Technology sharing.

With the world economy coming down crashing, various car makers have made alliances to cut costs and increase profitability. It should be no surprise then if you find the same spares going into different cars. Looking at the brighter side you can get the same spare for cheap if you go around shopping since various car brands tend to charge a premium. For the many others it is an opportunity to tune the engine to suit personal requirements.

1. Chevrolet Spark/ Beat: Based on the Daewoo Matiz, the Spark was the volume car for GM. Internally called M200/M250, Chevrolet Beat is the new spark aka M300. While both generations of the car are available in many markets, spark is sold as the cheaper alternative badge.  The 1000cc S-tec engine has also been carried over to the Beat but upgrade to meet the emission norms and tuned to be more efficient in terms of power and fuel efficiency. The 800cc engine has been carried over from Daewoo which was again based on the 800cc engine we are familiar with on the maruti Suzuki 800 and Maruti Suzuki Alto.

2. Hyundai Sonata/ Chevrolet Cruze/Chevrolet Optra/ Chevrolet Captiva : Are you amazed by how powerful and fun to drive the Chevrolet Cruze is? Well, there is a reason why this engine performs unlike other GM engines. The Diesel engine which also does duty on Chevrolet Optra and Hyundai Sonata has been sourced from VM Motori. It has been internally named RA 420 SOHC.

3. Fiat Palio/ Fiat Punto/ Fiat 500/ Marusi Swift-Dzire/Maruti Ritz/ Indica Vista: When Fiat decided to fund its expansion plans for India, they looked at their excellent engines department. The 1300 multijet diesel is what has helped Fiat make a comback. The same engine is found in  all the cars mentioned above with various states of tune.

PS: Tata has also incorporated the Indica Vista with Fiat's gearbox.

      Indica Vista and Fiat Punto also share the petrol engine.

4. Fiat Linea/ Tata Indigo Manza/ Maruti new Swift: The same diesel engine mentioned above was also launched in a more powerful state of tune (93bhp) and is doing duty on two cars right now. The new maruti Suzuki Swift due to be out soon us also rumoured to get the same engine. The only difference between the the engine mentioned above the this one is the variable geometry charger.

5.  Ford Figo/ Ford Ikon/ Ford Fiesta: The 1.4 Diesel engine from Ford India did such wonders for the company back in the day that the whole nation took notice of this car brand and sales took off. For a long time Ford fiesta was the only competitor to The new Honda city as far as sales were concerned with the Accent, Verna, Aveo, Lancer and others eating dust. The Duratorq engine still has some fight left in it and has recently debuted in the Ford Figo.

6.  Hyundai Santro/ Hyundai I10: Just like the Chevy Beat and Spark Hyundai Santro and Hyundai I10 also use the same engine. Supposed to be a successor to the best selling santro, Hyundai decided to retain both the cars to take on Maruti's arsenal of small cars. The gamble has surely paid off.

7. Hyundai I10/ Hyundai I20: Hyundai loves to cross-breed cars. The i10 which shares one of its engines with the Santro shares another engine with the i20. Same tune and same components which lets Hyundai earn a fat maring on each car sold. No wonder they sold i20 in records units last month.

8. Mahindra Scorpio/ Mahindra Bolero/ Mahindra Xylo: Mahindra hit an ace when it put the CRDE engines under its MUV, the Scorpio. Sensing the potential of the engine, they retuned it and the now the engine can be found in the Bolero, XYLO and the Scorpio.

PS: Mahindra has named the engines Mhawk and MEagle based on the states of tune.

9. Maruti Alto/ Maruti A-Star/ Maruti  Zen Estilo/ Maruti Wagon R: Maruti is the mass car manufacturer of India. Sometimes synonymous to a 'car' Maruti Suzuki has come a long way from the Omni and Esteem.  The KB series of efficient engines have proved to be an asset for Maruti sending the company's sales skyrocketing.

10. Maruti Ritz/ Maruti Swift/ Maruti Eeco/  : Reducing the number of indigenous parts also shows here. Based on the same engine serious mentioned about but bored to 1200 cc, this engine does duty on the various cars under the Maruti Suzuki umbrella.

11. Skoda Fabia/ VW Polo:  The New Skoda Fabia has just been launched. No wonder since VW's Chakan plant has been churning out three beautiful engines to use. The 1.2 Petrol, 1.6 petrol and the 1.2 Diesel are doing duty on both the Polo and Fabia.

Cars like the Octavia/Laura and Jetta and Superb and Passat have also begun engine and technology sharing but being based on the CBU route, many of the components change from time to time. For e.g. the Laura which is the Current generation Octavia worldwide has seen various engine upgrades in the Indian market.

Also ICML (Sonalika group) has entered into a pact with GM to supply their engines from the Rhino UV's for Chevrolet Tavera to be sold in BS-IV zones.