Monday, May 25, 2009

Can Maruti Alto compete to Tata's Nano

Maruti - the pioneer of 4 wheelers segment has distinct to strip down its popular model – Alto to compete with Nano directly. Another fully loaded model of Alto with the new KB series engine will be inaugurated to compete with models like Hyundai Santro, GM Spark and other similar models in the small car segment.

Maruti is to patch up its small car portfolio completely. The company that sells every second car in India is ready to give fresh competition to other cars in the market. Maruti Swift is its largest selling bounty hatchback model which will be re-introduced as a face-lifted model with fresh design and a new engine. The company is sharply working on upgrading its models for the BS IV norms that become effective next year. New models of Maruti Versa and Zen Estilo are also expected in the market by October this year. A new model of Versa namely O2 will be introduced this year along with Zen Estilo with brand new exteriors and interiors.

Maruti Suzuki MD & CEO S. Nakanishi said, “We have exhausted our quota of new cars with eight new launches in India in the past three years. Now we are looking at beefing up our leadership by refreshing our old portfolio". Maruti will save a immense additive cost on enclosing new cars by introducing better models of its existing and well-established models that will be definitely more value for money for the existing and tested products. So, we have to just wait for new Maruti Alto.

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Sunday, May 24, 2009

Hyundai - Is a Nano Competitor?

I have seen the craze of Tata's "LAKHTAKIYA" car in past days. Nobody knows that Tata Group, especially, Honarable Shri. Ratanji Tata proved his words that he present 1 Lakh Rs. car to their Indian families. Especially for a common man. Still this craze not ends till time in India.

Some days back I have heard a news that Bajaj and Renault Nissan colaboration offers a competitor to Nano. But this car project has already hit several road blocks to make it to the set deadline of 2011.

Recently, one news hits in the Indian market that Hyundai is also planning to build up a Nano-competitor. As we know, Hyundai Motor India is the second largest car manufacturer in the country. India is also its small car manufacturing hub and the company has all the facilities to manufacture a small car in India, if desired.

Now the work begins to develop such Nano Competitor in India credited to Hundai Motors and we may see such a Nano competitor on the road. It is amazing to see who pick the Indian's common man market? Is Hyundai has been proved to be a competitor of Nano? I think, time proved it!

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Saturday, May 16, 2009

Is Audi Q5 pick the Indian Market?

One more pleasure coming on the Indian road. Yeah! It is Audit Q5. Audi is prepare to launch its new SUV Q5 in India on June 05. The brand new SUV was launched in Europe in November 2008. The new Audi Q5 is intermeshed towards brand building and Audi’s plans to blow up its product portfolio in India. BMW has already exceeded Mercedes sales figures in the country and Audi is looking at the same market segment with keen eyes. To ease its growth in India, Audi plans to empower around 30 million Euros in India, till year 2015. Audi already marks its comportment in the luxury SUV segment with its model Q7.

The management has not brought out any official specs about the car or made any comment about the awaited price range as well but is unquestionably playing boastful volumes with this car especially in India and Russia. The car will be imported as a CBU or completely built units in India from Audi’s Ingolstadt facility in Germany.

Followed by the industry sources, the new Q5 will be a 5-seater SUV which can be safely called as a mini-SUV and is very much in line with its big brother Q7. It has taken the styling cues from Q7 series which remains one of the favorites amongst the car buyers and designers. The basic style still features sportiness clubbed with all the luxuries of any basic premium SUV model.



Q5 definitely has an tremendous boot space and with its rear styling like Q7, the Indian SUV surely will be lot more spacious at the back. The distinguished grillwork in the front is iconic of any Audi car but the vertical sports bars make the car look exceedingly posh. The Xenon lamps further lend an belligerent look to the car which seems essential for any SUV. SUVs cannot have the softer looks of a luxury sedan, can they?

Audi bestowed as many as four variants of its SUV Q5 in Europe but in India it plans to contribute only two variants - a 3.0-liter TDI diesel car and 2.0 liter TFSI petrol car. It will sport a 7 speed manual gearbox which is special because it gives up clutch-less manual shifting. Audi’s Quattro 4-wheel system marks its presence in all its models and you can expect the same in Q5 as well. It will have 40:60 front-torque split to give more sporting drive. Q5 has been designed in such a way that it offers good visibility to the driver and even with its compact design; it does not restrain the driver. You can await the huge door mirrors to make a lot of wind noise at high driving speeds.


For the mileage and the actual price of the car, the Indian clients will have to wait till the exact launch date. However, since Audi Q5 is carried to rival BMW X3 in India the waited price of the car is between Rs. 45 -50 lakh. Its current Audi Q7 is prices at Rs. 57 lakhs in India and Q5 will be definitely priced below that.

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Maruti Suzuki's New Launch The Ritz - BS-IV Emission Norms

As Maruti Suzuki, India’s leading car manufacturer, gears up for the set up of its Ritz hatchback, its second launch in less than six months, other companies are also gearing up to gainsay the make with their flashy and stylish hatchbacks.

The premium compact car segment, classified as above Rs 4.5 lakh, will be abuzz over the next year with launches expected from almost all other car makers — Hyundai Motors, Honda Siel Cars (HSCI), Toyota Kirloskar, Fiat Auto, Volkswagen India and Ford India — too.

The Ritz, which Maruti will launch on Friday, will have a new K12M, 1.2 litre petrol engine, exacted to be more fuel effective while being low on discharge. It will also be the first car on Indian roads to have an engine that is compliant with the BS-IV emission norms. It will be Maruti’s eighth small car and is awaited to be priced at about Rs 4.5-5 lakh, although the company has been closelipped on this.

Honda will follow with the launch of the Jazz around June. Because Jazz shares its platform with its stylish but bigger cousin, the City, company officials say it will be priced just a bit below the latter, making it India’s most expensive hatchback.

Jnaneswar Sen, senior V-P (marketing), HSCI, replied “In international markets, the Honda Jazz is priced more than the Honda City. However, due to the benefit of excise duty structure in India, expect the Jazz to be priced slightly lower than the City.” Smaller cars attract less duty in India. The City carries a price tag of Rs 8.25 lakh (ex-showroom, Mumbai).

Italian car maker Fiat will proceed with the introduction of the much-awaited Grande Punto a few weeks later. This car will be Fiat’s second offering in the compact segment, after the Palio, but will be priced higher than it. Rajeev Kapoor, president and CEO, Fiat India Automobiles, said, “The B+ (premium compact) segment is growing at a much faster rate than others. This segment will see the most action and we as a company see great opportunity there. We want to become a volume player with this car.”

This segment will be further explored by Hyundai Motors India (HMIL) when it launches the diesel version of the i20 by the end of the year. The company already has three compact cars — Santro, i10 and the Getz — in the market. HMIL had initially planned to sell about 1,000 units of the i20 in India every month but the demand has surged to almost double that. Hyundai is expecting a further increase in demand with the introduction of a diesel engine.

Market sources say German carmaker Volkswagen is planning to advance the launch of the Polo hatchback to the end of this calendar year from the earlier announced date of early 2010. Though the company’s dealers are not informed about the likely price tag, the car is planned to meet a scheduled launch of December 2009, they say. However, there was no confirmation from the company.

Ford Motor Company of the US will also bring its hatchback to India in early 2010. The vehicle, which is expected to be an upper-B segment car, will be pitted against the models of Maruti, Hyundai and Tata Motors with high localisation content. The compact car will come in both petrol and diesel options.

Experts say the increased focus by car makers on the premium compact segment was expected as the transition to small but premium cars has already started in most developed auto markets.

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Thursday, May 14, 2009

Once again Kawasaki-Bajaj

Just more than 25 years back Japan’s Kawasaki Heavy Industries introduced a high-powered motorcycle in the Indian market with the help of its Indian partner and long-time collaborator, Bajaj Auto.

We have seen that Bajaj and Kawasaki had built up various motorcycles during their coalition of just about two decades. In fact, Kawasaki never set in motion a product under its own brand name without share-out it with Bajaj.

The bond of Kawasaki – Bajaj will see the launch of, maybe, the 250cc Ninja model of Kawasaki. The model will be made at Bajaj’s Chakan facility near Pune. This will help the company save on the high duties imposed on imported bikes.

The 250cc, 30 bhp bike will be imported as completely knocked down kits from Kawasaki’s Thailand plant. This model will be set up before the end of the year.

Masanobu Kawaguchi, Manager (Sales and Operation Control, Asia Division), said that they are still developing to launch the Kawasaki model (most probably the 250cc model) will be in this year.

It is nice to see here that, now Indians can recall their memories what they had experienced while launch of Bajaj-Kawasaki 4S Two Wheeler segment. I have seen that 4S motorcycles running on the road to impose the sweet memories of Kawasaki-Bajaj alliance.

Sports Roadster, Ninja ZX-6R, Z1000 and Vulcan Cruiser are the few names of next generation high-performance bikes of the Kawasaki-Bajaj collaboration. The important thing is, before buying any vehicle modern customer immensely thinks on the availability of its spare part. For above variants, Kawasaki will provide the necessary training and parts back-up to the regional dealers. Such bikes cost around Rs. 1 Lakh.

These bikes can be available for customers at Bajaj’s Probiking showrooms and after some days one can get it from Bajaj’s other dealerships.

Again, Bajaj and Kawasaki organizations come together to develop the miracle in the segment of 2 Wheelers and they are working on technology and design development of such vehicles.

Now, Bajaj has been facing barky upwind in the domestic market. It quite happened worldwide that everybody under the pressure and impact of today’s recession. I am sure, after some days Bajaj proved his words “Naye Bahart Ki, Nayi Manzil ….. HAMARA BAJAJ!”. And I am waiting for the day that explains the true meaning of this advertisement that deeply imposed in everybody’s heart and mind. Yeah! It was the past that, I was also the part of Bajaj family and visiting Bajaj factory to represents my organization at Waluj, Aurangabad frequently to get solved customer complaints. Still I have kept Bajaj’s remembrance – A Chetak Scooter - for that I called it “LAXMI – the goddess of wealth!”

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Global Car Majors to Follow Maruti Route

Global carmakers looking to the blasting Indian car market to relieve their destinies are planning to simulate Maruti Suzuki’s plan of action of establishing hatchback and sedan variants of the same model, as they research ways to cut costs.

Maruti’s Dzire, the highest selling sedan in the country, builds upon its origin to another best-seller, the Swift hatchback. Now companies like the world’s largest carmaker Toyota, Europe’s largest car maker Volkswagen, Japan’s Honda and America’s Ford Motor plan to use the same technology to make both hatchbacks and sedans for their future launches in India.

Toyota’s will use its small car platform, Yaris, to launch a small and a big car in India next year. Volkswagen’s small car Polo as well as Ford’s new small car will have additional sedan variants.

Dzire, priced at Rs 4.6 lakh - 6.7 lakh (diesel and petrol) sold 60,000 units in the last financial year, and some of its variants have a delivery lag of over two month owing to high bookings.

Toyota Kirloskar Motor’s deputy MD for marketing Sundeep Singh says that the company hopes to achieve its sales target in the country with the twin hatchback-sedan strategy. “We have already begun ground work for the small car. While the premium hatchback is for customers upgrading from entry-level cars, the sedan will target customers wanting a bigger car,’’ he says.

Volkswagen, after launching Passat and Jetta sedans in India, will add a third sedan based on the Polo platform. Its main model under the same brand will be a hatchback. “India will be the only market where both versions of the Polo will be made available. Both cars will be positioned in a way to avoid competing with Skoda Fabia,” said Jorg Muller, Volkswagen India president and managing director. The hatchback will be launched later this year and the sedan version will follow after few months.

Auto analysts tracking the Indian market said that as competition intensifies in India, manufacturers will find ways to cut costs and multi-product platforms will be used to remain competitive. “Dzire is just the beginning and we will see many more companies rolling out two or more cars from a single platform,” says Mohit Arora, senior director, JD Power Asia Pacific.

Honda Siel Cars India has gone a step ahead to launch two different cars from a single platform. Its soon-to-be-launched premium small car, Jazz, will be based on the Honda City platform.

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Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Maruti 800 : Still run on the road

Yeah! It is my attachment with "Maruti" (still I am not able to buy Maruti Alto - LXI due to some reasons) the get-go car of the world. I have booked this car just 2 months back. My car loan also has been allowed and waiting for disbursement but mean while some unavoidable circumstances resist me to take it at my home and still I am just dreaming about my dream car. It is my "Maruti Alto - Lxi". I am still trying to collect some amount to buy it within next 3 months. Let us see what happens? (God! Pleeeeeeease help me! My kid asking me everyday about it! Just do something for me.)

Actually some days before I have also read out the news that Maruti 800 phased out from the market coz the BS IV norms. But I thinks that one day comes and the Maruti management take out some strategic decision to alive this basic model for the Indian people. Till time Nano may runs on the road to show its importance but I feel and sense that there is no such vehicle made till date that competes my Maruti.

I have firm on my decisions because I have seen that my cousin sister's Maruti 800 AC still running without any difficulties on the road of Chembur. It is actually 10 years back model. I have just finished my driving class and it is the first day I am on driving wheel to take a ride of Maruti 800. It just simply marvelous. See, just pass out student from the driving class who has been trained within a month on another car i.e., Santro Zing and having 100% experience about the Power Steering technique. No! I do not face any difficulty while the rid of 10 years old Maruti 800 AC. It is the reason I have bound on my decision to buy only Maruti 800's variant - the "Maruti Alto - Lxi".

Now, one news knocked at the door whiles I am reading a newspaper that Maruti 800 never phased out from the market and really I am very glad to read it. I just say here, thanks to Maruti's management, especially, Mr. I V Rao, Managing Director, MSIL that they just alive the people's dream.

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