| The Sea Grey Saga
I read a lot. Its been a passion since I was a kid. My Mom bought me the whole World Book Encyclopedia, and I think I devoured it all. Took me about two years, but I probably read every single article. The fact that reading up on things, however random or necessary has served me well in the past, give me no reason to change my ways.
So why it came to buying a car, I went about it no differently. I’d lived most of my life either in small towns (army kid) or in big cities with public transport. So transportation with an internal-combustion engine was never a requirement. But as I got my first job, in a client facing role, the biggest requirement was mobility. So a car went from being a thing I borrowed from parents/friends to an absolute necessity.
And that’s where I start this story. From doing 100 km’s a month on American roads, I was expected to do approx 100kms a day on Delhi roads. So other than getting used to the madness that is North Indian traffic, I also had to pick my car. I figured jumping into the deep end of the pool might be as good a way as any to start off this phase of my life.
Now one big issue, which is the budget got solved for me pretty quickly. My company gave me an allowance, any car under 5.1 Lakh Ex-showroom. There I had my starting point. And considering my daily driving distances, a diesel was the only option. So the hunt began. Reading was what brought me to Team-BHP, where in March, I was checking up on ownership reviews of the Swift Diesel and. And that’s where I caught sight of a little link that showed me the coral dashboard of the upcoming Ford Figo. I was sold on the looks from day one, and where I had initially settled almost entirely on the Swift as the only decent option, there were more contenders.
The more I read, the more convinced I became that this was going to be my car. The biggest hurdle that I had to cross was the brand perception of Ford that I had developed from my time in the US. We used to say Ford stands for ‘Found on road dead’. They make great high end cars, and trucks, but the average user rarely uttered a good word of them. All that changed the day I first saw this baby at the Harpreet Ford in Gurgaon. I had a meeting two doors down, and as I was heading back to office, I passed the dealership, with its gigantic signs proclaiming the arrival of the new Figo.
As I walked in the gate, I saw the White and the Sea Grey model’s standing outside, and the question of what color became all too real. But that’s for later. The car, the feel of the accessories, the package for its price, all led me in the right direction. Two test drives later, I began to draw up the paperwork. As luck would have it, I even managed to pull the registration date back and have the number generated on the 31st of May, the last day before the new taxes kicked in. Thanks to a very helpful new sales associate, I had the car in hand exactly 3 days later due to a cancellation, even though the wait time was close to 20 days at that stage. So it was a pretty awesome Wednesday, when I drove my new Sea Grey Ford Figo Zxi – TDCi out of the dealership and onto the messy roads of New Delhi.
Coming Soon
Now moving out of story mode, I want to get down to the whole driving experience. So we're going to move into a little more factual writing style. | 
29th July 2010, 23:55
