[unk9ja]

Originally Posted by suhaas307

I generally would not say this, but that's a wonderfully executed modification. I was a little afraid that it might land up in the Weird & wacky mod-jobs thread.

Your instincts were spot on, although it took few years. Check out post nr. 18359

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/modif...jobs-1224.html

[dailydriver]

Originally Posted by unk9ja

Your instincts were spot on, although it took few years. Check out post nr. 18359

The culprit being yours truly .

I was directed to this thread after posting there and truth be told, I did like the red hot transformation that the Baleno had undergone. However, can't say the same of its current iteration, specially its frontal view and the overdone interiors.

Name on the Hood


Overdose of Red


I agree that looks are subjective and what is good for goose might not be good for gander. And also that I am not the best of (car) beauty context juries!

Picture Courtesy: OLX

[R.K.Ramesh]

Good Lord in Heaven!!!
What have they done to my ICEMAN.

This is how a weird paint scheme, garish stickers and light strips can ruin the looks of any car. I logged in to Team-BHP after ages only to find my dear Baleno Makeover thread high jacked with this abomination which I have seen for the first time today. Even the interiors look painful with the red lights in the foot well.

The only changes I can pass as an automotive designer, are the 2 after market Fog lights on the outside and the touch screen infotainment system inside.





To put it in perspective, this car was a 2001 model with the modification done in 2011 and these are my thoughts and observations:

-The bodywork had stood the test of time it appears. It was featured in this interesting article in cartrade.com:
https://www.cartrade.com/news/guide-...ns-115944.html

- I do know that my friend and client - a successful entrepreneur sold this car for a handsome profit post modification costs after keeping it for 6 years.

-The new owner a medical student based in Andra Pradesh got in touch with me for further modifications at that time.

-Having driven it around in 2011 - 12, I can assure you that this was quite a head turner back then with people thinking that it was an imported car and not a modification. It used to be given priority parking at 5 Star Hotels for example.

- This car also won the 3rd prize at what was called India's first Custom Car Competition called MOC 2014 held off the Airport Road in Bengaluru in 2014. MOC stood for 'Ministry of Cars' .
It got the top marks for styling and only lost out the first place due to simple accessories and a modification budget of around Rs. 300 000/-. The top placed Manindra XUV500 and second placed Swift were while deserving for the effort involved got there also because of the huge accessories budgets of approximately Rs. 15 00 000/- and Rs. 12 00 000/-. The accessorizing was well executed though.



I am disappointed to see our ICEMAN like this - ending up in the 'Weird and Wacky Mod Jobs' thread due to it's pain job where earlier it was featured in the tastefully executed mod jobs thread.

Once sold, I have no say on what the new buyers do unless they get back to me; but I do hope that they restore it to the original or a tasteful paint scheme after removing the stickers or do it up in a more tasteful manner. The design still has promise even in the current scenario in India. They could keep the fog lights though.

Life took me away from the modification scene for a while. But I am looking at getting back into it though the market has certainly changed drastically now as a suitably large niche does exist for tastefully executed upgrade kits. The challenge currently is finding the right set of tinkerers / sheet metal workers at the moment...