20120624

Chevrolet Sail Hatchback seen testing in Pune again

After sending us a not-so-clear picture of the Chevrolet Sail Hatchback doing its test runs in Pune early this month, our spy-shot specialist Guru is at it again. This time though, we have clear snaps of the rear of the model in which GM's future in India rests. With only the Beat Diesel and Cruze selling in consistently good numbers, Chevrolet is in a spot of bother in India and the Sail twins are expected to bring them back on track. The buzz in the market is that the Sail Hatchback would be launched first, probably within the next month or two, followed shortly by the Sail sedan. Once launched, they will replace the Aveo U-VA and Aveo sedan respectively, both of which have been sales disasters in our market. Apart from the two body styles, the Sail is expected to be launched with petrol and diesel engine options spanning many variants.

If you do not know already, GM India is partly owned by its Chinese subsidiary Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC) and the Sail would be the first model to be born out of this relationship. We guess that the influence of SAIC was instrumental in bringing the Sail twins to India instead of the stylish and modern Sonic twins. No, we aren't saying that the Sail is no good but only highlighting the fact that the Sonic is better in every respect except pricing, going by the praises showered upon them by the global media fraternity. Whatever it is, if GM India's management has decided, we are nobody to comment on it. Is the Sail armored enough to compete against the segment stalwarts like Maruti-Suzuki Swift, Hyundai i20, Ford Figo, Toyota Etios Liva and Volkswagen Polo? The answer would be out in a couple of months.

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