The 'i' charm

It has been quite some time, since i thought of changing our old car. We had a Maruthi 800. Well maintained by my father for nearly 7 years. It was getting difficult for him to drive it in the ever increasing traffic. Without so called pleasures like power steering, power windows.. etcetera .. getting along the road was real turmoil.

I thought that it was time for us to change the car. Moreover, somewhere in the news, my eyes caught the announcement from Maruthi that, they are going to stop production of their 'once flagship car'. My options were limited for a new car. Because, it will be mostly used by my father. I should be going for something which suits him better than for me. Well, I'll be here in Chennai most of year. What is the point of buying a BMW at home and then, sit here in Chennai & dream about it? (hehehe).

Jokes apart; I checked out my options and found some contestants in the market. Alto LXI, Hyundai Santro Xing GLS, Ford Figo, Hyundai i10 & Chevrolet Beat. Alto LXI was the first one to ruled out. The reason was it's cramped back seat. Santro GLS was a good contester for the position. But, the power windows option was limited to front seaters. Moreover, the car was pretty old.. by name [Parents choose to name their child 'Anton' rather than 'Anthony' or 'Antony'. Why should'nt they?]. I did a test drive of Figo. It was a Figo Titanium, top end Diesel model. It lacked power. Real drag in first and second gears. I wasn't impressed. Beat was dashing. It certainly was an eye-catcher on the road. But, 160Ltr boot for a car... Alas!.. I would call it as a bike retrofitted with extra luggage boxes...

My friend Sandeep already owns an i10. I have driven it. 80BHP under the hood is just awesome. Handling.. superb. Although the boot is 225Ltr, I would say that, it is a decent one. I decided to chip in additonal 24K for sportz version of the car. Why 24K? A company music set with 4 speakers, Rear Wiper & defogger, Boot lamp, Spoiler with HMSL, Metal finish door handles and so on... Those extras were worth for the 24K, which the company was charging.

We got the car delivered on 24-07-2010. That was yesterday. I am here in Chennai. The charm is there, at my home town. The bliss is yet to be experienced.

'I' need to wait.. till 'I' get near 'i10'... :)