March being the last month of the financial year does mean sales figures aren't at their best performance. However, if the trend in the past years is anything to go by, popular products continue to dominate the market with decline in numbers insubstantial. The same seems to be the case with cars in March 2016, as the popular models continued to rake big numbers. Quite the promising end to the last financial year, we list down the 10 best-selling cars sold in India in March, 2016.

Despite new competition pouring in and more yet to come, the Maruti Suzuki Alto remains the undisputed king of the passenger vehicle sales. The Indian automaker sold 22,101 units of the Alto in March this year, doing slightly better than February 2016 with a nearly 4 per cent hike in sales.The other best seller from Maruti's camp was the DZire sub-compact sedan with 17,796 units sold last month. The model has remained consistent in terms of month-on-month growth since the beginning of 2016 and is an fail safe offering the segment has to offer for most buyers. With the AMT unit now available with the diesel version, the DZire makes more sense than ever.The third spot continued to be Maruti's turf with the Wagon R clocking 14,577 units, a month-on-month hike of 2.59 per cent, while also outselling the Swift hatchback. The Swift on the other hand, was pushed to the fourth spot with 14,524 units sold, a 6.55 per cent drop in sales as compared to February, 2016.The surprise offering that is quickly climbing the sales chart is the Renault Kwid with 9743 units shipped out last month, beating the Hyundai Grand i10 to the fifth position. The French automaker's made-for-India offering is doing wonders for the brand and the consistent demand has encouraged the car maker to increase production for the same. The company has sold of 41,250 units of the Kwid since its launch in September last year. With the AMT and 1.0-litre variants in the pipeline, the future seems bright for the Kwid as well.Moving down the list, the sixth spot was occupied by the Hyundai Grand i10 with 9544 units sold. While the hatchback moved down by a position, sales were still optimistic with a 7.26 per cent hike over February this year. Maruti Suzuki was back again at the seventh and ninth spots respectively with the Celerio clocking 8859 units, whereas the premium Baleno clocked 6236 units. The Celerio witnessed a 72 per cent month-on-month increase in sales, but the Baleno didn't fair as hoped and saw volumes decline by 9 per cent.In comparison, the Hyundai Elite i20 continued to be a strong seller grabbing the eighth spot with 8713 units sold, but with a drop of 14.60 per cent in sales, compared to February 2016. Lastly, the Honda Cityseems to be on the revival mode and did marginally better than close rival the Maruti Suzuki Ciaz with 5662 units sold.

10 Best Selling Cars in March 2016:

1) Maruti Suzuki Alto - 22,101 units

2) Maruti Suzuki DZire - 17,796 units

3) Maruti Suzuki Wagon R - 14,577 units

4) Maruti Suzuki Swift - 14,524 units

5) Renault Kwid - 9743 units

6) Hyundai Grand i10 - 9544 units

7) Maruti Suzuki Celerio - 8859 units

8) Hyundai Elite i20 - 8713 units

9) Maruti Suzuki Baleno - 6236 units

10) Honda City - 5662 units

Courtesy :  NDTV  Car & Bike

Extreme temperatures first affect your car’s mechanical components. Here’s how you can help your car keep its cool.

Summer is here and it isn't showing any signs of slowing down. The unrelenting heat may leave you feeling drained of all energy even before you start your day or till you get into your car and turn the air-con on. But remember, just as the heat affects your efficiency, it puts your vehicle through immense stress and strain. In slow-moving traffic, the temperature in and around the car could shoot up to 60 degrees centiFake Rolex Watchesgrade; an intolerable space for your vehicle to be in. In the long run, such intensity could only damage and speed up the aging process of your car.

You have ways which could offer you respite from the heat. Similarly, it is vital to help your car deal with the scorching temperature. Most of the steps can be handled at service centres or by authorised dealers. Given the volume of cars coming in to these centres, it is not necessary that the dealers give your car the attention it requires. We suggest you drive down to an independent garage and be involved in the processes that make your car summer-ready. Rolex Replica Watches

 

A few areas that require undivided attention are listed below

TYRES

Tyres are one of the most neglected parts of a car. Often, vehicle owners forget to check the tyre pressure regularly and in fact, some owners aren’t even aware of the recommended levels. This is particularly disastrous for summer, when poor inflation can push a car's tyres to destruction in a very short time.

Running on low on a hot day, for one, could destroy your sidewall, the softer rubber being more prone to damage. On poor roads, this could even result in the tyres bursting. This is due to the excessive flexing or 'pumping' of the side wall of a soft tyre; it heats up just like the outside of a cycle pump and this causes the rubber inside to get soft, stretchy and easy for the air to 'tear' through. So, during summer, make sure you increase pressure by 3-5psi and pay attention to your tyres.

What's also important to remember is that tyre pressure changes according to the outside temperature. It decreases by approximately 1psi for every 10-degree drop in temperature. As the tyre heats up over the course of the day, it affects the air inside the tyre which expands when heated during normal running. It is best to check the tyre pressure early in the morning when it is relatively cooler to get the correct reading and once every two weeks.

 Also, the tyre pressure needs to be adjusted according to road conditions and vehicle load. For example, a vehicle that is carrying a full complement of passengers and luggage will require a higher tyre pressure than one with just two occupants.

Do not forget to check the condition and air pressure of the spare tyre as well especially since it could turn out to be a life saver on a scorching summer day. Also, get the tyres properly aligned and balanced to avoid excessive tyre wear.

Air-conditioning

During the summer months, a car's AC is the feature that takes the most load. Now air-conditioning systems, as we all know, are service intensive. The compressor oil needs to be topped up regularly to help protect the unit, there are regular coolant leaks and dust and dirt can cause the system to overload and malfunction. Hence, get the AC unit checked by a qualified technician before the onset of summer.

One common complaint from car owners during summer is that the AC takes too long to cool down the cabin. Irrespective of how powerful the AC unit is, it ends up taking time due to the heat trapped in the car. If your car remains parked under direct sunlight during the day, the interior temperatures could exceed the outside temperature by around ten degrees or even more. So, once you enter the car, roll down the windows first to let the heat escape. Then, switch on the AC at the replica watches UK highest fan setting and wait for a couple of minutes. Roll up the windows once you feel that the car’s interior and the outside temperature have reached similar levels.

By following this technique, you can significantly reduce the amount of time taken by the AC to cool down the cabin. Also, before leaving the car in parking, you can keep the windows rolled down by around half an inch to prevent the heat build-up.

 

 

There aren’t many alternatives to the front fork suspension on motorcycles and the ones that exist have their own set of issues but Motorcycle Innovation from Australia might have a solution

If there was ever a shrink for the front suspension on a motorcycle, the telescopic forks would probably be their best patient. Why? Well for starters, the front telescopic forks found on over 90 percent of motorcycles worldwide are essentially a compromise. It is the least bad idea humanity has when it comes to the front suspension on a motorcycle. But an Australian firm by the name of Motorcycle Innovation or Motoinno for short (their idea not ours) might have found a solution to the least bad idea that has stuck around for almost a hundred years. And the new solution claims to be a second faster per corner compared to the telescopic forks. But before we get into the solution allow us to explain why does the telescopic suspension desperately needs a shrink.

The telescopic issue 

 The front suspension of a bike especially on the high performance ones is always under tremendous amount of pressure from braking, steering and of course keeping the tyre stuck to the ground. The very simple reason for that is physics and Newton’s third law of motion. Every time you brake hard the hot front tyre constantly tries to push the suspension backwards, then there is the upwards and downwards motion every time you go over bumps and the pressure and flex only increases when you’re cornering. On a bumpy corner the suspension isn’t only moving up and down but has to cope with sideways flex as well. This makes the bike inherently unstable which means even the best handling bikes today are actually rather unstable. 

Now to counter the braking forces and to ensure the front suspension can take all that punishment, the headstock, where the front forks are mounted has to be massively reinforced with metal to reduce flex to a minimum. This not only adds weight but also puts a significant amount of weight right up front where you least want it. In addition, most forks on the bigger bikes these days are upside-down which are much stiffer than conventional ones but they still flex under hard braking and create stiction which makes harder for the suspension to absorb bumps. When you’re leaned over in a corner there is a bit of sideways flex as well which causes the front to wobble, it ultimately results in loss of traction and a lowside crash.

Forks also tend to dive under braking and this changes the rake and trail steering geometry making the bike harder to control, hence the notion, finish your braking before you enter a corner. However, a steeper rake does make a motorcycle handle better but at the cost of top end stability. So for years riders have been simply riding around these problems and manufacturers have been battling the top speed or handling conundrum. 

Although there is an alternative in the form of hub-centre steering like the one used on the Bimota Tesi 3D and the Vyrus motorcycles. Hub-centre steering basically mounts the front wheel on a swing arm reaching back to the engine. Now this does take the weight off the front and eliminate brake dive but then then the steering lock is almost non-existent which can be tackled by a wider swingarm but then that can drag on the tarmac and lift the front off the ground resulting again, in a lowside. Plus, this system uses complex steering system to connect the wheel to the handlebar and steering slop by up to one centimeter is quite common. Then there’s the lack of steering feel not to mention the sheer expense and difficulty of repair. That’s why you don’t see many manufacturers opting for this system.

So what’s so special about this new system?

Well for starters it looks like nothing we or the world has seen before. And it isn’t on the simple side, it is rather complicated so you’ll have to bear with us. The official name of the system is TS3 which stands for Triangulated Steering and Suspension system and unlike most motorcycles where a suspension is designed around a bike this is the other way round and looks like something straight out of a science fiction movie albeit with a Ducati Testastretta 11 900cc L-twin. 

The front suspension system in itself works like a parallelogram. The wheel is held by a triangular brace which remains at a constant angle. Then there are two more arms attached to the top and bottom of this brace which connect to the pivot points mounted on the top and bottom of the chassis. This helps counter the braking forces and helps keep the bike neutral. 

Now, the top part of the triangular brace is connected to the handlebars. This beam moves independent of the entire system so the lower part of the triangle connected to the parallelogram on the pivot points remains firm when you turn the wheel. This is achieved thanks to the use of scissor links to connect the handlebars to the steering mechanism to isolate the suspension from the steering. 

The biggest advantage of this system is that it can be tuned to any preference. The rake and trail angles are adjustable so you can have it setup for the street one day and for the track on a Sunday. In addition, you can even dial in whatever brake dive you would like or none at all or even reverse where the front rises during braking, we’re not sure if that’s preferable though. Plus, the absence of massive tubes obstructing the handlebar help give the bike a tight turning radius as well. The closes we can put it is that it is quite similar to the MacPherson Struts used in cars. 

Unfortunately we haven’t ridden it yet but we know someone who has, two time Isle of Man TT winner, Australian rider Cameron Donald. The Motoinno team let him have a go on a Suzuki GSX-R 750 first and then on the TS3 prototype. The results were staggering. The TS3 shaved off a second off the Gixxer’s lap, per corner, not per lap, per corner. 

It might all sound quite farfetched but Motoinno is readying their system for racing and founders Colin Oddy and Ray Van Steenwyk hope to take it to the Moto2 races in the next six months. In addition, they also aim to produce bespoke motorcycles priced between $1,50,000 and $2,00,000. If this suspension system proves itself it could relegate the telescopic forks to the history books ushering in an era of the Triangulated Steering and Suspension System. 

Courtesy :  Zigwheels

With the Tiago, Tata has addressed all the four Ps of the classical marketing mix: product, price, promotion and place.

Gunning for a turnaround in its volumes, Tata Motors has launched the Tiago as it aims for the individual buyer and is keen on pushing the Indica and Indigo towards the commercial segment. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that it is one of the most crucial launches for the home-grown carmaker. The much-anticipated launch comes at a time when the Tata Motors brand is struggling and hardly has any pull in the market. So how important is the launch of the Tiago for the carmaker?

“Tiago is certainly very important since it will help us to change the image to some extent because the image undoubtedly has to improve. There has to be a clear, specific and focused positioning of our brand in the mind of the customer and even suppliers,” Girish Wagh, senior vice-president (Programme Planning & Project Management) at Tata Motors told Autocar India.

Having lost the opportunity at growing its volumes with the Bolt, whose sales have declined 66 percent (772 units) in Feb 2016 over last year, Tata Motors has pulled out all the stops with the Tiago. The vehicle comes with a clean sheet design and also marks the debut of two new in-house developed engines – a 1.2-litre three-cylinder naturally aspirated Revotron petrol and a 1.05-litre three-cylinder Revotorq diesel.

Interestingly, a lot of inputs have been taken from luxury carmaker Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) for the engineering process. “We have our own New Product Introduction (NPI) process which has taken lot of inputs from the JLR’s process. The latter is more mature as a lot of products have gone through that process,” Wagh said adding that a lot of issue-based inputs such as getting the right quality of sheet metal for instance, were also taken from the luxury carmaker. 

On the price front, the carmaker also had a few learnings from the Bolt – a model that misfired despite being a promising product, due to its high price. “We have had a lot of learnings from the Bolt and the Zest. On the pricing front, the learnings from the Bolt were to improve the way we price our products and you can clearly see that with the Tiago’s pricing. Having a number of variants and the optional safety packs is also among those learnings,” Wagh said. Launched at a staggeringly low introductory price of Rs 3.20 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi) for the base petrol variant, the hatch not only undercuts its rivals such as Celerio and i10 across all variants but also knocks on the door of the Alto. The eye-catching price, however, is likely to crawl up in the near term.

With regards to promotion, Tata has gone big and global. The carmaker recently roped in ace football star Lionel Messi as its global brand ambassador. The association with Messi also points towards Tata’s global ambitions with the Tiago but for now the objective of using football over cricket is to position the car as more class than mass.

The last ‘p’, however, is the most crucial one. Surely, Tata Motors has a lot of ground to cover in terms of its presence, and towards that end, the company has recruited and trained over 1,000 additional sales personnel at its 597 dealerships. However, a lot more work needs to be done, along with a complete overhaul of the retail format as the customer experience lags behind that offered by competitors.

Courtesy :  Autocar

KTM had shelved the E-Speed electric scooter project as it felt it didn’t gel with the image of the brand KTM. But according to latest reports the electric scooter might hit production by 2017

KTM has enjoyed great success in the past few years with record number of sales. It seems that the Austrian bikemaker is now planning to revive an old project that it has shelved. According to the recently published annual report, KTM is working on developing a new drivetrain system for urban mobility scenarios. It maybe a suggestion to the fact that KTM is planning to restart its electric drive system mostly for a scooter as it has been mentioned that it will be focussed on urban environments. 

KTM isn’t a novice to the world of electric vehicles as it had showcase the E-Speed at the 2013 Tokyo Motor Show and garnered lot of curiosity from the show goers. The KTM E-Speed was positioned as an electric scooter for the urban commuter market with zero-emission. Powering the KTM E-Speed was an electric motor that generated 15PS of peak power and 36Nm of torque, which is delivered to the rear wheel via a belt drive. KTM claimed that the electric scooter could hit speeds up to 80kmph. 

The KTM E-Speed employed -ion batteries with a capacity of 4.36kWh that used to get fully charged within two hours via a regular power socket. KTM claimed that the E-SPEED had a range of 64km on full charge. Given the fact that electric vehicles are slowly gaining demand, KTM might showcase a pre production version of the E-Speed at the 2016 EICMA motorcycle show with a possible launch in 2017. Watch this space for more updates. KTM influence on the electric scooter was clearly evident as it employed trellis frame and suspension duties were taken care of by WP sourced goodies. Braking is done by 220mm dia disc brakes at front and rear. 

Courtesy :  Zigwheels