Toyota Corolla
Television star, Manish likes cars that combine reliability with glitzy style

Extravagant and ostentatious are two words that best describe television star, Manish Goyal. After the runaway success of television soaps he starred in and the much publicised dance show that won him a runner-up trophy, there has been no looking back for this Delhi-ite. Manish has manoeuvred his career as smoothly as he handles his car, and seen the success-o-meter do a 0-100 in double quick time.
A fire in the belly combined with a never-say-die attitude is what distinguishes Goyal from his contemporaries. Add to that a keen mind that knows the deeper workings of the television industry, and the fact that he is able to weave in flamboyance with the practical. And all this is best displayed in his choice of automobile — the Toyota Corolla.
Manish describes his Corolla as a car that serves his needs without being a nag. After all, this is a car that carries the Toyota tag, synonymous with ‘reliability’ to millions of people the world over. Toyota is how one gets to see a perfect marriage of engineering and looks, he adds.
Goyal’s association with cars goes back a long way. As a teenager, he’d often borrow the keys to the family car or persuade his driver to let him drive on his way back from school. After he won the Stardust Academy Competition in Delhi and signed six films, his father gifted him his first car — a Maruti 800. Only then, he says, did he realise the efforts that went into maintaining a car. His second car, an Ikon 1.6, also came in the form of a birthday gift from his proud father who decided it was time his son graduated to a sedan from a hatch. However, today, it is the Corolla that reigns over his heart despite the addition of an Innova and a Honda City to his garage.
What Goyal ensures his car gets is the best of care — and he expects complete reliability in return. He cannot bear to see an uncared-for car and doesn’t understand people who keep their cars filthy and merely view them as facilitators for the daily commute. For his Corolla, he insists on regular servicing, washing, waxing and polishing and this is possibly why, along with his passion for driving, he hasn’t hired a chauffeur yet.
Someday, he aspires to have an automobile family of sorts where each car will have a designated purpose and every driver a sparkling white uniform with his name embroidered on it. With one automobile for running errands and handling day-to-day bazaar chores, another for serving the needs of the babysitter and domestic help who aid in the smooth functioning of his household, and the fanciest of them, reserved for glitzy parties and glamorous dos, Goyal wants to ensure that his garage holds a car from every segment. And he sure has it all figured out.
However, for now, despite the two new entrants vying with each other for a share of the parking space, it is the Corolla that rightfully wins the lion’s share.