[saikarthik]

I was sitting in my home on a holiday and was ordering some car care items online, which led me to this thought - why am I buying all these stuff? I never bought these many products or services for my previous car that was purchased 13 years back adding to cost of ownership. This change in the way we care or operate our car might be because of more exposure and maturity in us or the affordability (more income and spending mindset), availability of options etc...

I am sure that many of the seniors would have experienced and noticed this change in the way we treat a car over few decades. Let us not make this thread about just the driving habits, modifications, basic accessories or cost (example how fuel/taxes were Rs. xx back then while it's Rs. xxx), but discuss the way we and our methods/habits about car care & usage evolved or changed in past 20 years - 2000's and now. There are definitely both sides positives and negatives on this change. Some of those which I could think of are,

Keeping the car clean and in better shape

Once a wise man in the movie Transporter said "The way a man treats his car is how he treats himself".

This was always the first pointer to identify whether a person takes care of his car or not, not like judging by the cover of a book though. The habit of keeping cars clean is not a new habit by itself, but the amount of products and the ways have come a long way in just few years. Comparing to early 2000s, cleaning used to be a daily ceremony for quite a few with minimal products like a soft cloth, probably soapy water, once in a while pressure wash and rarely detailing/coating. But now, there is a lot of products, services and outlets to clean. While some normal people employ someone to clean their car every morning and detailing once in a while, others take interest to keep their cars clean by themselves. Some of the points that I would list as increased,

Equipment:
Evolved from cloth and brush to micro-fiber cloths, water magnets (absorbers for quick dry), mitts and dusters, wax coated dusters (read Jopasu), foam applicators, special brushes, spray bottles/foamers, personal pressure washers (Karcher/Bosch), Vacuum cleaners.

Consumables:
Evolved from car shampoo to Oh! there too many and will limit to few mentions - windshield washer fluid, waterless wash concentrates, wax coats, dashboard detailers, degreasers etc.

Time & effort:
What used to be a quick dust and wash now takes hours. People watch videos and go through thousands of lines on forums to follow best practices.

Outlets:
Evolved from wash stations to car spas, automatic washing centers, detailers.

Extra care:
Some may think it as overkill, but it is essential to have extra care on few things like using RO water to fill their windshield wash tanks prevent scale & clogging of washer jets/nozzles.

Special mention:
Interior detailing and cleaning now takes a lot of focus than before even maintaining air quality using electronic purifiers, charcoal bags, perfumes and a lot more. People use dustbins in car now, earlier the ashtray used to be the closest thing.

Protecting the car

Now there are three things here that people used to consider - protecting the car from outside physical damage due to daily drive, theft/sabotage and keeping the car functional/reliable.

External coatings:
Evolved to anti-rust, anti-rodent, PU coat, PPF, Ceramic coat, anti-fog for windshields, vinyl wraps.

External hardware:
Now the bull bars/flag poles are illegal due to pedestrian safety, sun films (like old dark ones) are not legal, so mostly they are restricted to door guards and simple stuff.

Interior:
Simple rubber mats evolved to 3D/7D and what not, full floor carpeting, sill plates.

Security:
Earlier, only few variants and models came with in-built vehicle alarm systems, so people used mostly accessories such as remote CDLs with sirens. Now we get access to GPS locators and geo-fencing tech. Dashcams are also very important that people spend a lot on to avoid legal harassment or road rage.

Keeping car functional & safe:
Again, keeping car serviced is preventive which has no change but the comfort of pick-up and drop, service reminder mails, RSA, start-ups trying to consolidate FNGs and offering services like gobumper and gomechanic. One downside in service area is making fraudulent claims of replacement of parts and inflating bills. There are some beliefs involved too (take it in neutral sense), so people used idols on dashboards which evolved to a lot of fancy illuminated stuff and hanging accessories from IRVM.

Another aspect in this is, when you meet with some incident or emergency situation like a tyre puncture, accident etc. We now spend some good amount on getting equipment like jump cables, tyre inflators(in place of puncture kits), fire extinguishers, first aid kit (from simple pouch earlier to a comprehensive kit). There is increase in spend on TPMS sensors and many people fill nitrogen nowadays.

Others:

• Document carrying has become hassle free with digilocker or mparivahan app.
• Paying challans are easy now compared to the manual challans issued earlier(god only knows if they are legit).
• DIYs - earlier most of these were mechanical/electrical, now many are trying their hand in electronics/coding.
• Paying toll - a miserable affair earlier, a less miserable affair now thanks to fastag.
• Subscription - now we have connected cars for which we pay one time sim cost and navigation license, but with EVs and other features will we get into subscriptions?

What else do you think have changed from past 20 years in the way we treat and spend on a car?
In some cases, I think we are doing a little too much where it is not necessary to.

Mods: Please add a poll on the last question if you think it will be interesting and reasonable.

[BhaskarG]

Nice topic to ponder upon. And you have covered almost everything!

A critical change that i have seen is the need of a Dashcam. What was unheard 20 years back has now become a necessity. This can be a real help in time of unruly traffic, hot tempered mobs and corrupt police. I recently invested in one.

One more thing I have observed is the growing dependency on Youtube vloggers to make a car ownership decision. Auto magazines are slowly adapting to social media.

New things keep coming as our lifestyles get inflated, and also with advancement of technology. Things that were once considered unnecessary slowly becomes necessity as buying power of consumers increases (like left hand side ORVMs were once given a miss in costlier cars like Hyundai Getz)

[lonetraveller89]

20 years back is only 2001! Damn, we're getting old fast.

To be honest, before I found out about team-bhp, I didn't even like or care about cars that much. So, it's this very platform that has been the most influencial change for me. Everything else is so much better than it was before except, ofcourse, the traffic.

[EightSix]

The only major difference between owning and operating a car in 2020 vs two decades ago is two words —

TEAM-BHP MEMBERSHIP

Originally Posted by saikarthik

I was sitting in my home on a holiday and was ordering some car care items online, which led me to this thought - why am I buying all these stuff?

Many members here have started giving importance to car-care ONLY after they read up Team-BHP, especially since all these points you have mentioned are suggestions/recommendations of our community.

Keeping the car clean and in better shape

I doubt if anyone other than us actually cares about this. There is just one guy in our society who washes all cars in the parking lot. Mind you, it doesn’t have just normal cars between 4 to 40 lakh, but a BMW 5 Series, Mercedes E Class sedan (there was also an S) and a freaking Porsche Cayenne! I haven’t seen owners of these cars wash their rides themselves.

People who own these cars have no time, really, except maybe the occasional visit to the car-care outlet. Besides, car-care products have always existed. People never thought they were important and most of us never do, even two decades later.

Interior:
Simple rubber mats evolved to 3D/7D and what not, full floor carpeting, sill plates.

What’s wrong with ‘owning and operating a car’, while keeping everything stock? I am that type of person. A 7D floormat doesn’t add any value to my car. I’m gonna stick to rubber. I am sure that quite a few would do the same.

Of course, there are many who won’t. That’s why we have 7D floormats. Folks that go after stuff like this are the reason we have car brands with more than 50% of their accessories list adding more chrome to the car.

Security:
Earlier, only few variants and models came with in-built vehicle alarm systems, so people used mostly accessories such as remote CDLs with sirens. Now we get access to GPS locators and geo-fencing tech. Dashcams are also very important that people spend a lot on to avoid legal harassment or road rage.

I agree with you on this one and the points mentioned below it. People are more aware these days and won’t think twice about to spend a few 20k on these features when they buy a 2 million+ rupee SUV.

Keeping car functional & safe:
Again, keeping car serviced is preventive which has no change but the comfort of pick-up and drop, service reminder mails, RSA, start-ups trying to consolidate FNGs and offering services like gobumper and gomechanic.

Life has definitely become easier in this case, than it was two decades ago.

There are some beliefs involved too (take it in neutral sense), so people used idols on dashboards which evolved to a lot of fancy illuminated stuff and hanging accessories from IRVM.

I think, it is the other way around. It was more common in back a decade ago, with everybody putting huge fancy illuminated idols on cars like the Toyota Qualis, Marutis etc of the previous decade. Such things were sold at stoplights by hawkers.

Now, people have slightly better taste I think. Don’t see a lot of that on new cars, save a small murti of our gods in the dashboard, at times given by the dealership themselves.

Another aspect in this is, when you meet with some incident or emergency situation like a tyre puncture, accident etc. We now spend some good amount on getting equipment like jump cables, tyre inflators(in place of puncture kits), fire extinguishers, first aid kit (from simple pouch earlier to a comprehensive kit). There is increase in spend on TPMS sensors and many people fill nitrogen nowadays.

At times there is plain herd mentality too. You don’t get some of these accessories because you need them, you get them simply to follow the trend.

Others:

• Document carrying has become hassle free with digilocker or mparivahan app.
• Paying challans are easy now compared to the manual challans issued earlier(god only knows if they are legit).
• Paying toll - a miserable affair earlier, a less miserable affair now thanks to fastag.
• Subscription - now we have connected cars for which we pay one time sim cost and navigation license, but with EVs and other features will we get into subscriptions?

Here, I must highlight — not all of this is positive. Especially the fastag and digilocker that raises privacy concerns.

Subscription is a new concept, relatively — but it is still expensive. Suggested my uncle just last week to check out car-subscription options. Like him, the majority is unaware of the benefits of subscription.

In some cases, I think we are doing a little too much where it is not necessary to.

Exactly. And while a lot has changed for the better, the modern consumer is solely after convenience. But convenience comes at a cost - here is a great article that everyone should check out.

That being said - allow me to add to the list, please —

• What is the easiest way to own and operate a car in 2021? By NOT owning and operating a car! Thanks to Ola, Uber, Zoomcar etc, you don’t need to worry about the hassle of owning and upkeeping your car. Nor do you need to worry about tiring drives or parking problems or the excessive cost of fuel. Press a few buttons on your phone and a shiny white wagon-R will be at your doorstep in no time! Related thread
  
• Two decades ago, people would roll down our windows and ask auto-wallahs for directions. Modern car ownership on the other hand provides you the convenience of advanced navigation features in a head unit where you can control almost everything in your car. Not to mention; the various other features in your car that have pampered you, including connected car tech.
  
• Before owning the car, as BhaskarGoswami said, there is a huge number of information on the internet, as a result, buyers are well aware, not just that — they are increasingly dependent on automotive media. Word-of-mouth isn’t as common as before.
  
• People are driving lesser. The reasons are - public transport, WFM, Virus etc. Due to fuel prices (I know you don’t want this to be discussed here, but it is still an important factor in the ownership experience) and crazy traffic, people take their cars out less often than usual.
  

[V.Narayan]

Why 20 years. Allow me to walk this back 40 years and more :-)

First what has not changed - a man who loves his car looks after it with the best resources his pocket and technology of that era can provide - that has not changed. Materials and accessories available to us have increased with our buying power but those are merely the tools with which we apply make up on our beloved assets.

Cleaning & washing the car once a day, getting it polished were then as they are now. The polishing was always done ourselves as services were less affordable then. Doing this with my father was great fun. Later doing it by myself in order to earn Re 1/- * as a tip was even more fun. The cars were kept more stock than now. The quality of accessories for the interior were tacky for the most part. The most prolific high end accessory was the tiny 6-inch rotating fan fitted either to the front centre dashboard or on the left B pillar. Don't see that any more. And never forget the coir mat that was placed on top of roofs, typically of an Ambassador, to cool the car in India's hot summer. We poke fun at it today but it did the job, rust on the roof notwithstanding. And of course if you were really rich you installed an after-market air-conditioner. As school boys the standard assumption was that the owner was a black money wallah - after all how else could he, in 1972, afford an AC in his car!!!!

Anti-rust coatings were de rigueur. You could not live without them. And if you wished to signal that you were an important Govt big shot then curtains in your car were a must or how else will the hoi-polloi know.

And most of all speeds were much slower. Even with comparatively very much less crowded roads 40 to 60 kmph was the norm. Those cars did not have the horses to do much more. And if in a Premier or Herald with three adults in the rear seat then the car sailed forward at an 8-degree nose up in the air slant.

Most car owners were second-hand car owners. Only the Govt or companies or well to do business men bought cars first hand. And cars held their second hand value rather well due to the shortage of supply and fresh production held back by licenses.

And of course the engines then were so simple that most of us could open the bonnet and fix more than a few things. But much less so today.

Ahh, those bad old days.

* ~Rs 40/- today. Psychologically a lot of bread then. Neighbourhood boys would gladly help me in return for 25 paisa. After all it was a man's job.

[GTO]

Lovely thread idea

Originally Posted by saikarthik

but discuss the way we and our methods/habits about car care & usage evolved or changed in past 20 years - 2000's and now.

- The biggest damn change has been protection from rodents! Keeping my cars free of rodent damage has taken up some serious effort & time. 20 years ago, the problem wasn't as severe as it is today. Stupid species keeps multiplying like no other.

- Service intervals have gotten longer. In 2001, a workshop visit every 5000 km or 3 - 6 months was de rigueur. Once a year or 10000 - 15000 km visits are standard today. Far more convenient.

- I feel back then, we had more honest mechanics than today. Indian society has overall become way more complex + complicated, I feel.

- I get all my cars detailed once in 6 months now. Each bill is 7000 - 10000 bucks. In the early 2000s, I merely got them "polished" by a local pappu in a vest with an inverted cap for 500 bucks. Sole product used was Waxpol.

- Roads were emptier then. My commute from the Churchgate office to home was merely 30 minutes in rush hour traffic. Today, it's double or more, thus more stressful on the car. It's the primary reason I moved my office home & saved 2 hours / day.

- My cars are better maintained today as we are now a self-driving family. No chauffeurs (thanks to Uber & Ola, whenever needed). From the 1980s till about 2015, we have always had a driver in the house and boy, did they abuse our cars.

- 6 to 9 year extended warranties have made things so much simpler. 20 years ago, few manufacturers offered packages like today, and the max coverage was just 4 years.

- I personally spent a lot more time caring for my cars then. Am way too busy for that today & my only contribution now is to drive them well + park them well + send them to the best workshops in Bombay. I now opt for pickup / drop by the workshop's trusty driver, and all maintenance is done via the phone. Have no qualms in admitting that I always get the best service & attention, because of being part of the industry. When I rebuilt my Jeep in '03, I visited the Mahindra workshop almost everyday, spending an hour or two there. However, the last time the body was replaced a few years ago, I probably went just twice or thrice.

- In the 2000s, one would drive straight to an accessory shop after delivery to get sunfilm, after-market audio, foglamps, mats and so on. But today's cars are so well-equipped that we don't need the after-market for them. I don't remember the last time I walked into an accessory store. Not in the last 5 - 10 years for sure.

Once a wise man in the movie Transporter said "The way a man treats his car is how he treats himself".

No man, I disagree. Have seen way too many unhealthy people with immaculately-maintained cars. I fail to understand how one can invest so much time maintaining their cars with love & care, but not their own body which is the most important tool they will ever have???? If you won't put dirty diesel in your car, how can you put dirty food into your body? Some things are just inexplicable, I guess.

[francisvellara]

Voted that we're overdoing it. But it is really hard to avoid. Cars now have more features than ever before, and new features are being added at a rate previously unseen. There are very few of us who can afford to take the time to understand all of them. It is probably not wrong to say that there are features whose ideal maintenance procedures are not known to anyone due to insufficient research.

Added to this is how difficult it is to find correct information online. It is just too easy to create an article with false information. Whatever opinion one goes to the internet with, one will find articles supporting it. With other influencing factors like people promoting their own business, getting sponsorships, etc, it becomes hard to tell what articles are solid, unbiased truth.

I certainly think most of us can do better by trying to do some searching on our own instead of succumbing to peer pressure, but I feel that there will always be things we do because we want to play it safe.

[saikarthik]

Couple of more points:
1. Insurance claims have also become simpler in process, faster and convenient for most people.
2. RTO services are faster now a days.

Originally Posted by BhaskarGoswami

One more thing I have observed is the growing dependency on Youtube vloggers to make a car ownership decision. Auto magazines are slowly adapting to social media.

It is a menace as well. There are a lot of channels on YouTube taking advantage of regional languages and blabber some nonsense, these people don't even know about cars and they get more views than some genuine ones.

Originally Posted by EightSix

The only major difference between owning and operating a car in 2020 vs two decades ago is two words —

TEAM-BHP MEMBERSHIP

Subscription is a new concept, relatively — but it is still expensive. Suggested my uncle just last week to check out car-subscription options. Like him, the majority is unaware of the benefits of subscription.

Absolutely, I learnt a lot on reading posts on Team-BHP. Even so, I am still unable to clean my car spotless. I think it has pushed the bar so high that I am not satisfied even after a good clean.

Regarding subscriptions, I wasn't just quoting the car subscriptions. When I said some services like connected car, there are different models. Since it is just initial penetration, the companies are luring customers by not charging them separately and we pay for a 3g/4g sim service as one time cost on vehicle purchase. But this might get diversified and we may even get to see different levels of charges for features.

Originally Posted by GTO

Lovely thread idea

- Roads were emptier then. My commute from the Churchgate office to home was merely 30 minutes in rush hour traffic. Today, it's double or more, thus more stressful on the car.

Thanks. But do you think it is more stressful on just the car? I feel tremendous heat on my ears radiating while driving on road with dense traffic and zaps more energy. I sometimes feel like savior of others, where they don't even care for their lives on road. May be it is in my self interest not to waste time with idiots in argument, but hey, who isn't acting on self interest!

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

Why 20 years. Allow me to walk this back 40 years and more :-)
The most prolific high end accessory was the tiny 6-inch rotating fan fitted either to the front centre dashboard or on the left B pillar. Don't see that any more. And never forget the coir mat that was placed on top of roofs, typically of an Ambassador, to cool the car in India's hot summer. We poke fun at it today but it did the job

I remember the fan sir! but most nostalgic part on the car was the front quarter glass opener handle - that tiny handle with a push button. The coir mat/door carpet is still used in rural north India on bike seats, does the job.

Originally Posted by Sanidhya mukund

Then, the owners manual had a lot less to explain. Cars didn’t have much equipment to speak of, so things like these used to be depicted in the manual!

True, the owners manual had become more comprehensive and also there were addition of quick start guides for infotainment and other features. But this changed again with digital revolution, now we have e-manuals on infotainment with all fancy animations and adding more clarity.

[Sanidhya mukund]

The first thing that comes to mind is the fact that servicing was really cheap. Here’s a 2001 service bill of my Ford Ikon. Only 1440! For the same car, a service at the FASS would cost 5-7K today:

Then, the owners manual had a lot less to explain. Cars didn’t have much equipment to speak of, so things like these used to be depicted in the manual! (Pictured here is the owners manual of my Tata Estate)



Due to the absence of Team-BHP and other websites, owners were pretty ill informed back then. As an example, my Tata Estate didn’t even visit the TASS for its free services! Here’s the coupons, still intact:


Needless to say, cars were much cheaper, traffic was a lot lesser, parts were of better quality and fuel was way way cheaper!

[Kannan]

Originally Posted by saikarthik

Once a wise man in the movie Transporter said "The way a man treats his car is how he treats himself".

I fall into the category of people who agrees with the above quote, but unfortunately these days I spend less time and after this COVID-19 it's still reduced. I do keep it clean when I take it out.

But I do try to keep my car as new looking as possible both inside and outside.

I still remember Suzuki service centres used to charge around ₹350 for a full car wash in 2009, now it stands at around ₹750.

I do car wash once in 6 months, then maintain it myself using the waterless wash, applying quick wax and clean it every time when I take it out. Gone are the days when I spent half a day washing and waxing the car. These days am too busy to do those.

I still remember the days when I used to visit Shell I tend to buy something or other to make my car look better.

I believe it's okay to buy few items to take care of the car and make the experience of driving better, but going overboard am not sure, at least I don't.

When I buy my next car I wonder should I go for some kind of coating to make the paint on the car last longer especially from stone hits and tarmacs and make it look almost new?.

[Jeroen]

Interesting topics, thanks.

I grew up mainly in west Europe so my thoughts might be a bit different. When I read through the other members comments I do see a lot of similarities too.

Like a few other members, my earliest car ownership take me back much further than 2001. And all the difference just become enlarged. In all I would say all the changes are for the better. As some of you know I am a huge classic car enthusiast. And whereas I love my classic cars, I would not want them as my daily driver.

For me the huge advantage in longer maintenance intervals is a big thing. I used to drive well over 75.000 km a year on business. Imagine the difference between even a 5.000 km interval versus a 20.000 km interval. The first means I needed to hand in my car to service centre 15 times. That is almost every three weeks. The latter meant once per quarter!

Here in Europe we used to have many car accessoires shops. They sold stuff like matts, key rings, antenna’s, all sorts of little gadgets to put on your dashboard. The number of these shops has greatly reduced. There are still car parts shops and they are extremely well stocked. But aftermarket accessories is becoming a thing of the past, except for some specialised outfits. Much what they used to sell is simply not relevant anymore, or already fitted as standard.

The other thing that has really changed; Car radio’s. We used to have a large number of Car audio specialist. It used to be huge business. With hundreds and hundreds of different car radio’s on display. The number of speakers you could buy was mind blowing. I still own two of these old after market radio’s. A Kenwood Mask system (radio, cassette, CD changer) is fitted in my Alfa Spider and my Mercedes W123 sports a Grundig Radio/casette player with removable front.

I remember some of these shops very well. My boys when they were little used to love going there. Look at all the different models, hear them play over different speakers (these shops usually had fantastic demo set ups)

These days every car comes equipped with a fully integrated entertainment system. It has decimated the number of Car Audio Specialist. There are a few left, but they tend to specialise on the really high end sets.

Owning and using a car when I grew up was not a given. When I grew up we were just about the only family in our street that not only owned a car, but took our car on our annual summer holiday. Which we considered a huge expedition. In reality it was only 300-400 km across the border into Germany.

My dad used to take the car (A DKW 1100) to get it serviced specially for this mega-drive. The night before we set off, he and I would mount the roof rack. We were a family of six and DKWs don’t have a very large boot.

The next day the neighbourhood would waive us goodby! The other thing, when I was a little boy I used to sit in my mum’s lap. I had three sister who would be stashed into the rear seat. But I wanted to sit up front, so I sat in my mum’s lap. There were no belts and DKWs did not have a crumple zone, airbags or anything like that. A lot has changed in that respect!

So the build in safety features of a 2021 car compared to a 2001 car, let alone earlier cars is absolutely staggering.

Until 1974 there were no speed limits on the Dutch motorways. Speed limits were introduced because of safety concerns. Between 2001 and 2021 the speed limit has changed multiple times. Never over safety concerns. But always over environmental issues. The last change was a direct consequences of an environmental group suing the Dutch government over not meeting N2 reductions. The court agreed with them, as a consequence almost all infrastructure projects were put on hold for more than half a year, whilst the government put together a plan to reduce nitrogen emission. Part of that plan was reduce speeds on all motorways.

So what affects you as motorist has changed considerably. Electrical cars are not necessary safer, but are introduced over environmental concerns. In that sense I think a lot of new legislation is making its way into our daily motorist life. In the last two decades many European countries and cities are introducing environmental zones around cities. You need to apply for permits to enter the town. As I travel all over Europe half the front screen is covered with various environmental zone stickers!

Twenty years ago you could get two kinds of petrols. What we called Super and Normal. Nowadays, when I pull up at a petrol station there are usually at least four different petrols to choose from! We tend to have Super and Normal, possibly in an E5 and an E10 version and then there are the Super Super and the Super Normal as well!

i would say the change is considerable and the pace of change is increasing. Not remarkable perse, as much in our society follows the same path.

Jeroen

[arindambasu13]

Just realised, when reading this thread, that it is exactly two decades since I received that treasured document - a full fledged driving license.

A very endearing memory that I have from 2001. Back then, when I was just starting to drive the family's 35 year old Fiat around the neighbourhood (and about to get my driving license) - a morning start warranted pouring a few liters of cold water into the radiator to ensure that the engine did not overheat. Removing the cap, pouring water, closing the hood and then push starting the car on cold winter mornings was a daily ritual I did with my father. All that seemed worth it when the trusty Fiat engine roared to life and I jumped behind the wheel (Fiats had a lovely engine note, which was distinctive even from a long distance away) with my Dad keeping a close watch. Getting to drive the trusty old Fiat during those days - slow throttle, hard clutch, heavy brakes, side mounted gear lever and no AC nothwithstanding - was a treat in itself and something I looked forward to every morning.

Nowadays, fill the coolant tank once and you are good for years

[Aish_4761]

Okay, so here is my take on what is needed the most for a car to run, Fuel and the way we fill it!
I clearly remember back in 2003, my parents had a fight over my dad getting our Alto filled with INR 500 worth of fuel which was, hold it, 16 liters!
Our car was used sparingly and that much of fuel was not actually required. On top of that, it was a new car, registered in Assam itself and back then ULFA and other regional groups were a big threat to new cars of that area, specifically bought by outsiders like us.

Consider the same car now, after 18 years, I always top the tank and pay North of INR 2700 in Pune in normal scenario! However, I am afraid to visit petrol bunks nowadays!

Apart from that, in terms of creature comfort and safety, definitely a welcome move by manufacturers but not so welcome by the like of Maruti and Hyundai-Kia. They got it right but wrong at the same time. Bells and whistles are good and not more important than Safety!

[Kosfactor]

By and large people are getting the purpose of an automobile wrong over the years, the basic premise that it's going to get you somewhere faster than a horse is often forgotten. The engine and drive train has taken more of a back seat as if it's the touchscreen that is going to take you places - perhaps that maybe the case these days.

Originally Posted by Jeroen

So what affects you as motorist has changed considerably. Electrical cars are not necessary safer, but are introduced over environmental concerns. In that sense I think a lot of new legislation is making its way into our daily motorist life. In the last two decades many European countries and cities are introducing environmental zones around cities. You need to apply for permits to enter the town. As I travel all over Europe half the front screen is covered with various environmental zone stickers!

Isn't that a curiosity where European countries with insignificant industrial output is pretending to save the world with overpriced electric cars and bicycles?

[landcruiser123]

Back in 2001, I was a kid. And we got a Qualis home in the late 2000s.

A few things that were revolutionary:
1. Qualis was revolutionary for use as it had AC & power steering; We didn't have power windows
2. Diesel & petrol were so much cheaper
3. Traffic was light - South Bangalore to North Bangalore was 30 minutes to an hour. The minimum is an hour today
4. Highways were very poor; I'm proud of the progress various governments have made on the highway construction in the 2 decades
5. What are airbags? What are Child seats?

Although we have got a lot of electronics over the years, the basic cars are the same over the years.