THE CAR THAT NEVER WAS

They say that music drives the world. But in this age of digitization even music has not escaped. While listening to a walkman is blasphemous, even diskman has become passé. Now is the age of downloaded music (more illegal than legal) and of tiny swanky mp3 players. So I too decided to grace myself with one. But as I looked for advice from my friends, as to which one to buy among the many to choose from, almost all had only one name to suggest, iPOD. This, when there were many other players that were much cheaper, offered additional facilities like FM and voice recording, and were much more user friendly. But none of my friends would even, so much as listen to these “excuses”.

This just reminded me of the Honda NSX (chances are you’ve not even heard the name). There are several reasons that the Honda NSX was a great car. It was fast, had lots of F1tech in it, was loaded to the brim with additional features and maybe the coup de grace was that it was tuned by the late F1 maestro Ayrton Senna; the list actually is pretty long. But still no one bought it and the car held the dubious record of being one of the biggest (and indeed rare) failures of the marquee. This was basically due to three reasons (ironically, the very three reasons which the company expected would be the biggest scoring points of the car):

1. It was pretty cheap (by supercar standards). Now no one wanted to associate himself with a supercar that your milkman came in (well slightly over the top, but then u get the point, right).

2. It was pretty easy to ride and did not demand all of one’s skill to keep him/her alive at the end of the day. How boring!!! Supercars are supposed to scare u, take the breath out of your lungs, send u into orbit, etc. In a tad oversimplified statement, they r supposed to thrill u beyond measure, and exist just on the fine line of being dangerous (we all love 007 type stunts, don’t we).

3. It was a Honda (coz in this category band image is everything). And before all u fans of the big ‘H’ start shouting “bloody murder” let me elaborate on my previous statement. I mean that Hondas are meant to take kids to school (and other such routine chores), which they ARE brilliant at. But they’re certainly not known to be great for straight lining corners, or power sliding out of them (track day tools that is). You take them to the mall, not “The Ring”.

Well, some may still challenge the third reason, citing the Nissan GTR and Chevrolet Corvette, as examples to prove it wrong. While I agree to the GTR being a cult car, it still is not counted in the hallowed realms of the Ferraris and Lambos. And in any case one can always count it as an exception rather than the norm. Oh, and as for the Corvette, less said the better. Tell me does ANYONE outside the US of A buy it? The answer as we all very well know is that none do; and as to the taste of the Yankees in cars, it can only be described (conservatively) as being, well………….strange. If you observe closely, many big manufacturers like Toyota and Ford have not even bothered to try (please please don’t name the GT40 and embarrass one and all). Actually the supercar (the real true blue supercar) still pretty much remains an exclusive European domain.

And this I put entirely on the culture and how automobiles have developed in the continents over a period of time. It’s same that the Europeans can never make a good muscle car unlike the Americans, and none can master the art of simplicity and space utilization like the Japs. So guys leave the experts to do their own jobs. Any effort to try and beat the other at his own game is more often than not going to end in tears, damaged egos and a gaping hole in the annual balance sheet. And when someone does venture into such a specialized field, the manufacturers sometimes get ambivalent, causing such disasters to happen. Also I think with several things you have to just ignore plain logic and listen to just the allure of the thing. A classic case then, of listening to your heart, rather than your head. So, I guess I too stuck with the times, ignored logic, listened to my heart (or maybe to the constant pestering of my friends) and the voice was clear, go get urself an iPOD.

INDIAN CAR HISTORY PART-II

In the early 80's, a series of liberal policy changes were announced marking another turning point for the automobile industry. The GOI entered the car business, with a 74% stake in Maruti Udyog Ltd (MUL), the joint venture with Suzuki Motors Ltd of Japan. The company entered in 1983 with a so-called "peoples" car and a more favourable policy framework.

MUL introduced 'Maruti 800' in 1983 providing a complete facelift to the Indian car industry. The car was launched as a "people’s car" with a price tag of Rs40,000. This changed the industry's profile dramatically. This car, which had a 800cc engine and the barest minimum that could make a car just about comfortable, holds the honour of actually bringing car to the common man in India and till not so long ago was the single largest selling car here. Boosted by this, second highest growth was recorded in 1985 at 42%yoy when Maruti had entered the market. In the very same year, the GOI announced its famous broad banding policy which gave new licenses to broad groups of automotive products like two and four-wheeled vehicles. Though a liberal move, the licensing system was still very much intact.

The de-licensing of auto industry in 1993 opened the gates to a virtual flood of international auto makers into the country with an idea to tap the large population base of 950mn people. As a result we saw many new manufacturers entering the market. First of the German giants to enter the country was Mercedes. With its exorbitant prices and impeccable quality, it soon went on to be looked upon as the pinnacle of automobile here, which was meant for only the select few to relish. Also came Peugeot, but failed miserably. Well, actually speaking, there was nothing wrong with the car as such, only that the market had not matured enough for an expensive (Rs. 5lacs was a huge sum then) sedan.

Another revolution was brought by 2 Korean and one local manufacturer. These were Hyundai, Daewoo and our very own Tata Motors (then TELCO). Hyundai’s Santro n Daewoo’s Matiz were a run away success. Though the Santro is still going great guns (also being exported out of here), Matiz went out with the fall of Daewoo in Korea (though its models now launched under the Chevrolet name by GM are doing pretty well). Tata has the honour of launching the first indigenous car, named Indica. This robust, low maintenance car, is today the best seller in the country.

Hyundai though, grew in leaps and bounds n today proudly stands as the second largest car manufacturer in the country, only behind Maruti Suzuki. This success can be attributed to the company’s constant upgrades, new launches and above all its endeavour to bring the latest technology into the country (long before other manufacturers even thought of it) and at a quite affordable price too. It pioneered technologies like CRDI, ABS, TCS, auto boxes etc. (of course not considering the Mercs who already had it since quite some time, but then how many people could own them?).

Since then the car scene seems to have gone into overdrive. The lifting of quantitative restrictions on imports by the recent policy is expected to add up to the flurry of foreign cars in to the country. Many companies have entered the car manufacturing sector, to tap the middle and premium end of car industry. The new entrants GM, Ford, Mitsubishi, Honda, Toyota, and Skoda entered the mid-sized car segment and Audi, Bentley, Volkswagen; Porsche is in the premium end of market. Though the exclusive brands r still fringe players and only few of them have assembly plants for CKDs, most taking the CBU route. But the mid size segment players have full fledged manufacturing plants here, n some even cater for exports.

As a result of all this, today we have cars ranging from Rs.2lac till Rs.5crore and cover all types of styles like hatchback, sedan, coupe, convertible, SUV, MUV etc. so something for everyone’s need, and considering the current economy growth trend (touch wood!) the only way from here is up. Now that certainly is music to everyone’s ears.