[zhopudey]

Hi everyone! So glad to finally be an official part of TBHP (I've been lurking here since many a year). Zhopudey means "Let me sleep" in Marathi. I am proud to be the one and only Zhopudey on the entire Internet.

As a short introduction, let me just paste here what I'd submitted in the registration process -

Growing up as a typical geek, my interests were the usual - computers, then mobiles, other gadgets, photography, etc. While I used to drool over Ferraris and Bentleys like all my friends, I hadn't taken much of an active hands-on interest in cars. It was only after my marriage that I started driving regularly.

My wife and I stick to trains and busses for our gruelling weekly office commutes, and we've both started looking forward to our weekend getaway drives in our car. Even if its just a drive down to the mall to pick up groceries, we prefer taking the car rather than the scooter. Rolling up the windows and shutting off the outside noise,dust and pollution, soaking in the cool a/c breeze and some nice tunes on FM - this feels like a well earned break for slogging for the whole week.

I'd bought a pre-owned (pre-worshipped, as it's called here) Esteem in 2010. It was a 2006 model, and seemed to be the most vfm choice as per my limited research. I'd felt that my extremely low usage didn't warrant spending 5-6L on a new hatchback. My father had an Alto, so a sedan seemed a better choice as the 2nd car in the family. Then along came my darling daughter, after that a home loan. So vacations and hence long drives became a rarity for a few years. It is only recently that time and finances both have become favourable. We now plan short as well as long road trips. For this, we've realised that our Esteem is looking somewhat long in the tooth. An upgrade is not feasible yet for a year or two, but I've stepped up on my research already.

I keep telling my wife about new launches, and she also quips in with an insight that is unique to wives -
Me - "Polo GT Tsi, best auto gearbox in the market".
Wife - "My parents won't be comfortable in the rear. Useless."

Me - "Hexa, superb quality and most vfm."
Wife - "I'll never be able to park it. You're thinking of this on purpose just so I won't be able to drive it."

Me - "We should go for an auto box for sure. It is the future."
Wife - "Then why did I bother learning to drive a manual? Did you waste my time?"

Me - "New Nexon coming soon. Looks perfect."
Wife - "You told me yesterday the new Tigor is perfect. Do not confuse me. I've made up my mind."

This will happily continue till the time we actually start going for test drives. Till then, I'll keeping reading up about new launches, official reviews, owner reviews, short term and long term reviews etc. Which brings me to the topic of this essay - "Why Team-BHP?". Well that is obvious. For anything and everything car related, Team BHP is the de facto standard. There is nothing either on other forums or even on auto websites or blogs that hasn't already been posted in T-BHP. Many blogs even seem to pick up news from T-BHP.

I'm extremely grateful that the entire forum is made available for reading even for non members. Searching on the forums on through google almost always leads one to the correct relevant thread. However, I do sometimes feel like a voyuer. I'm just devouring all the content here without even being able to post a simple thank you. I admit my technical knowledge about cars is very limited. On opening the boot, I wouldn't even be able to name 50% of the parts. But if I'm able to post here, I'm sure my knowledge would increase rapidly. And till then, I hope I could make some contributions in sections like Travelouges and the Shifting Gears section.

So, in short, really looking forward to putting up T-BHP sticker on my upcoming new car. And if anyone asks if I'm a member, I hope I can smugly answer in the affirmative.


About my favourite Indian car -

Hi, I am Zhopudey, and I am a chronic window shopper. I can spend hours and hours day dreaming about spending truck loads of money. (actually, I prefer being cashless, so make that bucket-loads of credit cards and cheque books.) At the same time however, I am a bit anal about being practical about this window shopping.

Thus, I have never really bothered much with luxury cars. My automobile window shopping has a price limit of 25L. Under which, at the moment I'm kind of smitten with the Hexa XTA. Reading up the official and user reviews, and even the TD reports brings a silly grin to my face. I guess the dormant patriot in me awakens and is thrilled to read about the brilliance that Tata has achieved, and how it seems to hit bulls eye in the factor most unique and most dear to us Indians - Total paisa vasool!

At the same time, my realism settings kick in, and I'm reminded that I have no use for such a big car. So within my dreams, I start dreaming (inception style) of a smaller Hexa. Same quality, same attention to details, same premium feel. But smaller, lighter, hence acceptably less powerful. Could this magic car be the Nexon? I guess we'll find out in a few months.

All this aside, if someone hands over a blank cheque and tells me to go buy a car today, it'll be the Etios. I'll spend upto a Lac on adding the "cool" factor; viz entirely new AVN system, new upholstery, new alloys and tyres. Also maybe some wraps, decals and stickers. And for under a million bucks I'll have a car which is better than most of the competition in terms of safety, space, comfort, reliability, maintenance and drive. What's not to like?

[sydras]

Hi there. Welcome to the forum. I know you from TE and I thought that you might've registered here earlier under some other username.

Nice to see that you are using your old username here (I've lost track of half the members on TE that I used to converse with after they allowed a change in usernames).

I've found this forum very useful since I'd joined. The detailed pictures, well organized content, very accurate search and very detailed and well written reviews are what impressed me and caused me to join.

I'm sure you will have a good time here. Enjoy .

[aah78]

Welcome to the forum!

I was just looking at your username.

[Vandit]

Saw the username & instantly knew it from TE or was it Erodov? I was a fellow member on E till it became a trashcan full of oversized mod egos. A haunting regular on TE to date though. And oh! ahmi pan mumbaikar! (though its always Bombay for me).

Welcome! And just go for the TSI *disclaimer - TSI owner*

[mwzd]

Welcome to t-bhp Z, that's one funny username you have there. Please don't fall asleep at the wheel, it would really hurt the rep of the forum, specially if you have a sticker on the car.

Excellent intro, good luck researching & finding the perfect car. I would recommend you TD everything before you buy. Enjoy!

[zhopudey]

Thanks everyone. My car research will continue, till then I'm looking forward to learning about other important aspects - like driving style and road manners, also basic car maintenance etc.
Just recently I read about engine braking which I tried out while descending the Mahabaleshwar ghats. Stick to 1st or 2nd, keep foot off clutch and brake. Hope I did it right.

[kippu]

THought i recognised the username from TE.
Welcome to teambhp , although I am sure you have been lurking around here

[Kestrel5915]

Nice intro!

The only piece of advice that I'd like to give is that do take a detailed TD for any vehicle that you're considering.
Don't just go by the reviews and other online content.

[reignofchaos]

Welcome aboard! Long time no see :-).

[zhopudey]

Hi chaos and kippu!

Kestrel, I will spend many a month doing TDs, but that is still some time away. Till then I'll just continue soaking in all the knowledge here.

[abhi182]

Welcome Zhopsy!
BTW superczar here - This is a really really really old nick that I have here from pre TE days

[sukiwa]

nice choice for a handle; reminded me of another handle 'jaudere' (let it go) on another forum.

[aspire]

Off topic, why does the OP's post count say 1, I see 3 posts here already!

[KK_HakunaMatata]

Originally Posted by aspire

Off topic, why does the OP's post count say 1, I see 3 posts here already!

Posts in the introduction section is not considered towards total posts. The one counted might be posted in some other technical section.

KK

[zhopudey]

Ohh, I didn't know that.