My Thoughts !

MUL introduced a new model called Swift, which created a stir in the Indian automobile industry. Some time back, before Hyundai, Honda and others created a market here, Maruti was virtually enjoying a monopoly. Even after lots of models introduced by various competitors, Maruti 800 is still the first car for most of the Indians. Its unbeatable in the low segment. In the small cars, Maruti innovated the tall boy design with Vagon-R. Inspired by the design Hyundai created Santro. Unfortunately for Maruti, Santro was introduced in Indian market well before Vagon-R and Maruti being a late comer here, couldn't overcome the first movers advantage. Now Maruti is taking no chance. Its introducing Swift, before Volkswagen and Audi are about to introduce similar models. Of course, Audi's model will be priced in a higher segment and it will not be a direct competition, Volkswagen's model surely will be.

The features are quite advanced. The braking system is found only in the premium segment cars like Accent & Octavia, the automatic climate conditioning system is found only in Merc's S class!!! Swift is offered in 2 different models and lowest one costs 3.87 lakhs. Still it comes with a factory-fitted AC & audio system. The higher end model Zxi, has lot more features and is priced only at 4.5 Lakhs. The pricing statergy of 'less-than-4-lakhs', sounds like the price of Bata shoe, but for an average Indian mind, it works :-)

The design is quite unique and stylish. Esp. the back of the car. Despite the small design, it offers a good leg room and a decent boot space. Apart from the Maruti-red & traditional Black, it offered in 6 other colors and I'm sure that not only the old ones but the youngsters also will have options for their fav. color.

I'm sure this will eat out Maruti's own Zen, 800 & Alto's share, but the good is its def. going to take a big share from Santro. Let see how the Indian market welcomes it.

Normally I post only the pictures which are shot by me or at least the ones which I have complete control and ask someone to click it. This one is an exception. This was taken with Kalidas digi cam. When we were on the way back from Pondi, we stopped at one of the ECR beaches and were sitting and talking. Sesh and Vikram were as usual trying for photos with different poses. They were jumping and Kalidas was taking pictures. From a distance, I was sitting and taking photos of them with Kalidas's camcorder. I couldn't sit for long. I too joined them and jumped :-) After a few tries, here is a perfect shot. I was in the absolute middle of the picture and so cropped it. The rest is untouched. 

Do I live or just exist? My last blog entry was almost 2 months back; I don't remember when I cooked my fav. sambar; I don't remember calling someone and talking with them for an hour; I even don't know whether a roommate is in town or gone to his native; its been a long time since I slept at 10 pm. Looks like I just exist. On the other hand, I've spent my weekends at Pondi and Thekkadi. I was even been to kollimalai too; boozed thrice; watched Hitch in Mayajaal (grrrrr they raised the tickets to 150 now); Looks like in the midst of all the heavy work, I've time to live. Whether I'm alive or not, quite a few things have happened since my last blog. My blog is nearing a total of 1000 hits(Thanks everyone!); M$ announced the work for IE 7 and firefox download has crossed 50 million & a tamil version is also available now!! ; Google has introduced a customizable home page with drag and drop support (wow!); Following Google & Yahoo, M$ annonced its version of desktop search; even Cheechma has updated her blog!

hmmm. now the official work is 'almost' over, have time to breath. Have to read all the blogs that I used to follow. 2 months is a long time and lot to read now :-)