Your Previous cars.

[v12]

Hi guys,

Just thought of sharing some pics of our previously owned cars.


Premier Padmini Safari [pic taken from the Web]
Our very first car[s] was the Premier Padmini Safari [and you thought the Tata Estate was the first Estate]. And that too two of them. One in green and the other in blue. Both cars
were purchased 2nd hand. I dont remember much about these cars except that my dad sold both of them within a short period of time.



MHJ 1033 with Hella fogs and fan
We then moved on to the Premire Padmini [PP] [sedan, this time] and kept on selling it and buying another Padmini for quite a few years. MHJ 1033 was one of the best PP we have ever owned. Painted complete white with 2 Hella foglamps, the car looked quite amazing. And we even took it Mangalore 2wice without any breakdowns at all. Only mods on the car included a fan and a stereo.

After having bought many PPs after this, we decided to move on to the Maruti 800 [SS80]. Red was the obvious choice as no other color suited the SS80 more than red. Only mods on the car include a new stereo which was stolen within 2 months. We have used the car on numerous ocassions like picnics, long drives etc. It could also seat almost 8 people [2 adults + 6 kids] in total discomfort [small boot also included]. The good thing about the SS80 was that it had an original Suzuki engine which still gives trouble-free maintainence.

After selling the SS80, we then moved on to the Omni. Enough space to keep luggage and seat 5 comfortably, this was our ideal car for the next Mangalore trip. We got a low-roof blue Omni [8544 i guess]. This also was fitted with 2 Hella foglamps and a stereo.


High-roof Omni with silver sticker and Hella
The low-roof then gave way to a dark brown High-roof Omni. Never liked the color, but since the paint was good we decided not to repaint it. This was a bit extra modified than the Low-roof. Extra stuff included one more Hella foglamp, some simple sticker work across the body
and chrome wheelcaps and a stereo. This car too was put hru the Mangalore trip and completed it without major/minor problems. Only problem we encountered when we fitted it with a Premier Padmini roof carrier on our way back [you see we had to carry lots of jackfruits ]. The roof carrier started rattling all of a sudden and was on the verge of coming off its hinges. We had 3 of us [front and rear window passengers] holding the roof from each side so that it doesnt come off. After holding it for almost 2 hours, we decided that "Thats IT. Lets get rid of it before it breaks our hands." We got off, put all the luggage in the boot [where my cousin was sitting] and threw the carrier. And within *a few seconds, we see almost 5-7 villagers who were watching the scene running towards the carrier and fighting over who's gonna take it. Ha Ha Ha...........That was quite a scene.

The Omni gave way to the new Maruti 800 [SB308]. I guess the number was MH-02-L-8016. We bought the car for almost a lac [2nd hand obviously]. This was the first and only car that we REALLY modified. The car came in white and mag wheels were the in-thing in those days. And thats when my dad decided that *our car should look different. So the
steel wheels gave way to some real fat mags with spacers. Fatter mags also meant some real fat tyres. Roof mounted LED brake light. Small Wooden steering wheel. Pioneer stereo. Drilled pedals. Door visors. And obviously the now standard Hella foglamps. And there our car was transformed into one of the best looking M800's in the area. And thats the car i actually started learning on. A year later we decided to sell the car since it was becoming too small for us [3 brothers growing up you see ]. And we sold the car for an enormous profit which helped us in buying a Maruti 1000.


Repainted M100 without Hella
The Maruti 1000 was gray in color. And the color was quite dull. So we decided to repaint it. We got it painted light blue. Mods on this car included front crash guard, Formula One wheel caps [thats what they were called], Pioneer stereo with 10-inch woofer. No Hella this time. This car also passed the Mangalore test without giving us any problems.



Dukkar Fiat FF with Cielo black paint [this pic was taken after the car was sold. Therefore it has an aluminium look grille and bumpers]
The M1000 then gave way to a dark green Esteem which carried over the Pioneer stereo and 10-in woofer. Added extra onto it were some tweeters and 6-spoke [same as the Opel Astra Soccer Edition]. No Hella again this time. *All the tweeters and 1 speaker conked off cos one of the guys had wrongly connected the speakers to the amp. It was during this time that my elder bro had set his eyes on the Dukkar Fiat [BLO 37 or as we would call it BLOW 37] . We bought one for 7k and spent another 12-15k in doing it up. This was the oldest cars we have ever owned. It was a 1957 model. The original grille was quite rusted so my bro started looking out for a used one in Chor Bazaar. 3000 bucks for a chrome peice. We decided to powder coat the old one itself. Mods on the Dukkar included black Cielo paint, bucket seats, sporty steering wheels [with feather-touch horn buttons], free flow and VERY POWERFUL headlamps, Alpine stereo. The car was a beauty and there were many people who wanted to buy it. *
The Esteem was sold a year later and replaced by a white Esteem. Petrol prices increased and we started finding the Esteem a bit difficult to maintain. So we sold the Esteem too
and were left without a car for almost 3 months. 3 months later we bought a Tata Estate [MH-04-X-4560]. Used it for a while and since it wasnt in "That good" condition we sold it
and brought another Estate [MH-02-L-382]. Mods on it included fatter Bridgestone tyres, Pioneer stereo with 12-in woofers and amp. Hella returns. The Estate and the Dukkar
turned out pretty expensive to maintain. *The Estate gave a mileage of around 6-7 and the Dukkar around 3-5 in city driving.


Present Car : Qualis
So both were sold and now we have the Qualis which hasnt yet been to Mangalore and still does not have the "standard" Hella fogs. But lets see. This October we are planning to
go to Mangalore and still awaiting Home Ministers [Mom] approval for taking the Qualis along.


How about everyone going for drive in the past and posting something about your previous cars here?

[lamborghini]

hey v12.....
intresting article..
well any way heres my list .....
in my family of 5 we have always maintained 6 cars until now .......
ill tell u abt the cars i used personally so it odes not get confusing......
i can tell the others if anybody is intrestd.....
any way i started of with a 800 - fiery red...
sold it after 3 years and got a green 800 along by 3 padminis .......
then sold of the 800 for another 800 - new look - maroon
then after that got a pug 307 petrol but was forced to sell it off and then used my siss esteem when she got a new one....
then again i got old esteem from where i got an ikon after which its the palio and naxia now....
i dont remember what happened to padminis ..........

[v12]

oh the 307. We had bought one too. was a heart surgeons car. very well maintained. I remember driving it all the way from Peddar Rd to Bandra and it was so confusing. The hron button is at the end of the left stalk. Imagine everytime i had to operate the horn i had to leave the gears and use the stalk. The drive was good. But then my dad decided that spares will be difficult and expensive to procure. So we had to sell it.

Forgot to mention, we also owned an Opel Astra, Mahindra MM540, Toyota Corolla [old model].

[shravan316]

Well....We first owned an 800 this was bought on the 24th of August in the year 1992.....then we bought a Zen on the 17th of February in the year 1996. this was there with us for a good 7 years. On the 31st of march 2003 we moved for a LPG Maruti Omni.....though i was thoroughly against going in for a Omni from a Zen.
The Van didn't last for long with us as my dad hated the ride of the 'box on four wheels' in the city but, loved it on the mud roads of my native!
Next up......the Hyundai Accent....this was bought on the 23rd of February 2004, which again didn't support for . Coz i would have preferred an Ikon or a City Vtec or something like that. Anyways thats the list till now. Soon there maybe an addition as i may go for a car.

[Jaggu]

hmmm nostalgia.. let me give it a try..
when i was born.. pops use to ride around in a Standard 10 and he got himself a Herald also.. then graduated to good ol Fiat 1100 or Padmini then booked a M800 old box model but waiting period was loong so got himself a Standard 10 again lol.. finally lost patience and got a Maruti Van (omni) delivered in 1 week.. used it for 8 odd years and me got chance to learn driving Got 118 NE used it for a year and i managed to bugger up the front with Twin lights, Amby and Swaraj Mazda ones.. sold it n got a Maruti 1000.. used it for 3 years and got a Zen (thanks to sons advice) lol.. Me also started earning and like a good old boy went n baught a Gypsy wide track with 1000 engine.. got bored in a years time and got an Esteem thrashed it for couple of months and managed to THRASH it for good and sold it..current vehicle Ikon 1.6 lit and Bajaj CT 100

Other cars in family Bro graduated from 800 to Zen to Honda, and couple of Zens, Wagon R, Qualis, Matiz and an Amby used to be handed out for my free of charge servicing deals and once in a while laung hauls.. lol

[ajmat]

When I was born in the UK, my folks had a Mini and and Austin 1100, these gave way to an MG Midget and and Austin Cambrige, which gave way to a VW Variant and a Beetle which took us all around Europe - did 100,000 miles without a breakdown. Kept the Variant till we left the UK and sold the Beetle and bought a Merc 220D with the intent of bringing it over. Merc was slow but amazingly engineered. At that time Merc's were very rare and you had to be "somebody" to have one. It took 6 months to order and deliver (heard that some where before ?).

We decided not to bring the Merc over - during our transition to India, we bought an Amby which got scatched so my Dad said no point paying 300% duty + 100% value deposited with customs (a right decision but I did not feel so at 13)

Amby stayed with us from 1975-1990 - Tried my best to break the car but it never died - caught caught doing a 4 wheel slide in a sewage infested road by my mum once. Tried conning my mum to buy a Fiat but she refused. She could never understand why the amby did 5km/l when she only travelled 5km/day. My mom sold it when my sister wanted to drive and bought a van - By then I was abroad - They really screwed the van through sheer neglect - I used to redo it on my visits only for them to badly screw it up again.

The van got stolen, I bought her a newer van which although in good condition was worse than the old van to drive. That van became unreliable so she bought a new Santro which she keeps well - why ? look out for a scary incident later with my Zen

As for me, after my failure in destroying the Ambassador, I moved back to the UK and was given the use of a VW Scirocco. This was a great car except for the brakes and really served me well. One day, got stolen and recvered but was never the same. Used to also drive my uncles w124 230E - great car but a six cyl engine would make it greater.

My first "own" car was a 1987 Peugeot 309SRi - basically it was a 205 GTi in a 309 body. I went to look at a 1985 205GTi - even though the insurance was horrific for a 25yearold like me. "Sorry sir !, just sold". Salesman said, theres a 309 over there, take it for a spin, and suggested a particular road.

I took it for a spin, and boy, the razor sharp response without the hypersensitivity of the 205 sold me. I also loved the stealth properties of the car. Neither cops or robbers looked at it, it could give BMW 320's a real licking on country roads. I still think that this is the best car I ever owned. Interior plastics were creaky though and seats were bit short for my 6 foot frame. It gave a serious deep hollow sporty note when pushed. It was the ideal car for country roads.

It was too low geared for motorways after the VW but I got used to it. The in gear acceleration was faster than a lot of cars. My chinese friends used to joke - why go to the amusement park - just take a trip with me. The 309 in India is just a taster, this car was the real thing for hairy driving, no power steering and you feel everything that the car does.

I bought it for 4500 pounds with 25000 miles on the clock and sold it 4 years later for 1750 pounds with 80000 miles on the clock. No breakdowns, original clutch, front tyres changes every 20k miles, rear tyres lasted for 70000 miles (goodyear NCT's). changed cambelt at 60000. Other than some brakepipe corrosion and a heaterfan diode - nothing ! Was driven hard at time in the UK when fast driving was okay as long as you were safe. Got stopped once as I was cornering hard but well within the limit -cops were not sure if it was a joy rider or an owner - (it was both!)

Returned to India - bought a Sierra - great for the honeymoon and then murphy's law kicked in - Arvind motors lost the service book - took a lot of pressure from Telco to get a replacement. Kept blowing the glowplug relay. Bits falling off, paintwork faults showing up. Need a suspension rebuild at 25000 km. Last straw - on May 1 , a colleague died, so going to his house when the steering linkage fell off. Went for the funeral (could have been mine if I had not slowed down ), as it was Mayday, I had to use my skills to bind up the linkage and limp home. Then one day, it blew the battery, so I replaced it (luckily my cousin was the sales manager for Standard Furukawa), it blew again, ...and again. We found that it was pumping 20 volts - no wonder the wipers used to start moving v fast and AC blow ice cold momentarily! Finally the car refused to switch off - had to stall the car. I decided to sell it so I repaired the car and parked it in the office ad refused to drive it any more. Sold it after 3years for 2.6lakhs if I waited for another year, I would have to pay someone to take it ! It was a great car for my honeymoon, luckily, my marriage was 10000000 times more relaible than the car.

I decided on a second hand Esteem but they were too expensive or too dodgy - saw many clocked one sold by "friends" of the owner. Remember the van that got stolen - it reappeared (cops found and were using it till someone traced it!) - we sepnt 20k on it and I used it until.............it got stolen again. My mum lent it to a friend ....rest is history. (also had a series of M 800 company cars - each orf a variable standard)

I went out and bought a new grey Zen in 1998 - fitted it with a Blaupunkt system. Was put to work commuting to Madras on a project. Did the job but suspension was limited. reat revvy engine, bit of an understeery car. Tried a later 2000 version and realised how bad later Zens are with the tyre downgrade + cat. Amazing stunt - one day, my mum's van breaksdown in a dodgy area of town, I go in the Zen with a tow rope, attach a the rope, a guy offers to help, finish job, get in car, get out wallet, pay Rs 20, guy pulls out stick demanding 100, tries hitting me, with one eye on him, and one on the road, I rev to 4000 rpm, pull out, van in tow and hit 60km/h, my mum in the van is shitting bricks, that taught her about keeping cars properly but the Zen saved my bacon.

Also bought an 800mpfi - 15 min buy went in, said i'l take a white one and wrote out a cheque. Planned to buy a second hand esteem but same old story on dealers etc.

Zen was limited on luggage and long journeys as my daughter had appeared. Sold the Zen to buy the Honda. A great car but cannot touch the Peugeat in terms of passion. Not writing about the Honda as you guys would have heard enough elsewhere.

[Revvmaster]

Great writeup Ajmat... wow, my experience was probably not even half-filled as this.

So one Nov evening in 1990, dad, mum, sis, me and uncle in tow headed to Resham Motors and picked up a Navy Blue Maruti 800 at Chembur. Oh, back then the 800 was the car to have since the other options weren't that great IMO. The car served us well for nearly 5 years. During that period we drove around 25-30,000 kms of sedate driving, the car held up really well. Nary a squeak from the engine bay, the usual Maruti squeaks from other places were omnipresent. What i really liked about the Marutis back then were the quality of metal used in all places. Our wheels never showed any signs of rust, the metal body felt strong, everything felt like a car that could hold up for 15 years or even more!

Next in came another Maruti 800. This time a white one in 1995. Strangely though my only fond memories of that car were that it had seatbelts and that's it. I never really enjoyed that car, not that it ever gave any problems, but just that it never gave us the excitement that we looked forward too. Had an aftermarket AC in it from Japan, which when switched on, ensured the car's speedo stuck at 100, nothing more.

1999 and we were in for a major surprise. First up in March we went ahead and purchased a White Zen and then in September a Green Zen VX, courtesy my dad's company, joined ranks with my white zen. Both cars were a great feeling. The zen always went high in my list for the simple reason that it felt a much better quality car, the 13 inch rims which ensured the car handled really well and so on and so forth. By May 2000, dad decided to get into business, so the green zen went back to the company, and in joined a Peacock green Matiz SD which still holds with our family.

Contrary to what many people said, the Matiz immediately went on my liking list. Its looks were encapsualting, the space pretty good for a small car and it felt tough and well built. What though really took my heart away was its very lovely chassis and that AC which still beats quite a few mid-size cars hollow. In the period of 4 years that it was with us, she's been banged around a bit by Mumbai's roads, mad cyclists, lady drivers and other maniacs, but never did it ever hold us up even if it was coughing loudly. I clearly remember coming out of the Expressway once and at Vashi the car started coughing really wildly. I thought its gonna give up on Vashi bridge, but neah, she went on till home. Later realised it was the fuel pump acting funny due to the bad quality fuel we'd filled up.

In 2002 March we let go of our White Zen and brought in the Zen VXi. My immediate reaction to it was, wow! Until i saw those lousy 12 inchers which i am still living with. Sure they improve ride quality but completely ruin handling. 35000 kms later the car is still in one piece, not a single problem at all.

So what's next on my list? Well i can only pray its something bigger and better. Maybe, i shud start scouting the 2nd hand market for some real cool deals. What say?

Revv

[satish_appasani]

This is a nice post taking me back in to long memory lanes.

In 1988 bought a second hand padmini from my uncle. It was so poor on FE that my Dad used to use two wheeler unless the whole family needs to go out. Once another uncle who owns a M800 took our Padmini for a couple of days. He was not aware that the radiator should be topped frequently with water and he burnt all the rubber hosings in the car. It was never the same with Padmini until we sold it in June 1993. We made a fair deal on this.

Then my Dad bought a new M800. This was the car that I learnt driving (My Dad did not allow me to drive the car until i attended a driving school). It was sold to a family friend in October 1997. My Dad never allowed me to put a stereo in this car.

M800 was replaced with new Zen in September 1997. That was the first Zen in my parents town with body color bumpers. It was a head turner for a couple of weeks. I was given the honor of driving it from showroom to home. After 1 year we bought the car, my Dad allowed me to put a stereo in it, but with in a limited budget. Rs.5,000.

My Dad used this till November 2002 and handed the keys over to me. He bought the new Siena 1.2. The only accessories I added to Zen after I took ownership are a new audio system with Mp3 and amp. This time no limit on the budget. Also put some Autographix stickers along the sides. It was eye catcher. I sold it off in May 2004. My next car is going to be Palio D and I should be owning it within less than a month.

All of our cars except the Siena were white. Siena is Hazel gray(Two tone color now on Palio). It was my choice and my parents did not know about the color until the car was driven to the house. They were unimpressed with the color. They wanted silver but I was against it. Actually the two tone paint looked much better on Siena than on Palio. My mom did not get in to the car for 1 week. But now it's everybody's baby. This time my Dad allowed me to put a Pioneer system. The car came with 4 speakers and 2 tweeters.

Also I owned two bikes in the last 12 years. I bought a Hero Honda SS when I got in to engineering in November 1993. I had been so bad to it that i overhauled it twice within the first 3 years of owning. But later it became my pet. Whenever there was a long vacation, I used to take the bike by train from Bellary in Karnataka(Enginnering college) to my parent's place in Andhra only to get it tuned at a specific workshop in my home town. the smoothness was there was there for the next 1 year. I sold it off in November 1999 and bought a brand new silver CBZ which was launched only a few months earlier. Until CBZ came up i did not find any bike worth to replace my SS. I sold the CBZ in March 2004. I never wanted to sell it. But was not using it after I got my car.

[Pankaj9]

well here's my list,
1. 1984-1992 - Padmini
2. 1992-1995 - Padmini this was an ac one.

from July 1995 till 1999 i was in USA studying and had some interesting bit of motoring,
Ford Escort '88 model bought it for $200 but then the car lasted for 6months,
then it was the Mercury Grand Marquis 85 model paid $1200 for it and after 40k miles sold it for a 84 model BMW 733i.
This car was with me for 4 months needed some cash for my flying so sold it for a Mazda 626 turbo......drove this car for one year and sold it to a friend before returning back to India.

Now i drive a M800, this is what i could afford wheni came back. But of course miss those cars and roads i drove then.

[v12]

Nice stories guys. So the Padmini and the M800 has been a part of everybody's life. Nobody's got an pics ??

Hey Jaggu, How was the Standard 10? Do you still have it? We had a Standard Ten in our garage for painting. It was black and the owner wanted it to be painted in 2-tone color [light green/dark green.......looks yuck now....but anyways its his choice]. Wanted to drive it but dad didnt even let me open the doors, forget driving. He said the owner was very particular abt the car [to the nuts and bolts]. Anyways heres a pic of the car :

[Jaggu]

yup thats the car... no we sold it couple of years back.. nobody to take care of it.. amzing thing with rock solid build and plenty of oppurtunity to fiddle also.. once the brake failed and was putting back to the garage and it went n banged the granite rock wall, in a newer car would have busted the bumper lights grill n radiator but this old fellow had just a small dent on those bumpre projections.. lol

[GTO]

Would be quite boring for you guys If I had to list them all, but heres a couple of specials.


Dad and I with my First Jeep!! Red with white wheels and all lights/horns working. Loved it to death and would never part from it - Slept in it, ate in it, studied in it. Did the same stuff with my current black Jeep. Well, I made the mistake of letting the red one go...but the black one is here to stay *




MMB 38. A very special car to us that was part of some really special times. It was that generations S Class and came loaded with things (ivory steering et all) that you dont see even in C segmenters of today. Was with us for a decade, but relocated to teh garage for the last 3 - 4 years. No parts, no knowledgeable mechanic and no time - My father used to actually ask my uncle to get wipers etc. for him from Germany. Farewell was a sad affair with the bhangarwalla picking her up for 10 grand.




I was very fond of this car, and still cant figure out why. Picked her up at 1:00 p.m. from Bombay Cycle & Motor...drove back to the showroom at 1:04 p.m. with a conked air-con. This was just a sign of things to come. Utterly unreliable, I cant remember a single outstation trip where she didnt require a visit to the doc. Had an annual bodywork contract with the local paintshop coz I live right on the beach and premier is a premier after all. Simply put it was the worst automobile I have ever owned.

Butttttttttttt the jet black glasses and chilly air-con provided for some good idling time during my college days *




This is the machine which started and ended my love affair with bikes. For exactly a year rrom the X'mas of '94 to '95, I would be at full throttle (all the time) in and around Mumbai. Lightning fast for the time, and every red signal was an invitation to race with the other Suzuki Shoguns (The RX100s nemesis). Never spent a buck on her in the entire 10000 km history. (dont laugh at the pic, the cowboy look happened to be very "in" then)
Sadly, it got flicked from Gaeity Cinema in Bandra exactly 365 days later.



But here is my best automotive experience ever

GTO

[F50]

Hey GTO looks like you wer Mika's fan

[v12]

whoa GTO. Cool pics.
The S is amazing. Its really sad you had to sell off the S. And that too for 10k. And worst of all to a bhangarwalla. That car could have been priceless now. Any idea if MMB 38 still exists??

P.S : Are those white-walled tyres??

[Stratos]

Everyone is writing some amazing stuff here.. here i write!!!

Had a nice light blue coloured 1978 Premier Padmini which my parents bought from the Kantawala Secondhand car mela in some year around 1992-93. Had a phlips stereo in it which was stolen on night by a CHOR by breaking the front quarter window.It was a truly amazing car..untill one day when my dad was standing at a red signal when a tempo behind him couldnt brake due to the wet roads and rammed into the car.The boot was thrashed up. We sold it a couple of days later.

Then no car till 97-98 when we bought a 1988 Maruti 800 white from some garage. The car was superb, even the paint on it was amazing. Infact I learned to drive on the same car.
The car was there untill 21st Nov 2000 ( my birthday ) when my dad booked a Emrald Green Tata Indica DLE. 2 years.. gr8 run of the car..when company gave dad a Tata Indigo LS which resulted in selling the Indica.
Thats it!!!