DriveBlog

Music to my ears!

Gotta run...gonna get that for my car! =)

Wrapping this up...

And to close things out for the year, both for the Indian car industry and this blog*, the first in a series of reports on the Indian Auto Sector in 2004.

It's been a 'million in a one' year, thanks to loads of new launches, the introduction of new segments, some pretty unbelievable festive offers, pitched battles in the compact segment, a new No.1 Indian car and lest I forget, my graduating to four wheels. =) All in all, a real bang-up job of a year!

* Updates over the next few days will be few and far between - if at all - as I'm headed home for the holidays. Expect to be back on the 3rd of January. In the meantime, a very Merry Christmas and an even better New Year to you all. And yeah, drive with your seatbelts on, won't you?

Strike One!

Much like new parents can breathe easy once the new baby has had its first fall and scraped a shin or banged a knee, I'm guessing new car owners are a less harried lot once their shiny new car gets itself a shiny new scratch! =)

My Getz now has herself two little dimples on her flank, just over the left rear tyre, thanks to some overzealous reversing - both on my part as well as another driver's. It'd been a walking-on-bubble-wrap couple of weeks before that, as I tried to avoid the inevitable. But now that the damage has been done, I'm feeling a helluva lot lighter.

In the words of a certain green-skinned, large-grinned, yellow-suited gentleman: "Ssssssssssomebaady stop me!"

PS: The car's fine. I got the scratches touched up at the body shop the next day. But for the more do-it-yourself kind of folks among y'all, here's something.

If you're out there...

This past Saturday evening, I drove down to a private farmhouse off Chennai's much-loved East Coast Road with a couple of friends to an impromptu jam session put together by a bunch of music-loving dudes who call themselves The Madras Underground. While I was at the front watching the show, a yet unidentified stellar specimen of the human race chose to snap off the 'Getz' monogram off the back of my day-old car.

Dude, you owe me plenty of heartache, a sleepless night and two hundred and four bucks. If you're out there, I'm looking for you.

Mine...ALL mine!

On Friday, the 3rd of December, 2004, I became the proud daddy of a spankin' new, squeaky clean, smellin' of wax polish and sublimely Sexy (yeah, with a capital 'S') Hyundai Getz GLS. I know...the envy is almost too much to take, right? =)

Mathew, Pranjal and Shrikant: Thank you all for your your comments and wishes. Mathew, here's some news on the Swift launch that might be right down your alley. Pranjal, Shrikant - keep watching this space for post-ownership stuff and more on the Hyundai Getz. Shrikant, I can tell you this much though: I'm not regretting my decision one bit!