This Week's Driving - May 2nd, 2000 - Log 23

Labour of love, and not too far in the distant horizon, a vision of where we feel cybersteering is headed. As of now, we seem to be evolving into a fairly potent and credible voice of the consumer, but with a bit of a difference: we don't have a petty or otherwise agenda of our own except to be a voice of the much-maligned automobile consumer and customer, that baboon who gets shafted right royally from the moment he or she is stuck with making that payment. Have you ever seen how the attitude of a dealer of any product will change once they've got their claws on your monies?

But then, that is life, and so is the fact that we seem to be making more than our share of friends as well as non-friends, lately. The friends are from amongst the average "peaceful innocent byestander" kind of customer as well as, gratifyingly, the actual big bosses of most automobile companies. The non-friends are from amongst the middle-rungs in management at the same automobile companies. Now, amongst other things, we know why a lack of vision will always keep them middle rung.

So what do we do?

Nothing special, actually. Just keep on doing it as we think is best for most of us, and reporting it as logically as possible. But every now and then something happens which makes us feel that hey, yes, industry does have a soul, too. And a conscience. And maybe we go off on the deep end a bit too much, sometimes. Can't blame us, can you, though?

Good news of the week/fortnight . . . (as these missives seem to be getting spaced out a bit) . . . which is, again, a point we take up slightly further down this edit'slog . . . typed out in the wee hours before dawn takes us towards another breakfast of scrambled eggs and spinach aboard the IC-165, becoming a favourite with us, this one. Going to dedicate a full edit'slog to it someday, life in the fast lane on an Airbus-300 which has as much work experience as I do.

And that started in 1975 in my case. I know for a fact that I was faster then. This one, then, is for those of us who are, for whatever reason, not as fast now as they once were due to some disability.

So when you are disabled, or if you get slower, what do you need? The same automobile? Or something different? Nine types of different, as it turns out. . . and for once, here's some news from Maruti Udyog Ltd., good, lately, for a change. Partly due to some efforts by us, and mostly due to efforts by them, themselves, MUL have gone and done the good thing for all the disabled people in India who wanted to drive a car but were never able to. MUL have imported sufficient quantities of nine different kinds of kits for disabled people from Japan, and will offer these on their range of cars, on request.

However, since these cars will attract a lower rate of custom's and excise duty, the procedure to be followed is designated such as to prevent fakes from grabbing the benefits. So if you think you are eligible, or know somebody who is eligible, please write in to us at autoguru@cybersteering.com and we'll make sure it gets to MUL.

As well as to the other two out of a dozen manufacturers who promised they would do something. We salute MUL and these two manufacturers.

The rest of the manufacturers never ever bothered to even reply. We have something for them, too.

Over the last two weeks I've been busy driving cars of all sorts on the following routes: Mumbai-Pune on the old highway, Bangalore-Mysore on the under-construction highway and Delhi-Jaipur on the brand new toll road. Later today, as I type this, I plan to "do" the new Mumbai-Pune expressway stretch which was inaugurated on the 1st of May 2000. Here's a brief description, in all cases these routes were done on the "bigger" cars, the 3-box sedans which are finding so much apparent favour lately.

Santa Cruz Airport in Mumbai to Deccan in Pune should be about 160 kilometres, of which about 8-10 kilometres can best be termed "mild ghats" for those of us used to driving in Himachal. It takes me an average of 6 to 8 hours to do this stretch. The tension involved is nerve wracking. At the end of it you cannot put in much by way of work. The forever under repair and under construction stretches between Khopoli and Lonavala would put Bihar roads to shame and many is the broken oil sump lying forlorn and discarded on this route, a testament to a simple fact: if we can screw up, we will.

Bangalore-Mysore is also about 150 kilometres, and is currently, well, deadly. There are too many potholes on this route and you can take about 4 hours, safely. Heavy vehicles on this route are as ill behaved as those in UP. Indira Nagar to NR Colony, and when you get there, you need to sleep. Or repair the springs. Or maybe take the train instead.

Delhi-Jaipur took us 2 hours and 30 minutes from Trident to Defence Colony. At the end of this fast drive covering almost 240 kilometres, we were as fresh as daisies. Trucks on the left, just keep your head beams on and watch the fast lane open up in front of you. Sure, the toll road passes thorugh crowded towns, but for that they've got service lanes for the stopping traffic and slow-down methods like rumble strips for the through. No pain, though.

The Delhi-Jaipur route is what takes us on, further, towards Mumbai. Fairly simple 2-lane each way, just designed better through the Aravali Mountain ranges, ghats in their own rights. A road like this all the way, and we would do Delhi-Mumbai in 18 hours. On a truck. Stopped to ask some LCV operators how much time they took and the answer came: driving time 26 hours, waiting time about twice that, so total time about 3 days. So is the solution fast roads or the removal of thevarious state and city barriers enroute? After all, if we spend major fortunes on doing up highways only to have assorted "check-posts" along the way tripling time taken for commerce, then, simply, big-bid-deal?

Unrelated though it may be of interest to some, is this business of which would be my favourite car after the last fortnight of trials?

For straight high-speed highway gobbling, easy on the eye and posterior interiors and higher than value for money comforts, nothing beats the Daewoo Cielo. Sprung extra soft, rolls like a ship through most of the stuff thrown at it. But don't try and do fancy gear-shifting or swerves.

If the quick moves and nippy control kind of driving modes are your speciality, then bank on the Hyundai Accent. If you like flinging cars at sharp turns as you go up gradients or down slopes, nothing but the Hyundai Accent. Repeated twice. Though the gearbox and ratios as well as wind noise at high speeds could do with some improvement.

Therefore, if it is the ultra-rapid gear changes you are looking at, without going deaf with engine or body noise, then Suzuki/Maruti proves once again that they've scored, twice this week already, with the Maruti Baleno. As long as you are not too tall. If you are, then your head will touch the roof.

Which it won't in the Mitsubishi Lancer, a favourite going back to the old days of the Himalyan Rally, where as an eager camp follower of Mitsubisho RalliArt, I saw the Lancer going it's paces. But still, given a good challenge by the old Ford Escort. However, both these brands score high on the service costs. Very high!

Which brings us to the joker in the pack,the new Ford Ikon. Great car, the Ikon, but boringly staid on the highway.

Thoush not half as boringly staid as the new wolf in sheeps' clothing, the Esteem with mPi on a sticker in the back.

There: you've got your short and brief review. And if you need more? Then wait for the next issue. Landing in Mumbai, got to borrow an Opel Corsa from GM to twist up the Ghats on the new expressway. But they've imposed an 80 kmph speed limit on all and will, surely, be out there trying to catch hard working automobile analyists trying to do their job. There is no justice!!

Three years ago I asked two senior policemen, one each from Delhi and Mumbai, what they thought about road rage in their cities, and drew blank looks. One even went so far as to suggest that it did not exist in the congenial Indian psyche.

Over the past 25 years or so of driving in India and all over the world has led one to understand that what the honest cops said was, in one way, true. At one time. But not any longer. Examples abound, and become statistics, the latest being that of the Delhi father who was mowed down by the driver of a car that hit his car. Mowed down, hit repeatedly, and finally absolutely totally crushed. And then crushed and run over again.

Is this road rage, or is this an inbuilt feeling in our psyche that we can get away with anything on our roads?

I would like to think that the real reason for inhuman behaviour on our roads has to do with realisation dawning on most users that our laws are defective, in design and implementation, and any sort of behaviour on roads can be gotten away with. Almost 10 years ago, when I worked for an MNC in Delhi, the driver of my car ran over and killed a cyclist, and gave a written statement saying simply "because he was speeding and lost control." It cost him, subsequently a few days later, then in 1990, 3000/- rupees (less than 75 US dollars) to get the police report changed to one where he stated that "he saw the cyclist lying dead on the road and lost control on trying to avoid the dead body".

A few days ago, returning from the Supreme Court after hearing the best brains in the land wax eloquent about death on the roads due to pollution as well as lack of road safety, I was behind an erratically driven Blue-line bus. It knocked a 3-wheeler sideways and then proceeded to, with a bus load of passengers inside watching, make an escape on Delhi's busy Mathura Road, right next to the Zoo. When I overtook and stopped the bus the young and cocky driver stepped out and told me that (a) he was an off-duty policeman and that (b) if I did not move he would make sure I got into more legal trouble then I had ever seen.

Meanwhile, the driver of the over-turned auto-rickshaw also landed up on the scene, along with his buddies. What happened next would have been amazing if it hadn't happened to me.

a) The bus-driver/off duty cop took the 3-wheeler driver aside and "confiscated" his documents. b) He then asked that auto-rickshaw driver & all the other auto-rickshaw drivers to give a statement to the by then arrived and grinning PCR that I had knocked the said auto-rickshaw down and that they were all witnesses. c) Otherwise their documents would be confiscated.

As of now, I don't know what happened, because I was "advised" by the PCR to carry on, since one of them recognised me and was able to "cool the temper" of the off-duty cop. But the bus went on it's way and . . . then we talk about road rage?

This is not road rage, this is pure and simple murder because we have a weapon called an automobile which is not covered by any laws implementable in our great country. And the people responsible are those who are supposed to implement these laws. To call it "road rage" is to deflect attention to a sub-set of the major problem.

The big dot-com crash is on and we are still there. Rumours spread about our being shut down or vanishing are incorrect, we at cybersteering rededicate ourselves to you, the consumer. But it does worry us a bit . . . is this success? The fact that people talk about our being shut down like the others, or up for sale, again like the others?

Please rest assured, cybersteering continues to be on the ether as a service and all we ask of you is to, simply, spread the word.

Because that is what we are all about: the power of the word. Printed, on tv, and now over the Net? What next? Straight into your mind, maybe, but never towards your pocket book!

Drivers Log
Veeresh Malik
The Edit Team
bluepencil@cybersteering.com

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