To beat the Supreme Court’s three-month-long ban on the sale and registration of diesel vehicles with engines larger than 2,000 cc, Mahindra has updated both the Scorpio and the XUV500 with a new, slightly smaller diesel engine. Currently, the new 1.99 liter diesel engine is only available in the Scorpio and XUV500 sold in the National Capital Region.
The new 1.99-liter mHawk unit produces 120 hp in the Scorpio and 140 hp in the XUV500, identical to what the current 2.2-liter unit does. With this in place, Mahindra will soon resume its sales in Delhi NCR. Further details on whether the engine will be used in automatic and AWD/4WD versions will be out soon. The torque ratings of the new diesel engines will also be revealed soon.
The company says the development of the said engine had begun in 2014. So, it’s like Mahindra developed the new engine in just a few weeks. That should clear apprehensions from the minds of prospective buyers. Apart from this, Mahindra had recently introduced a 1.2-liter diesel engine, which currently powers the KUV100 micro SUV.
A 1.5-liter diesel engine powers the TUV and the Quanto. So there you have it, the whole range of engines that are unaffected by the Supreme Court’s ban. The 2.2-liter and 2.5-liter units are still affected, though. The Bolero remains banned from the NCR for now.
There’s been a spurt of Lamborghini supercars going up in flames from around the world. Why, we just had one such incident happen right here in India, when a Delhi businessman driving a Lamborghini Gallardo had to run for his life after his supercar went up in flames. Today, we explore why so many Lamborghinis go up in flames.
Well, there may be a few exceptions but most Lamborghini owners seem to be revving the nuts of their cars even when idling in traffic. In fact, a Lamborghini sits so low that nobody beyond a couple of vehicles around its would really notice the supercar. So, revving the engine every now while sitting in traffic and then is a surefire way to attract attention. Well, this is also the reason why so many Lamborghinis catch fire, and burn to the ground.
A lot of readers have asked if we received sponsorship from a certain soft-drink company for the last Inside Job challenge. The answer is no, we didn't receive any royalty checks or free cases of diet soda. So this time, we're using a generic, unbranded liquid instead.
More specifically, water.
Let's pretend, for the moment, that water suppliers don't deliver, or perhaps they've run dry, and you have to drive out to, say, Laguna, to buy deep-well-sourced water there. How much of it will fit in the back of your car?
No cheating. You're not putting water bottles in the cabin or on the seats. You don't want those to get wet. Everything must go in the trunk!
For this challenge, we picked the Honda City, a car with a cavernous trunk. While more has been said about its touchscreen audio and climate controls, what matters most to practical people like us is the 536L trunk. That's 485L of flat-floored cargo space, plus a 51L hidden bin underneath. How many liters of water can it hold?
For this test, we're using the standard five-gallon “slim” container, which should be easier to pack in than the bulky round containers. These have to be packed standing up, however, to prevent spillage. So we can't use the underfloor bin, and we don't expect to use anywhere near the whole 485L of regular trunk space.
Thankfully, the City's trunk is not only tall, it's also wide and deep. Wedging the first row in between the wheel arches, we manage to fit five containers up against the back seat. Two more fit at the sides, behind the wheels. We add another five, making for 12 containers in all.
But wait...there's still a little more space. Two more containers fit, but it's a tight squeeze, and you'll have some water sloshing out the top when you press the last two containers in, but they fit.
That's 14 five-gallon containers, or 265L of water. Not bad. Most subcompacts can only hold 10 or so. And there's a lot of space on top of the containers for miscellaneous purchases like original buko pie. Best of all, we're not getting the carpet or seats wet. Mission accomplished, right? Not quite.
Each liter of water weighs one kilogram. Our total load is 265kg of water. That's as heavy as five average women, four average guys, or three “healthy” motoring journalists. The City, like all mass-market sedans, uses a particle board floor panel in the trunk to cover the spare tire well. While these floor panels support regular luggage or groceries with no problem, they won't take that much weight. This is why we used empty containers for this test. The last time I carried a trunk-full of water in my car, which could only take 10 containers, I cracked the floor-liner, and I bent a wheel on a pothole to boot.
While you can always pump up your tires and reinforce your trunk floor with a sturdy piece of plywood, the simpler solution might be to simply avail of free water-delivery services. Still, it's nice to know the Honda City will hold that much water in a pinch. How much will fit in the trunk of your car?
Photos by Niky Tamayo
Honda has introduced the choice of a black leather interior on the top spec-Honda City VX(O) in both diesel and petrol guises. The new trim, called VX(O) BL, gets all the features of the standard VX(O) trim including sunroof and the AVN system, along with the new interior option.
The VX(O) BL trim is positioned alongside the standard VX(O) – which gets a beige leather interior – and is available in only two colour options, White Orchid Pearl and Alabaster Silver.
In addition to providing the top-spec model with the option of a black leather interior, Honda has also added dual airbags to all trims of the car along with rear ISOFIX and top tether anchors for child seats. Previously, the City came equipped only with a driver airbag and ABS as standard, with a passenger airbag added to the equipment list in the mid-level SV trim.
“Our endeavour has always been to offer best-in-class products to our customers and we are happy to offer Premium and Luxurious Black Leather Interiors in the City. We are thankful to our customers for their tremendous response which has made the fourth-gen Honda City a huge success in India. We hope the mix of premium, luxury and safety enrichment to the City line-up will also be appreciated by our customers,” said Jnaneswar Sen, senior vice president, marketing and sales, Honda Cars India Ltd.
The City is the third model in Honda’s current line-up to get an all-black interior following the Honda Brio which got the option in January 2015 and the Honda Jazz, which offers an all-black interior as standard on its top-trim level.
While the Bajaj Pulsar 200 NS has been discontinued in India to make way for the RS 200, it continues to be sold in Indonesia, where its decently popular. So, much so, we’re coming across quite a few of them hitting the local after-market business. The latest custom Pulsar 200 NS to be featured here is done up by Malamadre Motorcycles, a Bali based custom outfit. The modification made has completely transformed the Bajaj’s Naked Sport theme into a scrambler.
The entire bodywork of the donor motorcycle has been stripped away, and sprinkled with minimalism. Up front, the Pulsar’s contemporary bikini fairing has been scrapped for a retro themed round headlamp setup, leaving the original instrument console stay exposed. The naked frame is now capped with a fuel tank that’s pretty much a mound of matte grey. Following the tank is a ribbed seat, one of the elements associated to the neo-scrambler palette, along with the minimalist tail piece, with its small lamps and that sheet of mudguard. The front mudguard from the Bajaj has also taken a walk, and has been replaced with a skimpier, less sophisticated one.
The stubby exhaust from the original has been substituted with a straighter, blacked out pipe which looks pretty neat. From what can be seen, the rear get some fatter rubber too. Finally, rounding things off is an all-black paint scheme on all the cycle parts apart from the tank. Mechanically, the 199.5 cc motor in the Indonesian Pulsar 200 NS is good for 23.1 PS and 18.3 Nm in stock, carburettor breathing form, although it isn’t clear if go-faster mods have been made on this
