Volkswagen will launch the cheaper variant of its Passat saloon in the Indian market by the festive season of Diwali. The new variant will be powered by the common rail engine which will have the same power as the current pump duse motor. The Ex-Showroom price as a result will come down to 20 lakh rupees from the current 22.35 lakhs for the for the manual variant. The DSG variant of the car will be launched subsequently. The new pricing is sure to lift sales and will also help it take the Toyota Camry and hot selling Honda Accord head on by offering a diesel engine.

(more…)

Hyundai-Kia is now the world’s fifth largest car maker beating Japanese giants Honda, Nissan in the process. In the past two decades the company has moved from being a manufacturer of cheap poor quality cars to a serious player in the world automobile industry that makes world class cars that equal or even better the more established brands in reliability, performance and price. Hyundai-Kia automotive was formed by merging  Hyundai Motor company and Kia Motors, Korea’s second largest car company at that time.

(more…)

Feast your eyes on the high resolution pictures of the yet to be unveiled 2009 BMW 7-Series. The ‘Press Release’ follows which explains each feature in detail.

Press Release and Gallery Pictures after the jump

(more…)

GM’s European division will be debuting their most important mainstream model in recent times, the Opel Insignia at the upcoming British Motor show in both Sedan and Hatchback forms. The new Insignia will replace the now old Vectra in the European market. The car bring a totally new design language, while the Vectra was sharp and edgy, the Insignia is more rounded with smooth flowing lines and scooped out side panels.

(more…)

Sports car lovers, Rejoice! Audi will launch its R8 supercar in India by the end of this year. The mid-engined sports car was launched internationally last year and is already a big hit with the buyers. The car comes with a 4200cc FSI V8 engine that develops 414 bhp and 430 Nm of torque.

“India is an important market for Audi, and there has been a tremendous interest in the Audi R8 up to pre-orders by our exclusive customers in India, so it was inevitable that we launch the Audi R8 here,” Audi India Managing Director Benoit Tiers said in a statement.

(more…)

This one hardly comes as a surprise. Suzuki has finalized plans to launch the Hayabusa and the GSX-R 1000 models in India. Yamaha already sells R1 and MT01 while Ducati almost has it whole range of bikes on sale here and coupled with Honda’s announcement of a big 800cc+ bike ealier which acted as a catalyst, Suzuki would not have liked to be left behind (pun very much intended).

“We will launch the bike in the first week of September,” said Atul Gupta, vice-president, sales and marketing, Suzuki Motorcycle India. “The demand for big bikes is actually more of a hype. Cumulatively these bikes sell only about 400 units per annum and we don’t expect volumes as well. Along with the GXR we will probably do 150 units per annum.”

(more…)

General Motors India has announced to offer Chevrolet Spark at a special price of Rs 2.66 lakh onwards (ex showroom New Delhi). Earlier Chevrolet Spark was priced at Rs 2.89 lakh for its base model. This base variant does not come with air-conditioning and power steering.

The company attrubutes this to the increased production capacity from its new plant. “The special price is the result of improved localisation of Spark coming out of operational efficiencies due to increase in production volume,” said Mr Ankush Arora, VP-Marketing, General Motors.

(more…)

Come next year German Automaker Mercedes-Benz and British sports car manufacturer will part ways when the current agreement expires. The two companies were responsible for the Mercedes McLaren SLR roadster.

“The partnership ends in 2009 and it will not be renewed”, a Mercedes spokesman said.

Reports also suggest a new flagship premium roadster in the making called the SLC which will come in 2010 and will replace the SLR. The car will be built by Mercedes’s in-house performance unit AMG at company’s Sindelfingen plant, near Stuttgart, Germany.

(more…)

Just a week before its official unveiling, the images of the much awaited next generation 2009 BMW 7-Series have leaked on the internet. The CS inspired headlights reamins and not much was left to the imagination since the prototypes were left running with little camouflage.

The front and rear lights get LED’s and often criticized for complexity, the BMW i-Drive system has also been updated. Keep visiting for complete details, as the car is officially unveiled anytime soon. Till then enjoy the pictures, right after the jump.

Thanks for the tip Rahul

(more…)

SWIFT DZIRE vs. TATA INDIGO vs HYUNDAI ACCENT vs LOGAN vs FORD IKON 

The looks have been Mahindra Logan’s achilles heel as far as India is concerned. The new facelifted Dacia Logan is really impressive and we can’t help but think this would be the midsizer to buy if launched in India at the current price levels. But then there is the newly launched Maruti Dzire which has been an instant success or the Hyundai Accent, or the exciting Ford Ikon and the omnipresent Tata Indigo.

Assuming the Logan in the list is the facelifted version and at current price levels,  tell us what do you think, which one of these would you put your money on and why?

Dacia has launched the facelifted Logan, the scoop pictures of which we posted earlier. We have high resolution images for you at the end of this post. This is an evolutionary upgrade to the Logan which internationally is already 4 years old now. The completely new model with exhaustive changes will come only in 2012, till then this newly refreshed mid-cycle facelift will keep the buyers interest alive. The facelifted Logan looks a lot better than the outgoing model with the helpings of chrome, a new look front and back.

Complete details and Gallery Images after the jump.

Source: Autoblog and Dacia

(more…)

“Ratan Tata is very humble and self-effacing. But he’s also a fully engaged entrepreneur, and Jaguar hasn’t been run by an entrepreneur since the beginning of time.”, He added.

Mr. Tata also took feedback from the dealers at dinner in Chicago’s Peninsula Hotel asking them to share their ideas and wishes for the two brands. Dealers warned him of the impending competition from Volkawagen owned Bentley saying they need a more upscale model to compete with Bentley while also making clear the need for a convertible sports car like the F-Type and a convertible XJ.

One of India’s most respected businessman in India, Mr. Tata also left a warm impression in the minds of Land Rover and Jaguar dealers he met.

(more…)

Land Rover will unveil an even more luxurious version of its range topper, the Range Rover at the upcoming British Motor Show which is scheduled to start from July 22nd. Christened the ‘Autobiography’ the new variant features an impressively large number of premium features.

The ‘Autobiography’ sets itself apart from the standard variant by offering three options alloy wheel styles one among which is the 20 inch diamond turned twin-seven-spoke-alloy wheels, new color options and an exterior design pack which features Supercharged Grille, side vents, lights and stainless steel pedals.

(more…)

Yamaha India is on an upward swing. After launching the very capable YZF R15 the company is readying to fire yet another salvo in the Indian two wheeler market, the FZ 150. Whenever launched this will be the best looking bike ever to come out from an Indian manufacturer.

Big beefy forks, wide rear tyre, massive fuel tank, stubby silencer all contribute to make it a looker bar none in the country. The bike is expected to come around diwali and will come with the carburetted version of the R15 engine with around 15 bhp on tap.

The engine will be tuned for mid-range performance than top end madness and is expected to be priced between Rs 65000 - Rs 70,000.

The bike was caught testing ridden by a factory rider by Ishaan from Team-Bhp.com 

More scoop pics after the jump.

(more…)

The commecial vehicles sales have grown by an impressive 25% to 26,797 units in June 2008 compared to 21,417 in june 2007. The cumulative sales of commercial vehicles shows a growth of over 16% year on year. The passenger car figures are less impressive though with the sales of 17,017 units, a decline of 2% compared to same month last year, when it sold 17,418 vehicles. Although most of the passenger vehicles have grown in sales yoy, its the bread and butter model, the Indica who has been the worst hit. The sales for the Indica stood at 8,560 units, a massive decline of 27%!

(more…)

Tata Motors is reportedly working on variants of its 1-Lakh car ‘Nano’ to counter rising fuel prices which will affect sales according to the Chairman, Mr. Ratan Tata. The singur plant which will produce Nano will come into operation by the last quarter of this year. In a letter to its shareholders, Mr. Tata has also mentioned that new manufacturing facilities expanded to meet domestic and global demand in the future.

“New variants of the Nano are also currently under development to meet the new environmental and fuel price challenges, as also the market requirement of several international markets,” Mr. Ratan Tata said.

The year ahead will be “a year of major challenges” and that “higher fuel prices will negetively impact both commercial and passenger car sales” Mr. Tata said.

(more…)

Ferrari F430 is one hell of a car. Even though its at the bottom rung of the Ferrari ladder, its loaded with technology which includes a trick electronic differential which is modelled on the Ferrari’s F1 car, a fast paddle shift transmission, a snorting 4.2 litre V8 engine which revs to a dizzy 8000 rpm and it even looks good unlike many recent Ferrari’s. But for some the F430 isnt exciting enough so Ferrari produced a lightenend faster version called the ‘Scuderia F430′ which astonishingly was faster than even the uber Enzo around Ferrari’s Fiorano test track.

Jump down for details and the gallery for the Novitech Ferrari F430 Scuderia

(more…)

Yes the Nissan GTR has been beaten! Its no longer the fastest car around the Nurburgring (’Ring’), that title now goes to the new 2009 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1. According to the Corvette Chief Engineer Tadge Juechter, ZR1 has lapped the ring in an astonishing 7 minutes 26.4 seconds.

The car was stock standard except for the safety and communication equipment. Even the tyres were stock and so was the fuel, which was normal pump gas and not racing spec fuel. The car took a rolling start as is the case with everyone these days and was driven by the development engineer Jim Mero. He felt that the car would have gone even faster had it not been for the strong headwinds which were rushing at the main straights.

The 2009 Corvette ZR1 Gallery

(more…)

Honda Motorcycles and Scooters India (HMSI) will launch an 800cc bike by the end of this financial year. This was disclosed by a a senior executive of the HMSI while unveiling Honda CBF Stunner.

The 800cc bike will be imported from the parent company. There would be another launch later this year which could be either a bike or a scooter. “It is too early to disclose if the other product will be a scooter or a bike”, HMSI sales and marketing head N.K. Rattan said.

(more…)

After ceasing the production of 166 sedan last year, Alfa Romeo is without a flagship these days. The company is now working on the development of its successor as it grapples to decide the platform on which this range topper 169(expected to be called the ‘169′) will be based on.

The company is looking at a rear wheel drive platform for 169, as is the case with most of the flagships these days. Currently the only rear wheel drive platform Alfa has is for the 8C Competizione which was rejected by the CEO Luca Me Deo as a possible donor for the 169. The sister company, Maserati’s Quattroporte and GranTurismo platforms have also been rejected as they are ‘too costly’.  Dazed, confused, the company is now looking at other automakers for a suitable platform, chiefly Jaguar which is now owned by Tata Motors, Fiat group’s ally in the Indian market. Ratan Tata, CEO Tata Motors, also sits on the board of the Fiat group.

(more…)