Tata Motors is just about to launch its new Indica Vista variant, the Vista 90. In its newest Avatar, the Vista gets a more powerful power plant that churns out 90PS (as the name suggests) thanks to its new 1.4-litre Safire engine. The 1399cc, 4-cylinder 16 valve MPFi engine produces peak power of 90PS@6000 rpm and peak torque of 116Nm@4750rpm. With the new engine, the Vista has not only become the most powerful car in its segment but the refinement levels have gone up to a new level as well.

Although Hyundai has been making headline after headline posting stratospheric sales gains every month, its Korean cousin Kia has been performing fine in its own right and should advance further in the early months of 2010 thanks to the launch of the 2011 Kia Sorento crossover.

With a new glance and a new chassis, you would feel that Kia would give the 2011 Kia Sorento a new interior to complete the set. And whilst certain elements might look a bit natty and up to date, the common fit and finish and quality of materials used is a little lacking. The 2011 Kia Sorento has been totally redesigned. Foremost changes include a switch to carlike unibody construction, more powerful engines and a new third-row seat

The 2011 Kia Sorento is a tale of two engines. The base 2.4-liter four feels effective enough around town and with light loads, but it struggles a bit with extra passengers and cargo. At main road speeds, the Sorento’s cabin remains excitingly isolated from both road and wind noise. We’re also fond of the Sorento’s handling capability, as this crossover responds directly to steering inputs. This is indeed one of the more pleasurable small family crossovers to drive. The ride quality should be good enough for most folks, but we’ve found that it gets overly harsh when the Sorento is driven over potholes and similarly broken pavement.

We made a trip from Delhi to Tirthan Valley, a popular fishing getaway in the Kullu valley on Honda Jazz X. There were plenty of other things we could have done, such as visiting the Jalori Pass and Great Himalayan Park, to name but a few. However, there were time constraints. The next morning, we were ready to bid adieu to the Himalayas. Needless to say, none of us wanted to leave so early, but better things awaited us at the other end. We were now better acquainted with the route and also had garnered fond memories of the time spent in the Valley.

VW Jetta was unveiled first time in New York in June and the world media drive was held in San Francisco last month. The reason for launching and having the first drive of the Jetta in the States was that it is the largest selling Volkswagen model in the US and the company is looking at increasing its market share. The new Jetta looks much sharper than the existing model and has also grown in size. The front now looks quite like the Golf and the Polo from the VW family of Walter Desilva design. The rear end of this car looks a lot like the Audi A4 and, as the car has grown in size, you can mistake it for an Audi A4 until you look at the VW monogram.

We caught up with Hyundai’s yet-to-be-launched softroader, the company’s third attempt at capturing the Indian SUV market. The new Hyundai is named after the city of Santa Fe in New Mexico and literally means ‘holy faith’ in Spanish. The mid-size softroader is based on the Hyundai Sonata platform. It will be imported into India as a completely built unit (CBU) and will be positioned between the compact SUV Tucson and the bigger Terracan, both of which have now been discontinued. The 2010 Santa Fe has recently gone through a mid-life makeover and I feel it definitely has better road presence than its forebears, namely, the Tucson and Terracan. Unfortunately, neither of them could rock the boat in India. The Santa Fe, on the other hand, seems far better equipped to tackle competition.