[hiren.mistry]

Originally Posted by arvi86

I was just wondering where did you go as I could not see your posts in the forum. Welcome back, and thanks for your wishes. Ofcourse, the Civic is going to be pampered now. Thats why, not once did I mention that it was pre-worshipped. I really don't know whether it was worshipped or not but now that the car has come to me, I am sure gonna worship it.

Thanks for missing me
I somehow have never warmed up to the term pre-worshipped, I'm sure your care will be taken care of.

That reminds me, have not washed the car in over a month and it pains to see my car so dirty. Note to myself: Wash the car, rain notwithstanding.

[rr_zen]

Originally Posted by arvi86

Even I was surprised that the car did not scrape any speedbreakers. And, regarding the stalling, it just gets accentuated in the Civic because the other car I drive now is my old Santro, both of which are poles apart in steering and pedal feel.

Tell me about it. The two other cars I drive apart from my Civic are my Esteem and my inlaws' i10 and hence can relate to you very well.

[spadix]

Originally Posted by arvi86

As they always say, its better late than never. Though a little late, here are some of the pictures of the car taken during this trip.

Don't worry about it! I've had my Civic for close to 11 months and there aren't even 11 pictures of it on my ownership thread.

By the way, I love that second last picture. The arrow-like stripes of white and black make even a Civic at stand-still look like it's doing some fantastic speeds! Super composition and juxtaposition of subject on background.

Originally Posted by hiren.mistry

That reminds me, have not washed the car in over a month and it pains to see my car so dirty. Note to myself: Wash the car, rain notwithstanding.

And mine's black. Rain does more harm than good to its looks (would love to use that "frustrated" smiley here but forum rules unfortunately limit us to two per post).

Originally Posted by rr_zen

Tell me about it. The two other cars I drive apart from my Civic are my Esteem and my inlaws' i10 and hence can relate to you very well.

Coming to the Civic from our old 800 and Dad's current Indigo, I face the same issue even though the Indigo is a bit of a slouch in this regard, especially when steering is fully locked (think waiting at a signal to take an acute turn or U-turn). The in-laws' i10 is absolutely hyper in this regard. I have to be very careful modulating clutch and throttle on that thing when starting off from a standstill.

Regards,
spadix

[arvi86]

Originally Posted by rr_zen

Tell me about it. The two other cars I drive apart from my Civic are my Esteem and my inlaws' i10 and hence can relate to you very well.

Sometimes I wonder why the straight 'H' and the slanted 'H' have to be so exactly opposite to each other like they are now.

Originally Posted by spadix

Don't worry about it! I've had my Civic for close to 11 months and there aren't even 11 pictures of it on my ownership thread.

By the way, I love that second last picture. The arrow-like stripes of white and black make even a Civic at stand-still look like it's doing some fantastic speeds! Super composition and juxtaposition of subject on background.

The in-laws' i10 is absolutely hyper in this regard. I have to be very careful modulating clutch and throttle on that thing when starting off from a standstill.

Thats pretty bad. Give us all an opportunity to drool over the Civic in black. Thanks for that comment on the second last picture. Even I loved it when I saw it. The i10, Santro and almost all Hyundais are a hoot to drive in city limits.

[spadix]

Originally Posted by arvi86

Thats pretty bad. Give us all an opportunity to drool over the Civic in black.

Hahaha! It's precisely because it's black that there aren't too many pictures. I live in an area infested with dirt tracks, construction sites and lorries kicking up dust like there's no tomorrow. By the time I take the car out of my apartment complex and into Turn 1, it's lost its clean look that I've given it with 1.5 hrs of TLC the previous night .

I've given up now. Instead of pictures, there'll just be memories.

Regards,
spadix

[arvi86]

Originally Posted by spadix

I live in an area infested with dirt tracks, construction sites and lorries kicking up dust like there's no tomorrow.

Tell me about it. The dust is a perennial problem. Every Friday night, I spend close to an hour wiping the Civic clean of dirt and dust and every Saturday morning, I wake up and see the car full of dust and I have to wipe it off all over again.

Meanwhile, a little update on my Civic – After my previous trip to Yelagiri, I had taken the car to Mamallapuram on the subsequent weekend. It was in this trip that I made a surprising discovery. When I take both my hands off the steering wheel, the car does not go dead-straight. In fact, it slowly turns to the right side. I was startled and again tried doing this at lower speeds but still the car wouldn’t go in a straight line. As I had stated, I have new tires installed in the car and wheel alignment/balancing was done very recently at Tyrestore, Chennai. What other reasons could contribute for the car behaving in this way? I need your comments and suggestions on this.

On another note, the Civic is giving me a considerably good mileage considering its power. On the long highway trips, it runs for 13.5 km to a liter and on a combined cycle (50% city and 50% highway), the mileage was 11.79 kmpl. Overall, the car is doing fine. The only grouse that I have with the car is that it is a pain to park in crowded places. I recently had the hell of a time attempting to park this car in T.Nagar, the crowded shopping hub of Chennai. Residents of Chennai will understand the difficulty of this.

I have taken some beautiful snaps of the car in Mamallapuram (though not as great as some experts here snap their cars). I will share the pictures later in the day.

[dot]

Originally Posted by arvi86

When I take both my hands off the steering wheel, the car does not go dead-straight. In fact, it slowly turns to the right side. I was startled and again tried doing this at lower speeds but still the car wouldn’t go in a straight line. As I had stated, I have new tires installed in the car and wheel alignment/balancing was done very recently

Is it possible that the road itself had some camber? If not, then maybe the alignment was not done properly during the tyre change and a revisit might help?

[arvi86]

Originally Posted by dot

Is it possible that the road itself had some camber? If not, then maybe the alignment was not done properly during the tyre change and a revisit might help?

There are scant chances of the road camber being involved in this as I tried driving without my hnads on the wheel in two or three different roads. As you said, I am planning to get the alignment checked again. But again, I don't know whether this problem was there before the recent tire change/wheel alignment or not. I should have tested this before but I missed it.

[laluks]

In the ECR road to Mamallapuram, the road is pretty decent and my civvy held straight. It was just a coincidence that I wanted to test her then

Waiting for some more pictures of the beauty. Congrats - though I'm late.

[arvi86]

Originally Posted by laluks

In the ECR road to Mamallapuram, the road is pretty decent and my civvy held straight. It was just a coincidence that I wanted to test her then

Waiting for some more pictures of the beauty. Congrats - though I'm late.

Maybe, the dynamics of the ECR along with its loneliness at times spurs us to do all these sorts of things with our car. And, thanks for your wishes.

Here are a couple of my favorite snaps taken in Mamallapuram.
Pic 1:
A modern engineering marvel with an ancient architectural marvel in the background.

Pic 2:
I love this view of the Civic. For me, this is one of the cutest butts in the planet.


I hope I am not overloading this thread with pictures of my car.

[arvi86]

Folks, I have got the Team-BHP stickers delivered at my house. After much speculation, I have finalized on either of these two stickers - 'Live To Drive' or 'Love Cars, Live Cars'. I just went around and had a full look at the car, but just couldn't find a suitable place for these stickers. A few suggestions would help.

[charthom]

@arvi86,

Mate, sorry for being late to congratulate you!! You car is a stunner. She appears to be a very good value for money and looks very refreshing.

Your snaps are very good too.Esp the ones of your tours.The nice greenery was so soothing that I could experience the coolness right here!

You are so happy with the machine and love travelling-hope to see you in the travelogue section too.Enjoy the ride!!

[arvi86]

Originally Posted by charthom

@arvi86,

Mate, sorry for being late to congratulate you!! You car is a stunner. She appears to be a very good value for money and looks very refreshing.

Your snaps are very good too.Esp the ones of your tours.The nice greenery was so soothing that I could experience the coolness right here!

You are so happy with the machine and love travelling-hope to see you in the travelogue section too.Enjoy the ride!!

Ah, thanks for those nice words charthom. They really made me feel good. I am indeed very happy with the machine and I love travelling too, more so when I am driving. I am just not getting the time to get in full-fledged and start a travelogue. But, I am planning to do it very soon.

[arvi86]

I have to say that I am really having a dream run in my dream machine. The last few weeks have been really hectic both for me and my Civic. After my earlier trips to Yelagiri and Mahabalipuram, it was time again for a long drive a couple of weeks back. This time again, it was all planned all of a sudden and after much deliberation and scouting around for accommodation in many places, we again zeroed in on Yelagiri. The trip however, was a revelation of sorts with me getting to know the Civic better. Here are a few updates.

The legendary i-VTEC powertrain remains the most impressive part of the Civic, after it's stunning looks of course. I just love the way in which the car pulls ahead after 2000 rpm on open highways pushing you backwards in your seat. With all this humdrum and build-up of speeds happening under the boot, the occupants remain isolated in an eerie silence and smoothness inside the car. Most importantly, in this drive, I got a mileage of 15.76 km (inclusive of driving in ghats and inside the city), more than what I ever got in 1.5 years of owning the Santro. I am loving the fact that I have so much power and speed on tap and yet I go farther on a liter of gasoline.

Now that the honeymoon period with the car is well and truly over and I have spent enough time to get to know the car's details, I am starting to notice a few minute irregularities.

The Ground Clearance continues to be a problem with 5 or even 4 people on board. I scraped in a couple of places again in this trip. That's a regular occurrence now, so no big issues with that. Now I understand why the car came with this hump in the rear bumper when I bought it. I think, the rear bumper would have scraped a monstrous speed-breaker a little harder than usual and that incident has left this mark in the car. I know a little tinkering job would solve this almost-invisible eyesore. But I need to know whether it will involve removing the bumper completely or is it just a small nip and tuck job.



On even slightly imperfect roads, I get an irritating rattle noise from the dashboard. Its coming from left side of the dashboard, somewhere near, above or behind the glove box. I have tried many things to stop this noise, but in vain. What could this be and what should be done to stop this? Lastly, the dashboard plastic near the instrument cluster does not sit properly in place. I told this to the Service Advisor when I gave the car for its 30K service but he seems to have forgotten this little point.



To be very frank, nobody who sits in the car or who have sat in the car have noticed these small points and people frown when I point these minute imperfections. But we guys have eyes and ears for minutest of details, isn't it? Other than these, the car overall has been doing a phenomeal job and I am loving every bit of owning and drving it.

OT: As usual, I have some nice snaps of the Civic taken in the recent drive to Yelagiri and I will upload a few of them shortly.

[dot]

Originally Posted by arvi86

Lastly, the dashboard plastic near the instrument cluster does not sit properly in place. I told this to the Service Advisor when I gave the car for its 30K service but he seems to have forgotten this little point.

Typically Civic's plastic parts are all clip attached. Is it possible that the cover can be pushed back into place by taking it out and clipping it back in correct alignment?