Can You Afford It

A wave of new Indian and Chinese automobiles are poised to make their debut in the US market in coming months, but a new study has found that most Americans are not open to the idea of buying a car from companies like Tata , Mahindra and BYD. Market research firm GfK Automotive's Barometer of Automotive Awareness and Imagery Study found that Chinese and Indian auto-makers could face a similar purchase consideration curve to Korean vehicles when they launched in the US. In that case, it took more than 15 years for consumers to significantly increase their consideration to purchase Korean vehicles. ...

A roof-mounted solar panel announced by Ford in the US this week could help to drive electric versions of its Focus small car up to 1600 kilometres a month for free. The panel, developed in co-operation with solar panel provider SunPower, can generate up to 3000 kilowatt hours of power each year and would supplement - or completely replace - plug-in electricity as the vehicle's power source. The US-based program is an intriguing premise considering Australia's high levels of sun exposure. It...

Further intensifying the price-war in the premium hatchback segment, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. (MSIL) on Wednesday launched the new version of Swift, priced between Rs.4.22 lakh and Rs.5.53 lakh for the petrol versions and Rs.5.17 lakh and Rs.6.38-lakh for the diesel variants. Built on an entirely new platform, MSIL's popular hatchback offers improved fuel efficiency and over 140 new features, many for the first time ever in an entry-level variant, claims the company. MSIL, which sold over...

Cadillac hybrid sports car confirmedThe Cadillac Converj coupé concept, first shown at the 2009 Detroit motor show (and it must be said, the subject of constant speculation since then) is finally going into production - and that's official. General motors has confirmed that Cadillac's first electric car will be called the ELR, apparently the closest they could get to “electric” using the brand's three-letter model naming convention. It will use a more powerful version of the Chevrolet...

The spirits of an Indian petrol-head have been inversely proportional to the prices of petrol, and diesel aficionados have been having quite the laugh with the market players obliging them with a flurry of diesel-powered cars in the last few months. But all it takes to put a childish grin on a petrol-head's face is something such as the Audi A6 3.0T. With its 295bhp engine, this one's definitely putting the grin back where it belongs. But first, there are a few things you need to know about...

Years ago, Hyundai was the new car of last resort — the cheapest new car you could buy. Hyundai has come a very long way since then, and the Genesis sedan is proof. It’s a high value, rear-wheel drive luxury sedan offering a choice of V6 or V8 power. The Genesis seats five in a well-appointed cabin, featuring wood and aluminum trim, chrome accents, soft-touch materials and state-of-the-art technology. For example, while an iPod interface is standard, the voice-activated navigation system...

For ages now pearls have been revered as a sign of status. Pearl jewellery can, however, be quite the expensive addition to your collection. Pearls are rated much like gems, and each different type of pearl will have a different value. Natural pearls are extremely rare and make the most expensive jewellery. These pearls are naturally created by hard-shelled mollusks in the wild. Matching strands of naturally occurring pearls is almost unheard of. Almost, if not all, naturally occurring pearls are purchased and sold by serious collectors because of their rarity. There is an option, however, for ...

The problem with self developed mid size sedans from Chinese auto makers is that they lack the branding ability and marketing ability to push their vehicles from being economy boxes into mid size sedan fighters. Only Brilliance and Roewe appear to have the ability to make a mid size that sells but they started in a different way as they started by making expensive cars and then made economy cars, its easier to go from high end to low end than it is from low end to high end. Chang’an have so...

Luxury car sales increased five per cent in the five months to May–almost matching the 6.5 per cent growth for the new vehicles industry in the period, reflecting renewed consumer confidence in tandem with expectations of economic growth. The performance of the luxury segment, which sold 83 units up from 79 units a year earlier according to data from the Kenya Motor Industry, was driven by increased demand from private enterprises and wealthy individuals.Players attributed the increased...

Porsche’s king of the four-passenger sedans is a pretty impressive combination of the German automaker’s design skills and engineering, and I liked the big car in previous trims I have used (the S and Turbo) for its roominess and trappings of luxury. My current test model is the 2011 Panamera 4, which brings all-wheel drive and a smaller engine (3.6 litre V6) to the platform. At its core, my tester is very much the same car as the ones propelled by the larger powerplant (4.8 litre V8), give...

Let’s have some fun in this edition of Cars Coming Soon, whaddaya say? We all need to take some time to dream once in a while, and lucky for us, plenty of automakers give us seriously dream-worthy automobiles. We’ll start with Jaguar, which is about to release its fastest XK-Series ever. The XKR Special Edition coupe will debut at the Geneva Motor Show and have an electronically limited top speed of 174 mph, along with styling features that Autoweek calls “sinister.” Cool.Power comes from a...

Authorities say more than a dozen men arrested in overnight raids are part of a ring suspected of stealing 291 expensive cars in New York City worth more than $10 million. High end luxury cars - Lexus, big Toyota SUVs - all stolen police say in what's described as "operation made to order."Police say the men used information obtained by car dealership employees to make counterfeit keys."The ring was doing swift business at blue book value of nearly 10-million dollars," NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly said. Kelly says the 21-member ring was reselling Lexus and Toyota vehicles in the U.S. and

As head of Mercedes-Benz USA in the late 1990s, Mike Jackson was determined to keep the ungainly, expensive A-class small car out of the United States. "The original A class, you would say, 'Oh, my God. I will never be able to sell that to anybody. What can I do to keep it out of the U.S. so I don't have to deal with it?'" Jackson recalls. Americans were unwilling to pay premium prices for small cars then, even if the cars wore luxury nameplates. And sales of such cars remain low. But...

Super luxury carmaker Bentley on Thursday unveiled Continental GT sedan in India. Priced at Rs.1.90 crore, the two-door, four-seat coupe comes with touch-screen controls and is equipped with 12-cylinder engine and new six-speed ‘Quickshift' transmission, delivering 575 PS power. It achieves 60 miles an hour in just 4.6 seconds and reaches a top speed of 197 mph (318 kmph). “India is aggressively growing in the luxury automobile space. We understand the growing needs of the market and hence we...

BMW X5s and Range Rovers are the most desirable cars for thieves, new figures suggest. Together with the BMW M3 and Audi RS4 taking third and fourth places, these cars all hold the dubious "top positions" in the "top ten most frequently stolen and recovered vehicles of 2010", according to Tracker stolen vehicle recovery systems, which says that 65 per cent of the vehicles it recovered last year were worth an average of £25,000. "Once again our top ten list shows the thieves' favourites, with...