The country’s largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India on Thursday said it will launch a new variant of its compact car A-star with automatic transmission early next week, as it bids to strengthen its hold over Indian car market.

“By early next week, we will be introducing the automatic transmission (AT) variant of the A-Star. We see a growing market for the automatic transmission cars in India, as traffic congestion is increasing by the day resulting in driver fatigue,” Maruti Suzuki India chief general manager- marketing Shashank Srivastava said.

He, however, declined to share the price of the AT variant of the A-Star, saying it will be decided next week.

The A-Star is currently available between Rs 3.59 lakh and Rs 4.23 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi).

This is a first in automotive marketing: Ford is revealing the design of the 2011 Ford Explorer on Facebook. The reveal is coming six months prior to the car appearing on showrooms, and taking a much different form than any of the car reveals that came before it.

Ford has been using the Ford Explorer Facebook Page to drum up excitement in anticipation of the all-day event. The automaker has already far surpassed its goal of 30,000 fans prior to the reveal, which means the the company will be giving away an Explorer to one random fan.

For more information check out the Ford Explorer Facebook page here.

Powered by an 89 bhp 1.3-litre Multijet diesel engine, the Punto 90 HP borrows its engine from the Linea and is some 15 bhp more powerful than the existing 75 HP Multijet diesel engine found in the hatchback. This has been possible thanks to a re-tuned engine that also boasts of a variable geometry turbocharger instead of the fixed geometry turbocharger found on the 75 HP.

This makes the car about 3.8 seconds quicker to 100 kph than the regular 75 HP car and it boasts of a top speed that is 10 kph higher than the regular car as found in our road test.

The Punto 90 HP has been launched in the Emotion trim only for now and will co-exist with the Punto 75 HP. The other engines on offer are a 1.2-litre and 1.4-litre Petrol FIRE engines that produce 67 bhp and 88 bhp respectively.

PRICE LIST (ALL EX-SHOWROOM)

New Delhi: Rs 6.79 lakh

Mumbai: Rs 7.01 lakh

Bengaluru: Rs 6.88 lakh

Chennai: Rs 6.83 lakh

Kolkata: Rs 6.85 lakh

After launching its compact car, ‘Polo’, in February this year, the ‘Vento’ is Volkswagen’s second car targeting the mass market and will be positioned at the upper-end of the mid-sized sedan segment in the country. “This is the first car which has been designed and manufactured in India,” Volkswagen Group Board Member (Sales & Marketing) Christian Klingler told.

The car will be available with two engine options, a 1.6 litre CRDI diesel engine and a 1.6 litre petrol engine, both producing 105 bhp. Both the engines would be available with a 5-speed manual gearbox while a 6-speed automatic gearbox will be available only for the petrol variant.

The car will compete directly with some big names such as Honda City, Maruti Suzuki SX4, Ford Fiesta, Hyundai Verna and Fiat Linea. Check out how it compare here:

Senior company officials said the price of the car will be announced in the first week of August and it will be available in the market in the October-December quarter.

We told you already about the arrival of Evolution series to India and soon we will see Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X on Indian roads. Mitsubishi has decided to sell the car in Indian market through the dealership network already in place thanks to its alliance with Hindustan Motors.

It is expected that presently the company will aim at selling 100 numbers of cars in India. Like most high end cars that have made their way into the country, the Evo X will be imported and sold as a Completely Built Unit (CBU). Mitsubishi will have this legend available to deep pocketed Indian motoring enthusiasts from the next month on. Be prepared to pay what you would for a top of the line 3-series BMW.

Evolution X MR FQ300 comes with 294PS and 366Nm of gut wrenching torque from a 1998cc four cylinder turbocharged engine, a six-speed sequential shift transmission delivering drive to all four wheels, zero to 100km/h in 4.5 seconds and an electronically limited 250km/h top whack. Read the complete specifications here:

SPECIFICATIONS: MITSUBISHI LANCER EVO X

Engine: 2 litre 16-valve DOHC intercooled Turbocharged MIVEC

Displacement: 1998cc

Transmission: 6 speed, Twin clutch SST

Power: 295PS @ 6,500rpm

Torque: 366Nm @ 3500 rpm

LxWxH: 4505 x 1810 x 1480mm

Wheelbase: 2650mm

Weight: 1605 kg

Price: To be announced

The company opened bookings for the model in May for an undisclosed price. The booking were accepted on payment of Rs.50,000.

According to the company, Delhi has the highest number of bookings followed by Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Mumbai and Chennai.

“We are confident that this booking trend will continue to improve as we move closer to the start of sales by middle of July 2010,” Managing Director Kiminobu Tokuyama said.

The new car – Verna Transform – will be available in two engine variants of 1.6 litre petrol and 1.5 litre diesel.

“The Verna Transform is all set to boost Hyundai’s already superior line-up of products in India by raising the benchmark in the sedan segment,” Hyundai Motor India Managing Director and CEO H W park told reporters here.”

PRICE LIST (Ex-Showroom Delhi)

Verna VTVT w/o Audio – Rs. 655,896.00

Verna VTVT with Audio – Rs. 674,321.00

Verna SX VTVT – Rs. 750,384.00

Verna VGT CRDi w/o Audio – Rs. 787,881.00

Verna VGT CRDi with Audio – Rs. 806,404.00

Verna VGT SX CRDi – Rs. 857,140.00

Verna VGT SX AT CRDi – Rs. 921,522.00

Mercedes-Benz has already convinced its global partner KYC to set up a body building plant within the factory premises. The idea is simple – manufacture it locally and price it attractively. Sources say the company is infact looking at localising the engine as well to price the product more competitively.

Mercedes-Benz will conduct product clinics and fine-tune the buses to the specific needs of Indian city bus operators and has already imported a low floor and a semi-low floor city bus for the purpose, a company release stated.

“I am 100 per cent convinced that this 500-600 units per annum market will continue to grow by 20 per cent year on year and we think with our products, process, people, we will be able to offer a significant value to the customers,” siad Wilfried Aulbur, MD of Mercedes Benz India.

Source: http://beta.profit.ndtv.com/news/show/mercedes-benz-to-manufacture-low-floor-busses-in-india-73393

Tata Motors started commercial production of the world’s cheapest car, Nano, at Sanand plant yesterday.

The new plant at Sanand was inaugurated by Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata, who seven years ago dreamt of making an affordable family car for the common man. Speaking on the occasion, Modi said: “The revolution brought by Ford in the early 20th century with its small car is being replicated now by Ratan Tata with his Nano.”

The Sanand facility has the capacity to manufacture 2.5 lakh units annually, which can subsequently be increased to 5 lakh units per annum.

Tata Motors engineers could soon be playing a starring role in making engines for Jaguar-Land Rover (JLR), the marque models acquired in 2008, after the British company’s bosses grudgingly agreed to the austerity measure.

Despite the vast potential for savings, the move is surprising as the Tatas and JLR are as different as chalk and cheese in the automobile segment. Tata Motors is known for creating products aimed at the lower end of the market—the Nano is a prime example—while JLR is singularly focused on upscale segments.

“We are looking at 2-litre engines that can power the new Land Rover model, LRX,” Mr Forster said recently. “Ford currently does not have such capacity size and is talking to Peugeot-Citroen,” he said.

A Tata Motors spokesman confirmed the move to jointly develop engines. “As India is a preferred source of production, we’ll source the engines here with the design left for the JLR team,” he said. Still, “as a concept, it’s still in its infancy and is being debated”, the spokesman added.