If you remember correctly IndianAutosBlog.com was the first website to bring you brief details on the new Jetta. Prior to this scoop, we revealed that the Indian Jetta, unlike the bigger Passat, will not come in BlueMotion avatar. Between these two posts, we aired a set of spy shots sent in by our reader Venkatesh Shreyas in Karnataka while the Jetta was in testing mode. It’s fair to say that IAB has kept its readers abreast with developments surrounding the new Jetta.
Left – Jetta Trendline spec; Right – Jetta Highline specs
Today we have the full monty – the variants, powertrain specifications and equipment.
Above – Jetta Comfortline specs
click through to read more
Jaguar Land Rover, now a Tata Motors owned company, is planning to shift gears at the Frankfurt Motor show. Each brand is planning to bring something new at the motorshow. More so, each company will put these models in production in the near future.
Let’s start with Jaguar. Jaguar is expected to reveal a new sports car in concept. Rumor has it that it will be a small sport car below the XK. It will be the show stopper from Jaguar and will directly compete against the Porsche Boxter.
The car could be potentially named the XE and will be powered by V6 petrol engines, boosted by turbochargers. However, there could also be a XF station wagon that the market is waiting for since a long time. Only time will tell what is this secret leaping cat.
Let’s move on to Land Rover. This brand is even more ambitious than its sister. Land Rover is planning to display a concept that will be the modern day Defender.
The current Defender dates to 1983 and is a direct descendant of the original 1948 Land Rover Series. So you can imagine how desperately the brand needs to rejig the Defender. The new Defender could be based in the LR3 chassis. The company wants the new defender to score a bigger slice of the utility market.
Back home, there are good chances that the XE will be launched considering its bigger sister XK is already in the market. However, Tata Motors is mum about bring the Defender brand in India.
Bad news for Honda Fans. If you tune into IAB regularly, you must be well aware that the 2012 Honda Civic is out of the bag. And much as we hate to say it, it is not a looker as its predecessor. The extremely conservative design of the Civic just couldn’t match the mean and aggressive design language of the new Hyundai Elantra that is competes with.
But now the knife is one inch closer to the Civic because Consumer Reports – an organization that tests cars and rates them in the US – has reported that the new Honda Civic is not at par with the competitors and falls short of expectations. The previous generations of the Honda Civic have scored very high in ratings published by Consumer Reports. But the new LX model scored second-to-last in its new ratings of 12 small sedans.
click Continue to read more
The day before yesterday, Nissan India unveiled the Micra sedan for India and christened it Sunny. Now, Nissan India has revealed that it plans to triple its sales for this year with the help of Sunny. Currently, Nissan sells the Micra, X-Trail, Teana and the 370Z in India. With Sunny in its stable, Nissan would have two high volumes products.
Obviously, the growth cannot be driven by 370Z or X trail because they are very niche products.
Kiminobu Tokuyama, managing director of Nissan Motor India -
This fiscal year we have a very aggressive plan to even triple sales which will be reaching about 40,000. Sunny will make a big contribution.
With aggressive growth plans, the company has also chalked out export targets. The company plans to export components worth US$100m out of India to its global manufacturing facilities. The manufacturing capacity in Chennai will also be doubled to 400,000 a year.
Of course, the dealership network will also be expanded from the current 40 to a 100 strong network by the end of 2012.
Do you think that this is way to aggressive strategy considering in the last fiscal year the company sold only 13,000 cars?
Sources with direct knowledge on the matter have told IndianAutosBlog.com that Tata Motors will launch the Indica Vista facelift on the 22nd of this month.
The Vista has been around for three years now and variants, apart from the addition of Vista 90, have remained largely the same. Sales of the product has been dull and the facelift with a slight price revision, Tata hopes, can make the Vista a better vehicle.
The new Vista will have cosmetic changes such as
- Twin barrel lamps from the Manza
- Chrome slabs between the lights (again from Manza)
- Chrome surround on the fog lamps
- New color option, perhaps the yellow from the Auto Expo Indica Vista Sport concept
- Steering-mounted audio controls
- Powered outside mirrors
A shakedown in the variant names will result in LS, VX and ZX. The ZX is the top-end model with alloy wheels. Engines will be retained and the 1.4 TDI model will not be upgraded to meet BS4 norms. Tata Motors uses Fiat’s 1.3-liter Multi-jet and 1.2/1.4-liter SAFIRE engines in BS4 cities.
The Vista facelift is to prepare the Tata car for fresh competition which arrive in the form of Etios Liva, Honda Brio and more importantly the new Swift with new features. Bluetooth pairing facility and steering-mounted controls are features that have been added to the new Swift. Tata is often seen publishing Vista ads on newspapers drawing one-sided feature wise comparisons with the Swift.
Will these features along with the Manza’s front-end give the Vista a new lease of life?
The GM-Wuling HongTu/N200 was the second car spied by Mr Sidh and posted on CarWale.com/Auto Bild. The HongTu is the second product from the SAIC stable GM India will introduce. GM has to work out a different name for the EECO slayer. Will they call it Sunshine? How will the Nissan Sunny marketing team react to that?
This vehicle is not new to IndianAutosBlog.com readers as our Gujarat based IAB fan Sagar Parikh photographed this vehicle on test a while back. It is equipped with disc brakes at the front and drums at the rear. The mules on test indicate that General Motors will produce luxury variants for passenger application along with cargo variants. Maruti follows a similar strategy branding the load-carrying model as EECO Flexi and Omni Cargo.
click Continue to view interior spy shot
