Hello, fellow BHP'ians

[DJANGO]

Jambo. (aka hello in Swahili).

Hi guys, and thank you for taking the time to read this post. A little something about me, born in Madras in the 1960s (oops) lived in Bandra, Bombay for 20 years where I finished my education and got married, then moved overseas to West Africa where I lived and worked for a decade. Returned to India on account of the worsening economic situation in Africa as well as domestic compulsions, me being the only son of my aging parents. Living now in Bangalore since 99. Belong to a car crazy family.

Have owned thus far, Standard Herald, Premier President, Ambassador Mark 2 and 3, Maruti 800 the very first version, Peugeot 504, Peugeot 504 station wagon, Peugeot 505 SR, Maruti 1000, Esteem, presently Wagon R and Zen Estilo. One Honda Activa scooter used for a very short while and then sold.

Have done a variety of things professionally, viz shop assistant, computer hardware salesman, sale of chemicals to local Governments in West Africa, the pharmacutical business, ran a trading company where we imported stuff from China and sold them in countries like Rwanda for a tidy profit, ran a carpet factory, a metal fabrication unit, a plastic factory, both blow and injection molding processes, a soft drink bottling unit, then owned a subfranchise of Peugeot in Nigeria for a while-sales and service. In India, connected to the tourism industry as well as some ITES interests.

It was team BHP that sparked my interest. I got to this site while googling, and I was hooked. Read the posts from various members about cars, bikes, their experiences, honest user reviews, and I thought to myself, hey, this is where I belong, and hey presto, a few months later, here I am.

Long term plans include buying a jeep from Delhi, a Gypsy probably and then customizing it to use for leisure purposes....and I sure would appreciate the expertise of members of this forum, more when I am ready.

Other than anything on wheels I am a family man. Spend a lot of quality time with family. Opted out of the rat race of life, so am at peace with myself, yet we have what we need. Fine balance, but there you are. One lives and learns.

I believe in simple living. For instance, I gave up my credit cards long ago. No more loans, thank goodness. The credit card bogey is something all of us can do without, and this is a whole other subject for discussion.

This is enough of an intro. I will be a regular contributor to this forum once I lean to navigate my way around this site and learn the rules and so forth.

Vaya con dios, amigo, and thank you for stopping by.

Django

[jkdas]

A proper wise man senior ; your life's experience says. Welcome to TBHP DJango. Loyal to Peugeot and then Suzuki here? Peugeot is known for its ride quality in Africa but they failed miserably here in India. Hope they come back soon with atleast some small hot cars

And, why do you want to buy a jeep from Delhi and drive it down? Wont it be easier to get a gypsy from some army auctions at Bangy . Browse around to get some wicked modification ideas.

[bj96]

Welcome on board django. Your handle made me wonder you would be a Python nerd (a hammer sees everything as nail ), but, then saw your intro that you are not in rat race.
Cheers,
-BJ

[MX6]

Nice intro there Django. Welcome aboard.
@jkdas. I'm eager to know more about the Army auctions at Bangy. PM me sir. Do they have such things in Pune as well?

[DJANGO]

JKdas and BJ 96:

Thank you for the warm words of welcome. I shall always treasure them.

Regarding Peugeot, they are a fabulous brand in Africa. For that matter, it is usually the Peugeots for which one can get spares for that are used by the taxi trade; however, in interior parts of Africa, where fuel stations are 1000 km apart, meaning that you need to carry your own fuel with you, the cars which do this job every day are cars that are out of manufacture now, viz the Datsun series, the 120 Y, the Datsun 240s. These, needless to say, have no spare part support in Africa, and as a consequence are held together with wire, tape, parts from various other cars, and a whole load of ingenuity. They are called bush taxis. Another common vehicle used for public commutes in cities in the VW vans..called moloue or danfo in Nigeria.. The fact is that the official public transport system has broken down and these are just private operators providing a service where there is a need...since they are illegal, they are also known as "kabu kabu" in the local lingo. So much for Africa...and Nigeria in particular.

The mistake that Peugeot made in India was to tie up with the PAL group, who already had a long history of not being able to provide customer satisfaction, to say the least. They also brought in unsuitable models, with a high price range, and no after sales support worthy of mention. This is why they failed. Yet, the cars like the Peugeot 605 are fabulous cars, very comfortable, great on technology and quality. Yes, all this comes at a price, and it is my opinion that there are enough discerning buyers in India who will buy these cars once they have experienced them.

The Volvo is another car which is relatively underrated , and this is a whole new subject. Watch this space.

[navan49]

Hi Django,
Welcome to the Team BHp.Go on share you experiences here.

[DJANGO]

Thank you Navan, and watch this space for further experiences.

Django

[DJANGO]

Dear Moderators:

Pls post in the appropriate forum....thank you.


Guys:

I would like to share my experience regarding pilferage of fuel from the Maruti 800 (carb model) and a surefire solution to the same.

I live in Bangalore. A while ago, I was in the market for a preowned Maruti Zen. However, after numerous trips to various car dealers and the many sales pitches I would rather forget, I was looking at the car collection of National Motors (Behind HN Towers, McGrath Road-where the old Opel service station used to be, 5 minutes walk from Brigade Road) when I espied this cute M800 and eventually settled for the same after looking the car over, driving it, getting an expert opinion on the car from my mechanics (Viswas Udyog, this is on the service road off the Hebbal-KR Puram Ring Road in Kamanahalli, between Royal Concord School and the Huyndai service station next to the temple) and completing the necesary formalities.

At that time, I lived in an apartment that had no facilities for 4 wheeler parking, thus compelling me to park my car on the road outside the house, as many Bangy folk do. Initially, things were hunky dory; however, after a few months, the area began getting regular noctural visits from a couple of teenage punks whose modus operandi was to wear the inner tube of a tire under their shirt and whilst one kept watch, the other would dive under any M800, disconnect the fuel pipe at the junction where the metal pipe meets the rubber pipe just a few yards away from the fuel tank under the car near the rear wheel arch, and by means of suction and gravity, drain the tank of fuel into the tube and then make away with the fuel, thus leaving us stranded the next day when it was time to get to work. I was later told that their reason for so doing was to fill up the fuel in their own motorcycle...!!!

Now, such a situation is very frustating because this is a huge inconvenience at the beginning of the work day. This has to be fixed before one can go to work, thus requiring you to spend a couple of hours with the mechanic, the fuel station, and so forth, and consequently one is hot, tired, and grouchy when one reaches the office. Besides also being very very late, since fuel is as costly as gold, one is also significantly out of pocket for the tank of gas. Theft happening on a regular basis means an inevitable hole in your pocket.

After two such experiences, I took the car to Viswas Udyog and explained the matter to Suresh, their senior supervisor. Their solution was wrap the offending fuel pipe junction using a steel mesh frame and some kind of steel cable. They also put clasps on the rubber tubing prior to covering the same. A week later, the thieves managed to worry loose the steel mesh cage, pushed it forward a few inches, and then sliced through the rubber fuel pipe with a knife and made away with the fuel. By this time, I had become savvy enough not to leave too much fuel in the car at any given point, but the loss was still a loss and more inconvenient than ever.

I took the car back to Viswas Udyog and discussed the matter in detail with both Suresh and KRA Easwaran, the owner of Viswas. What they did was ingenious. They custom fabricated copper pipe all the way from the carb to the fuel tank. The fuel tank was dropped fown, fuel pipe connected to the fuel tank from above, and then the fuel tank was then screwed tightly back into place with nuts and bolts. Now, at the rear end, the copper pipe was invisible. They then proceeded to run the pipe from the tank all the way to the engine bay using a different route and concealing the same. It also helped that after one round trip to Cochin of 1150 km the pipe was virtually unidentifiable due to the grime and dirt on the same. This pipe was also tacked into place. Unless one knew what one was looking for, it was not easy to find. Total cost 500 bucks or thereabouts.

Post installation, the one worry I had was that of fuel flow. I wondered if the flow of fuel would be adequate to the carb and since the pipe appeared to be of a smaller diameter than the OEM pipe. I wondered if I would face any problems with the fuel system such as jerks, irregular or insufficient supply of fuel. Suffice to say, that car had never ever given me any problems thereafter and I continued to have a good night's rest.

The flip side was that the thieves began to focus on the M800 of my neighbor and friend, Blessy. His car was parked within the compound and since he worked on Hosur Road, always had a substantial amount of fuel in his car. In his case, the thieves scaled the compound wall, extracted the fuel and made away with the same over the wall once done. After having eventually lost about 3 K worth of fuel, we happened to get talking one Sunday afternoon and I told him about my solution to the problem. He took his car pronto to Viswas Udyog the next day and got the same copper piping fitment done. Thereafter, the thieves never troubled either of us again.

This is out of the box thinking and was handled by Suresh of Viswas. As of date, he still works there and if anyone near Bangy East has a similar problem, go to Viswas and meet Suresh and they will fix your problem and give you many nights of peace.

This is my experience and I wanted to share the same.

My exprience with National Motors while purchasing this car is the subject of another blog and so interested readers please watch this space.

Finally, for those who asked about my handle, this has nothing to do with the Python web framework design.