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As we stand on the cusp of 2024, a mere few days away, we find ourselves reflecting on the significant launches of new products and facelifts that unfolded in the preceding year. Gazing ahead into the fresh year, our attention is captivated by the imminent arrival of nine prominent small and compact cars, along with SUVs, set to grace the roads in 2024. Kia Sonet Facelift The Kia Sonet facelift , having made its debut this month, is set for release in January 2024. The subcompact SUV undergoes notable cosmetic updates and feature upgrades, including the reintroduction of the diesel-manual combo. Its engine options—83bhp, 1.2L petrol; 120bhp, 1.0L turbo petrol; and 116bhp, 1.5L diesel—remain unchanged. The new Sonet boasts a 10.25-inch digital instrument cluster borrowed from the Seltos, a small climate control display, new seat upholstery, and Level 1 ADAS. Design highlights include larger LED headlamps, new LED DRLs, revised skid plates, 16-inch alloy wheels, updated rear bumper, a...

Tata Passenger Electric Mobility (TPEM) has launched its TATA.ev stores, which will cater solely to EV customers. The company has introduced the electric vehicle showroom in the prominent auto hubs of Sector 14 & Sohna Road, Gurugram. The Tata Electric Car stores will be open to the public starting January 07, 2024. Tata Motors claim that the “TATA.ev stores are designed around the core values of sustainability, community, and technology. These showrooms will embody the core philosophy of ‘Move with Meaning’ and offer an inviting and immersive space for the EV community.” The homegrown passenger vehicle manufacturer will plan to bring more electric vehicle showrooms in the next 12-18 months. The company reveals that all major materials utilized are either recycled or recyclable, with many of them certified with sustainability from global green certifiers. The company has used locally sourced materials while building the showroom, which reduces reliance on long-distance, high-emi...

The 3-door Thar has been a huge success for the homegrown UV maker in India. However, the lifestyle SUV is not a practical car for most Indian buyers. In order to target wider audience, the homegrown SUV maker is now preparing to launch a long-wheelbase version of the Thar lifestyle SUV. The 5-door Mahindra Thar will have rear doors to access second-row and a bigger boot space. The off-roader will also have different names , as the company has trademarked 7 different names for Thar. The 5-door Mahindra Thar has been spotted testing several times on the Indian roads. This time, a new set of spy images of the interiors of the lifestyle SUV have been leaked on the Internet. This LWB lifestyle SUV comes with a more premium interior with several new features. It is likely to get a 10.25-inch touchscreen infotainment unit, which is expected to have wireless Android Auto & Apple CarPlay support. The current 3-door Thar comes fitted with a 7-inch touchscreen unit, which is not very user ...

Car buyers in India are now ready to spend extra money to drive home a premium car. This is quite evident from the rising demand for mid-sized SUVs and premium MPVs. However, first time car buyers are still looking to drive home an affordable subcompact cars. In this article, we talk about the list of top 5 upcoming cars under Rs 10 lakh in the Indian market in 2024. Kia Sonet Facelift The Korean automaker, Kia will release the prices of the Sonet facelift in the Indian market in January 2024. Interested buyers can book the new model online or at authorised Kia dealerships by paying a token amount of Rs 20,000. The small SUV is expected to be priced around Rs 7 lakh; however, the mid-level and high-spec variants will cost above 10 lakhs. The new Sonet will also receive ADAS Level 1 with features like front collision warning, lane keep assist, high beam assist and others. Even the base variant is equipped with 6 airbags, ESC, HAC, VSM, rear parking sensors, all seat 3 point seatbelt ...

Front crash prevention systems aren’t as good at preventing crashes with large trucks and motorcycles as they are crashes with cars, two new studies from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety show. Most front crash prevention systems include forward collision warning and automatic emergency braking (AEB). Forward collision warning alerts the driver when a rear-end crash is imminent, and AEB automatically slams on the brakes if the driver fails to respond in time. Today’s systems reduce rear-end crash rates with medium or heavy trucks by 38 percent and rear-end crash rates with motorcycles by 41 percent, compared with a 53 percent reduction in rear-end crash rates with other passenger vehicles, an IIHS study of more than 160,000 crashes found. The same discrepancy is seen with the surrogate vehicle targets that IIHS and other organizations use to evaluate system performance, another study demonstrated. Specifically, such systems could prevent an additional 5,500 crashes a year ...

The rising demand for premium products is evident from the huge waiting period of several SUVs and MPVs including the Toyota Innova Hycross, Mahindra XUV700, Scorpio-N and the Hyundai Creta. Toyota’s premiums MPVs, the Innova Crysta and the Innova Hycross have also received an overwhelming response from car buyers. The Hycross based Maruti Suzuki Invicto premium MPV has also reported impressive demand among car buyers in the country. In this article, we talk about the waiting period details of these three MPVs – Maruti Invicto Maruti Suzuki currently has over 5,000 pending orders for the Invicto 3-row MPV. This model is manufactured on the same production line that produces the Toyota Innova Hycross. MSIL is delivering around 500 to 700 units of the Invicto per month, which translates into close to 7-8 months waiting period. The top-spec Alpha+ variant is the top-seller and has accounted to majority of the Invicto sales. Toyota Innova Hycross The Innova Hycross has been receiving...

Indian Government’s Bharat New Car Assessment Programme (BNCAP) has recently conducted its first round crash test ratings. Now, the very first crash test results have been announced, and the Tata Harrier and Safari are the first models tested by BNCAP. Following the GNCAP, both Tata SUVs have secured a 5-star crash test rating in BNCAP. The Tata Harrier and Safari SUVs have secured 30.82 points out of 30.08 points in the adult occupant protection test. Both SUVs have also secured 44.54 points out of a maximum of 49 for child occupant protection (COP). The new Harrier & Safari are claims to perform perfectly in the side movable deformable barrier test. However, the BNCAP stated that the protection for the chest region in the frontal offset deformable barrier test in both SUVs proved to be less than ideal. The updated SUVs are based on the OMEGA-ARC architecture derived from the Land Rover’s D8 platform. The SUVs are equipped with features like seven airbags, electronic stability ...