[vasoo]

Originally Posted by spadix

....
A couple of things have happened here. First of all, the overall corporate discount has reduced from 20k to 15k. Now, I would've got 15k if not for the insurance offer. The insurance on the V is 51265. Why is this so high? Because Honda and dealer make a lot of money off showroom insurance. Roughly half of this amount goes to these two parties and the other half to the actual insurance company. In fact my insurance policy clearly states that the gross premium is 31961 only. This means that the dealer and Honda would normally pocket around 19300. Essentially, when insurance is being given for Re. 1 both parties are already giving this discount together. That's why I get only 7.5k (Honda's share) of the 15k corporate discount. The dealer withholds his part of that corporate discount (the other 7.5k).

This was the story across both the Honda dealerships here. I guess if I really bargained hard, I could've gotten another 2.5k (the invoice does state a 10k corporate discount and I'm investigating this further; more updates later) but I did get the body cover worth 2.2k free of charge.

If I had bought the car when the insurance scheme wasn't on offer I would've paid 34k to Tata-AIG and got a 0 dep. policy. The current 32k policy that I have (from Bajaj Allianz under the aegis of "Honda Assure") is not a 0 dep. policy. I would've had to shell out some 7-8k more for that top-up.

....

GPS + BT is a good addition. How much did you pay for that? As usual, Honda charges 19k for the OEM GPS stuff they sell. I don't know the exact details of the package but it inherently felt worthless.

...

I did not have the 0 insurance scheme when I bought my car. However I opted to take the insurance from outside. Tata AIG gave it for about 25k after lot of bargaining. The dealer quote was something like 52k. Then the 20k corporate discount and 10k worth of free accessories. My on-road price was about 15.8 lacs for V AT in Bangalore. Now it has gone up by nearly a lac here.

I bought the GPS unit (265WT) from USA during my last trip for $139. Bought India map from Satguide for Rs990. Pretty good so far.

[spadix]

Originally Posted by Invinsible

Congrats! it looks stunning in black. Keep it shining always

Thanks, Invinsible! It's tough maintaining a black Civic (as many had warned me) but what has to be done has to be done. I'm thinking of a weekly water wash with daily dry dusting and polishing every month or two. The monsoons make it difficult. Also, the dealer has advised not to use bore water, but I don't have any other cheap option. I also don't want to be washing it too often, considering the water scarcity in general and I don't want to contribute to it more than I should.

I need to start reading the car-care + aesthetics thread now.

Originally Posted by vasoo

I did not have the 0 insurance scheme when I bought my car. However I opted to take the insurance from outside. Tata AIG gave it for about 25k after lot of bargaining. The dealer quote was something like 52k. Then the 20k corporate discount and 10k worth of free accessories. My on-road price was about 15.8 lacs for V AT in Bangalore. Now it has gone up by nearly a lac here.

I bought the GPS unit (265WT) from USA during my last trip for $139. Bought India map from Satguide for Rs990. Pretty good so far.

Yeah, if the scheme wasn't present I too would've gone with Tata AIG. Their first offer was 34k for the 0-dep. policy. I don't remember what the sales rep. quoted for the regular policy. It must've been 27k. And it would definitely have gone down with some bargaining. I'll have to do all of this next year if Honda Assure decides to slap on some 40-45k (or whatever) as the second year insurance.

Kudos on getting 10k worth of free accessories. It was difficult for me to even manage that free car cover. Again, same story at both dealers. I hate mono/oligopolies.

The GPS deal looks good. As I said, 19k for a "genuine Honda GPS" seemed worthless. I don't know much about GPS', haven't researched them enough. As of now it looks like I may not need one. But it's one of those things where once you've experienced it, you can't live without it .

Regards,
spadix

[shuvc]

They gave a default 20% off on the 52K insurance for Honda Assure (Iffco Tokio). Cost me around 41K for the scheme that treats plastic depreciation on par with metals. This should come down to 27-28K levels if I have NCB next year. But that's far off. Will take a call later.

The 20K parking sensor with the dealers are probably the ones with the display in the rear view mirrors. Some sort of LED display I think.

I was quoted 14K for a GPS setup.

15.86 OTR !! It's 14.07 here before discounts. 1.8L difference !!

[vasoo]

Originally Posted by shuvc

They gave a default 20% off on the 52K insurance for Honda Assure (Iffco Tokio). Cost me around 41K for the scheme that treats plastic depreciation on par with metals. This should come down to 27-28K levels if I have NCB next year. But that's far off. Will take a call later.

The 20K parking sensor with the dealers are probably the ones with the display in the rear view mirrors. Some sort of LED display I think.

I was quoted 14K for a GPS setup.

15.86 OTR !! It's 14.07 here before discounts. 1.8L difference !!

The parking sensors has LED displays showing the car and the positioning of 4 sensors against near obstacles. It also displays the distance to the nearest obstacle coupled with a beep indicating the distance. There is also a voice over to announce the warnings, in English and Chinese languages.

Are you talking about the price of V AT in CCU? As per Carwale it is 15.05 on road there and in BLR it is 17.29 . Of course this is assuming the dealer quoted insurance rates.

[mobike008]

Originally Posted by shuvc

The 20K parking sensor with the dealers are probably the ones with the display in the rear view mirrors. Some sort of LED display I think.

I was quoted 14K for a GPS setup.

15.86 OTR !! It's 14.07 here before discounts. 1.8L difference !!

20K for reverse sensors with just a simple display in rear view mirrors is daylight robbery.

When i got my Cruze LT delivered it didnt come with reverse sensors and the normal ones with just a beep sound ( which is OE fitted on LTZ) is Rs.1990 in showroom.

And, if you fit the reverse sensors aftermarket they cost the same ( Rs.2000) and display is in rearview mirrors. And, for a full fledge one with unit on dashboard with full display of vehicle and objects is for Rs.12990 in showroom.

Planning to fit the OE one this weekend as dont want to mess around with electricals and give the car manafacturer an opportunity to shy away from their warranty promise.

Sorry to say this but, Honda is really absurd in its pricing

[shuvc]

Originally Posted by vasoo

Are you talking about the price of V AT in CCU? As per Carwale it is 15.05 on road there and in BLR it is 17.29 . Of course this is assuming the dealer quoted insurance rates.

Nope. I quoted the price of the V M/T here. But it's increased by 10K for the EIV. So that should read 14.17 for the V M/T

Yes, the V A/T should be around 15. So it's 2.2L more in BLR !!

Originally Posted by mobike008

Sorry to say this but, Honda is really absurd in its pricing

+1 to that. Pointless going for these accessories from the showroom.

Although when I had asked for Llumar film, they said 4.5 for the windows and rear windscreen. This was more or less ok. Maybe slightly higher than aftermarket.

[spadix]

Originally Posted by shuvc

They gave a default 20% off on the 52K insurance for Honda Assure (Iffco Tokio). Cost me around 41K for the scheme that treats plastic depreciation on par with metals. This should come down to 27-28K levels if I have NCB next year. But that's far off. Will take a call later.

I actually tried telling the dealer to let go of the insurance scheme and give me other discounts, because I was getting insurance at around 30k from outside. So I was essentially asking for 20k worth of accessories. Both dealers flatly refused. They only agreed to give the full corporate discount of 15k if I got non-showroom insurance. I didn't see the point of doing this.

Originally Posted by shuvc

The 20K parking sensor with the dealers are probably the ones with the display in the rear view mirrors. Some sort of LED display I think.

Ok. I saw those on the AT test mule. Useful even at night, but I still found myself turning back and really looking at the traffic shooting past on the road. I guess these are useful to identify children and low-lying inanimate objects (boulders, kerbs etc.).

Originally Posted by shuvc

I was quoted 14K for a GPS setup.

I must say I keep getting surprised at these differential rates. On the car itself, I can understand. However, I can't understand a difference of 5k on a 15-20k object just because it's sold in different states. In any case, it doesn't make sense to go for *most* Honda genuine accessories, I think.

Originally Posted by shuvc

15.86 OTR !! It's 14.07 here before discounts. 1.8L difference !!

You bet! The difference is equal to the road tax I paid here .

Originally Posted by vasoo

The parking sensors has LED displays showing the car and the positioning of 4 sensors against near obstacles. It also displays the distance to the nearest obstacle coupled with a beep indicating the distance. There is also a voice over to announce the warnings, in English and Chinese languages.

Is this what you get from the 20k thingy? If so, then the difference between the S and V suddenly doesn't look that reasonable any more. This is so frustrating! You usually expect a "whole is greater than the sum of the parts" deal as you move up the variant ladder.

Originally Posted by vasoo

Are you talking about the price of V AT in CCU? As per Carwale it is 15.05 on road there and in BLR it is 17.29. Of course this is assuming the dealer quoted insurance rates.

No this is for the V M/T. Both of us have that.

Originally Posted by mobike008

20K for reverse sensors with just a simple display in rear view mirrors is daylight robbery.

When i got my Cruze LT delivered it didnt come with reverse sensors and the normal ones with just a beep sound ( which is OE fitted on LTZ) is Rs.1990 in showroom.

The problem was that the dealership didn't have any new Vs around (their test mule V was before the model refresh) so no one had any idea what the in-built reverse parking sensor system is like. I think it's a mistake both on their part as well as mine for not doing enough research.

Originally Posted by mobike008

Planning to fit the OE one this weekend as dont want to mess around with electricals and give the car manafacturer an opportunity to shy away from their warranty promise.

Cool. Let us know how it goes in your ownership thread.

Originally Posted by mobike008

Sorry to say this but, Honda is really absurd in its pricing

You can say that again!

Regards,
spadix

[vasoo]

Originally Posted by spadix

...
Ok. I saw those on the AT test mule. Useful even at night, but I still found myself turning back and really looking at the traffic shooting past on the road. I guess these are useful to identify children and low-lying inanimate objects (boulders, kerbs etc.).

..
You bet! The difference is equal to the road tax I paid here .



Is this what you get from the 20k thingy? If so, then the difference between the S and V suddenly doesn't look that reasonable any more. This is so frustrating! You usually expect a "whole is greater than the sum of the parts" deal as you move up the variant ladder.



...

The one I have costs about 6K in the showroom if bought separately. I got it as part of the 10k free accessories along with sunfilms, under body and teflon coating. The 20k model is with reverse camera and LCD display.

[Repsol]

Originally Posted by vasoo

The 20k model is with reverse camera and LCD display.

I don't think that 20K is too much to ask for all those stuff and that too OE. OE equipment is always costlier than aftermarket. But with that you get a relief on quality and proper installs at Honda workshop.

[vnabhi]

This is an excellent review of the new Civic. I like the way the pros and cons have been listed out.

I'm sorry to hear about the chrome tip breaking off---that too in a brand new car. Ouch, that hurts!

Instead of going for OE reverse camera, there are good ones in the after market. I've installed RD in my car more than 2 years ago and it is still working fine. I paid Rs 9000 for it then.

[ashish22]

congrats spadix wow its raining enthusiastic cars in Hyderabad. First Avinash and then you with this black beauty. You must be in love with this black beauty eh? Even i feel black looks best on sedans and i myself took a plunge with a black Cruze (however indeed it is a pain to maintain it, even the slightest of marks reflect big time!!)
I have always loved the civic and love its low seating sports car drive feel.
Regarding some of you observations i would love to add some inputs:
1. Civic's AC indeed is a chiller and will continue to be so. Its better then Cruze.
2. Check you tyre pressure as well as wheel balancing for the issues you are having with the handling of the car. I suspect the tyre pressure.
3. You will get used to the clutch and overall driving dynamics.
4. Civic for sure misses a sunroof.
5. Always take on the big speed brakers and bumps slightly diagonally

I'm not sure which engine oil does honda uses for civic synthetic or normal?? but i suggest always use synthetic.

Wishing you and your car miles and miles of driving pleasure, reliability and safety.

[mobike008]

Originally Posted by ashish22

congrats spadix wow its raining enthusiastic cars in Hyderabad. First Avinash and then you with this black beauty.

Maybe working in the same campus has its effects

[spadix]

Guys, quick question regarding the Form 21 of the new Civic. It lists 97 BHP as the engine's horse power. But the Civic develops 132. I asked the dealer about this and they said it's a mistake from the RTO end. Apparently they have checked the Form 21s of a few other Civics that were delivered recently by them as well as by Sundaram and all of them list 97 BHP.

I wanted to check with other Civic owners in Hyderabad (first of all) whether this is the case. I'm thinking Civic owners from other cities may not have this problem (different RTO) or maybe Honda has given this information to all RTOs. Could someone who still has a copy of the original Form 21 please confirm this to me? I think the RC doesn't include the BHP figure, so it's only the Form 21 that's relevant.

Originally Posted by vasoo

The one I have costs about 6K in the showroom if bought separately. I got it as part of the 10k free accessories along with sunfilms, under body and teflon coating. The 20k model is with reverse camera and LCD display.

Cool! That's a good deal. I actually wanted the dealer to not put Teflon because all they anyway do is standard wax polish under the name of Teflon and it leaves those circular micro-scratches that look so bad in sunlight. But both dealers refused to allow this "customization". After all, the handling charges of 8000 INR is another way for them to make money.

Some accounting magic has taken place whereby I should be getting at least 6k worth of accessories for free now. Let's see how that goes.

Originally Posted by Repsol

I don't think that 20K is too much to ask for all those stuff and that too OE. OE equipment is always costlier than aftermarket. But with that you get a relief on quality and proper installs at Honda workshop.

I agree with you on the peace of mind thing, especially with Honda which I believe is pretty notorious for not honouring warranties if they detect even the slightest deviation from their guidelines. However, when Avinash listed the price of the Chevy OE system with the same features, it got me thinking.

Originally Posted by vnabhi

This is an excellent review of the new Civic. I like the way the pros and cons have been listed out.

I'm sorry to hear about the chrome tip breaking off---that too in a brand new car. Ouch, that hurts!

Instead of going for OE reverse camera, there are good ones in the after market.

Thanks a lot, vnabhi!

Right now I don't need any addition the reversing system that came pre-installed with the car. The beeping stuff is good enough and I rely more on my own visual checks. As I said earlier, the only thing is if there's some stone/boulder/manhole cover or a child or a small animal that one can't make out using the rear view mirrors. The beeping system will alert you to it, but you won't be able to make out exactly what it is.

Originally Posted by ashish22

congrats spadix wow its raining enthusiastic cars in Hyderabad. First Avinash and then you with this black beauty. You must be in love with this black beauty eh? Even i feel black looks best on sedans and i myself took a plunge with a black Cruze (however indeed it is a pain to maintain it, even the slightest of marks reflect big time!!)

Wishing you and your car miles and miles of driving pleasure, reliability and safety.

Thanks for your wishes, ashish22! Black is my all-time favourite for big sedans even though it's very difficult to maintain. Of late, the shades of white that manufacturers are coming up with are just stunning too.

I see from your signature that you have a vRS. Respect!

Back in the day, I had this philosophy that one should never pay interest on a depreciating asset (actually I don't consider cars as assets; they're commodities in my mind, unless you have a rare collectible which you also want to sell at some point). So I watched in dismay as I was gathering funds to pay outright and slowly, one by one, cars like the OHC, Baleno and vRS were phased out. I couldn't miss a 4th great car. I didn't want that to happen with the Civic, so went for the loan even though I know it's a financial disaster.

Originally Posted by ashish22

Regarding some of you observations i would love to add some inputs:
2. Check you tyre pressure as well as wheel balancing for the issues you are having with the handling of the car. I suspect the tyre pressure.
5. Always take on the big speed brakers and bumps slightly diagonally

Thanks for the feedback. Yes the tyre pressure is one of the suspects. Truth be told, I haven't checked it myself. I heard that dealers pump excess air at delivery. I've covered only half of the huge manual so far -- just not finding the time for it. On visual inspection the tyres look OK, but I should still just look up at least the tyre pressure section in the manual and get it checked ASAP.

I'll remember the tip about taking it diagonally. At first glance it seems like that'll be even more problematic (hypotenuse being longer than either of the sides of the triangle etc.), but I'll think about it.

Originally Posted by ashish22

I'm not sure which engine oil does honda uses for civic synthetic or normal?? but i suggest always use synthetic.

I'll stick with mineral up to the 10k km mark. I'll then decide whether to switch. I'm ambivalent between the two based on the information I have so far.

Originally Posted by mobike008

Maybe working in the same campus has its effects

It does surprise me however that there are very few D-segmenters in the MLCP. Under the new classification, Civic/Cruze etc. are C+-segment cars. I hardly see any Accords and Camrys. I spotted an odd CR-V and Superb, but that's about it. Maybe the B1 and B2 parking lots have more of these. However, I find some nicely done-up jeeps in the MLCP.

Regards,
spadix

[Ardy]

Congratulations, Spadix on a wonderful ride.

Civic in black indeed looks really good. Your initial ownership review also gets a thumbs up.

It is sad to see the chrome tip go away so soon. As Ashish suggested do take the bumps / speed breakers diagonally especially while driving a low GC car.

Wishing you many happy miles on the Civic.

Cheers,

[spadix]

Originally Posted by Ardy

Congratulations, Spadix on a wonderful ride.

Civic in black indeed looks really good. Your initial ownership review also gets a thumbs up.

Thanks for your wishes, Ardy!

Here's the 1 week/~500 km update. While I really hoped to see around 530 kms on the odo as on Saturday afternoon, I could only manage around 430 kms instead. I had planned for a lot of in-city driving over the weekend (various pending chores) but the RTA had other ideas. I applied for the permanent registration on Saturday and the whole thing (application + vehicle inspection) took nearly 5 hours.

Please excuse the poor quality of the picture below. This is all the phone can manage. I didn't want to lug the heavy DSLR on my casual post-dinner stroll.



The smudge just below the 5 digit is an artefact of the vehicle pooja (patch of dried up haldi + vermillion paste).

I had also planned a photo-shoot this Saturday but had to drop the idea because of the wait at the RTO. Moreover it suddenly became pretty sunny and that poses a problem, given the black colour and the difficulty in managing the contrast difference between a bright sky and the dark car. I'll wait for a cloudy/rainy weekend for a nice photo-shoot.

Hopefully I'll still be able to finish at least 1500 kms, if not the 2000 kms planned earlier, by the end of August.

I'm learning more about the car with each passing kilometre, of course. I will now add to what I have written already in the thread, and just like Dr.AD in his excellent SX4 ownership thread, I'll talk about my observations with individual systems of the car.

Engine:
As I said before, I'm absolutely amazed with the smoothness of the engine and its power delivery characteristics. For most of my driving/riding life I have been used to engines that have a very non-linear torque delivery. The Civic, with its VTEC gimmickry, feels very familiar and natural. The lower rev ranges are easy and languid, and there is a nice surge of acceleration once the engine revs climb beyond a certain point. The difference is not as dramatic as on Dad's Indigo (turbo effect) or even as on my pre-DTSi Pulsar 180, but it's there, it's noticeable and it's lovely.

I'm still sticking to well south of 3k rpm with the very occasional burst to around 3.5k-4k when I have to overtake really long trucks (a lot of my commute and driving is on a highway stretch).

The engine note is a very pleasing, muted snarl. The second service (5000 km/3 months) can't come soon enough. I want to be able to hear that snarl on a more regular basis .

Fuel economy:
I tanked up yesterday and the calculated (from the previous top-up) mileage was around 10.2 kmpl. It could've been a bit higher, but the last 100-150 kms were in some pretty bad and heavy city traffic and we always keep the AC on to protect the leather seats and to shield ourselves from the noise and dust. All in all, I'm very happy with the fuel economy. Surprisingly enough, the calculation fits in very well with the in-dash display. Could it just be that Honda has fixed the bug afflicting earlier models, or are these still early days? Time will tell.

It's also high time I check the air pressure in the tyres. I'm still relying on visual inspection and ride quality, but there should be some up/down adjustment of the fuel economy because of this factor.

Comfort and ergonomics:
I have yet to work out the ideal seating position. Just like in my last update, the situation right now is that it's extremely comfortable when the car's cruising with minimal need to brake. In stop-start traffic, however, where the right food spends a considerable amount of time on the brake pedal, the leg tends to cramp and hurt a little. Nothing too serious, but this is one area where the Indigo, and even my old M800 for that matter, excel. In the Civic's defense, this is my first car with a height-adjustable driver's seat and I've not played at all with that adjustment so far. I'm confident I can find the ideal seating position with some trial-and-error, or I can at least find two positions - one for highway cruising and one for peak-traffic in-city driving.

Once my wife starts driving more regularly, I think we'll really miss the intelligence that some of the other cars in this segment have of remembering seating positions and switching between two or three sets of positions.

The visibility around the A-pillar is still a bit of a concern but I'm working around it with minimal bother. The bigger problem is that the cabin is so well-insulated from external noise that it's very hard to make out an overtaking vehicle from the sound of its engine until it's too close, especially at night. I need to look at the ORVMs more frequently than I'm used to on the 800 or Indigo.

Road manners:
I have been paying attention to the suspension after my own under-body scrape incident and what shuvc said about being able to hear the suspension doing its job. I can definitely understand his comment now. Not just that, but I can also make out the tyre noise quite clearly on certain road surfaces. It's somewhat strange that the cabin keeps out noise from surrounding vehicles very well, but whatever is generated by the car itself is clearly audible . Perhaps that's a good thing, as one of the first things that informs the driver about a car is the variety of sounds that the car makes.

I love the ride of the car other than on really really bad stretches of roads with craters and potholes and ditches. Quite a few of those have sprung up after the latest round of rains and I manage by slowing down considerably when I encounter them.

While the car is huge compared to what I've been used to so far, navigating it even on narrow roads isn't too much of a problem. As of now, parking in anything but the tightest of the tight spaces is a breeze. One foot (give or take) clearances on the sides of the car are easy to handle. I'll have to see what happens when those clearances drop down to around 2-3 inches.

I have had to overtake a bunch of tracks occupying different lanes on a few occasions now. The length of the car means I have to plan the manoeuvre well in advance, but the responsive, direct steering and quick acceleration make the passing easier.

It's also very easy to avoid obstacles that crop up suddenly (think pothole on a unknown stretch of road, etc.) so long as there are no vehicles/people around. Otherwise, the brakes are fantastic. While I had issues modulating the brakes on the first day or two, that isn't a problem anymore.

Running-in means I haven't taken any tight corners at speed but from what I can make out so far (gentle to medium curves at around 60-70 kmph) the car feels well-balanced and eager to take these turns without protest.

Electricals (lights, wipers etc.):
Low beam is a joke as many others on the forum have pointed out. It's OK when the streets are well-lit but when they're not, it's a real challenge, headlight adjustment notwithstanding. The fog lamps are a boon. Without them switched on, it just gets worse. I wonder if the old-style trapezoidal fog lamps had either more throw or were brighter (or both). Somehow the new round ones are small, and therefore "feel" inadequate as well. But I haven't driven an older Civic at night at all, so I can't comment.

The horn seems to me to be adequate. It's just that my beloved Hyderabadi road users are so immune and thick-headed/skinned that very few people (who hog the right lanes at 20-30 kmph) move out of the way. It isn't a problem when they actually "see" the car because the Civic with its size looks imposing enough for people to move/give way.

Contrary to what quite a few written about the opposed wipers, I felt that they do a good job in terms of providing visibility. I badly miss the speed/frequency setting in intermediate mode. The owner's manual talks about it but the Indian spec Civic obviously doesn't have it. This is such a big oversight (or miss) by Honda SIEL that it's not a joke. The problem is that the only speed in intermittent mode is sometimes too much for a very light drizzle and the wiper blades start to squeak a tiny bit. I think switch to full manual mode, which is a pain.

AC:
I could have written about the AC above but it's just so special that it needs its own section. I parked the car in a partly-shaded area the other day and after 4.5 hours the interiors got pretty warm. I set the temperature to 23C and blower to full-speed and was literally blown away as the AC did its job and cooled things down in a matter of seconds. This car, especially without sunfilm, really needs a monster of an AC and I'm supremely happy that Honda has delivered in this area. This is the frustrating thing. They understand our AC needs, but can't understand our windshield wiper needs. I wonder what they're smoking up at Honda SIEL HQ!

Stereo system:
I haven't really put it through its paces yet. I'm not at all close to being an ICE expert but I consider myself an audiophile (on a budget) and I can definitely make out a good system from a bad one. At low volumes, the system really does sound good. There is some distortion from the left speakers (front left door-mounted and rear left under-tray) at higher volumes. This is not the distortion that comes from playing lower-quality stuff at high volume, but more of a hardware/fit-and-finish thing. I have a bunch of good audio CDs with me using which I'll attempt a more thorough test some time later. At this point I think it's really a fit-and-finish issue because a hardware problem means that I would've observed the distortion from all speakers and not just from the left side ones.

Maintenance:
I have to admit that we severely underestimated the amount of maintenance a black car requires! It pains us to look at the car at the end of every day. So far, my attempts to wash and clean the car have only been average. It's maybe because of the cloth I use (discarded old soft cotton garment) and perhaps because I'm late in applying the dry wipe after the wet one, but the dry wipe still leaves some dried-up water marks and these look ungainly. I am definitely not able to get the look that professional cleaners achieve. I shouldn't expect to get that anyway, considering that I'm not a professional car cleaner and I only dry-dusted and wiped my older cars.

We've signed up this car cleaner in our apartment building and the results of his efforts on the first day (today) didn't look too enticing. I'll explain my problem and hopefully he'll do a better job next time.

The other aspect of maintenance is of course the economics of it. I'm keeping track of all expenses (down to the paisa) in a spreadsheet which also contains the daily trip log. It's just an interesting exercise at this point and doesn't take too much effort to create and update. Hopefully it'll start throwing up some interesting insights over the months/years.

Week 1 summary:
As we were driving around yesterday, my wife and I were talking about our feelings about the car. She said that she doesn't feel as attached to the Civic as she did with the old 800. I think that's only natural. We knew and drove the 800 for years. The Civic's been with us for only a week.

On top of that, I think it takes character to be loved. The 800 had developed character after being with us for such a long time. Character is part in-built and part developed over time, just like how it is with people. Right now, we are still infatuated with the Civic. It hurts us to see something happen to it (like losing the exhaust tip or seeing a layer of dust on the car), but I don't define that as love. Love is when you can get past all of these and really feel one with the car, despite its "shortcomings" (which can be part of the character). Our Civic is like that near-perfect, hot, ideal date. Over time, we'll get to know the car intimately, and get to understand its character. And that's when infatuation will turn into love. That's when we can call our experience with the car a long-term one. Infatuation is only temporary, after all.

Right now, maintenance seems like one thing that can develop into character. But there'll be more over time. We're sure of that, and we can't wait to find out!

Regards,
spadix