First long haul

A new car brings all its joys and with it the service plans. I am not sure how many of us have managed to make the 1000 K.M mark in the first month. It is difficult challenge for me. But I have decided not to give up. There are various ways of reaching the 1000 mark. Drive all day, all week. Drive back and forth your home town that’s over 300 KM away. But either of these options may not be feasible until you finish the 1000 mark. Here is what I did--Drive to Bengaluru International Airport (BIAL).

We had our own interests apart from the target KM. We wanted to know the road to BIAL, the distance, the traffic situation and of course see our new international airport. So, we (my brother, my sis-in-law, and me) set out on this city adventure, Oh, yes it was after an awesome lunch that my SIL had prepared for us (I will write about her culinary skills another time, but sssh! don tell her.)

The new airport is a little over 40 KM (I think its 43) from my house so a return trip is 80 to 86 KM. When started from our house at 2:30 PM, took the old madras road and then the KR Puram flyover. At the Hebbal flyover, we took a right turn. DO NOT TAKE THE FLYOVER. That road is OK, it has tons of speed breakers which was nasty. The speed breakers were no match for my Indigo. Not once did the creatively constructed speed breakers touch the base of my car. Awesome clearance. That was good news already. I have heard many complain about road being not approachable, but I don't think I would agree. The road is pretty accessible and with the 3 lane on either side, it does make the driving easier compared to the city driving that we are always frustrated.

There was one common sight on the road to BIAL. The Mahindra LOGAN. There are 100's of them plying in Bangalore as airport cabs. I have heard a lot about Logan and during my research to buy a car I had looked at this one also. Logan has good mileage, and the assumption is that the car gives about 18 km in city conditions. Most of the taxis were from Meru (080-44224422, if you need them) or Easy Cabs (I don't remember this number). They were either green (MERU) or white (Easycab). Some of them, I guess had GPS systems. I did not get a closer look, so I won't confirm. All of them were cruising at a good speed on the way to the airport. But I was stuck at 60 kmph, because "my first service of the car is not over yet". Also cruising along the side of our car were the BMTC's new VOLVO buses. There are special services of the Volvo buses from different part of the city the airport and they were just zooming away.

I kept my speed less than 60 so that my vehicle is available for future also. After an hour of drive we reached the much awaited Bangaluru International Airport. The first impression of the airport was really good. It is a huge and I have read it’s about 2000 Acres. As compared to the old HAL airport this airport has enough space and lots of parking area. There is a separating parking space for buses, city taxis and private vehicles. We drove on the outside the airport. We did not take a closer look at the airport as we did not want to spend time there. We then returned back from the airport and headed towards home. We reached back home by 5:30 PM. The ride to the airport was really too good.

That's all from me now. More later, until then...Take Care!!!

Style Does Matter ...

As promised i was not able to update the Euro scores. Instead I thought to put the widgets so that any one can look at the score rather than me updating daily.

I recently brought a new Tata Indigo CS car. Then it struck me write something about that. I went in search of some good article on Indigo so that anyone who is going in next for that can have a look at this article. Before deciding on this car I have researched and zeroed down to: Maruti SX4, Sokda Fabia, Wagon R, Versa, Esteem, UVA, AVEO.

Then I had to decide what I want. I wanted a luxury vehicle in my budget price of 5 lakhs, a vehicle with boot space, and good leg space for driver seat as well as for the back seater. Then after shortlisting I had zeroed down to TATA INDIGO CS. Just the day before I finalise on the car the petrol prices went up then I made my final decision of going for Diesel car. As the advertisement says “At last style does matter”.

Below is the details/specs for Tata Indigo CS.

Tata Motors has cut down the overall length of existing Indigo to avail the tax benefits of small car for the Indigo CS. Tata Motors dubs the new Indigo CS as the "World's most compact sedan".

It has two engine variants - 1.2 litres petrol and 1.4 litres diesel. Both are available in 2 variants. The petrol variant of CS is equipped with a multi-point fuel injection engine powered by a 32bit microprocessor and churns out a maximum power of 65PS @ 5200 rpm. The diesel variant comes with the turbo-charged intercooled engine that generates 70PS @ 4500 rpm. The petrol variants will have beige interiors, while the diesel variants will have black interiors.

In terms of looks - the front is exactly the same like Indica V2, also the instrument cluster and interior design has been picked as it is from Indica. But at the rear Tata's job has worked wonders! It has new rear bumper and new tail light cluster which looks quite good and small boot is looking great in comparison to other indigo models. Now the boot looks a part of the car - not a add on!

It is true value for money sedan but the quality issues are still same like other Tata vehicles. Plastic quality is very cheap, fit and finish is poor, wide panel gaps and inferior quality fabric on seats and door panels. The base versions are somewhat avoidable - with black colored bumpers and no Power Steering. There are no power windows - even in top version also!! No steering adjustment! The only reason to buy Indigo CS is that the range starts from 4.50 lakhs on road price for petrol and for diesel its 5.11 lakhs on road.
ENGINE SPECIFICATIONS:

Displacement:1396cc, TDi Engine Type:Diesel Maximum Power:70bhp@4500rpm Maximum Torque:135Nm@2500rpm

DIMENSIONS:

Length:3988 mm Width:1620 mm Height:1540 mm

OTHER SPECIFICATIONS:

Seating Capacity:5 Tyre Size:175/65 R14 Suspension:Independent McPherson Strut Turning Circle:5.00 Boot Space:380.00 Steering:No Power Steering Brakes:Front Disk, Rear Drum Gears:5 Manual Ground Clearance:165.00 Kerb Weight:1065.00 Fuel Tank:42.00

Euro 2008

My Interest

Hi..
Most of my blogs were related to technology. For a change let me write about something that’s happening now. The EURO 2008. I will try to put in the updates daily of the match -- IF POSSIBLE DAILY.... :-)
Most of the matches till now were not very exciting. They are mostly one sided or a boring game. There was one match which was really good, Romanian Vs France. Without Thierry Henry France side was looking very dull. Romanian gave a good fight but the match ended in draw.
Today's match is Czech Republic Vs Portugal. Well my bet is on Portugal. Cristiano Ronaldo is in good form and is sure to make an impact in this Euro.

The other match of the day is the Swiss Vs Turkey. Well not an interesting match but Swiss has got the home side advantage. The current group position is as below.

Group A					Group B
Teams	Pld	+/-	Pts		Teams	Pld	+/-	Pts
Portugal	1	2	3		Germany	1	2	3
Czech Republic	1	1	3		Croatia	1	1	3
Switzerland	1	-1	0		Austria	1	-1	0
Turkey	1	-2	0		Poland	1	-2	0
Group C					Group D
Teams	Pld	+/-	Pts		Teams	Pld	+/-	Pts
Netherlands	1	3	3		Spain	1	3	3
France	1	0	1		Sweden	1	2	3
Romania	1	0	1		Greece	1	-2	0
Italy	1	-3	0		Russia	1	-3	0
Key:
Pld	Matches played
+/-	Goal difference
Pts	Points