Latest cars

These are the first official images of the updated Maruti Ritz. A car we had scooped earlier in March.

The Ritz is sold as the Suzuki Splash in other global markets such as Japan & also in some countries in Europe. These official pictures have been released on Suzuki's Japan website.


As is evident from the images, the updated Ritz gets a slightly-altered & a lower mounted nose,  & gets a one-piece grille. The headlamps are more pointier & the fenders now rise up above the bonnet 'V'.  The rear-bumpers also get fake air-vents.

Mahindra will re open bookings for XUV500 from June 8, 2012. The SUV will now be available across India, in addition to the existing 19 cities where it had been launched earlier.

Mahindra received around 25,000 bookings in the first eight months of its launch, & around 7,200 vehicles have been delivered so far. The SUV maker ramped up its production capacity in a phased manner to reach 3,000 units in January 2012. In order to cater to the growing demands, the company now plans to ramp up the number to 4,000 units per month.

 A big Mini sounds like an oxymoron, but that’s exactly what the Countryman is – a car that seeks to marry the charm & iconic style of a Mini with the space & practicality of a large, four door hatchback. Does the idea work?
Marketed more as a crossover than a hatchback, the Countryman easily looks a couple of sizes larger than the two door Minis, yet is smaller than, say, a Skoda Yeti. Frontal styling is aggressive, with a power bulge on the bonnet, near vertical grille & large, swept back headlamps, lending the Countryman the face of a bulldog. In profile, though, the Countryman is quite conventional, & it’s only the blackened pillars that link this to other Minis. Its squared out tailgate looks neat & the twin exhausts give an indication of the car’s sporty intent. But more on that later.

Names can sometimes be inappropriate. You know you have to be careful when you hand over your watch to the ‘Reliable’ watch company, and ‘Perfect’ drycleaners may not exactly be a vision of perfection. Look at the guillotined rear of the new Dzire, and you can tell that form definitely follows function here; the rear styling isn’t exactly desirable. Trust Maruti to be as practical as possible. So along with the thrill and excitement associated with a new car comes a bit of initial trepidation. Doesn’t the rear look a bit odd to you? Of course it does. The thing is, you soon get used to the chopped-to-be-shorter-than-four-metres look, and after a while it really isn’t a bother. And that’s partly because the rest of the car is so damned good.

Here are the official pictures of Skoda’s production-ready Rapid for the European market. The Rapid is the first Skoda model to feature the brand’s new design language. Inspired by the Mission L concept, the new styling is characterised by a four-lamp headlight, trapezoidal fog lights and monochrome Skoda badge mounted on the bonnet with the company’s revised logo.

Our convoy of a burnt orange Aventador sandwiched by a bright green Gallardo Superleggera & a steel grey Performante slices through the Italian countryside on the outskirts of Sant’Agata Bolognese. It’s an eye popping sight which, along with the sound of 22 cylinders dishing out a collective 1814bhp, has the potential to create anarchy in the streets. I’m expecting to be chased by camera phone toting bambini in Pandas & Puntos. But we get, at best, the odd glance or an approving nod from fellow enthusiasts whenever we stop to switch cars.