Its been almost a month since I have been here. Its a different experience all together. So thought of writing my thoughts on how do I feel about the roads over here, driving experience etc etc.
I know its a bit weird kind of topic. But still, after having driven an Indica around for 4k kms in Bangalore, and seeing variety of cars over here, I could manage an opinion of my own.
Disclaimer - The thoughts written over here are completely of my own. I have to prove no one wrong. All my comparison done is by my own driving experience. People may completely disagree with my point of view.
I have driven my car in and around Bangalore. I have run through many rough roads, passed over many potholes, cross many humps, some of which I had to downshift to first gear and few other may be 2 or 3 where in the bottom part of my car touched the road (with 5 people on board).
But still I was very happy with Indica Vista Terra Tdi. It used to give me good mileage and it had bucket loads of space. But when I saw other cars, many a thing still eluded me. Like the initial pickup of a diesel hatch was very low. Every other petrol car used to overtake me when I slowed down and crossed a hump. It never bothered me. Since I was very much aware of it while buying the diesel hatch.
The problem of poor pickup once cropped up on the two lane Kanakapura road, where I had to overtake, a sand truck, when the driver gave me a handsignal to overtake, I dint have enough zip, rest of the time, there was on coming traffic. But in every other situation, it worked well, really well. Infact it was a gem.
Initially I used to think, what is the point in having a high end car sedan / SUV in India, you need good roads to touch great speeds. Its a waste of money. But after seeing loads of cars over here, I feel, owning a sedan in India and driving it on pothole and hump laden roads of Bangalore is the bestest thing.
Why?? Check out below.
There are no roadhumps over here, absolutely no potholes. the only hump I could see is in my office within the campus, where there is a deviation to the basement parking.
Diff - How will you test your car's shock absorbers on a flat well laid out road.?? Even an entry level hatch can match the comfort of a sedan on this road. (might be the leg room and AC etc mite come into picture but apart from this, I feel rest is the same).
In India, if you have a high end car, you can put it to thorough test and then find out whats the real comfort in the highly paid car.
Most cars over here I see are automatic geared.
The real fun comes with gears, without gears it more like driving a F1 car in a computer game, where you want to compete with people but with less pain. Or you can imagine driving a ungeared two wheeler.
I feel its with humps and potholes which determine that, its an awesome feel to own a huge high end car in India, coz its there where you can literally outperform the smaller cars. Yes I had to slow down at every pothole whilst the bigger SUV s with 15 inch + wheels just glided over them
And regarding high speeds which comes into picture. There are superb roads in and around Bangalore, so you can put it to test there.
If I am given an option to choose between speed and manuverability, I would definitely choose the second one.
Cheers,
Sandeep
