My Santro got Boobytrapped!

[Samurai]

This happened on Sunday. My wife told me I have to go to her grandmother's farmhouse, and give a ride to a visiting relative to her home which is 7-8Kms away. But I was told to get the Santro and not the Baleno, apparently the internal road/trail was quite narrow.

So I went to the granny's place first with my whole family, the road was very bad even before monsoon. Me and wife started wondering whether we should reconsider our decision of delaying the SUV. It will only get worse in the monsoon, and they repair it only in November. We have good roads here only between November to May. After picking up the relatives we drove back on the same bad road until we hit the state highway to Karkala.

The destination was again a house located deep inside a farm. The road, rather a trail was narrow as told. After some time we reached a house, but I was told our destination was further 200ft away. Here the road continues while literally hugging the house on one side and a bushy fence on the other side, I was about to enter the war zone.

Some background here. The first house belongs to the sister of the lady I was dropping. Due to some difference between them, the lady of the first house has declared was on her sister. As a result, the road to the second house has been narrowed, filled with various unscientic speedbumps that can put PWD to shame, even metal rods on the side hidden in the shrubs. This is a literal minefield full of boobytraps.

It was dark, I couldn't exactly judge the first bump, eventhough I took that on crawling speed, I still hit the bottom. I tried to go back, and oops! I was stuck. I couldn't go either way and I could starange noises everytime I try moving. So I got everybody down, then I was able to climb it . But the damage was already done. The car was making loud noise, a blabbering like sound. Everybody got back in and I continued to the second the house. Once I reached there I bent down and looked under, and I couldn't locate the source of the sound.

The host of the house was very apologetic, he told me stories of various people who damaged their vehicles by simply visiting him. Two of them had extensive damage thanks to the iron rods on the side. I had escaped because of the smaller car. I was also told they used to sprinkle nails on the path sometimes, today was not one of those days, lucky me.

I didn't know how serious was the damage, but I decided to drive back since I didn't see any difference in the power delivery of the car, so exhaust must be intact. I figured something must be loose, but the car is driveable. The road back was mostly through small villages and dense forest. Even though we had mobile, you never know whether there is coverage throughout. However, since it was home territory, I made up my mind and drove back and reached home safely.

The car just came back from Hyundai service station. The pipe between the headers and the muffler had been crushed at two places. The pipe after the muffler was sliced open. With VAT and service tax it cost me 6K to get it fixed.

[v1p3r]

You can actually go and demand it from the people who set up the booby traps. What they did is illegal.

[Jaggu]

ouch.. i just saw the mysore road post also.

i think you need to go for a SUV and tough one at that for the serious traveling you do, but wont help you in those narrow roads.

happy motoring.

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by v1p3r

You can actually go and demand it from the people who set up the booby traps. What they did is illegal.

It is a private farm road, besides the boobytrap issue is already under litigation since two years. Since both sisters are our relatives, we don't plan to take any sides here.

Yeah, we may need a SUV, but there is hardly any choice for a nice rural SUV.

[neoranjit]

Some really nice ppl . A tank is what you would proabably need to drive in this place .

[theMAG]

You could launch a court case rightly claiming this nonsense is a threat to public safety - or even involve the cops first.

@Jaggu - he'll need a road that doesnt have jutting iron rods first before any SUV

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by theMAG

You could launch a court case rightly claiming this nonsense is a threat to public safety - or even involve the cops first.

Or I can just avoid that road. I am not launching a law suit to recover my 6K, it simply isn't worth it.

That's a private road, only the affected sister can sue with just cause, and they have been doing it for two years.

[Technocrat]

Damn that hurts. Btw IMHO the host should have informed about this part

The host of the house was very apologetic, he told me stories of various people who damaged their vehicles by simply visiting him. Two of them had extensive damage thanks to the iron rods on the side. I had escaped because of the smaller car. I was also told they used to sprinkle nails on the path sometimes, today was not one of those days, lucky me.

Before the damage. I mean if you knew you could have asked people to walk that patch or proly since it was 200ft they could have walked till their place.

[benbsb29]

I agree with what Technocrat has said. If the second house wasnt so far off, you could have asked the passengers to walk the distance, rather than knowingly risk your car. All said and done... 'Once bitten, twice shy'.

Off Topic : Samurai, while reading the title, i had the feeling it had something to do with an explosion/bombs .. hehe... me n my crooked mind.. watching all those movies and all.

[sammyboy]

Sounds like u are caught between the devil and the deep sea Samurai ..unfortunately the poor santro got caught between the crossfire .Really sad man but as the owners said ....could have been worse

[akroy]

Thats unfortunate Samurai, I think people should take adequate measures in building those humps...I mean if the tallboy Santro can be that badly damaged, i wonder what will happen to other cars?
People should have some regulation when they think of doing such barriers...

Abhi

[benbsb29]

@Abhi : Samurai mentions in his post that the main purpose of these humps were to cause damage/discomfort to the vehicles who were using that lane. He has even mentioned steel rods which were concealed behind the shrubs. Beat that !!

[lohithrao]

Hey Samurai.. that was bad.....difficult to handel these kinda situations....

btw(OT) great to know you are from coastal karnataka even am from there....love those narrow winding roads... greatly enjoy driving down from karkala to udupi.....yae i bet SUV's would be fun to drive there...

[passion4cars]

Hi friends.

If i would be you.... i would do the following stunt from a Pierce Brosnan bond movie....where he drives with the tank and adjust his tie after hitting the wall and gets some horse statue on the top of the tank.

Tnx n Rgds
P4C

[tsk1979]

You can spray diesel on the offenders lawn, quietly.
Write something nasty.
It wont look like anything for a few days, till the grass starts drying.