Indian Autos Thread

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Re: Indian Autos Thread

Post by Vasu »

and a 4 seater!
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Re: Indian Autos Thread

Post by JE Menon »

That's an impressive piece of work right there... the website is very nice as well. I like.
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Re: Indian Autos Thread

Post by Sudip »

Pleasant video showcasing steps from assembly of audi cars in aurangabad to selling in mumbai

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Post by Ambar »

Thanks for posting that. It really explains how factories assemble cars that arrive in ckd form. I hope Audi will soon go Mercedes way and atleast manufacture certain components in India rather than just assembling the ckd kits.
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Post by Raja Bose »

Nice video. Are the goats/cows/buffalos shown from 7:10 onwards part of their test track and QA? :mrgreen:

The consensus I am getting re. the Audi from trusted mechanics is that it is good for 3-4 years but after that any repair is going to be super expensive.
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Re: Indian Autos Thread

Post by Sudip »

Raja Bose wrote:Nice video. Are the goats/cows/buffalos shown from 7:10 onwards part of their test track and QA? :mrgreen:

The consensus I am getting re. the Audi from trusted mechanics is that it is good for 3-4 years but after that any repair is going to be super expensive.
german cars: expensive spare parts and hard to repair without specialised equipment and training. if long term maintenance costs bother you, stick to honda/toyota or ford. you will save yourself a lot of headache. (i own a 2001 ford focus and i do all repairs myself, big and small)
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Re: Indian Autos Thread

Post by Tanaji »

^^ If you dont mind my asking, how did you learn to make the repairs?
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Re: Indian Autos Thread

Post by Singha »

iirc there are evening courses in community colleges for auto repair and restoration.
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Re: Indian Autos Thread

Post by Sudip »

Tanaji wrote:^^ If you dont mind my asking, how did you learn to make the repairs?
Its taken me some time. But I have gotten better over the years.

1) First I diagnose the problem that my car has by googling it. There are good forums on internet for most car models. Then you zone in on the most common likelihood/malfunctioning part. <--- This is the hardest step as diagnosing the right/wrong problem can make a big difference, you might diagnose the wrong thing and spend a couple of hundred dollars and many hours of hard labor repairing the wrong part just to realise that it didnt solve the problem.

2) Then comes the part to buy a new spare part. You can get those cheapest at Rockauto.com but it takes like a week to ship. If its urgent and you need to say, fix it over the weekend you could get your part at a nearby Autozone.<--- Easiest step

3) Final step is to replace the affected part. Again the internet has lots of resources on how to replace any part of your car. I also bought Haynes manual for Ford focus and 3 used big fat Ford Factory repair manuals. They were very helpful initially, but these days I am needing them lesser and lesser, as mostly internet + past experience is good enough.<---This can vary from very hard to very easy depending on part location. Easier if step 1 is performed correctly.

Initially repairing was a pain as I rent apartments and I barely had any space to park my car leave alone lift it and do repairs, but over time I bought the right tools (i.e 2 craftsman jack stands, a 106-piece cratsman tool box and then a craftsman 3.5T car jack). I also purchased a low end OBDII car scanner. This gives you the error code if your car check engine light comes on. And the error code can simply direct you to the malfunctioning part (can be googled). These allow me to perform most repairs. Space is still a problem but that wont stop me :D Most of these tools are available for cheap/used online. Also craftsman has a lifelong warranty on many tool parts like screwdriver/wrench bits. So even if one of your tool part breaks, your local craftsman shop (usually at Sears) will replace it for free.

Things I have repaired include fuel filter, air filter, transmission oil filter, transmission oil change, motor mount, brake light bulb, electric fuse, spark plugs, valve cover gasket etc. Some parts I replaced just to learn the procedure. My hardest repair till date was to replace the idle air control valve.

The best high you get is after finishing the repair and taking your car out for a test drive and realising that the problem has gone. After doing my own repairs, I find it simply audacious, the way, most car mechanics in LA loot unsuspecting customers. Street side, low budget mexican/hispanic car mechanics are the most truthful/best bang for money though in my opinion.

My ultimate goal is to do an engine rebuild and a transmission rebuild. Hopefully, after I settle down and have a place of my own.
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Post by Tanaji »

Thanks Sudip. This is a source of inspiration: I was thinking of trying to get into this, but was always scared. I have a 10 year old car, and once a EGR valve malfunctioned. I knew what was wrong, and how to replace it, but had no tools. I bought the part myself but didnt have the right headed screw driver hence had to pay to get it fixed.

I think I will start with doing an oil change. Haynes manuals are good, thats what I will buy next. Any tips on what headed screw drivers and wrenches to buy?
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Re: Indian Autos Thread

Post by Sudip »

Tanaji wrote:Thanks Sudip. This is a source of inspiration: I was thinking of trying to get into this, but was always scared. I have a 10 year old car, and once a EGR valve malfunctioned. I knew what was wrong, and how to replace it, but had no tools. I bought the part myself but didnt have the right headed screw driver hence had to pay to get it fixed.
^^^ I would recommend atleast 3 things:
1) A jack stand pair. I have a pair of .25 ton jack stands by craftsman. Without jackstands you wont get the confidence to get under your car using just the default car jack. Sometimes one needs to lie under the car for hours to remove a hard to reach part and then put back a new one so you want to support it with good solid stands to confidently do your work. Though, I have craftsman brand but i think you can get a cheaper brand too. As they r just big metallic quadrileg stands and are not very complex things so cheaper brands should be as good.

2) A basic tool set. The goal should be to get a tool set with maximum tools at least price. Initially I used to borrow tools from my grad school lab, but the bits broke often and I was tired of going forth to and fro to lab searching the exact right socket that fit the bolt. So I bought mine. I would recommend craftsman mechanic's tool set. They have served me good uptil now. I purchased a 106 piece set. http://www.sears.com/craftsman-106-pc-m ... 936106000P You can get a smaller set or even a bigger set depending on how seriously you want to pursue this activity. I am very satisfied with my tool set uptil now. I have also added 5-6 more extension parts etc to my tool set as I repaired more parts.

3) A wheeled car jack. I had bought a Torino scissor jack as my first jack to lift my car as my purchased car came without a jack. One day after finishing my repair I was lowering my jack and the jack gave in and the car slipped over the scissor V shape, My finger just missed by a whisker by getting crushed/cut under the car. The scissor jack was also useless as it got twisted and unscrewable. After this scary experience, I purchased a wheeled 2.25 Ton craftsman floor jack. http://www.sears.com/craftsman-2-1-2-to ... 950165000P
Again I am extremely satisfied with the performance. Another issue is that scissor jacks require a lot of effort and time to lift the car. By the time you finish lifting a car using a scissor jack, it might have already eaten 45 minutes and given you very tired hands. Floor jacks lift the car up very fast with very little effort on the other hand. So I'd certainly recommend it.

these three are must. You can add other small tools as you expand your car repair prowess. Small things such as small LED torch (useful as it is very dark when I lie down under my car and work on its belly), gloves (reduce the amount of grease under your nails and prevent from burnt fingers when working with hot parts) , an OBDII scanner etc are helpful too.
I think I will start with doing an oil change. Haynes manuals are good, thats what I will buy next.
A lot of cars have factory manuals. Haynes manual, a lot of times have inaccurate repair tips and I experienced that too. I would recommend you to look for the factory repair manuals or "Workshop manuals" issued by the motor companies for their technicians. Those are to the point and never get you wrong. If you go by it, it is mind boggling how someone sat and thought and then documented every step of repairing the smallest component in the vehicle keeping in mind the least hassle to the repairman. That is what the Haynes manuals lack i feel. One can notice that sometimes their steps are too general and are useless to the car model at hand (just copy pasted some steps from some other haynes manual for some different model). An example of a ford motor company workshop manual is http://www.amazon.com/2000-Windstar-Fac ... B001F0YEWY Also look for forums on the internet particular to your car model. some members do a great job at thoroughly explaining the repair procedure using lucid pictures.

Finally, remember that all the above mentioned tools can be purchased under attractive discount rates and good deals, so be sure to do a good search before you buy them and you might get them a lot cheaper.
Any tips on what headed screw drivers and wrenches to buy?
You wont need a screwdriver. you will need a wrench and a socket. The bolt (oil drain plug) size would be around 8mm not sure though, differs for different cars. Google the exact size of the bolt for your car model and then you can purchase a tool set that contains the socket for that bolt size and its accompanying wrench. Also check if your oil filter needs replacement too. its a white cylindrical thing that just needs to be unscrewed and a new one screwed back. The engine oil pan and oil filter are all located on the right boot area of the car usually. Also make sure to arrange for a big bucket or oil pan to collect the old dripping motor oil. You just need to untighten the oil drain plug/bolt a little bit until the oil starts dripping, you can unscrew it more to increase the oil flow and speed up the drain.
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Re: Indian Autos Thread

Post by vera_k »

If you have a Harbor Freight nearby, stock up on plenty of tarps. Also the dogbone wrench (metric or imperial) depending on whether the car is domestic or an import. That along with the floor jack or ramps and perhaps an oil filter wrench be enough for an oil change.
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Re: Indian Autos Thread

Post by Tanaji »

Thanks for the tips. I was thinking of going with car ramps: something like http://www.fastcardirect.co.uk/cr2.jpg
Any opinion on those?

About tools: it seems one needs a lot of wrench sockets just to get started. My car seems to require a T40 Torx socket. Although I do have a wrench kit, I dont have a Torx socket kit, so thats another thing to add...
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Re: Indian Autos Thread

Post by Suraj »

I use my ramps instead of the floor jack when I work on my car. Of course it doesn't work when I need to take the wheel off, but otherwise it's as easy as drive on, drive off. There are pretty good ramps being sold in major metropolitan areas on craigslist for $20 or so at any given time.
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Post by Singha »

my one concern about the Massa DIY thing is that even for infrequent but varied work one needs plenty of tools and the space in garage to stash them away. its probably worth it if one is doing it as a hobby every weekend and had a beat up old vehicle to experiment on, but once in 3 months is kind of hard to justify the ROI imho other than the satisfaction of doing it oneself and saving some money.

many massa households have a ton of tools and garage stuff that never gets used. moment there is a surplus sale of tables or even better a craftsman tools drawer in any office, 10 employees will line up in pickups to cart it away...I kind of doubted how heavily these would be used.
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Post by Gus »

looking for a used diesel. my uses would be occasional shopping trips in chennai city (non-peak) and once or twice a month trip on NH from chennai to Erode or Bangalore.

Budget is 3L. Looks are not important. reliability and kmpl are priority. Comfort, space (small family of 3) and features are desired but not dealbreakers. Should last for about two years and I will probably upgrade or keep it at my native. what are my choices.
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Post by Sriman »

Your options are a little limited with that budget for a diesel. Diesels have very high resale value. For 3L, you're looking at a 6+ year old car. And in most cases you'd have no ABS or airbags. Your options are:

1. Mitsubishi Lancer diesel. You'll find high mileage vehicles at your budget. But it's a nice solid car.
2. Hyundai Accent CRDI
3. Ford Fiesta TDCI/Ford Ikon diesel
4. Tata Indica
5. Fiat Palio

You're probably likely to find an accent more easily given that you're in Chennai. Are you sure about a diesel? What is your expected monthly running?
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Post by manish »

Sriman wrote:Your options are a little limited with that budget for a diesel. Diesels have very high resale value. For 3L, you're looking at a 6+ year old car. And in most cases you'd have no ABS or airbags. Your options are:

1. Mitsubishi Lancer diesel. You'll find high mileage vehicles at your budget. But it's a nice solid car.
2. Hyundai Accent CRDI
3. Ford Fiesta TDCI
4. Tata Indica
5. Fiat Palio

You're probably likely to find an accent more easily given that you're in Chennai. Are you sure about a diesel? What is your expected monthly running?
Sriman avare, nice list - if you don't mind, I would like to add a few pointers from my side:

1. Mitsubishi Lancer diesel. You'll find high mileage vehicles at your budget. But it's a nice solid car. --- Agreed. Most likely you will get a 2001-03 model, so don't know if such an old car is OK with Gus.

2. Hyundai Accent CRDI - Track record of requiring expensive repairs of things such as drive shafts post 40k kms - there is a reason these things don't cost much. The petrol one is not known to suffer too much from these issues reportedly. Problem apparently caused due to the heavier Detroit Diesel engine that does duty in the diesel variant.

3. Ford Fiesta TDCI - the real pick in the list if you ask me! Gem of an engine, but the price in Chennai is likely to be at least 3.5L+ for 2007+ models.

4. Tata Indica - A used Tata? Anyways, Gus would have better idea about Tatas anyways. No comments on this one except that I personally wouldn't go in for a used Indica - they don't seem to age well. The vista versions might be a better bet if you still opt for them IMHO.

5. Fiat Palio - stay away! Haven't seen a SINGLE palio that seems to have held up well. Plus issues with After Sales Service at Tata dealerships is there. Will get one real cheap though.

I would add one more model to the list:
6. Suzuki Swift 1.3DDiS - Great car, great engine (the same unit does duty on the Ritz, Palio MJD, Manza and the Vista - its a FIAT unit) - the asking price might be a touch high though..
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Post by Sriman »

^^
The Swift DDiS is a no brainer, but pretty much impossible to find one for anywhere close to 3L. Even Beat diesel and Figo TDCI is a good option but again 4L+. Even i'm currently looking for a car and pretty much decided that diesel is not worth it for the kind of monthly running i expect. I think diesel makes sense if you're buying a new car and expect to keep it for a while (Even if your running is a little on the lower side) or if you rake up a lot of miles obviously. Used diesel cars command a very high premium.
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Post by Gus »

oh I get it..if monthly fuel savings Vs buying price difference. I was not expecting a lot of resale difference between petrol and diesel. I expect monthly running to be 1500 to 2000 kms. One or two trips to Chennai to Erode or Blr and local trips and occasional trips to mahabs or pondy etc.

If it is petrol, then what are my options.

Currently using a friends Estilo. He is my best friend and would not mind me using this until he returns from US..but I don't feel right using his new car and it getting the inevitable scratches and dings.
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Post by Singha »

you could probably locate a good condition petrol santro given their sheer nos sold. same for petrol swift except their price will be higher.
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Post by Sriman »

1500-2000Kms a month is prime diesel territory though :mrgreen:

If you're planning to use it for 2 years, that's about 40-45,000 KMs. The difference in fuel expenses will come up to around Rs 120,000. (Assuming around 15kmpl for diesel and 12 kmpl for Petrol, existing rates for petrol/diesel). Expect petrol prices to increase slightly.

1. You can either buy a very cheap petrol as Singha suggested or buy a more expensive diesel and recoup the money through resale.

2. You can get an used Santro for close to Rs 2.25L. You can get a petrol Swift for around 3L onwards depending on the mileage. Swift being a newer car will have more creature comforts and safety features. With Petrol you're much more likely to get a better bargain than Diesel. Also if resale value doesn't matter much, you get better deals with non-Maruti cars as they don't hold their values well. Ford Fusion for ex.

Then there's also the factor of service and spare costs. Maruti,Hyundai vehicles are known to be easy to maintain. Start checking Team BHP classifieds and Carwale classifieds. You'll get a very good idea of prices for Diesel and Petrol cars. Carwale also has a used car evaluation tool like KBB. Run TCO for different options and figure out what's best for you.
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Post by manish »

Sriman wrote:1500-2000Kms a month is prime diesel territory though :mrgreen:

If you're planning to use it for 2 years, that's about 40-45,000 KMs. The difference in fuel expenses will come up to around Rs 120,000. (Assuming around 15kmpl for diesel and 12 kmpl for Petrol, existing rates for petrol/diesel). Expect petrol prices to increase slightly.

1. You can either buy a very cheap petrol as Singha suggested or buy a more expensive diesel and recoup the money through resale.

2. You can get an used Santro for close to Rs 2.25L. You can get a petrol Swift for around 3L onwards depending on the mileage. Swift being a newer car will have more creature comforts and safety features. With Petrol you're much more likely to get a better bargain than Diesel. Also if resale value doesn't matter much, you get better deals with non-Maruti cars as they don't hold their values well. Ford Fusion for ex.

Then there's also the factor of service and spare costs. Maruti,Hyundai vehicles are known to be easy to maintain. Start checking Team BHP classifieds and Carwale classifieds. You'll get a very good idea of prices for Diesel and Petrol cars. Carwale also has a used car evaluation tool like KBB. Run TCO for different options and figure out what's best for you.
Sound advice, I would suggest the same.

If you are looking at petrols and don't mind low resale values, then just forget about Maruti, Hyundai, Toyota and Honda. There are lots of deals to be had on practically every other brand on the market other than the ones listed above. Even more so if you are willing to compromise a little bit on the fuel mileage as well.

Ford Ikons in good condition from 2006-08 period can be had for 2-2.5L as well if you look around a bit and they offer far more VFM than overpriced secondhand hatchbacks like the Santro/WagonR/Alto ever can on the used car market. Last year (2010), a colleague of mine got a 24k km run 2006MY Maruti Suzuki Baleno for just 2.25L (by South Indian standards! dilli billis are lucky in this aspect as well!!) - that was a real steal, and he still pretty happy with it. You can also look at petrol Accents but these will cost a bit (50k - 1L) more than a Ford Ikon of similar age. Petrol Fiestas too will be in the same ball park depending on variant (1.4l/1.6l) and trim levels and are a very good option as well.

To put it simply, in the Indian used car market, small sedans offer better value than tiny hatchbacks and those bigger cars indeed offer better comfort and driving experience as well!
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Post by merlin »

manish wrote:5. Fiat Palio - stay away! Haven't seen a SINGLE palio that seems to have held up well. Plus issues with After Sales Service at Tata dealerships is there. Will get one real cheap though.
No experience with diesel Palios but I cannot agree with the SINGLE Palio not having held up well comment. Mine isn't diesel but after close to 1L kms and close to 8 years its still going strong.
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Post by manish »

merlin wrote:
manish wrote:5. Fiat Palio - stay away! Haven't seen a SINGLE palio that seems to have held up well. Plus issues with After Sales Service at Tata dealerships is there. Will get one real cheap though.
No experience with diesel Palios but I cannot agree with the SINGLE Palio not having held up well comment. Mine isn't diesel but after close to 1L kms and close to 8 years its still going strong.
Ayyayyo, merlin saar I didn't mean to offend any Palio owners/lovers here - I do know that all of you love your rides dearly! Palio was a fine car with robust build that one typically associated with FIAT's blockbuster products such as the Uno. However, FIAT, as we all know, has fared pretty miserably in our market over the last decade or so due to various reasons. As a result, there are fewer and fewer Palios to be seen on the road today as many of the average car buyers/owners have decided to stay away from these cars. This fact shows up through the quality of the samples one typically comes across on the roads, looking ill maintained, unkempt and unloved. Of course, for every 10 such unfortunate vehicles, there are a few immaculate pieces such as yours maintained lovingly. But in the general course of things, one is more likely to unfortunately encounter only bad examples. I am sure you too would agree that there are a surprisingly high number of ill-maintained Palios on the road, including many examples of newer Palios such as the not-so-successful Palio nv and the cut-price Palio Stile (many in their low end 1.2 avatar).

And yes, I (personally) am still struggling to recall any instance of encountering a single good example in mint condition or Chennai's roads in the recent past so I would still stand by my comment. Does that represent the absolute truth? certainly not but for the average car buyer like me, a second hand Palio is still not an option and the comment was made in that spirit.

Sorry if I came across as a hater - I am not. In fact, at one point my family was indeed keen on going in for the short lived 1.9D model and I am pretty well aware of the strong points that the car has/had.

Cheers.
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Post by Singha »

Merlin saar gave me a lift twice. I can confirm he runs a good ship.
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Post by Vipul »

Auto Expo: DC Design to unveil indigenous supercar.

India’s own automotive design house, DC Design, is all set to unveil a supercar at the forthcoming 2012 Auto Expo to be held in Delhi. Billed as India’s own supercar, the automobile is expected to be unveiled by film star Amitabh Bachchan at the show.

Designed and built ground-up by DC Design, the car will be a low-volume product that will be put together at the firm’s facility in Pune. Deliveries of the car are scheduled to begin by end-2013, once it goes through the requisite homologation process.

With this car, we are making the transformation from a design house to a production house, said Dilip Chhabria, the promoter of DC Design.What It will offer the looks, feel, dimensions, quality and fit and finish comparable to supercars from Lamborghini and Ferrari, minus the horsepower.

Like the European supercars, the one from DC Design will be mid-engined, where the engine will be positioned behind the driver, between the two axles. Though further details of the car are awaited, it is expected to be powered by a V6 petrol engine sourced from Honda, but turbocharged in this application, with output in excess of 400 bhp. The kerb weight of the supercar, at 1,560 kg, is comparable to those from Europe and in terms of dimensions, will have a footprint close to a Lamborghini Murcielago or Aventador.

The firm plans to produce 300 units in the first full year and scale it up to 3,000 units subsequently. “It will come at an attractive price point. We are looking at a price of under Rs 30 lakh on-road,” said Chhabria. “We were planning to call it the Buddh, after India’s Formula One Circuit, but the response for the name has not been encouraging, so we are thinking up a new one now.”
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Re: Indian Autos Thread

Post by JE Menon »

>>“With this car, we are making the transformation from a design house to a production house,” said Dilip Chhabria, the promoter of DC Design. “It will offer the looks, feel, dimensions, quality and fit and finish comparable to supercars from Lamborghini and Ferrari, minus the horsepower.

This outstanding thoroughbred will offer the looks of an Arabian, the strength of a mustang, the stamina of a carthorse and the handling of a pony, minus life. :twisted:
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Re: Indian Autos Thread

Post by Ambar »

JE Menon wrote:>>“With this car, we are making the transformation from a design house to a production house,” said Dilip Chhabria, the promoter of DC Design. “It will offer the looks, feel, dimensions, quality and fit and finish comparable to supercars from Lamborghini and Ferrari, minus the horsepower.

This outstanding thoroughbred will offer the looks of an Arabian, the strength of a mustang, the stamina of a carthorse and the handling of a pony, minus life. :twisted:
That's DC for you. If he ever had an original idea, it probably died of boredom!
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Post by Singha »

but it does have a certain logic. the imported arabians cost in crores and not many rich dads will be indulged to drop so much on his 'shaukeen launda/laundi' ... but they might be willing to drop 30L to kit them up for kallege/nightlife with a unique vehicle....the real pure blood arabians will still snort in disgust but they are so few in the herd of oxen nobody will notice.

the key thing will be reliability (quality of parts , how they are cobbled together for N sources), how well the drivetrain fits the car (smoothness, performance, noise, heat), and after sales service in the major metros...he wont be marketing it outside of the top6 metros for sure. in terms of style and comfort he can do a decent job with past exp. for suspension, drivetrain issues he would probably pay honda or a boutique euro design shop to do it....plenty exist...some revel in "chipping" stock cars to change their engine computers for higher performance - warranty is voided but enthusiasts report good results. all manner of creative types exist in the woodwork.

the honda v6 will likely be the same mill from the accord, with turbocharger added on...its a pretty good and proven engine + gearbox combo and this car being lighter than the accord should be able to handle the load. it will be quiet and FE engine...weak torque vs the arabic hearts but will crush them in endurance runs in the kalahari...less temperamental..less maalish paalish needed....cheap spare parts that need not be sourced from makkah with the stamp of the crescent moon bismillah.

I would actually be glad to see more such activity in desh - take the front end of a civic , middle of a corolla and back end of a cruze , glue them together, MKI them with heavy weapons...the end result may fly like the Spruce Goose but there is always learning from every experiment :twisted:

the journey of a marathon champ begins with the 5k...if we dont support our own ideas, nobody else will.
Sriman
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Re: Indian Autos Thread

Post by Sriman »

Singha wrote:I would actually be glad to see more such activity in desh - take the front end of a civic , middle of a corolla and back end of a cruze , glue them together, MKI them with heavy weapons...the end result may fly like the Spruce Goose but there is always learning from every experiment :twisted:

the journey of a marathon champ begins with the 5k...if we dont support our own ideas, nobody else will.
True, Force Motors' Force One chassis is supposedly tuned by Lotus and has a Merc engine. AMW has a similar model in CV market. UK seems to have a lot of niche engineering talent in the automotive sector. Hopefully we'll see more innovation by tapping into these companies. Tatas have been flogging the Indica frame for quite sometime now, it'll be interesting to see what they'll come up with next.
Ambar
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Re: Indian Autos Thread

Post by Ambar »

Firodias/Force Motors have a long standing license from Mercedes-Benz to produce their OM616 diesel engines in India.

UK has always been popular for its "cottage" auto companies. Lotus, TVR, Caterham are some of those "garagista" companies that still exists though mostly funded by foreigners. It really stems from their ear;y involvement in grandprix racing and their aerospace industry.It is hardly surprising then that 9 out of 12 F1 teams are based out of UK.
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Re: Indian Autos Thread

Post by Raja Bose »

For car repair manuals get the official factory repair manual frm the manufacturer instead of ,the chilton/haynes stuff. If u r ok with a scanned version on cd or a used copy, search on eBay. My Honda factory manual saved me quite a bit of money on repairs....during talib days i would use my mechanic's garage space to do repairs with his son - hence no overhead of buying and storing specialized tools.
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Re: Indian Autos Thread

Post by Aditya_V »

Gus wrote:oh I get it..if monthly fuel savings Vs buying price difference. I was not expecting a lot of resale difference between petrol and diesel. I expect monthly running to be 1500 to 2000 kms. One or two trips to Chennai to Erode or Blr and local trips and occasional trips to mahabs or pondy etc.

If it is petrol, then what are my options.

Currently using a friends Estilo. He is my best friend and would not mind me using this until he returns from US..but I don't feel right using his new car and it getting the inevitable scratches and dings.
GUs, If this is any help to you, I bought a second hand Accent Petrol 2007 in Oct 2010 model from Khivraj for 3.25 L , opposite Express Avenue Mall. Was 29K on the ODO then now 41K, no problems and 3 services have cost me 11K, 4K and 4.5 K respectively. Would need to change tyres though soon. It was a Maruti True Value outlet but this car was exchanged for a Honda City at Khivraj's Ambattur Honda Showroom so it did not command the Maruti True Value premium. Whatever you do, stay away from the T.Nagar second hand dealers like Ramesh cars. They will cheat you more often than nought.

Be prepared to run around and wait a month before you can find a good second hand deal.

Will second hand cars you pick 5-6 car types which you can live with and see whether car on offer, examine it, take a test drive and see if the seller looks genuine and car is worth the money you are paying for it

Check Maruti True Value types they charge a premium for Maruti's but comes with their warranty, TVS Sundaram's showrrom, Ads in paper, contacts. Nothing like buying it from the owner directly but very difficult to do based on my last year's experience.

My use is only 1k Kms per month, so premium for Deisel did not make sense.

Since you use Deisel for 1.5 to 2k I see your savings in Fuel being INR 3k- 4K a month, so one would not pay more than 70K-80K for an equivalent Petrol Model.
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Re: Indian Autos Thread

Post by Vasu »

The upcoming Auto Expo should be a big one. Looking forward to its coverage from various quarters.

And that makes me wonder the logic behind restricting the number of visitors, excluding the exhibitors, to only 70,000 per day! And just how they are going to enforce that too remains to be seen.

Delhi Auto Expo says no to 100 firms due to space crunch
Over 100 exhibitors from across the globe have been denied permission to participate at the forthcoming 11th Auto Expo due to space limitations at Pragati Maidan, the venue of the biennial show.

The organisers have decided to restrict the number of people present inside the venue to one lakh daily, including 30,000 people from the exhibitors' side, a move that could cost the Delhi Auto Expo its tag of being the world's second-largest auto show in terms of footfalls.

The show will now present 1,500 participants from 24 nations, including the US, China, Thailand and Turkey.

The organisers had earlier explored the possibility of shifting the venue elsewhere in the NCR— to Greater Noida, in particular— but abandoned the plan due to the lack of proper connectivity, he said.

The latest edition of the exhibition will be spread across 1.15 lakh square metres of space, compared to 1.25 lakh square metres in 2010.

On the number of visitors, Kaul said this time, the number of visitors per day will be restricted to make the overall experience more convenient.

"On a given day of the expo, a total of one lakh people will be inside Pragati Maidan, of which 70,000 will be visitors," he added.
chetak
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Re: Indian Autos Thread

Post by chetak »

MN Kumar wrote:Tata's new concept car.

Tata Pixel
Image
Hope that it doesn't catch fire as easily as the nano :)
vishvak
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Re: Indian Autos Thread

Post by vishvak »

chetak wrote:Hope that it doesn't catch fire as easily as the nano :)
My 2 paise..
About fires in a 'handful of Nano cars..' NY times report

About fire incidents in some A grade foreign cars - year 2005- New Warning to be Issued About Deadly Car Fires
AAA and the National Fire Protection Association will issue a warning tomorrow about car fires, ABC News has learned. Last year, 266,000 car fires resulted in 520 deaths, the organizations say.
So can we also comment that one should be careful about buying a car from first world countries, cause fire has no first class?
Last edited by vishvak on 04 Jan 2012 00:16, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Indian Autos Thread

Post by Sriman »

Auto Expo 2012 began in Delhi today. Today's highlights are Ford's mini-SUV EcoSport and Tata's facelifted Safari Storme.

The EcoSport is a sub 4m mini SUV with a turbo charged 1L (yes, one litre) engine that Ford claims delivers 120PS. Looks good.

Image

The Safari Storme (or project Merlin) is the latest facelift of Safari with some changes to the Chassis/Drivetrain as well (Supposedly derived from Aria).



TBHP of course has full coverage including the Indigo Manza hybrid (looks very nice), Dileep Chabria's supercar and other concepts.
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Re: Indian Autos Thread

Post by Vasu »

Yeah, lots of good stuff to be unveiled at the Expo.

I'm really keen to buy a new hatchback but I think i will wait for another 3-4 months because apparently there's a bunch of stuff coming out in the sub-5 Lac category (including many more diesel options)!

Not too enthused by the Safari Storme or Merlin. Such a big SUV should definitely have a steering wheel with additional controls. The first Safari's used to be so good looking! they've taken away its butch looks and the curves and overall so plane jain.
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Re: Indian Autos Thread

Post by Singha »

how do you park the safari in small apt parking lots? maybe that explains why I dont see any of the roads here...
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