Road trip complete. Car got in yesterday at noon. Total journey worked out to 1500kms with pitstops and took 28 hours of driving time. Car averaged 9kmpl without aircon (a feat for a decade old cielo). The driver could have pushed it and could have been here Monday night but I recommended him to halt at Agra overnight (He reached Agra at 8:00pm).
Roads were pretty bad from Jamshedpur to Varanasi. It got progressivley better. As for anti-social elements - the driver did say that he had many inquisitive people in UP come up and ask what a car from Bihar (BR16K reg.) was doing here and he felt unsafe a few times when people started hovering around him.
The car reached fine without any major malfunctions along the way and as it entered Gurgaon - it got it's first peck from a honda civic - nothing major - a little fender bender that a touch up job should take care of. However things went a little worse from there. As I took the car out at night for a quick drive to make sure she was all okay, the damn ignition switch shorted and I was left stranded in Sushant Lok! In all fairness, the ignition switch has gone kaput after 10 years (The original switch never gave problems unlike other cielo's and astras where I believe this is quite common). I am getting a replacement switch today and hopefully I will have an uneventful summer. |