The CarWale Daily Fuel is your quick daily dose of automotive news from India and around the world. If you want to know whatever's in the news but want it short and sweet, here's your solution.

The CarWale Daily Fuel is your quick daily dose of automotive news from India and around the world. If you want to know whatever's in the news but want it short and sweet, here's your solution.

The program includes

• Total maintenance assurance - Free maintenance for three years / 40000 kms, whichever earlier.

• Vehicle insurance – Insurance at Re. 1.

• Warranty assurance – Extendable warranty options

• Exchange assurance – Loyalty bonus for exchange of existing Hyundais up to Rs. 15,000

• Road-side assurance – Free roadside assistance for two years.

Citing customer satisfaction, Hyundai is going ahead aggressively to improve sales figures. The offer is currently available for limited period only, but we expect it to be on offer for a longer period to ensure customer satisfaction.

• Hyundai has announced the '5-star Assurance Program' for the Santro and i10, providing free maintenance, low insurance costs, extendable warranty, loyalty benefits and road-side assistance. The program is aimed at consolidating the customer base in the small hatch segment owing to the ever increasing competition.

• Tata declares successful completion of the first phase of developing, producing and selling cars based on the compressed air engine technology with its Luxemburg based partner, MDI technology. The proof of technology concept has been successfully demonstrated in two Tata Motors' vehicles.

• Suzuki Motor Corp. has recalled around 109,000 Swift cars globally citing a possible fuel leakage problem. The recall will not affect the Indian bestseller as the cars sold in India are locally produced.

• Mahindra and Mahindra have launched the Alfa Plus, the extended bed version of its popular commercial 3-wheeler Alfa, with better torque and transmission to supplement the enhanced load carrying capacity.

• Toyota dealers in Bangalore are showcasing the Etios motor racing (EMR) concept cars to connect to the adrenalin pumping young customer. It is also aimed at popularizing the EMR, a motorsports activity, in India.

• Volkswagen India has said that it aims sales of 1 million cars annually in India by 2018, to contribute to the global aim of Volkswagen group to sell 10 million cars annually over the globe. Volkswagen owners in India can relax as this means lots of schemes and after sales support.

• Daimler Trucks, global leaders in the commercial vehicle segment, are investing about Rs. 4400 crore in India as BharatBenz. The investments are based on an ambitious growth plan involving competitive products and commitment. With the state of art facility for production near Chennai, BharatBenz is also investing heavily in sales and services.

• India bound Mercedes B-class was spotted testing on roads in Pune, Maharashtra without any camouflage or cladding. Indian customers will not have to wait much longer for the budget(?) sports tourer.

• The 2013 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 was seen at the Nurburgring, the proving ground for performance car manufacturers over the globe. The 662PS power horse would certainly be eager to get a one up over its nemesis the Chevrolet Camarro ZL1 that clocked some seriously fast times at the 'Ring.

• Ford cries foul over Japan's intentions of joining the Trans Pacific Partnership for free trade among the Asia-Pacific countries. They say that the already protected Japanese market should be restructured before any such incident. Given the 'zero per cent' import taxes on cars in Japan, we wonder where Ford is driving at.

• The in-house project of an Australian, Mr. Russle Sutton of building a 9 cylinder rotary engine based on he Honda XR600 finally bore fruit after four long years of dedicated effort and skills. The joy of finally firing the 9 cylinder rotary engine was short-lived as the engine stalled due to mechanical reasons. Mr. Sutton has decided to keep on working till he manages to d\run it successfully.

• Volkswagen has replied strongly to the Greenpeace declaration of them as the 'Dirtiest car-makers in Europe'. Volkswagen has announced that, by 2015, volkswagens will emit less than 120 gms of carbon per kilometer while burning a measly 5.3 litres of fuel for every 100 kilometers run.

  The CarWale Daily Fuel is your quick daily dose of automotive news from India and around the world. If you want to know whatever's in the news but want it short and sweet, here's your solution. 

• Maruti Suzuki has managed to sell 2 lakh units of the Ritz within 36 months of its launch. 64000 units were sold in 2011-12 alone. 
• Skoda Auto has committed Rs 300 crore to its Indian operations as it percives India as an important market in achieving its global sales target of 1.5 million by 2018. 
• US and German car manufacturers have agreed on a standardised quick-charging system for electric cars that will enable electric vehicles to charge to 100 per cent capacity in as little as 15 minutes. This is a real shot in the arm for electric cars and their manufacturers.
• After the reported collaboration with Toyota over engine development, German auto manufacturer BMW is now in talks with Korean giant Hyundai to engineer a new generation of engines. This will work out well for both companies, as BMW will benefit from economies of scale and the knowledge that Hyundai can provide for front-engined, front-wheel drivetrains and BMW can offer diesel technology to Hyundai, whose current generation of diesels were developed by VM Motori of Italy.
• Audi may be working on a Q2 mini-crossover that will compete with the Nissan Juke in Europe - it will look like a sportier Q3 or A1 on stilts. Personalisation options will be large, in the vein of the Mini Cooper, Fiat 500 and VW's own Beetle.
• Bentley may return to the 24 Hours of Le Mans, but there is currently no time frame within which the company will return to the endurance sport. There is also a question over which class they will participate in, since sister brand Audi is already top dog in the pinnacle class of the sport. 
• Audi's new R18 e-tron racer will debut at Spa-Francorchamps this weekend. The R18 e-tron uses an energy recovery system on the front wheels under braking, and can subsequently power them during acceleration. A flywheel energy storage system has been used for storage of the energy. 

The CarWale Daily Fuel is your quick daily dose of automotive news from India and around the world. If you want to know whatever's in the news but want it short and sweet, here's your solution. 

Automatic transmission cars have only two pedals, brake and throttle, and the lack of impending gear changes reduces driving stress or effort by 60 per cent. Congested city roads and heavy traffic can be nearly stress-free when driving an automatic. Rising traffic density and the stop-and-go commuting is affecting customer choice.

Maruti Suzuki was the pioneer for the small car automatic option it had launched for M800 in 1987. Now, it offers automatic gearboxes in the Dzire and A-star at the 'budget' end of its range. Honda, one of the first companies to launch an automatic sedan, Honda City, is witnessing a huge rise in demand for automatics. The automatic share in City sales is about 21 per cent ; for the Civic it is 32 per cent whereas it is above 60 per cent in premium offerings like the Accord and the CR-V.

The automatic revolution was ushered into India by BMW and Audi, who launched only automatic cars in India. They say that these cars are mostly chauffeur driven and automatics are more comfortable and smooth compared to manuals.

With automatic sales picking up, the price difference between the two transmissions has narrowed. The latest advancements in the automatic transmission technology has improved efficiencies and has helped companies to convince customers to look at automatics as a viable option. Ford even offers a 240,000km/10-year warranty on its Fiesta's automatic gearbox, along with fuel efficiency that nearly matches the manual's figures. With this sort of confidence, it isn't hard to imagine more and more consumers making the automatic choice.

Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel clinches his first pole of the 2012 season at the controversy marred Bahrain GP, just ahead of McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton. Mark Webber will start 3^rd followed by Jenson Button and Nico Rosberg. Force India’s Paul Di Resta claims 10^th while Hulkenberg starting 13^th on the grid.

Volkswagen speaks about the E-Bugster Blue-e-Motion concept, the sporty Beetle, at the 2012 Beijing Auto show. The Bugster will be a revised version of the concept revealed at Detroit Motor show, 2011.

 Audi Q5 gets a facelift for the 2013 model, to be launched at the Beijing Auto show. The SQ5 could be seen around at the Le-Mans 24 hour race in June.

 Hyundai India looks to export the Eon to African and South Asian markets to widen its customer base.

 The Hyundai i20 launched in Europe with a 1.1 liter “U-II” three cylinder diesel engine, with a state of art ‘Intelligent Stop and Go’ technology, delivers 37 km per liter.

 Renault Duster was spotted with almost no camouflage in Chennai. It seems like we can expect, the mid-size SUV to hit the markets soon.

 Swiss bike maker BMC has launched its Impec Lamborghini cycle in collaboration with the supercar marquee. Lamborghini engineers helped design and assemble the bikes.

Toyota Kirloskar's Summer Holiday campaign kick-started from April 16 across all dealerships in India. Toyota owners will be eligible for a 20-point check and many offers will be presented to customers as a part of this campaign that will carry on till May 15.

Test mules of the new BMW 3-series have been spotted around Chennai. Production is expected to start next month. The official launch is just a matter of few weeks away.

Skoda has launched their own financial services, that will now offer automobile loans to prospective Skoda owners.

The Maruti Ertiga has garnered 10,000 bookings already - and in only four days since its launch!

Maini Motors, the creators of Reva, build TOMCAR for miltary usage. The off-roader aims to assist the military in border patrolling.

If you order a Maybach now, you may just get up to USD 100,000 off. That's Rs 5 lakh, before taxes. Bargain of the century? 

A new chrome-garnished Elantra has been launched in China. The car seems to be tailor-made to match Indian tastes, too. We wonder if it will come to India.

The Mercedes CSC/CLA concept pictures have leaked on to the internet ahead of its official unveiling at the Beijing motor show. The car is expected to go into production in 2013.

Daimler AG will shift production of commercial vehicles to Oragadam in Tamilnadu from Pune, is planning for exports to Africa and Asian countries.

The rotary engine isn't dead - Mazda US operations senior VP Robert Davis has confirmed that the Japanese company continues to work on the unique engine configuration for future models.