[hserus]

Hi folks.

Suresh Ramasubramanian here. I might have run across some of you before (quizzing, open source, or maybe even antispam which I do for my day job at IBM) if so, Hi again, instead of just Hi.

I currently drive a white Honda Amaze S MT - with a default configuration except for rear parking, a plastic sheet tacked to the car floor and custom seat covers, all provided by VV car decors on the OMR (which I got a reco for from BHP). That, and a reverse parking sensor and a Garmin Nuvi GPS that hardly ever recognizes places in Chennai, and that keeps pushing me back to Google Maps, something which speedily drains the battery on my phone.

My first car was a Zen Estilo, unfortunately it was cotton candy pink in color (Maruti calls it Fusion Purple), I only have myself to blame for that choice, having taken a young daughter with me to the dealer. little girls do love pink

Anyway, that car went after three years too - if only because I'm ~ 6 feet tall and hefty enough that it was torture trying to sit upright and not scrunched up in the car. Which is why my next car was a Ritz vxi tallboy, which I sold a few months back, after about three years of ownership, to buy the Amaze.

I got myself a license after years of owning a car and using a driver - the last driver I had was an inveterate clutch plate fiend, who loved standing on the clutch even at signals. He managed to wear out the clutch of my Ritz, enough for it to warrant being replaced about a month before I sold it (~ under 3 years).

Assorted dents and dings that he caused in various minor collisions were contributory factors I must say. And then, just before I finally made the decision to sack him, I saw a call taxi the man owns, and rides in his spare time on weekends, and it was in an even worse condition, with one rear view mirror broken off and the panels on both sides dented and bashed in. That confirmed my decision needless to say.

The Ritz was a pleasure to ride (if only because I could finally sit upright and stretch my legs) if you discount the tallboy styling which made it wobble like crazy when trying to mount or get off one of the steeply angled ramps up a service road that are dotted all over the OMR in Chennai. Anyway, I learnt driving on that, adding my fair share of more dents and dings to it in the process, and then after months of using it as a newbie driver, sold it to get my new Amaze.

The Amaze is a pleasure to drive, and I've taken it for fairly long (within the city, so far) drives. However it appears mildly jinxed.

For no fault of mine at all, it has already got itself three dings so far within three months - one thanks to a raw mango falling on the bonnet after I'd parked it in the shade.

The second thanks to some genius who parked too close next to me on a street outside my daughter's school, and then banged open his door to drive a big dent into my door. So when I came back with my daughter, I see a huge dent on my driver side door, no car parked nearby and, surprise, surprise, no note attached to my windshield wiper apologizing and promising to pay for the repairs.

And the last and final dent? Well, I'm driving at a T junction signal and the light has just turned green, when the car in front of me does a sudden brake after an auto cuts in front of him at the last moment to turn right into the T of the junction. I braked hard too - and so did an Innova right behind me.

Only, the Innova didn't brake fast enough so that its front bumper bull bar (thankfully, heavily padded with rubber) whacked my rear bumper, hard. Thank the lord for seatbelts, I must say. I think I escaped a faceful of windshield glass at the very least.

I am not particularly superstitious, but if all these three within three months of my buying this car mean anything, I'm open to suggestions of what puja or taweez or any other ritual from any other religion is going to stop these from happening. Traffic in Chennai is bad enough that I run the risks of enough dings on the car without all these acts of god taking place

[Rudra Sen]

Welcome to Team-Bhp. I've already edited your very first post.

Please remember that smiley usage is restricted to two per post on Team-BHP. Please do NOT use more than 2 smileys in a post.

Advise you to read the Forum Rules to have a great journey ahead.

[V.Narayan]

Originally Posted by hserus

The Amaze is a pleasure to drive, and I've taken it for fairly long (within the city, so far) drives.

Welcome to Team BHP. Please share your experience with the Amaze. I am particularly interested in ride quality and any issues around reliability. Thanks - Narayan

[hserus]

Regarding smileys - oh dear. Accounting. Well ok.

About the amaze, it is a pleasure to drive, top quality ride and quite roomy in the back. The dials are kind of basic, ported over from the brio, and the default stereo only has fm/am radio, USB and aux input. Still, fine, as I use my ipod for music. Sadly, no Bluetooth, which makes for a twisted mass of cables.

[GTO]

Welcome to Team-BHP . Enjoyed reading your intro. Very interesting + witty style of writing.

You're losing a lot of money in depreciation. Suggest holding onto cars for longer than just 3 years : related thread.

[hserus]

I know I am. I plan to hold on to this car for much longer.

Didn't quite budget on having a second kid a couple of years ago, which made a larger car than just a hatchback suddenly a matter of necessity rather than a luxury buy.

[tiger_stripes]

Welcome to Team BHP!!

But what is

Originally Posted by hserus

a plastic sheet tacked to the car floor

:what:

Did you mean floor mats?

[hserus]

Molded vinyl sheet, rather - tacked on top of the carpet. Much easier to clean. Floor mats go on top of that.

[tiger_stripes]

Interesting. Haven't seen it before. If you can, do post a pic of it sometime.

[hserus]

Just took a photo - but had to wait till I could get back to my laptop and resize it. 1.04 MB on my phone, 40 kb over the size limit team-bhp imposes.

[binand]

Originally Posted by hserus

My first car was a Zen Estilo, unfortunately it was cotton candy pink in color (Maruti calls it Fusion Purple), I only have myself to blame for that choice, having taken a young daughter with me to the dealer. little girls do love pink

In my view, little girls are forced to love pink. It is a shame, the way the toy stores and the clothes stores and sundry others marketing and selling products children force this pink-for-girls,blue-for-boys on them.

I had gone to one of the highest-end maternity hospitals in Bangalore couple of weeks back. Every room with a new-born had a pink door adornment if a girl, and a blue one if a boy. The conditioning starts at birth. :-(

And oh, welcome to Team-BHP, by the way.

[hserus]

Hey hi Binand, been years. And does that trip mean we all congratulate you?

[ampere]

Welcome. Do check the thread on how long you hold on to your cars. Surely helps a lot.


PS: A nice handle, with your name spelt the other way!

[joybhowmik]

Suresh
Welcome to TBHP. Loved your writing style. Hope to hear more from a fellow IBMer in areas other than IT.
Joy

[hserus]

Nice to hear from a colleague. Look me up on st sometime