a warm Hello to all BHpians. first of all, a big thanks goes out to the forum for approving my membership application.i have been watching all the activities on team-bhp for close to 3 years now but never really intoduced myself to the
forum. i have spent so much time reading through that i now,just by looking at their forum handles , know quite a few people and their rides
![Smile](https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/images/smilies/smile.png)
. i mostly spend time at the Indian car scene, Initial/long time ownership reviews and the Travelogues section with an occasional lurking around in the Classified section searching for that perfect next ride.
about me:
I am based out of gurgaon working with an IT firm. my present rides include a 2002 Fiat Palio 1.2 ELX and a 2004 RE Thunderbird.
my auto journey as a kid started in the early 80's on the streets of dehradoon as a backseat passenger of my father's good old Ambassador. his job with a public sector meant we getting transferred to different cities and that took us
to Guajarat in 1990 where we moved onto a Premier Padmini. moving to mumbai in the late nineties meant we going 'car-less' for a while.we then bought a Fiat Palio 1.2 ELX in the year 2002 during our 3 year sojourn in goa. the palio spent some time exploring goa and returned to mumbai in 2005 before finally reaching Gurgaon in 2009 after spending couple of years in gujarat in between. to be honest, i wasn't too excited with my father's decision of buying a fiat in 2002 (i was 22 and back then,the Zen somewhow appealed to me a lot more than a fiat.but 8 years hence, i don't really regret the decision). this Palio has seen quite a bit of india and she just keeps moving on, quietly negotiating everything that's thrown at her. personally, i have not driven the Lineas and Puntos but i can imagine if a 2002 Fiat can do this much, these newer fiats with such latest engineering, must achieve further. i also bought a pre-worshipped maruti 800 in 2008 but then exchanged this with my father and got the Palio to Gurgaon. this is only to accomodate my highway driving needs, we (wife and I) did Gurgaon-Mumbai- Gurgaon in 2009 and although the M800 did the job, we always felt even the Thunderbird would feel much safer on the highway than our M800.
i also enjoy riding on two wheels. learned riding on Dad's Vijay Super and then moved to riding the Bajaj classic when he 'upgraded'. this continued for a while and we then bought a pre-worshipped Kinetic Honda ( yes, in goa). i
bought a HeroHonda Splendor in 2005 but sold it off in two months when i saw an ad for a pre-worshipped RE in the classified section. this was bought on instinct from Hyderabad and i rode it down all the way to mumbai making it
my first reasonably long ride with the thunderbird. since then she has done quite a few mumbai- delhi, mumbai - gujarat trips and she has never let me down.i look forward to she helping me make my way out of a ( lurking around the corner somewhere) mid-life crisis.
i enjoy long distance driving/riding. we (wife and I) are fond of traveling and love driving long distances and make sure we do one such trip (delhi-mumbai etc) every year and at least one short trip every month. safety is our first and foremost priority, we never drive without the seatbelt fastened and we have tremendous faith in our car's abilities but she's showing her age and a new buy is due soon. i look forward to continue seeking information and also actively contribute to the forum in future.
be safe.