French major, Renault S.A. has been in existence for over a hundred years with its operations commencing in 1899. Famed for building cars like the Clio and Megane, Renault has had much success by launching the Logan worldwide. Coming in from the French automaker's sister concern, Dacia, Logan has created a niche for itself by offering cheap but efficient, comfortable and reliable motoring experience. The same car was launched in India too to form a platform to intiate Renault's India endeavour. Logan comes across as a spacious, comfortable and reliable machine which will appeal to the mileage conscious customer. So far so good, just wish that Renault brings in its hot hatch, the Clio Renaultsport 197 and the Megane Sport Saloon to gratify the performance oriented examples of human genus in India.
Sonalika, a 1200 crore corporation, is the parent company of ICML which makes the multi utility vehicle - Rhino. The company is promoted by L.D. Mittal, A.S. Mittal and Deepak Mittal who, under their able guidance, have established ICML as a force to reckon with in the MUV segment. The company has a technical collaboration with MG Rover of UK which will bring a wealth of technical know-how to the Indian firm.
Hyundai started as a construction company and was founded by Chung Ju-yung in 1947. As it stands today, Hyundai Motor Company is South Korea's largest and world's sixth largest automaker. Head-quartered in Seoul, Hyundai started it's operations as an automaker in India in 1998 with the Santro which went on to become one of the largest selling cars in the country. The Korean company continued on the success of Santro by launching the stylish Sonata and the Accent but the Terracan and the Elantra failed to capture the buyer's imagination. Still going strong with the current line-up which also includes Getz Prime, and the successfull Verna, Hyundai will enhance it's existance with a new Elantra sometime next year. Wish them luck!
Soichiro Honda founded this leading automotive company in 1948 which is head-quartered in Tokyo, Japan. A leading auto company, Honda is the largest engine manufacturer in the world. Opening it's innings with the City in India, Honda met with instant success which was followed with the cab-forward design employed by the previous City and is continuing that success even now with the City ZX. Other offerings in the shape of the Civic, Accord and the CRV have also seen noteworthy sales figures. To cash in on the small car segment in India, Honda is working on offering a hatchback based on the Jazz, which should hit the Indian roads by 2009.
Hindustan Motors was the first Indian Car Company to start production In India in 1942. We know them for 'Ambassador' and 'Contessa' and now manufacture cars in collaboration with 'Mitsubishi' of Japan. Its Ambassador has no customers now except for the government. Used Ambassadors have fallen in resale value hugely. No-one, yes, virtually no one is interested in buying a HM today. They badly need to come up with some new, fresh, innovative designs.
