Ford launches Endeavour Automatic

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The festive season has already begun! yesterday we witnessed the launch of civic. Now Ford brings the new Endeavour. As you read it, Ford launches the new Endevour in india. The new endevaour gets a new face with the changes in the headlamps and the front grille. Look at the pictures you can see the diffrence, what a minor change in design can deliver. The new endeavour is less boxy but modern. I wish Ford has given some changes for the rear section too. The ORVM’s gets turn indicators. Don’t worry the new endeveour is not just about minor tweaks but to tame this 2 tonne machine. Last year, Ford shocked everyone with the launch of Endeavour Thunder+ when the 2.5L engine was itself considered a monster. The 3.0L gas guzzler which pumps out 156 bhp and 386Nm of torque now gets an 5-speed autobox.  On-the-fly four wheel drive shift adds icing to the cake. Ford has improved the rear differential as well. On the safety front, there are number of welcome additions – endeavour gets 4 airbags. The new Endeavour gets  The new Endeavour is priced between Rs15.99 lakhs and Rs17.99lakhs

Pictures of Ford endeavour automatic

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Honda launches new Civic

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As you read it, Honda officially launches the new Civic. The civic once a segment leader in the D-segment is popular among young urban buyers. Honda is facing a stiff competiton in the segment with the advent of new launches like corolla altis, volkswagen jetta and recently launched Skoda laura. Skoda’s new laura has earned rants reviews from auto experts and is selling well. To counter this and to revive the sales of civic, Honda would use its new facelifted civic. The changes in the new civic include a slightly modified grille with sharp edges, new alloy wheels, changes in the front bumper, new rounded fog lamp  and a tweaked tail lamp cluster.  Inside too, civic gets minor changes – addition of USB port, fuel economy indicator and new fabric texture. The top end civic variant gets cruise control. Sadly, Honda still find civic customers sits in the rear seat. There is no steering mounted audio controls even in top end variants. The price of the new civic variants

Honda Civic S MT– Rs11.80 lakhs

Honda Civic V MT-Rs12.70 lakhs

Honda Civic V AT-Rs13.44 lakhs

Honda’s new civic comes in five colours – black pearl,white,red,silver metallic and neew polished metal metallic. Honda also offers two different accessories package for the new civic – Inspire and Elegance. Inspire package of new civic comprises front underskirt spolier, trunk spoiler,rear spoiler and side spoiler. The Elegance package offers parking sensor, door and door visor and illuminated garnish for steps.

Honda New Civic Pictures

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Mahindra to launch Rodeo

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Mahindra set to rock the two wheeler market!

Mahindra will soon make its first launch in the two wheelers market through Mahindra2wheelers. This info is just enough for our vicky spy team to unearth its products line-up. Again our spy team proved why they are best in the business. They ranged up and told us the complete details of Mahindra’s two new products – Rodeo and Duro.

Unlike its  sibling flyte, the new rodeo is little muscular and swanky. The trapezoidal headlamps dominates the front cowl as the vertical turn indicators are mounted on the front apron. The fake wire mesh is just an aesthetic factor. Scroll down your eyes cautiously, you can spot a strange stuff. The mighty Mahindra logo which is used to be seen on jeeps and scorpio mounted on a scooter. Rodeo is swanky, the lines gently turn upwards as we move towards the rear part of the scooter. The silencer gets a nice chrome shield to protect the pillion. A large integrated rear tail lamp cluster and a body coloured grab rail completes the rear. Overall Rodeo looks more mature and it seems like Mahindra might position flyte as a fair sex scooter while the new rodeo will cater to mature male customers.

Both at the front and at the rear, rodeo uses drum brakes. Rodeo uses contemporary telescopic suspension at the front which Mahindra christens as “Pro-Sus” system. Rodeo rides on 3.50 -10 tyres at the front and at the rear. Rodeo features small glovebox at the front (can be useful only papers) and large underseat storage. The underseat stowage space should be able to swallow a half size helmet and your knick knacks.  The blue lit instrumentations is simple and it sports an odeometer,trip meter, speedometer, clock, side stand indicator and other tell-tales.

Rodeo inherits good features of flyte like – front fuelling, front choke, front hook, ignition key with shutter,foldable foot rest, body coloured rear view mirrors and body coloured rear grab rail.  The Rodeo is powered by an 125cc mill. The power rating and torque ratings are requested to keep under the wraps.

Mahindra will sell the rodeo alongwith the flyte. Together with the flyte, Rodeo will take on the Suzuki Access and Honda Activa 110cc. Rodeo will be available in wide range of colours and will be available in your nearby kinetic Mahindra2wheelers showroom.

Pictures of Mahindra Rodeo



Mahindra to launch Duro

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Along with the Rodeo, Mahindra would launch another scooter called Duro. The duro will spearhead the Mahindra in the performance scooter segment. Unlike the Rodeo, Duro styling is attributed by its dynamic character. Though Mahindra – Sym could have avoided the squarish structures like headlamps and turn indicators. The rakish apron is embedded with turn indicators. The front fender is chunky and houses 3.5*10 tyres.  The wide floorboard tapers back to meet its pair of pillion footrests. The body panel flows upwards and culminates in an attractive tail. The tail section sports fin like structure for air intakes. Below the fins is the large tail lamp bounded by turn indicators on both sides. The body coloured pillion grab rail adds the charm. The Duro is young and dynamic.

Instrumentation is very simple and basic. The sporty white dials with orange needles looks nice. But unlike the Rodeo or the flyte, the duro is not featuristic it lacks vital features like front fuelling. To top up fuel, you have to get down and open the seat. The end result is the  compromised underseat storage. The seats are soft and wide. Duro uses telescopic fork at the front and swing arm the rear. Duro sport drum brakes at both front and rear.

Electric start is part of standard package. The duro comes with closed glove box to store your knick knacks.  Similar to flyte, Mahindra – Sym may offer duro with an industry leading three year warranty.  Though we do not know the number of colours the duro will be available – this white one is addictive.

Pictures of Mahindra Sym Duro



The wide floorboard tapers back to meet its pair of pillion footrests. The body panel flows upwards and culminates in an attractive tail. The tail section sports fin like structure for air intakes. Below the fins is the large tail lamp bounded by turn indicators on both sides.

Honda announces Great Honda Fest offer

Honda has made heads tart in luring customers during the upcoming festive season. Honda has announced a ‘Win a Car’ contest for its customers across the country. Beginning 7th September 09, the contest is a part of the “Great Honda Fest” promotion being conducted at all authorized Honda dealerships in which one lucky Honda customer will win his favorite Honda car every week. Every customer who purchases a Honda car during 7th September – 31st October 2009 will be eligible to participate in the contest. Other than the grand chance to win a Honda car, customers can also win exciting accessory packages every week for the Jazz, City, Civic, Accord or CR-V. Speaking about this initiative Mr. Jnaneswar Sen, VP Marketing & Sales, Honda Siel Cars India said, “HSCI has exciting plans for this festival season. The Great Honda Fest is our first offering this festive season to celebrate and share the festivities with our customers. We are confident that the contest coupled with the new launches during this period will fuel positive growth for the company.”

Toyota plans to ramp up dealer network

The global car giant Toyota is all set to increase its dealership network in India to 150 by 2010. The company is presently operating in India under a JV with Kirloskar Group and the latest number of dealer is 90 in Espirit Toyota in New Delhi.  The company installed its market with just 27 outlets in 2000 and as the potential grew, the company is parallelizing the dealership network to 150 by next year.

The upcoming showrooms will be furnished with the company’s DIVA concept, to showcase latest  features and applications. There is a proposal to widen the market strength to thrice the current one in another four years. Current sales figures of the company is 51000 in 2008 which is slated to increase to 52000 this year and a small car is also in the offing by 2011. The latest ranges of Toyota are Corolla Altis, Innova, Fortuner from its Bangalore unit while the imported pieces are Camry, Prado and Land Cruiser.

Second slot of Nano, Tata Motors now in the race in Karnataka

Amidst the commotion in installing the manufacturing unit in Gujarat for Rs1 lakh car , Tata Motors is now journeying towards Karnataka(Dharwad) for the same race. If fortune smiles the Karnataka state Tata Motors will start the second plant in its South India base, with an assurance given to the state government in this regard. The reciprocity from the state government has been positive including land, tax concessions in the lines of Gujarat government.

The initial offering of the Karnataka government was in the form of 1000 acres of land in a split of 600 acres in just 24 hours and the remaining in the time span of three months. But the venture could not fruitify but the time has now come for further negotiations and this time Tata is firm on its foot at Dharwad. In the current move, according to the government’s Minister, 2500 acres of land has been acquired adjacent to the proposed Nano plant from which 1000 acres will be benchmarked for Tata. The choice of Dharwad is for the reason that it is closer to Pune to indicate the wide presence of Tata. Further talks are on between the Chairman of Tata, Ratan Tata and the government officials. The present unit in Pantnagar is designing Nano and the full-fledged Nano plant will start its operation from Sanand in Gujarat from 2010.

The Dharwad plant is currently in the operation for Telcon ranges including a bus project with Brazil ‘s Marcopolo. Tata has got possession of 600 acres with the employees ranging upto 3500 in its two plants and the bus plant has yielded Rs500 crore investment by which the commercial production commenced this January. Karnataka government has in good spirits to promote Korea’s Hyundai and,  Mahindra&Mahindra  too for erecting their units in this state. Earlier, Toyota got the grace from the Karnataka government for Rs800 crore at Bidadi. In all the Karnataka government is in celebrity mood to meet the automobile industry prior to the global investor’s meet slated for January 2010.

Ford small car at Rs3 lakh

Ford, the world renowned car manufacturer, is on the verge of initializing its market strategy with its small car @ Rs3 lakh+ targeting the markets of China, India, South America and Eastern Europe. The multi-marketing strategy of Ford  is to impress the customers of these countries as well as promoting B(small) segment cars across the nations.

The core regions would be Asia-Pacific wherein the increase might be 15-45%. However, the proposed small car will pose a different look to the one made by Ford for 2010 with a minimal linkage in product development system, according to its official. He was non-committal on the proposal as it echoes the ones from Hyundai and General Motors. It is to be noted that this is the first ever venture from Ford to step into the small car segment at a remarkably low price. In this respect Ford is another company to join Hyundai and GM in the bid for securing high volumes in low cost cars of Indian market.

The envisaged model will carry 80% localization and offer the cost-competitive aspects. Ford, however, has chalked out its plan to have more than one car for the small car segment to feed the wide Indian market, according to the official. The investment for this small car plan is around $500 million for manufacturing units.

Maruti

The prolific Indian car manufacturer Maruti Suzuki has finalised the green car launch on the Indian roads. The proposal is the outcome of the Thai trade pact which facilitates the reduction of taxes. Thus, the car will dare a challenge in the car industry. The car will be the replica of the one designed by Suzuki Motor for the Thailand roads to promote eco-friendly environment.

The Thai government had initiated eco-car campaign and Suzuki Motor Company could instantly respond to it with its 1300cc Euro IV engines and fuel efficiency of 20km/lit under 120 gms of CO2 emission/km. The returns for these range of cars are relaxation in excise and taxes. The apex company had a plan to manufacture 1.38 lakh eco cars (Cervo and et.al) annually in Thailand and the amount allocated for this plan is $280 million. However, Suzuki was no exception  to undergo the global tirade and the soft pedalling was on way.

Thailand government had planned to export such cars under which Suzuki Motor Co. had staked its claim with 10-15% for local market with the remaining for exports to Australia and ASEAN countries. Nevertheless, Suzuki cannot directly export full-built cars to India and Maruti has devised the plan to assemble the parts, which undergo tax reduction, in India. Suzuki Motor has been nurturing its cub with almost a dozen models of new cars in the last two years to enhance the product portfolio and market share of 50% in the Indian car industry.