New friends on the way

Hi Guys,

today after a couple of attempts I managed to join a forum group called www.team-bhp.com It appears to be the best site for a car owner in India. Though, it has members from all over the world who are interested in cars, the focus appears to be on Indian cars.

I shared my idea with the forum members there via a thread:
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/what-car/36190-very-light-driver-looking-car-all-india-road-trip.html

and got some interesting responses. Quite a few members are of the view that I can/should take my alto on the trip and it will be a lot of fun. But because of my back ache I am reluctant and one of them suggested that I can try on modifying my seat. Lets see what kind of modifications are possible. I love my alto, but since I bought it for 2 years only it might living past its timeline with me, or may be I can take this trip and then sell it off. Safari is the other choice people are recommending. Lets see...

One of the guys mentioned someone who has done this particular trip more than once, got to check it out with him. The feedback was that its no "rocket science" and people actually do it :-).

Interesting!

Will keep posting here what I learn from there.


Cheers!
Jitendra

Vehicle for the trip

Hi Guys,

Here comes the most important part in the planning. The best vehicle. Its got to be an SUV I guess.. what say?

Now we have quite a few options for SUVs in India. We have Ford Endeavour, Honda CRV, Suzuki Grand Vitara and Hyundai Terracan among the high end ones. Then there is the more "affordable" range of Tata Safari, Mahindra Scorpio and Ford Fusion, these are all around 10 lakhs mark. If we compare feature wise Tata Safari is on the highest end, price wise too. So Tata has come up with almost similar tech specs in Sumo Grande, (it looks cute... for an SUV) which is priced more aggressively and has lesser jazzy features like LCD screen etc.

There are some others which can fit the bill like Toyota Innova, Indigo Marina which can be considered, but am not, just for lack of sheer power. This trip could be fun to enjoy the raw power of the vehicle I choose.

So the choice has boiled down to picking one out of Safari, Sumo Grande, Scorpio and Fusion. Fusion looks good and is priced very aggressively but its not something I would like to pick for 2 reasons, one its power which is barely 100PS in the petrol version(diesel is a meagre 68) and two it is from Ford which from my US experience doesn't build cars that one can "enjoy", its more for "use". This trip has enjoyment as priority so Fusion is out. Sumo Grande I can buy a new one, but it does not come in Petrol variant and diesel doesn't make a lot of sense for my 10-15 km per day city driving, so that drops down the list a bit.

Okay, just checked petrol will be very expensive :-|. So for the trip it has to be a diesel car. Can I keep the diesel car after the trip .. may be .. may be not? So I have to buy something second hand, that I can sell of without loosing a lot of money in a month or so. So the Sumo Grande, the cutie, is out. Its too new and may not be available in second hand, even if it is available it would be huge loss in buying and selling.

So my choices are down to either a Safari or a Scorpio. The usual range that I look for in a second hand car is around 12k-15k per year and 2-3 years old. According to www.carwale.com, Safari should cost around Rs.6,36,500 and Scorpio Rs.7.34 for Aug 2005. The average is better by a couple of kms on highway in Scorpio as per net research. Given the price advantage of 1 lakh and my wife likes the look of Safari, I guess it will be a safari. P.S. The pricess are for 30k driven Dicor EX and Slx models respectively, which are second from top.

So my choice of vehicle is Tata Safari which should cost around 6.5L in August. thats AS OF NOW :-).

Cheers!

Jitendra

Gym Vs Yoga for back strengthening

One of the most important tasks I need to undertake before embarking on this trip is to work on strengthening my back. It currently does not allow me to ride a car for more than an hour or 2 hours at max.

So the consideration is between Yoga and joining a gym for some focussed exercizes. Gym seems very inviting for all the style around it and apparently Talwalkar's has a course designed towards strengthening of the back. Another important consideration is that Talwalkars' is walking distance from office, I can just walk in anytime from office. But the disadvantage is that I cannot continue doing these while I am on the trip.

Yoga is something I have tried in the past. Only 45 mins of yoga and I was good for a day with 12 hours of grueling. The main advantage of Yoga is that I can continue doing it while I am on the trip or when the back starts acting up. But then yoga place is 3 kms fom home and have to go there only in the mornings.. ah lazy me..

Lets see what I choose.. may be I can choose the gym for a few days, gain strength then continue to do Yoga when I travel.