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How my automotive preferences have evolved, changed with time

20th April 2021, 12:30 by Aditya Nadkarni

The engine + looks + driving experience are of paramount importance to me, and shall always remain so. But in several other areas, here's how I find my automotive preferences changing.

How my automotive preferences have evolved & changed with time

GTO shared this with other BHPians.

They say, change is the only constant! And that's certainly the case with our attitude, approach & preferences toward cars. Many BHPians have been around on this forum since 2004; look up some of our posts from back then and you'll see how they are in stark contrast to what we post today.

Of course, some things will never change. The engine + looks + driving experience are of paramount importance to me, and shall always remain so. But in several other areas, here's how I find my automotive preferences changing.

• From being a full-on MT guy (I bought one of the last MT Mercedes to be sold in India), I have now become a full-on AT guy. Huge fan of fast & snappy automatics now. I can tell you that 9 / 10 of my future purchases will be ATs only, with MTs reserved purely for fast + small cars, sporty cars or offroaders. Related thread.

• Turbo-petrols! In the 2000s, I owned 3 high-revving Hondas and they made me a 7,000-rpm naturally-aspirated engine lover. The early turbo-petrols weren't really that impressive. In the recent past though, my preference has drastically switched over to the forced-induction breed. Whether its small beautiful 1.0 turbo-petrols like in the Grand i10s & Rapids, or bigger sized turbo-petrols seen in the luxury cars, I love them all. With very few exceptions (e.g. City 1.5L or Ford's Dragon series), I find NA petrols to be terribly boring now. Have come to love the punch & mid-range muscle of turbo-petrols. Related thread.

• Ride comfort has now become a top priority. At one time, my garage included a stiff-riding C220, a stiff-riding Jeep, a City Vtec with 16" rims, followed by a Civic on 17" rims and performance-oriented tyres....I cared two hoots about ride quality then. No longer. Today, ride comfort is a top requirement for my car and I wouldn't be able to live with a stiff-riding vehicle (no Fortuner for me, ever). The BMW F10's suspension is more my kind of tune than the hard E60 530d.

• I'm actually looking forward to EVs! At one time, electric cars were merely "compliance" cars made by manufacturers to please the government & work on their image. As a result, they were slow & boring - I hated them. Not anymore. Drive any of the dual-motor Teslas and you'll be blown away. In fact, they will also blow away Ferraris & 911s in 0 - 100 drag races. I've now driven about 10 moderns EVs & have come to appreciate their torque, fast performance (especially the Teslas which are the BMWs of the EV world), butter-smooth drive & zero emissions. Truth be told, when I'm idling away my 6-cylinder diesel in traffic, I do feel slightly guilty about contributing to the poor AQI levels of Bombay. Wouldn't say I will replace all my cars with EVs though - no way! I still love my 7,000 rpm petrols & big turbo-diesels, but I will definitely own a fast powerful EV in this decade. My ideal garage will have a turbo-petrol, turbo-diesel & an EV in it. Related thread.

• Thanks to Team-BHP & the GNCAP, I have become a lot more safety conscious. I won’t buy an unsafe car = we recently dropped the Seltos because of it barely managing a 3-star rating, and bought a Superb TSI instead. Only exception = for a purely local area runabout car (like my old Jeep), I'll buy an unrated car. Related thread.

• As you can tell from my current cars, I have become more accepting of a bit of unreliability / tantrums, in exchange for purer driving pleasure & superior dynamics. At one time, 3 of the 4 cars in my house were Japanese. Today, just 1 of the 4 cars in my garage is Japanese. In the 90s & 2000s, it was reliability above all else for me. Now, I'm okay with handling 4 days of trouble in a year if the rest of the 361 days bring me superior driving pleasure and more smiles.

• Further to the previous point, I doubt I'll be getting a Japanese car anytime soon. Fact is, Japan just hasn't kept up with the Europeans, or even the Koreans (Hyundai's technology is far superior to Honda's today). Japanese cars dominated my personal line-up at one time, from Esteems to Lancers & Citys to Civics. We bought only Jap cars. But Maruti + Honda + Toyota simply aren't offering properly premium, cutting-edge tech products in India today. No fast ATs, no turbo-petrols, no sharp & solid handlers (few exceptions are there, of course)...Japanese car makers have greatly disappointed me. In order of preference, I'm now more likely to buy a European > Korean > American car than a Japanese one.

• Take a look at my car ownership history & you'll see that I have always been an out & out sedan fellow. But I have to sheepishly admit that crossovers are finding the way to my heart. After testing some really sweet ones (the Korean twins, Kodiaq, XUV300, EcoSport etc.), I have come to appreciate their style, taller seating, superior view of the road ahead, higher GC & practicality. Heck, I've even come to love proper SUVs like the Endeavour. This, from a guy who vehemently defended sedans over SUVs in this thread. Will strongly consider a Crossover / SUV as a future car to accompany the sedans of my house (accompany, not replace).

• If you'd asked me about electric power steerings till 3 years back, I'd have said "meh!!"....then shouted "hydraulic power steerings rock, baby!". Have to say that manufacturers have worked hard on their EPS tuning, and it shows! Today, many EPS are direct + fun to use. I no longer mind well-tuned electric power steerings like the one seen in the 10th-gen Civic which was so much fun! Some BMWs, Fords & Jaguars have good EPS units & even Hyundai-Kia are better than before. I also enjoyed driving the Rapid TSI, Endeavour (superb EPS for an SUV!) & C5 Aircross. That said, the electric steerings in Marutis & all electric cars (universally) suck!

•I used to love modifying & heavily accessorizing my cars till a decade ago. Got an ISZ petrol engine swap in my Jeep, came *this* close to turbo'ing my Civic, got an insane sound system etc. No more, man. With time (and due to lack of disposable time), I have come to realise two things. 1 = Factory fit is factory fit. 2 = Factory horses are factory horses. Give me a stock fast car that's a strong performer from the factory itself (e.g. Octavia vRS, S-Cross 1.6, Abarth Punto, M340i), but no heavy modifications in the after-market for me. Heck, I now refuse to even overhaul the ICE or change the body colour in the after-market. These days, I just add simpler stuff (remaps, rims, etc.) to cars that are fast + well-equipped from the factory. I myself find it hard to believe that I haven't visited an accessory store in 10 years!