WORLD’S BEST CARBritian’s 4x4 meets the world’s finest luxury four-seaters

Volume 8 | Issue 005 | December 2012

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PUBLISHING

TRAVELOGUESanta Fe to Nepal

XUV 500 in South Africa

COMPARO: SSANGYONG REXTON vs TOYOTA FORTUNER

SIMPLY AMAZING

SPORTHeroes &

Villains ofF1 2012

` 100.00AUDI Q5 & R8 V10 PLUS BMW 7 SERIES

New Range Rover vsFerrari! Aston! Rolls! Bentley!

Honda’s fi rst dieselfor India ready to

live up to its name

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CONTENTS DECEMBER 2012T H I S M O N T H ’ S S T O R I E S A T A G L A N C E

DECEMBER 2012CAR INDIA www.carindia.in

COVERSTORY

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FIRST DRIVES36 NEW AUDI Q5 This popular SUV from Audi gets a complete

makeover 40 NEW BMW 7 SERIES The luxurious new ‘Sevener’ now

boasts of best-in-class performance too48 HONDA AMAZE Honda’s much awaited Brio-based sedan

with a diesel motor especially made for India52 REVAMPED AUDI R8 V10 PLUS An ultimate sportscar made

even better. We drive it in Italy56 PORSCHE CAYENNE S DIESEL Powered by a 4.2-litre diesel

engine, the new Cayenne S promises to wed performance

64 NEW RANGE ROVER Adventure, excitement and the new Range Rover all experienced in Morocco

98 NEW VW VENTO The 2013 Volkswagen Vento comes with more luxury and convenience

82 LOVE THY NEIGHBOUR Hyundai Santa Fe and teamCar India drive from New Delhi to Nepal to meetour friendly neighbour

92 VENDA AND ME That is how Gasha explains her short stint in South Africa in the Mahindra XUV 500

110 IN FULL THROTTLE A bunch of Tata Arias driving through the Niligiris. Quite interesting, isn’t it?

114 AN INDIAN WORLD CHAMPION Our guest columnist, Dr V Sumantran, writes about what it would take to see Indian drivers in the top echelon of motor sport

REGULARS8 BULLETIN All the latest happenings in the automotive

world to bring you abreast of the scene26 EMISSION ZERO Swedish car-makers Volvo are ready to

bring in the world’s first diesel plug-in hybrid soon28 TECHNO BIBLE Basic terms used in the automotive world

to add to your knowledge30 INTERACTIVE Just the right platform for your comments,

opinions, queries and compliments34 GEARBOX Three new products to lend a touch of style to

your day-to-day life112 LONG TERM Goings-on in the busy Car India garage131 THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY We do the homework

for you to make your choice that much easier

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ROAD TESTS60 HONDA BRIO AUTOMATIC The youngest one in the Honda

family now comes with the ease of automatic transmission66 NEW RANGE ROVER vs THE WORLD’S GREATEST The new

Range Rover has to even it out with the Rolls, Bentley, Aston and Ferrari. It ain’t gonna be easy!

102 MAHINDRA SSANGYONG REXTON vs TOYOTA FORTUNER The new entrant in the segment, the Rexton is readyto challenge the segment leader

MOTOR SPORT116 AMR Vantage GTE experience, APRC, WRC, F1 Review

and various motor sport news

COVERSTORY

The newly launched SsangYong Rexton goes head to head with the Toyota Fortuner to decide which of the two is a better SUV

Story: Ravi Chandnani Photography: Sanjay Raikar

REXTON vs FORTUNERCOMPARO

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www.carindia.inwww.carindia.in

DECEMBER 2012

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FEATURES

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BULLETIN ALL THE AUTOMOTIVE NEWS

DECEMBER 2012CAR INDIA www.carindia.in

PRESENTING THE NEW MASERATI QUATTROPORTE

The world will get to see the sixth-generation Quattroporte at the 2013 Detroit Motor Show in January

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FROM ACROSS THE GLOBE THIS MONTH

DECEMBER 2012 CAR INDIAwww.carindia.in

THE CAR SHOWCASES ITALIAN DESIGN FLAIR AT ITS BEST, with a shark-nose grille and triple side air-vents grabbing attention! The car also features triangular C-pillars in the vein of other four-door Maseratis. According to the company’s Design Chief Lorenzo Ramaciotti, the car is faithful to Maserati’s guiding design principles of ‘harmony of shapes, dynamism of lines and Italian elegance’.

The new car is longer than the 5,097 millimetres of the current model, which liberates more cabin space and a 30 per cent larger boot. The frame-less doors open to a spacious interior with improved rear legroom and lush leather and wood lining. Surprisingly, this has been achieved with a 90-kg weight reduction over the current car, though the new car still weighs in at 1.9 tonnes!

The new Quattroporte will be powered by a new family of engines co-developed by Ferrari and Maserati. Twin petrol engines – a 3.8-litre V8 engine with 537.3 PS and a 3.0-litre V6 turbo with 415.6 PS – will do duty on the new car, with a 3.0-litre V6 turbo-diesel with 334.5 PS being available in Europe from 2014. ZF’s eight-speed automatic transmission will drive the power to the rear wheels only or to all wheels (4wd) for different models. The top speed for the V8 petrol will be 308.9 km/h.

The American markets get the left-hand drive V8 version in March 2013, with right-hand drive versions coming only in June. The cheaper (from the current £ 81,000 price) V6 model also will be available from June, which makes it a real threat to the S-Class.

The new Quattroporte marks the beginning of Maserati’s challenge to the German makes, with two more launches to follow soon – a smaller and cheaper Ghibli M5 rival to be launched next autumn and the Levante SUV (based on the Jeep) a year later. Maserati hope these launches will push their sales by a nine-fold increase to 50,000 units by 2015.

The new Quattroporte marks the beginning of Maserati’s challenge to the German makes

A new family of engines co-developed by Ferrari and Maserati

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EMISSION ZERO

DECEMBER 2012CAR INDIA www.carindia.in

AN UNTAMEDCOMBINATIONStory: Saeed Akhtar

Volvo are ready to launch the world’s first-ever diesel plug-in hybrid in Europe early next year. Here is a curtain-raiser

LET’S FACE IT, HYBRIDS AREN’T as much a novelty now as they were about a decade ago. Almost every manufacturer worth their salt now have a hybrid vehicle in their product line-up, thus stamping their green credentials for one and all to see. However, despite all the progress this technology has made in the last few decades – indeed we have come a long way from the initial days – there’s one sub-realm that hasn’t been given the proper attention that it deserves: the

amalgamation of good old-fashioned diesel power and electricity.

Thus when Volvo recently announced that the world’s very first diesel plug-in hybrid is about to go into production, we sat up and asked, “What? Hasn’t that been done and dusted yet?” As it turns out, it hasn’t been and Volvo were right. Delving deeper into the recesses of the worldwide web revealed

that there were a limited number of Peugeot 3008 Hybrid 4s some time back in Europe and Hino Trucks also had a Class 5 work truck for the US market earlier this year, but both these are diesel hybrids, not plug-in hybrids.

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Our monthly dose of guilt-free, clean and green car technologies

DECEMBER 2012 CAR INDIAwww.carindia.in

On the surface, there are a number of reasons justifying why diesel and electric are not exactly the best of friends. For one, there is the high cost of production coupled to less impressive improvement. Compared to petrol, a diesel engine is costlier to produce, but is more efficient already. Which means, there is less ‘headroom’ for improvement. Then there’s the different or non-complementary torque curve of both the engines, which makes it all a bit trickier than landing Curiosity on Mars. So, basically, a diesel hybrid would add a very expensive electrified system to an already expensive engine, but produce a less impressive overall increase than in petrol cars. Which brings us to the money question: have Volvo managed to buck these shortcomings finally?

The V60 Plug-in Hybrid (no fancy names here. WYSIWYG) isn’t intended to set the sales charts on fire. For the first year, the Swedes had a target of making 1,000 of the 2013 models, but high advance orders have now led the company to ramp up production levels to between 4,000 and 6,000 cars for the 2014 model year. “The first year’s 1,000-car batch was sold out

even before the car reached the showrooms and the order books for next year’s cars are already filling up,” said Peter Mertens, Senior VP (R&D), Volvo, in a statement.

Maybe, part of its appeal is because the V60 is no tree-hugging slouch despite its green skin. Motive power comes from a 2.4-litre five-cylinder turbo-diesel engine rated at 218 PS and 440 Nm of torque, sending drive to the front wheels via a six-speed automatic transmission. Working in conjunction with it at the rear wheel is a 70-PS electric motor, powered by an 11.2 kWh lithium-ion battery. With a combined peak power of 290 PS and 639 Nm of torque, it is capable of sprinting to the century mark in just 6.2 seconds. Those are staggering figures given the claimed mileage of 52.7 km/l and more than enough to make the car an interesting drive, never mind the low-rolling-resistance tyres and other efficiency-enhancing thingummies.

The V60 Plug-in Hybrid goes on sale in Europe early next year with a sticker price of approximately $70,000 (Rs 38 lakh), but the rest of the world will have to wait a little more to lay their hands on it. A small step for Volvo, a giant leap for mankind then.

The 2.4 litre, 5-cyl diesel engine

Toggle between three driving modes. All pretty

self-explanatory