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"The F-1 gear system can shift gears at 50 milliseconds, and all you
get is a change in engine sound, not a kick in the back". Automatic
transmission cars, our friend from the ad-world and now new convert
to the ether world "Cougar" has been pushing the benefits of said set
of wheels for some time now. Pinch of salt within Indian conditions,
yes, sure. Automobile
majors worldwide continue to amaze all who care to watch with their
cozy home grown groups; Microsoft's rampage is tame by comparision.
General Motors, Ford and Chrysler-Benz form a joint"B to B" deal, possibly
the biggest in the world. Daimler the brand is owned by Jaguar who are
owned by Ford but Chrysler acquires Ford's heavy truck business when
it connected with Freightliner. GM plays toe-sy with Suzuki and Daewoo,
whilst FIAT operates Ford's agri vehicle business. Why
don't we have cars for handicapped people in India? We used to, people
may remember the imported Isuzu Gemini cars with low or nil custom's
duty marked for disabled people in the late '70s. Later, special editions
on Maruti-800s. But no more.
If you remove the monopoly position occupied by the Maruti-800 and Omni,
it appears as though MUL manages oly 16% of the rest of the car market.
Oops! One would have thought that this would have jerked them out of
their stupor. But one visit to their head office in Delhi tells you
why that may not happen. In
all this, did you know that both of us all two here at cybersteering.com
don't own a car? Our wives do. One reason is that we don't seem to find
time to! The real reason is that we find our cars still horribly over-priced.
One thing we get to do in our life over cybersteering is to spend a lot of time in hotel rooms on "consultancy briefs". And also on planes and trains. We have it down to an art. 12-D on all Indian Airline A-320 flights, 11-F on the Boeing 737, Jet and Sahara have very tight seats so avoid, non-Shatabdi chair car trains have better crowd, and hotel rooms without carpets are good for health. But the best part is to ask for two televisions in the room, stick one on "V" channel and the other on to FTV. Through the night, music from one and sights on the other. Now we know where all the nipples went after bearings became sintered! If we ever sell cybersteering, or part of it, for the crores due, I know what I want to do. I want to sit and listen to "V" channel and watch FTV for a month or so, nonstop. They just need to play more classic rock and increase Supertramp. And maybe I would do cars on tv again. But then on tv means I would need to pull my punches . . uh-oh, cat almost out of the bag, can't let it get away, can we? Dumb ad award goes to Bharat Petroleum, Lintas sharing top spot second time in a week! Must be all that soap, Lever Brothers and all that. Something called "petro card", which apparently gives you a variety of bonuses. Only catch is, you got to pay in advance. And then you got to spend only at their outlets. Instead of worrying about adulterated fuel, our oil companies are trying to tell us the benefits of cash on counter pre-paid cards in an era when the name of the game is financial transactions over the web. But it is not the concept we are cribbing about. What we object to is the photograph of a motor-cycle going at full pelt which accompanies the ad and is on the card. Why would a motorcycle going straight be bent over at 45 degrees to the vertical? If your crummy photographer has to super-impose, at least make him do it properly? It is only when you see automobile and automobile product ads in Western media that you realise how backward our ad world is. Maybe our automobile companies and their ad guys deserve each other and such crappy ads. Not us. And to wrap up, the scoop of the week. Mitsubishi's new 660cc mini-car under their Heart-Beat 21 programme was spotted on remote Indian roads being road-tested for . . . England. Will they introduce this car in India? Will Hindustan Motors be part of it? Watch this screen and remember where you heard about it first. Nobody is talking and cameras are expensive, so we can only say what airport staff comment: cute car. Anybody ever wonder what happens to older DC cars? edit team at cybersteering, working from behind two teevees. yeah!! Drivers
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