Mahindra will launch two new variants of its lone sedan Vertio by December this year. While one variant will be just a refreshed one of the current Verito, the other one will be the hatchback version.
The Verito hatchback has been designed to come under 4 meters to avail small car benefits. With solid Mahindra brand coupled with interior space of Verito and a good 1.5L Renault diesel engine, the Verito hatchback will give serious competition in the already crowded B segment category.
The Mahindra Bolero facelift was caught by T S Vipul, a member of Autocarindia forum at the company’s facility at Haridwar. With the facelift, Mahindra will add a new variant ‘ZLX’ to the Bolero family.
As seen from the picture, there is no much change in the exterior. The major change seen is in the grill which is dark grey in colour with small air vents. The bumper has been redesigned as well with space for fog lamps. There is a rear wiper with defogger which is to meet the Central Motor Vehicle Rules coming in the future.
The major change is seen in the interior. The plastics are now beige in colour and an all new digital instrument console will catch your eye. The instrument console has LED display for the speedometer, fuel gauge and engine temperature. The leather wrapped steering wheel has been borrowed from the Xylo and has some aluminum wraps as well. The center console gets wood treatment.
The facelift Bolero will come with the same 75 Bhp Low Cost Common Rail engine from the recently introduced Scorpio EX.
French car maker Renault has unveiled the Frendzy concept ahead of its debut at Frankfurt Motor Show in September this year. The Frendzy concept could be the next Kango, a highly successful vehicle from Renault.
The Frendzy concept is a MPV with canvas roof and sliding rear passenger doors with digital display on it. The interior is futuristic with lots of gizmos. It is powered by a lithium-ion battery which sends power to an electric motor that develops 60 PS and 226 Nm of torque.
Volkswagen has rolled out 1,00,000 cars from its Chakan plant in Maharashtra, 2 years from the start of production. The Chakan plant consists of various stages of production from press to pain shop to assembly line. The plant presently produces Polo, Vento and Skoda Fabia cars.
On the Car and Bike Show Facebook page a front view picture of the Mahindra W201 has been posted by Suraj Navle. The front profile of W201 looks muscular indeed with trademark Mahindra grill and big bumpers. What’s interesting is that there is no air dam on the front bumper as seen in the picture. But we guess the black strips on the bumper are spaces for air intakes which has been covered by camouflaged material.
The headlamps features wrap around type with double barrel lights and a line of led lamps in the bottom. We guess the led lamps are for all time running lights as W201 is also designed for international markets as well. In our earlier post we had talked about the muscular side and rear profile of the vehicle. We will be very glad to see your opinions here.
Toyota Motor Corporation is looking India as a serious growth market. Though slow in its launches, the company is working on its models to give its customers quality vehicles which it has been doing for ages. The design and engineering of an India specific model Etios is a good example of how Toyota wants to do business. We guess other automakers should take a leaf out of Toyota's philosophy if it wants to do good all the time.
Speaking on the occasion of the Etios Liva hatchback launch, Mr. Hiroji Onishi, President, Toyota Motor Asia Pacific hinted that the current line of cars are not sufficient for the company to cater to the growing demands of Indian market. He said the company is looking for more cars for India - a sub Liva, a sedan above Etios and a compact SUV. However he did not reveal the exact time frame for launch of these vehicles.
With the growing competiton for top spot as World's Largest Automobile manufacturer, Toyota's India plans seems to be a major one. Volkswagen which is in 2nd place, next to Toyota has plans to dethorn Toyota from the top spot by 2018. We guess with the new car line ups, it might not be easy for Volkswagen to touch Toyota for the top spot.
With the fuel prices rocketing, Indian car buyers are switching towards cheaper diesel. Since Hyundai has no diesel hatch below i20, it might find tough competing with the small diesel cars. Chevrolet will launch the diesel Beat in a week which might eat out the i10 share substantially. Will Hyundai does some damage control measure by launching a diesel i10? Lets speculate.
In International market, Hyundai i10 is powered by a 1.1L CRDi engine with 75PS @ 4000 rpm and 153 Nm @ 1900-2750rpm of torque. The engine is couple to a 5 speed manual transmission. With this engine Hyundai can pull out a decent small city car for India. But the major concern is about the price. The diesel i20, though is a good car is overpriced as compared to its competitors. Hyundai has to work out no the price factor and launch the i10 as soon as possible. A price tag of less than Rs. 5 lakh ex-showroom for a base variant will be higly competitive.
We wish to see comments on our view on i10 diesel. Feel free to post your comments.
