Automobile Technology

I could not resist but post this video from head to head. This is simply awesome especially because of the background music.

The F12 Berlinetta is the latest from Ferrari. Its lighter, faster and meaner and yet its fuel efficient and environment friendly with lower carbon emissions. It boasts a V12, 6262 cc engine, 7 speed gearbox and is the fastest car Ferrari has ever produced. Its reaches 100km/h in 3.1 seconds. Check out this awesome review from Auto Express to know more.

I have not seen many Nissan Sunny's on road. I get it that it is a CAAAARRRRRRR! but hey! don't you guys get it. It is just simply not looking good. Renault decides to come up with Scala with the same looks. What is wrong with them??? I had an experience in the back seat of the Sunny recently and yes it is definitely a CAAARRRRRR!!! There is a lot of space inside the car. Your kids would not have any issues having fun in the back seat. However what disappointed me the most is the design of the exterior and interior of the car.  Exterior The huge buttocks of this car makes the car's rear stand apart from the front. What was Nissan thinking??? While the front looks descent the rear looks all messed up. Even the side profile of the car is not appealing. Each element of the car is actually good but the way they have been integrated together is what makes it unattractive. Nissan messed it up big time. Interior Again individually all elements speak up just...

I got a chance to experience the Polo yesterday and I must say that I finally am convinced that all I heard about Volkswagen is indeed true. Let me get into the facts right away. These are simply what I feel about the car. What i like: I have seen several reviews claiming the ride quality of Volkswagen to be one of the best in the market. This is true. Few of my colleagues in the car felt the same too. The ride quality is definitely way better than most cars in the market today. I had always been crazy about the looks of a car. The new Fludic Verna for example has a very different and classy look; echoing "Fludic" from front to rear. At the same time many feel its ride quality is not as smooth as it should be. The fact is a driver is going to spend 100% of his time driving and its important a buyer pays more attention to the drive quality and comfort over the looks. So yes, the ride and comfort in the Polo is simply good. This is a verdict from four of us inside ...

I don't understand the purpose of this car. It's small and costs over 4 lacs. What will you do with a car like this? Maybe go for a drive to have some tea!!! It's compact and Honda has designed it well. I mean, there is leg space, there is this little boot space, there is good visibility and there is all the goodies (well not all of them) you need in a car, but is it good enough?. It sports a1.2 litre engine and is definitely power packed, the drive is smooth and so is the performance and hey! its Honda. Personally I feel it is smaller than the i10 and comparing its price to what it offers it does not seem worth the money to me.

Electric cars have one major problem. You need to quickly find a socket to re-charge the batteries when it runs out of charge and it takes a lot time to fully charge the batteries; usually about eight to ten hours. One option is to simply remove the discharged battery and replace it with a new one and then keep the old one for charging.  Its clever how about 400 Renault Fluenze operate this way in Israel. You can read more in this link. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-19423835

I am not sure of the authenticity of the information but it is definitely interesting. Check this out http://www.siliconindia.com/news/business/Whos-Got-the-Worlds-Biggest-Car-Collection-nid-126661-cid-3.html?utm_source=clicktrack&utm_medium=banner&utm_campaign=TopNewsDontMiss

This city is going to die very soon; that's what it looks like to me. Its going to EXPLODE! People have no driving sense and there are more vehicles on road than recommended. The sad truth is the infrastructure is so poor that i am surprised there are so many vehicles being registered. In addition to the traffic craziness we also have garbage issues, bad roads, corruption, increased crime rate and pollution. I am already having this urge to move out from this city. I commute from home to work and back home five times a week. It's been over a year now and on each passing day i see the matter getting worse. People just dont seem to get it. Following simple rules like speed, lane discipline, waiting at the signal etc is out of the window. The worst for me is this crazy honking. Today i am feeling the pain in my ears and hence this post. I don't understand why people honk. It looks to me that everyone is in a hurry to catch a train. Imagine a wonderful morning from home going ...

Toyota launched the Camry at an introductory price of 24 lacs ex-showroom Delhi. This car will be assembled in Bangalore as the company has a joint venture with Kirloskar group. Camry has been there for seven generations and assembling the car here would help them reduce cost and also cater to the needs of the Indian mass. The new Camry will be a 2.5 litre petrol engine with a six speed automatic transmission. Unfortunately there isn't a diesel variant as of now. This car can very well be compared with Honda accord and the Skoda superb. I personally think the Camry is built very elegantly and is very symmetric in its design and features. Honda accord on the other hand seems very bulky and Skoda superb is very bland. The two plants will be at Bidadi on the outskirts of Bangalore.

We all know that mahindra had acquired a major stake in Reva Electric. The company is now expanding it by inaugurating a new manufacturing plant in Bommasandra in the outskirts of Bangalore. The new plant has the capacity to produce 30,000 units a year. What is astonishing is Reva has till date sold only about a few thousand units. Mahindra shall help boost the sales by introducing this new plant and also the new two door electric model which was showcased in the auto expo in Delhi. This new car is bigger than the Reva and is also electric.

Tata motors promised a 1 lac car to the world and they fulfilled it. The Tata Nano was born and it stunned the world. Many thought of it as a joke but Ratan Tata has made it loud and clear that if you set your goal right then it is possible to achieve anything. And now they want to do it again and this time with the Pixel. Tata has finally unveiled the MegaPixel at the Geneva Motor Show. Its a four seater, environment friendly electric car. It is a concept itching to come to reality. The one thing giving me goose bumps is an Indian product going international with an international design. I simply love seeing the Tata logo on the Pixel. The petrol engine recharges the battery on the go and it promises to provide 900 km with a tank of fuel and an economy of 100 km / litre. What is stunning in the pixel is the maneuverability. You could pivot and turn around a particular wheel enabling an exceptional turn radius of 2.8 meters. I can go gaga over the pixel but you will have to ...

Bebo came in to boost sales of the Mahindra's scooter - Duro. Asin came in for TVS and now its Deepika Padukone here to endorse Yamaha scooter range. The scooter is called 'Ray'. We know John Abraham is wooing people with the Yamaha bike range. Lets hope the scooter sales picks up too. Personally I am in love with the Yamaha FZ series. I think the bike looks masculine and awesome and I am in fact planning to own one very soon. I think it looks way cooler than most of the bikes out there in the market and Yamaha has nailed it. I frankly have not seen much advertisement of the FZ series and looks like Yamaha wanted to cut costs on branding and advertisement as their sales were going down. However the bike is already a hit in the market and I think Yamaha can now breathe a sigh of relief.

It is now affordable and it is not a hatcback. Isn't that cool? For the price of a hatchback you now get a fully loaded sedan. Sometimes I wish they came up with such offers in early 2010. Its not I dont love my hatchback but just that I could have maybe settled for someting better. Anyways the ex-showroom price for the classic titanium is about 6.8 lacs for the petrol and 7.8 for the diesel version.  This is the old fiesta model. renamed as classic. What is astounding is that Ford claims the classic to provide a mileage of 32 Kms for the diesel version and 21 for the petrol. This is in test conditions. I wonder how much it would match to the onroad conditions. With the rules being stricter now I wish Ford actually hits the mark on this one.  Many claim it to be cool car to drive but having a poor resale value. A cool looking car and loads of cool features. I feel its worth the money. What say?

A new vehicle would not have clocked even a mile, would smell good and is less likely to give you any kind of problems for several years. It does however cost money. If you are ok with saving couple of lacs on a vehicle that has clocked say 10k to 20k kilometers then I think its worth the buy. You should have a trustworthy mechanic check and test the vehicle you buy. New car sales have dropped this year however the used car segment still has a steady growth in its sales. In fact in India the new car market is more or less of the same size as the new car market.

Suzuki is trying hard to win the race. Honda has been there for a while, TVS is slowly picking up, Mahindra tried hard, and now its Suzuki. The new Suzuki Swish is in the market. Its sports a 125 cc engine and can reach 60 kmph in 8 seconds. Susuki tried with Access 125 but I have not seen much in the city. Swish 125 also has the same specifications. So I am not really sure what suzuki is trying to do out here. Also it sports a analog dial which is less sporty than the digital ones we have in the market today. I guess suzuki still has a lot to do and has to go back to its drawing board to trigger to come up with something intuitive and different.

Force India is forced to pay 60,000 pounds to a design company Aerolab. There has been a dispute between Force India, Aerolab and Caterham according to which Force India had to pay the other two companies over the intellectual property shared by the other two companies. Its a fee and fine combined. The fee is to be paid to Aerolab and the fine is to be paid to Caterham for misuse of confidential data. Vijay Mallya is definitely going through a rough patch.

The new beast series 2012 coming soon from TVS.

On my way to work I did not realize how fast the time flew wondering about the intricate details and R&D that goes into design these clever aesthetic elements in a vehicle. Its like the icing on a cake and it just needs to be appealing. The design plays a crucial element in the value of a vehicle. Yes! I am talking about the head and tail lamps. So lets start with the classic Ambassador from Hindustan Motors. The lamps are very blunt, yet simple in design. The front lamps are circular in design, The tail lamps are simple and small. HM continues with the classic design like the Vespa and never wants to do anything different. Its heritage and its the Harley Davidson of the Indian auto industry. For almost three decades it has been having the same design elements and have not upgraded drastically. The Maruthi Swift has experimented from its predecessor. The latest design is different but the tail lamps are a let down. They dont gel well with the design in the rear and for some...

The Italian automaker is back again with the Vespa. Unlike the existing scooters we have in the market currently the Vespa is very old school and classic in its design and presentation which I believe would kindle the taste buds of passionate bikers in the country. Think of it being something like the Volkswagen Beetle or the Mini-Coupe with two wheels. It truly an Italian icon and blends with the spirit of the country. You can feel the Italian in it. It brings along with it the old memories of riding around with your parents in the 70s and 80s. The automaker claims that the Vespa would give a mileage of about 60 kmpl.  Its got a 4 stroke, air cooled 125cc engine. This is good power for a scooter. Everything else is what you see in any other scooter. What makes this scooter distinct is its design. It definitely stands apart from the rest. It is said that the designer of the Vespa had a lot of hatred for motorcycles as he found them to be heavy and unreliable. Thus the tradition...

The new Honda Aviator has a disk brake in the front. This means its more stable and has a better control. It also looks good. Its a 110 cc though and the disc brakes come only in the deluxe version. The standard version has the drum brakes. Other than that it has the same goodies as the honda dio.