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.

Image Gallery:

Maruti launched its Versa van replacement Eeco (which is pretty much the same except for few details) a couple of days back during the ongoing Delhi Auto Expo. At first glance you won’t be able to differentiate Eeco from Versa, not even on the second glance and neither on the third. That’s because Versa was too much of a flop to have been seen on the road and stuck in our minds. What Eeco really is a Bharat Stage 4 emissions compliant Versa whose looks have been mercilessly compromised for pricing it at Rs. 2.59lakhs ex-showroom Delhi. Versa was prettier than the Eeco by mile but I would pick Eeco at 2.59lakhs any day over a Versa which was sold for more than 4lakhs.

The engine is smaller than the Versa’s by a 100cc at 1.2L and producing 73ps of power. The gear shift has been made smooth with a new first of its kind technology called DS. Eeco is trying to sound too environmental friendly for a boxy people carrier with its ELV compliant which stands for End of Life for Vehicles which means that Eeco sticks to the limit in usage of harmful elements like lead, cadmium, mercury and chromium. Maruti is so out of words with the Eeco they start taking chemistry class in the Press Release. If I were Maruti I would stop at just the price and people carrying capacity of Eeco.

Eeco being a people carrier is available in 5-seat and 7-seat configurations but only the 5-seater gets A/C and the 7-seater doesn’t. The reason for this is quite clear. To get cool air to the third row would mean an extra vent and rise in price. The A/C 5-seater costs Rs. 2.85lakhs and the non A/C 7-seater Rs 2.79lakhs.

Image Gallery:

Click through for Comparison between Eeco, Versa and Omni and the Press Release

To been green in India doesn’t come cheap. Toyota just launched its world renouned Prius Hybrid at the Delhi expo 2010. It will be available for sale from March with a price tag of Rs. 26.55lakhs. Toyota’s Indian wing has ordered for 200 Prius from Japan which would arrive as CBUs causing the 110% increase in price. It would be the 3-Generation Prius which would be on sale in India.

Though there may be a million other hybrid fishes in the ocean, Prius still is the salmon everyone wants. It beats the second best Hybrid car sales with a huge difference and there is no Hollywood celebrity who doesn’t own a Prius. It is the first mass produced Hybrid and sales has crossed over 1.5 million.

Click through for the press release, brochure and the technical details.

Recently Mercedes has been under steady firing from its home rival BMW. In India Mercs have been the car of the riches from the 90s and has been dominating sales in this segment for more than a decade. Then came the BMW which inched closer and closer to Merc and finaly sold more than the Merc during december 2009.

Ending 2009 in a bitter loss to Bimmer, Merc is trying to bounch back right up with the Introduction of its 7-seater SUV GL-Class. This might fare good for Merc as there is no shortage in demand for big SUVs in India and Merc has been laggin behind in this particular segment. A 7-seater GL would be great for Merc than the 5-seater M-class ever was. Priced at 67lakh rupees Ex-showroom Delhi it is a bit costlier than Audi’s Q7 but is also more. Read about it more from the Brochure and official Press Release.

Most of us are familiar with the S-class sedan, it is widely recognize as the technological peak into the future of car luxury & safety. S-class has been the ultimate luxury saloon in India except for the rollers and bentles that is, The new S-Class is priced at 95lakh rupees ex-showroom delhi and it would be the costliest car ever to be produced in India.

The new S is cramped up with technology which pamper the occupants in ways we can only imagine. At any given time 70 parameters are monitored and various actuators are effected based on the variable, in plain english, the seats hug you in corners, if the driver feels drowsy the car wakes him up and it does a lot more things based on the conditions. Click through to read about the cars specification and features in the press release and the brochure.

The Beat has been around us for more than a couple of months now and the blogger friendly CEO of GM India Karl Slym hasn’t kept this mini warrior from GM a secret. The car which is launched today comes with a petrol engine of capacity 1.2 cc and 80ps of power. To read more about the car and its features and check out 360 degree video of the car you can check out our earlier post here. we have kept the beat going on and on and finally it is ready for booking from this evening.

Karl confirmed during the launch event that a diesel engine will be launched by the end of this year. Right now the car comes in 3 levels of trims, the base model PS which costs 3.34lakhs ex-showroom Delhi, the mid-level LS for 3.54lakhs and the top end LT for 3.99lakhs. ABS and Airbags are an optional extra for the LT variant which would bring the total to 4.34lakhs. click here to check out the features of various variants.