Lallmatie.com Blog » march

Mauritius adopts CO2 Emissions Green Tax, Nissan NV200, New Micra K13, Mitsubishi Colt

bhoot — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 08:20:05 +0000

It’s good to see the award winning NV 200 (the new Nissan Vanette) reaching our shores for about Rs 600,000. Now the Peugeot Bipper/Partner has a contender. Although the Bipper is more affordable and comes in more economical diesel engine, hardcore Japanese fans.

Good to see as well is the new Micra with a 1.2 L 3-cylinder new engine that’s going to be able to compete with peers for fuel economy. Coupled with a 7-year 100,000 km warranty, ABC Motors knows its business. I guess many Mauritians won’t see the a-bit-dull looks and lower quality (according to foreign journalists).

The Mitsubishi Colt is finally here, abeit the older model. I hope they advertise that it has SIX (6) seats as opposed to 5 for all other hatchbacks in its category (Vitz, Fit, Demio, 207, Fiesta).

Finally the introduction of the green tax soon will be a good thing. It’ll be a system similar to France with bonus and mallus applied depending on your car’s CO2 (carbon dioxide) emission. To be honest, I think the bonus is way too little. It should have been 3x more. Even the Prius manages only about Rs 70,000 rebate on tax – which is peanuts for a Rs 1M plus car… But the penalty for polluting engines is quite high… say at least Rs 200,000 for a Porsche. And what about the 50% off every tax for hybrids and electric vehicles? Do they still hold?

The big problem comes also from the fact that pickup trucks are not affected by this penalty. Now that there is a new Minister of Finance, let’s hope even more rationality with an updated taxation plan. The current table (from MotorMag) is as follows:

	Bonus			Malus
CO2 Emission g/km	0 to 90	91 to 157	158	159 to 225	191 to 225	226 to 290	>290
Value in Rs per g	-3000	-1000	0	+2000	+3000	+4000	+5000
Max bonus/malus Rs	85g will give -15,000 -67,000	-67,000	-	+64,000	+64,000 +105,000	+64,000 +105,000 +260,000

I think that the bonus should be as follows to encourage green vehicles:
0 to 90g = -10,000 (there aren’t any cars below 90 g)
91 to 110 = -5,000
110 to 138 = -3,000
139 to 157 = -1,000

Honda Fit 1.3 More Economical than Toyota Vitz 1.0

bhoot — Wed, 05 May 2010 15:26:47 +0000

Honda L13A i-DSI engine

A friend was asking me the economy of the Honda Fit/Jazz. I remembered that I read about Fit being more economical than the March/Micra and Vitz despite having a bigger 1.3 engine. I decided to confirm it from their respective websites.

Toyota’s Japan website said up to 21 km/L for the Vitz 1.0L while Honda said up to 24 for Fit. Note that Toyota quotes better fuel economy for its CVT version over 5-speed manual (like I say in my other post). Nissan March manages 19 km/L officially for the 4-speed (old) automatic and 21 km/L for 5-MT. All these figures are for Japan’s 10-15 mode. In practise I have seen that if you add reduce it by 15% you get a good estimate of how much you’ll use here in Mauritius depending on your driving style.

One model to look out for is the upcoming March in Q4 of this year. It is being rumoured to have a new 1.0 litre turbocharged engine that should provide economy and power when you need it. It’ll definitely come with a CVT, finally.

Links:

http://www.toyota.co.jp/

http://www.honda.co.jp/auto/

http://www.nissan.co.jp/MARCH/

Now is the time to invest in the Mauritian Stock market – March April May 2010 –

bhoot — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 21:25:00 +0000

Most companies have recovered from the crash that the local market following recession. The SEMDEX reached its minimum last year in March 2009, some companies falling as low as their nominal values! But since there, the market has roared. If I had put my money then, I’d be happy with a 25-100% profit… Demand kept rising until recently…

There’s now a fall… I read somewhere that Mauritians spend less in February-March. That’s post new year effect… I wondered if it applies to investors as well. The current decrease in the prices of some companies seem to suggest that it is the right time to get in again… MCB, Naiade, ENL Commercial… are just few of the companies that I spot. You’ll say Naiade is making losses, but I’d say it won’t be long. The other groups in the sector are already priced past their NAV…

Companies to watch in my opinion:

MOR – Mauritius Oil Refineries
MCB
BAIN
SBM
MCFI
NRL – Naiade Resorts
GIDC – ENL Commercial
AIRM – Air Mauritius

March is bigger, more powerful, more economical than Sunny!

bhoot — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 08:19:54 +0000

I feel like taking it all out whenever I see someone still buying a N17 Nissan Sunny VIP. It’s ugly (to me), DISCONTINUED in Japan and SMALL INTERIOR for it’s exterior size. It is an improvement over the past Sunny in terms of space use, and it remains an economical engine to run and service (lower second price about Rs 100k less). But can’t you see that the Nissan March is BIGGER THAN the Sunny interior?

Nissan March AK12

The Nissan March’s engine is 1.2L 90 horsepower on about 900 kg (about 100 hp/ton) – compare that to the Sunny’s old 1.3L 87hp on 1100 kg (that’s about 80hp/ton), for about Rs 50,000 more (and it the March is the best selling Nissan in Mauritius). Even the Tiida is here now. Tiida is the official successor of Sunny – which I doubt many Sunny-addicts realise.

Tiida’s interior is its best feature of all – it’s as big (or bigger) as the old Bluebird Sylphy, bigger than a VW Golf or Civic hatchback. The gearbox is a gem. CVT means that there is unlimited gears! It’s not the old uneconimical step-auto 4-speed that we used to get 10 years ago. CVT Automatic’s give better mileage because you can reach your reasonable speed (say 50-90) without pressing hard on the pedal (while keeping a low RPM): just like a 6-speed uses less fuel than a 4-speed manual. All that while driving smoothly without any gear-change shocks and drops in torque/power. More on CVT here.