[WhiteKnight]

Originally Posted by throttleking

If it was possible to reduce the radius then why don't manufactures pre-adjust this thing before delivery?

A good question, provided you replace "manufacturers" with "Tata". I do not own a Safari, however my family had owned few commercial vehicles from TATA's stable. One question I wanted to asked Tata, after driving a 407 was how to stop it in a straight line. I heard Tata is still figuring out

[su1978]

while i was researching on buying my new diesel hatchback and was finalizing ritz vdi, then my boss confirmed me-" yes yes the engine in Ritz is too godd. Its a ford engine in diesel and a fiat engine in petrol". I simply kept quiet remembering the slogan-"boss is always right"

[Blow Horn Ok]

A guy sat on the rear seat of my figo and mentioned: 'Fiat makes Solid Cars than Maruti..!'

[supremeBaleno]

^^^ Maybe he thought he was sitting in the Fiat Figo !!! Next time ask him what he thinks of the "solidity" of Ford cars ???

@su1978, I hope your boss is not reading this thread.

[sameerg001]

Here's a conversation which i had with a friend of mine -:
Me- as soon as i started driving, i said to him dude wear your seatbelt !
He- Buddy you drive slow so no need of seatbelt. We need only need seat belt when we drive fast.
Me- then after a while i made him wear his seat belt by forcing him because of cops.

After a while,
He- Dude the ac of ritz is best, no other car ac is as powerful as ritz. It cools the car in 2 mins.
Me- Buddy it depends on time of the day and place where car is parked. If car is parked under sun, it will take time to cool.
He- No you dont know, ritz ac is best.

I choose to keep quiet.

Then again
He- you know what car companies give money to govt. because they don't want car manufacturers to make hybrids in India.
Me: you know what you saying ?
He- yes, the car companies will not make profits by selling hybrids.
Me- buddy car manufacturers make profit, irrelevant of type of car.
He- you dont know, they will not able to clear previous stock, hence will not make profit.
Me- kept quiet, as there was no way i could made him understand.

Then again on another day,
He- you know verna is best car no other car can beat it.
Me- i asked, buddy its a good car but it's high speed handling is not as good as other car in segment for ex- linea, rapid.
He- nahi, you dont know my friend took his new verna to 140. Verna is best.
Me- Buddy even an alto can 140 but its not the high speed, which decides which car is good or not.
He- you dont know, go and get some knowledge.
Me- again choose to keep quiet.

And now whenever he says anything related to cars, i always keep quiet and agree with him.

Cheers
sameer

[suhaas307]

Originally Posted by sameerg001

Then again
He- you know what car companies give money to govt. because they don't want car manufacturers to make hybrids in India.
Me: you know what you saying ?
He- yes, the car companies will not make profits by selling hybrids.
Me- buddy car manufacturers make profit, irrelevant of type of car.
He- you dont know, they will not able to clear previous stock, hence will not make profit.
Me- kept quiet, as there was no way i could made him understand.

I'm nitpicking here, but he is not entirely wrong.

You see, the Civic Hybrid was sold in India as an import, but limited to only a 100 units or so. The car retailed at 20-25 lakhs, largely due to customs and other import-duties. But the sales were dismal. To solve this, Honda bore the import-duty/customs themselves and sold the car at a more realistic 12 lakhs thereabout.

This is a one-off case though. I don't think Toyota bears the import-costs of the Prius.

[sameerg001]

^^
@suhass, i agree with you but IMO this is only one off case, if we talk in general no manufacture will incur losses or will sell his car at selling price which is less than his cost

And that friend of mine even don't know what hybrids are, so there was no point in making him understand all this stuff.

Sameer

[suhaas307]

Absolutely.

And going by the other instances you've mentioned, we can safely say that he isn't a car enthusiast.

What disses me off, is when such people stamp their authority all over you, and refuse to budge. Ego gets the better of them and they refuse to accept that they're wrong.

This one friend of mine was adamant about the SX4 being a AWD, even after I told him several times that the SX4 in India isn't AWD, but the hatch in UK and the Fiat Cedici (essentially the same car with FIAT badges) is sold with that option.

[StrangeWizard]

Went to a Maruti Suzuki dealership today for an interview.
While I was waiting in the customer lounge, I saw an SE dealing with a customer. This is how it followed:

Customer : Ok so VDI aur ZDI mein farak kya hai? (Whats the difference between vdi and zdi?)

SE : Sir, ZDi has airbags.

Customer : Woh nai chahiye! (I don't need that!)

SE : ZDi has ABS.

Customer : Abhi yeh kya hota hai? (Now what is ABS?)

SE : ABS is antilock braking system.

Customer : Nai chahiye! (I don't need ABS too!)

SE : ZDi also comes with alloys.

Customer : Arey yeh bhi nai chahiye! Bahar market mein Rs.350 ka mil jata hai alloys! (I don't want alloys! I can get them outside for 350 rs!)

SE : (now trying to explain what are alloy wheels)

Customer : Arey re! Main Arya Honda mein deal dekhke shaamko batata hu! (I'll check out the deal at arya honda and let you know in the evening!)
And storms out before the SE could say anything.

[S2!!!]

A friend just bought a Swift Zdi and came to show me his new car and take me for a spin.
I: did you consider the Vista??
He: Tata cars cannot be trusted and the engines are noisy
I: what about the Punto?
He: Fiat engines aren't good
I: How do you like the engine in your car??
He: Maruti engine is the best
I: Did you know what you are using is a Fiat engine, the same is shared in the Swift, Ritz, Punto, Vista, etc?? Only your gear ratios are tuned differently in your car.
He:

But I love the new Swift so can't blame him for not buying any other hatchback in that segment.

[torquecurve]

A friend bought a new Vista QDJ. He very kindly came to pick me up at the airport (Mum) to drive me down to Pune.

He was like, it doesnt make sense to drive diesel also now, he filled Premium Diesel (Turbojet) @60 bucks a litre

The best was when I told him that he wasted not only money but probably damaged a new car, He was adamant he didnt, till I pulled out the manual from the glove box and showed him where it said in bold "Do NOT use premium fuel like TurboJet in QDJ equipped car! (Not exact verbiage )".

Well, it is not for nothing that they say "Please read the Manual before using the car".

[blue_pulsar]

I was leaving my Ritz VDi for its first service today. I asked the service advisor if they would change engine oil. I was told that oil change would be only done during 10K kms service. This is what Maruti recommends since their K-series engine. I was confused for a moment. Told the SA that this is a Diesel Ritz in case they missed it. Got a pretty rude reply that before Maruti used to call their engines MPFI, then its called K-series. I asked what is DDiS. She said that DDiS also comes under K-series. I was shocked to hear this. I told myself that this is the last time that I'm going to this service center.

I will write about my sales and service experiences in the detailed ownership report. I promise, this will come up in the next 7 days.
Thanks

[audioholic]

There is this 'know-it-all' person X living downstairs. Whenever he sees me outside, he gets a conversation going on and talks total BS about cars. Many hilarious things come out of his mouth, which makes me go silent and laugh within myself. If I try to correct him, he will somehow adapt the correction into his own statement and tell it in a different way. To add to the fun, he gets into hypertechnical discussions, like Common-Rail systems, etc. So he comes to me one day.

X: Audioholic, today I got all the injectors cleaned.
Me: Why, did you face any problem?
X: You see, I had a clogged air filter, and because of that, my pickup was not so good. And from air filter, I was sure that some dirt would have gone to the injectors and clogged them. Hence, I advised my local mechanic to remove them and clean them too.
Me: And did the mechanic do it?
X: These mechanics do not know anything about our modern cars. He was saying not required sir and so. But I forced him to do it.
Me:(In no mood to contradict the statement) Oh, then what about the fuel system? You sure there is nothing wrong?
X: Common Rail yaar, no need to worry.
Me: Hmm.. So what exactly is this common rail thing?
X: See, these four cylinders in the engine, have an interconnection between them in the top. Once diesel is fed to this, all the four cylinders get diesel supply at once, therefore increasing power.
Me: Oh I thought the rail was outside. Anyways its fine(and I continue my work)
X: Now I am going to go outside to get a new K&N filter for my bike. You know what? It will give you twice the power and accelaration.
Me: Physical or mental?
(He did not understand what I meant)

In his mind, I am an idiot who knows nothing about cars and he is the same in my mind too

[CARDEEP]

There have been more than once my wife has said about the Fortuner that its glass area is too less & wish it was as much (& also tall) as Scorpio & Safari. When I tried correcting her (O Lord! please forgive me ) & that a taller SUV is recipe for more body roll, she has only one comment to end the discussion - "How would we (read you) know when we (read you) do not own one?"

[lilMonSter]

I happened to bump into a guy yesterday at the Malviya nagar red light in delhi. AS per my conversation with him.

1.KnN only make exhausts for cars (Cause the KnN sticker is Mostly behind the car with the end can peeking out,The most original reasoning i have ever heard)

2. There is no such thing as a Universal Air filter ( the conical kind).

He also said he was absolutely sure as a buddy of his in bangalore had all of the above and his wagonR Goes like stink.

PS: Thank god he didnt notice the Sparco Mudflaps and Seats. he would have wondered why on earth i got seats from a Mud flap Manufacturer.

I smiled, Nodded and prayed for the signal to turn green.