Indian Autos blog

1. Airbags were first offered by GM in America on its luxury vehicles Buick, Cadillac and Oldsmobile. In 1980, Mercedes Benz offered driver side airbags that worked in tandem with seat belt pre-tensioners. Porsche was the first to offer driver side airbags standard on its 944. Airbags are considered to be the most important safety feature in car after the seat belt.

2. Airbags take around 40 milliseconds to inflate fully and would deflate partially in about 100 milliseconds. All happens in a blink of the eye. Airbags have pyrotechnical gas inflators that are triggered by impact sensors.

3. Airbags are safety devices only when the occupant is restrained by a seat belt. If the occupant is not belted up and in case the airbags inflate, the force with which the airbag is inflating could fracture the neck and create severe injuries to the spine. Airbags can even kill when the occupant is not restrained by a seat belt.

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Volkwagen’s Brazilian arm would soon make airbags and ABS standard throughout its range. The latest entrant to the VW family, the Polo would come with airbags and ABS standard even in its Base variant. Base variants of the VW Cross Fox and Golf would also get these as standard.

However for India, the base variant Trendline does not come with airbags and ABS. Not only VW India, all the major players in the volume market do not offer airbags on the Base and Middle variants. Only few manufacturers offer Airbags and ABS on the top-end variants, while some offer them only as options.

The reason for this is that there are no strict guidelines set by the Indian Transport Authorities on standardized safety equipment in cars. The Brazilian government is taking strict measures to ensure the safety of vehicles sold in their country and they have fixed a deadline of 2014 for all carmakers to offer airbags and ABS as standard in all cars.

We would really wish to see such regulations in India so that carmakers do not take the Indian car buyer lightly and should move from offering ‘value for money’ products to offering safe, quality motoring to the Indians.

The Nissan Micra which is to be launched on July 14, has a driver side airbag standard, even on its base variant. This would go down the Indian history as the first small car to offer airbags as standard on the base variant.

We wish VW India would at least be offering airbags and ABS as standard even in the base variants of the VW Polo Sedan (Vento) which could be launched during Diwali.

Not yet, but very soon, as these spy shots propose, the Indica Vista Ignis with steering mounted controls, Airbags, ABS and a 1.4-liter SAFIRE engine is galloping our way.

Tata’s Vista Ignis will have Fiat Linea’s 1.4-liter petrol engine capable of delivering 95PS. Currently, the petrol Vista uses a 1.2-liter engine with 65 PS rating from the same family, which isn’t underpowered, but taking stock of what the the competition offers, the 1.4-liter variant could ignite Vista sales.

On the other hand, Tata Motors is known better for its diesel engines. The Safari petrol bombed, the Indica XETA could not hold a candle, and the Indigo and Marina petrols were nothing more than faint attempts to change the diesel-only image. Tata even offered a staggering 100hp Indigo XL limousine, which found minuscule success.

Could the Ignis mark a new era in Tata Motors’ petrol offerings? You tell us.

As we reported earlier, the New 3rd Generation Honda City was recently launched in Pakistan. Following the trend of overseas launches, the Australian Auto-market is the latest recipient of the new Honda City.

The latest model of Honda City offers all new levels of styling, performance, driving dynamics and ride quality combined with outstanding packaging, functionality and versatality.

Exide, a very reputed and India’s largest lead acid storage battery manufacturer, has claimed that they would provide battery solutions for the upcoming small car. Reports suggest that the Kolkata-based company will begin commercial supply of batteries for the world’s cheapest car at the Indian automaker’s Pantnagar facility in Uttarakhand, where the first batch of Nanos will roll out from.

The Italian car manufacturer Fiat has finally launched its Linea sedan in a glittering ceremony in Mumbai at Taj Lands End. The car was due in December but because of recent Mumbai terror attacks car makers like FIAT and Mahindra postponed the launches of their new products, Linea and Xylo respectively.

“Fiat has kept its promise of making this an exciting year for its customers. The launch of the Linea is the first in the line of three launches that Fiat will undertake this year, the other two being Bravo and Grande Punto,”Said Fiat India CEO, Rajeev Kapoor.

FIAT Linea is available in both forms- Diesel as well as petrol, the Petrol version comes with 1368cc FIRE engine which produces max. torque of 115 NM @ 4500 RPM, and the diesel is available with 1248 CC popular Multijet engine which is very new and refined and it produces Max. Torque of 203NM @ 2500 RPM, it has total of six gears including 1 reverse which is M/T type.

In Italy, Chevrolet has unveiled the LPG-powered Matiz (Spark) which comes with a choice of two engine options-the 4-cylinder of 995 cc 65 hp engine which is available in India, and the 3-cylinder 796 cc 51 hp, which was used on the Daewoo version in India. This move is to cash in on the demand for LPG-powered small cars which has recently risen to new heights in parts Europe. The  [ Read More ]

September 1, 1950: First Porsche completed A new chapter in Porsche history began today, with the company’s return to Zuffenhausen, Germany, and the completion of the first Porsche. The first car to bear the Porsche name had actually been built two years earlier by Ferry Porsche and his design team, but this Porsche was the first car to boast a Porsche-made engine. Porsche became an independent automobile manufacturer during this  [ Read More ]