Motoring 2.0

Mahindra Describes Tata's JLR Takeover as India's Pride

After long speculations TATA acquired Jaguar and Land Rover(JLR). The contestants for the JLR were apparently Indian born Mahindra and Mahindra and Tata Motors. Due to the strategic reasons finally Mahindras pulled back from the race.That opened the way to Tata's take over of legendary JLR.

This week Mahindra and Mahindra's corporate blog mahindrauniverse spotted a post 'A single swallow does not an Indian summer make'. The blog speaks about the scenario before and after the takeover.

Its quiet interesting to see the type of sportsmanship is being seen between two rival companies. The author describes the act as India's victory and explains how Tata could finish the take over.

Book A Test Ride Of All New Thunder Bird twin Spark 2008

All Bullet fans must have noticed the happening launch of all new Thunder Bird twin spark 2008.Royal Enfield has kept the basic structure of old generation Thunder Bird untouched.

Thunder Bird Twinspark 2008 comes with much refined aesthetics,power,torque. On top of that the erognomics also improved significantly. So now I feel you will be looking for a chance to ride one. Here you can learn about ThunderBird

India's First Online Truck Bazar From eBay

Have you ever imagined a prospective truck owner going to cyber cafe to select a used truck? Probably 'NO' but time turned it to YES.Last week one of the pioneers in online shopping eBay made it possible by launching their online truck bazar.

The site trucks.ebay shows eBay has very ambitious plans. If you had a glance of the website you might have noticed that approximately 1050 used trucks already available for purchase. All indian manufacturers are present in the store. The list includes trucks,tempos,three wheelers,construction equipments etc.

eBay website has been desinged in very user friendly manner including option to use regional langauges. Good news for used trucks sellers and buyers.

Car Door That Disappear

Today morning I stumbled upon a forwarded mail from my collegue with a title " Door that Disappear", initially the title gave me a impression of any funny mail from third party hosted sites. But to my surprise the video features the working of retractable doors from Jatech LLC, California.

I visited the site disappearing-car-door.com in the search of more details, It gave sufficient details about the retractable car doors including the history of the company and its development process. Here I am adding some snaps that explains how this revolutionary door system works. The devoleper of this door claims approx, 4Million hits around the world recorded in their website .

The manufactures asserts that this can be incorporated in all types of vehicles (car, truck, coupe, convertible, vans, hatch backs) in 2,3,4,5 door combinations. The website lists many minor and major advantages out of which we are listing some of them relevant

1. Very suitable for a physically handicapped driver.
2. It requires less parking spaces compared to normal doors.
3. Wont harm others while opening of the swing out doors.
4. Better safety by monitoring the door operation and status(close/open)

Hope down the line we may be able to operate the door at a push button control. [Thank You Sunil]

Electric (Toy) Car From The Big Daddy

If you think its a toy car then excuse me you are wrong. This is a masterpiece from one of the Big Three , none less than Chrysler Corp. This small wonder named GEM has been produced by Global Electric Motors[gemcar] a part of Chrysler Corporation of US. The maker of GEM claims many environmental friendly benefits.

GEM car was introduced for low speed application more for merry driving enthusiasts. The vehicle comes with completely electric powered. The Gem comes with all features that an average cars must have. What is more Chrysler gives 12/24 months limited warranty. This car requires a 110VAC plug point for charging and each charging cycles requires approximately 8:00Hours.

Heared a lot about the little wonder like Tata Nano ? now the bitter reality the cars are only availabe in US . To learn more

Visit gemcar today!

Pic Credit

A Blue Toothed Lock For Your Car

Today canadiancontent.com reported a very ambitious project by four grooming engineers from Coimbtore,Tamilnadu,India. Four students of Tamilnadu Engineering College,Coimbatore developed an anti-theft device based on Bluetooth technology.

The device has been designed to immobilize the car within the Bluetooth range probably five meters. If an intruder try to move the car this device automatically shuts down the engine and switch on the burglar alarm. What more you need the device will help you to catch the burglar by locking the doors of the cars.

The total cost of the project was Rs.3000, which can be brought down while launching this device in mass scale. Now the inventors of this unnamed device planning to protect the intellectual property right of this device.

Hope this effort will definitely a good news for car owners. Link canadiancontent.com

Electric Vehicles a sudden battery discharges?

In a span of three years we seen introduction of many electric vehicles in different segments. The mass scale debutant was Reva from M/s Maini Group of Bangalore(Till then Maini was active player in battery operated material handling equipments). After a short break we seen an active show from different electric two wheeler manufacturers from different part of India. Spectators received the electric locomotives with much enthusiasm. But none of them could impress the customer much. At present we have manufacturers ranging from Hero Motors (Hero Honda Motors Group) to Electrotherm( Manufactures of induction furnaces for industrial applications) of Gujarat.

Two wheeler market maintained a two digit growth rate but electric powered two wheelers couldn?t follow the same story. What went wrong? How to find the root cause? Its difficult to answer this question so easily we can narrate some possible reasons behind the sudden rupture of electric vehicle bubble,

1. Except Hero Motors no other manufactures have core domain experience, remember that Hero Motors key strength is in petrol powered vehicles
2. Launch of multiple models from different manufactures caused a flood in a market which is not prepared. We saw approximately 25 models in the last 2 years.
3. Poor sales, service network of new entrant in this field.
4. Suitability of the product is not accepted by customers due to bad products selection.
5. Lack of infrastructure support like charging points, spare parts availability, and lack of service personnel.

Do remember that electric vehicles come with many interesting features like low operating costs, no need of registration and insurance, easy to operate and eco friendly to some extend. Manufacturers like Maini and Electrotherm had announced launch of further models in different segment like city transport buses, two wheelers, but still they are in pipe line. The delay in new launches is a worry point of Eco friendly vehicle spectator. We hope the manufactures are working hard to resolve the short comings happened in past and will come out with hot selling vehicles soon.

Sumo Grande is Here

Its really interesting to see that all automobile manufacturers delivering their promises made in 9th Auto Expo. Now it is Tata?s turn they launched their all new Sumo Grande. Grande didn?t attract much media attention as its precedor people?s car Nano. No doubt team Grande has done a commendable job by totally redesigning the Sumo Victa into a new avtar.

Sumo Grande have already launched across India last week and we have already spot many Grandes on field, that shows the Grande has made a strong entry in the market. It is worth to note the positioning of Grande having priced around Rs.7 lakh, carrying a utility vehicle image it enters the SUV segment. Sumo Grande is available in three variants. By adding Grande into product wagon Tata clearly wants to make a strong dent in Mahindra?s UV and SUV segment dominance.

Grande is available in many vibrant and eye catching colours. The front grill has been modified very thoughtfully. The usage of curves in the bumpers, bonnet and rear pillars has improved the styling a lot. The tail lamp and indicator unit has been set a new bench mark in UV/SUV segment. Grande sports very superior interiors and the seating arrangement also has undergone a root level modification.

Grande comes with three row seat arrangement, the second row angle can be adjusted for a comfortable sleep. Sumo has been powered by the same engine which Victa holds. Tata claims the turning radius of Grande is 5.25mtr which is comparable to a small car. The steering wheel, driver seat also can be adjusted to an ergonomic driving position.

A Frog To Watch Your Fuel Pond...!

Bored of monitoring the fuel efficiency of your car? There is a solution for you. Here is your help, check out fuelfrog.com and create an account its very simple. Creating account is a very simple procedure it won?t make more than one min.

Now the monitoring part, after the login to your account you have to start entering the kilometers covered, quantity of fuel filled and cost of fuel. This is bit cumbersome for Indian drivers as ?fuelfrog? is mainly designed for western countries. The quantity of fuel to be fed as gallons. But its quiet simple just divide the figure in liters by 4 to be precise 3.8.

Even though the data entry requires some minutes it will help you in calculating the fuel efficiency trend of your precious metal. This is particularly helpful to monitor the performance of different brand of fuels.

So join fuelfrog.com and keep an eye on your fuel cost.

Fiat 500 - Fiat 'Big Small Car' Launched

The Fiat 500, the relaunch of 'Cinquencento' designed by Dante Giocosa before 50year happened in India,on 17th July.The launching was done in a glittering ceremony at Mumbai.
The development of this wonder machine is quiet interesting as the price of the machine. The drowning Fiat launched a website www.fiat500.com and invited suggestions from onlookers.Millions of suggestions poured in,the ideas spread from the car design to advertisement campaign.
Now bit about the machines, it is powered by 1242cc,1368cc and 1248cc petrol and diesel engine.The 500 can be customized to approximately 50000 different varieties. The 500 is packed with full accessories include Bluetooth and Me.The tragedy is its quite over prized for Indian market, it come with a price tag of Rs.1500000.
[Source:- rediff ,Picture Credit:- paultan]

Toyota Rubbishes Ford's Claim

Recently Ford's website was posted a survey report that concludes'"Ford Motor Co. is in a dead heat with Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. in terms of initial vehicle quality....". Toyota couldn't maintain it cool.Toyota's official blog came with fierce attack over Ford.

Toyota is brave enough to describe the survey agency as Ford's specialist.But the interesting fact is Toyota too agree that including Ford each vehicle manufacturers has improved in initial quality study(IQS), So there is nothing great about it.Toyota describes that IQS is of less significant as average occupancy rate of a vehicle in U.S. is 5.5 years.

Toyota reminds the world that, their vehicles have always performed above industry average.Toyota Open Road blog concludes by saying that the quality matters in long run how the car treats it owner.[Source:-Toyota Openroad Blog]

Toyota Rubbishes Ford's Claim

Recently Ford's website was posted a survey report that concludes'"Ford Motor Co. is in a dead heat with Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. in terms of initial vehicle quality....". Toyota couldn't maintain it cool.Toyota's official blog came with fierce attack over Ford.

Toyota is brave enough to describe the survey agency as Ford's specialist.But the interesting fact is Toyota too agree that including Ford each vehicle manufacturers has improved in initial quality study(IQS), So there is nothing great about it.Toyota describes that IQS is of less significant as average occupancy rate of a vehicle in U.S. is 5.5 years.

Toyota reminds the world that, their vehicles have always performed above industry average.Toyota Open Road blog concludes by saying that the quality matters in long run how the car treats it owner.[Source:-Toyota Openroad Blog]

Mahindra Drive Into Blogosphere

Corporates always keeps an eye on the technological developments around them. The public relation function of a corporate players major role in interacting with the customers,investors and well wishers.Around the globe a plenty of companies already chosen blogging as a part of their media.

Companies like Toyota and General Motors already floated their blogs. Now indian legend Mahindra also launched their corporate blog mahindrauniverseThe Mahindra Universe went live on 6th May 2008. The blog look very fresh and full of contents.

The maiden blog topic was Thank God Today Is Friday which describe the thought process of a five days a week office goer. A perfect selection indeed. Mahindras top officials spending time on blogging for their corporate blog. Nice to hear that Indian corporates also utilitilizing latest technologies. Dont miss a look at mahindrauniverse

HMSI - Release Precaution Notice

In the wake of E-Mail lottery scams Honda Motorcycles and Scooters India(HMSI) released a precautionary notice ao their website.We received many scams mainly mentioning the names Microsoft,BMW,Honda,Kia etc.

We believe that Honda is the first company,released a warning notice to public. Many of stories already flashed in Internet about the Lottery Scams.The mod us of operandi is shooting emails to either ask for one's personal information or asking one to pay the charges for shipping their gift.

Honda lead the way by clearing their stands. Hope others will be following the queue soon.

Aviator :- A replacement for Activa??

Today HMSI(Honda Motorcycles & Scooters India) their fourth model in Indian market. The new model Aviator displayed in last Auto Expo. Since then it was a discussion topic among the two wheeler lovers. The aviator was launched in different parts of the country from the last few days.The avaiator is positioned in the Activa platform and both the models are powered by same engine. The aviator carries very attractive and aggressive styling, especially the head and tail lap departments. The speedometer console also designed in a unconventional way. The interesting part of the Aviator is telescopic front fork with disk brake. As the engine is already a proven one I am sure about the performance of aviator. Activa already giving benchmarking performance in its catogery in different aspects. Only Activa lacks only in fuel economy which have been addressed in Aviator by reduction of body weight. After the test drive we will write about the Aviator more.

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