[jain_sanjayp]

Can someone confirm if there is 'Window trim in Chrome' available for Vento in Delhi ? Something similar to what is shown in the picture.

Redirect Notice

[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by nileshch

Haha!! Was this with the Vento?

By the way, the car has done strange things to my head these days. When anyone in the family thinks of a trip, all that comes to my mind is me cruising in the Vento on an empty highway reaching the destination comfortably. I am already in bliss!

Lol. Even similar is the case with me, have to make trips to Bangalore and Chennai in Dec & Feb, the mode is already decided, now I just need to find partners to drive down with me

No, this is a friend's Punto. Had no choice, since the F1 trip was done on the Vento, had to comply to go in his car this time.

Punto's nice. But honestly, compared to the Vento, it sucks (hope he doesn't read this )

Originally Posted by jain_sanjayp

Can someone confirm if there is 'Window trim in Chrome' available for Vento in Delhi ? Something similar to what is shown in the picture.

Redirect Notice

I don't think so Sanjay. Haven't seen any such case either in Delhi or rest of India.

[prabhuferrari]

If you are coming to Bangalore let us know earlier. Maybe we can plan a Vento convoy for you from city border. What say Nilesh?

[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by prabhuferrari

If you are coming to Bangalore let us know earlier. Maybe we can plan a Vento convoy for you from city border. What say Nilesh?

Now, won't that be a sight for sore eyes

Will definitely tell you guys in advance.


Edit : just noticed, my previous post has three smileys. If any of the mods are reading these, can you please do the correction?

[nileshch]

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

Punto's nice. But honestly, compared to the Vento, it sucks (hope he doesn't read this)

Heh. But I actually liked the Punto. Did a Mumbai-Nasik-Mumbai drive in a friend's red Punto when the car was newly launched. He was scared of driving so far so I jumped on the opportunity. I loved the handling absolutely! In those days, it was the best hatch on road. Though, everything pales in front of the Vento, if you ask me personally

Originally Posted by prabhuferrari

If you are coming to Bangalore let us know earlier. Maybe we can plan a Vento convoy for you from city border. What say Nilesh?

Oh yes, of course! Add a photoshoot to that and the purpose of visiting Bangalore should be complete, whatever else you do!

[ninjatalli]

One way of figuring out how much you enjoy your car is to do a long trip on other cars. And so I did.

Now the Punto is an excellent hatchback - handling, power, features, mileage - you name it, this car has it all. But it all boils down to what you are comparing it to, innit? Did I miss my Vento during the entire trip, or what! So much that I had to take the lady out for a short drive immediately after coming back to Pune.

Anyway back to the trip - learnt an important rule about the highway trips - always expect the best to happen and prepare for the worst. In the Delhi trip, we had zero hiccups. Not even a tire puncture. Roads were perfect, we never encountered even a single jam.

So when we had to do part of the trip again, we hardly expected anything of that sort. And then we faced jams on both sides - including one that lasted over 3 hours, and probably could have gone even longer.

But this trip re-in-forced one strong point for me - GQ drives should be done at the night. The traffic is reduced considerably, the highway is more up & lively and the pics come out really well

Statistics :

Pune - Ahmedabad

Kms : 715
Duration : 14 hours (includes a 3 hour jam at Bharuch)
Travel Period : Night
Mileage : 17 kmph (approx)
Start Time : 7 p.m.
Arrival Time : 9 a.m.

Ahmedabad - Pune

Kms : 730
Duration : 11 hours (includes a 1 hour jam at Surat)
Travel Period : Day
Mileage : 17 kpmp (approx)
Start Time : 9 a.m.
Arrival Time : 8 p.m.

Since I have covered this route in the F1 trip, I'll just put up the few pics I could take, courtesy the jam at Narmada bridge.

Somewhere on the highway outside Mumbai


And so the jam starts


And it continues for miles!


The opposite side seems to be moving quite fast


My best shot of the night


The jam at the other end of the bridge - considerably smaller


P.s. All the above pics are multiple exposure pictures.

[ajay_satpute]

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

Since I have covered this route in the F1 trip, I'll just put up the few pics I could take, courtesy the jam at Narmada bridge.

P.s. All the above pics are multiple exposure pictures.

Super pics Ninja. Liked all of them. What equipment do you use buddy? I am in the process of buying a DSLR (probably D5100), so was just curious.

And BTW, please don't say Punto sucks. It does not suck at all, just that ergonomics are little weird and the plastic quality is not upto the mark. The engine and dynamics are gem at that price point and most of India runs on that Fiat's engine. So you see... Ofcourse, Vento TDI is a killer of a car, but don't compare Watermelon to Lemon.

[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by ajay_satpute

Super pics Ninja. Liked all of them. What equipment do you use buddy? I am in the process of buying a DSLR (probably D5100), so was just curious.

Thanks. A simple shoot and focus camera - sony DSC-H7 model. Honestly, I am quite a newbie to the world of DSLRs.

Originally Posted by ajay_satpute

And BTW, please don't say Punto sucks. It does not suck at all, just that ergonomics are little weird and the plastic quality is not upto the mark. The engine and dynamics are gem at that price point and most of India runs on that Fiat's engine. So you see... Ofcourse, Vento TDI is a killer of a car, but don't compare Watermelon to Lemon.

Did I use "sucks" in the above post too? I was very careful to not do that, considering I did that earlier in a post from my mobile which I couldn't edit later.

Honestly comparing Punto to other hatchbacks, its a jack of all trades vehicle. Everything is good in this car, with power being its key usp. Honestly only the stock speakers and most of the player options (the usb options) being available only on the steering controls are the negatives in this car - both of which aren't a deal breaker.

Comparing it to a vento, the punto wins on the sole point that one could almost buy two puntos for a price of a vento! True vfm car in today's scenario. Don't think there is anything else that needs to be said!

Only reason (probably) I put that post was, I really missed my car during the entire trip - every stage of it!

[samarjitdhar]

Ninja, first and foremost would like to congratulate you on your blue Vento. The color looks awesome. I have been actively following your thread and ownership experience and frankly your enthusiasm is really infectious. It has now inspired me to plan my own long road trips on my black Vento.

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

GQ drives should be done at the night. The traffic is reduced considerably, the highway is more up & lively and the pics come out really well

I had a question regarding the visibility at night on highways using the stock headlight setup. In many places (TBHP forum and outside) I have read that the visibility is below par using the stock headlights and night drives should be avoided as much as possible. What is your view based on your experience since you have done some long drives through the night? Specially when one is not familiar with the highways/roads and it could spring unknown and unpleasant surprises while driving. Thanks in advance.

[ninjatalli]

Recieved the mobile bill today - in addition to the repeated monthly charges, saw a new section having costs - roaming costs! Generally it's just blank - nice to see five states out here; makes me go nostalgic about the trip



Also made an important accessory purchase for the car - a Belkin Inverter. Cost me a cool 1.8k but totally worth it. There are quite a few options with a price tag below 1.5k, but what made me decide on this is the lifetime warranty being offered on this product - tells you a lot on the product quality. Also it comes with a 3 pin plug socket & a USB socket.



Next purchase for next month - a tubeless puncture repair kit. And maybe I'll put up the seat covers too.

[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by samarjitdhar

Ninja, first and foremost would like to congratulate you on your blue Vento. The color looks awesome. I have been actively following your thread and ownership experience and frankly your enthusiasm is really infectious. It has now inspired me to plan my own long road trips on my black Vento.

Thanks! Vento's an awesome vehicle for the highways - it has the perfect mix - power & speeds that is just perfect for the highways, with immediate acceleration to zip up & overtake at any speeds, and good handling to take in any hilly regions or bad sections that come up. And it always turns out cheaper than flights or trains alternatives - and the mileage comes out really good too!

Originally Posted by samarjitdhar

I had a question regarding the visibility at night on highways using the stock headlight setup. In many places (TBHP forum and outside) I have read that the visibility is below par using the stock headlights and night drives should be avoided as much as possible. What is your view based on your experience since you have done some long drives through the night? Specially when one is not familiar with the highways/roads and it could spring unknown and unpleasant surprises while driving. Thanks in advance.

Honestly speaking I still have to take it through really bad roads (read: potholes) to figure out if the stock headlights fail the requirement. On both the night trips the roads were clean 4/6 lane roads. But overall on most decent highways, they are good enough. Especially when you have pitch black roads without any street lights (or roadside shops/dhabas) they really do a good job. And in case the road quality is not good, I generally use fog lamps also.
Where they fail is during sunrise/sunset, when there's a little bit of light but not enough for full visibility - under such conditions I found these almost useless. Another problem area is the highbeams, there's hardly much of a difference between the low beam & high beam; only use I could make of them was to flash at vehicles before overtaking them. On a comparision basis, the Punto stock headlights were better, especially the highbeam bulbs.

[ninjatalli]

Finally after exactly two months since the car delivery, I finally received the RC smart card. Interesting to see that the RTOs use one side of the smart card to showcase (read:advertise) the state of issue. Now I have a driving license that shouts out "GUJARAT" while the car smart card reads out "MAHARASHTRA". Thankfully the bike still has the old-school RC book

But, kudos to the Pimpri - Chinchwad (PCMC) RTO; they said two months and they delivered within the timelines. The friend of mine, Punto owner, has still to get his smart card from Pune RTO, even though his car delivery was before mine. I am beginning to see a complete disparity in PCMC & Pune government organisations' operations; and clearly in all matters, the PCMC divisions seem to be far better!


On a side note, have had to fly to Chennai urgently due to family issues. Maybe I might be able to meet up with @bala80 & the new (Vento) kid on the block, @SR-71 over the weekend.

[souravc]

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

One way of figuring out how much you enjoy your car is to do a long trip on other cars. And so I did.

Now the Punto is an excellent hatchback - handling, power, features, mileage - you name it, this car has it all. But it all boils down to what you are comparing it to, innit? Did I miss my Vento during the entire trip, or what! So much that I had to take the lady out for a short drive immediately after coming back to Pune.

Isn't this the same Punto which soothed your soul when the VW dealer kept you waiting ?

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

On a side note, have had to fly to Chennai urgently due to family issues. Maybe I might be able to meet up with @bala80 & the new (Vento) kid on the block, @SR-71 over the weekend.

Boss , please click pictures of Bala's parking space and the jugaad back stop solution I am also driving down to Goa this friday , should be fun testing the Yokos noise on the E-way

[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by souravc

Isn't this the same Punto which soothed your soul when the VW dealer kept you waiting ?

Yup, the same Punto. You need to understand before that I was driving a M800

Boss , please click pictures of Bala's parking space and the jugaad back stop solution I am also driving down to Goa this friday , should be fun testing the Yokos noise on the E-way

If I meetup will definitely try to get that. Goa - nice!

[subodh]

Ninja dude, you travel quite nicely and quite a lot. whats the odo count as of now?