Maruti Suzuki India Ltd said on Friday that it was targetting sale of about 50,000 units of its latest model A-Star in the Indian market. The car would be manufactured in Manesar production facility where the capacity has been upgraded to manufacture three lakh cars a year.

The A-Star will be made in over 200 variants and exported to around 150 countries across Europe, the Middle East, Latin America, Asia, Australia and Africa. A-Star would contribute half of Maruti Suzuki’s overall export target of 200,000 units by 2010-11. The company plans to commence exports of A-Star in early 2009 to Europe.

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Honda is set to hike car prices across models by Rs 10,000 to Rs 1.5 lakh from January next year to factor in increased production cost due to depreciation of the rupee and expensive raw materials.

“Many of the parts are imported and the rupee’s depreciation has made them expensive . Thus, we will be revising car prices with effect from the first week of January,” Jnaneswar Sen, marketing vice-president for Honda Siel Cars said.

The highest impact would be on the sports-utility vehicle CR-V, which is imported to India as a completely-built unit (CBU). While price of the luxury sedan Accord will go up by Rs 30,000-50 ,000, Civic will likely to be dearer by Rs 10,000-20 ,000. For the moment the price of City wont be hiked as its new model and has just been launched. Honda has received 5,000 bookings so far,

The imported content in the Accord is about 75% and in Civic about 22%. The new City has about 26% imported parts. The current price of CR-V variants is between Rs 17.7-19 .9 lakh, the Accord between Rs 16.9-17 .7 lakh and the Civic between Rs 11-12 .8 lakh (all ex-showroom Delhi). The rupee has been weakening against the dollar for months and crossed Rs 50 last week. “The cost of imports from Japan alone has gone up by 30-35 % in the last around three months,” Sen said.

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The economic turmoil has cast its spell on country's oldest automobile company Hindustan Motors, with sales of Ambassador cars dipping by more than 33 per cent in the past few months.

A company official told reporters that Amby sales which were in the region of 900 cars per month have come down to 600 units now. "The situation is not very good," the official added.

The official further said that though the company was not thinking of any move like a temporary shutdown of the plant for the moment some ways would have to be found to combat the crisis if the situation continued for long.

He also dismissed any chance of slashing prices, saying HM would not go for any price cut to boost sales of Amby. The company manufactures Amby at the Uttarpara plant in West Bengal.

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Hyundai Motor India achieved yet another milestone by reaching the 20 lakh sales landmark. “This is also the fastest 20 lakh production for any manufacturer in India and Hyundai Motor India achieved this in just around 10 years,” the company said in a release.

Commenting on its achievement, H S Lheem, managing director-HMIL, said, “Since its inception, Hyundai Motor India has been committed to honour the sentiments and desires of the Indian customers and has always brought the best and the latest in automotive technology and design backed by the best of warranty, competitive pricing and a huge sales and service support network. This new record of producing the fastest 20 lakh cars will further empower Hyundai Motor India to play a vital role in the growth of the Indian automobile industry.”

As a gesture of goodwill, the 20th lakh car was handed over to CRY – Child Rights and You, India’s leading advocate for child rights, which has worked tirelessly over three decades to make sure all children enjoy all their basic rights.

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Mahindra was present with a 4×4 track experience at the Autocar Performance Show. A well built off-road track was prepared where Mahindra vehicles could demonstrate their capabilities. The cars on the track were only the Scopio and the Scorpio Getaway. Anyone could drive the car after purchasing something from the stall. Check out the Mahindra Scorpio off-roading pics at Motorbeam.com

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Maruti Suzuki India has sold 10 lac units of its the Alto in the domestic market. The Alto was launched eight years ago in September 2000, with two variants. Currently it sells in three variants. Maruti had completed the production of 10 lakh units of the Alto in February this year.

A senior company official said that the first five lakh units of the Alto were sold in six years of its launch, while the next five lakh units sales happened within just a little over two years.

Besides the domestic market, Maruti Suzuki India exports the car to countries like Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands, Finland, Greece, Austria, Ireland, the UK, France, Italy and Sweden. So far it has exported over 1.8 lakh Altos. The company plans to start exporting the Alto soon to new markets like Denmark, Hungary and Portugal, the official said.

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Porsche has plonked Audi’s 3.0 liter V6 Turbo Diesel engine in the Cayenne.


The turbocharged diesel engine that is hooked up to a standard Tiptronic-S automatic gearbox develops an output of 240HP and a maximum torque of 550NM. The Cayenne Diesel returns an average consumption of 9.3 liters per 100km with CO2 at 244 grams per kilometer.

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For the first time in 22 years, a General Motors vehicle has been voted ‘Car of the Year’ (COTY) in Europe. The brand-new Opel insignia gathered a total of 321 points beating the second Ford Fiesta by the narrowest possible margin - a solitary point.

The Insignia is the third Opel / Vauxhall model to be awarded with the COTY after the Kadett (Vauxhall Astra in the UK) scooped the award in 1985 with the Omega (Vauxhall Carlton) following in 1987. The COTY jury, which is made up of 59 senior motoring journalists from 23 European countries gave the VW Golf VI a total of 223 points placing it third of the contest’s seven finalists.

“This is the closest COTY competition for years,” comments Ray Hutton, president of the 59-strong jury of senior motoring journalists. “Car of the Year has often been decided narrowly, but it is eight years since another Ford, the Mondeo, was beaten by a single point by Alfa Romeo’s 147.” To underscore the closeness of the 46-year-old competition, the Vauxhall/Opel Insignia received most votes from 20 of the international jurors, while the Fiesta was placed first by 19 of them.

Points allotted by journalists to the other COTY finalists were Citroen C5 198, Alfa Romeo MiTo 148, Skoda Superb 144 and Renault Megane 121 points.

For the record, the competition’s first stage was in October, when jurors chose seven finalists from a total of 37 contenders. In order to be eligible for COTY, a car must be launched within the past 12 months and has to be available in at least five European countries - which is why the Toyota iQ didn’t take part in this year’s competition as European sales start in January 2009.

Source - Carscoop

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Motor Trend did a top speed run in 4 super cars and now they have done a drag race between the Chevrolet Corvette ZR1, Porsche 911 GT2, Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano and the Nissan GT-R. Check out the drag race after the jump.

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Maruti has launched the A-Star. You can checkout pictures of Maruti A-Star at Motorbeam.

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Bajaj plans to upgrade the Pulsar 220 cosmetically by giving it the black theme. The Pulsar 180 & 200 already have the black theme and we wonder why Bajaj launched the Pulsar 220 without black wheels. Actually we know why Bajaj did not launch the Pulsar 220 with black wheels, simply because they would want to do this later. I think Bajaj is feeling the heat from Yamaha.

The Black themed Pulsar 220 should be launched along with the upgraded Pulsar 200. Bajaj plans to launch the Pulsar 200 with FI which would give the Pulsar 200 a competitive edge against the Yamaha FZ16.

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Fiat India will launch its new mid-size sedan Linea in December. The Linea was going to be launched in October but due to the poor sentiment prevailing in the market, Fiat has postponed the launch. Its second launch Grande Punto has also been pushed back and will now hit the market sometime next year instead of December.

Linea will be available in 1.3 multi-jet diesel engine and 1.4 FIRE petrol engine. It will roll out from Fiat’s newly established Ranjangaon plant in Maharashtra and will be in the price band of Rs 6-8 lakh. Grante Punto, another locally assembled model from the Fiat stable, was supposed to be launched in December and will now come in the first quarter of 2009. Next in line is its luxury hatchback Bravo, whose launch timing is yet to be finalised.

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Ford India plans to discontinue the Fusion. The Fusion really never took off and has had poor sales. When it was launched in 2004, expensive hatch backs really didn't sell. Ford did resort to many price cuts to push the car, even trimming it under 4 meters in order to get excise benefits. But all that in vain because it really didn't as much as Ford thought it would.

“We will eventually phase it out due to poor sales,” Michael Boneham, president and MD of Ford India said.

We thought the lack of diesel engine was the reason for the Fusion not to sell, but then Ford introduced the fantatic Fiesta Duratorq engine. The diesel engine really didn't fire the sales. One of the reasons for the Fusion to be a slow moving car out of Ford's stockyard was the high pricing and bland styling.

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So you missed the Autocar Performance Show or you can’t attend it. Well fret not, coz Motorbeam are going to post all about the Autocar Performance Show. Motorbeam will be posting pictures of all the cars and bikes at the Autocar Performance Show. You can sit back, grab some popcorn and enjoy the Autocar Performance Show online at Motorbeam.com


There were quite a few amazing cars on display along with some awesome bikes. Some cool modified wheels like a pimped up rolls-royce and some supercars too. Motorbeam will be posting 300+ pics of the show to make sure you don’t miss any action.

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Honda has sold 98 Civic Hybrid cars on a single day on Thursday, much more than what it managed in the entire five months since the premium hybrid’s launch in India, thanks to a reduced pricing by a whopping Rs 8 lakh, or 40%. Honda maintains this price to be a limited-period offer.

With Thursday’s orders, Honda has sold out the first batch of Civic Hybrids it had imported from Japan. The second batch is already on its way. “A big consignment of these cars will be reaching India in the next few days. We will also take more orders as per the demand from our dealers,” the Honda spokesperson said.

“Customers are extremely attracted by the high-fuel efficiency of the hybrid,” said a Delhi-based Honda dealer, who clocked a dozen bookings for the car on Thursday. With electric motor support, Civic Hybrid delivers an average of 20 km per litre of petrol. Also, the hybrid system comes with a lifetime warranty.

Civic Hybrid, at its new price of Rs. 13.36 lakh, is just Rs. 50,000 costlier then top V variant at Rs. 12.86 lakh. The price parity has led to increase in demand for the hugely fuel-efficient hybrid in metros like Mumbai and Delhi, and fuel-sensitive areas like Punjab and Hyderabad.

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The FZ1 Abarth Assetto Corso was developed in colaboration with Fiat’s sport division, Abarth to celebrate the Italian firm’s founder Karl Abarth’s 100th birthday.

This FZ1 Abarth concept is based on the FZ1 which is powered by a 1,0-liter engine derived from the Yamaha’s R1 superbike. The 4-cylinder unit produces an output of 150HP at 11,000 rpm.

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General Motors India plans to beef up its product portfolio with two new models next year. One of the models to be launched is the Chevy Cruze which we posted about earlier and the other other is the Spark with the Matiz engine.

“The small car may be in the same category like Spark or even cheaper. The other model will be in the Honda Civic segment. For the first time in the history of the company, we have excess capacity. This we will leverage,” GM India president and managing director Karl Slym said.

The 800cc spark will get the 795cc, 6valve unit from the Matiz which pumps out 50bhp of power @ 6000RPM and 69NM of torque @ 4600RPM. The 800c Spark will be positioned against the Maruti Alto and 800.

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Audi has launched its mid-engined super sports car the Audi R8. The Audi R8 is priced at 1,17,00,000 INR (ex-showroom Delhi). The Audi R8 was officially unveiled at the splendid lawns of the German Embassy in New Delhi along with two Audi racing legends: Auto Union Type D and the Audi R8 Le Mans Prototype, both chosen for their link to ground-breaking technologies of their time. These cars were introduced to the public in a rare display, after which in a stunning presentation eight Audi R8’s moved in a convoy to the historic India Gate through streets of New Delhi.

“The Audi R8 is not only a strong statement about the brand, but also about Audi’s direction for the future - to be the most successful premium brand by 2015. It embodies the philosophy of “Vorsprung durch Technik”. It will revolutionise the Indian automobile space and will offer an experience of a lifetime to discerning customers in the country,” said Mr. Benoit Tiers, Managing Director Audi India. “We decided to launch the Audi R8 in the Indian market based on the enthusiastic response received from our select customers. India is a very crucial market for Audi and we are very keen to expand our presence in the country through expansion of the dealership network and bringing in our international range of models,” added Mr. Tiers.

The Audi R8 has won several awards in Germany and Europe, along with the double victory at the famous 2008 World Car of the Year awards, winning both the ‘World Performance Car” and “World Design Car of the Year’ awards.

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The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has decided to make baby seats compulsory for all passenger cars from 2010.

“This is a long pending step and will be introduced in Indian vehicles for the first time. The idea is to create a safe and designated space for children in cars. Across Europe and USA, besides other countries like Australia, ‘Child Restraint Systems’ (CRS) is mandatory in all vehicles. So the ministry has decided it’s time for such an initiative to be taken in India as well,” said a top official from the ministry. “The planned implentation schedule is two years for new car models and three years for existing models. This will also be introduced for commercial goods vehicles and passenger buses,” he added.

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As posted earlier about the Hyundai i10 diesel, Hyundai will be launching the i10 diesel next year after they launch the i20. The 1120cc 3 cylinder engine is expected to have 75PS of power @ 4000RPM (not 6000RPM) and 155NM of torque from 2000RPM. This will be the smallest CRDi engine and should have excellent fuel economy. The i10 diesel will be priced Rs. 75000 more then the petrol i10.

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Hyundai will be launching the much awaited i20 in January next year. The i20 will replace the Getz but Hyundai might still decide to sell the Getz along with the i20. The i20 is a premium hatch and will be positioned against the Maruti Swift, Ford Fusion, Skoda Fabia and soon to be launched Fiat Grande Punto.

The i20 is expected to be priced between 6-6.5 lacs and will be available in petrol and diesel varaints. Hyundai just started exporting the i20 to the European markets and we expect the i20 to be as successful as the i10.

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At the Nürburgring, the Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 has gone faster by four seconds over its previous lap time of 7:26. The new time, with Jan Magnussen at the wheel, is a claimed 7:22.4 for the full 12.93 mile loop. The car is very fast but .3 seconds off Dodge Viper ACR’s timing.

The timing is faster then Porsche GT2’s 7:32 and Nissan GTR’s 7:29 so the Corvette ZR1 surely seems to be quite fast.

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Hyundai Motor India Ltd has rolled out the first batch of the i20 from its Sriperumbudur plant in Chennai for European markets. Europe is the biggest market for the largest car exporter of India. Hyundai ships out 50% of its exports to the European markets.

The first consignment of 2,820 units will be shipped to the following countries in Europe: Britain, Germany, Greece, Austria, Croatia, Spain, Belgium, Holland and Hungary.

For 2009, Hyundai has set an ambitious export target of shipping its cars to 110 countries which would include Asia Pacific (Australia, Singapore, New Zealand), Latin America (Martinique), Africa, Middle East (Saudi Arabia, Israel, Palestine) and Europe (Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan) while consolidating its foothold in the current markets.

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Ford India has finally launched the new Ikon. We had posted earlier this year in March about Ford’s plan to launch the diesel Ikon. The new Ford Ikon is not only sporting a slightly spruced up look but has the Duratorq diesel engine which does duty in the diesel Fiesta and Fusion.

The new Ikon also boasts a freshened exterior design. The hood now has a sharper design and striking new headlamps along with an all new front bumper and larger lower grille.


The new Ikon comes with dual-tone beige interiors. The instrument cluster on the diesel variant incorporates new graphics, tachometer, LED needles and LCD odometer display.

The 1.4-litre Duratorq engine and 5 speed gearbox is developed jointly by Ford with Peugeot for a range of cars. The fantastic Duratorq oil burner has 68PS of power @ 4000rpm and 160NM of torque @ 2000rpm. The engine is light and this helps in better handling. The new sub-frame mounting for the engine-transmission assembly has helped in reducing the NVH. The steering and suspension have been retuned the to suit the diesel engine.

The Ikon weighs lesser then the Fiesta and thus should perform better in the Ikon. The Ikon diesel should give good fuel efficiency which was not the case with the petrol variant.

The new Ford Ikon comes with a two-year/100,000km warranty and is available in 7 colours - Diamond White, Panther Black, Moondust Silver, Paprika Red, Platinum, Brush Steel and a new colour Morello. The new Ikon is priced Rs. 4.59 Lakhs for the petrol and Rs. 5.19 Lakhs for the Diesel, Ex-Showroom, Delhi.

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The Porsche Panamera is one of the most awaited car from the Porsche stable. We really don't think that the Panamera looks good but then looks are subjective. The interiors are very Porsche like. The instrument cluster seems to be straight out from the Panamera's siblings. This car will surely be cheaper then the Lamborghini Estoque but i would anyday prefer a EVO X, if i want a 4 door car that can go fast too.

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The much awaited race version of the highly desirable supercar Pagani Zonda is not far away from being launched. Known as the Zonda R, it is the ambitious plan of founder Horacio Pagani to have a track special version with a limited run of just ten cars. This super super super car will have atleast 750 bhp of power and has pure carbon-fiber construction. Check out more pics and details of the Pagani Zonda R here.

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Fiats new concept vehicle the Fiat Bugster will make its debut at the Sao Paulo Motor Show in Brazil. This greenish two-seater concept looks like a crossover between a KTM X-Bow and a Jeep Wrangler.


The concept vehicle has been developed by the Italian firm’s automotive engineering division in Brazil and features a zero-emissions electric engine while its outer body is made completely out of renewable natural fibers thus reducing the environmental impact of the vehicle.

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A private ceremony was held at the Viminale Palace where Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A. donated a police version of the company’s newest super sports car, Gallardo LP560-4 Polizia, to the head of the Italian State Police, Prefect Antonio Manganelli. Check out more pics and details of the Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4 Polizia here.

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The latest entrant in the 150cc segment, the Suzuki GS150R has the potential to upbeat the current segment leader Bajaj Pulsar. Check out the picture gallery of the Suzuki GS150R after the jump.

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Toyota Motor Corp and its mini vehicle unit Daihatsu Motor Co are developing a new car for India that will likely sell for around $5,000 (Rs. 2.5 lacs).

Toyota, the world's biggest automaker, has lagged rivals in the race to win over India's cost-conscious consumers - a battle that promises to heat up in earnest with Tata Motors scheduled to launch its $2,500 Nano car soon. A venture of India's Bajaj Auto Ltd with Renault SA and Nissan Motor Co plans a similar car, while Hyundai Motor Co and General Motors Corp are also studying an ultra-low-cost vehicle.

Toyota has so far only disclosed plans for what it calls an "entry family car", which is scheduled to be produced in India and Brazil from 2010 and 2011, respectively. That car is expected to cost around $8,000, although Toyota has not officially mentioned a price. The Asahi said Toyota will likely build the $5,000 car in India, with sales also possible in Brazil. Toyota executives have so far denied any interest in developing an ultra-low-cost car, arguing that selling such a car under the Toyota badge could hurt its brand image.

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