Nissan to make March in India

As we reported earlier http://www.vicky.in/blog/nissan-plans-micra-for-india/

Nissan officially announced today that it will produce the next generation Micra (might be named as March) in it s upcoming Chennai plant. Nissan produces Micra in its the British Sunderland factory. The Micra has become synonymous with Sunderland; the car was first made at the plant in 1992 and has been the site’s bread-and-butter model since. But as Nissan plans to develop much superior soft roader in the Sunderland plant it moves the production of next generation micra (March) to its Chennai plant.

Nissan is developing an all-new small car platform known as A platform. The new Micra (March) will be built on this new platform. Nissan would also make two other models on this platform in Chennai.  The A platform set of cars including the new March will be sold in five countries categorised by Nissan as the leading competitive countries (LCC), including India and Thailand. The new Micra (March) will be  powered by a 3 cylinder 1.2L petrol engine and it will come with  aggressive styling to lure young male buyers.

TVS Scooty Wimbeldon Collection

As we reported earlier http://www.vicky.in/blog/hot-news-update-tvs-limited-edition-scooter-volkswagen-jetta-and-more/

TVS will launch two limited edition scooters named – Scooty Wimbeldon Class and Scooty Wimbeldon Xtreme in this month. TVS has signed up with the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) as a licensee and will sell 10000 units of Scooty Wimbeldon Class and Scooty Wimbeldon Xtreme, designs of which will be inspired by the spirit of Wimbledon. Both the Scooty Wimbeldon Class and Scooty Wimbeldon Xtreme will appeal to women with sporty attitude and will be launched to coincide with forthcoming the Wimbledon season. The Scooty Wimbeldon Collection buyers will also get Scooty-Wimbledon sweatshirt and a sporty sling bag. The limited edition Scooty Wimbeldon Collection is priced Rs33,599 (Rs 1599 over the regular scooty pep+).

CNG to power Mercedes E-class

The rising fuel prices has not even spared even the three pointed star. Anticipating the fuel price hike and to prevent any slowdown in sales (luxury car market grew only by 3% in the month of may) Mercedes Benz plans to roll out more CNG compliant sedans in india. The CNG variant of Mercedes-Benz runs over 20 km on a kg of CNG against its petrol version which eats up a litre for every 12 km.  Mercedes had already cars such as B class B170 NGT and the E 200 CNG sedans running on green fuels and might extend them to India. Mercedes has already imported a couple of CNG-compatible cars in Delhi and Mumbai.

Tata Motors hikes prices of Indica,Indigo, Sumo and Safari

Following Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai,Tata Motors has increased the prices of Indica,Indigo,Sumoand Safari. “Tata Motors today announced an increase in the prices of its passenger vehicles. The increase is effective from today,” the company said in a statement.Prices of Indica, Indigo and Indigo Marina is increased in the range of 1-2 per cent while the prices of Sumo and Safari is increased the range of 2-3 per cent. “The price increase was necessitated due to the continuous increase in input costs,” Tata Motors said.

Honda slashes prices of city and civic

Owing to the reduction in Central Service Tax, Honda have slashed the prices of city and civic. “We have received notification from the government on the central sales tax cut from 3 per cent to 2 per cent announced in the Budget. Hence we are reducing the prices of our models City and Civic to pass the benefit to consumers,” a Honda Siel Cars India official said. The City will become cheaper by Rs 3,000 and the Civic by Rs 5,000. However the price of the CRV will remain unchanged as it does not qualify for the benefit of CST reduction.

Fiat palio stile diesel Pictorial Review

Palio to Palio NV to Palio Stile to Palio Stile Multijet

Palio story is more interesting. Fiat launched the palio way back in 2001 and attempted to make the Palio as a more acceptable small car. When palio was introduced in india it was seen as a turnaround car for Fiat in India. It actually did, Fiat sold 1100 cars in just two days and completed the year with an impressive sales figure of 33,000 cars. But the celebrations was soon over when frugal hatches like zen and Wagon R took the centre stage. Fiat attempted to redeem the situation by reworking the engine management system of its 1.2-litre FIRE engine and introduced it as Palio NV. Fiat positioned the palio NV as an economical car to lure the buyers but none went as per the Fiat’s wish. Poor service network and unavailability of spares tarnished the image of the palio and Fiat as a whole. Last year, Fiat made a tie-up with Tata Motors to improve its service network and started planning to comeback into the Indian market. In the meantime to qualify for the small car excise cop Fiat introduced a new variant of palio called palio stile with a 1.1L engine.

Now Fiat has come out with Palio Stile Multijet diesel. The 1.3L Multijet diesel in one of most successful smaller displacement engine in the world. From Maruti Suzuki swift to BMW Mini makes use of this engine. Fiat hopes the proven and familiar diesel engine will turn the tide again in Palio’s favour. But what about the service facility? Fiat claims the service quality has been improving. More than understanding the chracters of new palio, we are intrested in finding out the service quality and price of spares. We checked the availablity of spares in a Tata – Fiat showroom and we compared the prices of spares of Palio and swift. Our findings are at the end of this test drive report.

1) Fiat palio stile diesel: Palio was produced as part of Fiat’s world car project and FIat presented thr palio in 1996 in Brazil. Palio was designed by Giorgio Giugiaro – Designer of the 20th century and Fiat has made just two minor facelifts till 2007. Yet the fluid curves and the sloping windscreen pleases our eyes and even now Palio is one of the best looking in the segment. The diesel Palio resembles the current Stile petrol version except for the all new red logo and a ‘1.3 Multijet’ badge in the rear.

2) Fiat palio stile diesel: Palio Stile multijet comes with a 4 cylinder multijet diesel engine- from FPT- Fiat Powertrain Technologies providing a maximum power of 75 PS @ 4000rpm and peak torque of 184 Nm at a low rpm of 2000. It weighs 1065kg same as the Swift diesel. Fiat uses the same 5-speed synchromesh gearbox used in the 1.9l. The multijet mill returns 14kmpl in our combined city and highway drive. Though the mileage figure is decent it is well below the swift diesel which uses the same engine.

3) Fiat palio stile diesel: When Fiat decided to develop a world car for developing countries it wanted stronger body structure in order to suit the rougher roads found in some of the markets for which it was intended, as was the suspension. The basic chassis was a development of the Fiat Uno and it blends a ride with handling in good proportion. Suspension and brakes are carried over from 1.9 palio. The car remains stable even at higher speed and the brakes offers good bite.

4) Fiat palio stile diesel: The interiors are spruced up but they remain inattractive, the twin tone beige and poor quality plastics is in no way match the interiors of cars like Fabia. But getting behind the three spoke steering wheel is always a likeable one in Palio. The steering feels lovely and precise, the pedals are soft to touch and well-placed. The ergonomics are excellent and all the controls are easily accessible. You won’t develop fatigue even in longer drives. But parking this hatch is an issue, the poor turning circle hampers the palio’s manoeuvrability and we find it little tougher to park the palio.

5) Fiat palio stile diesel: It is a big roomy hatch. The dimensions are ample(3827*1620*1440mm) and the wheelbase is a generous 2373mm. In terms of spaciousness palio lies somewhere between Maruti’s swift and Skoda Fabia. Superb ride quality of the stile diesel ensures a comfortable ride for all passengers. Legroom and knee room is a tight fit for an average size adult. An over-sized may find it difficult to sit in the rear seat.

6) Fiat palio stile diesel: Features list is not so fantastic usable features like remote locking, height adjustable seats and adjustable steering wheel are absent even in the top end SDX variant. The case is no diffrent in terms of safety. ABS and airbags are not even offered as optional. Fiat has to understand the present condition and it s competetiors. Palio comes with only basic features such as power steering, power windows, central locking, fire prevention system (FPS), engine immobilizer and fog lamps.

7) Fiat palio stile diesel: is available in 5 exciting colors – Furnace red, Magnesium grey, Ozone blue, Mint White and Carbon black, across 3 versions – SD, SDE & SDX.

8) Fiat palio stile diesel: On the road price of Fiat palio stile varies between Rs4,87,059 to Rs5,30,590.

Survey on spare price soon

Maruti plans M800 Duo

As we earlier reported http://www.vicky.in/blog/maruti-800-soon-to-get-lpg-variant/.

Maruti will soon launch a LPG variant of 800.Similar to the Wagon R Duo the new 800 model will be called as M800 Duo. The new M800 duo will use both petrol and LPG. The LPG kit will be supplied by Landi Renzo of Italy. The new M800 Duo produces a maximum power of 35 ps at 5000 rpm and maximum torque of 56 at 2500 rpm. The figures are almost the same as the regular petrol variant. But unlike the petrol variant, M800 duo will emit lesser carbon dioxide emission. M800 will hit the showrooms in the first week of June and will be priced Rs20000 more than the regular petrol variant.

Hyundai i10 to get 1.2L engine

a welcome change

As planned Hyundai will roll out i10 with the superior Kappa engine soon. The 1.2L all aluminium gasoline engine (Kappa) will replace the existing 1.1L iRDE.  i10’s 1.1L iRDE develops 66.7PS at 5500 rpm of power and a torque of 10.1 kgm at 2800 rpm. The current 1.1l engine has proved to be one of the very successful engine for Hyundai and it will continue to power the santro. It is important to recall, Maruti is also planning strap advanced K-series engines under the hood of Wagon-R,Zen estilo,Swift and soon to be launched A-star. The K-series will comply to Euro V emission standard. As more and more cars are exported from India to developed markets like Europe. Manufacturers are opting for advanced engines equipped with superior technologies to comply tougher emission standards.

The new 1.2L kappa engine will produce more power (around 82bhp) which will make the i10 more powerful. This 1.2L kappa engine will also power soon to be launched i20 hatchback. i10 has been runaway success for i10, Hyundai sells more than 8000 i10’s every month without any significant drop in sales of santro  The new engine is being develpoed and tested at Hyundai’s Chennai facility.  Hence we can hope the new 1.2L engine won’t push the price of i10 beyond Rs5.2lakhs Current i10 comes in the range of Rs 3.31 lakh to Rs 4.83 lakh. Hyundai plans to produce three lakh engines per annum in this facility. The new 1.2L powered i10 will hit the showrooms in July.

UnoMoto an Engineering wonder

Always the longitudinal mounting occupies more space and horizontal mounting uses the space more efficiently. Space comes at a premium. We prefer hatchbacks than sedan or SUVs. Then why should we buy motorcycles with wheels separated longitudinally.  18 year old (now 19) Ben Gulak (living in Canada) who dislikes the polluting motorbikes has designed an engineering wonder called ‘UnoMoto’. UnoMoto is an all electric unicycle that emits no fumes and can be easier to weave through crowded streets than a standard two-wheeler. Ben Gulak achieved this by putting the wheels side by side (only 25mm apart). “I wanted to create an alternative mode of transportation, something clean and compact.” Ben Gulak says. Though it looks intimidating at the first glance, riding the UnoMoto is made easy with simpler controls. The on/off switch is the only electronic control, and once it’s up and balancing, you simply lean forward to accelerate, lean back to brake, and lean sideways to get one wheel turning a little faster than the other. When you switch it off, it rests back on its footpegs. UnoMoto can reach a top speed of 40kmph and Gulak says its battery range is around 2.5 hours in normal use.

Always innovation demands more from you. Gulak has already put off college for a year and he has chipped his kneecap in a crash. To make the UnoMoto production ready Gulak has to do a lot more especially in areas like handling. Gulak is aware of the requirement and he says he may need some help writing the code that keeps the Uno balanced at faster speeds. “The fundamental tech is figured out,” he says. “It just needs the right people to tweak it.”

Share with us

Whether your dealer is making you frustrated? Has your dealer failed to keep the promise? Is your vehicle troubles you? Here’s the space to tear their mask and expose the true face? Share your problems/complaints with us and let other know your problems including the manufacturer and get it fixed. Before posting the comment please ensure that your complaints are genuine.

Mr. Dinesh agrawal on Honda Activa & Rajpal Honda

I had borrowed an activa honda from bhopal M.P. (rajpal honda dealer)last
year. still my vehicle is having free services, but performance and behavior
of people working there is not good. each time i have given my vehicle for
servicing, i got non satisfactory results. i am really fed with their
services. may be it is not the right place to complaint, but i have just do
it. please see, if anything is possible to do in this field.

Mr.Amrender kalra on Pratiek Motors

there is a dealer in ranchi jharkhand.pratiek motors.he has a sales man
name(kumar saket)he is a big lier .he is just spoiling the name of
mahindra.i have no complains about the mahindra cars.but i have complain
about the dealer they have no manners.how to talk to a consumer.i want to
tell Mr goyanka that if he keeps dealer like pratiek motors they will spoil
the name of mahindra.please take action about it.

Mr.Ramachandran on Honda Motorcycles and Scooters India and J.S.P.Automotive

I deposited Rs 40,000 with your dealer J.S.P.Automotive, Anna Nagar,
Chennai, Tamil Nadu on 5th May 2008 for MONSOON GREY METALLIC Avitor. At the
time of booking and accepting money they said I can get my scooter in next
15 days.But after 15 days they said they have only RED and Black and since there is
no production of grey for some time (May be no one wish to prefer Monsoon
Grey Mettalic) and hence I may get it only by first week of June. That too
they can not promise.They said they have one with drum break and if I wish I pay extra.
This seems to be third degree business trade that a street vendor does.
I don’t know why your company is promoting business by forth grade.
Please advice if you are having grey paint or a short supply of grey paint
lead to give a hanky panky anwer.