Vardhan Kondvikar
had visions of a zany, wild-looking car when he went to meet the livewire
Nikhil Chinappa. But, to his surprise, the MTV veejay prefers sobriety.
“I live a fairly crazy life but my car is quite sober.”
Frankly, I’d expected a purple Sonata. Or something
open-topped and fast, or at least something with 13 wings, carpet-sized
tyres and a snorting exhaust. But no. “I live a fairly crazy life
— everything at work is loud and wild, but my home is really quite
sober,” says MTV VJ Nikhil Chinappa, “and my car is an extension
of my home.”
Which explains the slate-grey new Honda City. And it makes perfect sense
too. The City is quiet, comfy, hassle-free and a good place to shut out
the rest of the world, which is a big help after you’ve hosted a
show, having to make yourself heard over music that is the aural equivalent
of an atomic bomb. This car, bought about a year ago, is a bubble of sanity
in a decidedly insane city, and suits his needs perfectly.
Of course, it’s no driver’s car, and being a regular Expressway
user, Chinappa was a bit concerned about the car’s high-speed stability
and handling. He switched immediately to wider Bridgestones, which help
immensely. “It’s much more stable now, and the braking is
better too. The steering is a bit heavier, but I actually prefer that,
because I find the steering too light otherwise. It was never a problem
in Mumbai, where I use a chauffeur anyway, but it used to be a bit nervous
on the highway.”
Talking of tyres, he’s recently had a scary moment in Shillong.
“I was driving a friend’s Honda City, when an iron spike went
through the tyre — that was a very scary moment.” For the
rest, thankfully, Nikhil’s driving life has been an uneventful one
(the best kind), and the only problem he’s faced with this car is
slightly greater thirst than he’d expected. “It’s giving
me about 9kpl in the city right now, and I’m not a heavy-footed
driver — there’s not much point in Mumbai. Do you think it
could be the tyres?” It also gives him about 11kpl on the Expressway,
which is fine for Expressway speeds. I promise to give it some thought,
and now, am kicking myself for forgetting to tell him about our high-octane
test, that switching to 93-octane should make the City’s high-compression
engine run a bit more frugally.
He used to have a Maruti Zen earlier, which made for interesting times.
It was a second-hand car, a ‘94 model, with the original Suzuki engine.
“It was a great car, lots of fun, and the engine was fantastic. It
was sad actually, because the engine would have gone on for a while longer,
but the rest of the car fell apart around it.”
He had to give the Zen up after one monsoon, when he touched the floor mat
with a finger to find water bubbling up around it. He took it to a professional,
who took one look and said, “Dude, you have no floor. You’ve
been sitting on the mats.”
I mention the purple Sonata bit to him, and he’s not amused. “I
love Jaguars, all Jaguars, especially the XJ-S. I love that combination
of luxury and aggression, it’s like wearing a suit with a punk hairdo!
I
was furious when Hyundai launched the Sonata, which copies Jag style.”
He also loves BMWs — “Especially the grille, which looks so
aggressive head-on,” and has spent some time gawking at the brutal
Porsche Cayenne.
He doesn’t like the macho Hummer though, which he says looks “like
someone tried to make a tank look pretty. It’s nice, yeah, but it’s
still a tank.” Point taken.
There’s one last fact that reveals itself as Nikhil drives away. His
car has some variety of ‘Car of the Year’ sticker on it, which
of course gives me a proprietary feeling — after all, it was Autocar
India that gave the Honda City that honour.
|
June 2005