Renault Duster
- Renault will launch the Duster compact SUV in India tomorrow. The Duster is expected to be the game-changing model for the French car maker and has already received well over 1,000 bookings before launch. The five-seater compact SUV will have both petrol and diesel options. The prices are expected to be between Rs 7 lakh and Rs 12 lakh. We’ve already driven the Duster; for our impressions, click here.
- Following the success story in India, Audi is set to launch the new Q3 in the Malaysian market soon. The first lot of the compact crossover (500 units) was sold out in just 5 days in India and Audi is now offering another 500 units in phase two.
- Skoda has stopped offering the mighty V6 petrol 4x4 variant of the Superb in India due to lack of demand. The move is not very surprising considering there are very few takers for petrol cars today and if we are taking about a sober-looking vehicle producing 260bhp, economy of 6 to 8 kpl and costing about Rs 28 lakh – demand is sure to be negligible.
- It is the start of the month and we have lots of sales reports – the launch of new models has helped certain manufacturers like Maruti and Audi, while the sales of certain others have dipped owing to reasons like high fuel prices and interest rates for loans.
- The total sales of Tata Motors have dipped by 3 per cent in June 2012 – sadly their passenger car sales have slid 22 per cent compared to same month last year. The big drop is the sales of Indica and Indigo models, while the Nano sales are up by 3 per cent to 5,605 units.
- Maruti Suzuki has registered a sales hike of 23.11 per cent in the domestic market last month. This is mainly because of addition of the new Ertiga to the Maruti range. One more interesting trend is that small car sales of Maruti have dipped, while the sales of the Swift and Ritz are picking up quickly due to diesel variants.
- Audi sold 718 units in June 2012, which is 76 per cent more than 408 units sold in June 2011. Audi says ‘thank you Q3’ as it aims to become the highest selling luxury car maker in the country.
- The Sunny diesel has helped Nissan sales jump 155 per cent; similarly, Skoda also doubled their sales to 4,923 units with the new Rapid. However, Volkswagen sales are marginally down to 5,371 units.
- SIAM has announced the voluntary recall policy for auto manufacturers in the country. All the companies will have to follow a standard procedure on detection of defects and will have to publicise them through media, along with announcements on their official websites. The vehicles within seven years of manufacture will be covered under the new code – however the guidelines will have to be voluntarily followed by the carmakers.
- Audi has recalled certain units of the 2012 Q5 in US due faulty sunroof, which might break in extreme cold conditions. We haven’t heard from Audi India as yet, whether the same component is used here and needs replacement. However, since extreme cold occurs in very few areas in our country, we don’t expect it to be a big recall here.
- The next generation BMW X1 may be a front-wheel-drive based on the technology used in the Mini range. This car is expected to be production-ready by 2015, but the details should be available at the 2012 Paris Motor Show in September. The added space that the layout will offer the X1 should make it more appealing to a wider range of people; of course, being based on the Mini platform means that the fun-to-drive gene will remain intact, if not as pure as before.
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