Announcing launches of not less than four of its dashing rides that are to take place over the next 6 months, Mercedes has definitely created tidal waves in the already raging waters of its arch rivals.

Here is a look at how the season panned out in the pit lanes and tracks of the Motosports world in 2012.

The company attributed the hike to depreciating rupee and rising input costs.

The company shall hike prices of its various models at least by 5 per cent or so in India from January next year, in the wake of rupee devaluation, inflation, and rising cost of imports, a company official said.

In the last couple of years, the luxury car segment has evolved significantly and demand for premium and luxury sedans and SUVs has increased rapidly.

Since price is a big stumbling block, the company is looking at assembly of Evoque in India.

It has, however, decided to go slow on plans to assemble the B-Class in India.

After the biggies, Nissan India on Thursday said it is planning to increase prices across all its vehicle models from January.

Increase in input costs, exchange rates, and inflation has posed severe strain on the company's margins, it said.

Aston Martin plans to invest $1 billion in new products and technology after Italian private equity fund Investindustrial agreed to buy a minority stake in the British luxury carmaker.

The company's primary growth driver this year has been the A range of sedans, led by the A4 and A6, followed by the SUVs, Q5, Q7 and Q3.

To explore options for capitalising on growth potential in entry-level luxury car segment.

The stunning car's top-end model can go up to Rs 1.9 crore.

The Los Angeles Auto Show saw the debut of a range of new models including the Toyota RAV4, Mazda a6, Kia Sorento, Subaru Forester, Porsche Cayman, Chevrolet Spark EV and Audi diesel.

Rivals have long been offering the feature, putting Jaguar's sedans at a competitive disadvantage in the US.

Big Three German manufacturers have all decided to get into the lower end of the luxury market.

Former Germany captain Michael Ballack has been banned from driving for 18 months and fined 6,750 euros ($8,600) after he was clocked speeding at 211 kilometres per hour on a Spanish highway in October.

Volkswagen said that it will reposition Skoda brand in India, to align with its global practice. This means, the company wants to move Skoda brand down the pecking order; and reduce price of the cars sold under the brand name.

Buoyed by sales in October, the company said it is confident of crossing the sales target of 8,000 units in 2012.

The management feels that environment in India is not conducive to make further investments. It plans to wait until 2015 and hope things will improve by then.

Audi S6 is the sporty and more power-packed version of the fascinating luxury sedan, Audi A6.

Hyundai Motor India Ltd (HMIL) on Monday said prices of its vehicles across models will go up by up to Rs 5,000 from November 1.

Karun Chandhok's team JRM Racing achieved its best result of the season by finishing second in the privateers' class and fifth overall the Six Hours of Fuji on Sunday.

General Motors India on Friday said it will hike the prices of its entire range of models by up to Rs 20,000 with effect from October 8 as it looks to minimise the impact of adverse currency movement and high input costs.

The company, which will complete launching of products aimed to drive volumes in India by 2015-16, expects 40 per cent of its entire product range to be priced below Rs 25 lakh (Rs 2.5 million) in the next 5- 10 years.

The company sells a range of models starting with the small car M800 to the luxury sedan Kizashi, which are priced between Rs 204,000 and Rs 17.5 lakh or Rs 1.75 million (ex-showroom Delhi).

The company attributes the trend to global slowdown and liquidity factors Luxury car maker Mercedes-Benz, which registered a growth of 35 per cent last year, will have to be content with flat growth this year.

However, the group, which had earlier planned to invest Rs 2,000 crore (Rs 20 billion) for expanding operations, is still putting that on hold as the VAT refund issue with the Maharashtra government remains unresolved.

Reliance Brands has been announcing a new JV every month to break into both high streets and smaller towns.

With the release of the Audi A8L 4.2 TDi, all three auto manufacturers having brought their champions to the Indian roads and it is time to see how these fearsome gladiators will fare against each other.

The race to become India's top luxury car company has heated up, with Tata Motors-owned Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) planning launches and local research and development (R&D) facilities to take on German rivals BMW, Audi and Mercedes.

Tata Motors-owned British luxury brands Jaguar and Land Rover is planning to expand its dealership network from 15 to 20, targeting tier-II cities like Bangalore, Surat and Aurangabad.

Swedish carmaker Volvo Car Corporation is revving up plans for India with an aim to become the third largest luxury car maker in the country by 2020, for which it may even consider assembly operations.

Having displaced world leader BMW to claim the numero uno position in the luxury car market in India, the company is confident of achieving 35-40 per cent growth in sales this year against an industry expectation of 10 per cent.

According to figures released by Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers, Audi's sales in the first three months of the fiscal have jumped by 52.15 per cent to 1,908 units from 1,254 units in the year-ago period.

It's in the reverse gear on the list of the most-aspired-for cars in India, but the iconic brand is hoping to regain lost ground with cheaper models.

Lamborghini is an Italian supercar. Founded in 1963, Automobili Lamborghini is headquartered in Sant'Agata Bolognese, in Northeastern Italy. There it manufactures some of the world's most sought-after super sports cars.

Though GM India delivers best of technology cars but at the same time, it lags in the dealer and service station network, one very important criterion for improving sales and rising popularity charts in India.

About 15,000 officials from Hebei provinces were dispatched to over 5,000 villages across the northern Chinese province to live and work with local villagers between February and December this year.

We bring you an excerpt from debutant author Siddharth Narayan's Naughty Men. Read on!