HOT ON THE HEELS of Honda’s New Small Con­cept, Suzuki has thrown another small car con­tender into the boom­ing Indian com­pact seg­ment in the form of the R3 MPV concept.

The new con­cept is (as usual) sparse on details, but we could expect to see any one of Suzuki’s 1.2 or 1.4 litre engines, a Fiat 1.4 or even an offer­ing from the Volk­swa­gen sta­ble, which now owns a con­sid­er­able stake.

Given Maruti’s 50% mar­ket stake in India, the vehi­cle is expected to do well within the coun­try, but may also find it’s way to Europe.

Maruit Suzuki R3 MPV Concept

 

PRESS RELEASE

Suzuki Announces Exhibits for Auto Expo 2010 in New Delhi

Suzuki Motor Cor­po­ra­tion is pleased to announce that its Indian auto­mo­bile pro­duc­tion sub­sidiary, Maruti Suzuki India, will be exhibit­ing the fol­low­ing vehi­cles at Auto Expo 2010 in New Delhi (to be held from 5 to 11 Jan­u­ary 2010*):
Con­cept model: R3

The Indian mar­ket is chang­ing rapidly and con­sumer lifestyles evolv­ing fast.
To cater to one such mar­ket need, Maruti Suzuki has devel­oped a con­cept car, R3.
The Con­cept R3 model is a Com­pact Multi Pur­pose Vehi­cle (MPV) for such peo­ple.
Designed by Maruti Suzuki India’s Research and Devel­op­ment Depart­ment, it com­bines com­pact dimen­sions with a styl­ish pro­fil­ing.
The Con­cept com­pact MPV accom­mo­dates six peo­ple in three rows.
Ref­er­ence exhibits (eco-​​vehicles): SX4 Hybrid and Eeco Elec­tric Vehicle

Maruti Suzuki India is tak­ing part in an Indian gov­ern­ment project that pro­motes hybrid and elec­tric vehi­cles.
It will be exhibit­ing two pro­to­type vehi­cles that Maruti Suzuki has devel­oped for the project: the SX4 Hybrid and the Eeco (Every+) Elec­tric Vehi­cle.
Pro­duc­tion mod­els and other ref­er­ence exhibits

Maruti Suzuki India will be show­ing 16 other auto­mo­biles includ­ing ten pro­duc­tion mod­els (13 units in total) and two ref­er­ence exhibits: the Kiza­shi and SX4 Hatch­back (three units in total).

Maruti Suzuki pavil­ion will also be high­light­ing Suzuki’s two-​​wheel lead­er­ship by show­ing nine motor­cy­cles: the Hayabusa, Intruder, and other large mod­els; the Thai-​​produced Sky­drive 125 scooter; and the Burgman Fuel Cell Scooter, which was last seen at the 2009 Tokyo Motor Show.

Honda have debuted the ini­tial ver­sion of the new Honda New Small Con­cept at the Delhi Auto Expo.

The car is designed specif­i­cally for the boom­ing Indian small car seg­ment, with the pro­duc­tion ver­sion expected to fetch around $12,000 with Honda work­ing to ensure the car is locally pro­duced to keep costs down in the highly com­pet­i­tive segment.

Details are sparse on the spec­i­fi­ca­tions for the new con­cept, but engine, econ­omy and appoint­ments are expected to exceed offer­ings from Volk­swa­gen and Maruti Suzuki, India’s cur­rent mar­ket leader to occupy a lux­ury tier of the small car segment.

Honda New Small Concept

 

Fan­tas­tic time attack video of the ultra-​​limited Nismo R34 GT-​​R Z-​​tune. The sound alone is enough to leave you drooling.

It was only a mat­ter of time before the new gen­er­a­tion of Japan­ese hybrid cars found their way into the tun­ing and styling shops of the world. I give you the Tommy Kaira Prius and Insight, from the leg­endary shop that gave us the Tommy Kaira  M20B WRX STI, Z33 and ZZ.

[Ed: I’d say it’s a def­i­nite improve­ment, but I also have to ask why. Tommy Kaira is bet­ter known for sports and per­for­mance car makeovers and tun­ing. Times are tough with the drought in per­for­mance cars from Japan­ese carmakers ]

Tommy Kaira Prius

 

Tommy Kaira Insight

 

More:

• Tommy Kaira Prius
• Tommy Kaira Insight
• Tommy Kaira on Wikipedia

Sub­aru has part­nered with out­door gear com­pany Colum­bia to pro­duce the Sub­aru Forester X Colum­bia lim­ited edition.

Start­ing at $33, 990, the Colum­bia gains a few upgrades over the stan­dard Forester, includ­ing 16″ alloy wheels, fog lights, roof cross bars, rear step panel, cargo tray and a $500 voucher for Colum­bia mer­chan­dise. Notably the 2010 Colum­bia is miss­ing a sun­roof and heated seats which were present on the 2007 incarnation.

Ini­tially 1050 Columbia’s will be avail­able from today.

PRESS RELEASE:

01 Jan 2010
Spe­cial edi­tion Forester X Columbia

Sub­aru has part­nered with global sports­wear com­pany, Colum­bia, to pro­duce a new spe­cial edi­tion – the Forester X Columbia.

Australia’s best sell­ing SUV, the Forester, adds an exten­sive list of extras and is priced from just $33,990 driveaway.

Forester X Colum­bia is ready for week­end adven­tures adding 16-​​inch alloy wheels, fog lights, roof cross bars, cargo tray and rear step panel.

Spe­cial edi­tion badg­ing is also added and cus­tomers receive a $500 voucher to spend on Colum­bia merchandise.

Avail­able in both man­ual and auto­matic trans­mis­sions, this spe­cial edi­tion is avail­able in all Forester colours.

Only 1050 are avail­able, and are priced at $33,990 dri­ve­away for the man­ual and $35,990 for the automatic.

Stan­dard Forester fea­tures include:

• ABS brakes with EBD
• Airbags — dual front, side and curtain
• Air-​​conditioning
• All-​​Wheel Drive
• AM/​FM radio/​CD player
• Data­Dot secu­rity system
• Elec­tronic throt­tle con­trol system
• Head­lights auto off
• Hill holder (man­ual only)
• Immo­biliser secu­rity system
• Power steer­ing, mir­rors and windows
• Three year/​unlimited kilo­me­tre warranty

Nick Senior, Man­ag­ing Direc­tor, Sub­aru Aus­tralia, said: “Forester is the highest-​​selling SUV in the coun­try and is per­fectly suited to the Aus­tralian lifestyle.

“It’s a nat­ural fit to part­ner with Colum­bia and we think this spe­cial edi­tion offers cus­tomers a fan­tas­tic recre­ational pack­age at a very com­pet­i­tive price.”

The Forester X Colum­bia is on sale from 4 Jan­u­ary 2010.

About Sub­aru

Every Sub­aru sold in Aus­tralia fea­tures Sym­met­ri­cal All-​​Wheel Drive and a hor­i­zon­tally opposed boxer engine, stan­dard Vehi­cle Dynam­ics Con­trol elec­tronic sta­bil­ity pro­gram, and a five-​​star rat­ing for occu­pant safety from the inde­pen­dent Aus­tralasian New Car Assess­ment Pro­gram (ANCAP). The result – dri­ving confidence.