[//M]

A petrolhead friend of mine is a hardcore car enthusiast but hardly cares about motorcycles, but I am more of a motorcycle person.

Everytime when he sees me wearing a full face helmet and riding gears, he comments that biking is all about freedom, wind in your face experience and that by wearing riding jacket, helmet, gloves, the meaning of motorcycling gets diluted. One who wears a helmet and jacket is not a biker, these things make them a cager similar to car drivers. Real bikers do not need such pseudo protection but only wind in the face.

[tharian]

This one came from a Customer rep from Bimal Motors when a friend when to check for discounts on Wagon R,

'they asked for usage and they said Abs is not needed if going for alloy wheels..but if you insist you can go for abs also..'

He also said alloys offer more grip.

[lamborghini]

Originally Posted by Nitrous Power

But here in USA no one uses parking break at all. Neither I use it at all while in USA nor I use it while in India. I haven't faced any issue with AT gearbox in any of the car that I have owned in USA so far and that includes 2005 Toyota Corolla with 175K miles on it. Even back home also, we don't use hand break on my Merc C220 CDI or my mom's i20 AT.

Matter if fact, I heard this for the first time that parking the car in P mode creates a pressure on Auto transmission.

Sorry for jumping into this late, but on inclines, I have always noticed I need to put more pressure to shift from P to R/N/D if the hand brakes are not applied. This is on the Laura with DSG, and E270.
When I come home, put it in park, and release the brake - the car will move just a little bit ahead before the pin comes into contact and the car stops. When this happens, on my next drive - once I start her up, the movement from P to whatever gear is always a little jerky.
On the other hand, With the parking brake on before engaging P, the car does not move that little bit also and I face no such issues.

Give it a shot and see if you notice a difference. It is only evident when starting off, and assuming you are parked on an incline.

Plus logically there has to be a reason for having a handbrake even in an Auto right?

In the US, I knew of a few people who never left their hand brake on with the fear of the cold making the brakes get stuck. Maybe that's why?

[ramzsys]

"This small car's turbodiesel engine is so torque-y(or powerful) that it moves without any accelerator pedal input; in fact i can go at xy kmph speeds at nth gear without touching the pedal"

[condor]

lamborghini : ..but on inclines, I have always noticed I need to put more pressure to shift from P to R/N/D if the hand brakes are not applied.

Aren't you supposed to step on the brake before shifting ?

[Binzone]

Originally Posted by ramzsys

"This small car's turbodiesel engine is so torque-y(or powerful) that it moves without any accelerator pedal input; in fact i can go at xy kmph speeds at nth gear without touching the pedal"

Am not sure this is quirky as such, unless 'xy' and 'n' are an unbelievable combination.
The Palio MJD can steadily climb out of a multilevel basement car park on 2nd gear with zero accelerator input.

[ramzsys]

Originally Posted by Binzone

The Palio MJD can steadily climb out of a multilevel basement car park on 2nd gear with zero accelerator input.

At idling rpm?

I don't think so. Since you don't press the pedal, the ECU presses it to maintain a (relatively) healthy engine rpm for that speed.

[Binzone]

Originally Posted by ramzsys

At idling rpm?



I don't think so. Since you don't press the pedal, the ECU presses it to maintain a (relatively) healthy engine rpm for that speed.

I agree it does slightly, and the torque contributes to this too. The difference can be felt when you attempt the same with a petrol engine of a similar class car.
All the same, what's happening is that, the car is moving forward without A pedal input, isn't it? Which is why I didn't think it's that quirky

[ramzsys]

Originally Posted by Binzone

All the same, what's happening is that, the car is moving forward without A pedal input, isn't it? Which is why I didn't think it's that quirky

There's always some torque available, but 750-900 rpm range isn't the best illustration of it, there's the 2000 rpm for that!

There's less oil pressure for oil a healthy circulation and we can hear the grumpy engine if we do so.

cheers.

[lamborghini]

Originally Posted by condor

Aren't you supposed to step on the brake before shifting ?

I step on the brake, but there is still a difference in gear slotting if I had applied the handbrake while parking the car the previous time.
To better clarify, there are two possible scenarios (simplified) while parking on the gentle incline at home:

Scenario 1:
- Pull into spot
- Put the gear into P
- Release brake
- Switch off engine
At this point when one lets go of the regular brake, the car will inch forward just a little bit and come to a stop.

Scenario 2:
- Pull into spot
- Put the gear into P
- engage handbrake
- Release brake
- Switch off engine
In this scenario, the car will not inch forward as the handbrake is holding it into place.

Now, the next time I get into the car and start her up, and shift from P to R/D:
- If I parked as described in Scenario 1, there is a bit of a resistance while shifting from P along with a minor jerk. This is possibly because of the 'pin' and that the car was being held in place by the pin and when I was shifting from P to R/D (releasing the Pin), I could feel the jerk.
- If I parked as described in Scenario 2 (with the handbrake), shifting is smooth!

Maybe most owners will not notice this, but given my daily drive is a Skoda with DSG, I am a little more attentive

[callvvijay]

A couple of months back:
A dealer of Tata Motors had put a stall in our office premise to showcase Tata Bolt. When I had gone to check it out, the sales-guy quips "Sir, this is the only turbo-petrol engine car available in India".

Next is the best part - I was offered a wrist-band which had a bar-code in it. On inquiring, I was told - "Sir, if you bring this to our showroom, you will get a free test-drive". When I asked him if I would be charged if I don't bring that wrist-band, he was like

A couple of days back:
I was in the jam-packed elevator - and happened to hear this.
Guy 1: You know what, the new Creta has the fluidic engine and is able to give good mileage.
Guy 2: Hmmm.
Guy 1: And Hyundai is doing so good that they have sold 1lakh units of i20-Active.
Guy 2: <<Silence>>.

Me: <<No more emoticons allowed>>. I felt that Guy-2 realized the stupidity of his friend and preferred to keep mum.

Cheers!

[FINTAIL]

A neighbour asked me a question the other day.

Can all the dents in my car be repaired?

Made my day, lol.

[mohammedismail]

Heard a Colleague saying " Maserati has the Engine of Ferrari and Comfort of Rolls Royce"
And he said, "There are 3 to 4 Veyrons in Mumbai and one needs to Take the car to France to change the Tires that is the reason no one Buys more of Veyrons in India"

[Dr.Suraj]

Are people getting more educated thanks to TeamBHP and making fewer gaffes these days?


Here's 3 from my side from this gem of a salesman at the Maruti showroom.

Scenario 1:
Maruti has a A4 page of price-list of ALL cars crammed in tabular form, front and back. All cars. All variants. We were doing a TD of the Dzire AGS. Now, Alto 800, Alto K10, Wagon R, StingRay, Ciaz - ALL had AMT written next to their respective versions. ALL.
ONLY the Dzire had the AGS written next to it.
Just out of curiosity we asked him - is there any difference?

Reply:
Nahi sir. All our cars are AGS. We don't use AMT technology on any of our cars. AMT is wha the actual real automatics are called. All our cars have only lesser automatic technology that is called AGS (auto-gear shift).
So I remind him that the price list says AMT.
His reply - classic - Sir is must be a mistake by the guys at Maruti who made the price list. We don't use AMT technology. We only use AGS.


Scenario 2:
Me: So what's the cost of the AMC for 3 or 4 years?
Him: Sir around 8000 Rs.
Me: What all is covered in that?
Him: Everything sir, clutch, brake, power window motor. Everything.
Me: Ok. Wow. Sounds too good. So then I don't need to buy extended warranty?
Him: No sir, this is extended warranty I was telling you about. That is for 8k.
Me: Ookay. So what does the AMC do? What does it cover? & how much does it cost?
Him: Sir car is going to be driven in Mumbai or out of Mumbai?
Me: (my interest is piqued - this new) Why what's the difference?
Him: Sir, if in Mumbai then you need different AMC and out of Mumbai you need different AMC.
Me: before I could speak he rambles on
Him: Sir actually this entire concept of AMC was by XSADFGH showroom (the place he works at - quite a popular one in Mumbai). We started it and then Maruti copied it from us. So there is our showroom AMC or you can take the Maruti AMC.

Absolute silence. I just did not wish to take that conversation further. If I haven't got my facts right here, then by all means I am willing to be enlightened. But to my ears this sounded like complete BS.

Scenario 3:

Me: What is the price of the Wagon R or Stingray AMT with airbags?
Him: There is no airbags in these cars.
Me: In the AMT version or in MT as well?
Him: In any version. There are no airbags.
Me: It says so in the brochure?
Him: Sir that is 'optional' if you pay extra for it we can put it in for you.
Me: Awesome. So can I have that?
Him: No sir, it takes 6 months minimum for us to get a car with optional airbags. I would not advise waiting for it. I can't guarantee a delivery of it.

Thus re-confirms the theory floating on another thread that Maruti has put these 'Optional' variants in the price chart but hasn't really manufactured them. They seem to be like unicorns. Nobody ever gets their hands on one. Dealers are absolutely reluctant to order them and amazing the common public is more than happy to not bother about such bits of safety.

[saket77]

Classic:
Friend sees my recently installed LHS mirror on my Zen (didn't come as OE fitment) and asks if I use it. Of course, I say. I continue- Don't you?

His reply:
"Already there are so many things to see, why to add to complications of watching your LHS backside too?" Epic!