(From top): The Skoda Laura; the all-new Honda City, the Ford Fiesta; the Swift from Maruti

The year 2005 saw a number of cars being launched all through the year, and a good number of these were really quite impressive. Be it the Tata Safari Dicor with its common rail injection diesel engine; Bill Ford coming down to India to be personally present to oversee the launch of the Ford Fiesta; the re-launch of the Palio Adventure as Fiat continued to struggle for survival in India; the exciting Suzuki Swift from Maruti Udyog; the Tata Indica diesel with a little something extra under the bonnet or the end-of-the-year parting gift from Imran Hassen of Skoda India before he left for Europe, having completed a five-year term in India...it’s difficult to pin one event down as the launch of the year. So, to be fair to most and also on the safe side, here is a look at some of the most happening products launched in the Indian automotive market in 2005.

Let’s start with a very Indian company, Tata Motors. The company has come a long way from being the commercial vehicle specialist it once was. The Tata Indica Turbo, priced at about Rs 4.10 lakh at the time of launch, initially looked like the same car being rehashed and offered again to the public. Everything about the car seemed the same, the body shape, the grille, the head and taillights, and the rear end. There were no differences in dimensions either, being 3675mm in length, 1485mm in height and 1665mm in width.

There was an internal difference though, which was betrayed by a difference in weight. The difference was also in the ad copy, with the car being touted as having improved performance and targeted at drivers fond of traffic light GPs. The difference lay in its heart. The engine now had a turbocharger mated with an intercooler and the 1.4-litre inline-4 engine now made about 65bhp at 4500rpm. Also, for those interested in acceleration, it offered 13.5kgm or 130Nm of torque at 2500rpm. That was up from 54bhp and 85Nm of torque in the non-turbo diesel engine.

Then, Maruti Udyog really got people talking about its 2005 offering ? the Suzuki Swift. And why not, as it was almost as important as the launch of the first Maruti 800 (the Alto FX) way back in 1983. With in-house facelifts to the Zen, the 800 and the Esteem, people were beginning to be reminded of the days of the Ambassador and the Mark 1, 2, 3 and 4 variants.

The Swift left a lot of people scraping their dropped jaws off the pavement. There was reason for this too ? the very clean-looking front end, the wide airdam and the slab-sided profile with the high belt-line and bold wheel arches. A lot of people could not ? and still cannot ? get over the cheeky rear end, dominated by the large wraparound lights. Nobody had expected such a bold and solid-looking car from Maruti. With the Esteem lump in it, performance ? 87bhp at 6000rpm ? was quite adequate for the money. What took the cake was the ZXi version, coming as it did, with goodies like ABS and EBD and the automatic air-conditioning ? no wonder, people quickly queued up at the dealers and the waiting list got longer and longer.

Ford ? and Bill Ford ? brought the Fiesta to India ? a completely new car, developed and engineered for India. It was tested over 700,000km and in nine countries, including Australia, Germany, India and the UK. First impressions were that of a restyled Ikon with softer, rounded lines but the figures tell a different story.

It’s actually longer, wider and taller than an Ikon, as well as the Accent and the Indigo. Ford has made the car available with a torque 1.4-litre turbocharged, common rail diesel engine with about 65bhp (Max) at 4000rpm and 160Nm Max) at a low 2000rpm. The petrol engine is more conventional and contemporary ? a 16-valve 1.6-litre unit, DOHC and sequential electronic fuel injection. This develops about 100bhp at 6500rpm and 146Nm at 3400rpm. The starting price, for the 1.4-litre petrol is Rs 5.59 lakh.

Staying with the mid-sizers, at long last, Honda put a VTEC engine into the new City. The old City had been an enthusiast’s car, both in 1.3 and 1.5-litre form. It wasn’t a very comfortable car though and the new City was just that ? spacious and comfortable with a decent ride but with only 77bhp on tap. The VTEC version is a new car. It’s a longer car and has a bigger boot. But importantly, that extra length has allowed a re-designed suspension, which eliminates the deficiencies of the earlier car. Of course, the engine has to be the talking point of this car ? power and torque are up, 100bhp at 5800rpm and 13.5kg-m at 4800rpm. Price is just under or over Rs 8 lakh depending upon where one lives

Last and certainly not the least, is the Skoda Laura L&K in the D segment. Priced at Rs 16.8 lakh, its USP is technology. That basically revolves around the power train. The first USP is that it’s a PD diesel engine, utilising unit injectors to develop 105bhp of power at 4000rpm and a massive 250Nm of torque at a low 1900rpm. That’s out of an 1896cc engine. Secondly, it has a DSG gearbox, an advanced automatic gearbox with two clutch mechanisms. ABS and ESP are standard and there are six airbags to protect occupants.

Then it has cruise control, a multi-function steering wheel and a driver’s seat with a position- setting memory. During an impact, the pedals move aside and the fuel pump cuts off as soon as the airbags are deployed. As one said on starting out, it’s difficult to nominate the year’s top launch. So to play safe, I shall nominate three names ? Skoda Laura...Suzuki Swift...Honda City VTEC ? which one is top of the tops? Go figure...!

Photograph of Skoda Laura by the author

My first car

Komolika Guhathakurta,
television actress

I can actually go on and on about my first car. I was in college when I bought it from one of my uncles in Calcutta. It was a black Ambassador, which I got at a second-hand price of Rs 40,000. I’m not really a car freak but at the time, owning an Ambassador gave me a high. I used to drive this car and wherever I went it was always with me.

Since it was a second-hand car, my Ambassador gave me quite a bit of trouble. Once it stopped at Gariahat in the middle of the road and it was such an embarrassing situation!

Otherwise though, I have really fond memories of my first car. While I was terribly scared of driving my father’s car as he was very particular about certain things, I didn’t have to bother about anything while driving my own. My friends too loved it — in fact, all of them took their first driving lessons in it — and we often used to go for long drives in it. Today, I own a Lancer. But somewhere, I really miss my very first black Ambassador.