Hi everyone @ Team-BHP. Thank you mods for accepting my membership on this wonderful forum. Well, they say never say never and voila, I am a member now since 17th June 15.
A brief about me:
Name: Amit Satpathy
Age: 33 Years
Where I am from: Bhubaneswar, Orissa (The temple city of India)
What I do: IT consultant with 10.5 years of experience in product development, testing, product consulting.
How did I hear about Team-BHP: Came to know about Team-BHP searching over google for car reviews.
My Current Interests: Understanding paint/dent processes on a car. Browsing through Civic forums and understanding the do it yourself stuff. Also I am exploring on noise deadening for the cars.
Projectors and hid headlight fitments (I have HID's on my car sans the projectors) and interior enrichment/restoration of the car is another interest area.
Automotive's aside, I have keen interest in photography, closely follow F1 season every year, I am a avid/semi pro badminton player and currently have picked up interest in complex financial instruments e.g. CDO/Synthetic CDO's (Collateralized Debt Obligation).
Cars I have previously owned, currently own or wish to own:
I have a 2007 Model Honda Civic S which was bought on 1st Jan 2013, that being my 1st car ( I learnt to drive after I bought this car) and I wish to buy a Mercedes A Class in the next 2-3 years.
My Team-BHP Membership (Never say never):
I tried, I re...re-tried, and after 2 and half years and on my 5th attempt finally I am a member.
1st attempt: 6th Dec 12 – Then I was planning to get a car, had finalised on getting a pre-owned Honda Civic, my first car, all knowledge on the car, courtesy Team-BHP.
2nd attempt: 2nd Jun 13 – Failed – I was wondering what did I do wrong.
3rd attempt: 5th Sep 13 – Failed – Did some re-search and had re-applied, but failure again.
4th attempt: 12th Sep 13 – Failed – This time around I was not able to figure out why. I was more than determined to make it count the next time, it was like a “do and do and don't die” situation for me (It's the way I put a do or die situation.)
Half hearted/false attempts: I saved all the entries for the Why Team-BHP?, Which Policy?, Which Indian Car and read and re-read those and took at least 3-4 attempts between Oct 14 till recently as April 15 to register only to cancel the attempt at the final stage, re-viewing my response to the questions and making modifications to it time and again.
5th attempt: 10th Jun 15 - 17th Jun – Membership approved. Wooohooo.
Thank you again Mods. It is a great achievement getting into Team-BHP and I am already feeling the responsibility of being a member of this wonderful forum.
My Learnings:
The first thing I learned after I bought the car in 2013 was how to drive, yes I had never felt or had the desire to drive earlier.
By this time I have been a car owner of 2 and half years, with average of 1 accident in my car per year and 2 service visits.
1st accident (May 13): Front bumper torn while taking a u turn courtesy, biker with phone slotted in ear inside helmet. Learnings: Stop, Look forward and look backwards and look forward again before taking a u turn.
2nd accident (Mar 14): Rear bumper torn on highway, courtesy auto-rickshaw stopped abruptly on road and I stopped behind, bike rams from behind, lucky me, its the rear bumper torn and no other damages.
Learning: Always maintain a safe distance or be on different lanes to auto-rickshaw's as they are the most unpredictable drivers and can stop abruptly anywhere.
3rd accident (May 15): Rear bumper torn and boot lid dented, courtesy: self. I was backing up in a narrow lane undergoing drainage work and looking to the right mirror, I missed a obvious electric pole in the rear.
Still cursing myself for this, though I have had it fixed. Learning: Take a good look at the things behind on all the sides before reversing or else, find a crossing in front somewhere where you can reverse easily.
Now I am determined to get through without any accidents in 2016. Keeping my fingers crossed for the same.
In closing I would like to say owing a car has been a great learning experience and I am very happy with it. I have learnt a few other things other than my experience with the accidents the hard way but that is how we learn things and learning never stops.
My ownership experience including my bike to car story coming soon.