Suburban Utility Vehicles
I have always believed that Guns, bikes, Cars are men's stuff. One important thing among them that determines what kind of a man you are is cars. A few of my age group men have special interest for cars, a fewer have an eye for detail and I am one among them.
My initial thoughts of a car are that of a Maruthi 800. I was studying 3rd or 4th class when this car was released into the market and it was a runaway success. Until then people who have been used to drive ambassadors were more than happy to get into the driving seat of a Maruthi. Liberalization and globalization opened the flood gates for numerous number of car producers to come up with their products and in this process the customer has definitely benefited. Especially the current trend in the automobile market with a growth rate of more than 8 percent looks extremely promising. With each brand designing and producing cars for various segments of customers and banks and financial institutions more than willing to give loans at very decent interest rates, the options before the customer are very tempting.
Although the car aficionados would be familiar with this classification, let me start with the different segments of cars that a company produces to attract a wide range of customers quoting the examples from the Hyundai stable. A small car (Santro base model), A semi luxury small car (Getz), Sedan (Accent, Viva), a higher end luxury sedan (Elantra, Sonata), MUV (Hyundai doesn't have one, but you could consider Qualis, Scorpio, Innova in this segment) and an SUV, the king of the road. (Terracan or a Tucson)
A Suburban or Sports Utility Vehicle or SUV as it is popularly called radiates power, its own and that of its owner. For most of the people who take great interest in cars, it would be a dream to own a car of this segment. I am no exception to it. However, there are a lot of people who mistake an MUV, a Multi Utility Vehicle with that of an SUV. For the benefit of the readers I would like to quote what an engineer from TATA Motors told me as to what essentially differentiates an SUV from an MUV. The four or five essential characters of an SUV are.....
One, Four wheel drive, in a normal car or MUV, the accelerator is only connected to two wheels unlike an SUV where it is connected to all the four wheels giving the vehicle more thrust and power.
Two, Off road capacity, It is the ability of the vehicle to drive through in rough terrain, like gravel, ups and down etc. On any given day an SUV has a better capacity than an MUV, for the simple reason it is designed for such roads.
Three, Ground clearance, it essentially is the space between the body of the vehicle and the ground level, for SUVs it is generally much more than a normal car or MUV.
Glass, The percentage of the portion of the vehicle covered with glass in an SUV is much more than that of an MUV.
Finally, the Engine Capacity, in India we see SUVs that have a maximum capacity of 2.6 liters or 2600 CC and probably a couple of vehicles could be an exception, not very sure of what a Dicor has. Cars generally have anything between 1000 CC to 1900 CC.
The other things are the driving comfort, seating, wheel base etc which on any given parameters are better in an SUV than in a normal car.
Although, there are a couple decent SUVs available in India, a lot more is still desired when compared to international market. I like a couple of SUVs that are available in India, like the Tucson.
It is my dream to own an SUV, but surely not any SUV. My dream vehicle is a Pajero, a Mitsubishi make. It indubitably is the king of SUV world; needless to say it has the lion's share of the market. Click the following site to know more about it.
http://www.pajero.com/english/top.html
Although Land Cruiser of Toyota is considered to be a landmark SUV, another product of Toyota amuses and interests me more, which is a variant of Land Cruiser, it is Toyota Land cruiser PRADO. RAV4 is another good SUV from Toyota. Click on the blog heading to know more about Toyota SUVs.
Finally let us talk about "The Ultimate" in SUV world, the Hummer. It is not without reason that I call this “The Ultimate” in the SUV world and if you want to know the reason, click on the second link.
http://www.hummer.com/
My initial thoughts of a car are that of a Maruthi 800. I was studying 3rd or 4th class when this car was released into the market and it was a runaway success. Until then people who have been used to drive ambassadors were more than happy to get into the driving seat of a Maruthi. Liberalization and globalization opened the flood gates for numerous number of car producers to come up with their products and in this process the customer has definitely benefited. Especially the current trend in the automobile market with a growth rate of more than 8 percent looks extremely promising. With each brand designing and producing cars for various segments of customers and banks and financial institutions more than willing to give loans at very decent interest rates, the options before the customer are very tempting.
Although the car aficionados would be familiar with this classification, let me start with the different segments of cars that a company produces to attract a wide range of customers quoting the examples from the Hyundai stable. A small car (Santro base model), A semi luxury small car (Getz), Sedan (Accent, Viva), a higher end luxury sedan (Elantra, Sonata), MUV (Hyundai doesn't have one, but you could consider Qualis, Scorpio, Innova in this segment) and an SUV, the king of the road. (Terracan or a Tucson)
A Suburban or Sports Utility Vehicle or SUV as it is popularly called radiates power, its own and that of its owner. For most of the people who take great interest in cars, it would be a dream to own a car of this segment. I am no exception to it. However, there are a lot of people who mistake an MUV, a Multi Utility Vehicle with that of an SUV. For the benefit of the readers I would like to quote what an engineer from TATA Motors told me as to what essentially differentiates an SUV from an MUV. The four or five essential characters of an SUV are.....
One, Four wheel drive, in a normal car or MUV, the accelerator is only connected to two wheels unlike an SUV where it is connected to all the four wheels giving the vehicle more thrust and power.
Two, Off road capacity, It is the ability of the vehicle to drive through in rough terrain, like gravel, ups and down etc. On any given day an SUV has a better capacity than an MUV, for the simple reason it is designed for such roads.
Three, Ground clearance, it essentially is the space between the body of the vehicle and the ground level, for SUVs it is generally much more than a normal car or MUV.
Glass, The percentage of the portion of the vehicle covered with glass in an SUV is much more than that of an MUV.
Finally, the Engine Capacity, in India we see SUVs that have a maximum capacity of 2.6 liters or 2600 CC and probably a couple of vehicles could be an exception, not very sure of what a Dicor has. Cars generally have anything between 1000 CC to 1900 CC.
The other things are the driving comfort, seating, wheel base etc which on any given parameters are better in an SUV than in a normal car.
Although, there are a couple decent SUVs available in India, a lot more is still desired when compared to international market. I like a couple of SUVs that are available in India, like the Tucson.
It is my dream to own an SUV, but surely not any SUV. My dream vehicle is a Pajero, a Mitsubishi make. It indubitably is the king of SUV world; needless to say it has the lion's share of the market. Click the following site to know more about it.
http://www.pajero.com/english/top.html
Although Land Cruiser of Toyota is considered to be a landmark SUV, another product of Toyota amuses and interests me more, which is a variant of Land Cruiser, it is Toyota Land cruiser PRADO. RAV4 is another good SUV from Toyota. Click on the blog heading to know more about Toyota SUVs.
Finally let us talk about "The Ultimate" in SUV world, the Hummer. It is not without reason that I call this “The Ultimate” in the SUV world and if you want to know the reason, click on the second link.
http://www.hummer.com/
http://www.humvee.net/misc/humfaq.html
One striking difference between Indian SUVs and the international ones is the power of the engine. Generally, the international ones have 3 litre engine and above (a Hummer has 6.6 litre engine) and didn't I tell you that is the most important thing that differentiates Lion from the Cats!!
posted by yedavalliravi @ 11:53 AM
1 comments
1 Comments:
sports utility vehicles :
some facts -
1. they're gas guzzlers
think abt it this way - a 3 tonne monster to carry a tiny 60kg human being (yeah, the Hummer H2 has a kerb weight of 2.9 tonnes)
Vs. a hyundai Getz at 1.2 tonnes to carry the same human being. You don't need calculators to figure that you burn more fuel hauling the hummer (or Prado's ) ass across the road
2. off roading has been hyped too much.
just about the only places where u need off-roading capcbility are :
a) a desert b) a marsh c)a waterlogged terrain
the advantage of a 4 wheel drive is that even if one/more of the wheels are stuck in the sand/muck(spinning arond), the others have power to get the vehicle out.
But,seriously, how often d u think u'll go gallivanting in the Thar desert?
The SUVs usually have greater ground clearance. WHich is actually the height of the differential unit from the ground.
On the whole, SUVs are not good general purpose vehicles.
a Getz or a Zen will do just fine.
But, Ravi is a tycoon, he likes things big & expensive. Wonder why he doesn't shift to the U.S , where he'd blend in perfectly. BIg cars, big guns, big houses & small empathy & small brains (last one doesn't apply to Ravi...he's a smart guy)..its all about me myself & my ego!
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