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Hi!
I'm a long-time lurker of this forum who has finally taken the plunge and signed up. Like most of us, I've read (and re-read) hours of pages at Team-BHP. At different times, I've been particularly passionate about topics involving Jeeps, Ambassadors, Bullets, Jawas (for reasons you'll see below).

About me:
Born in Odisha, Mechanical engineer by training, DIY enthusiast, working in the Bay Area, and planning to return to India (for good) in a couple of months. I have lived in several states in India: OD, WB, MH, AP, TN, GJ (all more than 1-year stays). My other interests involve guitars and music production. My first car was Tata Indica (Petrol). First motorcycle was a 2nd hand bullet (first salary purchase).

Current toys:
Right now i've got wheels in both continents.
* In the US I am using a BMW 328i, and a HD 1200R - will have to plan to dispose these soon.
* Back home, wifey is using an X1, and I have an AP-reg Bullet 350 Classic (cast iron), and a GJ-reg 68' Jawa (rust iron, LOL). It appears we may have lost the papers for both bikes (they are registered in my name, will try to get that sorted when I get back to India. What do they gurus say? Possible?).

Biggest current dilemma/trilemma:
I'll also need to get myself a new car in India - all unsolicited advice welcome! I will only buy an Indian made vehicle. So, Tata, or Mahindra, or a petrol Amby. Kya khayal hai?

Also, I'm getting used to the norms of the club. I think I'm allowed one smiley, so here goes :)

Namaste

Welcome to Team BHP, the best managed web site this side of the Suez canal. I am glad you are returning home and will contribute to India's GDP. I am from the old old school that believes that we should strive to do our bit for this sacred land and nation that gave us our education instead of migrating out. But that's just me with no disrespect to migrants and NRIs. Now that I have rolled substantially off topic let's come back to your next car. I'll let the experts opine and advise you on that. Any car manufactured in India can be seen as an Indian car. After all it creates jobs in India, pays GST & Income Taxes in India and adds to the country's GDP. There so now you have several other brands added to your list.

Read the rules. Follow them like an ant. The Mods patrol the pages.

Welcome home ! I like your handle, and any patriot would immediately want to see more about you.

At the cost of sounding "different", I'd urge you to buy an old petrol Ambassador, spruce her up and use the car as your exclusive machine. Colours are one's personal choice but a silver metallic, black metallic, or a brown metallic would suit the Amby very well. If you're going to be based in Eastern India, it makes an even stronger case. For the mundane trips, you could own a Maruti XL6 or a Toyota Urban Cruiser, since these two are pretty easy to drive and park in cities, and won't hurt your pocket on maintenance.

Welcome to the forum and good luck to move back home.

I will consider Thar as an apt vehicle for you.

Regarding old Amby or your bikes, RTO’s are strict while renewing registration of old vehicles. In your case, documents can be found from RTO but getting the bikes clear fitness maybe tough or they may not even take requests.

Welcome to TBHP and India (whenever you return).
Only thing I can say is that looking at current situation of used Cars in USA, you are sitting on Gold Mine.
Use the right to sell of your priced possessions and wisely.

Welcome. Hope you have a good experience here.

There are enough threads to guide you through the process of applying for a new book. Welcome again to the bureaucratic maze called RTO. Difficult but possible.

Mostly agree, Sir - but some part of the wealth that is created will/shall go overseas eventually - as it rightfully should whenever an Indian buys from a brand that is a subsidiary to an international company.

In this matter, if I have a choice, I would want to give my ‘rokda’ to a fully Indian owned house. That said, I would not put my family in danger to buy swadeshi. But, bells and whistles comforts like cool air streaming under my underside will not let me forget the Tiranga :)

Oh yeah - now we are taking! Metallic brown Amby with full leather interior in light tan = Me likes very much. BMW has this brown called “Jatoba Brown”, that’s what I’m visualizing, right this moment.


So, this is the bike I’ll be saying good bye to. It’s not your regular 1200, had a bit more power and 2 discus on the front wheel. A little more strew suited than most Sportsters. She has LOUD Vance and Hines pipes on. Part of me wants to keep the panniers - they are original HDs and not easy to find anymore. By the way, she is a babies 2005 with less than 15k miles.
Maybe I’ll do one Bay Area to LA on Route 1 and post that on the forum (but then I wonder if that might have been done to death?).

You are a clairvoyant!
I really like the Thar, but have some concerns about the long wait time. I'm also disappointed that they don't have a native roof rack system (when the boot is so puny). Was the Product team too committed to being true to cloning the Wrangler? We won't know, but we can draw our own conclusions. Also the roof-leak stories are a buzzkill.

Now if Mahindra were to give the Thar an all metal top that's be just perfect, IMHO. That's something I like about the Gurkha.

If I had more money AND time AND garage space AND fabricating talent, I would get a Thar and have a metal top made from body panels from Marshalls and Boleros (I suspect the geometry would flow well). Then I would sell myself that, and I would be very happy person. Would you guys buy that?

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Welcome JayHind,
My suggestion go for Mahindra XUV300 W8 0