Eying a big potential for luxury bikes in India, where tastes are changing from mass-market machines to high-end bikes, Honda and Bajaj are looking at launching new sportsbikes in the country in the next couple of months.

There had been a sudden surge in the number of International Sportsbikes brands entering the Indian market, over the past two years. Initially the trend was set by Kinetic with the launch of the 250cc, v-twin-powered Hyosung Comet in India back in 2005. Then it was Yamaha, which launched the Yamaha R1 in India and the MT-01 cruiser in 2007. Soon later followed by the Italian motorcycle giant Ducati, who launched an array of superbikes costing up to almost 50 lakhs, and finally Suzuki joined the troop in late-2008, with its Hayabusa superbike and the Intruder cruiser.

AUTOMOBILE Magazine, one of America’s leading automotive publications, recently announced the winners of its 2009 AUTOMOBILE Magazine All-Stars Awards.

Each year, the editors of AUTOMOBILE Magazine convene to test, evaluate, and debate the performance, significance, and pure enthusiast appeal of the cars that make the biggest impact. Award winners will be featured in the February issue of AUTOMOBILE Magazine.

Japanese Auto Major Honda has not had the best of time in the past few months. Thanks to a sharp drop in global sales and the frustrating economic slump, Honda had to call it a day on it’s supercar project and painfully had to pull the Formula 1 plug.

So what does one do to get out of this mess? Naturally build cars that will sell in larger numbers and will have a wider reach. Honda earlier announced that it will make an entry level car for India, but that was just about what it said.

Yes ! And Honda insists that this is not the regular change of stickers or addition of more colour options (as Honda has been doing for the past 7 years). Honda is quite serious this time, and people ready to buy the Activa have a very good reason to wait till March 2009. Honda Activa the master piece and sales phenomenon from Honda Motor Cycle India (HMSI) is set to take a rebirth - How cool is that news?

Many of the leading newspapers and blogs reported earlier today that Mexican Billionaire Carlos Slim, the world’s second richest man, had bought the Honda F1 team. But spokesperson of Carlos Slim has issued a statement which clearly conveys that Carlos Slim wasn’t even involved in any talks with the Honda for buying the team. “There is no deal for the Honda team. There is neither agreement nor negotiations,” said the spokesperson. This means Indian Billionaire Vijay Malliya is still in the list of potential owners.

Team chief Ross Brawn said “We have enough funding to get us through to Melbourne and we still have a competitive package.” So whose going to be the next Honda F1 owner according to speculators? Bill Gates?

While Indians are enthusiastically awaiting the Honda Jazz, Honda is busy developing the hybrid version of this sought-after hatchback for international markets, where it will be introduced by 2010.

The Jazz hybrid will be constructed utilizing the same mechanicals as the Honda Insight, which is tagged as the most affordable hybrid car by few. The Honda Insight will be announced next month, at the Detroit Motor Show and soon afterwards bookings will commence.

We had Mustangs, Camaros, Ferraris and lots of other special star cars in Hollywood and now things have taken a turn with the debut of Honda’s low-emission eco-friendly Civic Hybrid.

The Honda Civic Hybrid stars alongside Keanu Reeves in the Hollywood blockbuster ‘The Day the Earth Stood Still’ which opened in cinemas across the UK and Ireland on 12 December. So, is Hollywood doing a good job in motivating people to drive economical cars?

So, we have always been expecting to see the Honda Jazz for quite a while now and its still not here in India. Honda has just announced plans to develop an all new small car especially for emerging markets like India.

This small car will be launched in two to three years time to meet demand in emerging economies, Chief Executive Takeo Fukui told a news conference on Wednesday. Expect the car to be shown as a concept in 2009-2010 and then enter production in end 2010-early 2011.

With Yamaha and Suzuki stealing the headlines in the past few months for superbike launches, Honda couldn’t remain silent for long. Hindustan Times reports that the Japanese maker announced it’s CBR1000RR will be launched in this fiscal year (Before 31st March) along with another Superbike with a 800+ cc engine, whose name was not revealed. The two bikes will be sold in exclusive Honda superbike showrooms, which will be set up in four metros in the first phase.

The Honda CBR1000RR is expected to cost 10 lakh and upward and will be directly pitted against the Yamaha YZF-R1 and the Suzuki Hayabusa.

Honda also plans to launch a mass market motorcycle with engine capacity between 100-150 cc. This bike will be a commuter with a frugal engine, similar to the Honda Shine.

Honda is focussing on expanding it’s dealer network to serve the existing customers better. We simply love the idea of exclusive Honda superbike showrooms, something similar to what Bajaj did with probiking shops. We cannot predict which bike Honda is talking about, as there are too many of them in the International Market. Maybe it should be one from the CBR family with a 600 cc engine?-You never know.

Honda recently made news with its massive price-cut on its Civic Hybrid, which was then taken back. Now, Honda plans to hike car prices across models starting from Rs 10,000 upto Rs 1.5 lakh with effect from January next year. The company blames the depreciation of the rupee against dollar and expensive raw materials.