Ford Figo named Indian Car of the Year (ICOTY) for 2010

     Ford Figo has been named as the Indian Car of the Year(ICOTY) for the year 2010. ICOTY is India’s prestigious award given by a jury consisting of top journalists of India’s best automobile magazines. Figo is followed closely by VW Vento with just difference of 26 points. The other cars in the contention were Chevrolet Beat, New Maruti Suzuki Wagon R, Nissan Micra, Skoda Yeti, Tata Aria and the VW Polo.

     The jury included Bob Rupani and Gautam Sen of Auto India, Aspi Bhathena of Car India, Srinivas Krishnan and Pablo Chaterji of BS Motoring, Girish Karkera and Sriram Satyanarayanan of BBC Top Gear India, Yogendra Pratap and Vikrant Singh of Auto Bild besides Sirish Chandran and Bertrand D’souza of OVERDRIVE.

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Discounts offered by manufactures in India this December

• Maruti Suzuki is offering discounts ranging from Rs 20,000 on an Alto K10 to Rs 60,000 on an Estilo or an A-star to maximum value of Rs 40,000 on the SX4. The company is also offering exchange bonus up to Rs 25,000.

• Hyundai is offering a saving of 33,000 on Santro and Rs 40,000 new i10. It is also offering benefits worth Rs 45,000 on the Verna.

• General Motors has discounted the prices of Chevrolet Spark from Rs 3.22 lakh to Rs 2.73 lakh and for Beat from 3.53 lakh to 3.32 lakh.

• Ford is offering a huge discount of Rs 71,000 on the Fiesta. It also offering only 8 per cent rate of interest for Ford Endeavour and and Ford Figo

• Buy a Mahindra Xylo or a Scorpio before December and you can get a discount of Rs 50,000.

• Fiat is offering Rs 55,000 worth of benefits on the purchase of its Linea and Punto.

• Honda Siel is offering discounts on Jazz worth Rs 60,000

• Tata Motors is offering discounts on all models ranging from 50,000-100,000

• Volkswagen has issued a warning. It will raise Polo prices by 2.9% from January 2011. Current prices last only till December 31.

Source: Indianautosblog

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Hero & Honda finally exit for the joint venture

     Hero Motors of India and Honda Motor Company of Japan has officially called off the joint venture in the Indian two wheeler segment. The JV dates back to 1984 in which Hero group held 26% shares, Honda held 26% shares and rest held with other partners. This JV saw a great success in Indian two wheeler segment by introducing the first 4 stroke motorcycles in India. Models such as CD100 and Splendor made a tremendous impact on the market, thanks to its great fuel efficiency.

     Honda will sell its 26% shares to the Hero Group. This makes the company to be wholly owned by Hero Group headed by Munjal family. A new licensing agreement will be signed in which the currently company will continue producing, selling and servicing its current products. The company’s brand name will be changed from Hero Honda to a new one.

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December discounts on Chevrolet Spark and Beat

     Chevrolet is offering a great discount offer on its small cars Spark and Beat this month (December). After discount Chevrolet Spark price starts from Rs. 2.69 lakh and Beat price starts from Rs. 3.29 lakh (Both the prices ex-showroom New Delhi). Chevrolet is also offering three years or 1 lakh km warranty with free service maintenance for three years.

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New Chevrolet Mini Van Specifications

Price: Rs. 5-6 Lakh (Expected)

Variants: NA

Dimensions

Length: 3860 mm

Width: 1570 mm

Height: 1860 mm

Wheel Base: 2500 mm

Ground Clearance:

Front Track: 1280 mm

Rear Track: 1290 mm

Kerb Weight: 1095 Kg

Gross Weight:  1615 Kg

No. of Doors: 5 Door Mini Van

Seating Capacity: 5-8 Persons

Fuel Tank Capacity: 40 Liters

Engine

Type: Petrol

Displacement: 1206 cc

Power: 85 Bhp @ 6000 rpm

Torque: 108 Nm @ 4000 rpm

Compression Ratio:  9.8:1

No Of Cylinders: 4

Cylinder Configuration: NA

Valves Per Cylinder: NA

Transmission 

Type: 5 Forward Speed with Synchronizer

Gears: 5 Forward, 1 Reverse

Steering 

Type: Rack & Pinion

Min Turning Radius: 5 Meters

Suspension 

Front: Mac Pherson Strut

Rear: Leaf Spring / Coil Spring

Brakes 

Front: Disc

Rear: Drum

Wheels and Tyres 

Wheel Size: 13 Inch

Tyres Size & Type: 165/70R13

Performance 

Max Speed: 135 Kmph

0-100 kmph: NA

Fuel Economy  (Approx)

Overall: NA

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More spy pictures and video of Chevrolet (GM) mini-van being tested in India

     We in our earlier post had showed you the spy pictures of the GM mini-van being tested in India. Digitosam of Team-Bhp has managed to click more detailed pictures of the mini-van.  Indianautosblog went further to post a video of the mini-van doing testing in city traffic. 

Video

Chevrolet Mini Van Specifications

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GM's new mini-van spied in India

Guess what we have got for you? Its the new mini-van from the General Motors for Indian market. The mini-van you see in the picture is called as Wuling Hong Tu in China. GM has partnered with Wuling Motors of China to build and sell the later's vehicles in India.

The mini-van will be positioned to rial against Maruti Eeco. It is powered by a 1.2 Liter petrol engine with 85 Bhp of power. It will be less than 4 meter length and hence will qualify for the small car norm to avail the excise benefits in India. The engine is coupled with a 5 speed manual transmission. The base variant has rear leaf spring suspension while the top variant gets coil springs.


GM also has plans to launch various models from the Wuling range. These vehicles  are expected to be price competitive and is likely to give stiff competition to the market leader Maruti Suzuki.

Chevrolet Mini Van Specifications

Wuling Hong Tu

Source: Autocarindia

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