Car - My answer to your WHY?

Its time to get a car in India... I have always been looking out for driving... I love driving, be it a two wheeler or a four and for that matter, the one with the wings... My dream was to spend atleast an year with a good car, before getting trapped in the maze called marriage. It happened (not the marriage, but the car thing) when I went to onsite, where I got a car and managed to have fun for almost 24months. The dream became true... I came back to India and now, its time to get married.

Before that, a car, i think is a very important. I can go out with my family (us and our parents) in one vehicle. Otherwise, with a two wheeler, I can only take one person and that sounded little odd. So, I wanted to get a car. After somehow convincing my mom (my father is more eager than me to get a car) I went ahead for a search or should I say research.

There are too many options available in the market right now. Alto, WagonR, Zen Estilo, Swift, Santro and Getz. Later joined Hyundai's i10 and Skoda's Fabia. On top these, there were other cars from Fiat and other companies. I did not want to go for them, for the very reason, they were not so appealing in their looks.

Why an hatchback? Simple reason... Easy to handle, especially in the heavy chennai city traffic. On top of it, if my father wants to drive, Hatchback is the right option than a sedan (Sedan is little big as it has a boot space. E.g. Esteem, SX4, Accent, etc.). Also, I wanted to buy some car that is features packed. A Sedan with lots of features will cost more than my budget. Thats yet another reason that I decided to go for an hatchback.

Why features are more important? You think of various things. Let me explain why features are very important in this blog.

You are driving alone to say Mahabalipuram taking up ECR road, obviously. You have your music switched on in good volume. You just got a coffee to sip and you are driving, with coffee in one hand. Ofcourse, something that can be easily done in ECR as it requires very few gear changes (atleast during non-peak, non-traffic hours). You get nearer to the toll plaza. We all know, we need to pay the toll. What will you do now?

1. You need to keep your coffee cup somewhere. A cup holder would come in handy. Wherelse will you keep your cup!!!
2. Once cup issue is settled, you need to reduce the volume. Integrated audio with controls on the steering wheel will help. Otherwise, you need to reach the audio system control and there is a possibility of loosing control of the car. You can reduce the volume more easily using the controls in the steering wheel itself.
3. Then comes the job of lowering the windows. You would hate to rotate the lever to get the window down. How about a push of a small button to lower the windows for you? This is what power windows is all about.
4. Take out money from the pocket. Simple, pull your wallet out in one hand. Ooops, sometimes you might not know that the car is taking a direction and going towards the wall. If you have a power steering, you can easily turn it and get it to position, without applying sharp brake.
5. Now that you got the ticket, you need to keep it somewhere. The ticket holder is meant exactly for this purpose.
   
6. You start driving again. There is a little bend and it looks like there is some water/oil on the road. You need to slow down the vehicle and you tried applying the brake. Obviously, when the brake was applied on a wet surface, the vehicle would skid. To avoid this, technology in the form of ABS (Anti-lock Braking System) is available now.
   
7. Lets say it is early in the morning and there is a lots of fog. This means you might not be able to see the road as clearly as you should be seeing. Fog lamps in place will solve this problem.
   
8. What will you do with your Air Conditioner switched on. It will get cold and you would have to reduce it, increase it based on how cold it is inside the cabin. Would it help, if you can set a temparature and make sure that the cabin is maintained at that level. Automatic Climate Control will exactly provide that setup for you.
   
9. Enough of continuous driving. You want a short break. Probably for a cup of coffee in a restaurant. You with your family, can just stop your car and go in, have your coffee and come back. But before going in, you need to make sure that all the doors are locked. You done need press the knob for all the doors or much simply, you, from the driver seat can do it with a click of a button, if you have central locking.
   
10. What if you forget to remove the keys but locked the door. No, you don't want to do that. You can ask your friend (obviously the most responsible person) to remind you. But, he might forget as well. So, why take chances??? There is a warning alarm for this which will surely don't forget this ever.
    
11. When you comeback after coffee, you need to open the doors. You can use the key or much easily, you can use the keyless entry mechanism to open the doors with just a click of the button.
    
12. Your friend who is little taller than you wants to drive the car and you give the keys to him. He sits inside and might find the seats little higher. It would be great to have height adjustible seats... On top of it, a tiltable steering wheel...
    
13. Your friend did not close the door properly. A warning light glows and you can ask your friend to close the doors properly.
    
14. You can comfort your friend saying, "Man, this is one of those safest cars because this has Dual Airbags". I think your friend will drive the car even more comfortably now.
    
15. Your friend wants to charge his mobile phone. You sure need a provision in the cabin somewhere.
    
16. Your friend had driven you till Pondy. Won't you feel happy if he praises you, for purchasing a car that has less vibration, less engine sound, good drivability and good mileage... Won't to like to add to his comments, saying this car will comfortably seat 5 and works out cheaper in maintenance cost as well.
    

Being an employee of TATA Groups, I should not say that everyone should go in for a car that is rich is feature and there by little costly. I should say, pay 1 Lakh and get a Nano. But thats not what I am going to say, up untill, Nano is out in the market. As of today, I think features are important.

I have seen all the above said features in few premium hatchbacks in India and my choice is Maruti Suzuki Swift Zxi.

In my next post, I will explain in detail how I arrived at this...