[slevin]

Hello Team-BHP!

I am Slevin born in July 1989, native of Salem, Tamil Nadu and currently residing in Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu. I am Married, and I live in Trichy with my wife and my parents and younger brother live in Salem.

I discovered my love for cars when I was about 5 years old and was swayed away by a W123 Mercedes E240D LHD which was very close to my residence. The vehicle was owned by an Engineer who was a Government Contractor and he was the first civil engineer by profession in that area. For me it was naturally a head turner, it was in a shade of Brown, interiors in beige and whenever I got a chance I peeked into the car (with the help of my father lifting me in his arms), I felt merrier than ever before - the interiors were far ahead of anything that I had seen with beige leather finished seats. It felt that it was sculpted from some alien material because the only two cars that I experienced that time was a Premier Padmini and HM Ambassador. The W123 is still at his residence taken care by his son but in a neglected condition. It’s a true heartache for me to see the car which made me fall in love with cars.

Moving forward I always was curios about cars, tried to understand names, logos, country of origin and what not from my father. I would watch Hollywoood movies just to see new cars and understand what they were. We started subscribing to a National English Daily close to the year 2000 and from the newspaper I started to collect the adverts of old cars and my passion grew. 2004 we got a HP PC and dial-up Sify internet connection and I started exploring cars.

2006 I joined my UG program, BE Electronics at Coimbatore a time when I simply fell in love traveling by bus from Salem to Coimbatore every alternate weekend, the route was not a 4 lane express way then, Avinashi road had a lot of trees. Beautiful times. One of my favorite time passes during my UG days was to take a bus ride from my hostel in Pollachi road to reach Race Course Road – what better place in Coimbatore to spot and ogle at the best cars in town! During one of my such commutes in 2007, from Coimbatore to Salem via bus there was a surprising vroom exhaust sound, a scene that is still fresh in my memory – a Porsche Boxster 986 with a Tirupur registration and it was gone like a wind. It was the first sportscar I had seen in my life. I went home and googled for “Ferrari in India” Lo and Behold landed with a life turning search result “Supercars & Imports in India”. That’s how I came across Team-BHP. Man I remember burning my limited 5GB per month on browsing that one thread.

I used to be an avid reader of a popular Auto Magazine since 2004, never subscribed but read it in Libraries, regularly visited “Odessey” bookstores every month so that I can open the magazine and gobble up content. It was thrilling but as time passed on I realized something that did not resonate with me. They had reviewed a car from brand X. For sure I knew that specific model had a few negative points which were not mentioned openly in the review. Not only in that one model review but if the review for a model was from the brand X, then the negative points were not given much importance like the positive points in that same magazine. That is the point when I started exploring other threads in Team-BHP. I am always swayed by the open ownership and detailed reviews of Team-BHP and I still remember times when Team-BHP was unable to get cars for reviews but the members made it happen! Its an evergrowing love story for me with Team-BHP. For me I wont trust any car/bike reviews until its been reviewed by Team-BHP. For me highlighting the cons in a car/bike is as important as the pros for a good decision making.


Fast forward, 2015 followed my calling and I am an Assistant Professor at a Private Institution, teaching MBA grads.
Took the plunge and became a Team-BHP member in 2024! (not a new year resolution).
Enough of the boring stuff.

Coming to the vehicles we have owned/owning chronologically:
1. Yamaha RX 100, (1989 -present), bought new 4 months before I was born by my father and now is taken care by my younger brother. I learnt to drive a geared motorcycle in this, and I still love it.
2. Premier Padmini (1991-2004), bought used, Stalk shifter, petrol till the time we owned it. Did not have an AC, the biggest gripe and the reason why we decided to sell it. Dad was not interested in conversion to LPG kits. It was a great car, built a lot of memories. This was the car that I learnt to drive on closed roads.
3. Bajaj Sunny Zip, (1997-present), bought new, now with my father. Yes you read it right. Its probably the only Sunny Zip in Salem in running condition. My father who is 71 loves this one and uses it everyday for running small errands like groceries close to our home.
4. Honda Activa Gen 1 (2003-2023) bought new, yes we owned this gem for 20 years and gave it to a family friend who bought it for his daughter who is starting college this year.
5. Fiat Uno 1.7D ELX 2000 (2004-2018), bought used, replacement for Premier Padmini as we wanted something better than the Padmini with AC. Dad is a Fiat lover. Boy it was a good car, good handler but a horrible AC which could not even be fixed by the AC expert from our town. Eventually sold it in 2018 due to lack of spares in local market for the model & the AC was worst.
6. Honda Activa 2G (2011-present) bought new. I wish commuters today are as reliable as this one!
7. Apache RTR 2004V (2017-2018) bought new, the shortest ownership in my family history ever! Bought before I got engaged sold it after my wedding as my wife was not comfortable with the pillion seats.
8. Honda City 4 Gen V Petrol, Manual (2018-present) bought new – the first new car purchase in our family. Dad retired in 2015, Mom retired in 2021, we planned and got this as they wanted a good, new sedan for their retirement life.
9. Yamaha Ray ZR 125 (2021-2024) bought new, a great vehicle but absolute trash ride quality and service was horrible. Is easily the only vehicle we hated throughout the ownership (will post a detailed ownership & why we replaced it).
10. Maruti Swift ZXi 2016, Manual (2022-2024) bought used from my brother-in-law at 30,000kms on the ODO. First car of our married life, drove it without any major issues and sold it in January 2024 at 62,000kms to get an automatic for wife.
11. Honda City 5th Gen ZX Petrol, Manual (2022-present) bought new, Brother in law’s car. He is an NRI and for now the car is driven and taken care by us.
12. Maruti Ignis Zeta Petrol AMT 2024 (2024-present) bought new, Sold the swift to get an automatic car because my wife’s career changed and she had to take a 50km two-way commute 5 days a week, public transport was not feasible for her. Will post a detailed ownership soon.
13. Ather 450x Standard HR (2024-present) bought new, got it as a replacement for the Ray ZR 125. Was fed up with service of the Ray and jumped the EV bandwagon with the Ather. Happy with the decision and it's used for my 6km work commute.

My Car wishlist: (PS: a pure Sedan lover)
1. Skoda Octavia VRS
2. Skoda Superb (before the crazy CBU pricing)
3. Used BMW 530d M sport
4. BMW M340i
5. Used Mercedes W222 S Class

That’s all for now. Hoping to catch up with a lot of BHPians!

I also truly hope that I can share my experiences here which would help a BHPian or any guest who is here for answers.

Love,
Slevin

[RahulNagaraj]

Hello slevin,

Absolutely loved reading your story, welcome to the forum - it's great to have you onboard.

I must say, that's one heck of a garage lineup you've gone through over the many years. Right from the 2-stroke RX100 to the modern Ather 450X.

Do share photos of the vehicle in your garage and maybe even ownership experiences of some of them - especially the likes of the Premier Padmini and RX100.

Looking forward to your active participation on the forum.

Cheers
Rahul N