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Maruti Suzuki launches Dzire sedan

Maruti Suzuki launched the dzire sedan in Chennai on 27th March. Maruti Suzuki which becomes a leading player in A3 segment hopes to earn customers with the new swift dzire. Swift Dzire replaces the esteem and it comes in both petrol and diesel variants. Last year Maruti Suzuki launched the SX4 and with its new Dzire and upcoming Kizashi Maruti Suzuki wants to shed the image of being a small car maker. Million of Indians own compact cars. With growing income and better lifestyle, many of them want to operate a sedan. The Dzire offers all this at an attractive price,” said Srivastava Commercial Business Head, Maruti Suzuki. The swift dzire is priced aggressively as an introductory offer. The petrol variant Swift Dzire has been priced Rs 4.20 lakh to Rs 5.61 lakh while the diesel variant is priced between Rs 5.10 lakh to Rs 6.41 lakh (ex-showroom Chennai). Swift Dzire is available in seven colours including Arctic white, silky silver, clear beige, midnight black, bright red, azure gray and sovereign blue.

Jaguar &LandRover is now Tata’s

Tata Motors has acquired Ford’s British marquees Jaguar and Land Rover for 2.30 billion dollars.
As per the deal, Ford will continue to supply Jaguar and Land Rover with powertrains, stampings and other components for varying time periods. It also will provide a variety of technologies, including environmental ones. Ford also will continue to provide engineering as well as research and development support, information technology, accounting and other services. Also Ford will pay about $600 million into the Jaguar-Land Rover pension fund. In addition, Ford Motor Credit Company will provide financing for Jaguar and Land Rover dealers and customers up to 12 months.
Speaking about today’s agreement, Mr Ratan N Tata, Chairman of Tata Sons and Tata Motors, commented, “We are very pleased at the prospect of Jaguar and Land Rover being a significant part of our automotive business. We have enormous respect for the two brands and will endeavor to preserve and build on their heritage and competitiveness, keeping their identities intact. We aim to support their growth, while holding true to our principles of allowing the management and employees to bring their experience and expertise to bear on the growth of the business.”

“Jaguar and Land Rover are terrific brands,” said Alan Mulally, president and CEO, Ford Motor Company. “We are confident that they are leaving our fold with the products, plan and team to continue to thrive under Tata’s stewardship. Now, it is time for Ford to concentrate on integrating the Ford brand globally, as we implement our plan to create a strong Ford Motor Company that delivers profitable growth for all.”

Maruti rolls out swift Dzire

Maruti Suzuki today rolled out a new entry level sedan called swift dzire. Swift Dzire comes in both in diesel and petrol variants powered by 1.3 litre engines. The DZiRE sedan boasts an incredible boot space of 464 litres.Apart from the boot the new grille, new fog lamp insert and tail lights with horizontal turn indicators distinguishes swift DZiRE from swift hatchback. The DZire also comes with first in class features such as including integrated stereo, steering mounted audio controls, automatic climate control, power windows and dual airbags.”The DZire is the seventh model Maruti Suzuki has launched in the last three years. It has a special place in our product strategy. Millions of Indians own compact cars. With growing incomes and better lifestyle, many of them want to upgrade to a sedan. But today, they are not able to find an entry level sedan that offers style, features and performance. The DZire offers all this, and at an attractive price,” said Mr.Shinzo Nakanishi, Managing Director, Maruti Suzuki said. The DZiRE petrol comes in three variants – DZiRE LXi, DZiRE VXi and DZiRE ZXi priced at Rs.4.49 Lakhs, Rs. 4.97 Lakhs and Rs. 5.90 Lakhs respectively (Delhi Ex-showroom). The diesel DZiRE, available in LDi, VDi and ZDi variants, will cost Rs. 5.39 Lakhs, Rs. 5.85 Lakhs and Rs. 6.70 Lakhs respectively. Swift dzire petrol variant is being priced in the range of Rs 4.49 to Rs 5.9 lakh while the diesel variants one is priced between Rs 5.39 to Rs 6.7 lakh. Swift DZire comes in seven colours – Arctic White, Silky Silver, Clear Beige, Midnight Black, Bright Red, Azure Gray and Sovereign Blue.

Honda CR-V Diesel

Honda’s oil burner:

Honda never loved to hear diesel clatter, its attitude to diesel engines used to be that they were crude, noisy, dirty, smelly and altogether unworthy of being mentioned in polite society. But when it started losing out to oil-burning rivals from Toyota, Nissan and Land Rover. It introspected itself and came up with its first in house produced diesel in 2003. Kenichi Naghiro the VTEC expert who “hated dirty smelly, noisy diesels.” designed a revolutionary quiet, smooth and clean diesel engine. The result is the stunning 2.2 liter i-CTDi (intelligent Common Rail Turbocharged Direct Injection) engine. Honda’s first diesel (I-CTDI) powered the Accord sedan and it was unusually quiet and responsive. The diesel won many awards across europe and even challenged the success of well known i-VTEC engine (which powers the indian CR-V).Honda expanded the line-up of diesel models with the launch of CR-V and FR-V diesel two years back. But all these models are available only in Europe not even in United States and Japan.

CR-V diesel

European customers and indian customers are somewhat alike that’s why Hyundai is producing i10 here. As increasing number of Indian customers gets attracted by diesel engines, Honda India wishes to bring the diesel CR-V here. Honda CR-V has been the market leader in its segment since its debut but as Chevrolet Captiva poaches some CR-V customers with its modern common rail engine and Hyundai’s Santa Fe is around the corner. Honda wants to secure his number one spot and to give the Indian customers more Honda-ness. The award winning iCTDI diesel engine will get under the hood of CR-V and starts making magic soon. Honda is currently testing the CR-V diesel in India.

the iCTDI magic:

The 2.2-litre, 16-valve, twin-cam, direct-injection, iCTDI diesel engine produces 138bhp of maximum power at 4000 rpm and an impressive peak torque of 350Nm at 2000rpm. Though the CR-V is designed for ‘grass and gravel’ rather than hardcore mud-plugging this diesel engine will make you fly off the pants. A six-speed manual gearbox which is calibrated to make the most of the engine’s torque characteristics will be a standard-fit. The engine is said to be more frugal and it is sure that Honda is going to set the fuel efficiency standards to a new level with the CR-V diesel. (Fuel efficiency/mileage is said to be in the range of 15kpl) The injection system operates at up to 1.6 bar and a pilot injection or “pre-squirt” prior to the main injection phase lowers the combustion noise. Complementing with this would be sound absorption systems which confuses the driver whether its a diesel or petrol. I wish, in the line of cutting the cost, Honda should not remove when CR-V diesel comes to India.

Price:

Honda would cut some of the luxury features such as sunroof to make the diesel CR-V competitive with the likes of Captiva. But the cut in the feature list may not be severe. Few months back we reported you that Honda is planning to assemble CR-V’s india that will cut the cost significantly because of the difference in the import duty (for CBU -114% and CKD- 60%). By the time CR-V diesel hits the showroom Honda might start assembling CR-V in India.

Mahindra’s Bolero and Scorpio micro hybrid

Bolero and Scoprio micro hybrid:

Mahindra and Mahindra will soon come out with a hybrid vehicle and it will cost the same as your regular bolero or scorpio. Excited, yes M&M will bring a hybrid vehicle but not the scoprio hybrid it is developing for american market but micro hybrid version of bolero and scorpio in June. micro hybrids are not true hybrids but a conventional vehicle which shuts off the engine and uses electric power while idling. By doing it,scropio micro hybrid and boler micro hybrid will be made more economical to run. Stop/Start or plug-n-play or Micro hybrid as this technology is called conserves energy by shutting off the gasoline engine when the vehicle is at rest, such as at a traffic light to reduce the amount of time spend at idling, and automatically re-starting it when the driver pushes the gas pedal to go forward.An electronic brain keeps a careful eye on everything and refuses to stop the motor if the air conditioning is still needed or if the battery is running short on charge. Thus in the micro hybrid fuel efficiency would be marginally higher than the gasoline engine.Fuel economy / mileage gains from this technology are typically in the range of 5 to 10 percent. Also with this micro hybrid diesel clatter is put off. We made a brief test drive of bolero micro hybrid and found it good. But we found difficult to move around with the bolero micro hybrid atleast initially, when the vehicle is put to rest there is no sound coming from the engine compartment just silence which confused us whether he engine is in sleep mode and it is not turned off. But i’m sure once you started learning to live with micro hybrids you’ll love it. Micro hybrids adds almost no weight and little in the way of cost. Hcnce scorpio micro hybrid or bolero micro hybrid will be priced only at a slight premium over the existing ones.

TVS launches 2008 Apache RTR

TVS has launched a new Apache RTR 160 with new styling.The 2008 Apache RTR 160 comes with all new air scoops that help in quicker engine cooling and features data logging as in race bikes. With data logging you can know the 0-60 lap time and the top speed. “These features are seen in international race bikes and are tuned to provide the RTR rider with flaunt value and tool for comparison of riding,” Mr R. Dilip, Vice-President (Sales), TVS Motors, said. More details are expected.

Multibrand service station

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Khattar’s venture:

Mr. Khattar former Managing Director of Maruti Suzuki plans to come up with multi-brand service station. After retiring from the post of managing director last year, Khattar has decided to start a pan-India multi-brand service and retail network. This new service station will pick up your car from home irrespective of its make, service it and drop it again at your garage. Khattar’s new venture will have around 100 outlets in the next four to five years. Khattar sees lot of potential for this new model as the existing dealer network won’t be sufficient to meet the demand. “The car market in India is set to expand from one million units annually to two million units in the coming years and this would require more showrooms and workshops, calling for Rs 8,000-10,000 crore investments, considering high set-up costs, including the real estate,” Khattar said. “I plan to start a company that will have joint ventures across the country to provide this infrastructure and it would be at a far lesser cost, considering it will be multi-brand (separate showrooms for each brand),” Khattar added.

Reliance Auto Zone:

Reliance Retail Ltd plans to start a chain of specialty stores to sell auto accessories and service cars. The new initiative called ‘Reliance AutoZone’ retails electric bikes, offers buying and selling of used cars and house a service centre for cars as well as two-wheelers. Reliance plans to open 400 auto zones across the country in the next three-four years. Reliance Auto Zone in Jamnagar already sells Hero Ultra ebikes. Auto Zone has not tied up with any of the auto companies and will go it alone. “We are not inclined to any make or any model,” says Arun Dey, chief executive of Reliance AutoZone,said. “Everyone can come in. Today, most of the outlets are so crowded and use spurious parts…people have no choice”, he added.

Tata plans cheaper Nano

When the Nano was out at the Delhi Auto expo the whole world watched.Manufacturers across the world want to produce a car atleast at the double the price of the Nano. Hyundai and Renault Nissan have already started designing a car. But what next for the Nano maker? Nano may be the cheapest car ever built but Tata Motors wishes to cut the Nano’s cost further. “There is a team of people in Pune who are right now working on bringing the costs of the Nano down further,” Tata Motors Managing Director Ravi Kant said. The cost-cutting team comprises a set of people who were not part of the team led by Girish Wagh, lead designer of the Nano and Tata’s mini truck Ace.

Audi to launch A4 in July

Audi which plans to capture a larger market share in Indian luxury car segment will bring all new A4 to India by July. A4 made its international debut in last years Frankfurt Auto Show. Audi expects to sell 500 units of the new A4 in the first year. Initially Audi will import the A4 as CBU and by the ed of the year it will start assembling the A4 in its Aurangabad plant. But the A4 will sport the price tag of a locally assembled car from the launch date itselef as Audi will absorb the price difference till the time it starts assembling the car in the country. There will be only one price for the A4 in the country. We will absorb the price difference of a CBU (completely built-up) while selling at CKD (completely knocked down) rates since we will be launching the locally assembled A4 by the year end,” Benoit Tiers, managing director, Audi India, said.

Energtek’s ANG to power Indian two wheelers

Energtek world leader in absorbed natural gas (ANG) technology and Confidence Petroleum today announced the launching of a joint venture in India aimed at commercializing environmentally-friendly natural gas for vehicles in southeast Asia. Through this venture Israeli based Energytek introduce natural gas to India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and other countries in the region. In India Energytek may supply its ANG technology to Indian two-wheeler manufacturers such as Bajaj, TVS and Kinetic who are considering launching models that can run on gas. Lev Zaidenberg, chief executive officer, Energytek, “Energytek has proprietary ANG technology solutions to distribute clean energy.’’ We are in talks with Indian two-wheeler manufacturers, he said.