Almost all of the major players have doubled their investment so as to market their products via sites like these. Manufacturers also believe social media will play crucial role for brand-building in the coming years.

A senior marketing official of a top auto manufacturer was heard saying “You cannot avoid social media anymore, with increased sales of smart-phones and internet penetration all over the country, no marketer can afford to ignore it..”

The inset shows Skoda promoting its Fabia through Facebook in Europe. The innovative campaign discounted the price of the car based on the number of likes the page received.

It’s not just Maruti Suzuki or Mahindra which are working on this new marketing mantra. Hyundai & Tata Motors have reportedly doubled their spending on digital media as well.

You can see each of the cars have their separate page for advertisement on these sites. The Ritz and the Alto alone have a massive followers list of 9.5 lacs on Facebook. And from here the count will only increase.

While this type of marketing attracts a huge chunk of social media users towards these cars, it will also help the present owners share their miseries and displeasure from the brand making it an efficient closed-loop system for the manufacturers.

[Source - IBNlive.in.com]

By Shivank Bhatt

The sensational Parx supercar parade is an event that every petrolhead Mumbaikar (like moi) wait for with bated breath. Conceived in 2009, the idea of the event is to get a common man acquainted with these super expensive beauties not in some dreary auto show, but right on the streets where they belong. We had a blast last year around and we were expecting the same this time. Boy, were we in for a surprise!

The Super Car Club (SSC) has definitely grown leaps and bound since its inception. The previous edition saw a measly 40 odd supercars running the streets. This time, there were more than a 100 cars (both official and unofficial) hitting the streets of Mumbai in all their glory. There were Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Porsches, Bentleys, Rolls Royces, BMWs, Mercedeses, Aston Martins and every other brand that you possibly imagine.

After a safety briefing, the convoy was flagged off by none other than his highness – Valentino Balboni – Former chief test pilot of Lamborghini. Oh yes, the man who has tested almost 80% of the Lamborghinis on roads graced us with his presence.

After the flag off, the venue came alive to the sound of roaring V12s and V8s. The distinct smell of horse dung at the race course was completely masked by fragrance of burning rubber and clutch plates. All 100 cars fired up simultaneously and headed to the streets. The convoy paraded the arterial streets of Mumbai covering the Bandra-Worli sea link, Western Express Highway until Kalina before returning to the venue for prize distribution.

When it comes to putting up a fantastic show, trust the Supercars. The streets were alive to the mechanical symphonies of engines and exhaust notes. Everywhere the convoy headed there were hoards of people cheering for them. I am pleasantly surprised to see such huge masses of crowds turning out to experience these beauties. With the advent of Retweets and Facebook shares, young India understand these cars and brands better than their predecessors.

Uncles, Aunties, Chunnu Munnus, College students and even the working class admired these sensational pieces of engineering ripping through the streets of Mumbai. In fact, everywhere the convoy headed, they slowed the traffic right down. But don’t think of it as a rant, it is just a part and parcel of what the Supercars are capable off. Mumbai Police surely did their part of supporting the Parade and managing the traffic bottlenecks.

Overall, as always, the Parx Supercar parade did not disappoint even one bit. It was exciting, sensational and mind boggling orgy of Supercars and their owners, Petroheads and soon-to-be Petroheads. And I got to meet by childhood hero – Valentino Balboni. That’s definitely a thumbs up!

Of course you want to see more images, we know that. Do checkout our slideshow for more pictures of supercars.

2012 Parx Supercar parade in Mumbai

Can’t see the slideshow? Head to our Flickr page right away!

2011 by far is the best year in terms of subscribers, scoop count, traffic, recognition, etc. We’re willing to work harder this year to make 2011 our second best year. In 2012 we’ll push for more scoops, exclusives, spyshots, reviews and feature articles so that you don’t have to look anywhere to satisfy your cravings for cars.

Image by Eagle FX

As you may have assumed, we’re gearing up for the Delhi Auto Expo and rolling out regular updates even on this grand new year weekend (someone wrote to me that this was a dream job, whose dream I ask?!).

I have to say that the spyshots, renderings and the build up to the Auto Expo is keeping us warm and we’ve stacked up some terrific content for New Year’s Day such as

• Mahindra Xylo facelift – IAB’s edition
• Peugeot 508 – Spied again!
• Another Chinese manufacturer knocking on Indian doors? – We have the scoop shots
• Collection of photographs of the Godzilla from the Nissan Innovation Drive
• More announcements from companies on their Auto Expo pavilions

We owe to keep our sister sites indianmotosblog.com and steeringnews.com, which recently received a makeover, updated regularly in 2012 so you know what’s happening to our favorite foreign cars and two-wheelers.

If you haven’t subscribed to IndianAutosBlog.com on its new social media channels, you must be kidding me!

Follow us on Twitter – http://twitter.com/indianautos

Follow us on FaceBook for exclusive scoop shots – http://facebook.com/IndianAutosBlog

The Agera, made using lightweight materials such as carbon fiber, is priced at a cool 12.5 crore rupees (ex-showroom Delhi) and is easily the best alternative to the Bugatti Veyron available in India for a sum of 16 crore rupees.

The Agera is more than just a fine interplay of speed and horsepower. Nothing represents the essence and meaning of Koenigsegg better than this model.

But if you aren’t interested in anything else, then here you go – A 5-liter twin-turbocharged engine develops 910bhp and 1000Nm making it possible for the 0-60mph sprint to finish in under 3.5 seconds.

The Agera may loose out to the Veyron on top speed figures, but 400kph is frightening fast!

Koenigsegg Agera Image Slideshow

If you cannot view the slideshow above, then head over to the Koenigsegg Agera Flickr Gallery to catch all the images

Being a design house, the company openly admits that the car will be comparable to other supercars like Ferrari and Lamborghini only in terms of design and not in terms of firepower.

Go sportscar concept is an old example from the house of DC

Dilip Chabria, the person responsible for many famous designs and modeling such as Tarzan – the wonder car, Ambyrod and even the Chevrolet Beat concept has big ambitions for this supercar. The car will be assembled in their Pune plant and the deliveries will begin in 2013. Initially, the company will only manufacture 300 units a year. Later, the production capacity will be expanded to 3,000 units annually.

Like all supercars, this DC Design supercar will be mid-engined. A turbocharged V6 petrol engine sourced from Honda will stoke 400 horses when you put your foot down. If you think ‘Yea, that’s pretty alright”, well the car only weighs 1,560 kg. So expect a power to weight ratio of 257 bhp/tone and let’s face it – that’s pretty awesome!

The company planned to call this supercar ‘The Buddh’ after India’s first F1 track. However, the response to this name has been very dull (with all due respect to the circuit, I can imagine why). However, the astonishing part is that this supercar will not have a supercar price tag. It will cost one’s wallet just 30 lakhs to own it.

We can’t wait to see the prototype model and to get behind the wheel. Can you?

Source: BusinessStandard.com

NOTE: Image is of a DC Go and bears no relation to the story!

An ambitious Gokul and team have toiled non-stop from late May to reach fruition. I met Gokul several times during the lead up to the launch and we spent so many evenings discussing online media, eCommerce and visitor behavior.

An avid car enthusiast, Gokul had the confidence in his project to turn down a high paying job offer in a US based automotive company.

Gokul on ZapStore [16 second video]

Here’s a short video I recorded on the sets of the commercial shoot. Gokul talks his mind on the concept of his business. He has no idea I’m uploading this!

ZapStore video commercial – Strip the price [35 seconds]

The third video shows you how to work the website

How to Zap?! – Explanatory video [127 seconds]

Gokul earned an engineering degree from a prestigious Chennai-based university and pursued post graduation in Business Management in Arlington, Texas. His concept is a breakthrough in the online retail domain as customers have consistently purchased MP3 players, mobile phones and accessories at absurdly low prices. Case in point – A Sony 16GB storage device priced at 1,100 rupees was “zapped” by a shopper for 110 rupees yesterday!

I, Gokul (COO of Zapstore) and Balaji Gopalan (CEO of Zapstore) spent many evenings discussing internet marketing

The store, after some rescheduling, went live earlier this month coinciding with the festive season. The Zapping concept promises a low price tag on anything you buy. With every Zap, purchased in bulk through packs, the price of the desired product falls.

Cash on delivery, multiple payment options and live chat support are some of the features customers will find useful. If you have been planning on gifting yourself or loved ones this season, there’s no better place and time to do it – Head to ZapStore.com now!

The team has invested plenty of time, effort and money to get it spot on and we wish them good luck for the future.

And to Gokul to Balaji- Machans, rock on!

So yes, I have driven the SanStorm. Not the most pleasurable moment of my tiny life but still a memorable one nonetheless. After all, it was my first go at some wind-in-your-motoring.

The company is called San Motors and they make only one car called the Storm, hence the name – SanStorm – a two seater, soft-top convertible for a price of little under 6 lakhs.

The SanStorm is not the most refined product or powerful for that matter. It is powered by 1.2L engine from Renault which produces 60PS of power @ 5250 rpm and 94 Nm of torque @ 2500 rpm. The engine is mated to a 4-speed transmission which powers the front wheels.

Now, news comes in from Zigwheels that San Motors is planning an all new Storm with some more…..you guessed it right POWER! The engine will be sourced from Renault (as it always has been) and the body panels will be made in their own factory in Bangalore. The company is also planning to set up a few dealership countrywide to encourage sales.

What are your inputs for the new San Storm?

Source: Zigwheels.com

An unsuspecting IndianAutosBlog.com team uploaded two screen captures of the men-at-work Ford EcoSport micro site on Sunday night. We received the screen grabs and the momentarily working link from our reader Mallik Kslikiri who in his note said he was searching for information on Ford products when he accidentally stumbled on what would become an international sensation.

The site did not reveal any vital information besides the EcoBoost technology and the two images of the unreleased car were tightly cropped.

Brazil’s most happening auto magazine Quatro Rodas picked up IAB’s story.

About 48 hours later hundreds of websites from all corners of the web have used our text and photographs. This isn’t the first time our story is making an international splash. When Renault projected two images of the Koleos facelift for the first time at the Fluence key-handover ceremony and presentation in New Delhi late June this year, little did they know that they would find no use in holding back the rest of the images 24 hours later.

We snapped the short-lived images from sitting on the front row of the media gathering and posted it on the blog for customers on the lookout for a crossover on this side of 30 lakh rupees. The response was truly phenomenal as automotive websites based out Australia, Netherlands, Romania Belgium, USA, Canada, Brazil, Ukraine, China, Italy, Russia, Belgium, Chile, etc used our images with credits. Regarded as the world’s best blog in our category AutoBlog.com and esteemed publications such as Automobile Magazine France picked up our images and ran the story.

Reader contribution has helped IndianAutosBlog.com make a high impact story on many an occasion. Our longstanding fan Arjun Shrie mailed us snaps of the new Honda Civic from a Dubai Honda dealer.  We posted a story and attached information on the changes and how India needs a diesel Civic to launch an assault on Toyota’s camp as the Corolla was emerging as a hands-down winner in the battle of the C+/D-Segment sedan group. Brazilian automotive media, though belated, came on to the story like a pride of lions on fresh meat. Brazil’s big three Noticias Automotivas, Auto Esporte and Car And Driver attacked the story as it was a global model expected to debut in South America the next few months.

Following this we had our reader Sivakorn from Thailand who sent us brochure scans of the City facelift. Hardly hours after posting it, BSMotoring.com showed link love to IAB in their version. Many blogs from South East Asia took to the story briskly and brought many new readers to IAB. We’ve managed to create this effect with many other blog posts this year, the Toyota Land Cruiser facelift posting for example traveled wide and far.

America’s favorite hangout spot for auto aficionados Jalopnik.com explained IAB’s find to its readers.

Coming back to the EcoSport story we had our in-house rendering specialist SRK do a sketch of the car before we posted the screen grabs. Some of the world’s finest automotive websites have used the story and the information.

Here’s a lowdown on some of the popular websites carrying IAB’s 2012 EcoSport story.

• Europe’s biggest automotive blog, Worldcarfans.com carrying a bunch of recent spy pics uses our coverage stating Meanwhile, our friend Shrawan at IndianAutosBlog.com has also tipped us off to a couple of leaked images.
• America’s most loved and some say the most read automotive enthusiast site Jalopnik.com posted a brief description saying IndianAutosBlog reader Mallik Kslikiri found fully naked images on Ford India’s under-construction EcoSport page.
• Besides support from our friends at Noticias Automotivas and CarPlace, one of Brazil’s most reputed magazine Quatro Rodas wrote on its website Um leitor do site IndianAutosBlog encontrou na internet uma página em construção da Ford com imagens e informações
  
• Car And Driver picked up the story and said Foi o que aconteceu com Mallik Kslikiri, que capturou a imagem do site e enviou para o site IndianAutosBlog.
• MSN Brazil used the images by saying O blog Indian Autos Blog revelou algumas imagens que vazaram de um site da Ford
• Autoblog Greece made a version of the story stating something nice in Greek language!
  
• Czech Republic’s Novinsky said Obsah obrazovky pohotov? uložil indický ?tená? serveru IndianAutosBlog.com, který jako první obrázek uveejnil.
  
• Britain’s CarsUK got our name wrong, but nevertheless the story is spot on! India’s Autoblog are reporting the screen captures you see above of the EcoSport which briefly appeared on Ford’s website in India
• Arguably Malaysia’s largest automotive blog, PaulTan.org didn’t leave out this development. They did the story adding IndianAutosBlog carried some reader captured screen caps and it reveals that EcoBoost tech will be present in the SUV.
• Besides these websites a host of other great websites such as RAC Brazil, diariomotor.com and Autoclub Belgium have recognized IAB’s coverage of the EcoSport.

If a short story on the Ford EcoSport can create an avalanche of sorts on the web, we wonder what the product, if priced liberally, can do to the company!