Scoop: Mahindra mini Xylo to be named ‘Quanto’, launch soon

     The much hyped Mahindra’s mini Xylo will be named as ‘Quanto’, the name being in line with Mahindra vehicle’s ending with the letter ‘O’. We in our earlier post had showed spy pictures of the mini Xylo, naaa Mahindra Qunato doing testing rounds. We had also mentioned about a new 1.5L 3 cylinder mHawk diesel engine developed by Mahindra for Quanto.

     The Quanto uses the same Xylo’s latter on frame platform but the chassis has been shortened to make the overall length of the vehicle to come under 4 meters. Mahindra Quanto features short front and rear overhangs, redesigned tail lamps, spare wheel on the rear door and smaller wheels. Because of smaller wheels, the wheelbase would be reduced considerably and hence the Quanto will have a better ride than its bigger brother Xylo.

     The interiors including the dashboard will the same as that of Xylo and so do the suspension settings. Mahindra has removed one cylinder from 2.2L mHawk diesel engine and reduced the reaming 3 cylinder bores to develop a 1.5L diesel engine for this vehicle which still produces 100 Bhp of power. A seven seater version (the rear two seats facing each other like the ones in Bolero) is likely to come later on which might help fleet operators to push two more seats in their business.

Picture Source: Team-Bhp

Keep visiting Automobile Planet as we like to offer much more information about the Mahindra Quanto...

Continue Reading | comments

Scoop: Renault Scala spied just before the launch

     Ever since Renault hinted about a sedan launch from its stable, we had lot of curiosity of how would a Renault sedan would look. But what we see now is just a rebadged Nissan Sunny which will be sold in the name of Renault Scala in India. Of course you can see little changes in the front and rear which make Scala look bit different than the Sunny.

     To remind, Renault had launched Pulse which is again a rebadged Micra. The Pulse is selling less than quarter of the Micra sales and its surprising to see what prompted Renault to launch a Nissan car again with its badge. Renault has already done in mistake in the form of Logon which has dented its image of a premium car maker and we doubt these strategies of cost cutting by means of badge and light cosmetic change will restore Renault’s brand identity.

     Coming back to Scala, the front end reminds you of the Pulse, the you Bulgarian Bulldog front grill looks prominent. We came across many articles where Pulse face has been appreciated compared to the Micra’s we feel the Nissan cars have a better looking front end. In the rear you find redesigned tail lamps which indeed look better than the Sunny. As seen in the picture, the alloy wheels have been carried from the Pulse and no changes in the interior except for the Renault logo on the steering wheel.

     The Scala is powered by a set of 1.5L petrol and diesel engines with 98 and 85 bhp respectively. Yes they are the same engines which power the Nissan sedan. Renault will price Scala bit higher than the Sunny, keeping in mind the brand hierarchy in the Renault-Nissan Alliance.

Final words from us – Renault has a long way to go in India!!!

Picture Source: Autocarindia

Continue Reading | comments

Next generation Maruti 800/Alto spied testing

     Maruti Suzuki recently stopped the production of the iconic ‘800’ car and announced the new model will come by this year end. Oncars.in has provided us some spy pictures of the new 800/Alto from all the three angles. Earlier Autocarindia had also posted a spy picture of the new car tough taken from far. Here are the pictures, thanks to Oncars.in 

Continue Reading | comments (1)

Scoop: Renault Duster spied in India

     The Renault’s SUV for India, the Duster has been spied for first time in India. According to Renault’s Indian website, the Duster will be launched in India in September next year, which means we see Duster on Indian roads by March-April 2012. The Duster will be Renault’s 4th launch after Fluence, Koleos and Pulse. The Pulse small car which is based on Nissan Micra will be officially launched at Auto Expo 2012 in January.


     The Duster is a key vehicle in Renault’s Indian portfolio. The current launches – Fluence and Koleos have not made a good impact on the Indian customers, thanks to their high prices and slump in car sales. This leaves Renault to depend heavily on the Pulse and Duster. Since Pulse is just a facelift of Nissan Micra, we doubt it will have anything to turn around Renault’s fortune. The only vehicle which according to us can keep the Renault on a success path is the Duster, but of course if Renault prices Duster sensibly.

     Now coming back to the spy picture of the Duster, Autocarindia could manage to get couple of snaps which the SUV was undergoing test runs. We have often seen car manufacturers test their new vehicles with camouflage in India before it is launched. There was a speculation about Duster’s launch in India, but since it has been spied here, it is definitely going to be launched in India.


     According to Autocarindia, the Duster will be available in 5 variants. The base variant will come with a 1.6 L petrol engine and is likely to be priced at Rs. 7 lakh. There will be two versions of diesel engine, both with 1.5L capacity (currently powering the Fluence) but with different power outputs. An entry level diesel variant will have 85 Bhp output where as the top of the line variant will get 110 Bhp output engine.

     Since the Duster is based on Logan platform, it will have the same interiors and switches of the Logan. But we guess Renault redesign the Duster interior to keep it fresh and attractive. The Duster will not come into under 4 meter length mark, so it will not have any excises sops. But according to sources, the Duster range in India will be priced between Rs. 7 -11 lakh. Let’s wait and see what Renault does.

Picture Source: Autocarindia

Continue Reading | comments

Scoop: Hyundai EON clear images

     India’s leading automobile magazine Autocarindia has posted in its website the clear images of the soon to be launched Hyundai’s small car EON. Autocarindia itself had posted a rendered picture of Hyundai EON few days back.

     The EON in the picture looks very similar to the renderings mentioned earlier. No doubt the EON is designed on Hyundai’s Fluidic Sculpture design philosophy with lots of creases and scoops all over the car. The front end looks familiar with other Hyundai’s but the EON looks bolder with wider and prominent bumper. The new grill with chrome bar adds to the EONs dynamism. Watch out the nicely scooped out fog lamp slots. The headlamps have so many curvatures just like the new generation Elantra.

     From the side you can notice the prominent shoulder line which extends right from the headlamps to the rear tail lamps in a wave pattern. The front and rear wheel arches look bulky which makes the tyres looks tiny. The side glass profile and rear door has been designed beautifully but we feel lot of design curves will hinder all round visibility to the driver. The C pillar incorporated with tail lamps look fantastic from the cars side profile.

     The rear is not as attractive as expected after seeing the car from the front and side angle. The rear glass is crescent shaped with huge tail lamps by the side of it. The tail lamps have many sharp edges to gel with the crescent shaped rear glass.


     Overall we can say, Hyundai has good prospectus with the EON as it will be targeted against Maruti Alto and EON definitely looks prettier than the Alto. But honestly speaking Hyundai has overdesigned the EON with its Fluidic theme. The EON could have been much simpler with minimal use of Fluidic design philosophy as the design theme looks good on bigger cars compared to the small ones.


     EON meaning ‘for a long time’ will be replacing the 13 year old Santro and Hyundai aims EON to go on for a long time in India just like the Santro did. The same Santro’s 3 cylinder petrol engine will power EON. EON will get lots of features which were not present in Santro, but of course in a top end variant.

Continue Reading | comments

Scoop: Renault’s small car for India is 'Modus', spied testing in Chennai

     At the time of the launch of Fluence sedan, Renault in its Indian website had mentioned about a small car for India supposed to be launched at Auto Expo 2012. The car shown in the website was covered, which has been revealed now. The small car will be Renault Modus and guess what? Renault on its website now has mentioned about its launch in this winter. This means the Modus will be launched in India by November this year. We guess the launch of new Swift and Etios Liva has prompted Renault to fasten its small car launch.

     The Modus has been spied being tested in Chennai where Renault in association with Nissan has its manufacturing plant. The spy pictures were provided by Mr. JRAJE of Team-Bhp. Though only the rear spy pictures of the car is available, we googled for Modus and found the vehicle. We are sharing the complete picture of the car with you folks…

Continue Reading | comments

Scoop: Maruti R3 clear images

     Till now we had been seeing the spy pictures of the Maruti R3 MPV, now Carwale.com has provided us the clear images of the R3 MPV.


     The R3 bears some resemblance with the new Swift, but the entire front end including the headlamps has no association with the Swift. In fact the R3 MPV is built on the extended Ritz platform.


     The side profile looks impressive and one gets a feeling of a big vehicle, which the R3 is indeed. The wrap around tail lamps looks great as well. Overall we would say the R3 has been designed will by Maruti Suzuki. It is all about the price now which decides the R3 fate in Indian market.

Image Source: Carwale & Autobuild

Continue Reading | comments

Scoop: New Maruti small car spied

     Thanks to Autocarindia for the spy picture of the new Maruti small car. We believe, the new Maruti small car was spied being tested near the Gurgaon factory.

     From the picture it is seen that the overall architecture of the new Maruti small car resembles that of the M800. Since the company discontinued the legendary M800, it has been working on its successor which could be priced close to Rs. 2 lakh to compete against the Tata Nano.It will be launched next year and its presence in the Auto Expo 2012 cannot be ruled out. 

     The new Maruti small car is built on the Alto platform and will be powered by the same 796cc Alto engine. The small car has been developed in-house in keeping the Indian conditions in mind.

     As seen from the spy picture, the car will get wraparound head lamps and the grill looks to be redesigned of Alto’s. The car looks to be taller the M800 and over all we feel the car looks to be a mixture of Wagon R and Alto. What are your opinions?

Continue Reading | comments

Scoop: Honda Brio spied in India

     Thanks to AutocarIndia.com, Honda Brio was spied testing around Greater-Noida area by Mr Vineeth Kumar. Very little can be seen of the India specific Brio from the picture. The prominent the front bumper with wide air-dam is seen clearly.

     The Brio is an important vehicle in Honda’s future in India as the company is entering into the volume segment for the first time here. With the Brio, Honda plans to create a benchmark for performance small cars in India. In this diesel maniac market, we are afraid how well the Brio fairs.

Continue Reading | comments

Scoop: Force Motors SUV named ‘Force One’

     Force Motors has named its soon to be launched SUV as ‘Force One’. Force Motors has been testing its SUV for quite some time on Indian roads. We had showed you some spy pictures of SUV in our earlier post.

     The Force One SUV will be powered by a Mercedes sourced 2.2L Common Rail Turbo Engine with 140 PS of power and 350 Nm of torque. The vehicle will be officially launched in a months time.

     Force Motors has also incorporated a new logo for the company. The company plans to launch a new MPV in 2012 and the current SUV will be replaced by an all new next generation SUV in 2013.

Continue Reading | comments (1)

Scoop: All new Swift Dzire compact spied in Gurgoan

     India’s leading car magazine Autocarindia has published a spy picture of the new Dzire based on the all new Swift platform. The company sources had announced earlier that they are working on the new Dzire which will be shorter in length and will come under 4 meter length mark.


The new Dzire being less than 4 meters in length will get excise benefits at 10% as compared to 22% for other sedans. This means the cost benefit of about Rs. 30,000 - 40,000 can be benefitted to the customers.

     Production of the new Dzire will start by November 2011 and official launch will be in January 2012 at the Auto Expo.

Source: ACI

Continue Reading | comments

Scoop: Next Gen Dzire to be under 4 meters

     Maruti is going the Tata way. Like Tata's designed a Indigo less than 4 meters, the next generation Dizre based on the all new Swift platform will be less than 4 meters length. This means the car will qualify for small car excise duty exemption which is 10% for a small car as compared to 22% for the cars above 4 meters.


     The new Dzire will be powered by the same 1.2 L , 84 Bhp petrol engine and 1.3L, 75 Bhp diesel mill. A more powerful diesel engine with 90 Bhp power sourced from Fiat is also on the cards.

     The Dzire is designed in-house by Maruti and will be sold only in India. Since the all-new Swift platform has bigger dimensions than its earlier model, engineers at Maruti have a challenging job to fit a boot with less than 4 meter in length. The excise benefit with is around Rs. 40,000/- will be passed on to the customer. The new Dizre will be launched soon after the new Swift which will make its appearance on roads by June this year. 

Continue Reading | comments (1)

Scoop: Nissan Sunny clear pictures

All these days we have been seeing the spy pictures and sketches of the soon to be launched Nissan Sunny in India. Now we have clear picture of the car which tough built on the Micra platform has no similarity with it.

Continue Reading | comments

Scoop: Tata Merlin – the next generation Safari

     It has been a over a year that we all have been listening about the next generation safari being developed by the Tata Motors. According the sources from team-bhp, the next generation Safari will be named as Merlin. It has been developed in just 18 months in association with Range Rover.

     According to souces, the Merlin will be powered by the same 2.2 dicor engine. The AC is supposed to be improved and so do the interiors which go along with that of the Aria.  Stay tuned for more information…

Source: team-bhp.com 

Continue Reading | comments

Scoop: Next Generation Iconic VW Beetle spy photos

     The Next Generation VW Beetle has been designed to be more masculine unlike the present one which is very cute looking. The Next Gen Beetle seams to be more roomier, perhaps to attract 'Men' as well.

Source: Carscoop

Continue Reading | comments

Scoop: Next Generation Hyundai Verna spotted testing in India

     Hyundai recently unveiled the next generation Verna codenamed RB in Russia. Now the car has been spotted by Autocarindia reader Chris Sekar near Kodaikanal, Tamil Nadu during its test drive with heavy camouflage.

Source: Autocarindia

      Hyundai had announced the launch of the new Verna in India by early 2011. Now that the car is being tested we can be sure that it will launched in time (January 2011)..

     The new Verna is built on the lines of Hyundai’s ‘fluidic sculpture’ design language. The ‘fluidic sculpture’ design language has also been used in other two cars in the Hyundai stable namely Sonata and Elantra. The new Verna will incorporate Hyundai’s new technology 1.4L and 1.6L Gamma petrol engine which deliver maximum power of 106bhp and 122bhp respectively. Both engines will have transmission options of a four speed automatic and a five speed manual one.

     Hyundai is working on the ride quality and comfort in order to compete with its competitors like Maruti SX4, Volkswagen Vento and segment leader Honda City.

Next Generation Hyundai Verna Pictures

Continue Reading | comments

Scoop: 2012 Honda Civic caught testing in Dubai without camouflage

The next generation Honda Civic which is due in 2012 (may be launched in 2011 as well) was caught with camouflage recently in USA. The first pictures of the car with out camouflage are here...

 

Source: CarMiddleEast

Continue Reading | comments (1)

Scoop: Nissan Micra based sedan to be named ‘Sunny’

     Nissan will name its Micra based sedan as ‘Sunny’. The Micra sedan will be launched in December this year at Guangzhou, China. The name ‘Sunny’ holds a very strong heritage in Nissan’s history as it had named its small saloon from 1966 for many decades as Sunny.

     The Sunny will be based on the same Micra platform and we can expect the same interiors as of the Micra. The ‘V’ platform on which the Micra is built, has been designed for emerging markets with reductions in both weight and number of components. The Sunny will come with two engine options – 1.5 Litre, four cylinder petrol engine with 100 bhp and 1.5 Litre diesel engine which will be shared with Micra.

     The Sunny will compete with Maruti Dzire, Volkswagen Vento, Ford Fiesta, Hyundai Verna, Honda City and Chevrolet Aveo in Indian market.

Source: Autocarindia

Continue Reading | comments

Scoop: Force Motors MPV spied testing

     The spy picture of Force Motors MPV based on its Trump light commercial truck was taken while being testing, Thanks to Wheelosphere.org From the picture it is evident that the MPV will be purely a people carrier like the Tata Ace Magic. The MPV is expected to be named Force Trip.

Continue Reading | comments

Scoop: Facelifted Skoda Fabia spied in India

Facelifted Skoda Fabia was spied at Pune and will be soon launched in the Indian market.

Continue Reading | comments