| Preamble
 With
a plethora of Products and Services on offer today, the Cyberspace abounds
in FAQs on FAQs. But more often than not, they still leave the prospective
Buyer gasping for some more.
Having fielded literally thousands of Questions during the last 30-Months
with Cybersteering
and Indiacar, culled out of my various replies, I have made an effort
here to condense and consolidate them in a comprehensive manner - more
than 50 in all.
To help Visitors retaining their eyeballs, the present Series has been
divided into 4-parts and their sub-parts. Part-I relates to what kind
of Vehicle to Buy; Part-II on how to choose amongst several competing
models within the same Group; Part-III on Accessories and ‘Customising’;
and Part-IV on ‘Operational’ aspects of one’s Car.
So fasten your seat belts – as here we go with Part-I……
1) Classification
of Indian Cars
After the advent of Maruti-800 in ‘83/’84, the Indian Auto Media
invented its own criteria some years back when Cars like Zen and Esteem
also appeared on the scene. These today go by Group 'A' for M800/Omni, 'B'
for the Hatchbacks like Zen/Santro and 'C' for 3-box Sedans like Esteem.
Beyond 'C', such as 'D' and 'E' - they comprise larger/luxury Sedans such
as Honda Accord/Hyundai Sonata, Mercs and the likes of them.
Under the new norms formulated by SIAM some times in the first half of
2002, along the International lines, passenger cars in India will now
be classified (according to 'Bumper to Bumper' lengths) under six categories:
'Mini' (upto 3,400mm), 'Compact' (3,401-4,000mm), 'Mid-size' (4,001-4,500mm),
'Executive' (4,501-4,700), 'Premium' (4,701-5,000mm) and 'Luxury' (5,001mm
and above).
2)
Hatchbacks/Sedans/Estates
The difference between a Hatchback and a Saloon is that a Hatchback is
a 2-box car - one for the engine and the other for the passengers. It
does not have a separate baggage/storage area that we commonly call a
boot. The boot is incorporated in the passenger area of the car at the
rear itself and because it needs to be compact yet spacious, the rear
of the car is sort of flattened to give it the desired height, with a
door to access it rather than a lid, as is the case with traditional boots.
A Saloon/car on the otherhand is a 3-box car, one box each for the engine,
passenger area and the boot. The boot juts out from the rear of the car
in varying degrees depending on the design, and has a lid for access from
outside the car - pretty much similar to the bonnet.
Likewise, an Estate is an elongated Hatchback version of a Saloon. The
boot area is part of the passenger box but is more spacious, thus adding
to the length the car. The extra boot space is also gained by giving it
the full height of the car and therefore, Estates look like a Saloon from
the front but from the rear they appear as if the passenger section was
meant to carry on but ended abruptly!
3)
Cars for the Physically Challenged
In India, unfortunately it's only MUL which offers ~ 8-variants of its
'Zen', excluding M800 and others, customised for the PCP's. None of the
other OEMs do it as of today may be coz of low volumes and MUL having
been a PSU of sorts, took its social obligations better. The following
URL gives details of the MUL ‘Zen – Easy Drive’ for
the PCP’s –
www.marutizen.com
Click on
the oval marked 3 (Variants). When the page opens, click on Zen AX Easy
Drive.
Incidentally, such Cars also attract 8% or so lower Excise Duty. For further
details, please contact your nearest MUL Dealer as these things keep changing
from time to time.
In addition, there's an enterprise operating out of Mumbai customizing
Cars of PCP's choices to their needs. You're welcome to visit them at
the following URL -
www.handicappedpeople.com
However, the drawback here would be that one has to send the Car, new
or old, to their Mumbai Facilities and if such works are done on a new
Car, not only its OE Warranty would be null and void but no excise duty
relief would be available either - for justifiable reasons. |
