list – Zimbly Cars

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

May 2, 2012 admin

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.

Automatic Cars in India costing less than 16Lakhs (Updated 2012, March)

March 27, 2012 admin

I finally updated the list of automatic cars currently available in India today after close to a year.

Now the list has 12 vehicles with the Dzire, Rapid and Fiesta petrols being added newly. Verna details are updated with the new Fluidic which comes both in petrol and diesel. Civic , Cruze and Corolla have been moved out as they do not come under 16L.

Here is the complete list of automatic vehicles costing under 16 lakhs (on road-Chennai):

Reva Maini (CVT)(Electric)
Maruti Suzuki A-Star VXI AT(4 speed)(Petrol)
Hyundai I10 1.2 Kappa Sportz (4 speed)(Petrol)
Maruti Suzuki Dzire 1.2 (AT) (4 speed)(Petrol)
Hyundai I20 1.4 Gamma – Sportz AT (4 speed)(Petrol)
Hyundai Verna Fluidic 1.6 – Petrol and Diesel Automatic (4 speed)
Maruti Suzuki SX4 ZXI AT( 4 speed)(Petrol)
Honda City(4 speed with paddle shift)(Petrol)
Ford Fiesta Powershift ( 6 speed, Dual Clutch)(Petrol)
Skoda Rapid AT (6 Speed)(Petrol)
Volkswagen Vento Highline 1.6 (6 speed)(Petrol)
Scorpio VLX AT(6 speed) (Diesel)

Only the Verna comes with a petrol and a diesel automatic. Most of the vehicles on the list are petrols and it seems very obvious that Indian Manufacturers expect the automatics to be primarily used for shorter distances where the diesel advantage of mileage is not required. The Ford fiesta alone stands out as a petrol with 6 speeds, dual clutch system and very decent ride and handling.

Also the automatic versions typically higher in price than their equivalent manual siblings. Add a diesel engine to the mix and the pricing may very well come from one segment higher. So usually the automatic comes only with a petrol.

The post I had shared in 2011 March about Automatic transmission vehicles is here with the original list and some myths about automatics. With the traffic one has to face in Indian cities – the automatic will become a definite must have for some reduced stress.

Some vehicles being talked about that may come out later this year with Automatic Transmissions are the Nissan Sunny and the Tata Aria. The Reva NXR that has been talked about for years will also have a CVT – whenever it gets launched.

Wishlist:

Now that Maruti has the 4 speed auto on the DZire – when can we see it on the Swift ?

How about an automatic Figo and Ecosport ?

Automatic Jazz / Brio anyone ?

Automatic Fabia / Polo ?

Tata is conspicuous by its absence in this list – they need to get something done regarding this soon.

Future Collectible Cars of India

April 20, 2009 admin

I read a recent article on Popular mechanics “Jay Leno Predicts Future Collectible and Classic Cars”. I had to create a similar one based on cars available in India.

Long Post Warning: This is another long post ( I do have to learn to write shorter ones soon).

The vehicles I have listed match one or more of these criteria:

Vehicles sold in India to the mass market not imported vehicles
Car of the Year awarded (typically packed with features and are usually popular).
Have some “first” attributed to them or some other unique characteristic, unusual engines or features or designs. Highest trim level versions are usual suspects since they have new features ahead of their time. (For e.g the Swift ZXI was the first Indian hatchback with steering mounted audio controls and climate control and airbags.)
Special editions / signature editions.
The first models or the last models of a car/brand.
4x4s, convertibles and coupes and higher engine powered variants.
Shouldn’t cost more than 15 Lakhs (ex showroom) when new.
Sold between 1975 till today April 20th 2009. Why 1975 ? Because that’s the year I was born. Simple ? :-).

In the order of Manufacturer/Brand I predict that in the year 2034 (25 years from now) these cars will be considered as collectible antique cars:

Fiat:

The 2002 Fiat Palio 1.6 Sport (Car of the year for 2002). The S10 is collectible just for the signature.
The Palio Adventure for being a station wagon with go anywhere looks. Unfortunately was not a 4×4.
The 500 just made my list at 14.8 lakhs
Upcoming: I predict the Grande Punto to be a collectible just for its looks. Hope it has an engine to match.

Force Motors:

The Trax , Judo and the Ghurka all in 4×4 versions.

Ford:

The Escort 1.6 and the Orion and Iris special editions – these are rare already you cannot find cars in good condition anymore.
The 1999 Ford Ikon 1.6 SXI with ROCAM engine a popular enthusiasts car giving good performance for a reasonable price.
The Fiesta Diesel from 2006 for having the best diesel engine from Ford. BSM Jury Award 2006. Fiesta special editions with weird stripes as well since just a few in number were released.

General Motors/Chevrolet:

The Aveo U-VA. BSM Car of the year 2007. The only reason this can be a collectible is that very few actually sold.
The Chevvy Spark(Daewoo Matiz reborn): Best Value award for 2008. Plus it looks really good for an Indian Chevy.
Optra SRV: Sporty hatchback. Very poor sales makes this a collectible.
Upcoming: Chevy Beat & Cruze both look good and could become really popular

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Top Car Chase & Race Movies (with free pdf)

April 12, 2009 admin

: Eleanor the star of Gone in Sixty Seconds

Car themed movies are my favourite type. I have extended it into movies with really good car chase scenes. I have been carrying a list of around 60 movies to add to my existing collection for the past 2 years and adding them slowly one at a time when I find them. These are Hollywood movies in English and range from 1900 till 2009. I still have not built up a non-English collection (just noticed that there seems to be a good number of Japanese and French movies that fit the car theme). This weekend, I delved a bit deeper into the data of movies available and tried grouping them into categories and also sorted them by year. In the process my list of 60 suddenly became 135. I have added this list as a free pdf download. As of now, I own around 30 movies that I call car themed movies. If you have to ask who Eleanor, Bumblebee, Herbie, The Judge and General Lee are you should probably stop here and decide if you want to read the remaining.

The current decade (2000’s) seems to have the maximum number of car themed movies and movies with car chases occupying key parts of the storyline.The next closest decade was the 70’s. We are indeed in car-crazy times :-). The 80’s and 90’s didnt seem to be that into cars, did they ?

The movies can be grouped into racing movies(including all forms of racing like NASCAR,Champ car, Drag strip, street racing, illegal racing), chase movies (car chases and crashes), Bio-pics(about famous racing legends), Horror , Drama (deeper story around car theme) and also finally about driving( typically high speed driving, stunts, long distance, getaways). Chases in movies comprise close to 35% of movies on my list and Race themed movies comprise 46% of the list. Interestingly the percentage of movies having critically acclaimed chase scenes in the 70s was around 18% and race themed movies at 76%.In the last 9 years the ratio is 57% chase scenes and 28% on race themed. The ratio has turned 180 degrees around in 30 years !

The earliest car themed movie I could find was the 1913 movie –Speed Kings, based on automobile racing. If there is anything earlier than that please let me know. There was a movie called Speed in 1935 that was also based on auto racing which was pretty popular then.

All time popular cars and movies they appeared in:

The Bond movie Goldfinger (1964) was the first movie the Ford Mustang appeared in (it was launched in 1964 as well). Also this was the first movie the Bond car was set as the Aston Martin DB5. The same car now owned by Spielberg appears in 2002 movie Catch Me If You Can.
The Herbie Series is probably the most loved series with the VW Beetle Show up in 5 movies from 1968 till 2005.
The DeLorean in the Back to the Future series shows up in 3 movies from 19855 to 1990.
The Mustang Fastback “Eleanor” shows up in two movies of the same name Gone in Sixty Seconds from 1974 & 2000. The second GISS movie seems to be the first of many car themed movies that were released after 2000.
Ford Mustang: Bullit(1986),Gone in 60 Seconds(1974),Gone in 60 Seconds(2000),Fast & Furious Tokyo Drift(2006), I Am Legend( 2007), Death Race (2008)
Mini Cooper: Italian Job(1969),Italian Job(2001) & Bourne Identity(2002).
Ford Gran Torino: Charlies Angels : Fullthrottle (2004) , Starsky & Hutch (2004) and Clint Eastwood movie Gran Torino (2009), Fast and Furious (2009) has a 1972 Gran Torino Sport.
Pontiac GTO: Two Lane Blacktop(1971),Bullit(1986), XXX(2002). The Last Ride(2004) a TV movie featured the GTO “Judge” and also had the latest iteration of the Pontiac GTO.
Chevrolet Corvette: 1970 Corvetter in Death Race 2000(1973), 1973 Stingray in Corvette Summer (1978)
Chevrolet Camaro: Transformers (2007) had the 1977 and 2009 Camaros, 2 Fast 2 Furious(2003) had a 1969 Camaro, 2009 Fast and Furious has a 1973 Camaro.
Dodge Charger: Dirty Mary Crazy Larry(1974),The Fast and the Furious (2001),Dukes of Hazzard(2005) – “The General Lee”
Dodge Challenger: Vanishing Point(1971), 2 Fast 2 Furious(2003)
Scary Cars: Modified 1971 Lincoln Continental in The Car(1977), 1958 Plymouth Fury in Christine(1983) , 1954 Buick Roadmaster in From a Buick 8(Upcoming movie for 2009).

: Cover of From a Buick 8 : A Novel

Upcoming Car Themed movies for 2009 and beyond are:
- From a Buick 8 ( Horror movie based on a scarily good Stephen King book expected in 2009)
- Transformers II: Revenge of the Fallen (The transformers sequel expected around June 2009)
- Cars II (The sequel to Pixar Cars expected in 2012)
- The Limit( A movie on Grand Prix racing with Toby Maguire expected in 2012)
(Do check up on www.carsplusmovies.com for more updates. Its a great site with tonnes of car movie related links. I got the above list from there.)

Download: You can download my list of movies as a free PDF file download. Do take a look and let me know if you come across any good car themed movie I may have missed from the list. Also do pass on the pdf to your friends who may be interested.

Most Popular Vehicle Colors – 2000 to 2008

March 28, 2009 admin

DuPont releases data on vehicle color popularity for major markets across the world and in 2008 have included India data separately. I hope it will be tracked going forward as well. Here is the DuPont report for 2008. Lots of interesting data point there including variants on core color types, finishing, textures etc. While mentioning the textures something very interesting is Chrome finish paint. An example is seen here.

They have been tracking such data for US, Europe and Japan for close to ten years now. Though they haven’t given it in one single chart – Zimbly Cars spent the time to collate it from data made public by DuPont. Here is the trend for the past 8 years.

**2001 – I wasn’t able to find data for this year on the net – if anyone has it or knows someone in DuPont please let me know.

The most popular colors over the past 8 years for cars are White, Silver, Black and Blue. These have been fairly consistent and have not lost their charm over time.

Red has been a consistent color with no changes in popularity since 2004. Grey has been steadily increasing in popularity since 2004 and may be a serious contender to Black.

Black though considered a timeless color went through a small dip in popularity between 2002 and 2005 but has been increasing in popularity since 2005.

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