I was flipping through BBC’s auto mag, Top Gear, when I came upon editor Vardhan Kondvikar’s description of his ‘ideal’ Indian car. He says, “My perfect Indian car would be a little SUV, priced about Rs 8 lakh with a punchy but small diesel engine, under 2.0 litres, with a manual gearbox. It won’t be immensely well equipped but it will have electric mirrors and windows, climate control and good plastics. ABS and airbags of course. And flexible seating for five, with split and tumble. It’ll feel like a proper shrunken SUV, and we’ll love it.”
Why, you ask, is this significant? Well because the last story I posted this morning relates to a small SUV exactly like the one described above. The yet to be launched Skoda Yeti. And I just couldn’t let the coincidence pass without mention. Kondvikar, when he decribed his ideal car for India had the Mitsubishi Pajero Pinin in mind, along with a more practical, read ‘buyable’ car already available in the country- the Ford Fusion. The Fusion, however, has failed to make any kind of mark on the Indian auto market . It remains to be seen now whether the Yeti (God knows why they want to call it that) will be able to do what the Fusion couldn’t.
