[Omkar]

2022 is wrapping up and just like many people on social media, I had to check my Spotify Wrapped. And although ‘System of a Down’ was one of the top artists for me, the year had a lot of Ups. Around the same time GTO came up with the idea to look back upon the year that was for the Indian automotive enthusiast. So, in a way, this is Team-BHP Wrapped. But instead of artificial intelligence telling us about our year, we will use human intelligence to pen down our review of the year 2022. I'm going to mention highlights in 2 categories -

1. Personally how the year was for me as an automotive enthusiast
2. The big developments in the Indian car scene of 2022

New Beginnings: My 2022 started with a road trip. Had planned to spend New Year’s Eve in Coorg at a friend’s coffee plantation. Lots of mountain driving, beaches, waterfalls, hiking, amazing food, freshly ground and brewed black coffee, lots of pets to play with, and long-time close friends. Couldn’t have asked for a better start to the year. Here's a glimpse:


Paradise unexplored: Another highlight was the trip to the Northeast which had been on my list for a long time. I’d been to Assam and Arunachal Pradesh before for work (Honda Drive to Discover 9). However, this year I took some time out to explore Meghalaya and visited Kaziranga too (Hadn't been on the safaris last time around). Rented bikes and was a lot of fun on the twisty roads of Meghalaya. Met a lot of sweet and friendly people, had long chats with car owners, enjoyed delicious food, and had some amazing tea. At the end of the trip, added Northeast back to my list of places to visit:


Back to where it all started: Took the big step professionally to join back the team of Team-BHP full-time. Got to drive a lot of exciting cars this year like the Citroen C3, Skoda Slavia, VW Virtus, Mahindra Scorpio-N, Hyundai Tucson, and Audi Q3 to name a few. Will be driving the Tata Tiago EV soon, so stay tuned.


The year has been eventful and so many cars launched that an enthusiast would enjoy. I remember driving the C3 turbo petrol on narrow inside ghat roads of Goa with Vid6639, where we both were trying to get one of the rear wheels in the air on tight corners. Plenty more exciting cars for the Indian automotive enthusiast, so make sure you check out the full list of Best Enthusiast Cars in India, 2022 Lineup. For now, let's get to the second part, which is notable industry developments of 2022.

Transition from a Buyer’s market to a Seller’s market : This has probably been the biggest development in the Indian automotive industry. It was bound to happen, and I feel that 2022 has been the year that this transition has finally taken place. From a time when manufacturers were fighting to undercut each other in terms of pricing, we now have such premium pricing on cars. A Toyota Fortuner now costs over Rs 50 lakh on-road and even a Maruti Dzire is over Rs 10 lakh on-road. Car prices are at an all-time high. And when you think about it, things like chip shortages resulting in long waiting periods have helped the transition. However, just the sheer demand for premium products has been the key to the transition into a Seller's Market:


Safety inclination : Global NCAP updated its crash test protocol to make it more stringent this year. Performing brilliantly in these updated tests with 5-star ratings were the likes of the Skoda Kushaq, Volkswagen Taigun, and the Mahindra Scorpio-N. The atmosphere at the Maruti paddock has been grim in this regard as the S-Presso, Swift and Ignis scored just a 1-star safety rating. There have also been reports that the upcoming Bharat NCAP will be based on the updated Global NCAP norms which is another piece of good news.

Furthermore, we’ve also seen car buyers focus on safety features more than on gimmicky features. Even the government of India is taking steps to ensure road safety like implementing the seat belt rule that mandates all passengers (including the rear seat occupants) to wear seatbelts. All in all, steps are being taken in the right direction in terms of car and road safety.



Time to go electric? : We’ve seen a lot of electric cars enter the Indian market this year and the reason is simple, people are ready to make the switch. Not just in the affordable segment, but the luxury car makers have also started to bring in all the electric cars from their international portfolio. Just to jog your memory, here’s a list of electric cars launched this year – Tata Nexon EV Max, Tata Tiago EV, MG ZS EV facelift, BYD Atto 3, BYD e6, Kia EV6, Mini Cooper SE, Volvo XC40 Recharge, BMW i4, Mercedes-AMG EQS 53, Mercedes Benz EQS 580, and Mercedes Benz EQB. Cars like the Citroen eC3 and Mahindra XUV400 will launch early next year. The only thing to watch out for is whether the development of charging infrastructure can keep up with the demand. We've seen a lot of independent players and apps popping up with charging infrastructure, so all in all, things are looking positive for current and potential EV owners.



These were some of my highlights for the year 2022. Looking forward to reading what BHPians think of the developments in the Indian Car Scene as well as some of their personal highlights!

[GTO]

2022 was a fantastic year for the petrolhead in me

- We brought a new car home (Red Thar Convertible Petrol AT). A car that makes us smile, giggle & laugh like no other. Modifications are in progress, still some work to be done. Will put up a post once all complete:




- Back to regular road-tripping & holidays, after Covid lulls in 2020 & 2021.






- All my cars are in top shape mechanically. And looking good after detailing sessions:




- Experienced some impressive machines such as the C3 Turbo (a surprise fun-to-drive car!), fast EVs (EQS & Nexon EV), super-smooth City Hybrid & more:








- We met almost each & every embargo of car reviews

[RedTerrano]

I would classify my petrolhead year 2022 as below average.
Sadly, real life kept interrupting and throwing unmarked unpainted speed breakers and I couldn't get things done as much as I would have wanted.

I managed one measly drive to Ratnagiri (Ratnagiri (Pune to Ratnagiri - Chasing the warrior)) which was a first for me.
Some pics from that adventure.

Besides this, my pet project of building my own electric car, is moving on at a snail's pace.

I hope the coming year is a better one.
Looking forward to more adventures and lots of fun.

[vb-saan]

2022 was pretty brilliant for the auto-enthusiast in me. After getting docked in for two years, managed to travel home around end 2021, and 2022 started with taking the cheerful Polo 1.5 TDI on a long drive from Thrissur to Trivandrum. And later in the year (around July-Aug), got to spend a few weeks in Germany driving the EQS, EQB, and the wonderful M340i.

And this was the year where I got to visit 3 revered auto-pilgrimage sites within a span of one month – the Mercedes Benz Museum, the Porsche Museum, and the BMW Welt!

[EV NXT]

2022 was a great year. Got to have drives of the Lamborghini Hurracan Evo and the Lamborghini Urus. The Mclaren 720S was also scheduled for this year but haven't been able to take out time yet so its likely to be sometime in 2023.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Mixed feelings for 2023. While a lot of good things happened, I also ended up parting with my two vehicles that were really close to heart:

I had to sell this:



But got to upgrade to this:



Unfortunately ended up selling this too (No replacement):



But then also got this, for wife:



Had a major headache maintaining this, but stuck through and also got it detailed and back to good shape:



A BHPian friend gave me a 260kmph (Not on Indian roads) drive to remember in this:



Another BHPian friend handed over the keys to this for a memorable weekend ride:



Got to review this for Team BHP, among others:


And got to experience this premium event, thanks to a BHPian friend:


Moreover, Travel opened up after a two year lull, with ~45k kms spend in flights and even the Jeep has ended up covering about 15k kms in about 8 months since purchase.

Overall, pretty memorable year. Missing a bike though and the replacement will probably not be bought for another year till early 2024.

[tp_dominator]

2022 has been the most blessed year for me. Both on the personal front as well as the automotive one.

January started with me booking the XUV 700 on the 14th Jan to have a bigger and comfortable car for the soon to grow family, Feb saw me bring home our first born to our newly acquired home, March saw me slowly becoming a responsible person from the earlier careless one especially after the second surgery of my wife, April saw me going out of India on my birthday after the Covid mayhem, May saw me getting a promotion and moving up the corporate ladder as well as igniting the biking passion again and bringing the Scram 411 home, June, July, August, September, October saw me making a lot of road trips to meet my little one who was spending her time with the grandparents till I became a little less occupied with work, I loved these solo trips the most, being with just yourself, your thoughts and some good music.

September also saw me getting home the Safari, after sending off my pristine Ecosport for the want of more luggage space and better ride quality with the convenience of an automatic. November saw me going on our first road trip with the little one who seemed equally comfortable in the car seat. December has not ended yet and it has been a series of sleepless nights after bringing my child and wife back to Pune - part of the reason why I haven't been able to pen down the ownership report.

In between all this, I have driven close to 55k kms this year alone and this experience has made me a sedate, responsible, defensive and careful driver.

Also, for the industry I work in, the new launches combined with the overall higher sales as compared to the previous year has helped in the professional front as well. I have driven most of the new launches and got to know some deep automotive industry's functioning through professional contacts. Overall, it has been a very fulfilling year for me and special thanks to Team-BHP for keeping me awake during these sleepless nights with the awesome and endless content it provides during such times.

[anjan_c2007]

April 1, 2022 was a very sad day for all owners of private 15-49 year old motor vehicles. The enhanced fitness fees, green tax burden, re-registration charges and the fines for delay in fitness tests post the scheduled date have made the owners a harried lot. What cost us something around Rs 600-700 (incl smart cards) for two wheelers has become about Rs 2000 for their fitness certificates for the next five years. And for cars it is Rs 6500-7000 for five years.

We enthusiasts will save our motor vehicles but the main worry is about the hapless owners who may decide to scrap otherwise mechanically fit vehicles just to get rid of the newer costs, hassles and stringencies. The government wants things to go this way so that thousands of these end up in the scrapheaps. We are sure to lose a sizeable portion of our recent automobile history, wherein thousands of 15-49 year old Kinetic Hondas, Bajajs, Lambrettas, Vijais, Yezdis, Bullets and Marutis, Ambassadors, Premiers, Contessas, Reliant Dolphins and similar makes will be forever lost.

The privately owned automated fitness test centres are yet to open in many localities. After these are commissioned, there will be the newfound nightmare amongst owners to get the vehicles successfully emerge out of all these tests.

[Axe77]

1. Team BHP:
I have to start with this one. Became a mod on my favourite automotive website. With that came to see the site with a whole new perspective, got some great new experiences - my first proper media event for a car launch and test drive (the C class launch event) and experienced a proper performance car over an extended period - the Audi RS5 for a little under 24 hours.

2. We rode (& drove)]:
… a lot!

Before even seeing the end of March, I had already done three bike trips to Panchgani - twice with different set of friends and once for some L1 training via Goodwind Mototours with Adib & Kamran. Add to that another sweet ride to Goa with some colleagues and it was a cracking start to the year.

The rest of the year saw the most spectacular week of riding through scenic Spiti, a couple of separate rides to Mahabaleshwar - once on the Multi and once on the Tiger and of course numerous other rides within Maharashtra, solo as well as with small groups.

The cars saw their share of action too. There were numerous routine trips to Lonavala, Pune and Karjat in both the 3GT as well as the Jeep including an offbeat drive with the family to see Thoseghar waterfalls and Chalkewadi windmills.

3. We trained:
… again - a lot!

Started the year with L1 training with Adib, Kamran and Vishal at Panchgani, added some track day training on the Multistrada with Throttle Wide Open run by Anand Dharmaraj and Shumi of (now) Motorinc. Did some L1 training in the Meridian with “Learn Offroad” school run by fellow BHPian Dr. Tejas Kothari. And finally ended the year with two separate L2 off road courses - one by Ashish Raorane at Pune and another again at Panchgani with the same trio.

4. New wheels:
(Always special for the petrolhead)

Added a truly special vehicle to the garage earlier in March - a well used 2016/17 Ducati Multistrada 1200S to the garage. Also finally bought a new car - my first ever SUV - the Jeep Meridian.

All in all, couldn’t ask for more from an automotive standpoint. Looking forward to more automotive memories for 2023!

The year in pics



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[SoumenD]

Well my car atleast got some running this year thanks to spouse’s office (2-3 times a week). It was able to clock around 4k kms. That itself is an achievement considering previous 2 years combined(2020,2021) it had done only 2k kms(thanks to covid lull).

A few 100-200km drives on the highway to give my 2 year old kid some road-trip practice who is yet to get accustomed to cars. Poor thing is still prone to motion sickness.







On 2-wheeler front this was supposed to be my year of upgrade from the RTR. But looking at a measly 500km running in entire year, didn’t see a point and just applied for registration renewal. The wait for Xpulse 300 continues

[Dr.AD]

2022 was great for me from driving and road tripping point of view. I did many memorable road trips in 2022. In fact, there were times when we did long trips weekend after weekend, for many consecutive weekends.

For me, the year 2022 started while already on a long road trip (a drive to Arunachal Pradesh along with BHPian @graaja). On January 1, 2022, we were at Kaziranga National Park in Assam, in the middle of our road trip. That was a very memorable way to get the year started. And this sort of set the pace for the rest of the year.

The rest of the year, I did many road trips ranging from eastern coast of India to the western coast, and covering almost all of the South India and Maharashtra (missed driving to North India though).

I did plenty of solo drives too, which are always the most enjoyable drives for me. In addition, did plenty of drives with my usual driving buddies, and also with some large groups.

Sharing a few pictures from some of the memorable drives this year.

Drive to Maravanthe Beach, KA:



Somewhere near Karwar, KA:



At a drive-in beach, KL:



Near Malvan, MH:



Along the MH coastline:



Monsoon drive in MH:



Not just the beaches and monsoon drive, but also did drives to deserts and rocky landscapes, like this one to Hampi, KA:



Did plenty of hilly drives too, like this one to Kodaikanal, TN:



Somewhere on beautiful roads in rural KA:



In team estates near Sakleshpur, KA:


Not just in my 320d, but 2022 was the year when I enjoyed doing road trips in my old beater car too. I sort of rediscovered the joy of traveling the country in an old beater car, and did some very memorable drives in my 12 years old Maruti SX4.

Near Kaas Plateau, MH:



Another monsoon drive to Maharashtra:


Overall, had a great year of driving. In fact, just today morning, Google showed me below creation from my Google Photos, and this sort of summarizes a nice driving year.

Year of driving with my friends, summarized by Google Photos:


Looking forward to resuming the drives in 2023 now!

[Varun_HexaGuy]

2022 has been a mixed bag for me. Although the start of the year was a little rocky, apart from that it's been pretty smooth.

My daily driver, a Volkswagen Jetta Mk5 TDI DSG was serving me flawlessly until it asked for a clutch replacement. Got that done and she chugs along miles pretty effortlessly.

We did a roadtrip across the north east in our Tata Hexa earlier this year (March-April 2022). Dad was moving bases. What better than doing a roadtrip to move from one city to another (a straight forward two day drive ended up becoming a 20-day roadtrip, but I ain't complaining). Also, had met BHPian chiranjit31 as I was passing through Guwahati. The hospitality and warmth extended by him and his family was truly something else. Will always be thankful of how he accomodated us for a fairly early morning breakfast since we were just passing by Guwahati as we were on our way to Siliguri from Shillong.

I'd stepped into 2022 setting off with a project of resurrecting a Fiat Palio S10. However, the car was beyond resurrection and eventually, with a heavy heart, had to scrap the car (this hurts, but letting go when things don't work in your favour is better than trying to do things which aren't meant to be done). If all had gone well, a proper thread would've come up on this but life had other plans. Seeing this one pressed into a pile of metal was quite hurtful.

Then, sometime around in June 2022, I bit the bullet. I bought home our first badger. Although, it's pre owned and is over a decade old, it's still our first one. If someone had told me a couple of years ago that I'd be driving around in a BMW a couple of years from later, I'd have probably laughed out and let it be. Also, the first time I'd ever sat in a 5-series was in July 2018. The same car that I own now was the same car that I first experienced as a 17-year old teenager. Four years later, I bought home the very same car. Coincidence much? No idea.

In the same month, I flew down to Goa for a vacation which was on cards with close friends and fellow BHPians (porsche_guy and beamerbug_06) since quite sometime. But as fate would have it, my college farewell was clashing with the vacation. With several death threats looming on my head from both ends, I decided to juggle between my vacation and farewell. This vacation was supposed to be pretty laidback but this turned out to be anything but that. But I'm glad I could make it. Got to see the automotive scene of Goa and also hung out with a few fellow enthusiasts there. Our bunch never fails to amaze me. A bunch of absolute strangers come together and treat each other like family. The hospitality and warmth can't be put into words.

Also, had met BHPian vigsom when he was in town. As always, he's been a great company and it was nice catching up with him alongside the local BHPians ViXit and Pratyushforza.

Around the same time, BHPian Nikhilb2008 was in town. But clashing schedules meant we couldn't catchup and chill. However, I was free the morning he was all set to leave back to Bangalore. So I tagged along with him till Kothakota and man, what a drive that was. Here's a pic of my Jetta alongside his E (look upclose, it's no usual E-Class):

Month of August was quite eventful. Best friends and I (group of five) had planned a roadtrip to Goa around the Independence day weekend. But as fate would have it, MH had issued red alert and weather was terrible around both Chorla and Amboli then. Folks didn't let us go to Goa and in the last minute, the destination was rerouted to my farm house. I usually head to my farm every other weekend on some work. But this wasn't a work trip for once. Drive isn't that short either (250-kms one way). So I was happy still. Chose to take my friend's Renault Duster for this trip (his car wasn't seeing any running so his dad asked us to take this instead) and since the road to farm doesn't exist, I thought of sparing the Jetta for once. Duster was good fun on these non existent roads. Three days and 750-kms later (yeah, we did venture out and wasn't a simple home to farm and back drive like it is usually for me), we came home.

Fifteen days from this getaway, across a casual conversation with a friend of mine who desperately wanted to go chill at a beach threw up a wild suggestion of heading to Goa. Although he was kidding, I'd made up my mind. This conversation happened at 9 pm in the night. After a bit of back and forth, I pulled the trigger and friend was forced to pull the trigger. We'd snuck out of our homes. By 11:30 pm dot, we hit the roads. I just kept on driving while friend kept me company all through the night. 9.5 hrs later, we were in Goa. Didn't stop anywhere except for a couple of pee breaks and one stop enroute Amboli for a picture (total breaks amount to ~ 5-mins). We spent the entire day chilling at Goa after I got myself some sleep. Grabbed a beer each in the evening and relaxed. Crashed early. Woke up next day morning and we were off. Back home by evening the same day. Yeah, we spent more time driving than actually stay at Goa

Apart from that, 2022 has been an year of extensive road travel for me. Primarily for work. Even for leisurely trips infact. Clocked 50,000 kms in this year across various cars (Jetta and BMW combined did 30k kms this year while the rest was covered over various other cars). As we speak, we're currently on our way to Bhubaneswar from Gangtok for the Hexa Owners Meet. So yeah, 2022 overall has been quite a year for me. Let's see what 2023 has in store for me.

[JoshMachine]

2022 was perhaps one of the most eventful years for me on the forum. So many events, feel very overwhelmed when I look back at the last 12 months!

Highlights of the year in chronological sequence:-

Let go of of my beloved Vento. It had become our family member for the past ~7 years over many a journeys. All happy memories. My kiddo was almost in tears on the final day:-



And with it, the TBHP keychain lost its partner:-



(albeit temporarily)

Brought home, what Audi calls the core of its brand, the beautiful A4:-



and the TBHP keychain found a new partner:-



The A4 experience over the last 9 months or so has been well, what to say, totally sublime. A very well rounded urban & semi urban luxury cruiser, which is immaculate inside-out and is a joy to drive.

And oh yes, catches the eye anytime and every time:-



Another important milestone along the year, was my completion of 1000 posts and hence an upgrade to a new designation:-



With the A4, every drive out has been so comfortable and luxurious - be it in the city or out in the hills and yes, even amongst the windmills



Towards the final days of the year, have one long road trip planned. Hope to post a pic of that one on this thread soon as a closing remark.

Cheers. Looking forward to 2023

[Jeroen]

Not so much an Indian automotive perspective as a Dutch perspective, but active on the best Indian Car forum!!

All in all a very good year. One of the things I enjoyed most this year, was to start being able to post on TeamBHP again after a prolonged period of absence. I received many very welcome back messages from members. Which was very much appreciated.

As other members have mentioned, this was the first “normal year” after almost three years of quite a few restrictions. We never saw as strict restrictions here in the Netherlands, as in most parts of India, but basically all normal events and get togethers with friends and or family were severely impacted.

So we have been catching up this year, automotively speaking. I have driven close to 8000 km in my Alfa Spider and also almost 8000km in my Jaguar, all across Europe. You can see our adventures in several threads. Also, for the first time in three years, classic car and other interesting exhibition have started to start up again.


Our eldest son Luc, finally got married to his Maloeke and the happy couple used my Jaguar as their wedding car.

Lots of fiddling and lots of trips with all three of my cars.



As I had to hand in my company car, I decided to get myself a 25 year old Jeep Cherokee. I spend Euro 5000 on it, then another Euro 5000 in parts to get it running properly again. Lots of fun.

Meanwhile, three of my good friends were buying old cars left right and center, so I got to do a lot more fiddling on some interesting and unusual cars.



Finally, not so much an automotive event, but something that made my wife and me very happy as well. Four week ago we got two four months old kittens from the local animal shelter. We love cats, during our 40+ year marriage we have always had cats. Our Daisy had to be put to sleep unfortunately some 6 months ago. She was almost 20 years. She came with us to the UK and to the USA. So we were heartbroken.

But we are very happy that Mollie en Minnie have adopted us!!



Jeroen

[1.2TSI7DSG]

For me it was welcoming Honda City ZX iVTEC MT to the family, coming back to core automotive industry and closing 99k on the GT TSi without a gag failure… and a few random shots