Indigo for it!

PITSTOP

The Tata Indigo is now a year old in the market, and in that time, Tata says it has become the largest selling sedan in its segment.

The market snapped up 25,000 Indigos and it now holds down 27 per cent of the mid-size market. Good going!

Star Vision

Mercedes-Benz will bring the Vision Gran Sports Tourer (VGST) to the North American International Motor Show in Detroit next month. The VGST is set to be the first hybrid all-wheel-drive in series production in the world.

The V8 diesel and electric motor together make 313 bhp and 86 awesome kgm and make for a 6.6 second sprint to 100 kph. But the VGST is more about versatility than its electronically limited 250 kph top whack.

The coupe-like roof and muscular lines belong to a car that takes on the best bits of touring cars, saloons, estates and vans. The VGST will seat six in individual seats, with first class cabin levels of comfort and entertainment options.

The VGST also eliminated the conventional auto selector in favour of an F1-style gearshift.

Wing it on!

Now, this is going to sound very familiar but it's brand new. Honda is readying a new product, that will see it enter a new market altogether.

The product is more efficient than anything else "� by about 40 per cent "� say Honda, and provides the biggest passenger cabin in the segment.

Meet the HondaJet, the company's new compact business jet. The research programme began in 1986, but a later development gave the HondaJet its own Honda turbofan engine, the HF118.

Innovations in the engine mounting and a carbon composite fuselage allow the elimination of structural engine mountings which liberate as much as 30 per cent extra cabin space.