We kicked off Honda’s ‘Drive to Discover’ campaign and, traversed varied terrain in J&K, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab. We cannot help admiring the reliable Honda City as well as the multi-splendour landscape it travels through. India, they say, packs in a lot of diversity, not just in its people, but also by way of culture, terrain, climate and vegetation etc. The list can go on and on. The natural beauty of the country varies from the Himalayas in the north to the beaches in the south, from the deserts in the west to the jungles in the east. Many people travel overseas to spend their holidays. How many of them have the time or the inclination to explore nature’s bounty within our own country, which boasts of a number of magnificent holiday destinations? Truly, we need to look around our own country to see what it has to offer. And what better way than to drive around in one of the finest cars available? The idea gave rise to Honda’s ‘Drive to Discover’ campaign wherein eight print publications and three television media houses were invited to drive a Honda City from Srinagar to Kanyakumari.

Tata Motors of today are very different from the erstwhile TELCO. From the maker of utility vehicle-derived passenger automobiles to an established car manufacturer, it has been a journey with a few bumps along the way, but a good journey nevertheless. The new Aria is in many ways the culmination of this journey, a springboard for the company to a new future. The Aria as we know it today has its genesis in the Crossover concept, displayed at the Geneva Motor Show in 2005. The name Aria, however, first adorned a little two-door, two-seater roadster at the same venue five years earlier, in 2000. It’s taken a while for the car to go into production and, in its final avatar, the design is very similar to the 2005 concept, the notable changes being the headlights and the addition of chrome striping on the sides. This side striping has alleviated some of the slab-sidedness and given the car visual relief, especially when viewed from three-quarters. There’s no escaping the fact that it does seem to have borrowed some inspiration from Mercedes’ R-Class, visible notably in the treatment of the D-pillar and the alloy wheel design. The large 17” wheels themselves look good and fill up the wheel arches substantially.

Volvo has maintained a low-key presence in the Indian market until now in so far as cars are concerned. The Swedish company is, however, looking at expanding its car line-up in India. Not only that, they are taking an aggressive step towards achieving this goal. We already know of two cars from Volvo that are set to appear in the Indian market soon: the XC60 and S60. The company is also looking at launching the V60, which will open up an all-new avenue for cars in India. Let’s leave two of these cars aside for the moment and look at the most exciting of the three – the S60. No doubt, the XC60 is an amazing product and sells very well in Europe and the V60 will be an equally interesting product. But with the S60, Volvo are set to change the rules of the game. How? We landed up in Italy to find out exactly that.

The beauty of the Grand Sport Veyron is that it gives you the luxury of a sedan and performance that is unheard of in a road car. I think nobody will make a car like the Veyron ever again, at least not with an internal combustion engine. Since they are going to make only a limited number of cars, I think these will all become collector’s items.