DriveBlog

Getting back on the road

Coming back to post on your blog after a long break feels somewhat like driving your car for the the first time after a long holiday. Starts are iffy, it takes a while to stay on a straight line and you sometimes get into the whole thing with absolutely no idea of where you're headed. So, in the blogging equivalent of driving your down a quiet, uncrowded street just so you can 'get the feel back', here are some quick and easies:

• The Toyota Innova is out. Base models of the petrol and diesel were launched today with the promise of even better things to come. Toyota has, quite clearly thrown the gauntlet to General Motors' Tavera and Mahindra's Scorpio.

The Second Coming

At face value, pulling a rather well-performing brand off the production line and introducing something new (albeit better, but the customer never knows that up front, right?) in its stead must either seem very gutsy or very stupid. You wouldn't therefore be blamed if, when Honda SIEL and Hyundai yanked the Honda City and the Santro (respectively) off the roads, you credited the people who carried out such decisions with possessing either gonads of steel or brains of breakfast cereal. I sure did: in most cases with the latter. Well, as it turns out, they did know better, judging by the showing that the two cars made in the relaunches category at the Ninth Annual Business Standard Brand Derby.

And all that Jazz...

The year 2005 could just be the year of the "new, emerging cusp segment between premium compact cars and sedans". The latest entrant to set everyone's tongue wagging is the Honda Jazz, which along with the City was specifically developed by Honda for emerging automobile markets such as ours. Once launched, the Jazz, talked about for its innovative interior storage options and extremely easy-on-the-eye design, is expected to set new standards in the premium hatchback segment in India.

From the B(r)andwagon

Autobytes from the Ninth Annual Business Standard Brand Derby:

"Interestingly, the best and worst relaunches in this round of the Brand Derby are from the automobile industry. While the Derby applauded the return of Hyundai’s Santro as the Xing and Honda’s City, the Petra (neé Fiat Siena) was dismissed summarily as old wine in new bottles.

While 74 per cent felt the City was very successful and 73 per cent felt the Santro Xing was very successful, only 1 per cent believed the same about the Petra. Incidentally, these are the highest and lowest ratings among all the 15 brands that were considered in the relaunches segment."

BS Motoring does the CR-V

How the heck do you get away with calling the new Honda CR-V a sedan? Anyways, going by the way this review of Ver 2.0 of what is, in my opinion, India's best looking SUV reads, Honda has succeeded in making an already awesome product even better.

Update: "Honda Siel Cars calls it the Creative Life Vehicle. Whatever."