Figo is Fords first and desperate measure in desperate times to jump into the small car segment of developing nations like India. As this segment is where the number game is played Ford’s homeland rival GM made it clear that it would grab a bigger share with its recently launched Beat. Beat is the most lively car in the country’s deal ships right now and with a price tag of 3.34lakhs it has already booked over 10,000 in 25days of its launch. So you could say Ford is resting its shoulders heavily on the Figo to beat the Beat and GM, but has Ford done enough?
Figo is a completely different car from the Beat though they will be sold in the same price segment (I am taking a guess here). At this point I am going to stop comparing the two and get on with my thoughts on the Figo. Figo is a perfect Indian Ford, rather too perfect that’s what its problem is. There is nothing new to the eye. The body panels are too stereotypic, I get a feeling that they have squeezed in Fiesta’s styling in to Fusion’s body. But being a Ford it is quite civilized and simple but a grownup car in this segment wouldn’t be adequate any more with Maruti’s unlimited supply of peppy hatches and the beat around Ford could have gone an extra mile on making it interesting.
It ticks all the boxes when it comes to that fordness except for one, the dashboard. Ford in its relentless efforts of make at least the interiors a bit bonkers, it gave Figo a red (or something close to red) plastic dashboard. But then you can get it in black as well. Other than the cross-dressing, Figo’s interiors are indeed fresh in terms of functionality. For instance the bonnet open switch is accessible only to the shotgun. The head lights dim and dip are no more on the stick below the steering but on the dash with an A/C switch like knob. Speaking of the A/C, it will turn a bottle of water on the back seat into ice when set in full, it is that good. Armrests on the door can rest a water bottle, other than your arm. There are plenty of cubby holes around for all your storage needs from holding your drink to holding toll road change. Figo’s party piece is its size, dimension wise it is far bigger than its rivals. The 284litre boot is the biggest in the class. If that’s not enough for you, fold the rear seats to make your own football field.
From the picture that ever one else is painting, both the 1.2L 4-cylinder petrol and 1.4L Diesel lack grunt, with no emergency in the rev or the acceleration but then again it’s not a part of Ford’s intensions. Ford’s plan of a small car for India had practicality as the main priority and I feel that ford has delivered.
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Bajaj launched a few days back what it calls a Street version of the Pulsar 220. But what it actually is can be explained in more than one way. It can be called a faring removal job on the P220 or a P200 with a 220cc engine or a P220 with the standard Pulsar doom. The 220 S costs about 3 grand less than the normal P220 at an on-road price of Rs. 78,000. Frankly I don’t see any takers for this one, may be if they had fiddled with the doom a little.
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At Delhi Yamaha showcased two of its models which are likely to be launched in the third week of February if reports are to be believed. Though these two are no R15s or FZs but one of them isn’t pretty bad. The SZ looks promising to play the role of a tone downed conventional Yamaha for the commute kinds. With a 150cc engine from the FZ range the bike is quite punch packed as far as power is concerned. It would be retailed around Rs. 60,000 on road which would make it cheaper than its rivals Pulsar 150 and Unicorn by 5000 rupees. As far as I can find the only reason for the lesser price is the absence of front disc brakes. If the SZ would get the mileage figures right it would put Yamaha into the numbers game.
The YBR is the Yamaha of the recent past, from when Yamaha made bikes like Alba and G5. Honestly compared to the G5 YBR is pretty dull. One would think given Yamaha’s current trend it might as well add a bit of life to the G5 to make a commute Yamaha like YBR, but no.
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The 370Z launched in India comes with the Synchro Rev Match manual transmission. This system facilitates a smooth gear change by increase or decreasing the rpm of the engine so that the clutch plate and the flywheel mess at the same rpm. For instance when you change down from 4th gear to 3rd you would take the foot off the throttle, apply the clutch and change the gear, at this moment the Synchro Rev Match kicks in. It matches the engine rpm (i.e. flywheel’s rpm) to that of the clutch shaft’s (i.e. shaft connecting the clutch and the gearbox) and then re-engages the clutch which results in ultra-smooth gear change.
It does this by means of sensors (obviously). Synchro Rev uses engine rpm sensor, gearbox rpm sensor throttle position sensor and a sensor to monitor the position of the gear lever. In the 6-speed manual 370Z, the output shaft spins at the same rpm (5000 assuming) as the engine at 6th gear as the gear ratio is 1.1 (almost) but the gear ratio for 5th gear is 1.56:1 (assuming) hence when the gear is shifted from 6th to 5th the engine has to spin at 5000*1.56 rpm for a smooth gear change. Synchro Rev increases the rpm of the engine to 7800rpm so that both the flywheel and the clutch plate spin at the same rpm and then re-engages the clutch. Other than the smooth gear change, Synchro Rev reduces the wear and tear of the clutch plate.
click through for a video explanation
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Juhu’s flying club saw something extraordinary than it is used to, a Nissan’s 370Z. Nissan launched the 370Z in India yesterday, when I say launched, the 370Z was literally launched off a truck container on to the ramp and then on the tarmac where it did what Japanese cars do best, drifts and doughnuts. It was quite a surprise when Narain Karthikeyan walked out of the red hot Nissan.
With the launch of the 370Z Nissan has opened its supply of its sportier Z family to India. As most of us know Z is one of the iconic ranges of sports cars to have ever drifted on earth. If Americans have the muscle cars the Japanese have the Z. Read this to know how significant the 370Z launch in India is.
Apart from its pedigree the car is quite the sports coupe for the Tokyo drifting kind of persona. But in India it is going to be more of a car for the “look how deep my pocket is” kind of persona as it is priced at Rs. 53.50 lakh for the 6-speed manual variant and a lakh more for the 7-speed automatic both ex-showroom Delhi. Actual cost of the car in the US is $33k and up on adding the 110% tax as the 370Z arrives as a completely built unit (CBU), the cost comes to about 35lakhs max. So Nissan priced the370Z rather greedily. Other two cars on this segment in India, the Boxster and the Z4 are priced at 47lakhs and 59lakhs respectively both ex-showroom Delhi.
The number 370 refers to the cc of the 370Z’s engine which is 3700 (almost). This V6 engine with a Power output of 332 hp and 370 Nm of torque pushes it from 0 to 100 kmph in 5.1 seconds. The 370Z launched in India is the sports package variant and it hosts 8speaker Bose sound system and 19” wheels. But what is unique about the 370Z is its world’s first SynchroRev gear matching system which I will get to in detail later.
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Fiat displayed the Linea Dualogic at Delhi which might even be launched later this year. The word “Dualogic” refers to the transmission of the Linea. Dualogic on the functional basis is both automatic and manual but it is not the same kind of automatics with torque convertors. It is so unique and brilliant that it is 10% fuel efficient than any other automatic gearbox and 3-5% fuel efficient than any other manual gearbox.
It is a known fact that a good car with a bad driver behind its wheels will get lesser mileage than a good driver. All these mileage is lost mostly in the shifting of gears which involves shifting at the right time and short time. A conventional automatic gearbox doesn’t solve this problem either as it is worse on mileage however good or bad the driver is. Fiat thought out of the box to solve this and thus was born the Dualogic.
Dualogic transmission consists of the same 5-speed gearbox as a manual but it doesn’t have a clutch pedal. A servo arrangement which consists of an electronic motor which turns on and off up on receiving of electronic signals, this engages and disengages the clutch through a mechanical linkage. This servo arrangement also has the actuating mechanical links which shift gears. In simple English instead of you depressing you foot on the clutch pedal and shifting the gear with your hand, the computer controlled robot inside the car depresses the pedal and changes the gear at the right time for better mileage and better power. If automatics aren’t your thing switch to manual mode in which you move the gear lever forward for shifting up and backward for shifting down.
Though Dualogic refers to the gearbox, it’s got its roots spread all over the car. There are sensors to monitor how far the brake is depressed, the car will start only if the brake is depressed which is an indicator of a driver’s presence. If the driver’s door is open the gear will shift automatically into neutral. There are sensors to monitor the inclination/declination the car is taking and gearshift is based on that. In fact every parameter which would affect gearshift is monitored and gear shifting is done to get the best performance from least amount of fuel.
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