Tata Indica Vista – Part I

Car lovers in India have lately been having a lot to smile about. More so following the spate of amazing new-technology cars that major automobile companies have been coming up lately. The latest to enter the bandwagon has been the Tata Indica Vista and comes from the Tata family. The festival season has been giving both the car makers as well as the car owners a lot to boast about. It has also given the car makers a reason to launch new cars, each of which are a great competition to the other and are decked up with the latest technological advancements and goodies.

A new trend has been around lately when it comes to new cars having been launched in the Indian Market. Major companies have been coming up with refreshed versions of their older models, which are equipped with new looks and features as well as latest technology engines.

The list includes Hyundai i10, Maruti Suzuki Estilo, Mistubishi, etc. The latest addition to this list has been from Tata Motors stable in the form of their exciting new car Tata Indica Vista. The car comes with major changes in the exteriors as well as a few changes in the interiors of the car.

The engine of Indica Vista would be carrying the engine of Fiat Grand Punto 90bhp. With this, the car is expected to deliver similar engine performance and has upped the ante. Quite a few cars have been coming with interesting changes in the engine and in a few cases, completely new engines as well. One fine example of this would definitely be the Maruti Suzuki A-Star, which comes with the all new Kb series of engine, that is light-weight, eco-friendly as well as gives a superb mileage of upto 19kmpl in the city.

Maruti Suzuki Estilo : Back With A Bang!

Maruti Suzuki, the largest car manufacturer in the country have been aggressively trying to increase its appeal to the small car buyers by coming up with car models which keep up with the times and are high on both technology and looks! The latest of these models being Maruti Estilo, Maruti A-Star, Alto K10, etc.

In isolation, Maruti Suzuki Estilo is a much revamped car, which in reality looks nothing like its previous version, what with the brand new KB10 engine and stunning looks. The new Estilo is more contemporary and lives up to its promise of being a car which adds freshness to life, mostly because of its fresh looks and appeal.

Maruti Suzuki Estilo boasts of an all new front styling, which includes a revised grille, new headlamps and a dynamic bumper with sculpted fog lamps. It surely is interesting to note that Maruti has been playing around with the grille and headlight in all its latest models, the best example being the beautiful low-slung grille and dynamic headlamps in Maruti Suzuki A-Star.

New wheel covers just add to the overall interesting looks of the car and complement the entire exterior makeovers to give the car a whole new personality and style that is in sync with what people demand from their cars today. Probably the best change which has been incorporated in the all new Estilo has been the fact that it has been stripped of its plain jane looks and has a completely new mystery and bold stance to it.

The biggest change, however, in Estilo lies under the hood. The old Estilo was equipped with the old petrol engine. The new Estilo, on the other hand, is equipped with the next-generation K-series KB10 engine which is lightweight as well as powerful. The now famous KB10 engine is a 998cc, 3-cylinder petrol engine, similar to that in A-Star.

Maruti Alto K10

Alto K10 is one of the exciting new cars from among the hoard of young fleet that Maruti Suzuki has been fishing out lately. With a common platform designed on the Japanese principles of kei-ji-dosha, Maruti Alto is famously called the elder brother of the cult car Maruti 800. At one point in time, Maruti was selling 3 versions of the same car, namely Maruti 800, Alto and Zen. All of them different generations of the same car!

Maruti Alto was launched 8 years ago and has since displaced Maruti 800 as Maruti Suzuki’s flagship company in the domestic car market. Not only a hit in the domestic market, the car is also hugely successful worldwide and us exported to other countries such as Switzerland, Germany, Greece, Ireland, to name a few. The company even has plans to start exporting it to newer pastures like Denmark, Hungary and Portugal.

Now Maruti Suzuki has launched a newer and updated version of the best selling Alto with the K10B engine. The Alto K10 will come equipped with the existing 800cc engine that was there in the original Alto. However, it offers a plusher option with a much better engine quality and fuel efficiency. The car comes packed with whole new front and rear bumpers, new head-lights and tail lamps, brand new fog lights and new radiator grille. A new steering wheel, instrument cluster and gear knob are also said to be incorporated soon.

Alto K10 is a nice looking dynamic car and is pretty much in accordance with the features and performance of another dynamic car from Maruti Suzuki’s fleet, i.e., Maruti Suzuki A-Star. Like A-Star, Alto K10 comes equipped with 3 cylinder MPFi KB engine, that is both light-weight and fuel-efficient. It can generate a maximum power of 67 bhp with a maximum torque of around 90Nm.

Nissan Micra

Nissan Micra is the latest offering from the Japanese car manufacturer Nissan Motor Company. The stand out feature of the car is that it offers certain facilities that even some big sedans don’t. It can be comfortably said that the Nissan Micra is a hatchback with a difference!

It’s an Indian A2 hatchback which is manufactured on a new “V” platform. The V-platform concentrates on reductions in both weight as well as the number of components that make up the future models. The car is lightweight and sophisticated and really makes a splash. It has been engineered keeping in mind the comforts of the Indian roads as well as easy maneuvering of the vehicle. As of now, the car is available only on a 1.2L petrol tank and is soon expected to be manufactured in automatic transmissions as well. This is one feature where Maruti Suzuki A-Star stands out! A-Star is a car which has already been launched in automatic and is indeed a runaway success.

The car is pretty cute looking and would surely touch chords with the women and youngsters. Its style and looks are a deadly mix and cater to the younger generation’s tastes. The Micra has a 3 cylinder (Double Over-Head Cam) 1198cc petrol engine producing at 75 BHP at 6,000 rpm and 104 NM of torque at 4,000 rpm.

Maruti Suzuki, on the other hand, comes equipped with the latest technology K series engine. Apart from everything else, the cars are pretty similar as well, especially in terms of the safety features like dual airbags, ABS (anti-lock breaking system) and EBD (electronic break distribution), to name a few. Micra, though, has some really stand-out features like keyless entry, tilt-adjustable steering and multi-information display. The dashboard dials are easily readable but the driver seat is not adjustable, which is quite a disappointment.

Chevrolet Spark

Chevrolet Spark was launched to regain the lost market share in 2008. Matiz which was earlier launched by the organization was long forgotten by the customers and hence Chevrolet came up with the all new jazzy design. The car is being manufactured at the company’s factory near Baroda.

India's small-car market makes up for the major share of the country's market for passenger vehicles. Chevrolet Spark has a stylish and expensive look that helps it to compete in the small car segment in the country. The car was launched to capture the fancy of the youth.
Chevrolet Spark offers a host of features that combine with its handsome, sturdy, and solid good looks to give it an edge over other small cars in the market. This hatchback has a new and improved body design and all the space that you would want for your family. This car has been launched in jazzy new colors to cater to the young generation.

The compact car competes in the same segment as that which is currently dominated by the Maruti A-Star, Wagon R, Hyundai Santro, and Tata Indica. It offers a fuel efficiency of 12.3 km/l on the city roads and is available in 5- speed manual transmission. The Chevrolet Spark comes in 7 main variants: 1.0, 1.0PS, 1.0LS, 1.0LT, 1.0LT OPT, 1.0PS LPG and 1.0LS LPG all with 4 cylinders 1 litre (995 cc) engines. All variants generate a power of 63 bhp at 5400 rpm and a torque of 90.3 Nm at 4200 rpm.

Spark could very well be the next big thing in the automobile industry on the Indian roads as it tries to capture Indian hearts and Indian roads with its new design and its easy-to-maneuver compact styling. Spark also brings with it the variety of color, so that your car remains different and one among the few.

Tata Nano Review Part-III

Tata Nano is amongst the most hyped cars in Indian history. The car was launched with a huge hype and this was the reason why different people have different opinion about it. Image of the car is another issue but speaking on a more technical and practical side the car Tata Nano is amongst the most fuel efficient cars in the world. It is true that it has the smallest engine.

From the 1st of October the car was out for people to buy directly without any booking or lucky draws. This is the reason why the response of the people is yet to be seen and the on road performance is yet to be measured. The car has a unique design which makes it look cute to some and ugly to the rest. The top model of the car is also equipped with an Air Conditioner and power windows in the front. The interiors are quite minimalistic but some of you can feel a little uncomfortable if you are sitting for the first time.

The engine of the car is on the rear which means that the passengers sitting on the rear seat are sitting just above the engine. Some people think that this can lead to the heating of the rear seat but actually the engine is properly insulated which prevents any heat coming out.

Tata Nano Review Part II

Tata Nano comes from a family of new generation cars. It is basically designed with a family in mind, has a roomy passenger compartment with good leg space and ample head room. As Tata Nano is a family car, four persons can easily sit inside the car. Tata Nano can easily manoeuvre on busy roads of city as well as in rural areas. The design of Tata Nano is mono-volume, to ensure easy manoeuvrability. Tata Nano is available in 3 versions, which are Standard, Deluxe and Luxury with wide range of body colours and other accessories to customize the car as per the user requirement.

Tata Nano also has very fuel-efficient multi-point fuel injection petrol engine with rear-wheel drive, two in-line cylinders. Due to its strategic design, Tata Nano has achieved minimum weight and maximum performance per unit of energy consumed and delivers high fuel efficiency. The performance of Tata Nano is controlled by electronic engine management system which is specially designed for this car.

Tata Nano, just like Maruti Suzuki A-Star has all sheet-metal body which provide a strong passenger compartment with excellent safety features. What’s more, all versions are provided with tubeless tyres for its further safety on roads. The brakes in Nano Deluxe and Nano Luxury versions are power brakes to ensure more safety to the driver as well as its passengers. The brake type used in Nano is Dual circuit, H-type split hydraulic brake with diameter of Front and Rear Brake is 180 mm drum brake and the parking brakes type is Lever type, cable operated mechanical linkages acting on rear wheels.

Tata Nano is highly fuel efficient car, because its exhaust emissions performance exceeds the emission regulatory requirements. Its high fuel efficiency also ensures that the car has very low carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. And, thereby, Tata Motors provided the twin benefits of an affordable transportation solution with very low carbon footprints.

When Tata Nano was on booking last year in 2009, it was expected by Indian rating agency CRISIL (Credit Rating and Information Services on India Ltd.) that the car could expand the nation’s car market by 65%. But recent news of JD Research Agency report that Tata Nano will be the 2nd largest selling car of FY, 2011.

Apart from all these, Tata vehicles are always provided with well established service network with its skilled and trained manpower that ensures proper maintenance during the car life.