Suzuki puts the boot into SX4

By Dimitri Pesin Motor Industry 15 September 2006 10:03 Suzuki is launching a saloon version of the SX4 in North America and Japan. The SX4 Sedan is finalising its hot weather testing programme, ahead of the car's US launch in October 2006. Running a 2.0-litre engine, the SX4 sedan will compete with cars like the Chevrolet Aveo and Ford Focus.

Nissan Friend-ME – looks better than it sounds: Shanghia Motor Show

Nissan has built the Friend-ME (which must rank as one of the most useless car monikers ever) to appeal to the potentially huge market of ‘B?línghòu’ buyers, a group of buyers, born in the 1980s, who grew up as single children thanks to China’s ‘One Child’ policy. Nissan sees this group as totally reliant on their network of friends for support, and has built a car that owners can enjoy with their friends on an equal basis. So every one of the four seats gets full instrumentation - SatNav, Fuel, Speed – and an ‘Oracle Stone’ runs down the centre of the cabin which can display whatever content the occupants want from their connected Smartphones and tablets.

Tata Nano (2008): first official pictures

By John Sootheran First Official Pictures 10 January 2008 09:33 Shove over a bit Henry Ford, Ferry Porsche and Alec Issigonis, because as of this morning there's a new entrant for the People's Car Hall of Fame. The first day of the Indian Auto Expo 2008 in Delhi, saw Ratan N Tata (yes, the fella who's leading the bid for Jaguar and Land Rover) reveal his much vaunted 'one lakh' car (that's 100,000 rupees or a measly £1300). Despite being the Chairman and CEO of one of the world's biggest corporations, Ratan Tata admits to being a nervous presenter, so much so, that the initial information was presented by his hologram! When he did appear, it was behind the wheel of one of three 'one lakh' cars being driven onto the stage. The 3000-strong audience of press and VIPs went beserk amid scenes of euphoria last witnessed at the Clinton comeback in New Hampshire.