Tags

, ,


Its been an year or so since the idea of owning a second means for moving around smacked us hard on the heads. Bullock cart to Arabian horse to bicycle to moped to crusing motorbike to Reva to Swift to Accent/Verna to Scorpio to Innova (of course not to forget serious consideration of transport by LEGS) is the chronology of identification and almost commitment followed by moving on.

This period was marked by intense debates, private struggles, wrestling on fixated ideas of the day/hour/minute, extended test drives, doctorate in technical specifications, surfing discussion groups, madness in all.

The toughest question on the test was when should one invest? Attempts in vain were made to interconnect/individualize a deluge of trivial events to the investment date. Finally there was light at the end of the tunnel. The DREAM of driving from Delhi to Bangalore superseded every other hindrance. Suddenly there was so much clarity in thought and action. The time to commit was derived by back working from the date of start for the Delhi-to-Bangalore-in-2-days driving madness.

Also the requirement of a SUV emerged lucidly. And of course the economic affordability restricted our choice to the Indian SUVs. Scorpio ruled the choice charts for some time but there was always a troublesome doubt on its handling capabilities. Innova with all due respect was relegated to a big car.

The eventual winner was the elephant who could sprint and that too real fast. TATA SAFARI it was! It is hearsay that the pachyderm comes with its set of poor electronics, poor refinement, ok ok interiors, sluggish in pickup, etc. Most of these niggling fears are ignored when one sets eyes in the gaint in the showroom, are further castaway on a test drive and buried on the first day of ownership coupled with a long highway drive.

Huge pot holes some times a meter or 2 in diameter in the road are trampled as they were 2-inch cracks with the speedo always reading 80-100kmph. Of course we hv not pushed it beyond 100 kmph due to the break in period precautions. Speed brakers are crushed like twigs on the road. The giant can be steered with the little finger courtesy a great hydraulic power steering. The braking is instantaneous and a feeling of riding from inside a moving nuclear bunker overpowers one.

So here is our sprinting elephant 🙂

PS: this post is written mainly by my darling husband… so this is dedicated to him…