“Silly!”, I shrugged my shoulders smiling away at nothing. When I was a kid, 5 or 6 year old, myself with my sis and other cousins would spend hours counting the Ambi, Fiat and literally get up and clap when a Merc, Toyota, Nissan or any such foreign make would pass by. So that’s when my craze for cars began… wow! That’s not all. When I was in FYJC, I met Ritesh (rit_gary on MS) who shared my interests. We would draw car models and appreciate each other’s creativity. Many of these cutouts are still there on his cupboard...! If only we had pursued it, we would have been where Dilip Chabariya is!
But since then, things changed drastically in the automobile segment. Growth of Maruti, decline of Ambi, Fiat and even Contessa, influx of Hyundai, Daewoo, GM. Imagine only Hero Honda CD 100 and Yamaha RX100 and well the Ind Suzuki and now look what has happened to bikes. There seems to be a new bike launched every month. Loans, schemes, booking amount as low as Rs. 1000, free first year insurance… Buying cars was never so easy. Everyone seems to have one. By everyone, I mean dad has one, son has one, mom has one…!
Everyone but me! My parents is a different story. They are dead against bikes, however sleek and “definitely male” it may be – “It’s unsafe”. Well then a car – “No dear, it has such huge running costs with fuel prices rising everyday. It’s a white elephant” So you can find me drooling over Kawasaki Ninja, Ducati – why even LML Freedom for that matter. And if you ever see someone giving “Pradakshina” around a parked Jaguar or Roadster, be assured that it is Me - achougoo.
I got my surprise though on one of my birthday. My dad gave me – A CAR…..no no….A BIKE…of course not. What then? Hmmm…a car magazine – Autocar. And I was overjoyed….chalo yehi sahi. Yes I salivated as a turned the pages and by the end – I climaxed!
And the goodnews is that we get AUTOCAR INDIA now here in India, month after month, at only Rs. 50. [Rs. 510 for 1 year subscription, Rs. 960 for 2 years, Rs. 1350 for 3 year]. Thanx to Hormazd Sorabjee and his team. Well, do they have life membership?
So what’s so great about it? Mahadev ki saugandh, agar ye sawal koi MSian karta…to main uski zabaan khich leta tha
«« THE GLOSS »»
The processors – Neat Graphics Pvt. Ltd. & Comart Lithographers, Mumbai and the Thompson Press make no compromise on the quality. Each magazine comes with nearly 200 pages of glossy paper of fine readable print and excellent photographs.
«« THE NEWS »»
Everything that relates to automobile segment is covered here. How else do you expect a bloke called achougoo to know that Maruti launched its first car the M800 on Dec 14, 1983 and recently launched its 4th million car – the Alto? So be it a launch of Chevrolet, revival of Daewoo Motors India Ltd., TELCO’s Rs 300 crore loss, Goodyear’s good year – you’ll catch it here first and in details too.
«« NEW CAR/BIKE »»
Heard of Maruti’s new Vitara or Esteem Velocity, Honda’s SUV – the CR-V. No?? Catch an excellent coverage and teasers – the price, specifications, engine performance details of all cars that is just launched or to be aunched in this section. Bike lovers are also treated with new receipes, so be it the Karizma from Hero Honda or cute lil Zing Rockin’ by Kinetic or maybe Moto Guzzi’s new Breva 750….slurp!
«« COVER STORY/ROAD TEST »»
These two form the “Engine” of the magazine. One SUPER coverage per month. For serious people who want to buy a car – do not miss the details in AUTOCAR. Here is an in depth coverage of the styling, interiors - exteriors, front lamps - tail lamps, dashboard design – ergonomic design, driver comfort - driver visibility, air cooling – engine cooling, leg space - boot space, suspension – brake system.
The road test offers you insight into the driving experience, behaviour at turns/sharp curves, low speed performance, high speed performance, gearbox handling, fuel-oil intake, acceleration from start to 100 Kmph, top speeds achievable. It’s not a stand-alone report but often a one-to-one comparison with other cars is offered which adds that sense of completeness. So you know that Indica V2 often fails in Ghats when ac is ON or the Palio is a fuel hungry car or Scorpio’s gearbox ain’t as smooth as Qualis etc.
«« SPORTS »»
Doesn’t interest me as much to read it as it does to watch it on ESPN. But for car sport enthusiast, it supplements the diet with coverage of important Motocross championship, Karting races, Formula 1 racing, Rallies etc. across the globe (but largely Indian events). Often there are interviews/columns by likes of Rajiv Pate, Karthikeyan, Schumacher etc.
«« SPECIAL FEATURES »»
Often, AUTOCAR INDIA comes out with special articles on car/bike maintenance, buying used cars, pre-monsoon checks, PUC, computerisation in cars, 4 stoke engines, fuel injection technology etc. It sure ignites my brain cells and keeps it warm.
Then again there is huge table that runs in several pages at the end of the book that list all the cars sold in India with some basic features and prices in major metropolitan cities.
And if you are a nerd (2 fast 2 furious kind), find those fancy seats, accessories, neon lights under car, fog lamps, bumpers…find the dealers and deals in trading section towards the end.
Last page has some celebrity praising the car they drive. I am gonna be featured here soon. So catch up every issue.
«« OVERALL »»
A Must For Car Enthusiast
But like Happy Singh pointed out to me – “Auto-Car covers all about bikes/cars but nothing on our suburban Autos.”