Lexus coming to India.
| Source: AI Facebook Page Hormazd sorabjee's latest tweet Quote:
Good news for people waiting for Lexus to officially enter the Indian shores. Do you think Lexus will be able to compete with the likes of Audi, Bmw and Mercedes, considering that mostly their cars will be a CBU? |
ICML to launch new SUV to compete with XUV International Cars and Motor Ltd (ICML) and subsidiary of the Sonalika group is working on a brand new SUV which could see an 2012 launch and will compete with the likes of Mahindra's XUV 500, and Tata Safari. The company will display a concept vehicle in the Auto Expo in Delhi early next year. Sonalika had also shown a concept of an SUV long ago at the 2008 Auto Expo. The company had tied up the Rover group from Britain and also announced ambitious projects in collaboration with Italy's automobile design house for world cars. The company had said it was going to develop a Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) and a passenger car with Pininfarina that would be positioned in the 'C' segment priced between Rs. 8-10 lakhs. With market growing both in terms of numbers and competition, ICML will need a very well planned strategy to create a niche and position for it self. The XUV currently has acquired the number one spot and the Tata's new Merlin is expected to be a bench mark for Tata Motors in terms of quality and features when is gets launched. Currently the sells the Rhino MUV in select market and is powered by a CRDi engine. The new SUV will be launched pan India and will have a new dealership network in place. The company plans to raise funds through a public offer in the next 3-4 years and looks at a IPO down the road. The 1989-incorporated ICML, functioning from Hoshiarpur, makes the Rhino series of multi-utility vehicles that can seat seven-eight passengers. They function both as taxis and private vars. Sonalika Group, has been into making farm equipment since 1969. They started making tractors in 1996, and entered the utility vehicle sector, which is slated to grow at 16 per cent in India. Rhino was launched in 2006. The company operates out of a manufacturing facility in Amb, Himachal Pradesh with a capacity to produce 24,000 units per annum.
| International Cars and Motor Ltd (ICML) and subsidiary of the Sonalika group is working on a brand new SUV which could see an 2012 launch and will compete with the likes of Mahindra's XUV 500, and Tata Safari. The company will display a concept vehicle in the Auto Expo in Delhi early next year. Sonalika |
Need Suggestions For Panvel-Rajasthan-Panvel Trip in Mid-December
| ** Doing this for a friend of mine. Planning to do Panvel-Gujrat-Rajasthan-Panvel trip this December Start Date: 17th Dec 2011 Duration: 13 Days Car: Ritz VDi Travellers: My Friend, His Wife, 5 Year Old Kid (Driving will be done by my friend alone) So guys here is the complete plan: Attachment 848074 I am attaching the Excel Sheet as well: Attachment 848075 1. Planning to have stay mostly at RTDC. However, if better options considering "Budget Stay", then please let me know. 2. Road Conditions considering the route. 3. Suggestions for sight seeing 4. Possible Good Fuel Refills 5. Famous Shopping/Eatery suggestions at stay locations Map is as follow: LINK: Panvel, Maharashtra to Panvel, Maharashtra - Google Maps Attachment 848084 Thanks in advance for your oncoming suggestions. |
Plan to recondition your old 800/Alto - Maruti does it in Rs.35k with new half engine
| Yesterday, I went to get the coolant hose pipe replaced of the swift at DD Motors (Peera Garhi), and while paying the bill, I came across a poster that said, transplant your Maruti's heart for longer life for Rs.10,000. I was a little surprised as I never expected it to be this cheap at ASC and asked the service adviser for the details. I was told that Rs. 10k is the cost of new half engine of 800/Omni and including other costs such as valves, guides, gaskits, lathe machine cost for head face etc, and labour; the complete rebuit of your 800 will cost you around Rs.20k. Now, one any ways get to pay 10-12k for complete reconditioning of the old 800/omni engine and paying Rs.20k to ASC is not bad at all when you get warranty on parts (Adviser wasn't sure how much warranty we get, he wil check and let me know today). Since, we have the now almost 12 year old 5-Speed 800, which has mostly the same engine as Alto (apart from few minor modifications in Alto), I enquired about the cost of the rebuit of the 5 Speed 800/Alto engine. And again I was surprised to know that the total cost of reconditioning including a new half engine will be near Rs.35k. Now, I was expecting somewhere around 18-20k for complete overhaul of the engine and paying 35k for complete thing is not a bad idea.. We have done over 1.7 lac kms on our car in last 12 years (without an overhaul) and tell you what its still a delight to drive. We plan not to sell the car ever (after a small thought of trading it for used esteem CNG- now discarded) and hence, plan to bring the car back to its pristine condition sometime next year. So, whats the better way than getting an almost new heart which can run for the rest of the car's life easily as this car now runs only 5k kms a year. Just an effort to save the 800 - a CAR that put India on wheels..:) |
Nearly finalized a Linea MJD E Pk, last minute soul searching
| I've been planning to buy a diesel sedan for quite some time and accordingly, I had test driven the Verna Fluidic, the Vento and the Ford Fiesta. (Both the Petrol and Diesel versions, though I had no intention of buying a petrol) The first Vehicle I test drove was the Volkswagen Vento: Pros: Powerful Engine. German Build. Competent and capable after sales. Cons: Looks don't appeal much to me. A*S*S expenses are unknown and going by past experience, likely to be expensive. Next Hyundai Verna Fluidic: Pros: Good looks. Powerful Engine Hyundai A*S*S, though regularly engaging in daylight robbery, is marginally competent. Cons: Felt extremely uncomfortable driving the car, couldn't wait to return it back to the showroom and get away. The seating position was uncomfortable and the steering was all over the place. Hyundai A*S*S regularly engages in daylight robbery. Next was the New Ford Fiesta Pros Good looks. Nippy in city driving. Engine has adequate power. Excellent handling, after all it is a ford :) Really enjoyed the TD. Ford A*S*S is a known quantity and not particularly expensive anymore. Cons: Overpriced, very. I was pretty much sold on the Fiesta but sometime last week, while waiting to get the driver's side mirror of my Indica Turbo replaced, I suddenly felt the urge to go and TD the Linea. We took a long TD, nearly 30kms, highway, inner city and industrial district. Fiat Linea MJD Pros Great looks. Great handling with hydraulic power steering, you do feel connected to the road, felt at home in the driver's seat. In fact, the advisor was surprised when I told him I had never driven the Linea before. I'm used to dealing with Tata A*S*S. Cons Availability of spares, though the dealership informed me that since there is demand due to sufficient no. of Lineas on the road, spares like mirrors etc. are usually in stock. Dunno whether Fiat will still be around 2-3 years down the line. Anyway, I decided to follow my heart and I intend to book a Bossa Nova White Linea MJD E Pk tomorrow for 9.28 on road. I've been through ownership reviews here and on Teamfiat as well as talking to the one friend I have who owns a Linea. However, before I finally book the car, I would like to know of any reasons why I shouldn't. |
Heavy vibration on steering wheel in low idle condition
| Hello guys, I needed some advice to rectify a problem in my Zen that i've been experiencing for 3 months now. The problem is, when i crank the engine and leave it in idle condition, i experience a heavy vibration on my steering wheel, it becomes periodically intense and i suspect its something got to do with the engine rpm, because when i rev up the engine, all the vibrations disappear. I think the problem could be solved if i were to change engine mounts or is there anything in the steering assembly that needs to be changed (bearings, mounts etc.) Mine is a 2000 model Zen Vxi. It has run over 1 lakh km. Currently its at my home town and I intend to bring it to Chennai next month. Kindly pour in your thoughts. |
Mini to enter with 3 models, Auto Expo debut
| BMW's retro brand of cars MINI will make its official debut at the 2012 auto expo with car delivery to start by Jan to March. MINI will launch three new models in India: The iconic three-door Cooper Hatch, the Cooper convertible and the Countryman SUV. BMW is currently setting up new dealerships and the first |
Team-BHP Account Locked
| I got 3 mails saying someone tried to access team-bhp account using wrong password. All 3 with different IP address as below: 141.105.65.70 186.205.41.251 120.203.1.250 is that real hijacking attempt or prank email? |
Brazil Grand Prix- Vettel breaks record
| With his 15th pole of the season, Vettek broke Mansell's record. Qualifying 1 Vettel 2 Webber 3 Button 4 Hamilton 5 Alonso 6 Rosberg 7 Massa 8 Sutil 9 Senna 10 Schumacher di Resta missed Q3 and was 11th |
A very very happy hello to all
| Hello All. I finally made it to Team-BHP after my second attempt. Very proud to be a BHPian. And I am about to take delivery of my new Ford Figo 1.4 TDCi Titanium tomorrow, 27th Nov'11. Very very excited. I want to thank everyone whose posts I read and finally made the decision to buy the Figo. I also like to thank and appreciate all the mods for running this site and its content wonderfully. You guys ROCK! I will post my ownership experience once I clock a few miles with my car. Lastly a little about my self. I am 32, work as a Business Consultant for a MNC in Bangalore. I love cars and own a Ford Ikon Flair which I am selling as of now. And I love Team-BHP. Best, Sam |
Special edition Ford Fiesta launched in Britain
| Ford has launched the Fiesta Metal Special Edition with plenty of enhancements to talk about. The power of the 1.6-liter petrol engine has been upped from 120PS to 134PS and 0-100kph comes up in 8.7 seconds. Ford have lowered ride height, chromed the exhaust tips, appointed the interiors with black leather seats stitched with silver thread and thrown in stainless steel scuff plates. Only 1,000 models of the Metal Special Edition are going to be produced making it a rare breed. I can guess your reaction when you observe the sticker on it that has 12.75 lakh rupees written on it!  |
Scoop! Toyota Land Cruiser Facelift Leaked!
| Toyota Land Cruiser Facelift brochure scans leaked! Please move to Int'l Section if found irrelevant here. Source |
Spicybids.com - fraud website?
| Dear friends, just thought I would warn you about this fraud website and how they cheat people, my friend has experienced the same as mentioned below and lost a lot of money, I have copied the following article from the Internet, and I am sure it is true as we have experienced it. :Shockked: Cheating People By Bidding Spicybids is a fraud website. The concept behind the fraud is to make people bid and do not give them any products. And they charge for each bid. This is how it works. A consumer has to register and pay money to buy bids. For Rs.3200 they give 100bids (they have different rates for different numbers). Once you buy bids, you can start bidding. For each bid that you click they charge around Rs. 32 (again depends on the bids that you buy). When the bid is about to close, some one can bid again and the timer extends for 20 seconds. This will countinue till no one bids, and the last bidder wins the product. Now I'll explain how the company is making others fraud. First point, if you keep a close look, you will see that the products keep repeating (because they are showing the same products again and again). Second point, consumers also keep repeating (are there only handful of people to bid in a website in a country as big as INDIA or World?). Third point is, if a consumer starts bidding, the bid will continue and won't end at all, till the same repeating users win the bid) Moral of the story is some one has started a website and they are minting money by collecting money just to bid in the website and they make sure some of their own company staff itself gets the product. This way they get money and they don't have to sell any product. That is why the product & the users keeps repeating. And if a consumer who is not from their company bids, the bid will not end. You can try this out. Keep bidding for a '15free bids'. The value will keep increasing and will not end (May go more than 70-80). And if you check the winners area you will see that generally '15free bids' go for Rs.3-20. Please avoid using this website. And I request the responsible people to take action against the owners of this website. |
My new Cruze - the Sand Drift Grey Beast
| So I finally got my Chevy Cruze on the day I got my new job. I think it's a good omen. It's a Sand Drift Grey LT model. It was either this colour or black for me. But I've already had a black Honda City so I was inclined towards the Sand Drift Grey. I'm going to follow the "assembly line" format mentioned in the forum rules to make this simple. 1. Alternatives Considered: The usual suspects Civic, Laura, Altis, Cruze and even the Fluence. My budget was 13-16 lakhs. I was primarily looking for good looks and decent performance. I was not too particular about things like power, resale value and availability of cheap spares. I'd probably chose the civic or altis if I did.
3.On-road price, Discounts: About 14L + Customizations (more on that later). I got my own insurance and did not buy insurance from the dealer. I did not know I could do that till someone told me about it. 4. Engine type & variant: Cruze only comes with a 2.0 Diesel Engine. I got the LT Variant (manual transmission) 5. KMs Driven and usage patterns: About 500KM driven. Roughly 30-35 km a day with 80% dense traffic and 20% open highway. 6. Exterior Styling: that's what did it for me. I love it. 7. Interior Design and Quality: The design is simply awesome. It's ergonomic and looks hot. However I had read that the quality of plastics and button/knobs are not as good as the Civics and Lauras. But I am reasonably satisfied with them. No complaints as such. 8. Interior Space and comfort: Ranks high on comfort. Not so much on space. I am 6'2" and I doubt if anyone more than 5'4" can sit comfortably behind me in this car. I had read about dismal head room for the rear passengers but I have not seen anyone have that problem in my car yet. Have the GM people changed something here? 9. Other noteworthy interior points: Great air conditioning, powerful headlamps, basic odometer panel cluster, good looking dash. I was not sure if the LT model would play the ipod. But it does and very well at that. Complete integration. You can scroll all the artists, albums, genres etc from the dash controls. Same for a USB drive. The USB drive will only play the first 10,000 songs though. It says so in the manual. 10. Engine performance: Excellent. But the turbo lag is obvious. The clutch recoil does live up to its reputation of being hard. It does get tough during bumper to bumper traffic, but once the road clears a bit, you will probably leave everyone behind. 11.Fuel Efficiency: honestly i have not kept track of it yet. Watch this space. 12. After Sales service: had my first servicing yesterday. Was effortless. Although they sent someone to collect the car, i travelled with that mechanic to the service centre. Have heard nightmarish stories about parts being replaced by fake ones during service. Especially the famous Skoda story on this forum. But no such incidences thankfully. The ordeal was over in 5 hours. Got my car back on the same day. 13. Other points: I replaced the stock tyres and alloys. Out went JK Vectra 205/60R16. In came Bridgestone 225/45/R17. It was a good decision. The ride quality is much better now. The suspension seems more refined, especially for rear passengers. 16" alloys were replaced with 17" BM racing alloys. Model 7527. I hope it's looking good. I personally loved it. Total cost after exchange was about 40K. Have also added the door garnish. Looks cool at night. Cost 6K (bought from dealer). Looked around for a nice ICE with 7" touch-screen but apparently you need to cut and strip the wires to interface with the existing system. That voids the warranty. So I am still looking for a socket which will help me fit the ICE without voiding the warranty. I know that Caska and Mega Audio are options but if I get this elusive socket, I can probably fit in the Sony, JVC as well. Overall it's been a good experience for the first 500KM. Traffic does give me nightmares with the hard clutch and turbo lag but that probably accounts for a 5% negative experience in an otherwise brilliantly crafted car. Lets Cruze !! |
Daimler to Scrap Its Maybach Luxury Cars
| Source: THE WALL STREET JOURNAL Quote:
Personally, I never liked Maybachs and against Rolls Royce's and Bentley's who would buy a Maybach? Including a short video I found on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSdJFrH3Q9A |
i10 auto: Issues in a year old
| The i10 sportz auto is a year old. At lower rpms and at load there was a rattle from the front. The service centre diagnosed it as a problem with the transmission and kept it for 4 days, and handed it back to me, after they had "solved"it. The noise still persists, and now they think it may an engine knock. Am out of ideas and have left the i10 at the Service center at Bangalore. Has anyone else encountered a similar issue ? |
i10 auto: Issues in one year old car
| The i10 sportz auto is a year old. At lower rpms and at load there was a rattle from the front. The service centre diagnosed it as a problem with the transmission and kept it for 4 days, and handed it back to me, after they had "solved"it. The noise still persists, and now they think it may an engine knock. Am out of ideas and have left the i10 at the Service center at Bangalore. Has anyone else encountered a similar issue ? |
Route Help: Hyderabad - Goa - Udupi - Bangalore - Hyderabad
| Hi, I am taking a break from work for one week. So wanted to do some travelling. The route i want to take is: Hyderabad - Solapur - Hubli - Goa - Kollur - Udupi - Bangalore - Hyderabad. Want to spend 3 days in Goa, 1 day in Bangalore. Would like to visit the Mookambika temple in Kollur and Krishna temple in Udupi. So plan is something like below : Day 1: Hyderabad - Solapur - Bijapur Hubli night halt. (570 Kms) Day 2: Hubli - Goa (155 Kms ) Day 3,4,5: Goa Day 6 : Goa - Udupi with halt at Kollur for temple for few hours. (268 km to Kollur + 75 Kms for Udupi) Day 7: Udupi - Bangalore (405 Kms) Day 8: Bangalore Day 9: Bangalore - Hyderabad (572 Kms) I have only done the Bangalore Hyd route earlier, will be the single driver for the trip. Want to stick to the National Highways as much as possible So have lot of queries on this plan. 1. Is above a practical plan. 2. What are the road conditions on any of the above routes. 3. Where can i stay in Hubli, Udupi and Goa. 4. What is the terrain in Goa to Udupi ? Is it hilly ? I have done Otty, Mudumali, Leh so can some one give a comparison. 5. Must see places in the route and locations 6. Want to do some water sport in Goa, what is a good location in Goa All suggestions and comments are welcome. Thanks in advance Moderators please relocate the thread if this is not the correct sub form. |
Rendered – Maruti Suzuki junior SUV
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A segment in its own, this vehicle is said to have certain capabilities of a grown up SUV besides the handling of a Swift. Shoeb studied these speculative media reports and did some guess work. He feels that the junior SUV can be built using Swift parts. Coming to the vehicle, the high ground clearance gifts it with the ability to negotiate any terrain. The flared wheel arches and upgraded tires add extra oomph to its masculine looks. Higher variants could be equipped with a 4X4 to make it a somewhat civilized Gypsy. Since most Maruti vehicles are exported, we expect lots of safety features and driving aids on the top-end version. The 1.3 Multijet is the logical choice and Maruti could look at the 1.6-liter petrol engine on the SX4 for equipping the export model. For the Indian market, the 4X2 version missing some of that equipment will find many buyers. Design language is same as on the new Suzuki models.  |
Honda India halts production of City and Brio due to parts shortage
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Now, it is reported that the Thailand floods have caused a major shortage of parts for the Indian subsidiary to such an extent that Honda India is forced to stop the production of the City sedan and the Brio hatchback. If the situation gets worse, the company will have stop the production of the Jazz as well. The situation is bound to get worse in December. Honda India has confirmed that in December Jazz will have a skeletal production, around 250 units, and a few hundred units of the Civic and Accord sedans will be made. The company’s also stopped taking further bookings for the Jazz at its dealerships due to the uncertainty in the future. The Brio has a backlog of 6,000 cars and the Jazz bookings run up to 4,000 units. The City might see some relief in February. Source: TheEconomicTimes  |
