[Utsav3010]

An Introducion about myself!

As a newbie, I want to introduce myself to all the members of this esteemed forum. I am a 21 years old Law/Company Secretary student, currently working as an intern with a Singapore based FinTech startup. I am based in New Delhi. I have been passionate about automobiles right since my childhood. Playing with toy cars and miniatures was probably my favourite pastime. It was only when I entered my teenage I realised how much passionate I was about automobiles, and that was when I started browsing through various automotive portals. I never missed any video of Autocar and Motorbeam. My daily drive is a 2016 Elite I20 Petrol, and my father drives a 2017 Ciaz Diesel. We also have a 2007 Alto, which is used very sparsely and is our beater car!

Introduction to Team-BHP

Now, I clearly remember the launch of 2017 Next-Gen Verna, I was streaming the live launch video. After the launch, I started googling everything about the Verna, because the Hyundai website still showed specs of the pre-facelift model. It was then I stumbled upon Team-Bhp. I was awestruck by the unbiased and eye opening reviews of almost all the modern cars. What must be said is, I was an avid Team-BHP fan and was a silent reader of the Forum. It was only in July this year that I applied for membership and it was approved very quickly, in less than 3 days!

Coming to the Main Topic!

For someone who is an automotive fan, reviews of his favourite machine surely fascinate him/her the most. I had been an avid MotorBeam reader till I was introduced to Team-BHP (Actually it was me who introduced myself to Team-BHP )
I never missed any of MotorBeam's videos. It was in late 2017 that Mr Faisal Khan, the founder of MotorBeam started his YouTube channel. He started posting video everyday at 11:30 AM from 1st January, 2018 and I made sure not to miss any of his videos. His style of reviewing, the connect that I felt was very hypnotizing.
Now, on Sunday, i.e. 5th August, 2018, Mr Faisal was doing a live YouTube session and he announced about a meetup plan in DLF Cyberhub, Gurugram. The timings were 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM. That was when it hit me up that I had meet him, come what may! But what about office? My office timings are 11:00 AM to 7:00 PM. To reach the venue on time, I had to take a half day!!
I informed about it to another friend of mine, who is also a Petrolhead! He was as excited as me and the plan was made. But what's fun wothout any drama? When I reached office on Monday morning, my senior gave me an urgent work which I had to complete by the end of day at any cost. I was baffled and taken aback with sudden arrival of such urgent and important work. Nevertheless, I somehow finished my work, informed my senior that I had to leave early (I told him the truth), and he was kind and courteous enough to let me leave early, given that I finish the work as soon as I reach home back. I happily agreed, and I rushed back home to grab some snacks. Informed my parents about it, left my place at around 5:45 PM, picked up my friend from his place and the journey started. I live in South Delhi, and there are two ways to reach Gurugram, one via NH-8 and the other via Mehrauli-Gurugram Road. I had checked Google Maps before leaving home and it showed a massive traffic jam from Aerocity to CyberCity on NH-8. I decided to take the MG Road route and we were in for another surprise. A truck had crashed into the divider and there was a massive jam. We somehow passed that stretch, and I drove the car like a maniac to reach on time. We reached CyberHub around 7:15 PM and my heart was beating fast. I reached the venue, and my friend was constantly in touch with Mr Dhanil Vira, he is Mr Faisal's colleague at MotorBeam. Mr Dhanil kept us updated and informed that they will be late due to traffic and will reach the venue by 8:30. And, the wait starts again!!
Meanwhile, I met other auto enthusiasts who had come from various parts of Delhi to meet Mr Faisal and Mr Dhanil. It was around 8:30 that Mr Dhanil informed us that they were about to reach and we gathered outside Haldiram's, DLF CyberHub. In a couple of minutes, Mr Faisal and Mr Dhanil were there, they greeted everybody, and duly apologised for being late due to traffic. They had come in Kia Sportage and Kia Rio (more on that later) and everybody asked them about how Kia cars were. Everybody had questions, and both of them answered each and every query with utmost honesty. They looked very tired and hungry, because they had been shooting with the above mentioned Kia cars. All of us took pictures with them, and they gave us some MotorBeam merchandise as token of gratitude for coming for the meetup. All in all, it was a memorable experience and having followed and admired Mr Faisal, my respect for him has only grown. After the meetup, me and my friend had dinner at KFC, and we proceeded to our journey back home. But, the ride back home was even more eventful, as it started to rain like cats and dogs, and it took me more than an hour to reach back home, which generally doesn't take more than 40 minutes. I reached home around 11:30 PM. The meet up was a memorable one, and now one point from my bucket list is ticked. Next up is having a meetup and conversation with Rush Sir aka GTO (I am probably being greedy now).

Discussions that happened

Main topic of discussion were Kia Rio and Kia Sportage. Mr Dhanil was driving the Rio and Mr Faisal was driving the Sportage. I had a long discussion with Mr Dhanil regarding the Rio, coz being an I20 owner myself, I am really looking forward to Rio.
Rio has exactly the same underpinnings as the I20, and the model that Mr Dhanil drove was a European spec model, had all the bells and whistles (including the sunroof). The car rode on 17" tires, being low profile. Suspension is brilliant, but just not good for the Indian roads, bumps and thuds were prominently felt and he had a neck pain after driving for so long on Noida and Gurugram roads. Steering is not light, it offers brilliant feel and feedback, and hey, you won't get this steering in India, because it's firstly, it's H-E-A-V-Y. We Indians are used to feather light steerings of Hyundai's and Maruti's. Secondly, Indians don't care a bit about the feel and feedback offered by the steering, best example is Ford Ecosport facelift, in which steering isn't as precise as the pre-facelift model. It was intentionally made light, as stated by Ford, to cater to customer's demands.
Next discussion was about Kia Sportage, which has same dimensions and underpinnings as the Hyundai Tucson. A great car, with all LED lights, and a very unique quad-fog lamps set up. It looks a bit amusing in photos, but very unique and stylish in person. What must be praised is Kia's design philosophy! In the age where grills are becoming wider and bigger, Kia's tiger nose grille just stands out and looks very appealing. I had a good look at both the cars, and both look very sharp and edgy, nowhere hideos (ahem ahem, Hyundai Xcent facelift). I apologise for not clicking the photographs of Kia cars, as photography was prohibited and I was apprehended twice by the security guard in the parking lot.
Apart from these, VW's plans for India, Clever packaging of Japanese cars were key topics of discussion.
Attaching some pictures below.

Mr Faisal, founder of MotorBeam. Here, he is talking about his experience with the Kia Sportage


Yours truly with Mr Faisal, a picture that is very close to my heart and will always remain a prized one


That's Sportage on the left, and Rio on the right. Rio looks smashing especially in this Red shade. Expect soft(er) suspension, downsized tires and some addition/deletion of features vis-a-vis this European spec variant. Sorry for not so good quality of the photo, I took this from driver's seat, as I was apprehended twice by the security guard for checking out the car. I wish he was a petrolhead, he would have understood my emotions


Note: I am in no way associated to Mr Faisal, Mr Dhanil or MotorBeam. This was just an account of a real-life experience. All photos were taken from my iPhone 7.

Regards
Utsav

[blackwasp]

Originally Posted by Utsav3010

An Introducion about myself!

As a newbie, I want to introduce myself to all the members of this esteemed forum.

Welcome to Team-BHP Utsav. Nice to have you onboard!

My daily drive is a 2016 Elite I20 Petrol, and my father drives a 2017 Ciaz Diesel. We also have a 2007 Alto, which is used very sparsely and is our beater car!

The i20 petrol is one of my favourite cars in India - especially since a friend drove her with us on our Spiti trip last year.

I was an avid Team-BHP fan and was a silent reader of the Forum. It was only in July this year that I applied for membership and it was approved very quickly, in less than 3 days!

Good to know about this. I'm sure you have a lot to contribute on the forum. I'm sure many would like to know about your ownership reports for the two cars you have. I'm personally keen to know how the Alto is keeping up. These days, its rare to come across someone who has a 10+ year old car.

Main topic of discussion were Kia Rio and Kia Sportage. Mr Dhanil was driving the Rio and Mr Faisal was driving the Sportage. I had a long discussion with Mr Dhanil regarding the Rio, coz being an I20 owner myself, I am really looking forward to Rio.

Intersting. How did you find both of the cars in terms of road presence and looks?

Rio has exactly the same underpinnings as the I20, and the model that Mr Dhanil drove was a European spec model...

So, there might be significant feature changes for the Indian-spec car! This is always expected, but I hope they don't dilute down the car too much. Did you discuss on the Kia warranties as well?

Apart from these, VW's plans for India, Clever packaging of Japanese cars were key topics of discussion.

Always up for any discussion related to cars. I'm sure you will find similar topics in the forum and come across interesting views of different members. However, before you begin, do go through the rules once.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Welcome to the forum Utsav!

I'm also a subscriber of the Fazbeam channel, and one best thing I do like about him is his honest excitement in doing what he does! Really nice to see someone reviewing cars because he loves to, not just for getting paid.

He's one of the better journalists out there - and looks like a self made one too, considering the humble origins of Motorbeam.

Originally Posted by Utsav3010

It was in late 2017 that Mr Faisal Khan, the founder of MotorBeam started his YouTube channel. He started posting video everyday at 11:30 AM from 1st January, 2018 and I made sure not to miss any of his videos.

His style of reviewing, the connect that I felt was very hypnotizing.

But, here our views slightly differ. No offence.

You don't "give the beans" to every vehicle on a public road. Very wrong influence IMO - considering most subscribers to such vlogger based content (Popularised by Mumbiker) are young minds who don't have the maturity not to imitate or get carried away by such enthusiasm. See any subscriber meetup of any similar channels- and you see 90% young audience who'd be barely old enough to have earned their licence.

A close friend had a discussion with him on this topic - and he had a valid response to this too. Motorbeam channel is for official and reliable content, whereas the vlog channel is for him to be well, himself. Valid. Just that it's not setting a right example for his young audience.

[Utsav3010]

Originally Posted by blackwasp

Welcome to Team-BHP Utsav. Nice to have you onboard!

Intersting. How did you find both of the cars in terms of road presence and looks?


So, there might be significant feature changes for the Indian-spec car! This is always expected, but I hope they don't dilute down the car too much. Did you discuss on the Kia warranties as well?

Thank you for your kind words sir
As I said, I found the Kia design language to be very sharp and edgy. Both the cars were parked together and everyone was taking a glance at the car. Rio, in that particular red shade looked ravishing! Sportage, in that boring white shade did not look very attractive, but that quad fog lamp setup will definitely grab some eyeballs. The line joining the tail-lights (similar to BR-V) gave a very pleasing look and didn't look like an afterthought. The Rio had 1.2 litre Petrol engine, but redline was marked at more than 7k RPM (I20's is marked at 6,600 or so), and Dhanil sir termed the engine to be free-revving with 'absolutely no bottom-end, strong mid-range and top-end'. Sportage, had the same engine and transmission combo as the Tucson Diesel, plus some more features. I found both the cars very appealing and most of the people had a similar opinion. Coming to interiors, they surely felt more well put-together than their Hyundai counterparts, all black interiors looked very very S-P-O-R-T-Y! Warranty issue wasn't discussed. This thing did not even cross my mind, sorry for that.

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

He's one of the better journalists out there - and looks like a self made one too, considering the humble origins of Motorbeam.

But, here our views slightly differ. No offence.

A close friend had a discussion with him on this topic - and he had a valid response to this too. Motorbeam channel is for official and reliable content, whereas the vlog channel is for him to be well, himself. Valid. Just that it's not setting a right example for his young audience.

Yes Sir, he is one of the self-made journalists, and that is one of the many reasons I admire him. Coming to your point of 'giving beans to the car', I totally agree with your point, no sane person drives like that on a regular basis. It's only on your occasionally highway runs that you rev your engine that hard.
Also, even I find those teenagers very annoying who despite not having a driver's license justify his style of giving beans and even try to defend him. Even in the meetup, there was a 16 year old guy who was praising him and Mr Faisal told him to not try all of it when he gets a license. It's his job and that's the reason he does that! He surely does not endorse it, and he told him to be a responsible driver once he gets a license.