Analytics

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Rolls Royce driving towards Indian market



For Rolls Royce, Indian market will become the most promising market in next 5 to 10 years. All Western now start realizing the importance of Indian market to compete in global platform. Indian is already second fastest growing economy in the world and UK based luxury automobile manufacturer RR don’t want to miss that emerging market. For Indian market Rolls Royce looking at its parent BMW’s supplier’s network in India. BMW is already trying to build a strong supplier networks in India and Rolls Royce will also use it to join the party.

India’s super premium class is growing and luxury car markers realize the future potential of this segment. Although it’s in small number but they are continuously growing same as the Indian economy. Globally this luxury car manufacturer facing the heat of global melt down and has already seen a 25% dip. Last year company already sold 14 cars in India and expecting to hit the 50 mark in the board. Company is planning to launch the brand new Ghost slides next year in Indian market (this model will help to touch 50 marks). Price for this model will be around 2.7-3 crore.

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Skoda Fabia - Review by CarSingh.com

Let’s talk about a stylish, fuel efficient and of course powerful machine that is running in our bumpy roads and new 4 lanes highway, yes it’s FABIA – Skoda Fabia.





Skoda Fabia got a very classic European look and clearly land in India’s premium hatch back segment. Well shaped headlamps and elegant bonnet designs give a smart look from the front. It also has chunky looking alloy wheels and wider tyres give a sporty look and better road grip. A striking chrome front grille with well designed vertical fins, give a new striking look. High waistline gives a chubby look from the side.




Fabia got an eye catching dual tone interior. Skoda made the interiors that could last longer. New designed multi-texture fabrics on seats and doors add a classy look to the interiors. Fabia is loaded with excellent music system integrated into the dashboard with large graphical display and easy to use buttons. Next to the hand brakes it gives an auxiliary audio input to enjoy the songs from your iPod or other portable audio player. Air-conditioning also works very well and will not let you sweat while driving. In the top model of Fabia (Elegance model) you will also get some additional new features like rear parking sensors with audio and visual warning, electric sunroof, adjustable front armrest with some storage space, a sunglass holder integrated into the roof of car and new projected headlamps. Seriously you can easily see the German touch in this car.




Fabia also has multi-function information display like current time, average fuel consumption, time driven, average speed and outdoor temperature. Another good feature is remote key less entry. This car is really full of so many new features that you expect only on high end cars. Definitely I will miss some features to point out here, you will find more when you feel and drive it.



You can also keep your water bottle or beer can (Please Don’t Drink and Drive) cool inside the illuminated and climate controlled glove box. There is a switch inside glove box that you can turn off if you don’t want cooling. Along with huge leg space in front seats; it also has height adjustable fronts seats. But it works manually, it’s not electrically adjustable. There is enough leg room for the driver and front seat passenger. Sorry for the rear seat passenger, they got little less leg room but that’s what you get in all hatchbacks. Boot space is also huge (300 litres) and you can easily carry your good amount of luggage with you. Rear seat can also split (60:40) and create more space to carry large stuffs. Another good feature is height and reach adjustable of steering wheel which is little small and broad.



Gears are very smooth and for reverse gear you have to push it down and then move it. I drove this car in all road condition and want to thank Skoda for giving us a smooth ride in rough road as well. I should say Skoda understands Indian road condition very well and designed multi link rear suspension very well.

Skoda Fabia is having excellent safety features; like dual front air bags, anti-lock braking system (ABS) that actually prevents wheel lock-up during sudden braking. The best one is Fabia can’t be stolen because no one can make its duplicate key reason it include a unique VIN code.




Let’s come down to main feature that is 1.4 TDI PD Diesel engine. It’s among the one of the most reliable and efficient engines. Actually I drove the Fabia Ambiente (already done 10,000 km) that has 1.4 L, 3 cylinder engine (I don’t know why they are still with 3 cylinder) and it makes little more sounds that you can hear from inside as well. I was able to hear the nice composed sound from engine along with 94.3 FM music. But the mileage wise it’s excellent, it gives close to 16 kpl in city and 20 around in the highway.

With price tag close to 8 lakh on road, it gives you all features that should have in a premium hatchback. So definitely its worth putting that much money on it.



What Skoda can improve: They can use quality plastic material inside, Engine sounds is too much (TDI – Ambiente Variant) - Skoda should look into this issue seriously, should add curtain air-bags (as you can find in i20), steering style and look could be improve (i20 and Jazz having better steering look), and pickup is little slow, add washer for rear wiper.

Fuel Saving Tips - by CarSingh.com

Here are some tips to save your fuel and environment while driving a car:

1. Accelerate properly through the gears to your desired speed.

2. When you are driving, try to put top gear from around 60 kph and up and try to keep rpm between 2000 and 3000.

3. Lights, stereo and air-conditioning also cost more fuel. So if it’s not required try to keep it off.

4. Ensure all the tyres have right air pressure.

5. Using brakes more frequently also cost more fuel.

6. If you are in jam or in red light signal where you think it will take more than a minute then turn off your car engine, it will save fuel and environment.

7. Change the oil on time and does servicing on time will also help to boost fuel economy and car performance.

8. Your foot should not rest on the clutch paddle while driving the car, this clutch driving will burn more fuel.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Hyundai Verna - review by CarSingh.com

Hyundai Verna is simple, plain looking car with unremarkable performance. It’s a nice family car where an Indian family of five (Hum do aur hamare do with a friend) can comfortably fit in car, it has enough leg room at the rear. Verna is having a broad C-pillar and very short boot lid that make this car more hatch-like. The audio system is very decent but plastic cabin isn’t up to the mark. Interior is very spacious and it has some great features like automatic climate control and electric door mirrors and these units are very easy to use and you don’t need to put much effort to set it all the time. It has enough boot space to keep your long drive stuffs (352 litres). Verna is having a stylish, smooth gear knob with leather cover and cross stitching at the side.


The Verna comes with 1.5 diesel engines (powerful diesel engine) and 1.6 petrol engines. The diesel one has a variable geometry turbo and petrol a variable valve timing system. Common rail diesel injection keeps the engines very smoother and ensures a great performance. Its four cylinder motor generates 108.5 bhp with 24 kgm of torque, its enough to take Verna at it top speed of 175 kph. This machine takes only 14.1 seconds for 0-100 kph. The suspension is very well designed for Indian roads. Handling is very smooth and decent in almost all conditions. For city ride you will love to have auto transmission, and Verna is only car in its segment to have auto transmission.


Verna price tag starts from close to 8lakh and goes up to 10 lakh (ex-showroom Bangalore) price. Nothing beats the Verna and its absolute value of your money. At the end I can say that Verna is a pretty powerful, robust, comfortable, simple and easy to drive car. (www.carsingh.com)

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Honda Jazz Review

Jazz came up with nice interiors, textures and great choice of colors. Steering wheel with audio control is fully adjustable and looks pretty much Honda city style. Jazz dashboard is very impressive and rich looking. Music system is quite ok with four speakers but it has more buttons on it. You will also get real time fuel consumption information. In the base model also, you will get 2 airbags, ABS, steering audio controls – very impressive but when you see the price of base model (8 lakh + on road) – your expression will definitely change! But price wise, I can say Fabia is better than Jazz.

Let’s talk about Jazz engine, 1198 cc, SOHC i-VTEC engine is more refined and smooth. When motor starts you can’t hear anything from inside. This i-VTEC improves the overall efficiency and car manages to make 90 Ps of power. For an engine of 1.2 litres managing this power is very impressive and it also takes just 13.3 seconds to get 100 from zero. The bad part is engine lacks torque; it develops a peak torque of 110 Nm at a high 4800 rpm. But still you can drive little hassle free in top gear in city like Bangalore. Jazz also promises a great mileage close to 16.1 kmpl. Suspension is also very well tested in all conditions. It gives a quite decent ride on bumpy surface as well. At this price tag Honda should give more quality ride and should absorb most of the bumps of Indian road. Ride quality is also very close to Skoda Fabia which is close to 1 and half lakh less expensive.

Best part of Honda Jazz is safety features; it comes up with airbags and ABS in all models. It also received a 5 star rating for crash safety.

Jazz is quite expensive in its hatchback segment but you can consider it if you are looking for more space (that you can’t get in any other hatchback), great safety features and impressive interior.

Hyundai i20 Diesel Review

Hyundai
up with two newversions of the Hyundai i20 to compete with extremely popular Maruti’s Swift Diesel, Skoda’s Fabia, TataMotors’ Indigo and Fiat’s Palio in the diesel hatchback segment. i20 now gets a pair of Hyundai’s new and latest engines - a 1.4 litre CRDI (90 bhp) and the1.4 ‘Gamma’ petrol (100 bhp) which is having only an automatic transmission. The1.4 litre CRDi engine is expected to deliver a fuel efficiency of around 20 kmper litre of fuel. Hyundai is very confident to boost i20 sales with these twonew variants. Company is targeting 4,000 units a month, comparing to currentsales of 2,500 units a month.


If you see the Hyundai i20 Diesel from outside, you will not find any difference from regular i20. The exteriors are exact same except CRDi badge on the tailgate. Interior is also exact same as in previousi20. The best part of i20 is the way they made the interiors. It’s very comfortable,hugely spacious, great looking dashboard, and also sporty look of steering. In build music system also give nice looks (pretty much same as i10). I20 is equipped with great safety features(like 6 airbags) which gives a great advantage over other hatchbacks. This CRDi engine is very quite as compare to other diesel engines in hatchback. But as you start the engine, you can easily pick it’s a diesel one. The twin cam motor of 16 valve is very well tuned for better fuel efficiency and low emission. Hyundaii20 is great car for both city and highway and the fact is you will enjoy the ride more.


Now comes the most important part the Price Tag, I can’t consider it as a cheap deal because it’s base model, Magna, starts from Rs.6.19 lac (ex-showroom – Delhi) and top model, Asta with all options, touchesRs. 7.20 lac. But if you take safety features in consideration then it’s agreat buy and in look and comfort it beats almost all diesel hatchbacks.

Maruti Ritz Review

Thanks for Maruti for its new small car (seventh one, lucky number) in Indian road – Ritz… It’s kind of based on Maruti Swift. Ritz is taller than the Swift but it’s not as long. Front look is very well designed; the big size headlamps are well shaped and closely fitted around the corners. Back side is little different in looks, most of us not used to see that kind of design, so our eyes will take time to adjust this new look. This car is made up of small-small pieces of SX4 and Swift, which is good idea though. The large Speedo is more like a Mini Cooper style and it reflects a great look. Interiors are finest quality, the reason Maruti brings quality interiors is to compete with better quality texture and material of interiors in Skoda Fabia, i10, Honda Jazz and new Volkswagen polo. Seats are very comfortable for all kind of drive and they are height adjustable – another nice feature. Leg and head spaces are huge and cleverly designed; three persons can be fitted easily on it. But I am feeling little worried about the trunk space, it’s only 225 litres, so before leaving for a long drive, take a look of your belonging.

Maruti always understand the Indian road conditions and designed all cars according to that, Ritz design is not a new story. I drove it around the Bangalore, small roads to big roads, smooth to broken road and Ritz came up with fine results in all those conditions. Handling is good same as other Maruti’s. Suspensions are especially tuned for Indian roads. High ground clearance and fatter 14” wheels are enough for quality ride in most conditions. Now another interesting part is light weighted K-line Engine (it’s a new engine – K series) powers the petrol versions of Ritz. There is lots of new technology features in it which help to deliver better results and great mileage (close to 17 kpl). This is 1197 cc DOHC, develops 84 bhp at 6000rpm, it looks logically little quick, it reaches 0 to 100 kph in just 12.9 seconds and top speed is 170 kph. The Diesel motor is 1248 cc DDiS that develops 74 bhp at 4000 rpm. Response time is almost same as you get in Petrol one. Diesel versions are giving a great mileage close to 20 kpl, better you can save some money for your weekends.

Ritz is available in LXi, VXi and ZXi variants for petrol model and LDi and VDi versions for diesel model. In Diesel model you will not get the airbags and ABS/EBD.

At the end I can say Ritz is a car with lot of space for its occupants, adequate power, good handling, decent safety features (in Petrol model only), less back space, great mileage and affordable starts from 4.8 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi).

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Hyundai Verna Review

Hyundai Verna is simple, plain looking car with unremarkable performance. It’s a nice family car where an Indian family of five (Hum do aur hamare do with a friend) can comfortably fit in car, it has enough leg room at the rear. Verna is having a broad C-pillar and very short boot lid that make this car more hatch-like. The audio system is very decent but plastic cabin isn’t up to the mark. Interior is very spacious and it has some great features like automatic climate control and electric door mirrors and these units are very easy to use and you don’t need to put much effort to set it all the time. It has enough boot space to keep your long drive stuffs (352 litres). Verna is having a stylish, smooth gear knob with leather cover and cross stitching at the side.

The Verna comes with 1.5 diesel engines (powerful diesel engine) and 1.6 petrol engines. The diesel one has a variable geometry turbo and petrol a variable valve timing system. Common rail diesel injection keeps the engines very smoother and ensures a great performance. Its four cylinder motor generates 108.5 bhp with 24 kgm of torque, its enough to take Verna at it top speed of 175 kph. This machine takes only 14.1 seconds for 0-100 kph. The suspension is very well designed for Indian roads. Handling is very smooth and decent in almost all conditions. For city ride you will love to have auto transmission, and Verna is only car in its segment to have auto transmission.

Verna price tag starts from close to 8lakh and goes up to 10 lakh (ex-showroom Bangalore) price. Nothing beats the Verna and its absolute value of your money. At the end I can say that Verna is a pretty powerful, robust, comfortable, simple and easy to drive car.