Monthly Archives: August 2011

Honda Toyota and Mitsubishi Target the Indian Market

Honda in particular plans on exploiting the potential of the Indian auto-market to the fullest extent. They have recently launched the Honda Jazz in the small-size higher fuel-economy segment. This seems to be a well planned move after looking at the past facts and figures about the automobile sales in the Indian economy.

Well, sure thing you can sell the luxurious cars like Mercedes Benz, BMW and the likes of them, even in the Asian markets, but those who wish to play in big numbers, should always plan the smaller segments. And, this is what Honda has really done in past few months. After the launch of the revived Honda City VXI, Honda has launched the Jazz, which is priced just a bit lesser than the city.

The starting model in the segment costs around 7lacs or ,000, while the top-end version goes up to 7.5lacs. The elegant pictures of the Honda Jazz and the Honda Jazz wallpapers that were released a few weeks back, had brought a whole lot of enthusiasm amongst the potential car buyers in India.

It has not only served as a big promotion, but also contributed to advanced bookings in the showrooms as well.

Honda has promised that they’ll be launching yet another economy class car in India within next 12-18months, which will be even more affordable than the Honda Jazz. Skoda had done something similar by releasing Fabia few months back, while Ford’s Fusion as well as Fiesta have also been quite successful too.

More than 74% of the total cars sold in Indian market belong to the economy class range, no wonder everyone is eying the market with bulls-eyes.

85,000 Mercedes Benz C- And E- Class Autos In The United States To Be Recalled
It is suspected that a problem with the steering systems pump could lead to a loss of fluid. According to the NHTSA announcement on its website, should this problem surface the owners may not have sufficient control of the vehicle in places like parking lots, where maximum power steering is required, increasing the risk of a vehicle crash, though the Daimler spokesman assured that drivers did retain control of the car even in the event of a power steering failure.

According to the NHTSA, Mercedes plans to fix the problem in 2010 and 2011 models this month by re-tightening a faulty fitting. This recall includes 2010 Mercedes-Benz C-Class and E-Class models together with 2010 and 2011 Mercedes-Benz E-Class Coupe and Cabriolet models manufactured between June 1st , 2009 and February 28th , 2010. The giant motor company reported to the regulator, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, that it was possible the steering may fail due to the loss of power steering fluid. Mercedes added that if that happened a crash could occur if drivers lost control of the vehicle. The companys advice to its customers is to return any of the vehicles concerned in the recall to dealers where a free check on the power steering system will be carried out.

Owners may ask their dealers to check the steering systems for free. Repair would only take 30 minutes according to Mercedes-Benz UK spokesman. Daimler, the Mercedes Benz parent company, says a connection fitting wasnt adequately tightened that could lead to fluid leakage.

Mercedes-Benz USA would be calling the owners of the 2010 and 2011 Mercedes-Benz E-Class Coupe and Cabriolet models manufactured between June 1, 2009 and February 28, 2010 this month. They are also advised to contact MBUSA at 800-376-6372.

Auto recalls have increased this year in the wake of the Toyota gas pedal defects that had reportedly caused more than 50 deaths in the US. Toyota paid .4 million in settlement claims for the gas pedal defects.

The latest auto recalls were of the Hyundai Sonata and BMW. On October 1st, Daimlers German rival BMW said that it would recall 350,800 high-powered BMW and Rolls-Royce automobiles worldwide because of brake problems. A BMW spokesman however emphasized the brake problems were not so dangerous.