Zimbly Cars - Part 2

What to do – You are driving and hear a siren ?

This is one of the first of a series I hope to write covering some tips and tricks useful in general city traffic and driving building in a flavour of road safety.

Situation: You hear a siren while driving a car/two wheeler. What should you do ? Click on the image below for a flowchart on how to go about this.

Key Do’s:

Switch off the music if playing in your vehicle and immediately determine the location of the siren.
Safely and quickly do what is necessary to enable speedy movement of the vehicle to its destination

Key Don’ts:

Block the vehicles progress
Chase after the vehicle after it has passed to utilize its pathway to make good time.

A Request:

Please provide your inputs / suggestions on similar issues / items to write about.

Please share this to your friends and lets do our bit to drive safely while fully aware of rules and regulations – hope we can be the change !

Attention Bachelors: Create your Auto Themed Bucket List before its too late !

If your days of carefree life with minimal responsibilities(read- bachelorhood) are numbered, do take some time to prioritize how you spend your last years/months/days. After the noose – you will be expected to involve the other half in pretty much everything and you have to start thinking of a variety of things such as - purchase of a residence, loans to be repaid (college/home), future family(if kids on the way), emergency funds, kids education funds, annual holidays, household expenses – maintenance / first time purchase or replacement of existing – TV, Fridge, sofa, beds, washing machine, dish washer, vacuum cleaner, water purifier, household items, health care etc etc …this list goes on.

Rather than spend the rest of your (married) life wishing you had done this earlier – take a look at these and make your own bucket list (A Top movie of 2007/2008).(Buy the movie on Flipkart on VCD/DVD/Blue Ray if you don’t have it already – I definitely recommend watching this).

This Bucket List includes both products and experiences – what is listed is not a list you should blindly copy but use as inspiration to build out your own list. This could be a start to your own life time Bucket List as well that includes everything you want to do before finally giving that big kick to your bucket. Also make sure you remember this list when you define your budget for spending money as well .

Big Ticket/Luxury/Are you out of your mind:

Brand New Out of the ordinary vehicle – either a too small car like the Nano/ Reva or a 4×4 like the Thar or an SUV like the Bolero/ Scorpio etc.
Project Vehicle – Restoration of an antique / sentimental vehicle from scrap to a show piece
Jeeps – this is a topic in itself – If you ever had dreams of owning/driving an open topped 4×4 off road -and the associated accessories required for this. If there is only one item to have on your must have – this would be it. All others I feel would be possible with a lot of sweet talking
Convertibles – slightly more acceptable than the previous one
Vehicle with an out of ordinary colour – red/ yellow/ bright blue etc etc.
Design and build your own custom hot rod/sports car/replica/kit car.

You don’t really need this/Mid Level (you may get away with some of these – spread out over time):

In Car Entertainment – Touchscreens HUs/ head rest mounted displays /Speakers/ Amps etc.
GPS Navigation devices
Alloys / Up-sized Alloys / tires
Bluetooth /handsfree kits
Leather / Sports seats
Race tickets for events outside your city/state of residence (For. e.g. One F1 Event in India )
Performance/rally driving school training fees
DIY Racing Simulator – Gaming console, steering wheel, racing seats +big screen TV
Meeting a racing legend – Schumi/ Kimi / etc etc
Driving long distance across your home country / Driving long distance to some exotic location of your choice
Attending auto shows outside your city/state of residence

Lowest Level(Lowest impact – and cheapest – you may get minimal resistance but WW-III wont break out either if you get any of these):

Track Day outings and associated charges
Brand specific merchandize – Caps/Keychains/Clothes/Accessories etc etc
Subscription to Auto magazines like Autocar, TopGear etc
Movies – car themed movies – Bullit, Fast & Furious series,
Gaming PC/Game Consoles and associated racing games, gaming accessories – mice, steering wheels etc.

Again just so that it doesn’t seem that your life is over after you get married – just that you have one more voice that will speak practically (in addition to your own conscience ) – and that your priorities may change.

Please do share your own lists as well through the comments.

Please make sure you cross off at least one big ticket item before marriage and then try to aim for the smaller ones each year.

PS: Make sure your criteria for a future spouse has “must be an auto enthusiast” as one of the key items.

Vehicle Photos in Automotive Advertising

: Mahindra Thar

It started as a one off thing but over time I have started noticing the embellishments that are done while preparing vehicles for photo shoots used for print ads and for the websites of the manufacturers selling vehicles in India. I know it’s the whole point of advertising to sell the product in their best possible light – but I feel these points should be known especially if you are in the market for a new vehicle.

Visuals of the cars on manufacturer websites usually are of the highest trim variant which comes with body colored bumpers, door handles, exterior body colored mirrors, alloys and in some cases wider tires.(All Manufacturers)(Best Example – even the Maruti 800 on its website is shown with Alloys. The Nano however does show wheel covers in most photos with some even without the wheel covers with just wheel caps)
Sometimes even the top end trim may not come with alloys – but still all photos will be with Alloys! ( Eg. Tata Grande)
In a lot of cases the photos are shot with wider than stock tires and with a much lower aspect ratio.(Tata Nano/ Tata CS).
Mudflaps are usually omitted. Especially the el-cheapo ones given for free by the dealers.(Most Marutis and Hyundais)
Dark tints are there on all windows including the front window- usually so dark that they could never be street legal. (Every single manufacturer does this)
Body Kits are usually added to boring models.(Toyota Etios Liva)
Boring/ugly rear ends are usually not shown – except for the 360 degree views where they have no choice.(Swift D’Zire, Toyota Etios)
Interiors are usually again shown of the top end trim level with steering mounted controls, tachometer, climate control(if present), music system and premium seating material. The lower trim levels without music system , speakers, parcel tray, floor mats, boot mats etc are never shown. (All Manufacturers)
Vehicle colors indicated and the actual color of the vehicle may have next to nothing to do with each other. Only colors like white, black and silver may look similar in real life.

Photoshop:

Colors are usually bumped up in contrast/saturation to pop off the page.(All Manufacturers)
Wheel are blurred to indicate it is in motion. (Maruti Swift usually looks like it is going to crash into something. Usually the rear wheels are not moving.)
The Mahindra Thar in the photo used as the cover for this post – looks absolutely pasted in ! Also note the bull bar,headlight grill,fog lamp,insect grill, alloys ,tint and the lack of driver . Oh and by the way the front right tire is just a bit smaller than the left. The weird lighting under the vehicle is very suspicious as well.

Open Challenge:

List the manufacturer websites where entry and mid trim variant photos are shown in the comments below.

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