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Union Budget Impact on Auto Sector
Finance Minister has partially rolled back the stimulus given for auto sector. The excise duty on big cars (cars with length above 4m) and SUVs goes up by 2% to 22% from 20%. This would result in price of large cars and SUVs marginally. But the FM has retained the small car excise duty at 8%. Also another set back for the auto industry is the additional excise duty of Re1/ litre of petrol/diesel. This means your fuel bill is all set to raise. Finance Minister has also indicated the petroleum ministry would consider implementing the Parikh Panel recommendations of freeing the oil prices (aligning petroleum product prices with international crude rate). This means a heavy raise in petrol and diesel prices.
The government has announced a hike in the prices of auto fuels like petrol prices by Rs 2.67 per litre and diesel prices by Rs 2.58 per litre with effect from tonight.
Small cars/Motorcycles which enjoyed 8 per cent excise duty will now pay 10% excise duty and duty on large cars is levied at 22 per cent plus Rs 15,000 (against 20 per cent plus Rs 15,000 earlier).
Tata said it will display its flagship model Aria at the Geneva Motor show next week. Designed as a model fit for global trade, this will be on the UK roads by the spring of 2011. Tata has shaped this in tune with the crash legislation to reap the four star EuroNCAP rating. Tata believes that this will become the most sophisticated model from it. For this purpose, Tata has built this in a sturdy and robust manner.
The car will be equipped with the engine having the specs of 140bhp, 2.2 lit, 4-cylinder diesel (similar to Safari) allied to enhance four-wheel drive(no petrol version). The car will exert much power to meet the European expectations. By adding a new gearbox, there may be a 170bhp version involving 5-speed manual transmission. The interiors will have three row of seats and an LCD screen with infotainment feature(first such facility in Tata). Tata has a low profile in the UK with its early SUV- Safari- and it has markets in Italy, Spain, Poland and Turkey.
A dealer of Mercedes-Benz in Pune filed a legal suit against the officials of the company. The dealer, Millennium Motors Pvt Ltd accused the company for terminating the dealership and the case is pending for enquiry as the dealer claims that the officials forged the documents. The anticipatory bail was taken for consideration and be granted on remitting Rs25000 each, till Feb 25. The case will come up for hearing on 25th Feb again. The police officials claimed that the statements regarding the case – filed by the Chairman of Millennium Motors – will be got from the officials prior to filing the FIR.
In his charge, the Chairman accused the officials of forging the accounts document leading to financial losses. The dealer was with Mercedes for the past nine years. The shocking news about the termination of the dealership was conveyed to the officials of the dealer who were called for a meeting on sale target. The Mercedes officials forced those officers to sign in the minutes of the meeting indicating the resignation of the dealership. The forgery involved with regard to the signatures of the officials of the Millennium Motors and there were signatures of officials belonging to Mercedes who were not present in the meeting. The dispute now is over non-settlement of accounts from Mercedes-Benz. Till the disposal of the case in the court, the dealer intends to deem itself as the dealer pending final word from the company.
Honda Motorcycle has made a sweet desire among women riders with a vigorous 4 hour training per day. In the process, the company has trained some 730 women customers in Chennai and has started in Coimbatore where 60-70 women were trained, said the Regional Manager. With official permission, the Taramani track in Chennai and Race Course track in Coimbatore are used for this purpose, he added. The training is given by the professional trainers identified by the dealers and the proposal is to train a minimum of 100 women riders a month.
However, the customers have to make their own arrangements for getting license from the RTO. The motive behind such task is to promote the just launched 110-cc bike Honda CB Twister. To be launched in a period of another three months the bike will come in variants of Kick drum alloy, self drum alloy and self disc alloy. Will be available in 5 colors- pearl amber yellow, candy sonic green, pearl night-star black, pearl siena red and pearl fuji blue.
General Motors has finally drawn the curtains at Hummer following a tussle over a deal with the Chinese company. The failure to stuck the deal with the Chinese Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial machines co was due to the undue delay in clearing the process from the Chinese regulators. The Chinese company is popular for military-prone SUVs and GM committed that the existing customers would in no way get affected.
The resentment was expressed by the company’s VP amidst the smooth process to be implemented in the closing of the Hummer. The ditch in finalizing the deal occurred in the non-timely clearance of the Chinese regulations, despite hectic efforts to save the situation. This is the second such brand from GM, after Saturn, to be shelved away and in the series after Swedish brand Saab (sold to Dutch Spyker Cars NV) while GM discontinued the Pontiac. As of now, GM has got four brands to do its business- Chevrolet, GMC, Cadillac and Buck.
The swiftest and greatest sophisticated car maker BMW, launched 2 new variants of BMW 3 series. BMW 3 series is proud to introduce its brand new 320D Corporate edition and 33i Petrol. 320D Corporate edition is priced at Rs 23,95,000 lakhs followed by 33i Petrol at Rs 33,40,000 lakh.
Pictures of BMW 320d Corporate Edition and 330i Petrol
Hyundai has announced the recall of its Sonata cars-due to snag in the door lock- numbering 47000 spread in Europe and the US. However, the company sees no direct impact of this recall in the domestic market in India. The problem in the door lock is freak instance ever since its inception into the market but Hyundai voluntarily acts upon the problem to satisfy the customers.
In India the variant Sonata Transform is sold and hence there is no panic on the sale impact. Hyundai’s recall is meant for YF Sonata marketed in the US and South Korea. the company has wisely repaired the fault by fitting modified parts of the models meant for Korea and the US. The net dismay, out of this recall, will be for YF Sonatas from Korea (46000 units) and the ones made in Alabama, (1300 units).
Maruti’s recall of it’s A-Star numbering about 106000 includes 30000 units exported to Nissan Motor. Maruti’s product, from the Haryana facility is exported to Nissan for marketing as Pixo on a contract basis. This volume is within some 50000 units exported to Nissan and the cost of replacing the fuel tank would involve Rs300-Rs320 million.
The repair cost would be shared between Maruti and the supply dealer as Maruti alone will face Rs100-Rs120 million. The recall did not make any impact on the share price of Maruti, instead saw a rise by 2.4% in the Mumbai Stock Exchange after a fall by 3.2% two days ago. Maruti’s recall is not new in the industry as Toyota and Honda too faced such a crisis and even Maruti itself did so in the past. Maruti sees the positive impact out of this recall, said the VP for Research in the Mumbai brokerage.
The circle comes to a full with Maruti Suzuki recalling it’s A-Star numbering 1 lakh. This follows the last month’s nightmare of Toyota recalling many of its cars numbering 6-8 lakhs in the European market. Maruti’s A-Star hit the head with the snag in the fuel pump gasket. As of now, there has been no official complaint from any customers, but Maruti has started the initiative to do at no cost to the customers. This is just a preventive measure to the cars including those exported.
The industry observers see this as the largest recall in the Indian auto industry. For Maruti this is the second such recall after the hatchback Swift in 2005. That time the flaw was with the bolts to reduce the front suspension noise in Swift petrol; followed in the diesel vehicles in 2007.
Moreover, the company had changed the speedometers in M800 and Omni in two years ago. Regarding this A-Star- a 2008 product equipped with 998cc K10B petrol engine, Maruti has already changed the gasket in 50000 units. Maruti recalled the vehicles which were produced in last August.
Maruti is the next most biggest car maker to recall its vehicles, after Honda recalled 8532 units of City on the defective power window switch.
However, Maruti survived the fall in the stock market. the spokesperson of the Maruti said that the company believes on settling the score of quality and assessment. The snag in A-Star was detected from a complaint received and subsequent enquiries with the owners of A-Star. The cost involving the rectification will be shared along with the supply partner, said the company spokesman.
Maruti exports A-Star to 70 countries and in Europe, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand it is Alto. In the markets of Chile, Angola, Saudi, Morocco, Algeria and UAE it is Suzuki Celerio. The episodes of recall continue since 2007 when Honda recalled 4000 units of CR-V and 2300 units of Accord quoting the product update. In the European market, this car is sold by Nissan as Pixo on a contract basis. Maruti had a good stint with this A-Star in 2009 by exporting 1 lakh cars in December alone. The exporting was made in January 2009 only and it is expected to double – 140000 units in this fiscal.
Consequently the company replaced the design with new fuel tank in CR-V and the upgraded fuel relay in Accord. Right back in 2004-05, Mercedes-Benz had to recall its E-Class in the Indian market for the same reason –upgrading; in 2008 Skoda did so with its Fabia petrol for repairing the fuel deficiency. Tata Motors had to meet the same fate with its then newly launched Indica in 1999.