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Hindustan Motors to launch the Ambassador with BSIV complaint engine which has been certified as BS IV emissions compliant vehicle by the ARAI, Pune. The BS IV Ambassador diesel gets upgraded 1.5-litre diesel engine which will produce better power and torque .It will be produced at HM’s Uttarpara plant in Hoogly from August.

Hindustan Motors, MD & CEO, Uttam Bose said, “We had been working on upgrading our Ambassador 1.5-litre diesel car to match BS IV norms for over a year. We are happy that our efforts have borne fruit and we have received certification from ARAI after passing rigorous tests. This has demolished the myth that Hindustan Motors cannot upgrade its existing engines. Moreover, this opens hitherto forbidden markets where this vehicle commands enviable loyalty in the taxi segment. We expect our sales to grow significantly within a few months”.

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Bimal Kumar Guha, general secretary of Bengal Taxi Association said, “I myself drove the BS IV Ambassador over several laps of the test track and found that the new vehicle offers higher power and torque, better vehicle control with power steering, improved gradient negotiating capacity, better cooling and overall better drive ability with no compromise on fuel consumption. Of course, it meets the emission norms. I could not detect any smoke.”

Skoda India plans to raise the price of all its models. We can expect the revised prices for all its models by the next month. The upcoming price hike would be insignificant and it would be in the range between 1-1.5% which depends on the model. The original amount of price hike is not known.

A fast decrease in Indian rupee against the US dollar which leads to the increase in cost of raw materials is the reason for this price hike.Still,Skoda assembles its cars in India, and it uses a lot of imported content like the engine and gearbox which are expensive. Skoda will announce its revised prices for all of its models by the August.

Force Motors has introduced a new variant EX for its Force One SUV. The Force one offers two engine options which are mated to five speed manual gear box. The SX and LX variants get 2.2-litre, common rail diesel engine which can produce 141 PS of power at 3800 RPM and 321 Nm of torque at the range between1600-2400 RPM. Force One EX gets 2650cc direct injection intercooled turbo diesel engine which is also employed in Gurkha 4X4 SUV can produce 82 PS of power at 3200 RPM and 230 Nm of torque at the range between 1800-2000 RPM.

Force one EX gets basic features like power steering, A/C and central locking, steel wheels and front fog lamps. The 4WD model which is also known as LX variant includes the features like rear parking sensors, daytime running lamps, wing mirrors with integrated turn indicators, 2DIN audio system with Bluetooth and steering mounted controls, 16-inch alloys with all terrain tyres, leather seats, Anti Braking System (ABS) and Electronic Brake force Distribution (EBD), remote keyless entry, cruise control and shift-on-the fly 4WD system with a limited slip differential.

The 2WD model is also called SX variant gets all features as in the LX Variant but excluding the shift-on-the fly 4WD system with a limited slip differential. The Force One prices are listed below.
Price of 2.5 EX: 7-seater: Rs 8.99 lakh
Price of SX 7-seater Rs 11.71 lakh
Price of 2.2 SX 6-seater: Rs 11.79 lakh
Price of 2.2 SX with ABS 7-seater Rs 11.99 lakh
Price of 2.2 SX with ABS 6-seater: Rs 12.06 lakh

Central Board of Excise and Custom (CBEC), issued notification that the prices of Maruti SX4, Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla are expected to go down by about 3%.All this three sedans would be charged at 27%
The Budget had raised excise duty to 30% from 27% on SUVs with engine capacity of over 1500 cc, length exceeding 4000 mm, and having a ground clearance of 170 mm.

Shekar Viswanathan, vice-chairman, Toyota Kirloskar Motor, said, “I am glad the government has issued the clarification. It was creating a lot of confusion with the dealers and the customers.”

Jnaneswar Sen, Senior VP, Marketing and Sales, Honda Car India, said, “This is a welcome move by the government. Definitely there will be price reduction on around 3%. The excise duty is laid on the ex-factory price and the freight costs are charged on the factory cost. But the freight cost will not change.”

General Motors India was announced that it is going to recall its 114,000 models of Chevrolet Tavera.It said in a statement that the recall is due to “an emission issue involving the Tavera BS3 and an issue with the Tavera BS4 meeting certain specifications”

GM India said that it has to identify a solution to the issues with its Tavera models. It also said “After the proposed solution receives approval from authorities, GMI (GM India) will resume Tavera production and sale, and move forward with its recall and customer notification plan for both the BS3 and BS4 models” .The recall will be applicable only for Chevrolet Tavera BS3 (2.5 litre variant) and BS4 (2 litre variant) vehicles sold between the years of 2005 and 2013.

It will notify the customers to bring their vehicles for service and the affected vehicles will be repaired for free of cost at any of its 280 dealerships across India.

Skoda to unveil its first MQB car, Skoda Octavia on August 9th in India.The new Octavia is much bigger than the Laura. The cost of new Octavia’s top end version will be much higher than the Laura. The 1.8 liter turbo petrol engine can produce maximum power of 180bhp and torque of 350Nm. It also gets two diesel variants which features the same 2.0-litre TDI engine and produce the maximum power of 120bhp and 150bhp respectively. It will also get 105bhp 1.6 diesel variant and a 200-plus-bhp petrol vRS version.

It gets new safety features like lane assistance, automatic braking system, fatigue detection system and nine air bags. It also get s an adaptive cruise control, traffic sign recognition and an intelligent light assistant that switches automatically between low and high beams.

Maruti plans to launch its Wagon R Stingray in India. The Maruti Wagon R Stingray will come with slim grills, a flat bonnet, sleek head lights and an all new bumper with bigger air dam on the front side. It gets reworked tail lamp with lens. The side profile of the car is as same as the current Wagon R

It gets same 1.0-litre K10 series engine which powers the standard variants of the Wagon R. It can develop maximum power of 68PS and a peak torque of 90Nm. The engine will be offered with LPG and CNG. The engine is mated to a five speed manual transmission. We can expect that the Stingray to come with better throttle response than the Wagon R.

Wagon R Stingray is expected to be priced around INR 15,000-20,000 more than the Wagon R and it will be launched during the upcoming festive season.

TATA Motors to unveil its diesel Nano in the middle of next year with an Auto Expo 2014.The diesel Nano gets 3-cylinder motor and revised front and rear bumpers with larger air inlets for better heat dissipation and also open able tail gate. The minor difference between the petrol and diesel Nano is the position of exhaust pipe. In diesel Nano this exhaust pipe present in the left but the petrol Nano has its exhaust in the center.

The diesel Nano will get an open able hatch door for making the car more conventional. On the interior side, it gets all the features available on the petrol version of the car including the glove boxes introduced on the 2013 model.

The Nano diesel gets 800cc which is currently the smallest diesel engine in the world to have a turbocharger can produce maximum power output of 40PS and the torque ranging from 60 Nm to 90 Nm The engine’s turbocharger comes from Honeywell and it is being said that the motor could have ARAI certified fuel efficiency of 40 kmpl.

Picture Credit:autocarindia.com

Actor, Mr. Ajith Kumar who loves fast bikes and cars bought a new BMW S1000RR model. He has a very good collection of speed cars and bikes in his house. This BMW S1000RR bike is a new model from BMW and it gets advanced technical specifications

It gets 999cc, liquid cooled, 4-cylinder, 4stroke in-line engine. It also gets electric starting system, upside- down telescopic fork for front suspension and aluminium 2-sided swing arm for rear suspension.
The image below was taken when the red colored BMW bike was delivered at Ajith’s Valmiki Nagar bungalow near Thiruvanmayur in Chennai.

Bajaj Auto plans to launch two super sports motorcycles in India under its brand Pulsar.Mr.Rajiv Bajaj, MD, Bajaj Auto told shareholders at its annual general meeting “Pulsar is number one sports bike in its category in India and we will launch two super sports bikes under this brand by the middle of this financial year”

He told that these faired bikes will be faster than any other bikes in its segment at present in India. He did not share more details on the new products.

He added that the company would also focus on commuter bike, Discover. He said, “Discover is the second largest selling commuter bike in India. And we will have a single minded focus on this segment and we have been working on two new platforms over the last two years. We plan to launch a range of six new Discover bikes this month and over the next six months”. He also added “Discover will be the star of FY2014”