[arvi86]

Originally Posted by CGB

I went and opened the door of new city and I was like Ran aback to sales person and booked the old one!

That was a good decision. You saved yourself from the spate of reliability and build issues that the initial lot of 2014 City owners faced.

[Ace F355]

Originally Posted by arvi86

we were all happy that the Civic stayed with us

Arvi, can completely relate to your predicament. I didn't even want to sell my Civic and could have bought Fortuner alongside, however I couldn't convince myself having 2 cars at my disposal. So, shark had to go.

8th Gen Civic is one of the best cars I have owned till date and I am really happy you decided to keep the car. My car never gave me any issue (apart from that low GC that is) and I am happy for the new owner who got a pristine maintained car like Civic for peanuts. Your car looks clean and well maintained for its age (very much like my Civic) and I would suggest you to keep enjoying it for more time to come.

[arvi86]

Having decided to retain the Civic for a couple of more years at the least, we were chugging along quite nicely. During the festive season, the car was given a complete exterior and interior treatment at one of the swanky new car spas that have come up on the OMR IT expressway. This was just before Diwali.

The first deluge.. and we escaped..

Chennai became a victim of a series of heavy downpours during the months of November and December last year. We had planned to celebrate Diwali with my parents in Trichy and so escaped from the first of those three spells that most of us residing in Chennai would never forget. Heavy rains lashed for more than 6 hours at a stretch and the flood-prone areas of the city were inundated as usual, we were told. It took 2-3 days for normalcy to resume. We being out of town, the car was parked safely at home and escaped the first deluge.

The next deluge.. that claimed Civic's i-VTEC..

The second deluge happened mid-November. It was 15th November, a Sunday, and we were out shopping in T.Nagar, one of the busiest shopping areas in South India. It was cloudy when we walked in to one of the large apparel outlets at 10:00 in the morning. We had spent three hours inside without realizing it was pouring cats and dogs outside. Only when we came out by 01:00 did we realize the impact. We had to cross the road in ankle-deep water to get to our car and it was a nightmare negotiating through the traffic and the water.

Moreover, we had to visit a relative on the way home and the streets in that locality resembled Venice. I ain't kidding, there was water covering the entire width of the road and some more! To give you a perspective of how bad it was, here are a couple of shaky snaps I clicked that day.




"Little did I know that the same water that the Civic was happily posing with would render the car broke in two days"

The Civic sailed through and we reached home safely. But the rains continued to wreak our plans for the next two days. While I worked from home the next day, the decision to drive my car to work on 17th November turned out to be a bad decision. Of course, I didn't have the privilege of hindsight when I decided to do that. I am usually a cautious driver and I am not known to be a risk-taker especially with a car that's challenged for ground clearance. But, so many things transpired against me when I decided to go ahead on a flooded stretch that didn't look dangerous with so many cars going through it. It taught me two crucial lessons for life that I will cover in a subsequent post.

Only when I ventured deep did I realize I should have stopped when the road was still visible. The water was up to the level of front bumper and I was scared piloting the Civic. There were so many pedestrians, auto-rickshaws and two-wheelers all around me as those vehicles wanted to occupy the higher ground near the median where the water was just below knee-deep. Consequently, the cars, buses and trucks were pushed to the second and third lanes where the water was much deeper.

Still, I was sane enough to keep it slow in first gear with a steady throttle. The Civic was cutting through water that was almost level with the headlights.

Will I get through this stretch? Will the doors be jammed, locking me inside? Will I lose the car, my prized possession? There were so many thoughts occupying my mind when this idiotic bus driver who was a few vehicles behind started to lose patience.

In a split second, he accelerated so fast to overtake all of us and the huge wave that came off the wheels of the bus unsettled the car. One of the waves came crashing from behind, hit the roof and raced down the front windshield while another one came from the left side and went over the hood. That was it, the car started sputtering but I still kept the engine alive. Just when I thought I could get out of this stretch and onto the flyover ahead, a two-wheeler rider in front of me lost his balance because of the wave and almost fell down. He somehow balanced himself miraculously but stopped right in front of the Civic. That was the end. I had to brake and the car sputtered more and died but not before the front wheels came out of the water. Yes, I had already started my ascent onto the flyover by then! I almost made it through, but didn't.

A few onlookers helped push the car to the shoulder. I didn't crank the engine again and stepped down only to see so many people and cars stranded. Here's how the place looked.


"Look at the water's depth; the Palio's headlights are almost under water"


"The trucks and buses were the Avengers in that stretch ferrying people to safety; sadly, one of them claimed my car"


"The Civic sadly became an unfortunate victim of the 2015 Chennai rains"

The next few hours was a nightmare. I somehow managed to arrange a Tata Ace to tow the car to Capital Honda but the floods have rendered most of the underpasses unusable. The only road that connected Velachery and GST Road through Guindy was so crowded it became a nightmare to tow the car through it. Two-wheelers would cross into the little space between the Tata Ace and the Civic and the mechanic sitting inside tried cranking the car twice despite me advising not to do so. To be fair to him, he needed to honk and use the power steering at that moment to avoid a nasty crash with a two-wheeler ahead of us.

The Civic spent the next one week at the dealership but neither the service advisors nor the L&T insurance personnel were helpful in getting the claim approved. The reason given? There was no proof that water had entered the engine. I decided to take it my own way and arranged for a flat-bed to shift the car to Ignite, the friendly neighbourhood garage in ECR. Eventually, I ended up spending almost the same amount that the service advisors at Capital Honda initially estimated to get the car up and running. Though the parts were cheaper, the labour charges were higher than at Honda due to the sudden demand throughout Chennai for mechanics. I couldn't argue much and Raghav, the owner of Ignite, was in touch all through the 6 weeks the car spent in his garage.

December 01.. When rain and floods unleashed their collective fury on Chennai.. I had one less thing to worry about..

Enough has been said already on the calamity that struck Chennai on 01st December. 24 hours of near non-stop rainfall, roads that could be mistaken for rivers, unimaginable loss of lives and property and we were disconnected at home with nowhere to go and no one to talk. Our locality was spared but all areas surrounding ours were flooded. The only consolation was we had one less thing to worry about. The car was already in the garage and Raghav assured me the garage was safe.


"An image shot when going back home from work on the day of the deluge"

Here's a collage of the images that left a scar on me personally - the day when every mode of transport floated to a halt!


"Images that most of us residing in Chennai would never forget!"

Originally Posted by Ace F355

I couldn't convince myself having 2 cars at my disposal.

I went exactly through the same thought process as well.

Originally Posted by Ace F355

I am really happy you decided to keep the car. I would suggest you to keep enjoying it for more time to come.

Destiny had other plans

[saket77]

That's a sad story. Could you please update the status. I am under the impression that the car was repaired and is going great currently. I hope I am right.

Regards,
Saket.

[Ace F355]

Originally Posted by arvi86

Destiny had other plans

Hey Arvi, You left me a little confused here. Early June you had shared the story of Civic surviving an onslaught and the post above is making me believe the Civic had tough time in last year Chennai floods!

I hope all is well with your car!

[arvi86]

Originally Posted by saket77

That's a sad story. Could you please update the status. I am under the impression that the car was repaired and is going great currently. I hope I am right.

You're partially right, Saket. The car was indeed repaired and is going great but just not with us.

Originally Posted by Ace F355

Hey Arvi, You left me a little confused here. Early June you had shared the story of Civic surviving an onslaught and the post above is making me believe the Civic had tough time in last year Chennai floods!

I hope all is well with your car!

Remember we booked the Creta after a long evaluation process and then cancelled the booking as we couldn't let the Civic go? That's the onslaught that I referred to. Unfortunately, the monsoons weren't kind to us. Water had got into the cylinders as a result of the episode I explained in my previous post and one of the connecting rods were bent. I had to shell out close to INR 1.5 Lakhs to get the engine repaired (Details coming up in a subsequent post).

This is the second major unscheduled expense on the car after the unfortunate accident in 2013 and family members were upset that I'm throwing in too much money on a 9-year old car. Off we went on yet another test drive spree (with a constrained budget this time!) that culminated with we bringing home a brand-new compact crossover.

The end result is the Civic is no longer with us but with someone in our extended family.

[Ace F355]

Originally Posted by arvi86

Remember we booked the Creta after a long evaluation process and then cancelled the booking as we couldn't let the Civic go? That's the onslaught that I referred to. Unfortunately, the monsoons weren't kind to us. Water had got into the cylinders as a result of the episode I explained in my previous post and one of the connecting rods were bent. I had to shell out close to INR 1.5 Lakhs to get the engine repaired (Details coming up in a subsequent post).

This is the second major unscheduled expense on the car after the unfortunate accident in 2013 and family members were upset that I'm throwing in too much money on a 9-year old car. Off we went on yet another test drive spree (with a constrained budget this time!) that culminated with we bringing home a brand-new compact crossover.

The end result is the Civic is no longer with us but with someone in our extended family.

Ah I got it now! Good to see Civic is still within family. And Congratulations on your new car, which compact crossover BTW? Going by your previous liking, I am guessing it is a Creta! Waiting for the ownership thread.

[skdking]

Originally Posted by arvi86

....

I had to shell out close to INR 1.5 Lakhs to get the engine repaired (Details coming up in a subsequent post).

'''''

Heyyy Arvind,

Where are the promised details?