The Earth-friendly : "Toyota Prius"

Even if you can afford the hike in fuel prices, still you are going to find yourself falling apart in the coming years, since the Environmental issues are of greatest concern for our lovely Earth. It is time to shed off the pride for the vehicle you own, be it a Honda Civic or a BMW 7 Series or whatever it is. Alternate fuel is the paradigm shift which probably is the next move to taken by the governments across the world.

Toyota inaugurates the revolutionary change in alternate fuel vehicle, by unveiling its latest and onyl hybrid car Toyota Prius. A 1800cc hybrid engine that supports three modes of driving as shown. The EV mode transits the hybrid engine to operate on the Nickel Metal Hybrid battery. The main objective remains to optimize the factors namely fuel efficiency, low power consumption and most importantly low emissions to abide by the norms.

The design has a lot of variation as compared to conventional luxury vehicles, it has a light-weight body and LED Rear lamps in order to reduce the power consumption and increase the fuel efficiency.

The jaw-dropping feature is the transmission system and the gear shifter.

With light touch operation the lever automatically returns to the home position after shifting. The Prius is by default an automatic transmission vehicle with four probable position of gear shifter: Park(P), Brake(B), Drive(D) and Reverse (R). Moreover the car has Smart Entry & the Smart Start System.

Infact the electronic key shown aside plays a smarter role, when carrying the key you can unlock all the doors by gripping any door handle and the Power Button is all you need to start the engine while pressing the brake pedal. The steering wheel is integrated with the Audio System controller and Bluetooth to sync with your phone.

In addition to that the entire digital meter unit is placed on the centre of the dash board which helps to monitor the entire vehicle attributes.

Loaded with ABS, Airbags an automatic Air Conditioning System and what not. The Prius may share several technical specification with other luxury sedans in its segments,like the BWM's X6, however it wins on solely on its noble ground, it hybrid engine implementing alternate fuels. Spacious interiors with fully foldable rear seats for cargo's.

But all well's that fits in your pocket well. The Prius comes in two variants Z3 and Z4 priced at Rs 27,28,930 (ex-showroom Kolkata) and Rs. 28,60,640 respectively. But there's still hope for consumers as recently in a talk show, the Environment & Foreign Minister has promised to slice the heavy duty levied on the vehicle. Though it would require some negotiations with Toyota, but the benefactors of this superb machine needs to put a wait, until the Government does something better to suit the wallet.

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A walk down the Parking Lot...

Even in the toughest of times, I didn't loose a moment to catch the glimpse of the most exotic wheels that caught my eyes. With my ailing father recuperating at the Apollo Chennai Hospital last month, I's pretty much disturbed with the entire circumstances. Nevertheless, I enjoyed myself being seated at the lobby watching the high end mean machines cruising down the aisle.

Day before my return, thought of trying something unusual to treat my eyes! I managed to walk into the Doctors' car parking-lot.

Never in my dreams did I

ever imagine, I would actually feel a 90-lakh Bentley with my hands. A cardio-surgeon from Delhi stepped down from his Bentley Continental GT. Bentley hasn't started its operations in India, so this one was surely an imported beast. Find out more on this vehicle at http://www.bentleymotors.com/models/continental_gt/

A moment later, I experienced something even more ecstatic, Narain

Karthikeyan-the fastest Indian, walked down the lobby.

What caught my eyes more than the bouquet he carried was his ivory black Volvo S80. Yeah that's the same car Sachin was honoured with for his double ton in ODI. Volvo is doing pretty good in the Indian Saloon

Segment.Find out more on S80

http://www.volvocars.com/in/all-cars/volvo-s80/Pages/default.aspx

What befuddled me was the wealth the Docs on earth could possess. Every second doctor owned a BMW 3-Series, his senior driving the same 5-series model and Merc's were like peoples' car. Here's some of the pics of the omnipresent BMW's.

BMW 550i (5 Series) BMW 350i (3 Series)

To find out more on BMW log onto http://www.bmw.in

Watching such high end wheels often leads me to give a second thought. "Wish I was a valet or a chauffeur to test drive those array of luxurious vehicles."

Astra for Sale

My cousin bro used to take a lot of pride in himself for owning an Opel Astra (true it was a car of Class, a decade ago),until he realised that the car's too heavy on his pocket, because of its poor performance in metros. Finally, he's in search for someone to buy it. The vehicle is in a good running condition, (thats because he hardly used it) equipped with a Sony CD Player (company-fitted) & other embellisments. If anyone finds it to be a good deal, then do drop in a mail to me.

Vehicle Profile:-
Make: Opel (General Motors)
Model: Astra 1.6
Year of Manufacture: 1996
Colour: Cherry
Registration Number: WB 02G 2118
Insurance Covered till Next Year (2010)
Price: 60K(Negotiable)
Contact: 9831723004

BMW- works on Engine Sound

With the recent launch of BMW X6 in India, I kept myself engrossed in reading it’s specification document and facts which led me to bump into their “Engine Sound” section. It is said that Acoustic Engineers at the BMW Research Centre, works on engine sound to give each of its car model its unique signature sound. Recently, they have worked on the engine sound of BMW’s 6 Series 650i Coupe. They wanted this powerful 650i to sound like a mighty speed monster an

d they eventually did it.
With BMW it’s not just mere engineering, but it’s all about innovative engineering. Having said that, if you want to treat your ears with how this speed monster sounds like? Get this small audio clip downloaded.

 65oi Engine Sound
 
For more information on BMW 3,5,6 Series and their latest range of SUV’s X3,X5 and X6 log onto http://www.bmw.in

   
 

Suzuki’s Ritz Unveiled

India has been a prospective market for small & mid sized cars. Specifically, Maruti Suzuki was the only dominator in Indian Market for more than a decade and then stepped in Hyundai, to capture the Indian hearts with its Santro. In course of time, Hyundai unveiled its small car range which turned out to be a serious challenge for the Maruti,as it took over a considerable fraction of the Indian Car Market. Presently Hyundai’s i20 is making its presence felt, which led Maruti to reveal its next hatchback the “Ritz".

 

 

Loaded with a 1200cc engine in Petrol & Diesel variant, available in five models, viz. Lxi,Ldi,Vxi,Vdi & Zxi and with spacious interiors, being priced around 4 lacs (ex-showroom Kolkata) it’s going to put forward a tough challenge for its contenders like Hyundai’s i20 and Chevrolet’s Uva. So get set to “put on the ritz…. “.

If you still find this cutie worth an analysis, then log on to http://www.marutisuzukiritz.com/ for more tech speaks.