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It's a hard knock life for a N"urburgring rental car

Rental cars get no respect. They're abused, misused and flogged mercilessly as athletes in Rental Car Olympics. And that's just at your everyday airport rental counter. The torture gets extreme for rental cars thrashed around Germany's infamous Nürburgring.
Rent4Ring expects its customers to drive its cars around the 'Ring with enthusiasm and, in some cases, less skill than the pros. Rent4Ring just recently retired its Suzuki Swift Sport from its fleet and shared the car's two-year-plus lifetime highlights.
The little hatchback made more than 2,800 laps of the 'Ring over three seasons amounting to more than 310,000 miles driven by 457 different drivers. "Some were fast, some were slow. Some were nice to the car, a few were frankly awful," says a Rent4Ring rep.

Suzuki planning an electric Jimny among EV, hybrid onslaught

Suzuki introduced the larger, five-door Jimny earlier this month, and an investor presentation detailing the automaker's growth strategy to 2030 shows there's more in store. The automaker's mission is to expand its lineup with vehicles that move toward the "realization of a carbon neutral society." This entails Europe, India and Japan receiving five or six new hybrid and/or battery-electric models each. In Europe, the first of Suzuki's five BEVs will show in financial year 2024; when the rollout is complete, it will include an electric Jimny — the silhouette in the upper right. According to Australian outlet Drive, starting from the upper left, the others are a small people-mover, an electric version of the Fronx crossover Suzuki debuted at Auto Expo in India earlier this month, an unknown hatchback, and the retail version of the EVX concept. An electric Jimny would get the dinky 4x4 back to Europe without any classification trickery. The Japanese brand ended export of the regular four-seat model to Europe in 2020 when it could no longer pass EU emissions. It now sends the same model as a two-seat commercial vehicle. Suzuki sells as many as seven models in European markets not including the Jimny, six of them mild hybrids, one a plug-in hybrid. There have been rumors of a hybrid Jimny for a couple of years, and it's predicted the new five-door will get a hybrid option shortly. The investor presentation deck predicted an eventual powertrain ratio in Europe of 80% battery-electric vehicles, 20% hybrid vehicles. We expect that would mean a near overhaul of the European ranges with current models dropping out in favor of hybrids with electric options. What's unexpected is that the battery-electric Jimny silhouette doesn't show on the slides for the Indian or Japanese markets. In Japan, Suzuki expects sales to end up 80% hybrid, 20% EV, the opposite of Europe. The Indian outpost, known as Maruti Suzuki, is the automaker's largest market, and one local outlet said 1,000 shoppers have paid to reserve a spot for the five-door Jimny every day since the truck's debut. The expected powertrain breakdown there is much more varied than the other two regions at 15% battery-electric vehicles, 25% hybrid, and a 60% share of internal combustion made up of a mix of compressed natural gas, biogas, ethanol and "etc." This would definitely be a market for the hybrid Jimny whenever it shows.

Renault appoints Dacia Logan creator to head its Nano-rival program in India

After watching the Tata Nano post sales numbers smaller than its engine displacement, Renault gave up on its much publicized intention to build a truly inexpensive car to rival it. Then, a month ago, reports emerged that Renault was resuming work on a couple of low-priced cars for emerging markets, but this time it would work with its in-house partner, Nissan. That plan envisions an offering for €3,000 ($3,888 US) and another for €5,000 ($6,400 US), both of which would be more spendy than the Nano but might avoid the charge of being cheap - and nasty - and instead be considered affordable.
A report in Reuters talks to the man in charge, Gerard Detourbet, who has been in Chennai, India since at least August working on the program. Detourbet led the Dacia Logan project and is considered "Renault's low-cost car specialist" and "the father of entry-car programs." This one is reportedly codenamed A-Entry and will create a "'sub-entry' architecture" that will provide roominess beyond the vehicle's price and class, and use an engine with a displacement of 800 cubic centimeters.
It isn't aimed at the Nano, though - it means to take on the products that make up 45-50 percent of India's car market, like the Maruti Suzuki Alto and Hyundai Eon. According to Reuters, out of the 2.6-million-strong Indian car market the Maruti Suzuki line-up alone nabs one million registrations annually. The Alto 800 begins at 244,000 rupees ($4,440 US), the Eon at 300,000 rupees ($5,559 US), the Chevrolet Spark at about 316,000 ($5,750 US); if Renault can nail its price targets it will just about bracket those three and be right in the game.