Motoroids.com is reporting that the Honda Jazz will be facelifted and that this version will be launched on the 18th of August, 2011. The Jazz sells in abysmal numbers and if it all the news of the facelift and the date of launch is true, then one hopes that the Jazz also sees some price correction. Considering the fact that Honda is concentrating all its energies on the launch of the Brio hatchback, will the Jazz facelift have any importance at this time? Only time will tell.
Yearly Archives: 2011
According to a report being carried by Indiancarsbikes.in, Sachin Tendulkar and possibly Yuvraj Singh have been approached by the promoters of i1 Super Series to become team owners. This series will have seven races spread over seven weekends starting from the 18th of December, 2011. Each weekend will have two races on Saturday and Sunday and will be held in seven Asian cities. This series it seems proposes to work during the time that Formula 1 is taking a break. Sachin Tendulkar is a known F1 fan and it remains to be seen if he actually becomes a franchisee of a team.
For the first time ever a date has emerged for the possible launch of the W201 SUV from Mahindra. Autocar India.com is saying that the 26th of September, 2011 is the probable date of launch of the yet to be named SUV. This SUV is ground breaking for Mahindra. It is its first ever monocoque vehicle and the first front wheel drive (in the 4×2 version) and therefore Mahindra has been testing it extensively to iron out all the glitches and deliver a trouble free vehicle from day one.
Picture courtesy: Autocar India.com
The web is carrying stories about a facelift for the Tata Indica Vista whose sales have been slowing down. Tata is supposed to be making some changes to the car to revive interest in it. While some websites are saying that the revamped car will be launched on the 15th of this month, others say that it is the 22nd. The car will apparently have the double barrel head lamps from the Manza as also the front grille. It remains to be seen if those changes can do anything substantial for Tata since the sales of the Manza also have been slowing down.
Honda and Hero may have split their JV but Hero MotoCorp (as the company is now called) will still be sourcing technology from Honda at least till 2014. A few days ago we had brought spy pics of a heavily camouflaged test mule and Motoroids.com have identified what lies beneath that camouflage. They believe that the bike in question is the Honda NXR 150 Bros. This bike is sold in Brazil.
Maruti’s new Swift is already a run away hit and it has not even been launched in India as yet. It is believed to have clocked over 40,000 bookings and dealers are still taking new bookings. Thanks to the sky rocketing prices of petrol, the focus is on diesel cars and a big majority of the bookings are for the diesel engined variants. Maruti has decided to cut the export of the diesel engine numbers so as to clear the long waiting list of Indian customers. In the last month Maruti showed negative growth and it would like to correct that anomaly at the earliest, and hence this move.
General Motors India is part owned by the Chinese SAIC group. For sometime now there has been talk of the Chinese products making it into India through GM India. The ageing and non-selling Aveo and Aveo U-VA are most likely to be replaced by the Chinese developed Sail twins (sedan and hatchback) rather than by the Sonic twins (which is a pity if indeed this is true). But GM is also believed to be using Chinese Wuling products such as pick ups and vans to take on established players. The Wuling Hong Tu and Hong Guang are supposed to be the vehicles targetting the Maruti Eeco and the Mahindra Xylo respectively. Giving credence to these rumours is the fact that both the vehicles have been caught testing by Mr. Sidh who has posted pictures on Carwale.com and Auto Bild India.com
Pictures Courtesy: Autobild India and Carwale
Hong Tu
Hong Guang
This year when the auto industry and most of the leading players have been showing negative growth, GM India has been one of the few players to show a 34% growth so far. Its head honcho Karl Slym believes that GM can continue to show double figure growth for the rest of the year and that by the end of the year the growth of GM’s sales would be around 20% more than the last year. Karl Slym has ruled out the possibility of bringing Cadillac in anytime soon and says that GM is focussing its energies on the Chevrolet brand. The launch of the diesel Beat and consolidation of its numbers one assumes is top priority for GM now.
Audi has launched the newest version of the A6 in India to do battle with the Mercedes E Class and the BMW 5 Series cars. Audi began its Indian innings with the launch of the previous generation A6 and now the time has come for the latest generation car. The price band is from Rs. 37.70 lakhs to 46.95 lakhs for the Quattro version of the car.
Harley Davidson is really gung ho about the Indian market. It has now launched the Fat Boy Special at Rs. 19.70 lakhs. Harley Davidson motorcycles are expensive but that does not seem to deter Indian buyers from buying them.
