Driven : Compacts & a few others

Kia Rio(2010) , Cerato(2011) & Optima(2010)
Till a few years ago when you heard the word 'Kia' an image similar to the one below would have popped into your mind :

A collage of some not so memorable, ugly and poorly built Kias of yesteryear

Kia is actually a pretty old company, it was founded in 1944 and its core business was bicycle parts!! After about a decade of building cycle parts they gradually expanded into motorcycles, trucks and finally by 1974 they started manufacturing cars. They partnered with Ford for the technical know-how and produced several re-branded Mazda models (Ford has maintained a stake in Mazda from the '60s and even now has a small piece of the company) and in a few years entered the then biggest automotive market, the holy grail for car manufacturers - the US of A. Their models were downright ugly, pathetically built, poorly marketed and not at all fun to own. But all that changed because in a few years Kia was declaring bankruptcy!! The present global economic recession has everybody fearing the worst but if you actually look closely there have been major setbacks to the economies of some parts of the world for quite some time now. During the 1997 Asian Economic crisis, Kia just could not keep itself afloat. Even though they blame the crisis for their failure I personally think it was a blessing in disguise, because not only were their ugly models out of the showrooms and roads, but they also got a new  investor, none other than their major competitior - the Hyundai Motor Company. From then on Kia and Hyundai have been sharing platforms and other resources and at one point of time it was very evident because their models looked so very similar to one another's which can be seen to some extent even now, check out the 2011 Kia models (on the left) and their similar platform-shared Hyundai models (on the right) :

The similarities are quite evident. The main difference between both the model line-ups is the design philosophy and this where Kia managed quite a coup. They managed to get the legendary Peter Schreyer on board as the Chief Design Officer. Peter Schreyer is the design maverick behind many of Audi's and Volkswagen's most beautiful models including the Audi TT and the Volkswagen New Beetle.

Some of Peter Schreyer's work with his previous employer

While Hyundai adopted a curvaceous approach, Peter Schreyer's aggressive sleek design lines for the Kia made it stand out. Kia got an easily identifiable 'Tiger Nose' grill and people began appreciating and even admiring Kias for their bold designs and vastly improved quality. The best part of Kia is still its price and now with such other amazing traits, choosing a Kia is really a no-brainer and fleet owners are flocking to the nearest distributors. The very fact that the one of the most recognized distributors of Toyota in Oman and worldwide, Saud Bahwan Autmotive, grabbed Kia from another smaller distributor, built a massive dedicated showroom for Kia and made the Kia buying and servicing experience as good as their other marques which include Lexus, Toyota, Mercury and Ford amongst many others. Some readers may seem skeptical when I said that Saud Bahwan is a globally recognized Toyota distributor, but believe me, in India, every employee of a Toyota distributor learns the Saud Bahwan story as a case study during their training!! So while working in Oman I got the opportunity to drive many Kias and for long durations of thousands of kilometers. First the Kia Rio 2010.

This is a nimble fuel efficient car, best suited for the city but can handle long drives quite well. Well I got loads to tell you about this car and a lot more but will have to be continued later, gotta run now. 

What a GP!!!

The Valecia MotoGP was simply spectacular!!! What an exciting race!!! Crashes, splendid overtaking maneuvers and a photo finish victory for Casey Stoner, you really cannot ask for any more action. The top 5 really fought for their positions and and the battle for the podium places were pure drama.

Life Mein Ek Baar

Just saw the first episode of 'Life Mein Ek Baar', an awesome Indian travel show that follows the adventures of Purab Kohli and 3 others. Purab started off as a Channel [V] VJ and found stardom when he played the character 'KD' in 'Rock On!!'. He's also appeared in several other movies and shows, but this is the first time I am seeing him on the small screen. I gotta tell you this guy is really awesome!! He's got a good sense of humour, is damn gutsy and is a good chap at heart. This show 'Life mein ek baar' was originally supposed to be based on Purab and 3 of his friends but Purab chose instead to give the opportunity to 3 guys who otherwise would not have gotten to do all the stuff that they ended up doing in the show. There was a well publicized selection of candidates mainly through FB and Twitter.

Initially I thought that this would be regular travel show with bunch of youngsters mainly based in and around India but that is totally not the case. These guys really do everything that they always wanted to do, and most of these things are stuff that you and me also have always wanted to do : skydiving, bungee jumping, driving a ferrari, washing a car with bikini clad babes, biking up a moutain etc. etc. In the very first episode itself these guys bike up the Leh mountains to the Khardung La Pass, which is supposedly the highest motorable road in the world. 2 of them actually have no biking experience whatsoever, and they drive up on Bullets!!!! It might seem possible when you just read about it here, but you should see that road for yourself, my heart was in my mouth when I saw how narrow the road actually is. It is 18,380 feet high (which means approx 5.6 kms above sea level!!!), filled with potholes, a steep cliff and sure death on one side and an unforgiving snow clad mountain on the other. Imagine a first time biker driving up on a heavy Bullet on this narrow little superhigh road!!! I am really looking forward to more of this show!!

Open Letters and Political Correctness

I am sure that all of us have gone through the 'open letter to delhi boy' saga which was all the rage on FB sometime ago. For those of you who were lost in the wilderness or busy playing with themselves :

1. The mother of it all : The Original Open Letter

This blog may or may not have been very popular before, but it has virtually become a viral mega-success thanks to the famous open letter to a delhi boy. The post in question is basically a rant by a pissed off chick at her ex, both of whom are apparently from 2 diverse cultures co-existing in the same country. This post is definitely worth a read for the awesome humor quotient. But RaagShahana's blog is not only all about the open letter and dark humor, the other posts are also equally humorous and an enjoyable read.

2. The supposedly best response to the original open letter :  Mad Momma's Politically correct response

Of course there are many who would love to piggyback on the new found popularity of the open letters and would want to exhibit their ignorance, lack of sense of humor and the fact that they have a stick up their *** by blogging about it and trying to drive a little traffic their way (yes your honour, I guess in all honesty I am guilty of this charge too ;-)). But Mad Momma takes things to a different level altogether and that too in a very bitter way. She thrashes Shahana's post  from all directions and tries to portray herself as the politically correct messiah who might have the answer to all the hatred within humanity. But personally it's just sad that people have to get so worked up over a really funny blogpost. Shahana's views might not have been the most mature or wise, but who cares? It was fun to read, well written and most importantly worth a good laugh. Nobody started hating Delhi boys or South Indian men more/less after reading it. Mad Momma probably was probably high on ecstasy when blogging coz she keeps praising herself for having found a 'fayer' handsome Sawth Indian boy and even talks about kissing and making up between northies, southies and drags in the pakistanis as well to her orgy!!!! Well these are the kind of people who might have problems with strong opinions like those expressed by Jeremy Clarkson. But Mad Momma is really not all that mad, the rest of her blog is really awesome and definitely worth a read.

3. Another Delhi boy trying to dodge the bullets : "I am better than that other Delhi boy, OK!!!"

We all know that most of the time most of us are not at all that perfect. Everyone has their moments of shame alongwith their moments of glory and we think we balance our good side : the helpfulness, sweetness, respect for others and whatever, with our bad side : our lies, the perverted things we sometimes think, ego, hatred and whatever. We rationalise that this is all part of being human, but author of  'The Disgruntled Mob' is the extreme end of the spectrum. He is the kinda guy who forks out major dough to watch the first F1in India and is busy observing the butt cracks of people ahead of him! But nevertheless his blog is an enjoyable read and his reponse the open letter is a good one.

Whatever I feel about these blogs or bloggers really do not matter coz all these blogs are good reads and you must check 'em all out.

Opera in Oman

Surprise of all surprises, Oman featured in a CNN story!!! The Royal Opera House is truly a landmark of the entire region itself and it is featured in the 'Inside Middle East' show on CNN which can be found here.

His Majesty Sultan Qaboos Bin Said is a big fan of music and symphony and the likes and this is one of his dream projects. The cultural scene is Oman is definitely going to get a shot in the arm with this latest addition.

Lloyd's Cars

Beuatiful isn't it??? The shiny new Merc CLS

The gay Lloyd ;-)

Entourage is really a superb show. If you haven't watched it already then you must, its supercool!!! For the ignorant, 'Entourage' is about the life of a successful movie star and his buddies who live with him, the series is loosely based on the life of Mark Wahlberg (he's an exec producer on the show BTW), and there are so many details that are simply amazing but let's start with cars, cause whoever is responsible for picking out the rides for the stars is doing an amazing job. While the main ensemble of Vincent Chase and his buddies are spoilt with exotic rides like the brand new Mercedes SLS, Hummers, Ferraris, Astons, Harleys and the celebrity favourite Cadillac Escalade, their agent Ari Gold gets to play with a new luxury ride every season, he's had it all, the Merc S-Class, BMW 7 Series, Lexus Hybrid and the stunning new Mercedes CLS.

But the most interesting choice of rides is for Lloyd, Ari's gay assistant. Only two times in the whole show we have been able to see Lloyd in his own car, the first time was long back in the first or second season when Lloyd drove around in an import tuner(looked like a Hyundai ;-)) and the recently Lloyd was spotted driving in a spanking new Chevrolet Volt. I guess the message is pretty clear : Cheap imports and Electric/Hybrids are for queers!!! ;-)  Japanese cars are almost like the gold standard now, so cheap imports very clearly means over modified Korean & Chinese shit, at least according to this blog ;-)

Lloyd's ride shown in the earlier seasons (not really but very close!)

Lloyd's latest baby

Hey before you bash me for not being green, I gotta tell you I love all kinds of cars, even electric, but these kind :

Tesla Model S

Tesla Roadster 2.5

Ad Backfire

Subaru is one of the most confused auto manufacturers in the world at least when it comes to design and marketing. They have some of the best technological know-how, thanks mainly to their amazing success in WRC and their motorsport partner responsible for their success, Prodrive. But their commercial cars have been mostly a joke for the last few years. They transformed a beautiful & capable Impreza into an ugly & gay  hatch, made a ridiculously useless & ugly 'SUV' called the Outback and have throughout their history re-badged models from other manufacturers to varying degrees of success. Most major auto brands have some kind of visual or non-visual recall feature that strikes a chord with auto enthusiasts : the famous 3-pointed hood ornament of Mercedes, the dual radiator grille of BMW, amazing engine refinement of Hondas, the clean design of Audis, the perfomance and styling of Porsches and so on. For Subaru, there is only one feature that is consistent throughout their model range for the last few years, they all are frickin UGLY!!!! Subaru is also known for their pathetic advertisements throughout the world, but their latest 'Mediocrity 2011' campaign takes the cake for being their most stupid, unimaginative, boring and just plain bullshit effort yet.

What the brilliant ad gurus at Subaru's trashy marketing agency have done is that they have taken a Kia Optima, tried to dress up the logos with their own 'Mediocrity' ones, and there you have it :  a very mediocre, run-of-the-mill, boring family sedan. I really have no clue what they are trying to imply here, because the car they have selceted is a 2005 Kia Optima which for some reason they have named as Mediocrity 2011. Now you might think that Subaru being a multiple times WRC champion might want to hint that their cars are way more sportier than the Kias and Medicoritys of this world. But take a look at their not-at-all mediocre attempt, the 2011 Subaru Legacy (the mediocrity campaign was designed for this model)  :

Looks familiar? Now take a look at the best selling mid-sizes :

The Toyota Camry :

and the Honda Accord :

So when you compare the 2011 Subaru Legacy with these other models, it almost looks as mediocre if not worse than the others! The Kia which the Subaru ad guys used was 2 generations old, so you want to know about the 2011 model of the Kia Optima? Check it out:

The brand new Optima looks like a stunner and is available in all kinds of options including Hybrid. 'Nuff Said. Go get your act together Subaru & way to go Kia!!!


Note : Many thanks to The Truth About Cars, a brilliant automotive website.