The car market is really roaring and every other manufacturer wants to capitalize on every other opportunity they get to survive in this ever competitive market. Recently Honda realized that the lack of diesel engines for their small and mid-sized cars was one pulling them back in both the developed and developing markets and thus they are now planning to introduce new diesel engines for their cars. Over the years they have been losing customers to their competitors which the company doesn’t wish to continue in future.
As a matter of fact, Honda’s UK managing director David Hodgetts has told ‘Fleet News’ that the new diesel engine will be introduced once the new Civic has completed its one year in the market. The new engine may also be used on other models such as the Accord and Jazz. All in all it is clear fact that Honda doesn’t wish to leave anything undone.
If we see the history of Honda, one can make out that Honda is not a champion diesel engine maker. The only one diesel engine made by Honda was a 24 liter i-CTDi engine that later evolved in to i-DTEC engine. This i-DTEC diesel engine was utilized in Accord, CR-V and the Civic. However, the engine was removed from Civic later.
The new engine would most likely be in the 1.6-1.8-liter class with very low CO2 emission figures and powerful enough to present itself as fit enough to go under the Accord’s bonnet. Nothing as to the type and the specifications of the engine is said officially but the possibilities of even smaller versions of engines cannot be denied. All in all, Honda will soon, within a year or so, develop their small diesel engines so that they do not face the inherent disadvantage of losing sales to their competitors.
Greetings! This is some news from the premium car segment. Couple of days earlier we rolled out news that Audi India is going to launch its V8 Spyder in the country. Well, the news has in fact materialized and Audi India launched their premium car R8 Spyder in India.
Audi, the luxury car manufacturer, has launched its new car R8 Spyder in India at Taj mahal Palace in Mumbai in a mini luxury conference. The premium car sports 5.2-litre FSI engine producing 525 bhp of power and 530Nm of torque that powers the hard top V10 coupe. [click to continue…]
BMW launches 6 series convertible it India. The news of BMW launching this car was out well before and the company did just that. BMW India launched this premium car at ‘The Leela Palace’ Udaipur. The car is available in petrol variant and can be ordered through any BMW dealership across the country. The car will be imported as CBU in the country with a price tag of 95 lakhs Ex-showroom. Mind you, this doesn’t include registration, insurance, taxes, duties and vat.
The car sports a 4.4 liter V8 twin turbo petrol direct injection engine that is capable to produce a whooping power of 407 hp at 5500-6400 rpm and a torque of 600Nm at 1750-4500rpm. The new car is capable to race from 0 to 100 in just 5 seconds with a max speed of 250 kmph. [click to continue…]
Here is a piece of news that will make people, especially from the capital, boil with anger because the prices of diesel cars in Delhi are likely to increase pretty sharply. This happened when the Delhi government announced an additional tax of 25 per cent on the existing tax rates for all diesel-propelled vehicles sold in the state. The current Sheila Dixit led Delhi government appears to have followed the Kirit Parekh Group recommendation of an additional levy of Rs.80, 000 on every diesel vehicle sold in the country.
This move by the government has led to a certain raise of questions in the minds of car makers. The car makers in the capital fear that this move will result in shortfall of sales i.e. it will have a negative impact on sales. As of now there are no clear estimates as to the likely increase in diesel car prices but this will hit both the car makers and diesel car lovers alike. It is stated that every third car sold in Delhi is of diesel variant and this price hike will bring this demand down.
Delhi has been worst hit by all these government policies. Firstly, the Union budget that proposed increase in Import duty of pre-assembled engines, gearbox etc to 60% which later on was reduced to 30% and now this diesel car prices hike. Shashank Shrivastava ( chief general manager, marketing, Maruti Suzuki India) said that the price difference between diesel and petrol has doubled over the last year, which certainly helped diesel vehicle demand to rise but this tax increment on diesel cars will definitely do no good to the segment.
To give an example of likely increment (speculated amounts); SUV’s like Innova, Scorpio and all others falling in similar price range may attract an extra 10,000- 18,000 INR. Other luxury cars in the range of 25lakhs or so are likely to cost up to 30,000 INR extra. Car dealers in the state are worried as the buyers may buy these diesel cars from neighboring state Haryana to save costs. Whether fuel price increase or these taxes increase either ways only consumers suffer. We hope that government realizes this and cuts this extra taxes and duties.
Here is a piece of news from the premium car segment. Koenigsegg, the Swedish car maker is all set to launch its hypercar Agera in India on March 29th march 2011. As far as the price is concerned, you will have to spend a whooping 10 crores to get this amazing looking premium hypercar in to your garage.
The Agera is powered by a 4.8 liter V8 engine that is capable of producing a whooping power of 910 Bhp with more than 1000Nm of torque. The top speed of this hypercar is 400Kmph which really is a feature to look out for in this premium car. [click to continue…]
This week is going to a real treat for all those who are fans of convertible cars. Audi announced that it is launching R8 Spyder convertible on March 25th 2011. As far as the competitors are concerned, BMW has already announced that it is going to launch 6-series convertible in India. Audi, through R8 Spyder, will surely look to nail down their competitors.
The sports car will only be available with high end V-10. As a matter of fact, R8 is already available in hard-top version with both V8 and V10 engines. This R8 V10 sports the same 5.2 liter 518bhp engine that powers the hard top V10 coupe. The engine used in this sports car is taken from Lamborghini which is also a VW group company like Audi. [click to continue…]
Greetings! Here is an exciting piece of news from Mahindra. Mahindra is celebrating 2 years of its very successful car Xylo Mpv by launching a special edition called Celebration edition. The new special edition will be available in limited numbers i.e. there will only be 1000 units of this car ever sold in the market.
[click to continue…]
Greetings! The auto industry currently does not seem stable and affordable as far as the cost of automobiles (especially that of cars) is concerned. News has it that yet another manufacturer has planned to increase the prices of their cars; the manufacturer is none other than Tata motors. With this increase in prices, this will now be the second straight increase in prices, over the last three months.
Tata motors plans to increase the cost of their cars by 7000- 36000 INR. The price hike is attributed to the rising input costs but Tata Nano has been spared the price rise i.e. you will not be charged extra if you buy a Nano. Obviously, Tata motors wants to see more of Nanos on the roads. [click to continue…]
Here is a great piece of news for all the Skoda fans. Skoda, which specializes in rolling out good cars, has confirmed the introduction of two new models. Though both of these models are announced for international market, chances are strong of their being imported to India.
[click to continue…]
I have always been a fan of good looking SUVs. My favorite ones are CRV, Audi Q5 and Chevrolet Captiva (the one shown below).
But I am shocked to see the new design of the Captiva. They tried to make it look like Cruze. They messed it up with the front grille. Though some may appreciate it, Captiva has been removed from my list of cool looking SUVs
What is your opinion about the new Captiva design?