New Cars in India

Recently, many cars have appeared on the Indian road - some with exciting technologies and radical design features unheard of in the subcontinent till now. Land Rover, the British marque now owned by Tata Motors has come to India - along with another venerable marque - Jaguar. Toyota has brought in 2009 Land Cruiser with a V8 5.6 Liter diesel engine which produces some 381 Horse Powers. Although automobile market the world over is facing acute downward spiral with the top auto manufacturers going bust or declaring crippling losses, Indian scenario is strikingly buoyant.

The brilliant Fiat Linea launched in January 2009 in India, 1.3 L with Multijet technology in the diesel version and the frugal 1.4 L Fire Petrol engine version is noteworthy for other innovation as well - Blue&Me System which integrates Microsoft's Windows Mobile technology with automotive applications developed by Fiat.

This system uses Bluetooth to enable your Mobile phone or PDA to communicate with the Car's Onboard system which can read aloud your SMS messages, lets you speak the name of the caller to call him and hear turn-by-turn directions through a GPS add-on. The sleek lines from the legendary Italian designers make this car - visually appealing as well. The extra active safety features like Anti-lock braking (ABS) with Electronic Brake force distribution (EBD) along with passive Safety features - Airbags for driver and co-driver complement the ruggedness of this car.

The sturdy Fiat Linea comes with 2 options for the power plant:

The common rail Direct Injection diesel mill uses the Fiat/Bosch Multijet which offers extra ordinary economy and lower emissions/NVH levels. Originally developed by Fiat group which was later handed to Bosch - Multijet technology features a number of smaller injection of fuel into the combustion chamber which translates to smoother and quieter combustion of fuel and increased performance. The same Multijet powers other cars on the Indian Roads - Tata's Indica Vista and Maruti Suzuki's Swift Diesel. Linea's 1248 CC 16 Valves Multijet belts out 90 BHP @ 4000 RPM. It returns a remarkable fuel economy of almost 20 Km per liter of fuel on the highways. The top speed is about 165 km per hour.

The Petrol Linea uses a 1368 CC engine with an output of 76 BHP @ 6000 RPM.

Mahindra Xylo

The latest offering from the Mahindra stable - Xylo claims to make sedans obsolete - at least in the TV commercial. This MPV may be a serious competitor to Chevrolet Tavera, Toyota Innova, Tata Sumo Grande and even Scorpio from its own stable - going by the price range alone. Mahindra Xylo houses mEagle 2.5 L common rail direct Injection (CRDe) power plant with remapped engine parameters to increase the fuel economy. The engine is quiet enough and adequate for its job. The suspension of Xylo is decidedly better than the earlier versions of Scorpio. The foldable tray options and better inner fit and finish - though not in the same class as Toyota, are steps in the right direction.