Delhi auto expo 2010: OVERDRIVE will bring Adrian Sutil and Tata Motors will display Tata PR1MA

Famous auto magazine, OVERDRIVE, will be giving 24X7 live coverage of the Delhi Auto Expo 2010 that can be seen on CNCB-TV18 and CNN-IBN. OVERDRIVE and its sister publication, Auto Monitor, will have three stalls at the expo. Adrian Sutil, the Force Indian F1 team driver, will be at the stall on January 7, 2010 at 12 p.m. He will sign the copies of OVERDRIVE to the first twenty five people who would come to the stall. Lucky coupon winners will receive Ford Endeavour and a fashionable high-end bike. Those who would subscribe to OVERDRIVE at the show will win one gift. There will be hourly special prizes and contests. The magazine will organize spot quizzes where winner would get car accessories and merchandise from Yamaha, MP3 players OVERDRIVE merchandises, two sets of JK tyres and many more.

Tata Motors another top carmaker is going to showcase Tata PR1MA, the company’s concept luxury sedan, at the 10^th Delhi Auto Expo. Tata PR1MA, along with Tata Nano Europa and Tata Indica Vista, were displayed at the 79^th Geneva Motor show. The Tata PR1MA was designed by Pininfarina, an Italian car design and coach building firm based in Cambiano, Italy. The Tata PR1MA has a wheelbase of 2.70 meters and comes with lots of interior space, the trademark of a luxury sedan. It has an elegant style look.

Tata Nano lottery winners have been chosen: Are you feeling lucky?

The highly anticipated Tata Nano draw has finished and on June 23, 2009, Tata Motors announced that it selected more than 1,55,000 lucky winners who would get the “World’s cheapest car.” In a statement issued by the company it said that out of 2,06,703 applicants the company chose first 1,00,000 owners. The company also announced that it has finished the selection process of the “second phase” where it will give out Tata Nano to 55,021 customers. The company will start giving out the cars to the winners of the draw from next month and finish delivering the first one hundred thousand cars within March 2010. The whole selection process was done by a lottery.

In the launching ceremony of the Tata Nano on March 23, 2009, the company announced that the first one hundred thousand customers will get Tata Nano at the “ex-showroom prices.”

About 67% of the total applicants (1,37,687 people) wanted to retain their bookings if in case they are not selected in the first draw. The company will return the booking amounts to those applicants who lost in the first draw and did not opt for the second draw. For the base model of Tata Nano, the booking amount was 95,000, Rs. 1,20,000 for the mid-level model and Rs.1,40,000 for the high-end model. The applicants who wanted to retain their bookings would be directly paid 8.5% interest on their booking amounts if their car is delivered within two years from the date of allotment and 8.75% if it takes more than two years.

Those who would not win the draw have a consolation prize. For unsuccessful applicants, Tata Motors is going to offer “Tata Indica Vista scheme.”

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Maruti Ritz is coming to conquer India

(This entry was originally uploaded on May 2009.)

On May 15, 2009, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. (MSIL) is going to launch Maruti Suzuki Ritz, the premium hatchback car. Maruti Suzuki Ritz will compete in the A2 segment. In the last four years, this is the eighth launch of MSIL and its fourth hatchback model car followed by Maruti Zen Estilo, Maruti Swift, and Maruti A-Star and seventh car in the A2 segment. Designed to attract youngsters, the car is spacious and offers great driving experience. Maruti Ritz is designed on Maruti Swift platform. Maruti Ritz is 3.7 meters long. It is 30 mm shorter than Maruti Swift in length and 8 centimeters wider than the Wagon R+. Designers of the car focused a lot on shoulder space. Five passengers can easily fit into the car.

Maruti Suzuki Ritz will be positioned between the Maruti Suzuki A-Star and Maruti Swift. It will mainly compete with Hyundai’s i10 and i20, Skoda’s Fabia, Ford’s Fusion, Fiat’s Palio and Tata Motors’ Indica Vista. A similar version of the model, which will be named Maruti Suzuki Splash, will be launched in the international market. The Maruti Suzuki Splash will be thirty millimeters shorter than the Maruti Suzuki Ritz.

Currently, in the A2 category, Maruti Swift holds 75% market share, Hyundai Getz11%, Chevrolet U-VA 8%, Hyundai i20 4% and Skoda Fabia 2%. MSIL has a 58% market share in the A2 segment. Shashank Srivastava, chief general manager (marketing), Maruti Suzuki India, said that his company’s main strategy is to offer more products in the same category in order to fetch greater market shares. Mr. Srivastava believes that Maruti Suzuki Ritz would succeed where Maruti Swift failed. He also admitted of “some cannibalization of Swift by Ritz” at the initial stage but customers would gradually understand the differences.

Maruti Suzuki Ritz engines and variants:

• Maruti Ritz is fitted with the all aluminum K12M engine. The 1.2-litre, four cylinder, petrol engine is the latest in lightweight K-series engines that are very much fuel efficient. To achieve fuel efficiency and NVH (Noise, Vibration and Harshness) reduction, plastic parts have been used along with shortened piston skirts, plastic intake manifolds, rocker-less DOHC cam shaft and nut-less conrods. The raisin coatings on the pistons reduce transmission losses.
• There will be six variants of the Maruti Ritz- three in petrol and the other three in diesel. The K12M is an 1197cc petrol engine. It generates 85 bhp at 550 rpm. The common rail diesel engine is a 1248 cc engine that produces 75 bhp.

Environment friendly and fuel efficient:

• To make it a more environment friendly car, Maruti Ritz has been ridded of harmful substances like chromium, cadmium, mercury etc. This makes Maruti Ritz more recyclable to salvage valuable materials.
• The Maruti Suzuki Ritz is the first car from Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. that complies with BS-IV emission norms.
• The Maruti Ritz has Smart DistributionLess Ignition (SDLI) that enables the car to achieve a fuel efficiency of 17-18 kmpl. Maruit Ritz will also be able to run on 10% ethanol-petrol blend. The diesel version will have a fuel efficiency of 21 kmpl.

Other features of Maruti Suzuki Ritz:

• The Maruti Suzuki Ritz will come with a 5-speed manual gearbox. Rumor is that a auto-gear version will be released.
• The Maruti Ritz will be available with RR fog lamps.
• The Maruti Suzuki Ritz will come with a rear bumper designed to suit the roads of India.
• For security, the Maruti Ritz will come with i-CATS (Intelligent Computerized Anti-theft System) on all the variants of the Ritz.
• The Maruti Ritz will be available in splash green, lagoon turquoise and eight other metallic colors. The splash green and lagoon turquoise are specifically developed for this car by Suzuki.
• The Maruti Suzuki Ritz will come along with high grade engine oil which will be needed to change after 10,000 kms compared to 1000 kms in other engines. The new Maruti Suzuki Ritz will also come with high-tech spark plugs which you will have to change after 40,000 kms.

Price:

Maruti Ritz will cost between Rs.450,000- 500,000.

Maruti Ritz microsite:

Maruti Suzuki launched www.marutisuzukiritz.com, an interactive mini-site to commemorate the launch of the Maruti Ritz on May 15^th. The site sports a ticker showing the final count down of the launch. Visitors can also download wallpapers and screen savers. There is a teaser that reveals the car in small portions when the visitor moves his mouse. The micro-site also offers games and puzzles. There is this ‘Sneak a Peek Ritz Contest.’ You can win various prizes including trolley bags, Puma T-shirts, and Ritz desk sets. There is also two personalized sections- ‘Share a Moment’ and ‘Read a Moment.’ In the ‘Read a Moment’ section, visitors can write about their various personal experiences with cars. You will also get to read others’ interesting experiences. The lucky winners will win special Maruti Ritz merchandise.

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