The Car Connection
I have loved cars ever since I started to crawl as a child. I still remember the very first toy car that I ever played with. As I aged, that passion for cars just got disproportionately bigger. You can imagine how impatient I was to start driving out on the roads. It was a long hard wait until I was 18 to apply for my driver’s license.
That is me holding on to my Dad’s scooter when I could barely stand. :)
For me, driving is something that gets progressively blissful. Most people might tend to drive as a function. I drive with passion. When I drive, I can feel the car. I can feel every gear change. I can feel if the car is having a good day. I can feel if something is bothering the car. If I am driving a stick-shift, my hand on the gear lever automatically moves to treat the car with kindness and affection. Most of the time, the car reciprocates.
I constantly equate cars with people’s emotions for this reason. And I treat the car like I treat everybody else - with compassion and kindness. Sometimes, I even bid goodbye to the car.. or even thank the car when it did not let me down in difficult circumstances. This emotion is seldom understood by regular people and I share this intricate side of mine only with fellow petrol heads.
For starters, I want to be perceived as a sane person - so, that explains that.
The car I like should have the right mix of subtle elegance and hidden capabilities. Why? Probably because it resonates with my character. My car should by no means be loud. Loudness in this context could mean looks, performance, character, exhaust note to begin with.
That doesn’t MEAN it has to be BOOOORING. The Germans come closest to perfecting MY idea of a car. There is no outward display of how capable the car is. There is no attention-seeking feature that screams.. OOH! I am this, I am that.
They all look humble and modest to a certain degree - even the Porsche. But, inside they are technological warehouses. They have this quietness because they know what they are capable of, and they do not have to argue with anybody else.
And Audi did precisely that in an advertisement - Nothing to prove indeed. When you know you are far superior, you do not waste time trying to prove or argue with those who are much less intricate.. or much less capable for the lack of a better word.
Now, I do not by any means try to convince people that German cars are perfect. They have their own… quirks if you will. These quirks make these cars even more human. They have imperfections like everybody else.
So, the time had come FINALLY to choose my very first car. I had to wait 30 years of my life for this moment. Given my intense liking for the subject, I found it insanely hard to zero in on a single car. When I was choosing my very first car, I had to make sure to get a car that complimented my character. So, my car HAD to be, HAD TO BE understated.
It HAD to be a German car - that was a no-brainer. Then, I had to figure out various other practical things to shortlist what could fit in my budget. So, I chose this guy. I chose him because it resonated with my character.
To the untrained eye, he is shy and blends along with the crowd. But, trust me - a very sophisticated guy on the inside. 8-speed evenly spaced gearbox? Done. AWD? Done. Comfort? Done. Elegance? Oodles of it. Understated? Heck yeah! Did I mention the gearbox? The gearbox is nothing short of a masterpiece. It is almost telepathic. You could sense the gears shift so smoothly to not startle anybody, particularly the driver.
Naturally then, he effortlessly takes you from 0 to 75 mph at such a smooth pace without letting you feel anything. And, when you brake he comes to a halt in such an artful way. Most of all, I like the fact that he is a simple guy. Nobody gives this guy a second look. He knows what he can do and he doesn’t complain. He doesn’t even complain when I feed him budget-friendly ethanol-blended gas from Costco. He is always content and performs with the resources available. My loyal companion.
So, I decided to name him aptly.
