After all his experience of playing with some of the best wheels in the best parts of the world, our motor columnist shortlists three of his favourite cars

Veeresh Malik

The second most frequent question I am asked is ‘what car should I buy’? And the answer, usually, goes like this—work out things in a pragmatic way; go for VfM (value for money); if you must have size, then go for a people-mover and rework the insides to make it a formidable four-seater. Then, use the money saved for some useful purpose, non-depreciating, if possible.

This, typically, applies to people who come with a budget of Rs30 lakh+, whom I am able to convert to something costing around Rs10 lakh-Rs15 lakh, without upsetting their marital harmony. The reworking of interiors, therefore, is extremely important—it must appeal to the spouse who otherwise might have wanted a ‘luxury’ badge on the bonnet. In some cases, friends have come with budgets of up to Rs1 crore and gone home with a Toyota Innova equivalent, done up. And, with the money saved, they move around in plush back seats, and can afford two drivers working in shifts and have a small apartment in Goa or the hills.

But then, we come to the most frequent question—which car did I like the best, in all my experience of playing with some of the best wheels in the best parts of the world? So here’s a shortlist of three of my all-time favourite cars.

Tied in the third place, a 1962 Standard Herald, a 1967 Ambassador Mark II, and a 1986 Maruti Van. The Ambassador was the ‘family car’ from 1967 to 2005, and never let us down even once, ever. Simple to drive and maintain, it was sad to see it go to the scrap yard eventually. The Herald saw us through some amazing experiences when we were newly married including catching fire (the car, not the marriage), being borrowed for courtships and then being used as the bride/bridegroom’s car for friends (all of them are still married), frequent rear-axle issues and convertible options exercised around Holi. One particular Holi, when it was about 30 years old, the poor car finally collapsed. By then we also grew out of it as the children needed more space and would not be confined in the back without door OR window. And the Maruti van saw us drive all over the country, and also on car-pool duties for schools and family memories of the mountains and beaches sort. None of these three cars had air-conditioning or any other gizmo considered standard nowadays.

A close second has to be the Hyundai Santro, sporting a Hyundai AtoZ badge, which we spotted and then rented in France. This one was a rebuilt two-seater convertible version and the soft-top flew away with most of the rear bumper during a particularly hairy drive.

I have driven and experienced the best of luxury cars. I was ‘trying’ cars in north America and western Europe well before they were launched in India. But the fascination for these luxury cars had worn off long ago. Give me a seat of the pants car which can take the back roads; 4WD is not really required, any day.Which is why, the ‘favourite’ car I ever drove, and operated, for almost two weeks, was none of the above. And sadly, despite being a winner in every way, the manufacturer stopped production. This was the General Motors Saturn Electric Vehicle—Mark II, also known simply as the Saturn EV-2. Two-door, two-seater with two more tight seats in the rear, unconventional body shape and stop-start-go acceleration that was faster than any other street car in California in 1999. The concept was so way ahead of its time that everybody in every parking lot had to come and take a look. But, most of all, the car was simply—fun. There is no way to describe that. I mean, even my vintage Ford Model ‘A’ cars are fun, right? The world is now trying to go electric again; and I can say this much: they will be fun, when they come.

Car Sales Channel: How about selling it to us directly?

The unbelievable discounts being offered on most petrol-operated cars and two-wheelers can only mean one thing—their original prices had nothing to do with the realities of product pricing, despite announcements about increases due to exchange rates. Does that further imply that there was, and is, some form of cartelisation between manufacturers and dealers? If so, how does one go about proving it?

To start with, there is the simple fact that none of the manufacturers appears to be really moving forward with alternative fuel vehicle projects for India. It is the same old liquid fuel, with minor adjustments for CNG and LPG, while the really new generation vehicles appear destined for other countries. Electric vehicles, expected by this Diwali, appear to be delayed again, in two out of three cases. Next, there is the question of royalties being transmitted back to parent countries in many cases which appear to have lost all relevance, considering the size of the market in India now. By rights, if we really had ‘free trade’, then the royalty would have had a reverse flow—to the country of consumption, for further growth.

And, finally, there is the reality of on-ground prices of some class of vehicles—the cost of the various layers of inefficiency built into the existing system of dealers which interfaces between the end- customer/operator and the manufacturer. This is now enormous; if you factor in the cost of real estate, as well as the cost of operating what is increasingly something like an open warehouse for vehicles parked and exposed to the vagaries of all sorts of weather and conditions. Typically, what you get as a ‘new’ vehicle now is something that has been out there for almost three months, in poor conditions.

The current crisis of slow off-take and actual sales of petrol driven motor vehicles after the last fuel price increase is real and present. Maybe, it will persuade some manufacturers to reach out directly to customers, with direct sales, at realistic prices. After all, if in these days of frugality, all that a customer wants is a basic car or bike which can be ‘loaded’ afterwards, then why not provide a basic model on a direct sale method, thereby reducing all the layers of inefficiencies in between? Is it because the dealer lobby is stronger than the manufacturer lobby or simply due to lack of courage to try something new?

Second hand luxury cars: Buy them at Hyderabad and Bengaluru

Alarge number of luxury cars up for re-sale in Bengaluru and Hyderabad . These were apparently acquired by the nouveau riche connected to large projects in infrastructure and resources (mining boom). But there is an even more interesting reason. It seems that many of these luxury cars are reported to have built-in bugging devices inserted, which are very difficult to detect. Who installs such devices remains a mystery. So if you don’t care about such minor inconveniences, and always wanted to own a luxury car, then head for these two cities. Good luck.

Veeresh Malik started and sold a couple of companies, is now back to his first love—writing. He is also involved actively in helping small and midsize family-run businesses re-invent themselves.