Earful! : Diesel - Fuelling dreams in all sizes

 Size and cost have always mattered to Indians. Ask any uncle who retired from a government job and owns a Maruti 800 as old as his service. He will wistfully eye that "big" car, every time it passes by the house and know he will never buy it.

 

My dad is no different. For the last 3 years he has been wanting to dispose off our 10 year old Wagon R to fulfill his desire to buy a "big" car. What is stopping him, you ask? The cost of buying and running such a car. A litre of petrol will soon cost more than three square meals. If you are a pensioner just thinking about it could give you heart burn.

 

"Big" cars are big fuel guzzlers.  Many uncles spend most of their time in the mechanic shop trying to figure out how to get their midget sized cars on diet.  Try uttering the D (D for diesel) word and you will have woken the analyst in them. "Noisy" ,"Jerky", "Parts will get worn out", "tough to drive" and as an afterthought "ladies don't like," are some of the justifications given to conclude that a diesel vehicle is not a family car (unless your family includes poultry).  The truth of course is the reverse. They would all love to drive a diesel vehicle provided someone took care of the servicing.

 

A family friend recently offered my parents a lift in their brand new sedan. The 30-minute drive was "very nice" by my father's admission. And how was the diesel engine behaving, I asked. "DIESEL?", shrieked my dad, half out of fear and the other half out of shock. The man had not realized he was sitting in a diesel vehicle.  Many phone calls and an internet check revealed he had indeed traveled Diesel class.  What's more the family friend told him it needed no more services than a petrol vehicle and the power steering was gentle enough to respond to his wife's driving. What is more, you could stand away from the bleary eyed truck drivers and ask proudly for HSD (High Speed Diesel).

 

That was the turning point.

 

My dad has ever since found his poison. He talks about the "big" car with vigor, sans the zillion creases on his forehead. Not to be left behind, my uncle's 5 year old grandson talks of driving only buses, trucks and trains – all on HSD (or so he thinks). Not to be out done, Gen-X (or is it Y?) is buying diesel sedans by the dozen.  Our apartment complex alone must have half the diesel sedans made in Bangalore.  Even as you read, the Nissan Micra Diesel and Chevy Beat Diesel are being launched. I won't be surprised to see Tata Nano Diesel one day.

 

Diesel has arrived.