The wives and their cars

In most of the couples I know, the wife drives the better and bigger (by implication, more expensive) car. Wonder why. I was doing one of my stray thinking bouts when I happened to see one such couple I know driving past - the husband driving the car for a change, that it was the wife's car, she usually drives around in that. Then thoughts went to Rohan's friend's mom and dad, there too, wife drives the more expensive, bigger car. Then I started thinking about it and surely I noticed a pattern. It's not at all uncommon. Wonder what the deal is with guys buying their wives, or couples investing in bigger, more expensive cars for the woman.

Considering our thought process being that a woman is the weaker driver compared to a man, surely this doesn't fit in. Another thing to notice is that when the couple drive together, it is always the husband who drives the car when they take out the wife's. Again an infallible repetition.

Just an observation jotted down.

Auto i

So we got home the new car yesterday. Since this was going to be a second car, we were particular about buying a small one and an automatic so we homed in on the Hyundai i10 Automatic.

They've come out with a new model recently and it is a sackful of goodies. I always loved the Volkswagen's blue backlight for the dash and the i10 also has it! First eye-catcher for me. Then of course, it is automatic. It has been ages (read 2.5 years) since I last drove an automatic and I must confess I was feeling rather weird not having to change gears and not knowing what to do with my second hand. The best feature on the i10 is undoubtedly its power steering. It is too smooth for words. It just fluidly rotates. For a small car, it has a lot of features that are not standard on some of the sedans too. I loved the iPod jack as well (USB port) since now it means I can put my first gen iPod in the car and with it that tonnes of music which I haven't heard in a while thanks to my mobile phone serving the purpose of mini music repository. All those songs I accumulated, collected, painstakingly sorted and labeled, are all now at the touch of a button. Yay!!

We got it home on Ayudha Puja day (MahaNavami) which also happens to be the son's birthday as per the Indian calendar! :)

Of Hondas and THE Benz..

Honda is an excellent car maker, I give it to them. Notwithstanding the innumerable Hondas that you can spot in the Silicon Valley, I admire the auto-maker. I never wanted to buy a Honda (or a Toyota for that matter) but ended up with an Accord. Such is thy power!

Anyway, I thought they made a BIG design mistake when they brought in the ELEMENT. It looks stupid at best with its bread-box design (I am sorry if you own a Honda Element, but I have a right to my opinion). With some ill turn of fate that car actually became a hit (I still don't get how). Spurred on by the success of the unusual design of the Element Honda seems to have gotten inspired. My my! And just look at the good-old Civics and the Accords these days. They look, well, zappy at best.

Good so far. But why should a mid-size sedan (Civic) and a full/premium-size family car (Accord) look Zappy? I never get it. They are supposed to be sedans keep them that way (I am a puritan ahem ahem). Why turn them into looking like half-baked sports cars. Tch..tch..tch...

And the worst part of this whole Honda design frenzy is that Scion thinks that Element is beautiful, yuck, yuck! And actually went ahead and designed one of their own cars (I never bothered to find out the series name) like the Element. So much for leading by inspiration! Guys, those cars look ugly. That is it. Bad taste and loads of ugliness!!

Speaking of designs, the new Sebring seems to have done something novel (AND nice) with its bonnet. Ridges and all. I like the Sebring (even though its made by Chrysler.) I think its the only well designed car US automakers have ever made (except some models of the Mustang). I would never buy it, but I like its design all the same. Ahh the death of Auto for me was when Chrysler went and merged with Daimler-Benz, yuck! I almost gave up thoughts of buying a Mercedes that day..but the wish is now re-kindled...and maybe I will put my name on a Benz yet..