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Your Daily Automobile updates From Around The World [img]  [Learn more about RevenueStripe...]( [img]( [The Automobile News]( [New Mahindra Thar Unveil Highlights: Engine, features, interior, expected price, launch date]( Mahindra Thar 2020 model unveiled today: The new Thar now packs modern features like a touchscreen infotainment system and a modern styling. But even so, it retains the age-old Thar appeal. Find out more here. New Mahindra Thar Unveil Highlights: The day has arrived. We’re now looking at the production version of one of the most adored off-roaders in India, the new Mahindra Thar. The Thar has been around for a long time but with changing times, it has now been upgraded to cleaner engines, better comfort and touchscreen infotainment systems have become a must these days. The older version has not been on sale due to emission norms but now, the Thar will have a whole new BS6 engine line up, while also boasting larger dimensions, a more sophisticated cabin and modern styling. It will be available in two series and in several colour options. Mahindra has also revealed the launch date for the new Thar. New 2020 Mahindra Thar overview The new 2020 Mahindra Thar has been completely revamped compared to the previous model with a new design and styling while also retaining the original characteristics. It will come with two engine options – a 2.0-litre mStallion petrol and a 2.2-litre mHawk diesel. Transmission options will include a six-speed manual and a six-speed torque converter automatic, along with a 4X4 transfer box as standard across trims. The cabin of the new Thar has been completely redone as well with improved seats with washable upholstery, a new seven-inch touchscreen infotainment system, TFT colour instrument cluster, roof-mounted speakers, steering wheel-mounted controls for audio/phone and cruise control and a lot more. The Thar will come in six colour options. Expect a starting price of about Rs 10 lakh (ex-showroom). Mahindra will launch the SUV on 2 October 2020 when bookings will also be opened. We are driving the new Thar today, so a first drive review will be up soon. Thank you for joining us. New Mahindra Thar colour options The new Mahindra Thar will come in six colour options – Red Rage, Mystic Copper, Galaxy Grey, Napoli Black, Rocky Beige, and Aquamarine. 2020 Mahindra Thar variants The new Thar will broadly come in two trims – AX series and LX series. The AX (adventure series) will be meant more for off-road usage and the LX (lifestyle series) will be more for city usage. 2020 Mahindra Thar safety features In terms of safety, the new Mahindra Thar will come with dual airbags, ABS with EBD, ESP with rollover mitigation, hill hold, hill descent control, built-in roll cage, three-point seatbelts, ISOFIX mounts on the rear seats. New Mahindra Thar interior The new Thar has had its cabin completely redone with now more plush seats with improved height & lumbar support and a 50:50 split setup for the rear seats. The upholstery is washable. It gets roof-mounted speakers and a seven-inch touchscreen infotainment system with weather-resistant buttons. The system includes a first-in-class ‘adventure stats’ with details like G-monitor, compass, wheel angle, torque, etc. The instrument cluster is also all-new with a TFT colour display. The steering has mounted controls for audio and cruise control. [Read more…]( [Read Full Story]( [Jim Farley on the Record]( The car world has had more than a week to digest the news that Jim Farley will become Ford’s CEO beginning Oct. 2. We’ve seen him driving his Cobra, Lola and GT40 at vintage-races here and in Europe, and everybody saw his family’s 1955 Lancia Aurelia B20 GT Coupé on the lawn at Pebble Beach last year. He spends as much free time as possible at concours and car shows. It’s also been widely reported that the company stock price and profit have been dropping for basically three years in a row, so he has big challenges ahead. Pundits have weighed in with plenty of advice in the last several days, as they will, including “take the company private,” “make sure the Mach-E and Bronco launches go right” and “keep maneuvering the company through COVID.” We figured a good way to find out what needs to be done is to ask Farley himself, so we reached out to him to get his thoughts. He still answers his own phone. “I can’t wait to launch these products,” Farley told Autoweek a few days after the CEO announcement. “Bronco and Mach-E couldn’t be more different, but they’re cool in their own ways. We have more to come, actually. We’ve been so busy the last three years getting these to market and we couldn’t talk about it, and that was very difficult. “Everyone wanted to talk about us getting out of sedans, like Focus,” he told us. “And you can imagine what I was thinking, ‘Do you want a Bronco Sport or do you want a Focus?” Farley told Autoweek that the Mach-E and Bronco launches are critical in part because they are opportunities for new customers. He said that growing Ford is “…most important. There are a lot of new opportunities to grow that people wouldn’t think of in a traditional OEM. “I’ve gotten to see the world of technology and how ambitious they are toward our business. That intersection between technology and car making is what I’m really excited about—using that connection to really spin up new businesses that we’re not in today and using it for taking our current businesses and supercharging them.” He cited electric truck-maker Rivian. “If I was a reporter I’d be spending all my time at Rivian. Not for the Rivian side but for that Amazon van,” Farley told us. Rivian, in which Ford has a half-billion-dollar investment, eventually plans on delivering 100,000 electric delivery vans to Amazon (it, too, has an enormous stake in Rivian). The deal is the largest single EV order yet. “Everyone always talked about the Apple car, now we have a well-funded technology company that’s going to be making automobiles in Indiana in very high volumes in the most profitable segment of our industry in the U.S. “They will not use dealers,” Farley continued. “They will go to a different model. The charging structure that Elon (Musk) built will not work for them. They need to charge in metro markets where those vans will be delivering packages. “For me, the connected car, software, charging infrastructure, on-board technology—all of that is going to result in a very different business and a very different customer experience, especially on the commercial side, and for Ford that commercial side is critical.” In addition to growing the commercial side, Farley told us he wants Fords to become more affordable. “As critical as the commercial side is, our ambition is to bring more affordable vehicles to North America. We’re good at our market share above $35,000, we have a tremendous opportunity to offer more affordable vehicles. With the Mahindra relationship (Ford and Mahindra signed a joint-venture agreement in 2019) we have a real chance at that.” Farley, who has been credited with leading Ford through the unprecedented manufacturing shutdown and restart caused by COVID-19 , also told us the company is getting through the pandemic as well as can be expected. “Our plants are at about 97% production,” he said, pointing out that Ford has had a bit of an issue with absenteeism both in the plants and the supply base. “We’ve been working through a lot of issues over the last two months or so, but we’re getting back up to speed.” Last week we said having Farley in charge of Ford can “only be a good thing” for us car enthusiasts and there certainly is no shortage of support from that camp. “I could not be more excited,” Bruce Meyer told Autoweek. Meyer, the alpha male of car collectors who has a hand in making just about every fun car event on the West Coast happen, knows everyone. “I’m on the board of the Henry Ford Museum with Bill Ford and Edsel and I sent an enthusiastic congratulations to Bill, and he wrote back how excited he was,” Meyer told us. “So I think everybody at Ford has to be thrilled about having a real car guy at the helm. Farley is that real car guy, and he bleeds Ford blue. Jim and I were friends when he was at Toyota. He called me when he had the opportunity of leaving Toyota and, by the way, he was in line for a big job at Toyota. And he literally left that huge opportunity to go to where his heart is. And that’s at Ford Motor Co. So I always admired him for that leap of faith and love. If there’s anybody that can make it right there, it’s him. “He’s not afraid to make bold moves. And even though he is an enthusiast and probably, if it were up to him, they’d all be performance cars and race cars, he’s smart enough to know what sells and how to trim the line down and how to bring it down to the bottom line. And that’s what Ford needs.” “He’s just a great old hot-rodder,” original hot rod hero Alex Xydias told Autoweek. So-Cal Speed Shop founder Xydias met Farley years ago at the Autoweek dinner at the SEMA Show in Las Vegas. “From the way Edsel (Ford II) was talking about Farley at the dinner you could tell he was on his way up the chain. “He’s a helluva businessman, no doubt,” he told us. “If I had to count on one hand the brightest people I’ve ever worked with, those who just were really unique people who knew what was going on, that would be Jim Lentz and Jim Farley,” former Lexus boss Bryan Bergsteinsson told Autoweek. “Different people but really bright people. Farley was always looking for a new challenge. Never, never was satisfied, didn’t want to do the same thing over and over again,” he told us. “The best and brightest people reframe their jobs all the time.” “It’s not a job to Jim,” Meyer added, “it’s a passion.” [Read more…]( [Read Full Story]( [Classic Japanese Cars Stanced To Perfection]( Not everyone is a fan of so-called stanced cars, but in reality, all cars have stance – and if done right, it can improve the looks immensely. There is not just one way of modifying a classic car. Even it was the case, the world would have a much more boring place. Cultural differences, though sometimes difficult to overcome, makes this world such a vibrant and interesting place. Asia is one of the most exotic and mind-blowing continents for people in the US thanks to the culinary, linguistic, and cultural diversity that exists between the two places. Japan is by far the Asian country that has been able to export several aspects of its culture successfully. Stanced cars, that is cars that are extremely lowered or with insane negative cambers, originated from Japan. Though somewhat unpopular in western countries, it is quite common to bump into a crazily stanced ride in California or Washington, for example. Some people claim stanced cars look ridiculous. Well, haters gon’ hate. Just ask what Japanese tuners think of donk style and spinners. Ok. Arigato. 10 Datsun 510 Datsun, a semi-defunct then resurrected Japanese manufacturer, is now part of Nissan. From the late 1960s until the late 1980s, Datsun released cars for different usage. The 510, though marketed as a middle-income family car, became quite popular among car fans with an inclination for mind-blowing restomod work. Thanks to its successes as a rally car, the 510 started getting shipped around the world and became an immediate hit. Its affordable nature and gas-efficient engine conquered a swath of people that were getting hit hard by the oil crisis. Its 96hp and 100mph top speed were more than enough for the vast majority of people. 9 Lexus GS300 Lexus, the luxury brand owned by Toyota, has been a beacon of success in the US. Unlike Kia or Hyundai, Lexus is a serious contender to most German brands widely available on the market. The GS Series is the larger mid-sized sedan manufactured by the Japanese company. Its very Japanese design makes it among the favorite car to customize. The GS 300 is so beautifully designed that tinted windows, some deep-dished BBS looking rims and some low-pro tires give it a nice look. Add to this is some negative cambers and the car looks like the perfect ride to cruise down the streets of Tokyo on a Friday night. Notice that the stock bumpers and exhaust tips are a telltale sign that the car is American owned. 8 Nissan GTR Liberty Walk was made famous thanks to its widebodied Nissan GTRs. Giving them a more aggressive look, Liberty Walk seems to be highly inspired by the Nippon modding style. The sun rays on the door kind of give it away. This specific GTR looks like its coming straight out of the remake of Akira. It would be nice to see this GTR in anime driven by the neither good nor bad protagonist. 7 Mazda RX7 The Toyota Supra’s main rival: the Mazda RX7 and its infamous rotary engine. Though this car goes through oil faster than a McDonald’s deep fryer, it is nonetheless a classic in the world of imports. The RX7 with its 1.3L R2 prudent 255hp is another marvel coming out of Japan. [Read more…]( [Read Full Story]( ------------------ You Might Like [Learn more about RevenueStripe...](        ------------------ Connect with TheAutomobileNews on Facebook and Twitter [fb](  [tw]( ------------------ You received this email because you operate or create content for a website/service and based on your website it seemed like this could be important information to you and your users. Want to change how you receive these emails? [Update your preferences]( or [Unsubscribe](