July 1986 - March 1990.
Back in 1986, Dad bought Mom a brand new model Maruti 800 for her birthday. It was one of the first 500 of the new shape then, & was entirely Japanese, save for the tyres.
She kept it well... drove it only around Bandra & insisted on the Maruti Authorised Service Centre at the correct service intervals. The driver was only allowed to touch the car to go fill fuel when it reached 1/2 tank - ("white" petrol only, mind you, because "nahin to gaari kharaab hoyega"), & she never, ever, went into a pothole.
I think I once saw her drive at maybe 60 kmph (the rest of the time it was doing a MAXX of 40)!
It had it's original MRF bias-ply tyres & looked brand new till 1990. She didn't bother with a music system (didn't want rattles due to poor installation) because she only drove around a 5 km radius from where we live. The suspension, steering, & bodyline were completely original - all in all, a perfect, scratchless, "showroom" single lady driven car. It had run a total of 12,300 km in 4 years - a little under 9 km per day.
March 1990 - September 1992.
When I started driving (sharing) her car in 1990, I immediately changed:
1. the tyres to Ceat Zigma CC,
2. installed a state of the art Pioneer sound system (can't remember which model)
3. replaced the clutch for the heck of it.
4. painted the B-pillars & wheel centers black.
Then I drove it to it's max speed of 136kmph straight to Pune & back, music blasting, without a thought for potholes / speed breakers / people / cows / etc. I used to subscribe to Car&Driver, Motor Trend, etc. tried out slipstreaming with every truck & bus along the way.
A coupla months later (due to unavoidable circumstances), I crashed the car head-on into a low stone wall at Pali Hill at 80 kmph when out with friends one night. The lower chassis cross-member was royally f$%^, for want of a better word. I'd bent both axles & cracked the engine mounts. However, the car, from the outside, looked fine & was drivable, if though a bit noisy. I drove it back home, quite irritated with the damn stone wall, & parked it away carefully. I proceeded to have the car repaired quietly (telling my Mom it was "maintenance" for the few days that it was away).
I continued to race around in it & street scrap with friends - had a few near scrapes, what with me taking my "always ahead" bit quite seriously. Never careless, mind you, just carefree.
September 1992 - July 2004.
Dad bought a brand new Maruti 1000 for my birthday (as Mom insisted that she didn't want such a "big" car), & she once again had full ownership of her 800. It had now racked up 68,600 km - an average of 70 km per day in the 30 months that I shared it with her. It had been busted, banged, pranged, & now rattled quite a bit.
She refused Dad's offer of a new car & proceeded to restore it, bit by bit, till it stopped rattling & was near perfect again.
Dad later offered to buy her a Zen in 1993 when it came out, but she simply wouldn't hear of it, saying she loved her "baby elf", as it was lovingly called.
We finally sold it in July 2004 when I simply bought her Alto.
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So you tell me... lady owner or not?