Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow - A Layman’s Experience and Review of an Auto Gear Car

[bpbhat]

Introduction:

Fed up with the ever increasing bumper to bumper traffic of Bangalore, I recently bought an Auto Gear Car.

Before buying this car, I did lots of research in the internet. I also went for few test drives. And I also consulted few friends. Finally I bought one.

During the course of my research, I came to know that, as far as I am concerned there was a lack of information in the net regarding Auto Cars... Or probably,... they were not up to my expectations.

I could not get all the information that I wanted from the net. And many times, there were lots of difference of opinion between me and the reviews that were posted. It could be because of generation gap also.

I have a policy of “Give back to the society more than what you have taken”.

Hence I thought of writing my overall experience like a story. I am writing this story whenever I get some time, and posting the same. Your feed backs, comments and replies will influence my writing. Hence don’t forget to give the same from time to time.

Before I start off, I must make few things very clear.

- This is my first ever experience with an Automatic Transmission (AT). I have never ever driven any AT car before. Hence you can even take my story with a pinch of salt.

- I have no experience in reviewing any car before, like the professionals do and write about it in Automobile Magazines.

- I have very little experience with Sedans, SUVs or luxury cars till date.


But you may also note that…


- I have the experience of driving nearly 4 lakh KMs on Indian roads. Except in the Himalayas and deserts, I have driven a 4-wheeler in almost all types of terrains, roads, weather conditions, climates, times etc.

- All my driving experience is from Hatchbacks, MPVs and Small Cargo vehicles.


And I hope you will enjoy my story...

 

[bpbhat]

YESTERDAY …


Here are some flashback stories from my yester years. You might ask… in what way they are related to buying an Auto Car?. Well... Let us read and decide...


1. The Eternal Bicycle:

It was during 1977-78. I was studying in my 9th standard in a High School. Let me call it as school itself. It was in a remote village, without any basic facilities.

Remote means how much?... Well, the God’s given legs were our wheels. Dried coconut leaves were our head lamps. And what about lights ? A kerosene lamp was the biggest luxury. You people don't understand all these !!. No problem,... it is called Generation Gap.

There was no 2 or 4 wheeler in the entire village. And very few lucky people had bicycles... And those were the days.



There was a girl called BSN, studying in 10th standard (SSLC). She was my neighbor. One day her father gifted a bicycle to her. She learnt cycling quickly and after few days, she came to the school in her bicycle.


The school building was around 150 mts inside the compound wall. And the internal road from the gate was straight away leading to the building.


On her first day, our girl, BSN, came to the school with some nervousness. She was a bit late to the class. The prayer was over and the classes were started.

A student saw her coming to the school in her bicycle. He shouted “Hey, look there, BSN is coming in bicycle”.

“WHAT ? WHAT ?” every one screamed.

The entire class came out of the room. Soon everyone in the entire school came out. Everyone means… yes.. EVERY ONE... All the teaching and non teaching staff also came out of their rooms. Even the head master also came out to see her.

I still remember the faces of all of us. Every one was looking at her with eyes and mouth wide open. Everyone was astonished. We were all amazed. As if some thing is coming from Mars or so. All the eyes were following her from the compound gate till she parked her bicycle.

For the next 10 minutes, there was no class. Everyone was talking about her boldness.

This continued for almost a week. Then she stopped bringing the bicycle for almost a fortnight. Later on she resumed it, but by then the astonishment had cooled down.


Back home, we were talking about it. Our elders were also telling about it.....

... Like...

... When she went to the school in the morning, there were not many people on the road. But in the evenings, people used to come to the shops for buying groceries etc. And when she was coming back from the school, all the eyes were on her. People used to look at her with amazement. They used to see her from beginning to end with wide mouth and eyes. On the first couple of days, even the shop keepers also came out of the shops to see her.

Yes... those were the days...

My young generation readers (20-30 years old) may not understand all these. And the 30-40 years old might get a glimpse of this if they watch this super hit Kannada movie song. (Of course, it is not related to my story, but there is no harm in watching it)


Just watch this beautiful Song of Juhi Chawla from the movie Prema Loka


It took almost a month or so to settle down this big talking subject of the village.


And do you think the times have changed from that bicycle period to the Auto Car?


Ok... Let us look at one more story...

 

[deepam]

Nice Story... Continue. I may not be old enough as you are! but sure can get connected.

In close to 1.5 decades, I have crossed 2 lakh km in driving 4 wheeler!
looking forward to munching more miles on the road.

 

[bpbhat]

2. Geared Scooter - The bygone era of Hamara Bajaj


It was early and mid-1980s. I was working in a premier public sector company in Bangalore then.

One day, we were all having our cup of coffee during the coffee break. A collegue of mine opened a sweet box from his bag and started distributing it to all. (He was a bachelor)

Everyone asked “Hey, what is the good news?, Is your marriage fixed?”

He said “Not yet. But I bought a BAJAJ”

Everyone said “Congrats… congrats… congrats…”

Then we asked “which one ? Chetak is it?”

He said “No yaar. I bought the other BAJAJ. I bough Vijaya Super”

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ok. Now you don’t understand anything is it? No problem… read on.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Let me change the topic.

In middle class, who was the “most eligible bachelor” then ?. The answer was simple...

- you must have completed any degree … like BA, BCom, BSc etc

- must be employed in any of the Banks (or LIC, or School teacher or Govt Job etc)

- must have an LIC policy (insurance policy)

- and MOST IMPORTANT. Must have a BAJAJ.

Ok. Now also you don’t understand anything is it? No problem… read on.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

BAJAJ was manufacturing scooters then, and it was a household name. In fact it was a generic name for scooters. It had 2 models. Most of the 2 wheelers that were sold were either Bajaj Super or Bajaj Chetak.

It was reliable, rugged, sturdy, easy to maintain and it was a status symbol of the middle class. Hence people used to call scooters as Bajaj then.

The de-facto name for Scooters was BAJAJ then.

There were other brands also, like Vikram, Vijaya, Lambretta, LML, Vespa, etc.

Look at their TV commercial video in this link.

Now you replace “Bajaj” with “Scooter” and read the first few paragraphs again. And you will understand.

(photo courtesy...internet)

All the scooters then were manual gears. Let us call it as Manual Transmission (MT). They had either 3 or 4 gears.

The clutch and gear changing were mounted the left handle bar. The right handle bar was used to apply the front break. The rear brake pedal was mounted near the right foot.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Since independence, the govenrments that ruled at the center were supported by the Left parties and had “Socialism” in mind. Hence each and everything was controlled by the government.


The Govt never gave permisiion to start new factories by individuals. The existing ones were protected by the Govt policies. Hence there was no competition.

Hence hardly any amount was put in to R&D. The Govts didn’t even gave permission to increase the production capacity of various companies. Hence there was a large gap between Demand and Supply.

If I am right, the bajaj scooter had even 5-6 years waiting period then. Initially it was costing around Rs 5000/ but if you sell the scooter from the showroom itself, you could fetch more than Rs 10000/ !!.

Those were the days.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And then came the Kinetic Honda (KH), a joint venture between Kinetic Enginering and Honda Motors. It was a 100 CC scooter, and a gearless one. It was designed and developed by the Honda of Japan.

With lots of R&D, it was launched in India around 1984-85. It had something like Centrifugal clutch and Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT). It was easy to ride. Just increase the throttle, and it zooms. It had a self/electric start, with new design.

It was an instant hit with the urban middle class, and ladies. Even though it was costlier than Indian Scooters, it was sold like hot cakes.

(photo courtesy...internet)


In those days, the ‘Gentlemen’ use to say… ‘The KH is only for Ladies. No gear at all. And the Bajaj is for Men. A tough and sturdy scooter’.

Ultimately what happened to KH later on is a different story....

But Bajaj could not bear the onslaught of gearless scooters. While the father-Rahul Bajaj was mastermind behind the Bajaj Scooters, his son-Rajiv Bajaj wrote the obituary of Bajaj Scooters and diversified into Motor cycles.



While writing this story, I searched the internet for Geared Scooters. Oh, there is hardly any company that manufactures Geared scooters now a days (except LML to a limited extent).


So much so that… the geared scooters became a bygone era in scooter segments.

 

[deepam]

2. Geared Scooter - The bygone era of Hamara Bajaj


It was early and mid-1980s. I was working in a premier public sector company in Bangalore then.

One day, we were all having our cup of coffee during the coffee break. A collegue of mine opened a sweet box from his bag and started distributing it to all. (He was a bachelor)

Everyone asked “Hey, what is the good news?, Is your marriage fixed?”

He said “Not yet. But I bought a BAJAJ”

Everyone said “Congrats… congrats… congrats…”

Then we asked “which one ? Chetak is it?”

He said “No yaar. I bought the other BAJAJ. I bough Vijaya Super”

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ok. Now you don’t understand anything is it? No problem… read on.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Let me change the topic.

In middle class, who was the “most eligible bachelor” then ?. The answer was simple...

- you must have completed any degree … like BA, BCom, BSc etc

- must be employed in any of the Banks (or LIC, or School teacher or Govt Job etc)

- must have an LIC policy (insurance policy)

- and MOST IMPORTANT. Must have a BAJAJ.

Ok. Now also you don’t understand anything is it? No problem… read on.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

BAJAJ was manufacturing scooters then, and it was a household name. In fact it was a generic name for scooters. It had 2 models. Most of the 2 wheelers that were sold were either Bajaj Super or Bajaj Chetak.

It was reliable, rugged, sturdy, easy to maintain and it was a status symbol of the middle class. Hence people used to call scooters as Bajaj then.

The de-facto name for Scooters was BAJAJ then.

There were other brands also, like Vikram, Vijaya, Lambretta, LML, Vespa, etc.

Look at their TV commercial video in this link.

Now you replace “Bajaj” with “Scooter” and read the first few paragraphs again. And you will understand.

(photo courtesy...internet)

All the scooters then were manual gears. Let us call it as Manual Transmission (MT). They had either 3 or 4 gears.

The clutch and gear changing were mounted the left handle bar. The right handle bar was used to apply the front break. The rear brake pedal was mounted near the right foot.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Since independence, the govenrments that ruled at the center were supported by the Left parties and had “Socialism” in mind. Hence each and everything was controlled by the government.


The Govt never gave permisiion to start new factories by individuals. The existing ones were protected by the Govt policies. Hence there was no competition.

Hence hardly any amount was put in to R&D. The Govts didn’t even gave permission to increase the production capacity of various companies. Hence there was a large gap between Demand and Supply.

If I am right, the bajaj scooter had even 5-6 years waiting period then. Initially it was costing around Rs 5000/ but if you sell the scooter from the showroom itself, you could fetch more than Rs 10000/ !!.

Those were the days.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And then came the Kinetic Honda (KH), a joint venture between Kinetic Enginering and Honda Motors. It was a 100 CC scooter, and a gearless one. It was designed and developed by the Honda of Japan.

With lots of R&D, it was launched in India around 1984-85. It had something like Centrifugal clutch and Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT). It was easy to ride. Just increase the throttle, and it zooms. It had a self/electric start, with new design.

It was an instant hit with the urban middle class, and ladies. Even though it was costlier than Indian Scooters, it was sold like hot cakes.

(photo courtesy...internet)


In those days, the ‘Gentlemen’ use to say… ‘The KH is only for Ladies. No gear at all. And the Bajaj is for Men. A tough and sturdy scooter’.

Ultimately what happened to KH later on is a different story....

But Bajaj could not bear the onslaught of gearless scooters. While the father-Rahul Bajaj was mastermind behind the Bajaj Scooters, his son-Rajiv Bajaj wrote the obituary of Bajaj Scooters and diversified into Motor cycles.



While writing this story, I searched the internet for Geared Scooters. Oh, there is hardly any company that manufactures Geared scooters now a days (except LML to a limited extent).


So much so that… the geared scooters became a bygone era in scooter segments.

================
Yes people of 80's and 90's can get connected, Bajaj delivery could be instant I am told if you could pay in US Dollars!

 

[bpbhat]

You are right Deepam.

If my memory is correct, to buy the Chetak, we were supposed to pay in Dollars. To increase the foreign exchange reserve, that rule was made, I think.

Otherwise there was not much difference between these two models.

 

[bpbhat]

3. Motor Cycles - The Ever Changing Choices of Men

(all the photos are from internet)

Again, it was until mid 1980’s.... There were only 3 major Bike Manufacturers in India.

1. Rajadoot Deluxe from Escorts. A 175cc bike with low maintenance cost.
This was not a rider’s friendly bike. But it used to give a decent mileage and was cheap to maintain.
I had ridden this bike for around 1000 kms and vouched not to ride it again.

2. Jawa and Yezdi from Ideal Jawa. (Forever Bike Forever Value). A 250cc legend in it’s own way.
I had a second hand bike of this and used it sparingly in my farmhouse for few years.

3. Bullet 350 from Royal Enfield. Had seen many ups and downs. Still the legendary.
They had catchline like “Bullet … is bullet. Always ahead”. I too owned a new Bullet for a year and then sold it off.

They were ruling the Indian Market.


In those days, the general perception was that …

- The scooter is much more safer than Bikes (which was actually false)
- For married men, Scooter is the Best.
- Bike is only for flamboyant boys. And not for Gentlemen.

Those were the Govt controlled days. These companies hardly put any money on their R&D.
In 1983 or so, with the relaxation in rules, Escorts collaborated with Yamaha and came out with Yamaha RD350.
It was a powerhouse, competing with Bullet 350. But due to high price and low mileage, it was not a success.

Then came the Ind Suzuki AX100 from a collaboration of TVS and Suzuki.
It was an instant hit. In fact no body believed that a 100cc bike can compete with the existing Indian bikes with higher capacity engines.
Initially there was a waiting period of more than a year for this bike. And the waiting period started increasing very fast.

Then came the Hero Honda CD100, a collaboration of Hero Motors and Honda motors. They had a catchline like “Fill it, Shut it and Forget it”.
The company claimed a mileage of around 80kmpl. And in cities also it was giving more than 70kmpl in those days.
This bike changed the history of bikes in India. Even though the bike was not at all sturdy, with low pickup and strength, it was an instant hit due to it’s high mileage.

The next in line was Escort’s Yamaha RX100. (I owned one original bike for around 10 years).
It came like a wind in the Indian 2 wheeler market and soon became like a Tsunami.
No body believed that a 100cc bike can have so much of power. Even though it gave a decent mileage of 40kmpl, it was an instant hit with the young generation.
Even Bullet could not take the onslaught of RX100. And they were forced to do lots of modifications and came out with a punchline like “Let boys have their Toys, Man a Bullet”.
Probably the RX100 bike was the only bike in India which had seen umpteen types of modifications and alterations from mechanics. It was really a power house.

And not to be left behind, the Bajaj collaborated with Kawasaki and came out with KB100.
Compared to the first 3 bikes, this one was not a great success.

There were two things common in most of the bikes.
One - they had a luggage carrier. For a long period, a luggage carrier was a ‘standard fitment’ in bikes those days.
Two - the fuel tanks also acted like a luggage keeper. I mean, we could keep any luggage easily on the fuel tank.


The competition started heating up. These Japanese bikes were more fuel efficient, and had good power and acceleration, easy to maintain etc.
In fact in my around 10 years of RX100 life, I had changed only the accelerator cable once due to ageing.
I rode it for more than 1 lakh KM, but never changed any other cable. I did not even changed the headlamp bulb also. (Even today I repent for selling that bike)


Soon the Rajdoot and Yezdis disappeared from the market. And new bikes started coming up with some extra features.

And these bikes also disappeared because of 2 stroke engines. Due to environmental concerns, only 4 stroke bikes were allowed to be manufactured.
Soon even the luggage carrier also disappeared from the bikes.

Later on the new bikes had Auto or Self Start. In those days, the people who owned the Kick start bikes were telling that the new Self start bikes were only for small boys and not for Men.

And then came the more powerful bikes. There were Auto gear bikes also. But as Men being Men, there were no takers for those bikes, and they soon disappeared from the scene.

These days we see lots of bikes with fancy designs, seats and looks.

Even though I have ridden more than 2 lakh KMs on 2 wheelers, I am afraid to ride a KTM bike these days, because of it’s ergonomics.

 

[bpbhat]

Change is the only Constant


There is a generational shift in 2 wheelers now.
Many boys opt for scooter these days, due to more mileage and luggage carrying ability.
At the same time, there are equally good number of people opting for modern bikes, which are not at all fit for a family man. But the taste keeps changing.

The society has changed the way it looks at women from cycling a bicycle to piloting an Aero plane.
And there is a generation shift from geared scooter to Auto gear scooter. The scooter has become more of a unisex now a days.
In the bike segment, we have both the decent bikes as well as the flamboyant bikes.

In one word, the only thing that is ‘constant’ is the ‘change’

 

[SachinOnTop]

Car kaun si li?!

 

[deepam]

Too busy to update?
As Sachin has said please share the car make and model you bought!