The Tata, Jaguar, Land Rover Deal in the news

Lord Bhattacharyya, who founded the Warwick Manufacturing Group at the University of Warwick says “How often do two such icons come up for sale at the same time? Land Rover is now sustainably profitable and you are about to see a renaissance of Jaguar,". Read "Tata, Jaguar and Land Rover. Now what?"

Analysts think it's not a good deal. "Tata's Jaguar Deal Worries Analysts".

Investors are apparently worried as well with the company falling a few points on the Bombay Stock Exchange. "Tata Motors plunges 5 pc post JLR deal".

Definitely Tata will face several management challenges. Read "Can Tata Rev Up Jaguar?"

Tata, Ford, Jaguar and Land Rover

It's official - Ford has sold Jaguar and Land Rover to the Indian Tata Group for $2.3 billion (approx. £1.15bn). Read the BBC report: Tata buys Jaguar in £1.15bn deal
and the Tata Group's press release: Tata Motors enters into definitive agreement with Ford for purchase of Jaguar Land Rover.

Tata doesn't expect any "significant changes" to Jaguar or Land Rover employees' terms of employment, meaning that jobs are safe. The deal is expected to be completed by the end of the summer.

Wonder whether the Indians can finally make Jaguar profitable again.

New Honda Fit

Check out the new Honda Fit which will be available in the US in Fall 2008.

It is powered by a new 1.5-litre, 4-cylinder, i-VTEC® engine and sportier handling, it is perfect for driving in the city. It comes with a choice of either the 5-speed manual transmission or the sporty 5-speed automatic transmission options.


Getting around will be a breeze with the Honda Satellite-Linked Navigation System.



As for safety features, the Fit is equipped with the Vehicle Stability Assist(VSA®), Advanced Compatibility Engineering™ (ACE™) body structure, Active front head restraints, Dual-stage, dual-threshold front airbags, Front-side airbags with passenger-side Occupant Position Detection System (OPDS), Side-curtain airbags,
Anti-lock braking system (ABS) and Electronic Brake Distribution (EBD).

Proton MPV spy shots

Received yet another set of spy shots said to be of an MPV under development by Proton, the Malaysian national car company.





The amount of spy shots coming out the company makes me wonder whether this is actually part of a clever advertising campaign to create buzz about the company. Either that or they are really sloppy with their security.

UPDATE:
Paul Tan alerted me to the fact that the pictures are fake. They are of the Mazda 8 MPV, with the Proton badge photoshopped on it.

Nissan Navara safety rating improves

When it was last tested by the Euro NCAP, the 08 model year Navara pickup only scored a poor one star rating. Following that, Nissan initiated a service campaign to upgrade the airbag software of all Navaras produced since 2005.

The upgraded car has achieved three stars for adult occupant protection according to a report released by Euro NCAP yesterday.

It has also scored a higher the Child Occupant Protection rating (to four stars).

Shows that some auto makers do take the tests seriously.

New Perdana spy shots

I received some spy shots of a Proton car - said to be the new Perdana.




Front view


Rear view

It does look good.

Tell us about your ride

Send me an email to ahoklah@gmail.com telling me about your present ride (preferably with a picture) and your dream ride and I will post it here on my blog.

New Ford Focus ad

Advertising agency Ogilvy, has come up with a really innovative ad for the new Ford Focus. It involves an orchestra playing instruments built from real car parts.

Check out the clip on YouTube.

LifeCar - a green sportscar

From the Morgan Motors website

The Morgan LifeCar is an environmentally friendly sports car concept that will be launched at the Geneva Show in March 2008.

With zero emissions, this hydrogen fuel cell powered car is based on the design of the Morgan Aero-8 roadster. A full tank gives it 250 miles (400km).


From the Morgan Motors website

The car was developed by the Morgan Motor Company in collaboration with Oscar Automotive, Cranfield University, QinetiQ, Oxford University and Linde AG. The project cost £1.9m (partly funded by the British Govt.) and took nearly nearly three years to complete.

To make the car lightweight, it has an aluminium chassis and interior fittings including the seats are made of wood. The car also doesn't have other estras including air bags, stereo or air conditioning. Can't be that comfortable.