As on date, she's crossed 46k and continues to go about doing her job silently & admirably. I can't believe that almost two years have gone by (Jan 2006 was the month of purchase). She shows her spirit & gives me my adrenalin highs on my weekend drives with her, I just wish I could somehow find time for an outstation trip but constraints at home make it unlikely for quite some time ahead.
Updates?
Well, the 40k service was done a couple of months ago (I was late in getting that done, mileage was 41732 kms) and it cost me Rs 2,240 - Paid service labour was Rs 875 plus taxes & material (power steering fluid, engine oil, oil filter & air filter) was Rs 1,067 plus taxes. The total maintenance costs now stand at Rs 7k, which is still 15 paise per km.
One major s***w-up happened at the shop where I get the wheel alignment & balancing done. I've been using this guy for quite a few years now & there's one employee of his who is an expert so he's the one who normally attends my car. Now, when my driver went there (sometime after 30k when it was due), that guy was absent - I would have probably come away but my driver made the mistake of asking one of the other guys to do the work. Lol, that was the beginning of disaster! Mr Smarty pants
RIPPED OFF ALL THE WEIGHTS on all the alloy wheels and started afresh! His logic was - Aisa hi hota hai! By the time my driver reacted, it was too late, he was busy adding on fresh weights based on the machine reading. Now, while theoretically this may sound OK, in practical life, i don't think it is because you are not supposed to rip out all the factory settings/fittings, you are just supposed to compensate what may have dropped off/gone along the way. As a result of this, all my alloy wheel balancing went haywire & it took two subsequent visits to get it somewhat right but nowhere near what it was. At the end, I still felt it wasn't right & neither was the alignment - I also noticed that my tyres were suddenly showing signs of more disproportionate wear than they were at 30k
.
I decided to change the shop & went to one near Chanakya (based on inputs from the HF workshop) & the alignment feels OK now but I think some damage has already been done on the balancing front! Tyre experts in Delhi, if you know of a
RELIABLE shop that does alignment & balancing well for
ALLOY WHEELS, please PM me.
Front brake discs were replaced last week under warranty (what is it with me & brake discs on both my vehicles
) - a shudder in the steering wheel was becoming apparent on braking so they were changed & she's as good as new. As mentioned in my earlier update, the Multi Information Display was also changed shortly after the 30k service.
She continues to bring out the devil in me whenever I get behind the wheel but that's nothing new. Some time back, I was returning from the club late in the eveningwhen a Black SX4 zipped past from the left (I was peacefully cruising) and then slowed down for a speed breaker. So, as usual, yours truly couldn't resist - at the speed breaker, change to first, pop the clutch,
wheelspin, leave
some rubber on the road, change from first to second,
wheelspin, more rubber on the road and bingo - "where have all the men gone"? "Nowhere, just fallen behind that's all!"
Future plans?
Nothing major but I do think I will be going in for new tyres. The current crop are still good for a few thousand kms more but what with the wear & tear thanks to that idiot at the shop, I probably will look at it in a couple of months or so. I'm thinking of a tyre upsize so the tyre experts will need to roll out their fundas.
Long overdue & MUST-DO
And Benny's going to hammer me on this one - need to take some time out on a weekend and get some decent snaps of her. Yes, the photo gallery needs to be started soon. I promise to do it before the year ends. In the meantime, Cheers guys & Happy Motoring!!