This article is purely speculative. The HA could end up on the market during this festive season and these details will be clearer as we draw closer to D-Day.
It is no secret that Hyundai is aspiring to eat into Maruti’s market share one step at a time. They have three sub-4 meter long hatchbacks and the fourth is completing the final leg of development as we write this. IndianAutosBlog.com has brought you a close-up spy shot of the HA’s rear and today we’re presenting some more details of the Alto challenger.
This is an IndianAutosBlog.com exclusive -
1) The top-end HA will come with beige interiors, air conditioning (4 speed) and power steering including a two tone dashboard.
2) The material quality, fit and finish will be in the i10 territory. Hyundai HA could have class leading interiors. It has not opted for the centrally mounted instrument cluster.
3) The dash has a tray mounted above the glovebox, like the Figo, to store nick-nacks.
4) The top-end model, like the i20, will have CD/MP3/USB playing capability. The buttons will be arranged in a V shape and finished in grayish silver. This is a segment first.
5) The air conditioning control knobs will be a dial type (read like i20). Hyundai has not opted for the twist type found on the Santro.
6) Unlike the i10, the HA will have height adjustable head rests for front seats and integrated head rests on the rear.
7) Coming to the instrument cluster, it will be a three-dial layout with the speedo in the center, engine temperature on the left and fuel quantity on the right. Apart from the speedo, both dials (or read outs) will be digital.
Unlike the Tata Nano, HA will have two windshield wipers at the front.
9) Like the i20, HA could have an EPS for better fuel efficiency.
10) It will sport the i10′s steering wheel which is carried over to lower i20 variants.
11) Like the Ford Figo, the front windows will be electrically powered. The rear windows will have to be manually operated on all variants.
12) The angle of the rear windshield will generate a wee bit of extra boot volume.
13) The junior i10 could debut by the end of October.
The HA has all ingredients to be a killer product and is better than Santro in every department. Surely this massive effort to dethrone the Alto one unit at a time is exciting news for the Hyundai fans.
What are your thoughts on the Hyundai HA?
Having spied the Nissan Sunny/V-Platform/Global sedan almost a dozen times around Chennai, and scratching our heads on how to refer to it, Nissan India is here to help. They will put a full stop to the confusion by reveling the sedan’s name in Mumbai on Wednesday.
The event will graced by Mr. Kiminobu Tokuyama, Managing Director & CEO, NMIPL and Mr. Dinesh Jain, CEO, HAI.
We’ve already put out a speculative piece on the sedan which could arrive next month at a starting price of 6.8 lakh rupees.
Bajaj holds the rights to the the name Sunny in India while Maruti has already used Versa. The former is the vehicle’s branding in China while the latter is used in America. Nissan could use the Almera in other regions, but we’ll have to find out what Nissan India has planned.
What will Nissan call the sedan? Almera? March? Altima?
At IAB, we believe in busting rumors that are floating around the market so that the car buyer can make an informed decision.
One such rumor is the speculated facelifted Captiva for the Indian market. The Chevrolet Captiva was launched in India two years back and the sales of this soft roader have started to bottom out at 150 units per month.
At Paris motor show 2010, Chevrolet displayed the 2012 Captiva that would replace the current Captiva in the respective markets. The 2012 Captiva adopted a new front fascia with a range of enhancements to the interior, engines and transmissions. Considering the existing sales were dwindling, the product is a CBU and there is already a new model in the portfolio, it fueled speculation that there is a new Captiva coming this Diwali.
IndianAutosBlog.com caught up with the Director of Sales for GM India Vikas Jain recently and asked him about the new Captiva.
Director of Sales for GM India Vikas Jain to IndianAutosBlog.com -
We have enough demand for the Captiva and we are still not able to meet the current demand. So we will not be launching the facelifted Captiva this year. GM India will completely focus on volumes of 2011. The Captiva segment as such doesn’t align with that strategy
GM plans to become a volumes player in India in the coming year. They have launched the Beat Diesel and have an ambitious target of 7,500 units (both petrol and diesel) for each month of the year 2011. Together with the Spark and the U-VA, they want to crack 10,000 units of hatchbacks sold every month.
Furthermore, there are no plans to manufacture the Captiva in India or assemble it. It will continue to remain a CBU.
Anyone disappointed?
The Ford Fiesta is celebrating its 35th birthday. More than 15 million units of the iconic compact car have rolled out of production lines around the world and here in India, the new generation model in the sedan outfit, was presented last month.
The Fiesta is in its sixth generation and is showing no signs of a mid-life crisis with sharp styling and benchmark handling. The fuel efficiency is at its peak as well, the class leading figure here in India reflects its not only about fancy wheels, muscular styling and funky lamps.
Over a million examples of the latest generation model have been made around the globe.
Click through to read about the Fiesta in Ford’s words.
Struggling to match up with the existing competition, Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche has called for war on the rivals BMW and Audi. In the recent years, Mercedes Benz has been constantly outsmarted by the fellow German rivals globally in terms of sales as well as product innovation.
If it’s product innovation, BMW certainly takes the cake. The company from Bavaria has managed to create a new segments and innovative products for itself. If it’s marketing and product design, Audi is more successful in these aspects. Where does that leave Mercedes?
Zetsche takes no shame in admitting that the rivals have zoomed passed Mercedes and something needs to be done – hard and fast. He wrote a letter to all Daimler employees motivating them to pull up their socks.
He writes: “Some of our competitors are now growing faster and more profitably than we are. Granted, those are just snapshots in time and should not be overestimated. After all, many of our best new products are yet to come.”
click through to read more
This article is purely speculative. The HA could end up on the market during this festive season and these details will be clearer as we draw closer to D-Day.
