For what its worth, an update.
The car clocked 30,000 km and it was time for the periodic service. My fifth visit for this work.
I was at Fairdeal Sahibabad early enough to be amongst the first cars in the washing line. My usual SA Satish was also around who quickly noted what had to be done. He agreed that this time I was not going to be duped into the engine wash scam. As earlier, the workshop people don't mind my presence on the floor. Its more for my satisfaction than anything else. But I did manage to get a few 'extra' things done. The spark plugs ought to have been changed in the 4th (20k) service, so I got new ones put in, the regular MGA kind. The low pressure CNG filter should also be changed every 20k. The SA warned me of the 1400 rupee price tag saying that this not done by anybody, I said never mind put it in. There are six cells in the battery, one is always under the clamp, I had to insist on the SE going the extra mile and opening that one up too to top up the distilled water. One last item on my list was cleaning/ replacing the AC pollen filter. Turns out Maruti Suzuki scrimps on a 300 rupee part when assembling their most expensive car! (They don't sell Kizashi anymore and who is buying the Vitara, tell me?)
So all the trouble of the morning set me back by about 9k after getting that free service discount and this time managing to redeem some 500 odd rupees on that Auto Card that they slip in for some 300 Rs. when you are excitedly buying the car and sort of overlook the price when one is parting with 8 really big ones!
The ride seems better and smoother but I wasn't complaining earlier either. There are no rattles and everything works, so far. Except for a couple of times when the left front power window motor got stuck halfway in rain. Maybe it's the battery, in it's third year, but it works fine in dry weather. I could not replicate the behaviour inside the workshop. It doesn't really rain that much in Delhi, does it. This year being the exception.
A couple of items in the bill certainly seem to cost a lot more than what they are actually worth. One was 300 + rupee greasing and the second was 650 odd charge for throttle body cleaning. What they exactly do for these sums is a bit too quick to warrant that much money. I consoled myself that I had finally redeemed that Fairdeal Scheme which I had bought for Rs.500 several months ago which gave me a discount on the labour charges for the first service. Since my first three free services were done at Fairdeal, the fourth was free too, and thus the fifth too became free! There are a few other coupons that I can redeem, like washing etc., but the location of the workshop comes in the way of me using them up.
I promised myself to get Leh'd this year. Dutifully joining in the list of hopefuls when Motomaverick (Hirak) started that group. I'm sure everybody agrees that they had an interesting time from what I read in the
travelogue. The timing of the trip just did not work for me this year and so net result, I didn't get Leh'd, yet again. We did ferry our respective siblings and their families to two trips to the hills, one to Ramgarh and the other to Narkanda - Sarahan. Thus apart from my 'epic' (every piddly little drive is epic, isn't it?) Delhi - Udaipur - Bombay - Poona - Aurangabad - Ajmer - Delhi 3500 km trip, the car has seen me navigate moderately long distances successfully. I think that the Indian highway experience has become better, but there are still a few unexpected scares. On our way to Narkanda, I took the picturesque but narrower Chhail route. One young scooterist almost committed suicide while trying to impress his young female pillion rider by taking a blind turn at a rather good speed on the wrong side of the two lane road. Fortunately my reflexes were sharp enough and he too managed to brake, swerve and avoid the unthinkable. My strident honk disturbing the tranquility of the serene hills.
I took this diversion to show my extended family one of the rare views of a traditional Himachali temple in a small nondescript village. To my utter dismay ugly modernisation has caught up and smothered the old here too. I'll let a few pictures taken just two years apart make my point.
In our November 2011 trip we couldn't help but stop and visit this beautiful village.
It was early morning and this temple that stands above the surrounding village houses perched on the highest point and rightfully so, was soon bathed in the perfect rising sunlight.
But horror of horrors, this is what will greet you now..
I am not against new or glass or concrete but can't we do it in a manner such that it adds to the beauty rather than become an eyesore? But that is a different lament for a different forum altogether. A far better example is what you get to see at Tanni Jubbad.
All of what has been done here is new, yet keeps the essence of the old in steel and concrete. I wish they had the money and/or the resources to use timber and stone. The new Hatu Temple is also not a bad example, if you ignore the Rajashtani granite in the steps.
And now the fuel stats:
I made my 204th trip to the Gas station recently. That's roughly one every 5 days. About 1230 Kg. of CNG worth close to Rs. 44000. The petrol I filled, surprisingly, is also worth 44k for about 650 odd liters. So the net fuel cost per KM is about Rs.2.67. My average service costs add another 75 paise to the figure. Insurance accounts for another Rs.1.65 per Km to round off the total cost of running the car 11000 km per year to Rs.5 per Km. Worth it? Probably yes, till now.
CNG prices continue to register 22 to 23% inflation as opposed to Petrol which despite everybody's alarm is a measly 8%. Diesel inflation which used to languish even below petrol is now about 10%. By my calculations I managed to recover the additional 65k that I paid for the Green variant in about two and half years. Now of course, I on my way to the bank albeit on a tortoise but smiling if not laughing all the way!
My spread sheet tells me that today, it makes no sense to buy a new CNG variant if your yearly mileage is low. I just about made the cut when '
I bought a car that no one was buying', in end of 2010.
Cheers.