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Maruti Suzuki Cars With Volkswagen, Skoda Badges
Nissan Micra Diesel & Automatic Transmission Launch In India Expected
BMW Motorcycles Launch In India Soon

Maruti Suzuki Cars With Volkswagen, Skoda Badges

Posted: 09 Oct 2010 05:29 AM PDT

Volkswagen recently made an investment of over $2.5 Billion in Suzuki for a 20 percent stake, keeping in mind the 50 percent automobile market share that it holds along with Maruti. Another important reason is the fact that our market is one of the most rapidly emerging ones.

The step taken by this major is showing its effects as the cooperation between Volkswagen and Suzuki has already begun and an organization structure is established for future interactions between teams from Wolfsburg and Hamamatsu for jointly exploring new opportunities.

The alliance will certainly focus on better profits from segments where VW already exists and resists manufacturing small cars for the time being. Another fact is VW's cost structure is too high to effectively make its mark in the small car segment.

According to a company official VW understands Suzuki's dominance in the hatchback segment and eagerly wants to rebadge two of Maruti's models as its own cars. The two cars are the Maruti Suzuki A-Star and Wagon-R as the former has got sophisticated looks, driving dynamics and overall styling while the latter offers roominess and space.

Expectedly by 2012 the German major hopes to roll its rebadged A-star and Wagon-R into your nearest dealerships. The A-start will sport VW's badge while Skoda's car badge will be seen on Wagon-R's grille.

Since Maruti Suzuki is very dominant in the small car segment, the German giant would definitely get benefited and once the latter makes it feet firm in rest of the segments, then probably it would become the most successful brand of all times. We appreciate the step taken by the German giant and hope to see it making big in our market.

Nissan Micra Diesel & Automatic Transmission Launch In India Expected

Posted: 08 Oct 2010 10:55 PM PDT

Nissan, Hyundai and Maruti Suzuki are the only brands apart from the luxury car makers like BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi, which offer some of their products with Automatic Transmission systems and there are hardly any other brands which dare to offer Automatic variants.

The only notable reasons for the failure of Automatic Transmission vehicles in the market are the initial high prices and comparatively lower fuel efficiency. But now that the AT segment is growing rapidly with successful cars like the Hyundai i10, Hyundai i20 & Honda City, Nissan has firmly decided to introduce Nissan Micra Automatic variant.

In fact the diesel engine vehicles are also becoming the "In Thing" now a days and to be in race to reach the zenith one has to consider it. So Nissan has also planned of introducing a diesel variant of the same which will bring a lot of competition in the diesel category.

As speculated the Nissan Micra Diesel will borrow Renault's 1.5 Litre CRDI diesel engine and will also come equipped with Nissan Sunny, a Micra based sedan. The same engine is already powering the Renault Logan and the new diesel variant of the above will compete against Maruti Suzuki Swift, Volkswagen Polo and Hyundai i20.

BMW Motorcycles Launch In India Soon

Posted: 08 Oct 2010 10:30 PM PDT

Nearly one fourth of the domestic luxury car market in India is captured by one of the finest German giants BMW and is definitely content with its current position in the Automobile market. But is that all what the brand could offer to the emerging market of ours?

Well if you think that its enough for the brand then you must think over again since if you are a BMW fan then you should know about BMW motorcycles which are a hit overseas and finally the brand has announced of launching its premium motorcycle range in the country.

For an appreciable amount of time the company conducted several studies and surveys in order to check the response they would get from this new market and they concluded that if their bikes are priced at par with what other majors like Yamaha, Honda , Suzuki & Harley Davidson are offering then possibilities of their making making it big, are more.

BMW India's president, Andreas Schaaf, said "It's pretty evident the company is interested in getting the bikes here. We are actively looking into it. We will be able to take a decision on the same before the end of the year, may be in a few weeks,"

15 years back the brand made a move to enter our market through a joint effort with Hero Group, to sell BMW F650 but the combination failed to create the charm and was short lived since the bike was too expensive. Now once the bikes are launched each model is expected to be priced over Rs.9 Lakh and will be imported as a CBU.

Schaaf further added, "There is no risk exposure as such (whether the bikes would succeed or not). It would be done with a long-term perspective. The launch will certainly help the reputation of the BMW brand,"

With another motorcycle major entering the premium motorcycle market it is definitely going to heat up and a lot of changes will be seen in the coming times.

otomotif

CarBlogIndia - All About Automobiles

CarBlogIndia - All About Automobiles

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