Driveblog

South Korean car manufacturer Hyundai Motor on Friday announced the commencement of bookings of its soon to be launched new compact car Eon. The bookings will open from October 1, 2011.  'Eon' - means eternity. The car will be manufactured in India at Hyundai Motor India's manufacturing facility located at Sriperumbudur near Chennai.  The new car will take on Maruti Alto, India's largest selling car. Pegged at the starting price of Rs 2.5 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi), the car carrying an 800 cc engine and options of both manual and automatic transmission will be a major volume driver for Hyundai after sales of its smaller aging cars - Santro and i10 - has started tapering off in the Indian market. The Eon will bear Hyundai's latest design philosophy of 'Fluidic Sculpture'. Eon has design elements and features that have been specifically developed for Indian conditions. The car is targeted at first time buyers who want to buy a spacious and stylish car ...

 Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. (M&M), a part of the US $12.5 billion Mahindra Group, today unveiled the eagerly awaited Mahindra  XUV 500  at Pune in Maharashtra. Designed and developed in-house by Mahindra, the  XUV 500  is Mahindra’s first global SUV platform, with significant inputs in styling and development from customers across the globe. Available at Mahindra dealerships in Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, Bangalore and Chennai from October 1 st  2011, the  XUV 500  price range starts at ex-showroom Delhi - Rs.10.80Lacs for the W6 model, Rs.11.95Lacs for the W8 2WD model and Rs.12.88Lacs for the W8 All Wheel Drive (AWD) model. Poised to pounce… The new Mahindra  XUV 500  is unmatched in terms of style, performance, technology, safety and comfort, providing customers a truly complete driving experience. Bold and glorious lines that trace the world’s most agile animal in action, namely the cheetah, contribute to the elegant styling and vis...

Honda Siel Cars India Ltd., leading manufacturer of premium cars in India, today launched its much-awaited small car, the Honda Brio (pronounced as Br-ee-o and means “energetic” and “cheerful” in Italian), in the Indian market. The car, offered as the perfect package for a new era, embodies the best of Honda’s technologies to deliver fun and agile driving, fuel-efficiency, spaciousness & safety. The Brio was developed following Honda’s extensive market surveys in India on people’s driving needs and lifestyles. The Brio’s outstanding performance is achieved by a  four cylinder 1.2-litre i-VTEC engine that delivers maximum output of  88 PS @ 6000 rpm  and Torque of  109 Nm (11.2 kg-m) @ 4600 rpm,  while giving an excellent fuel economy of  18.4 km/l,  as per test data. Brio is available in  5-speed manual transmission  with optimized gear ratios, which offers excellent low rpm acceleration and smooth high rpm performance delivering ...

Automobile major Hyundai Motor on Monday launched a new variant of its sports utility vehicle (SUV) Santa Fe with automatic transmission (AT) system, priced at Rs.24,36,500 (ex-showroom Delhi).  "The Santa Fe launched last year has been extremely well received, the new offering with automatic transmission further improves our value proposition," said H.W. Park, managing director and chief executive, Hyundai Motors India.  According to the company, the new variant of four-wheel drive SUV will come with six-speed automatic transmission for smooth and stress-free driving.  "The addition of features as push button start and smart key ensure convenience with one-touch operation. The new supervision cluster enhances clarity of the instrument panel," said Park.  The car is powered by 2.2.L CRDi engine which delivers a maximum power of 197 ps per 4,000 rotations per minute with a fuel mileage of 11.72 km per litre.

 Skoda Auto India on Friday introduced four variants of its popular compact car Fabia--the Active and the Ambition-- in petrol and diesel options, along with Active Plus and Ambition Plus, which are packaged versions of the same new variants.  "The new variants are based on market and customer feedback and are aimed at providing an enhanced value experience," the company said in a release here today.  The Volkswagen Group company claims that the packaged versions give customers an option to upgrade with factory fitted packages, which include a host of convenient features.  The petrol variants are priced at (ex-showroom, Delhi): Active (1.2 litre) Rs 4.39 lakh, Active Plus (1.2 L) 4.59 lakh, Ambition (1.2 L), Rs 48.55 lakh, and the Ambition Plus (1.2 L) Rs 4.99 lakh.  The diesel variants are priced: Active(1.2 L) Rs 5.46 lakh, Active Plus (1.2 L), Rs 5.66 lakh, Ambition(1.2 L) Rs 5.94 lakh, and the Ambition Plus (1.2 L) Rs 6.08...

At a time car sales are sliding, luxury carmaker BMW is set to launch the British marque Mini in India at a starting price of Rs 25 lakh. The German carmaker will start importing the iconic small car within the next two months and open two flagship dealerships, in Delhi and Mumbai. BMW will bring in the entire range of the Mini - comprising its popular variants Cooper, Countryman, Clubdoor and the Cabrio. The top-end Clubman is likely to cost around Rs 30 lakh and come with a complete sports package and accessories.  The Mini is among the original British cars that heralded a new era in motoring in the 1960s, with its space-saving frontwheel-drive layout. Its smooth and sporty retro design has influenced a generation of carmakers ever since. The best-selling Suzuki Swift, for instance, carries forward the same design philosophy. But the original Mini continues to sell in large numbers. Clocking more than 2.34 lakh units a year worldwide, it sells the highest in...

Nissan Motor India Ltd. reportedly announced the launch of its 10th generation Sunny sedan powered by petrol engine in Hyderabad and Andhra Pradesh market and hinted that they would soon follow it up with a diesel engine car. Dinesh Jain, CEO of Hover Automobiles India, Nissan’s Sales and Marketing Partner in India was quoted as saying that they plan to sell about 40,000 cars during the year. It is proposed to increase the dealerships from 80 to 100 by March and thereby cover 80 per cent of the potential car market in India. According to reports, Nissan Motor said that it was looking at replicating its success in India. Sunny in the present form was launched at the 2010 Guangzhou Motor Show in China. The company has priced the petrol range starting  Rs.  5.8 lakh and going up to 7.8 lakh ex-showroom across three models. It has sold more than 1.1 lakh vehicles in one year since it commenced production from its plant based in Chennai. The company had announced plans to launc...

Mahindra will launch its new global SUV, the XUV500, on September 28, 2011. Pronounced as XUV '5 double Oh', the new SUV is M&M’s first attempt at a monocoque vehicle, powered by a transverse engine. It has got perfect proportions and looks hunkered down in a way that only monocoque or unibody construction allows. As seen from our computer-generated images, the high mounted, swept back headlamps and curved Mahindra grille look very attractive. The rising beltline and tapered roof give it an air of compactness and if Mahindra doesn’t add too many garish details, this almost certainly will be its most attractive product yet, which will be perfect for M&M, who is hoping its new generation vehicles will catapult it onto the global stage. Under the skin, it will use a transversely located 2.2-litre mHawk engine and a new transaxle, specifically developed for the W201 entirely from scratch. There’s also an all-new, cable-operated gearbox with five- and six-speed options dev...

Premium car brand, Jaguar LandRover, or JLR, will open its Pune dealership by early December. The Ace Cars showroom, located close to the another luxury car brand dealership, BMW, as well as to other car showrooms in central Pune, will have the space to display around 12 cars of both brands, Jaguar and Land Rover.  Parvinder Singh Vijan, managing director of the Mumbai-based Asset Group which has other car dealerships in the Mumbai-Pune region and who has bagged this dealership, declined comment since he not authorised to speak about the JLR brands.  Local buyers of these premium brands said that the base level price of a Jaguar, of around Rs. 55-56 lakh, brings it within reach of a larger market and is an alternative to the Mercedes E Class or the BMW 5 Series sedan.  "There are currently about 30 Jags and around 40 Land and Range Rovers in Pune. I think with a dealership opening in the city, this number could easily double in a year's...

The Tata Group on Monday unveiled a Nano car - made with gold and silver, and studded with precious stones - worth an astronomical over Rs 22 crore. But, it's not for sale - the valuable and fully functional car is a unique branding and promotional initiative by Goldplus  Jewellery, part of Titan Industries, a Tata Group company, an official said. The mega-value Goldplus Nano Car was unveiled on Monday evening by Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata. The Goldplus Nano Car pales the average Rs 1.40 lakh Nano, which started with a Rs 1 lakh price tag at its launch. The Goldplus Nano Car is billed as the world's first ever gold jewellery car and celebrates the 5,000 years of jewellery making industry in India. The car's body is made with 80 kg 22 carat solid gold, 15 kg silver, precious stones - including diamonds, rubies - and other expensive gemstones, the official said. "As many as 14 techniques of jewellery making have gone behind the effort -- from the intricate fili...

Japanese carmaker Nissan Motor Company, which sells the hatchback Micra in India, is looking to make greater inroads into the booming small car market by driving in cheaper models.  The auto major is considering three to four compact cars in the sub-Rs 5 lakh category for the domestic market over the next three to five years. Several vendors involved in the project told ETthat Nissan may launch a compact car on the K2 platform by 2013-14 and price it at Rs 3-4 lakh.  This will be followed by an even cheaper compact car, which is being designed by Hinduja Group's engineering arm Defiance and is likely to be priced at Rs 2-3 lakh. If the company's talks with Bajaj Auto fructify, Nissan will be able to launch three to four compact cars within three to five years.  Small cars comprise seven of every 10 cars sold in India. While competition is hotting up in the premium hatchback category as well, the sub-Rs 5 lakh category accounts for 40%-45% of the small car market....

In a bid to increase sales during the festival season, Italian automobile major Fiat's Indian subsidiary on Wednesday launched discount offers for its hatchback Punto and sedan Linea.  "With the launch of this campaign, we portray our commitment towards the Indian market and communicate that this campaign has been designed keeping in mind the emotions, sentiments and key values, deeply portraying our Indian connect," said Fiat India chief executive Rajeev Kapoor.  According to the company, the new offer would allow customers to avail discounts of up to Rs.1,30,000 on Linea and Rs.75,000 on Punto.  The offer is from September to October.  The schemes also includes a further option to add Rs.20,000 in discounted purchase for customers who exchange their old-car for Fiat vehicles.  "This scheme includes attractive exchange benefits of up to Rs.20,000, wherein customers can upgrade to Fiat cars if they exchange their cars while bu...

Nissan has officially launched its model for the midsize segment in India – the all-new Sunny. The car is available in three versions – the base XE, the mid-level XL and the top-end XV. The XE is priced at Rs 5.78 lakh. It gets body-coloured bumpers, an on-board drive computer, manually adjustable anti-dazzling mirror, headlight-on and key-inserted warning lamp, ABS, EBD and Brake Assistance, Driver Airbag and Door Ajar warning. The mid-level XL, priced at Rs 6.88 lakh, gets all features of the XE along with body-coloured, electronically adjustable outside rear-view mirrors, chrome-plated outside door handles and radiator grille, rear defroster, an integrated audio system with four speakers and AUX, steering-mounted audio controls, rear A/C vents, auto-down feature on driver-side power window, remote keyless entry, front passenger airbag, anti-theft alarm and speed-sensing automatic door locks. The top-end XV, at Rs 7.68 lakh, gets all this as well as alloy wheels and electronically f...

 The wraps are off the much-awaited entry-level small car from Hyundai India. The car, to be called Eon, is the South Korean car maker's challenge to Maruti's Alto, the current bestseller in the segment in India. It will enter the Indian roads between October 10 and 15, days ahead of Diwali at a starting price of Rs 2.50 lakh to Rs 2.60 lakh.  Although Eon is positioned against Alto, the car promises a lot more than what the latter offers. "There is no car that is comparable with Eon. Yes, it is an entry-level car but with no compromise. It is a very spacious car with a large boot - something that you get only in bigger cars. And most importantly it doesn't compromise on style,"  Eon sports the 'Fluidic' design characteristic of the restyled Verna that threw a serious challenge to its rivals like Honda City and Volkswagen Vento after its makeover. Although the company officials refused to divulge the price of the car other than saying that it would be ...

[Source:Youtube]

The multi-billion-dollar CK Birla Group’s automobile major   Hindustan Motors Ltd. launched its second round of West Bengal road show to showcase its recently launched small commercial vehicle VEER along with the iconic Ambassador and light commercial vehicle Winner XD PLUS. The 15-day road show shall intensely cover the districts of East Midnapur, West Midnapur, Bardhaman, Nadia and Hooghly. The event is a sequel to similar promotional activities conducted by Hindustan Motors so far in  West Bengal, Assam, Orissa, Bihar, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry with Ambassador and Winner. VEER is a new entrant in the company’s field promotions. More road shows will be launched soon again in Orissa and Bihar as also in Gujarat, Maharashtra, central and north India. Flagging off the road show, Hindustan Motors’ Managing Director,  Manoj Jha, stated, “The road shows are the culmination of HM’s concerted and sustained efforts to enrich its bouquet of offerings for its existing and po...