Way back in 2010, I lost my heart to a curvy girl. She was stunning and admired by me every time she passed by. Her eyes were not normal instead they were stretched a bit to give her a natural look of Yakshagana performer. It was a bliss to watch her after the perfect waxing job done. Every time I looked at her, I felt she a class. May be biased.. but taste is always subjective. Though my friends said she will be heavy on your vallet, the great MS excel showed the minor delta and signaled GREEN.Nod from Wifey was must to proceed and I always liked it to keep it transperant. So here it goes.
Me : I have to tell you something.
Wf : What ?
Me : How about over an ice cream at Corner House?
Wf : Fine .. But Only after the kiddo sleeps. ..Something Fishy ?? Huh ??
Me : Na na .. Just like that.
At Corner house and DBC on table
Me : I have fell in love with another lady ..
Wf : Not now and not again ... The one you have is already doing great..
Me : I agree .. But trust me the new one I fell for is amazing.
Wf : What's the problem with existing lady ?
Me : She is too old :(
Wf : How come all of sudden she become so old .... I remember you telling me she is pretty, a day before.
Me : I was forced to say .. :(
Silence for 5 mins and the hot chocolate sauce was getting colder and colder.
Me : BTW.. this dress looks nice on you.
Wf : I know your intentions and the reason behind the praise ...
Me : Really .. I mean it. .. I will not forget to say the same thing everytime you wear it.
Wf : You have not wished me for last Bday .. and u think you will be able to remember this one .. ?
Me : There are exceptions to everything in this world ... Anyways forget it .. How about the new lady ?
Wf : Are you serious you will sell our beloved Zen (Vxi 2004)
Me : Not sure .. But I can make up my mind for that ..
Wf : Who is the new girl in your mind ??
Me : i20
Wf : Won't it be costly ?
Me : I will manage...Excel sheet speaks the green and works out good on car lease.
Wf : Education for Kiddo should be plannned..
Me : I know and there is a plan in place.
Silence for 2 mins. .. All the ice cream got over and couple of the flies were trying to suck the dripping chocolate suace off the bowl.
Me: Planning to Sell it to Maruthi True Value and he is giving me 1.7L
Wf : You have already spoken ??
Me : Sort of .. at last serivce. ..
Wf : When do we get the new car .. Any waiting period ?
Me : Sales guy told me within a week..
Wf : You have already spoken ???
Me : Sort of .. when I had been to the show room to enquiry for my friend.
Wf : How long does it take to process loan in your company ??
Me : 4-5 working days
Wf : You have already spoken ??
Me : Sort of ... When I went to collect the shipment ... It's near by.
Wf : You must have decided on colour too then ??
Me : I will leave it on you.
Eventually we ended up buying grey colour i20 magna in october 2010. I must tell you the curvy grey lady never ever disappointed me. She is always been my companion for 49,000 kilometers of my all terrain drive covering almost all the south indian states and Maharastra plus Goa.
I used to take her regularly to her beloved beauty parlors..(Trident or Advaith). I used to wish her "looking young" every time she walked out of the parlor.
Enough being said about my second love .. In 2014 October Car lease came to an end and I had two options .. Either continue to own this great lady OR try something better.
Petrol head kicked in and the later sounded the better and background search started. Read the below thread many many times with the same enthu and interest, to find out at least two new things every iteration. GTO has written it in such a beautiful way that anybody ( Including mass) will get tempted to change their mind. Thanks a lot for such a wonderful thread.
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/buying-car/71707-article-best-used-enthusiast-cars-6-lakh-rupees-less.html and also read the below one
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/buying-car/18859-article-how-buy-used-car-india.html
The requirements were fairly simple with reason stated against each.
1) Should have ABS and Airbags. - Missed in i20 due to magna.
2) Boot Space should be equal to or greater than my i20 (Practical 295L) - Do lot of long trip with my kiddo.
3) Steering should have proper feedback at high speeds. - This is one thing I always missed in my i20 EPS.
4) Interiors/Fit and Finish should be clean. - Expectations went up after spending good 4 years with my i20
5) Adequate power in the second gear - Missed in my underpowered/poorly tuned petrol i20.
7) Good AC - Air Condition wan't that effective when followed the manual (23 degree Cel) in my i20
6) Car should be good looking - Wifey's Requirement and I do not question "why" in such circumstances. :)
Below the the story of the entire process.
Heart was stolen by Honda Civic since it's inception on indian roads. I still remember the day I sold my soul to this beauty. Here it goes.
I was at Anil Kumble Circle, on the way to my office in M.G. Road Bangalore, on my black 150cc brand new Bajaj Pulsar.
The White Civic comes and stops on my left side. The blue illuminated Digital Speedo and the 2-tier layered dash made me glance her again, again and again. The driver's hand and head was obstacle to magnificent inner beauty and I was struggling a lot have clean view. The gentleman in the driver understood my intentions and leaned back and removed his hands from steering wheel. I just could not take my eyes off her. My thumb went up say thank you before I realized the signal turned green and the gentleman nodded his head.
In 2010, I did a lot of math to accommodate something which has boot.. However head and the heart never converged on the same page. New Civic was still a gorgeous 'princess sleeping' in the Devil's castle. Did not have the courage to fight five mountain's stand to become Master Roshi's student.
The financial obligations made me stay away from Honda show room till they started manufacturing Brio and Amaze and both the cars did not impress me much. No offense made to any owners.
Had chance to drive my friend's Honda City (V 2010 make) on our bachelor's trip to Mumbai in 2013 December. This trip made me lunge for honda engine. I really loved the racing dynamics and the highway stability of the car. This one trip really spinned my head to seriously think about Honda cars.
However I do not wanted to get baised and get into the used car market. Kept my mind and soul as clean as possible to make a note of pros and cons of everything I shortlist.
#1 Fait T-JET Linea : Fulfilled all my listed requirements except the sixth one. :( I should have put that as number one .. I am so much used to priority based preemptive schedulerthat, I apply "Lower the number Higher the priority" everywhere. Just forgot about priority inversion and LINEA was out.
#2 Ford Mondeo : I am a big fan of this car. The only reason I stayed away was reliability over the long term as I was planning keep the car for at least 4 years.
#3 Honda Civic : Fulfilled all the requirements including the wifey's sixth one. Well this was a general ask not being serious about buying or owning it. I keep asking about the likes and dislikes of all the cars generally.
Head and Heart converged on the same page. Three way hand shake done. Good to go for RX (Civic) and TX(i20).
Me : What do you think I should do ?? Should I transfer i20 to my name or sell it..?
Wf : You must have gone crazy .. New car again ??
Me : What again ?? .. It's been Fooooooour years.
Wf : Say it like 4. Not Foooooouur.
Me : Ok .. 4 years but don't you think it is still old given the fact that two facelift and an all new in the market already ?
Wf : No .. It still looks the brand new inside out.
Me : Agree .. No doubt on that. .. We have to change the battery now.
Wf : You are trading battery change for an car upgrade ??
Me: Not only battery .. Tyres/Wiper blades as well.. and there is some sort of noise from the engine bay.
Wf : Noise from when ?
Me : Yesterday afternoon. ..
Wf : We have committed for a flat and we are not selling our i20.
Me : Who said I am running away from that...What I am saying is we will monitor the progress of the project using Civic... :)
Wf : Civic ?? I remember you telling me it's heavy on the vallet.
Me: Yes it is the new one .. .. Not the used one :)
Wf : What's the deal... tell me .. What is running in your mind ?
Me : Sell i20 and put the delta and buy Civic. ..No loan nothing. .. Like GTO did.
Wf : Who is this GTO now?
Silence for 2 mins. .. Good that my mom interrupted this conversation to tell me that my car is still good.
Me : What do you think which colour civic looks better ?
Wf : i20 grey
Me : mom How about the new car ??
Mom : Why do you need one .. This one is so good. .. and all have four tyres and can carry only 5 people.
Me : Yeah .. Both you said the same thing while selling zen four years back. What do you expect ?? The car should have 8 tyres and carry 15 of them.. huh ??
Silence for 1 minute...
Me : Tanvi (My daughter) which color car you want papa to buy beta?
Dtr : Pink .. :)
All started laughing.
Wf : So you have made up your mind and just completing the formalities..
Me : No ... not yet. But there is NO confusion in my mind at least ..
Wf : Both are one and the same.
Me : Not really .. What I mean is Either I am sticking to the old car OR buying the used one. Not the new car. No confusion on that.
Wf : So changing the tyres and battery ?
Me : Yes .. With the car itself .. Not separately ..
Wf : If it makes sense to you . ... Go ahead.
Me : Thanks ..
The deal is sealed. Good start is half the work done..:)
First thing first checked with Honda Terrace and found no Civic. Started looking into team-bhp/OLX/quickr/carwale etc and started comparing them.
Saw couple of the cars across bangalore and they were ill maintained. Ruled them out in less than 30 minutes.
Some brokers showed me some good cars but I felt the ask was little more than the market price.
In the process of searching came across a beautiful black Skoda Superb, which was just a little over my budget. It was very tempting. Head won the battle over the heart.
Here the deal got sealed. One of the employee was flying to US and had to settle his CeeVee before the D-Day.
Ask for 1.8 V i-VTEC/Dec 2010/42K on Odometer/Second owner was 7.5L and I offered him 6.2L and deal got closed at 6.3L.
Checked with Dakshin Honda for the service history and insurance claim. Both were clean and Major 40K service was done.
I could barely sleep once I made up mind and we settled on the price. He handed over the keys to me in IndiraNagar RTO office.
First time I got into the driver's seat of the Civic. I was excited and nervous at the same time. Don't know how to explain that.
I wasn't really comfortable driving such a big car in the city for the first time and also had to remember all the time about the boot and it's width. Somehow managed to reach home.
Next week took her to parlour. The following were checked/changed.
1) Mineral Oil to Synthetic Oil
2) AC duct cleaning (again)
3) Check Engine Mount/Air and Oil Filter / Brake pads/ wheel alignment / Wiper blades etc. - All seemed fine and Honda certified it :)
4)OSRAM night breaker bulbs of same capacity .. but sharper beam.
Including wash and other normal checking costed me 7.1K on my vallet. This I felt reasonable.
She is very handy in overtaking.
She likes to be revved and redlined.
Awesome above 3K RPM.
She makes the cabin cool within 60 seconds.
Makes me smile every time I drive her ..
Her seats feels like someone is hugging you from the behind, so that you do not fall.
The engine noise. I really love it.
Little hard gearbox, though it is slot-keen.
With all being said .. I still owe an answer to the question "Kitna Deti Hai " ??
She needs a litre to drive me about 10.3 kilometer with all time windows rolled up keeping me cool inside the cabin.
Eveytime I drive her .. I fall in love with her.
I am taking her to Konkan side of Maharastra this december . Will keep you posted.
Me : I have to tell you something.
Wf : What ?
Me : How about over an ice cream at Corner House?
Wf : Fine .. But Only after the kiddo sleeps. ..Something Fishy ?? Huh ??
Me : Na na .. Just like that.
At Corner house and DBC on table
Me : I have fell in love with another lady ..
Wf : Not now and not again ... The one you have is already doing great..
Me : I agree .. But trust me the new one I fell for is amazing.
Wf : What's the problem with existing lady ?
Me : She is too old :(
Wf : How come all of sudden she become so old .... I remember you telling me she is pretty, a day before.
Me : I was forced to say .. :(
Silence for 5 mins and the hot chocolate sauce was getting colder and colder.
Me : BTW.. this dress looks nice on you.
Wf : I know your intentions and the reason behind the praise ...
Me : Really .. I mean it. .. I will not forget to say the same thing everytime you wear it.
Wf : You have not wished me for last Bday .. and u think you will be able to remember this one .. ?
Me : There are exceptions to everything in this world ... Anyways forget it .. How about the new lady ?
Wf : Are you serious you will sell our beloved Zen (Vxi 2004)
Me : Not sure .. But I can make up my mind for that ..
Wf : Who is the new girl in your mind ??
Me : i20
Wf : Won't it be costly ?
Me : I will manage...Excel sheet speaks the green and works out good on car lease.
Wf : Education for Kiddo should be plannned..
Me : I know and there is a plan in place.
Silence for 2 mins. .. All the ice cream got over and couple of the flies were trying to suck the dripping chocolate suace off the bowl.
Me: Planning to Sell it to Maruthi True Value and he is giving me 1.7L
Wf : You have already spoken ??
Me : Sort of .. at last serivce. ..
Wf : When do we get the new car .. Any waiting period ?
Me : Sales guy told me within a week..
Wf : You have already spoken ???
Me : Sort of .. when I had been to the show room to enquiry for my friend.
Wf : How long does it take to process loan in your company ??
Me : 4-5 working days
Wf : You have already spoken ??
Me : Sort of ... When I went to collect the shipment ... It's near by.
Wf : You must have decided on colour too then ??
Me : I will leave it on you.
Eventually we ended up buying grey colour i20 magna in october 2010. I must tell you the curvy grey lady never ever disappointed me. She is always been my companion for 49,000 kilometers of my all terrain drive covering almost all the south indian states and Maharastra plus Goa.
I used to take her regularly to her beloved beauty parlors..(Trident or Advaith). I used to wish her "looking young" every time she walked out of the parlor.
Enough being said about my second love .. In 2014 October Car lease came to an end and I had two options .. Either continue to own this great lady OR try something better.
Petrol head kicked in and the later sounded the better and background search started. Read the below thread many many times with the same enthu and interest, to find out at least two new things every iteration. GTO has written it in such a beautiful way that anybody ( Including mass) will get tempted to change their mind. Thanks a lot for such a wonderful thread.
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/buying-car/71707-article-best-used-enthusiast-cars-6-lakh-rupees-less.html and also read the below one
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/buying-car/18859-article-how-buy-used-car-india.html
The requirements were fairly simple with reason stated against each.
1) Should have ABS and Airbags. - Missed in i20 due to magna.
2) Boot Space should be equal to or greater than my i20 (Practical 295L) - Do lot of long trip with my kiddo.
3) Steering should have proper feedback at high speeds. - This is one thing I always missed in my i20 EPS.
4) Interiors/Fit and Finish should be clean. - Expectations went up after spending good 4 years with my i20
5) Adequate power in the second gear - Missed in my underpowered/poorly tuned petrol i20.
7) Good AC - Air Condition wan't that effective when followed the manual (23 degree Cel) in my i20
6) Car should be good looking - Wifey's Requirement and I do not question "why" in such circumstances. :)
Below the the story of the entire process.
Bringing Head and Heart on the same page.
Heart was stolen by Honda Civic since it's inception on indian roads. I still remember the day I sold my soul to this beauty. Here it goes.
I was at Anil Kumble Circle, on the way to my office in M.G. Road Bangalore, on my black 150cc brand new Bajaj Pulsar.
The White Civic comes and stops on my left side. The blue illuminated Digital Speedo and the 2-tier layered dash made me glance her again, again and again. The driver's hand and head was obstacle to magnificent inner beauty and I was struggling a lot have clean view. The gentleman in the driver understood my intentions and leaned back and removed his hands from steering wheel. I just could not take my eyes off her. My thumb went up say thank you before I realized the signal turned green and the gentleman nodded his head.
In 2010, I did a lot of math to accommodate something which has boot.. However head and the heart never converged on the same page. New Civic was still a gorgeous 'princess sleeping' in the Devil's castle. Did not have the courage to fight five mountain's stand to become Master Roshi's student.
The financial obligations made me stay away from Honda show room till they started manufacturing Brio and Amaze and both the cars did not impress me much. No offense made to any owners.
Had chance to drive my friend's Honda City (V 2010 make) on our bachelor's trip to Mumbai in 2013 December. This trip made me lunge for honda engine. I really loved the racing dynamics and the highway stability of the car. This one trip really spinned my head to seriously think about Honda cars.
However I do not wanted to get baised and get into the used car market. Kept my mind and soul as clean as possible to make a note of pros and cons of everything I shortlist.
#1 Fait T-JET Linea : Fulfilled all my listed requirements except the sixth one. :( I should have put that as number one .. I am so much used to priority based preemptive schedulerthat, I apply "Lower the number Higher the priority" everywhere. Just forgot about priority inversion and LINEA was out.
#2 Ford Mondeo : I am a big fan of this car. The only reason I stayed away was reliability over the long term as I was planning keep the car for at least 4 years.
#3 Honda Civic : Fulfilled all the requirements including the wifey's sixth one. Well this was a general ask not being serious about buying or owning it. I keep asking about the likes and dislikes of all the cars generally.
Head and Heart converged on the same page. Three way hand shake done. Good to go for RX (Civic) and TX(i20).
The Persuade Process
Me : What do you think I should do ?? Should I transfer i20 to my name or sell it..?
Wf : You must have gone crazy .. New car again ??
Me : What again ?? .. It's been Fooooooour years.
Wf : Say it like 4. Not Foooooouur.
Me : Ok .. 4 years but don't you think it is still old given the fact that two facelift and an all new in the market already ?
Wf : No .. It still looks the brand new inside out.
Me : Agree .. No doubt on that. .. We have to change the battery now.
Wf : You are trading battery change for an car upgrade ??
Me: Not only battery .. Tyres/Wiper blades as well.. and there is some sort of noise from the engine bay.
Wf : Noise from when ?
Me : Yesterday afternoon. ..
Wf : We have committed for a flat and we are not selling our i20.
Me : Who said I am running away from that...What I am saying is we will monitor the progress of the project using Civic... :)
Wf : Civic ?? I remember you telling me it's heavy on the vallet.
Me: Yes it is the new one .. .. Not the used one :)
Wf : What's the deal... tell me .. What is running in your mind ?
Me : Sell i20 and put the delta and buy Civic. ..No loan nothing. .. Like GTO did.
Wf : Who is this GTO now?
Silence for 2 mins. .. Good that my mom interrupted this conversation to tell me that my car is still good.
Me : What do you think which colour civic looks better ?
Wf : i20 grey
Me : mom How about the new car ??
Mom : Why do you need one .. This one is so good. .. and all have four tyres and can carry only 5 people.
Me : Yeah .. Both you said the same thing while selling zen four years back. What do you expect ?? The car should have 8 tyres and carry 15 of them.. huh ??
Silence for 1 minute...
Me : Tanvi (My daughter) which color car you want papa to buy beta?
Dtr : Pink .. :)
All started laughing.
Wf : So you have made up your mind and just completing the formalities..
Me : No ... not yet. But there is NO confusion in my mind at least ..
Wf : Both are one and the same.
Me : Not really .. What I mean is Either I am sticking to the old car OR buying the used one. Not the new car. No confusion on that.
Wf : So changing the tyres and battery ?
Me : Yes .. With the car itself .. Not separately ..
Wf : If it makes sense to you . ... Go ahead.
Me : Thanks ..
The deal is sealed. Good start is half the work done..:)
Hunting Process
First thing first checked with Honda Terrace and found no Civic. Started looking into team-bhp/OLX/quickr/carwale etc and started comparing them.
Saw couple of the cars across bangalore and they were ill maintained. Ruled them out in less than 30 minutes.
Some brokers showed me some good cars but I felt the ask was little more than the market price.
In the process of searching came across a beautiful black Skoda Superb, which was just a little over my budget. It was very tempting. Head won the battle over the heart.
Here the deal got sealed. One of the employee was flying to US and had to settle his CeeVee before the D-Day.
Ask for 1.8 V i-VTEC/Dec 2010/42K on Odometer/Second owner was 7.5L and I offered him 6.2L and deal got closed at 6.3L.
Checked with Dakshin Honda for the service history and insurance claim. Both were clean and Major 40K service was done.
The D-Day
First time I got into the driver's seat of the Civic. I was excited and nervous at the same time. Don't know how to explain that.
I wasn't really comfortable driving such a big car in the city for the first time and also had to remember all the time about the boot and it's width. Somehow managed to reach home.
Next week took her to parlour. The following were checked/changed.
1) Mineral Oil to Synthetic Oil
2) AC duct cleaning (again)
3) Check Engine Mount/Air and Oil Filter / Brake pads/ wheel alignment / Wiper blades etc. - All seemed fine and Honda certified it :)
4)OSRAM night breaker bulbs of same capacity .. but sharper beam.
Including wash and other normal checking costed me 7.1K on my vallet. This I felt reasonable.
Driving Experience so Far
Likes :
Though she is made for highway criusing, did not get a chance to take her out for a fresh breath. Did only one mysore trip in last three months.
She is very handy in overtaking.
She likes to be revved and redlined.
Awesome above 3K RPM.
She makes the cabin cool within 60 seconds.
Makes me smile every time I drive her ..
Her seats feels like someone is hugging you from the behind, so that you do not fall.
The engine noise. I really love it.
Dislikes:
Inadequate torque at lower rpm.
Little hard gearbox, though it is slot-keen.
With all being said .. I still owe an answer to the question "Kitna Deti Hai " ??
She needs a litre to drive me about 10.3 kilometer with all time windows rolled up keeping me cool inside the cabin.
Eveytime I drive her .. I fall in love with her.
I am taking her to Konkan side of Maharastra this december . Will keep you posted.
