Automobilestillnow

The Ssangyong Tivoli is scheduled to go on sale in Korea around June. It will rival the likes of the Skoda Yeti and the Renault Duster in international markets, and is expected to be an attractive and strong option for customers looking for a good value-for-money compact SUV. Now, the carmaker is considering the Tivoli for the Indian market too. The Tivoli comes with a 124bhp, 1.6-litre naturally aspirated petrol engine or a 113bhp 1.6-litre diesel. Transmission options include a six-speed manual gearbox or a six-speed automatic. The Tivoli can either be had as a 4x2 or a 4x4. Although still in the pipeline, if Mahindra actually works to bring the Tivoli here, it is likely to equip the car with the new 1.5-litre diesel being developed in-house. The engine once ready will be carried in Mahindra's new compact SUV (U301), and plunking it in the Tivoli will help keep costs in check, as the engines come from the same family. This crossover is around 4.2m long, has an a...

Mercedes-Benz launched the armoured variant of its S-class, the S 600 Guard, in India on Thursday at Rs 8.9 crore (ex-showroom, Delhi). Mercedes has called its latest heavily armoured offering ‘one of the safest luxury spots on earth’. The other ‘spots’ competing with the S 600 Guard are the BMW 7 Series High Security and the Audi's A8 L Security that also offer high levels of protection along with the luxury quotient. While the S 600 Guard, or a Pullman version of it, is the car favoured by the President of India, the BMW 7 Series High Security has been transporting India’s Prime Ministers since 2003. So let’s pit the three fortresses against each other and see how they stack up, shall we? Under the hood While both the S 600 Guard and BMW 760Li High Security have massive V12’s under its hood, the Audi A8 L Security is powered by a 6.0litre W12 engine that also powers the Bentleys. The engine in the 7 series is slightly more powerful than the S-class and much powerful...

The average Indian buyer may not know it, but Nissan does a whole lot more than the Micra, Sunny, Terrano and Evalia. And that’s something Nissan India wants to make a noise about. Ironically, it wants to do so by bringing in the carmaker’s quietest model yet, the unique Leaf. Unique not for its interesting shape but its source of propulsion.  Much like the Mahindra e2o we are more familiar with, the Leaf has no traditional engine and relies on an 80kW (107bhp) electric motor. The motor draws power from a 48-module lithium-ion battery (marginally larger than what’s at the back of your phone!) stacked under the cabin. It takes eight hours to fully juice up the battery, that can power the car for up to a claimed 160km. Of course, you’ll work through the charge much faster if you drive with a heavy foot but the regenerative brakes are there to maximise the distance before you need to bring out the power cable. The Leaf cabin has its interesting elements and is pretty well-fin...

India’s largest self-drive service provider, MYLES, has now started its services in the city of Coimbatore. With this addition, the car sharing and self- drive service by Carzonrent is now present in 21 cities and more than a 100 locations. All MYLES cars are centrally tracked through GPS technologies which allow the customers to find a car within walking distance of their location through a mobile application. At present, MYLES has a fleet of Toyota Etios cars in Coimbatore. The sharing and self-drive service allows everyone to have a car without the burden of owning one. The self-driven car operator’s space has recently witnessed quite a buzz with players such as Car Club and ZoomCar also being actively involved in expansion activities. While Car Club plans to invest Rs 180 crore in the next three years to expand its self-driven car fleet to a strength of 5,000 cars from the current 300, Carzonrent is keen on developing the MYLES fleet to around 40,000 in the next fiv...

Ever since its launch in 2005, the Toyota Innova has been a runaway success for the Japanese carmaker in India. Toyota sold more than half a million Innovas in India without making too many changes; it did get a few, like the introduction of an intercooler, a few cosmetic changes and additions to the equipment list. Here are the changes implemented on the Innova over the years: 2005: On February 24, Toyota launched the Innova with a choice of a 2.0-litre VVT-I petrol and a 2.5-litre D-4D diesel engines. The pricing started from Rs 6.82 lakh and Rs 7.42 lakh for the base petrol and diesel variants.     2005 Toyota Innova 2009: Major changes include the addition of an intercooler; however no changes were seen in power and torque figures. Cosmetically, a new chin and grille were added.   2009 Toyota Innova      2011: The second facelift gave the Innova a new bumper, grille, new headlights and newly designed alloy wheels too. ...

Having launched the Celerio ZXi AMT, Maruti is now readying the Celerio diesel for its launch. The diesel Celerio, badged as Celerio DDiS125, uses an 800cc two-cylinder diesel engine which is expected to make it the most fuel-efficient car in the market. Recent spy pictures reveal that Maruti has been stocking up on demo cars of the Celerio DDiS125 at its Manesar plant. The cars, all bearing graphics advertising the model as Celerio DDiS125 were spotted at the plant’s stockyard awaiting delivery to dealerships. The DDiS125 badge is likely to be referring to the torque output of the diesel motor, expected to develop around 12.7kgm (125Nm) of torque and around 45bhp.  The closest rivals — the Chevrolet Beat diesel and the Hyundai Grand i10 diesel — develop around 15.29kgm and 16.31kgm respectively from their larger capacity motors. The Celerio’s 800cc diesel powerplant will become the smallest in the segment and could make the Celerio the most fuel efficient in the mark...

The Tata ‘Kite’ hatchback and compact sedan were spotted testing late last year, with the company saying that the hatchback version could be expected sometime in 2015 with the sedan to follow suit. It was clear even from the heavily camouflage that the cars' styling was all-new and not constrained like with the Zest and Bolt. Unlike the current Zest sedan and Bolt hatchback which are heavily reworked versions of the Manza sedan and Vista hatchback, the new ‘Kite 4’ compact hatchback and ‘Kite 5’ sedan have been designed from the ground up. Designed by Tata’s European Technical Centre (TMETC), the new compact hatchback and sedan get all-new styling with tapering roof-lines and rising window lines and bears no relation to any of Tata’s previous models. The sedan also gets additional chrome trim to give it a more upmarket look. The chassis, based on the Indica’s XO platform is also heavily reworked to improve refinement and rigidity, with the only similarities being the engi...

Suzuki has announced that its upcoming premium hatchback, the YRA, will be powered by the company’s new 1.0-litre Boosterjet turbo-petrol engine in the international market. Suzuki has also said that the next-gen Swift will also receive the 1.0-litre unit. The YRA premium hatchback was showcased at the Geneva motor show as the  iK-2 concept  and featured the 1.0-litre Boosterjet unit. This engine is a part of Suzuki’s new family of direct injection turbocharged petrol engines which also includes a  larger 1.4-litre unit , likely to be introduced in the Chinese market. The  YRA hatchback  will be positioned above the Swift when it goes on sale internationally and in India sometime next year, and will compete with the likes of the Hyundai i20 and  Honda Jazz . However, Suzuki has not confirmed if the new 1.0-litre Boosterjet turbo-petrol engine will make its way to the Indian market in the near future. Suzuki has confirmed that it will be laun...

Mercedes has started the local assembly of its C 220 CDI model at its plant in Chakan, Pune following a strong demand for the model here. The assembled model’s prices now start at Rs 37.90 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi) as against Rs 39.90 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi) for the CBU model.  Mercedes has also announced that the C 220 CDI now gets up to 60 percent of its parts from indigenous sources. Eberhard Kern, managing director and CEO, Mercedes-Benz India said, “We are delighted that the ‘World Car of the Year’, the new C-Class, will now be ‘Made in India’ at our world-class production facility, here in Pune. Unparalleled quality has been Mercedes-Benz’s key competitive strength and underlines our prowess in automotive manufacturing across the globe. We are glad to commence the local production of the C 220 CDI and are confident that we will be able to cater to the increasing demand of this world winner for our discerning customers. The local production of the new C 220 CDI w...

Maruti Suzuki has introduced its 15 millionth production car in the form of a Dzire VDi from its Manesar plant. The company also becomes the first carmaker in the country to cross the 15- million vehicle mark in the domestic market. Maruti achieved this landmark in 31 years and 5 months, since the day the first Maruti 800 rolled out of the production line at the company’s Gurgaon plant, way back in 1983. The leading contributor in achieving this milestone was the Alto which sold around 3.1 million units since it entered production. Second in the list was the 800 — the car that introduced the company to the market — which sold 2.9 million units in its entire lifetime. Other major contributors included the Omni, the Wagon R, the Swift and the Dzire. Maruti’s current medium term goal is to sell 2 million units on an annual basis by the year 2020. The company is currently expanding its product line-up as well as entering new segments and improving its current sales and serv...

Maruti has launched the top-spec Celerio ZXi with AMT gearbox. The AMT was originally offered only in the lower LXi and VXi trim levels, but to celebrate the car’s first anniversary, the company has now introduced the system in the ZXi model as well. Last month, we broke the news that Maruti was considering launching the top-spec Celerio ZXi with the AMT gearbox   and now the company has confirmed its launch. Over and above the features on the VXi AMT, the ZXi AMT exterior gets additions such as body coloured door handles and wing mirrors with incorporated turn indicators, electrically adjustable wing mirrors and a rear wash-wiper. On the inside, the ZXi AMT gets remote locking, fabric door inserts, steering-mounted audio controls, integrated audio system with USB, aux and Bluetooth connectivity, outside temperature display, driver seat belt reminder, tilt adjust steering and driver airbag. The Maruti Celerio ZXI AMT is priced at Rs 4.99 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi).

Audi today launched the face lifted version of its already bonkers RS7 in India, more than a year after launching its predecessor, with a few subtle nip and tucks. Although the RS7 facelift is no longer the most powerful road car produced by Audi, since the launch of the limited-edition R8 LMX supercar, it still has a lot of gadgetry on offer to enthuse the buyer who is willing to part with Rs 1.4 crore. For what it's worth the RS7 is still the most powerful Audi road car in production, since all 99 units of the LMX have found takers. The engineers have reworked the headlights on the RS7 Sportback with integrated dynamic turn signals, and also offer Audi’s Matrix LED headlamps as an option, much like the ones seen in the A8 facelift. Among the other cosmetic changes to its exterior, the tail-lights have a new interior design (also with dynamic indicators), there is a new grille with a black honeycomb typically seen in RS models, plus unique air inlets. Inside, th...

Mahindra's U301 compact SUV has the potential to be a game changer for the Indian utility vehicle maker. Expected to be sold at a slight premium over the Bolero, which will carry on in the line-up the yet-to-be-named, compact SUV or U301 is in a fairly advanced stage of development. Mahindra, however, is currently putting its shoulder to the wheel trying to make the U301 more efficient. While its earlier products have done well in this area, the new U301 is currently unable to match efficiency levels set by the vehicle it is benchmarked against — the Quanto. This has brought up a lot of issues for the company's engineers. Gear ratios are being played around with, turbo and intercooler plumbing are being looked at and changes are also being made to the ECU. Mahindra should eventually crack the issue and the U301 should get an impressive ARAI- tested fuel economy figure, but for now, if you spot a pair of U301's followed by a Quanto you can guess what is being teste...

Ford has been testing an innovative engine management system on the 1.0-litre EcoBoost engine with the aim to enhance efficiency. Engineers at Ford have developed a new dual-mass flywheel to allow cylinder deactivation to take place at a wider range of engine loads and speeds, while minimising noise and vibration levels. Last year, the 1.0-litre EcoBoost engine became the first ever to be named 'International Engine of the Year' three years running. The engine uses a combination of variable valve timing, turbocharging and direct fuel injection to help boost power while achieving efficiency. For the purpose of testing, Ford equipped a Focus 1.0-litre EcoBoost with a cylinder deactivation hardware that allowed engineers to monitor deactivation of one cylinder, and also a rolling cylinder deactivation to run the engine in half-engine mode. The company presented the test results at the Vienna Engine Symposium with on-road testing results showing a boost in efficiency ...

Lotus has said that it is currently developing a crossover SUV to rival the likes of the Porsche Macan. Lotus CEO, Jean-Marc Gales has called the under-development model 'the world’s first lightweight SUV'. The crossover SUV will become the first model to be jointly developed by Lotus, its Malaysian owners Proton, and Chinese engineering firm Goldstar Heavy Industrial. The new car is expected to go into production at Lotus’ new production plant in China sometime in 2019. The company has said that its first step will be to target the Chinese market before moving to other markets internationally. The crossover will follow Lotus’ tradition and have a name beginning with the letter ‘E’. This is part of Gales’ new development and expansion plan revealed last year which mentioned the development of a SUV, alongside all-new versions of its sports car models. On the design front, the car is expected to get styling cues from the company’s sports cars with extensive use of ...

Fiscal year 2015-16 is off to a great start for the top industry players, with sales figures in April displaying a rise from 2014. The manufacturers that earned increased sales include Maruti Suzuki, Honda, Hyundai and Toyota. Maruti Suzuki India clocked a 27 percent growth in April 2015 with sales of 1,00,709 cars (April 2014: 79,119). The Alto and Wagon R together sold 35,403 units, up 36 percent from April 2014's 26,043 units. The Swift, Ritz, Celerio, and Dzire sold a combined 42,297 units, up 8.7 percent (April 2014: 38,926), while the Ciaz sold over 4,000 units. The Omni and Eeco sold a total of 12,069 units, up 45 percent. The models that reflected a decline from last year were the Ertiga MPV, along with the Gypsy and Grand Vitara, selling 4,452 units, an 11 percent drop from the 5,011 units sold in April 2014. Honda Cars India, recorded domestic sales of 12,636 units in April 2015, up 14 percent (April 2014: 11,040). The sales comprised 8,203 Citys, 2,862 Amaze se...

The FAME-India scheme (Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric vehicles in India), recently introduced by the Indian government, already seems to be helping hybrid and electric cars. With Mahindra being the first to take advantage of the scheme and slashing the prices of its EV — the e2o, it is now learnt that Toyota will be the first carmaker to benefit from sops directed towards hybrids. The Japanese carmaker will be launching the new Camry hybrid today. Although prices are still awaited, Toyota has received relief of around Rs 70,000 on the price of the Camry. For buyers, this is great news, as the manufacturer has directed all of the benefits to prospective owners. Under Phase I of the FAME scheme, the government has sanctioned Rs 795 crore spanning the fiscal years 2015-16 and 2016-17. Major incentives are as follows: - Rs 13,000 to Rs 1,24,000 for sub-4-metre four-wheelers - Rs 11,000 to Rs 1,38,000 for four-wheelers above 4-metres long It may not seem l...

Since its launch in 2009, the Fortuner has been the best-selling premium SUV in India. Now, Toyota is working on the second-generation of the popular SUV and it is expected to make its way to our showrooms soon. Images leaked online paved way for the illustration that you see above. The Fortuner now looks more upmarket and even more radical than its stable sibling – the Innova. The upright look of a traditional body-on-frame SUV has been ditched, and instead, its styling is edgy in both profile and detail. At the front, the high bonnet height has been retained but the slim headlight pods are heavily peeled back and there’s a prominent chrome grille. The Fortuner also gets a steeply raked windscreen like on the new Innova and there’s an appealing kink in the shoulder line just above the rear wheel arches. The entire rear of the car now gets a pillar-less look, complete with a wraparound rear windscreen. Expected to be built on the updated version of the IMV platform, this ...