19 years of Team-BHP! How has it made a difference in your life?

In this period, we've built a colossal database of 52 lakh posts and currently have more than 70,000 members!

GTO recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Team-BHP just turned 19! This is the last of the teenage years, we've hit a phenomenal milestone & our baby is all grown up now.

In the last 19 years, we've built a colossal database of 52 lakh posts, despite our continuous efforts of "quality" over "quantity"! But then, quality begets quality, right?

In these 19 years & 52-lakh posts, how has Team-BHP helped you? What have you gained from the forum? Has it helped you make better decisions? Has it made you a better driver? A better person? I certainly can answer in the affirmative to these.

Team-BHP has helped me in so many ways that I couldn't possibly list! Lifelong friends I made thanks to the forum, the many cars in my life (the ones I own & equally important, all the new test-drive cars I keep experiencing), the big meets, fun drives, everlasting memories created… there are just way too many to list. But let me try and attempt just a few from the recent past.

• Made me a better writer & a more analytical thinker. Nothing quite gets the creative juices flowing than threads like this, this or this. And nothing more I enjoy than a good, healthy debate on the forum.
• Team-BHP Travelogues inspire me to travel more, drive more, road-trip more…

• Learn, learn, learn. There isn't a day when I don't learn something new on the forum. The fresh perspectives brought on by 70,000+ members are fascinating. Frequently, I'll come across a different point-of-view posted by a BHPian and think "now, how come I didn't think of that one before!". Just today, I learnt new stuff from pqr's thread on the MNC car companies.
• On the personal front, Team-BHP helped me lose 20 kilos, quit smoking, get a successful hair transplant, fix my teeth via braces… all from threads in the "Shifting Gears" forum.

• Team-BHP has changed my thinking on some topics I was stubbornly opinionated about. Example, as a Jeeper from the 90s, for me, Jeeps = Diesel. But I ended up buying a Thar turbo-petrol, thanks to advice from BHPians & good friends. Didn't want BS6 exhaust headaches, and am now loving the fast performance & refinement of the turbo-petrol motor.

• Time & again, Team-BHP has shown me the power of communities. If a BHPian is in trouble or looking for help, you can bet that other BHPians will step forward to assist. Be it a member stranded on the highway, or facing a warranty issue with a failed engine, or just eternally confused between four 20-lakh car options, a BHPian can count on the support of other forum members. Even if they don't always see eye-to-eye. From Team-BHP Meets:

• Team-BHP has created enough memories to last a lifetime. Or two.

• If it weren’t for Team-BHP, I’d never have gotten the chance to enjoy an in-depth look at the auto industry as I do today. And for that, I’m eternally grateful. An industry that is a powerhouse in India, the most dynamic, the most interesting, one that creates lakhs of jobs & contributes greatly to our beloved India’s GDP. Did I mention the lovely cars this industry churns out every year? I always had petrol in my veins, but the opportunities that Team-BHP gave me took my auto-enthusiasm to an entirely different level.

There's nothing else I'd rather have done for the last 19 years:

So, how has Team-BHP helped you? Do share.

Here's what BHPian revvharder had to say about the matter:

Well I was always a car buff but didn't know why I liked cars and as I came from a very humble background where cars were only meant for A to B and friends never had similar interests, I was always taken as a weird one and singled out because I would talk about cars and would be excited to see the latest cars in my neighbourhood and would just go closer to take a peek at them.

As an 8-9-year-old I used to take cuttings of cars and auto expos from the daily newspapers and made a scrapbook and I used to be very proud of it but once I had taken it to school and someone took it out and I was made fun of and I just sort of stopped eventually. Even though I was still interested I didn't talk much and there was no access to interest back then so I just never knew why I liked cars so much, I guess my father is a car enthusiast too because of the way he takes care of his steads but somewhere the daily grind has just put a lid over it.

Circa 2014-15 while searching for something about our car I came across team-bhp and suddenly everything was pretty clear and I knew that I am not the only one and I came to know that there is a term called car enthusiast and there is a community for us and now even though none of my friends talked about cars, I did and slowly I started learning everything from team-bhp and no more my passion was weird for me.

As a kid, I always wanted to be a race car driver but only later I realised the chances of that happening are nil in India for me, so I chose whatever my parents decided for me to do as a career hopefully I can become a contributor to this community because sometimes I just regurgitate when I come across the cringe YouTube videos of these so-called reviewers.

I owe my passion for cars to team-bhp.

Here's what BHPian Samba had to say about the matter:

Happy 19th!

Been a member of Team-Bhp for nearly a decade. Have gained a lot from Team-Bhp.

Let's see if I can make a checklist:

• Knowledge about cars - Check
• Improving my driving skills- Check
• Getting help in planning trips- Check
• Need help in business- Check
• Need a doctor - Check
• Need a lawyer - Check
• Friends who can stand beside me at any point in time- Check
• And lastly getting a permanent travel partner- Check

Here's what BHPian DogNDamsel12 had to say about the matter:

This is awesome!

Wishing Team-BHP a very Happy Birthday and my heartfelt greetings to everyone who has contributed consistently to this community.

I have tracked this Forum for a while, been a member since not-so-long-ago, since Jan 2021.

What the forum has given me, besides a cartload of information and the ability to make decisions, is the gumption to embrace a life outside of work, and to pursue travel to some of the places that I had dreamt of doing for a while, now doing those with an accomplice who's made it happen.

Since I am all for increasing diversity, this forum has also accepted my opinion and challenged my beliefs, helping to build more logical arguments. In the face of hostile externalities, I have also seen the forum ensure the safety of expression and inclusiveness to all its members.

Sharing one of my favorite photos from this year, as a gift.

Here's what BHPian dailydriver had to say about the matter:

Apart from providing tons of information related to everything under the sun, this forum has taught me the importance of humility; of being courteous to fellow members, most of whom I will probably never meet in person. The art of putting across a theory without hurting others but at the same time not refraining from calling a spade a spade is a valuable asset that I have picked up in the gullies of TeamBhp. I have clearly understood that there are always multiple angles to look at a topic and that majority public opinion alone doesn't lend authenticity to a viewpoint.

TeamBhp has opened a porthole to an ether world consisting of people who, but for the forum, I wouldn't have had chances of interacting with. I feel like a buyer walking the vendor streets of Hampi in its heyday!

The forum has shown me, through various examples, the unlimited possibilities of human endeavour. From the flooded bylanes of Kerala to the slippery streets of Kashmir, from the dense forests of Meghalaya to the arid deserts of Rajasthan, a Bhpian has left his mark everywhere. The stories that follow out of these travels are priceless.

The last six years of my life and perhaps the next sixty would certainly have been duller and different had I not been a contributing member of this wholesome forum.

Congratulations on the 19th.

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.