Velankanni – extended trip no:1 – 2013

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A larger view of photos can be found here
This post is a continuation of  Chennai – Thanjavur Road trip No:1 – 2013

As I said we reached Karikal, had to meet a relative and from there we set out to Nagapattinam to reach Velankanni in the morning.

Velankanni is a commercial place, yet the temple didn’t sound any were near to commercial when compared to Tirupathi or other places. Devotees maintained silence and the place prevailed tranquility.

Seems like this place is the new Velankanni, there seemed to an existence of old Church in that vicinity. I heard it from an other friend who had been to both the Velankanni. I did miss to visit this Church.

This photo should give you an idea about the old shrine no 4.

Layout of the Basilica complex. 1.Basilica, 2....

Layout of the Basilica complex. 1.Basilica, 2.Nadu Thittu shrine-site of second apparition, 3. Adoration & Reconciliation chapel, 4.Our Lady’s Pond-site of first apparition, 5.Stations of the cross, 6.Stations of the Rosary, 7.Stations of the Sacraments (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

When I said commercial it is because I did see few more Churches in the near vicinity, heard a story about locals demanding work in the areas of maintenance around the Church, the locals have seen the improvements, they feel there is a lot of money. Well I can’t prove you by numbers, Could be rumor floating around the Church.

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Photography was not allowed inside the Church, meaning they didn’t want distractions for the devotees. All of you would have watched the live event of the Church broadcasted on TV networks.

Velankanni amazed me with the kind of architecture and how the place has been maintained.

Wish the beaches had been maintained properly, for the kind revenue coming in. Proactively the locals around could have take little care.
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Finally a suggestion If you ever wanted to take a trip to Thanjavur, take the Trichy highway, Yes the highway is extended till Thanjavur, you will be making more miles, certainly your car doesn’t have to suffer the bad roads, neither the driver has to undergo fatigue.

I am not sure about the ECR route, If there is any one who has taken this route, please do comment.
Well now there aren’t good roads to Nagapattinam. Guess we will have to wait.

Maruti rating has got to do with JD Power

For a month I have been researching on buying a new hatchback, had a Mahindra Renault Logan petrol GLX for 2 and half years and finally gave up on Mahindra’s marketing strategies of reducing the pricing of car. Imagine what happens to early adopters is a big middle finger.

My criteria was responsive, economical, spacious for 2 adults and 2 kids, good mileage and little occupy little space on parking.

Cars I had in mind where, Hyundai i10, Hyundai i20, Fiat Punto, Chevy Spark with gas, Maruti Alto, Maruti wagon R, Maruti Ritz and Maruti A-star.

The real battle was between Chevy Spark with gas and Maruti A-Star Vxi.

No rants out here. Maruti A-Star finally won my family’s heart, and I was happy that I did have to shell out much on the accessories. The deal had sun film control, PU steering grip, PU car seats, Car body cover, Pricol Remote locking and under chassis painting.

PU – imitation leather.

Finally had to give the feed back when people from popular vehicles people call me up, I said my rating was 6/10 for Maruti. The person who call me said it was a problem, check the rating which I have attached as image. I said Maruti has their rating system for which I will not respond. I had my own rating system were 6/10 was actually good.

These are marketing guys gimmicks. I have a feeling J.D Power satisfaction report has got to with Maruti rating system. Where every customer responds with 8/10 naturally J.D power will have to be biased towards Maruti. Check the link below

http://www.indiacar.com/jd_power/default.htm

check the "customer satisfaction index" for 2008. You will understand what I am referring to.

P.S: I believe Chevy Spark will do better in coming days. I received a call from Spark guys and they wanted to analyze on why they lost a customer. I told them about resale value, mileage. It was indeed a call I didn’t expect. I love their "Chevy" car design, interior, responsiveness and handling. Just that, this time it didn’t work out.

tags: Photography, Chennai, Cars, Maruti, Hyundai, Chevy, Fiat, JD Power, Customer Satisfaction

You can never become first on a public road, drive with a smile

You can never become first on a public road

The above line holds good if you are racing against time on any public road. If you did over take a car ahead of you, there will be countless car ahead of you before you reach your destination.

I drive around 50KMS/day and I have personally realized that by going fast you may actually reach your destination 5 or 10 minutes earlier, but on the way I would have got cursed and raged by hundreds of road users. So start early or start really late. And do ride with a smile, you could surely win lot of hearts.

drive safely

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Tata to produce Air compressed car, inline with Nano

Just been reading articles about the Tata Nano and the Guy Negre Air compressed car on these articles, I guess Tata is marking an impression of India in the world map on the automobile front.

Hope to see the Tata come up the new Air Compressed car. Wish you all the best guys.

  1. Motor Authority » Tata Nano could come with optional air-powered engine

  2. An Air Car You Could See in 2009: ZPM’s 106 MPG Compressed-Air Hybrid : Gas 2.0

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Egg logic – apply to reduce Fuel price

The below mail was forward, I think it is worth a read for people who want to reduce the price of Petrol. If not many, I would like to still support this movement. Wish there was some website to educate people.

A man eats two eggs each morning for breakfast.  When he goes to the
grocery  store he pays 60 cents a dozen. Since a dozen eggs won’t last
a week he normally buys two dozen at a time. One day while buying eggs he
notices that the price has risen to 72 cents. The  next time he buys
groceries, eggs are 76 cents a dozen.

When asked to explain the price of eggs the store owner says, “The price
has gone up and I have to raise my price accordingly”. This store buys 100
dozen eggs a day.  He checked around for a better price and all the
distributors have raised their prices. The distributors have begun to buy
from the huge egg farms.  The small egg farms have been driven out of
business.  The huge egg farms sell 100,000 dozen eggs a day to distributors.
With no competition, they can set the price as they see fit. The
distributors then have to raise their prices to t he grocery stores. And on
and on and on.

As the man kept buying eggs the price kept going up. He saw the big egg
trucks delivering 100 dozen eggs each day. Nothing changed there.   He
checked out the huge egg farms and found they were selling 100,000
dozen eggs to the distributors daily. Nothing had changed but the price of
eggs.

Then week before Thanksgiving the price of eggs shot up to $1.00 a
dozen. Again  he asked the grocery owner why and was told, “Cakes and
baking for the holiday”.  The huge egg farmers know there will be a lot of
baking going on and more eggs will be used. Hence, the price of eggs goes
up. Expect the same thing at Christmas and other times when family cooking,
baking, etc. happen.

This pattern continues until the price of eggs is 2.00 a dozen. The man
says, ” There must be something we can do about the price of eggs”.

He starts talking to all the people in his town and they decide to stop
buying  eggs. This didn’t work because everyone needed eggs.

Finally, the man suggested only buying what you need.  He ate 2 eggs a
day. On the way home from work he would stop at the grocery and buy two
eggs. Everyone in town started buying 2 or 3 eggs a day.

The grocery store owner began complaining that he had too many eggs in
his cooler.  He told the distributor that he didn’t need any eggs.  Maybe
wouldn’t need any all week.

The distributor had eggs piling up at his warehouse.  He told the huge
egg farms that he didn’t have any room for eggs would not need any for at
least two weeks.

At the egg farm, the chickens just kept on laying eggs.   To relieve
the pressure, the huge egg farm told the distributor that they could buy
the eggs at a lower price.

The distributor said, ” I don’t have the room for  the %$&^*&% eggs
even if they were free”.   T he distributor told the grocery store owner
that he would lower the price of the eggs if the store would start buying
again.

The grocery store owner said, “I don’t have room for more eggs. The
customers  are only buying 2 or 3 eggs at a time.  Now if you were to
drop the price of eggs back down to the original price, the customers would
start buying by the dozen again”.

The distributors sent that proposal to the huge egg farmers but the egg
farmers liked the price they were getting for their eggs but, those
chickens just kept on laying.  Fin ally, the egg farmers lowered the price
of their eggs.

But only a few cents.

The customers still bought 2 or 3 eggs at a time. They said, “when the
price of  eggs gets down to where it was before, we will start buying by
the dozen.”

Slowly the price of eggs started dropping.  The distributors had to
slash their prices to make room for the eggs coming from the egg farmers.

The egg farmers cut their prices because the distributors wouldn’t buy
at a higher price than they were selling eggs for. Anyway, they had full
warehouses and wouldn’t need eggs for quite a while.

And those chickens kept on laying.

Eventually, the egg farmers cut their prices because they were throwing
away eggs they couldn’t sell.

The distributors started buying again because the eggs were priced to
where the  stores could afford to sell them at the lower price.

And the customers starting buying by the dozen again.

Now, transpose this analogy to the gasoline industry.

What if everyone only bought $10.00 worth of gas each time they pulled
to the pump?  The dealer’s tanks would stay semi full all the time.  The
dealers wouldn’t have room for the gas coming from the huge tank farms.
The tank farms wouldn’t  have room for the gas coming from the refining
plants. And the refining plants wouldn’t have room for the oil being off
loaded from the huge tankers  coming from the oil fiends.

Just $10.00 each time you buy gas. Don’t fill it up.  You may have to
stop for gas twice a week but, the price should come down.

Think about it.

As an added note…When I buy $10.00 worth of gas that leaves my tank a
little under quarter full. The way prices are jumping around, you can
buy gas for $2.65 a gallon and then the next morning it can be $2.15.
If you have your tank full of $2.65 gas you don’t have room for the $2.15
gas.

You might not  understand the  economics of only buying two eggs at a time
but,

you can’t buy cheaper gas if your tank is full of the high priced stuff.

Also, don’t buy anything else at the gas station; don’t give them any
more of your hard earned money than what you spend on gas, until the prices
come down…”

just think of this concept for a while.

………………please pass this concept around….reaching out to
the mass ..the world …..the universe

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Honda hybrid now in India

Good news for people in India who care for the environment, but the cost of these cars will be dear to their pockets. With 104 percent duty levied by the Indian Government the ex showroom price would be 21.50 Lakh INR.

Here are the details about the new Honda Hybrid from the Honda Indian website

Wish there are more buyers, so that Honda thinks about having a plant in India, as we could see the prices of these cars coming down.

My best wishes for the Honda Team – Power of dreams
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Tested on animals – Mahindra Renault Logan

Event: Mahindra Renault Logan Drivathon
Date: 25-12-2007 (Christmas Day)
Venue: YMCA, Nanadhanam, Chennai
Contact: S.Kumar
Mobile:98409 47464

It is supposed to be fun rally organized by Mahindra Renault Logan to test the mileage of your Mahindra Renault Logan.

  • Do you want to know who where the animals?
  • and Who tested on them?
  • and Who benefited out of this Mahindra Renault Logan Drivathon?

Before we start, Let us understand on how to test Mileage

  1. Fill up petrol- full tank
  2. check the odometer reading
  3. If you have trip meter, set it Zero
  4. take a long drive say about 100 and odd KMS, never switch off your car in between your drive (to get good readings)
  5. Follow the speed limit (45-55 KMS/hour)
  6. Once you reach 100 and odd KMS, go to next fuel station
  7. Top up the fuel, to full tank.
  8. Note the KMS traveled from your odometer, check the trip meter reading
  9. Note check how much of fuel was needed to have it full tank
  10. trip meter reading/ top up fuel needed to full tank will give you = Mileage i.e KM per Litre

So what happened at Mahindra Renault Logan Drivathon – car rally
I was there for the event at 8:30 AM at the venue. The event is supposed to start at 9:00AM which didn’t happen, because of the lack of management skills. Flag off happened, after few apologies made by the announcer.

I started to take the drive at 12:09 PM, went to the Fuel station at Venkanarayana Road.

A gentleman approached and said “Sir we will fill the tank full, out of which 5 litres of fuel price will be waived off and the rest you have to pay, Is that fine with you”.

I accepted, this is how they filled the fuel

My odometer readings were noted down and written on the card. My trip meter was made zero. And I started of to the rally.

Most cars had ladies and kids in the car – the best part was that, some car drivers took a break on the road side to take a leak. “What about the ladies and the kids?” What a shame?, Even if they had arranged for some nice place to take a short break for 2 hour long drive, it would have been nice. Well, my family did take a break at the Petrol Pump station at Venkatnarayana road, before the rally started. I realized, so was happy for my family too.

So my trip meter reading said 103 KMS when I was back from Mahabalipuram to Venkatanaraya road Bharat petrol pump station. I was doing between 50 and 60 KMS/hour. I was driving like a monkey as ordered, to execute things as said.

Now the top up started at the pumping station which recorded about 4.155 litres of petrol. So that means 103/4.155 should be my mileage. Which is actually wrong, because the Car fuel indicator says that my petrol tank is still not full. (Check the video)

My mileage is 24.789 KM per litre, WOW, I could believe it. The same car was doing last week, having a mileage of 9 KM per litre

Here is one more catch my fuel indicator was not saying that it is full tank, see the video to believe it. See other photos to know what was my readings.
data sheet
Click on the image for a larger view

Did you notice the time, which I referred while I entered the pump station 12:09 PM and at what time did I start 12:35 PM and at what time I reached the pump station again 2:59 PM
You want to why the delay
Mahindra Renault Logan - in queue just outside the pump station

Mahindra Renault Logan - in queue just outside side of road outside pump station
Click on the image for a larger view
Do you see the Mahindra Renault Logan on the opposite side of the road in a queue.



What is explained in the video?
If you noticed the video, I had taken at the time when I reached the YMCA ground, still wondering WHY the fuel indicator is not showing the fuel tank full. So it means that there is enough space to fill up some more fuel to make it full tank. Which most of them didn’t realize.

Now to answer the questions

Do you want to know who where the animals?
there were 100 and odd drivers with their family, driving their cars, following orders and not not having fun on the gracious day Christmas

and Who tested on us?
Mahindra Renault Logan Marketing team

A surprise did happen during the prize distribution ceremony. A owner of Mahindra Renault Logan was agitated and trying to claim for the prize as his car did a 40KM per litre mileage (Diesel version owner)

and Who benefited out of this Mahindra Renault Logan Drivathon?
Can you imagine 100 and odd drivers spending their money to filling up the fuel tank full and driving their own cars and following orders at the mercy of Mahindra Renault Logan team for only one reason to prove that Mahindra Renault can do 33KMs per litre for the petrol version and 37KMs per litre on the Diesel version.
I should say that the marketing guys made little spend by gaining more

  1. breakfast (bread sandwich and water, if you like it eat it else leave it. That was stance. Hospitality ZERO)
  2. 5 litres of fuel waived off during full tank session
  3. lunch (Saravana bhavan – Mini meals)
  4. and another 4-5 litres of fuel for top up total of 8-9 litres of fuel while including the 5 litre of fuel which was waived off during the full tank session (Petrol or Diesel)
  5. Spend on venue
  6. And of course the event management team.

Who are the loser?

  1. Fuel to fill up the tank
  2. quality family time on the Christmas day
  3. apart from that those god damn sponsor stickers from JK tyre and those numbers sticked all over the car. Who is gonna pay to remove that, With out spending money.

Car stickers
Mahindra Renault Logan owners are the ultimate losers to gain new customers

Who were the gainers?
Mahindra Renault Logan Marketing team – to make fake mileage result. It is pretty simple I say, you have around 100 odd drivers at your disposal feed them you have the results.

Do you want to know how this Viral Marketing is supposed to work?
Let’s say 100 and odd Mahindra Renault Logan happy customers, who had good mileage experience is about to unfold the secret to all their friends and relatives, well sort of boasting off that their car did give an ultimate mileage.

If you care for fellow car owners please digg this or post a link on your blogs. Atleast the new car owners can be spared.

some related posts regarding Mahindra Renault Logan

Some more post which are in continuation with Mahindra Renault Logan

  1. How I bought my new Mahindra Renault Logan – space, value for Money- Review
  2. Why Mahindra Logan, Renault Logan, Dacia Logan?
  3. Mahindra Logan – Usability Explored
  4. Is your Mahindra Logan in safe hands – After sales, What service
  5. Mahindra Logan – Look out for the new version
  6. Mahindra Renault Logan free service – unveiled
  7. The Devil in my Mahindra Renault Logan

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The Devil in my Mahindra Renault Logan

Meet the Devil right here. After I took my car from my first free service, I returned home and went to buy fruits along with my family. After shopping, we got in to the car, my wife and my son did enter the right side back door as the opposite doors was no were possible to open because I had parked next to wall close to the door. Usually they get in to the companion front seat.

So we drove back home and I had completely switched off my car, so did the central locking system open the safety latches, so as to open the door. But the right side rear door was not opening, she was pulling the lever for sometime, She screamed at me to help her unlock the door, sitting in the driver seat, I turned back and pulled the lever, the door didn’t open. The opposite side door was already facing the wall this time too, as I had done the parking next to a wall.

I unlocked my door, that was possible. Then I felt “Shit man, I asked them to fix the rattling noise at the left side front door, Why did they touch the back door? I thought they screwed the back door” I reached to the back door and pull the lever to unlock the back door. I was crazy, how come it works from outside and not inside.

Took the car this morning “Monday” to the service station.
Don’t you want to meet the devil in my Mahindra Renault Logan. Here it is…
Door Child Safety latch

Door Child Safety latch in on position
Latch or manual lever in ON position top

Door Child Safety latch in off position
Latch or manual lever in OFF position top

Some one at the service station had turned the lever to “ON” State.

The best part is that this small lever works manually, and is called the child safety lock for the rear doors.

How does this work?
If you are going to make sure that kids alone are traveling with you, you switch on the lever and then lock the rear doors.

What ever the damn situation may be. Let it be accident or fire or hell freezes over your car. Your kids can’t unlock the back side car doors.
You must noticed in the Cops cars. They put the criminals back at the rear seats and lock it. No matter what, they can’t unlock from inside. Some one needs to unlock the door from outside, even when central door locking unlocks the safety latch.

Why would I choose to have my kid in the back seats while leaving the car in the off state.

What a moron usability on the Mahindra Renault Logan?
Why can’t the child door lock feature be part of central locking system. If the central locking system disables the safety latch, even the door should be made to open from inside.

Update:
I heard from a close friend, all rear door child lock performs the same way as the Mahindra Logan. Just to note, I have updgraded from Maruti 800, so I am totally unaware of the rear child safety lock. Still I would like all cars to posesses intelligent system. So control for the driver to have more control on the doors or atleast the dashboard to have controls so that any passenger can disable the rear door child lock.

Some more post which are in continuation with Mahindra Renault Logan

  1. Why Mahindra Logan, Renault Logan, Dacia Logan?
  2. Mahindra Logan – Usability Explored
  3. Is your Mahindra Logan in safe hands – After sales, What service
  4. Mahindra Logan – Look out for the new version
  5. Mahindra Renault Logan free service – unveiled
  6. The Devil in my Mahindra Renault Logan
  7. Tested on animals – Mahindra Renault Logan

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Mahindra Renault Logan free service – unveiled

My First Mahindra Renault Logan 1.4 GLX service explained and here is the userexperience. Comparison with Maruti Service explained

First things first: I had a loyal Maruti 800 for 4 long years 2003-2007 untill I replaced it with a Mahindra Renault Logan 1.4 GLX 2007.

My first experience with GMS motors | Sahil motors in terms of service.
I had been to the service station personally to drop my Mahindra Renault Logan last Friday the 21st of December 2007, so a gentleman supervisor assisted me, early morning at 9:10 A.M, took careful notes.

My requests were:

  1. Front left door rattling noise
  2. Remove the plastic covers for the back seats
  3. Replace new headlamps black dot stickers
  4. Remove the reverse horn and not the reverse horn which comes with my remote lock.
  5. Scratch on the left side doors (check and give me the quote)

Apart from the above list, His suggestions were:

  1. Anti corrosion coating under the car body ( I stopped him. When he suggested that, as I know that the rubber coating is not gonna do anything good for the car)
  2. Fully powder coating of the body of car with a scratch resistant formula (comes with a 3 year warranty) cost a mere 3700 and odd Rupees. Item 5 of the above wish list is covered.
  3. Labour charge of 150 Rupees + tax for just removing the reverse horn. That would be Item no 4 of my wish list.

As far I know there is no oil change in this service and I was not charged for that.
What things got fixed and what not?

  1. Front door rattling noise not fixed, and the safety latch of the left door got buried. Any ways that safety latch was not of any use, you could still open the door with the safety latch down.
  2. Our supervisor was holistic, he felt that it was better if I not remove the back seat covers for quiet some time as it is still a new car, his explanations went more like “have it for some more months, kids would tear for you”. What a shame? tell me either you forgot it or your technicians were lazy enough to unlock the rear seats to remove the plastic cover.
  3. One thing rightly done was to replace the black dots on my headlamps
  4. The second thing, reverse horn removed and placed in the boot.
  5. Before doing the scratch painting fix. It was supposed to be tested, after the testing was done, the call said the scratch can fixed. Meanwhile a friend suggested with sticker which would work out cheaper. So I asked them not to fix the scratch.

There happened one evil incident on my Mahindra Renault Logan, While We returned home from shopping the same after service. My wife and son at the back seats. My right side back door could not be opened from inside. So what did happen? know it right here.

Now let us look in to the comparison of Mahindra Renault Logan and Maruti Service centers

My experience at Maruti service center
A profile or service history of my Maruti 800 was already available with the service advisor
A job sheet, which will note the requirements for the service to be done for my car

This job sheet comprises of

  1. history of previously done KMS
  2. history of parts changed previously
  3. Things to do list
  4. Dents and body parts marked when I leave my car for service ( a diagram of car top view and side view detailed diagram to mark the scratches and dents)
  5. Accessories contained in my car, which include how many floor mats, Air refresher, dolls, body cover (the plastic one) and what ever minute details which belong to the owner.
  6. Apart from that the costing proposal, date and time of delivery
  7. after delivery a customer feedback form to be posted after driving the car (postage will be paid by the addressee)

Now on the Mahindra Renault Logan service center
Job sheet contains

  1. to do list of service
  2. date and time of delivery
  3. ofcourse the customer feedback form before even you pay the service bills and before even you touch the car.
  4. once nice badge which is attached to the mirror which talks about the names service adviser, technician and the quality inspector. Apart from that I have the mobile number.

At the time of delivery, My experience with the Maruti’s was best when compared with the Mahindra’s.

The first free service was charged 75 Rupees for replacement of odd stuffs + labour charges + tax. Did I say free service.

Some more post which are in continuation with Mahindra Renault Logan

  1. Why Mahindra Logan, Renault Logan, Dacia Logan?
  2. Mahindra Logan – Usability Explored
  3. Is your Mahindra Logan in safe hands – After sales, What service
  4. Mahindra Logan – Look out for the new version
  5. Mahindra Renault Logan free service – unveiled
  6. The Devil in my Mahindra Renault Logan
  7. Tested on animals – Mahindra Renault Logan

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