Bangalore: Honda Siel Cars India Ltd. On Monday unveiled the Honda Civic, with an advanced 1.8-litre i-VTEC engine, sleek, aerodynamic exteriors and futuristic interiors, in Bangalore.

The Civic, which will be available in manual and automatic versions (1.8S MT and 1.8S AT), was unveiled by H. Shimizu, director, Sales and Marketing, Honda Siel Cars India Ltd.

According to a release, Honda Civic is the only car in its segment equipped with a five-speed automatic transmission with a unique `paddle shift' option, which can be operated using the F-1 racing-inspired paddle switches, located just behind the steering wheel.

Honda Civic is being manufactured at the company's facility at Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh. Initially the car will be manufactured with 68 per cent localisation, which will be increased to 80 per cent within two years.

Car rental service

SIXT, India (a Sona Group company), a car rental, leasing and fleet management services provider, on Monday announced the launch of its operations in Bangalore.

Beginning with 50 cars, the company aims to increase its fleet size by 80 per cent in the next three years of operation. SIXT, India plans to make an investment of Rs. 10 crore in 2006-07 towards infrastructure development and fleet size in Bangalore.

It will initially only provide rent-a-car services to its enterprise customers in Bangalore.

As part of its growth strategy for the city, the company will add leasing and fleet management services to its product portfolio by November 2006.

Speaking on the occasion, Sunjay J. Kapur, chief executive officer, SIXT, India, said, "We are happy to announce the launch of our operations in Bangalore, the Silicon Valley of India. Due to the rapid growth of IT companies in the city, it has experienced a growth rate of 34.8 per cent for the decade 1991-2001."

"We hope our services will prove to be a valuable solution for the corporates," he said.

He added, "The rent-a-car industry is emerging as an exciting area in the travel domain. With our brand new fleet of cars and quality of services we hope to raise the expectation level of the customers."

PlayStation 2 launched

Sony launched its PlayStation 2 at Logitech SKOAR 2006 in Bangalore. For the first time, gamers can experience high-level interactive gaming with PlayStation 2, which has found major success in Japan, Korea and the U.S.

It is priced at Rs. 9, 990 for a plug-in player and Rs. 13,000 for a portable one.

Sony has also introduced a set of original gaming software.

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