'She' hit jackpot today...

... No, am not talking about my wife. She has already hit a jackpot with me - at least that is what I believe :)

This is the Maruti Suzuki WagonR that I drive. The 6.5 years old baby clocked 77777 kms today.

Along the way it has done innumerable Pune-Mumbai-Pune trips, a few trips to Goa, Mahableshwar, Diveagar, Shirdi and a trip to Aurangabad. 

What remains on 'her' and my wishlist is an interstate trip to coastal Karnataka and another one to Jaisalmer in Rajasthan. 

Being so highly reliable all the way without any major breakdown enroutes, she has been as dependable as ever.
She does show signs of aging with rattles on bad roads but it still has a punch in the belly when revved in the 'sweet' zone...

2 interesting events in its history, can be recollected now, which I have already blogged here and here.

Looking forward to 100K kms after which probably it would be thought of as a spare car. That milestone would be one childhood dream come true for me :)

Xenon Switch ON, Brains Switch OFF!

These are the same lamps that blind you see each day at least a few times when on the road. These are the same morons who have brains to buy high ended sedans and SUVs but the same brains are switched OFF when they put on these lamps.

That's a very sad state, the headlamps even when on low-beam totally blind the oncoming driver for a few seconds.

Not sure, why some people need cops to start a drive to discipline them. Are we so hell bent on breaking rules? Even after getting quality education and claiming to be in cities like Oxford of the east, do we need to be taught how to be civilized on the road?

What's the "once in a lifetime" offer from Volkswagen?

This new Volkswagen commercial caught my attention recently, and I got very curious about WTH is the "Once in a lifetime" offer.

I kept wondering whether it's a big discount, or a B-O-G-O-F (Buy One Get One Free) offer, or if it's a limited edition model made by Volkswagen and the possibilities of my imagination were endless ;-)

Apparently, the punch line "once in a lifetime offer" does its job perfectly of attracting prospective customers to the showroom. As for yours truly, he was nowhere planning to buy one nor willing to spend time to visit the showroom just to find WTH was the offer.


Eventually, I watched the commercial once again (thanks to Youtube), did some Googling and got the answer.
If you see and understand the commercial, you'd realize that the Persian gentleman loves his car so much that he cannot bear any dirt, dust or dropping on his car. The gentleman eventually passes away, and comes back by 'travelling a lifetime' to take care of the car in the form of his grandson.
And voila - the "once in a lifetime offer" now makes some sense... you own it once in a lifetime but keep coming back to it time and again.

Personally, I liked the campaign because it does its job very well without hiring any of the expensive brand ambassadors. Don't believe me? Ask someone who is planning to buy a hatchback, and chances of him/her having called up Volkswagen are very high.

Take a bow Volkswagen for that punch line!

Push Button Start - Really neat?

Happened to come across the feature that's come on a couple of new cars here in India viz. the Chevy Cruze and the Nissan Micra. Yes, The push button start/stop feature.

Does it really sound exciting? I remember my cousin's Diesel powered, 1976 modeled HM Amby which had a similar feature to crank the engine. And now, I see it again on atleast these 2 cars in the Indian market.

I could not make any sense - neither aesthetic nor from a usability perspective, as to why would a manufacturer incorporate such a feature and also boast about it?