Indian Autos blog

At the Busan Auto Show yesterday, Ssangyong lifted the veil on the Rexton facelift placing a full stop to speculations on the kind or nature of change.

On releasing teasers of the new Rexton a few believed this would be a new generation model. But now we know that’s incorrect.

Nissan plans to build low cost cars under the proposed Datsun brand in the Russian market by utilizing facilities of its Russian partner AvtoVAZ.

Nissan is eying a 10% marketshare in Russia (up from 5.9% presently) and to achieve this goal, the company has to triple its annual sales.

The Toyota Etios has been launched in the South African market and fans of the Japanese brand have shown eagerness and support on the official Facebook page of Toyota SA to see and drive the new arrival.

The Etios is exported from India and at the commencement of exports last month, a senior Toyota SA official said the Etios is positioned as a newcomer’s car. On the other hand, Toyota is also expecting many pensioners to drive the Etios and them to be bought as retirement gifts.

Sources have told IndianAutosBlog.com that Nissan is likely to introduce the Micra facelift late next year. We’re told that Nissan will not drastically change the car’s looks as the curvy shape has created a fan following. Making it a bit aggressive could lead to the creation of the Renault Pulse!

This operation is expected to be a mild mid-life facelift. Nissan may not lend the car a whole new look as it may mess up its personality. Manufacturers hold on to products for about 6-7 years before going to the next generation and the Micra turns three next year.

Our regular reader Kumaran has come to us with snaps of a new Kia Picanto (running under the name Kia Morning in Korea) test mule that had no camouflaging or masking of its badges.

A couple of examples of the Kia Picanto have been brought to India, according to our sources, to test out compact petrol engines expected to go into future mini cars like the next generation i10.

We recently filed a report stating that Hyundai is gunning for a pre-festive season launch for the Elantra. We have reason to believe the launch will be conducted a lot sooner as sources have told Indian Autos Blog that trial production of the Hyundai Elantra will soon be underway at the Chennai plant.

Hyundai has not issued a statement on this development as they never speak about an upcoming launch. In the Elantra’s case, Hyundai has sort of spilled the beans by bringing the model to the Delhi Auto Expo. The Elantra is a CKD import from Korea with nil level of localization.

Audi India is running an innovative online campaign as part of its efforts to the launch the S4 model. We can’t call it a launch as Audi is asking its Facebook fans if the S4 can be launched in the Indian market.

All you’ll have to do is tag yourself to the image and a pixel hiding the car is unlocked. Once all pixels are unlocked, a decision will be made by the company.

Terrified by the fuel price hike To avoid being snapped by auto aficionados (pun unintended) test mules of the Bajaj RE60 were spotted being transported on a truck.

Bajaj is likely to begin testing of the RE60 in Pune in the coming weeks. The RE60 is falsely conceived as a competitor to the Tata Nano and comparisons are flying about in the media that thrash the RE60′s inability to match up to the lofty standards set by the similarly-priced Nano.