Nano, the wheels that millions of Indians have been waiting to drive, on Monday hit the roads and waved goodbye to Tata Motors' enduring image as a truckmaker.
New campaigns rev up their marketing pitch, while new challengers such as Tata Motors with the Zest promise to put up a spirited fight
The German car maker has the best engine along with great driving dynamics.
Automobile manufacturer General Motors on Wednesday cut the price of its vehicles by up to Rs 30,500, following the government reducing excise duty.
The price of the company's premium hatchback Fusion has been reduced by Rs 18,500, Ford India said in a statement. Likewise the mid-sized sedan Fiesta's price was cut between Rs 21,000 and Rs 25,000, while that of sports-utility vehicle Endeavour has been reduced by Rs 47,000-Rs 54,000.
In the domestic market, the car has been well accepted and currently the company has over 80,000 bookings for the model.
Renault will recall 646 units of hatchback Pulse and mid-sized sedan Scala in India, manufactured between September 2011-July 2012, to fix faulty driver side air bags.
The A-Star will be available at an introductory price ranging from Rs 3,47,000 to Rs 4,12,000. A-Star is Maruti's fifth global model which would be manufactured only in India. The company plans to sell 50,000 units in the domestic market, while targets to export 1 lakh units.
Maruti Suzuki's runaway success with 'Swift' has crossed a new milestone in sales -- 200,000 units -- with the car becoming one of the fastest selling models in India since its launch three years ago to achieve this feat. "Maruti Swift has attained new benchmarks very swiftly. It has emerged as the fastest selling car in India by completing the 200,000 units sales mark in less than 36 months," a company official said.
The fully-loaded version of the car costs around Rs 2.5 lakh and boasts of facilities, including AC, power window and centralised locking, like any other small, premium hatch-back. The fully-charged car would run for 110 km with AC switched on and another 20 kms without AC. It could give a maximum speed of 55 kmph and was likely to give a tight competition to the two-door fibre-bodied battery car Reva, introduced a few years back in the country.
People have embraced these compact cars because they are not only well appointed, but are also more practical, cheaper to own, have higher fuel efficiency, and are easy to park.
Maruti Suzuki's next offering, the A-Star, a premium hatchback car, will be the first vehicle to be exported from the company's car terminal at Mundra Port, which is expected to be operational by December 2008. A joint venture between Maruti Suzuki and Mundra Port and Special Economic Zone (MPSEZ), the terminal is being set up with an investment of Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion).
Market leader Maruti Suzuki on Tuesday unveiled a new sedan, Swift DZiRE, to be launched on March 29 priced below the company's existing car SX4. The new car will be available in both petrol and diesel variants. The petrol variant may be priced between Rs 4.75 to Rs 5 lakh, while the diesel variant would be available for above Rs 5.5 lakh. Maruti is also expanding the capacity of its plant in Manesar to 3 lakh units per annum by 2010, up from the existing about 1.4lakh units.
Audi sold 10,851 units last year, higher than Mercedes-Benz, which sold 10,201 units.
The initial purchase cost for an electric car may be high, but savings on fuel will help it pay back for itself in just a couple of years, if not faster.
The Italian car company Fiat's much-awaited launch of the year, Grande Punto hatchback, which is expected to take on Maruti Suzuki's Swift and Hyundai's Getz, will not be priced close to the two models.
"We plan to launch the new 'i10' model with 1.2L petrol engine in the next two months. It will be powerful by an additional 15 bhp against the existing one, which comes in a 1.1L engine," a Hyundai Motor India Limited's spokesperson told reporters on the sidelines of induction ceremony of third batch of students traffic volunteers in New Delhi.
Renault Kwid is also the longest of the lot and at 3680mm length, the vehicle may turn out to be the most spacious in its segment.
As fuel prices rise, here's a list of cars that will help you save fuel and money too!
Reeling under increasing input costs, especially steel, country's biggest car maker Maruti Suzuki India has hiked prices of its products across various models between Rs 1,000 and Rs 18,000. The company has hiked the price of its latest model Swift Dzire by Rs 18,000. It had launched the sedan with an introductory price ranging Rs 4.49 lakh and Rs 6 lakh across different variants.
Petrol variants of the car are priced between Rs 6.38-7.09 lakh.
Skoda Auto is considering shifting the production of the Fabia, its compact hatchback, to parent company Volkswagen's Chakan plant in Pune. At present, Skoda is manufacturing cars at its Aurangabad plant. The surge in demand has pushed the waiting period for the car to more than 2 months.
Having introduced common rail direct injection engine in its Indigo XL sedan, Tata Motors has decided to introduce the technology in all diesel models of its Indigo and Indica cars within next 4 to 6 months.
'i10', the company's latest offering to the market, would now be available between Rs 3.26 lakh and Rs 5.25 lakh, cheaper by up to Rs 18,381. HMIL also said its premium hatchback 'Getz' would be cheaper by Rs 13,413-Rs 19,422 across different variants.
India is the first country to launch the second generation Amaze and the car has been developed considering the needs and aspirations of Indian customers
Tata Motors on Monday announced its foray into passenger vehicle segment of the Ghanian market with the launch of its car and multi-utility vehicles in the country.
The auto expo, which will open for the general public on January 11, will witness four global launches including the much awaited Tata's Rs one lakh car and Maruti Suzuki's hatchback A-Star concept.
The 2015 Ford Figo is a completely new product and does not share anything with its earlier model
The Maruti Celerio diesel is a peppy car to drive with the right ergonomics.
Hyundai Motor India said on Tuesday it will hike prices of its cars across all models between 2.3 per cent by January 2008 owing to rising input and freight costs. The official said the price rise was due to the rising input costs and freight cost. HMIL's product range starts from the flagship Santro, the base model of which is priced at Rs 2,70,000, while its top end Sonata Embera is priced at Rs 15,71,000.
The company's best selling hatch Alto would come at a discount of Rs 24,500, while Wagon-R petrol and LPG would come cheaper by Rs 45,000 and Rs 24,500 respectively. A discount of Rs 48,000 is being offered on Zen Estilo. The discount being offered across various models also includes finance payouts and exchange bonus apart from the customer offer.
Ford India on Tuesday launched a diesel variant of its premium hatchback Ford Fusion priced at Rs 659,000
The i20, part of the i family, will slot between the smaller and ultra-successful i10 and the larger i30 super hatch.
Car market leader Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MSIL) on Saturday reported a 24 per cent jump in its car sales in the domestic market during November at 65,216 units against 52,574 units in the corresponding month last year.
Japanese automaker Honda Motors is rolling out its small car in India by the last quarter of calendar 2009.
Maruti Suzuki India continued its grip in the passenger vehicles market in India with five of its models in the top ten best selling models in June.
Pricing will be competitive, along the lines of the Maruti Celerio and the Hyundai Grand i10
General Motors India reported on Monday a 64 per cent increase in its domestic vehicle sales during September at 5,751 units against 3,506 units in the same month last year. Mahindra and Mahindra reported on Monday a 24.9 per cent increase.
Today, GMI has a brand new car factory, an existing one that runs on three shifts to produce 65,000 cars, two new small cars, a successful utility vehicle. . . looks like GMI is getting serious about India.
