Our won Car Of The Year and Bike Of The Year

After the recently announced BS Motoring awards 2008
we had a poll running on the Confused Programmer blog where we asked the readers to vote for the COTY and BOTY. And here are the results:-

Car of the year 2008:- Number of votes (%)

Mahindra Renault Logan	9 (12%)
Chevrolet Spark	6 (8%)
Maruti Suzuki’s SX4	38 (53%)
Volkswagen Passat	11 (15%)
Hyundai i10	18 (25%)

Bike of the year 2008:-

	Apache RTR160																																							36 (36%)
	Bajaj XCD 125																																							9 (9%)
	Hero Honda Hunk																																							14 (14%)
	Pulsar 200 DTSi																																							30 (30%)
	Pulsar 220 DTS-Fi																																							33 (33%)

Lets hope to see even better cars and bikes in 2008.

Earlier poll:- Most preffered bike in 150cc segment.

New Bikes from Bajaj in 2008

At the Launch of the Bajaj small car : Lite, Bajaj announced launch of Bajaj also said it will launch three two-wheelers in the executive and premium segment during 2008. The company would launch two motorcycles XCD 125 cc DTS-i Sprint and Discover 150 cc DTS-i and one scooter 125 cc Blade within this year.
Picture of Bajaj Blade.

The XCD 125 cc DTS-i Sprint is expected to be performance upgraded version of the XCD with Nitrox suspension in the rear, 17-inch alloy wheels, and Disc Brakes.

The Discover would get a bigger 150cc heart, lean, athletic, muscular styling with power packed performance. Now with the discover graduating to 150cc, I guess the Pulsar 150cc would also get another upgrade. Bajaj cant just stop one of its best sellers. In fact i expect all the Pulsar siblings to get an upgrade at the Auto Expo, something we will figure out in couple of days.

The Blade DTS-i comes in at a time when the 125cc scooter segment has registered a growth and the motorcycle sales were falling. The 125cc scooter segment has now become exiting with recent additions from Suzuki and Kinetic in form of the Access and Flyte. The Blade will have sporty styling with a powerful 125cc, 4-valve DTS-i engine, 12-inch alloy wheels, and Disc Brakes. The Blade DTS-i will have a Front Fuelling system to offer great convenience to the rider at the Petrol Pumps.

Source: Money Control

Related:-
What is DTS-i ,DTS-Si and DTS-Fi?
Details of new Bajaj XCD Sprint 125cc and Discover 150cc
Pictures of Bajaj Small car: Lite
Yamaha's New Gladiator Type SS & RS
Yamaha at Auto Expo 2008
Kawasaki superbikes to be available in India
Yamaha YZF R15 and FZ unveiled at Auto Expo
Bajaj Auto to resurrect two stroke Bikes
Tvs Flame launched at 45,000 ex-showroom Chennai

Bajaj XCD selling XCDingly well

In spite of the news of some problems with the XCD, Bajaj Auto Ltd (BAL) on Sunday said it has sold 65,000 units of its 125 cc DTS-Si bike XCD within the first 50 days of its launch.
"As much as half of XCD 125 volumes are coming from competition, a majority of them being 100cc users. XCD 125 is a compelling package that 100cc customers are finding very difficult to resist," BAL General Manager (Marketing) Amit Nandi said.
BAL is also ramping up production of XCD from the present 50,000 units a month to 75,000 units a month by November, the company said in a statement.
The company has been saying that it wants to exit from the 100 cc by offering customers a better product which clubs the features of both 125 cc and 150 cc motorcycles.
XCD 125 is the company's main weapon in exiting the high volume, low-margin 100 cc segment.
Source The Economic Times.




Personally i feel that the XCD is an amazing VFM, looks far more modern and feature rich as compared to its 100cc rivals. The xcd loses to the Yamaha Gladiator , Discover in performance and ride quality but beats then in pricing.

Overall its a package that average Indian commuter would find hard to resist. But definitely not for a young and adventurous Biker.

Follwoing are few figure of the xcd vs Gladiator vs Splendor.

Fuel efficiency XCD vs Gladiator vs Splendor nxg
From the nov issue of Overdrive

Bajaj xcd (highway / city / overall) kmpl
65.3 73.6 71.52

Yam. Gladi (highway / city / overall) kmpl
76.4 68.1 70.2

Splendor (highway / city / overall) kmpl
68.75 73.21 72.08

xcd 9.6ps@7000rpm
gladi 11 ps@ 7500rpm

Note:-
Before you call this bullshit and ask how can xcd return better average in city than on highway, let me clarify. The xcd is most fuel efficient in the range of 40 to 45 (as per the mag) and the fuel efficiency of xcd drops above 60. 90 being the top speed. Now the question is can you ride a bike in any city forget the metros, at a constant speed of 40 ??

You may also find the following interesting:-
1) Apache RTR 160 EFi
2) Hero Honda Hunk 150 cc
3) TVS Flame 125
4) Bajaj XCD 125

Bajaj's XCD 125 cc TV advertisement

The TV comertial for Bajaj XCD

Details and pictures click here


Pretty cool advertisement for the Bajaj XCD