More than the objective understanding of an automobile, its subjectivity needs to be looked at thoroughly when one reviews a vehicle. And it can only be done once you experience the drive

People often tell me that I have a cushy job of ‘reviewing cars’ and undoubtedly, it would be wrong if I deny that it is a terribly difficult one. Having said that, changing cars and early wake-up calls every few days are not as amazing as many suspect them to be. But a job is a job, and evaluating a car to be good or bad is not simply getting the stats together and blabbering them out with a string of adjectives attached. There is an objective part to a review, of that there is no doubt. Engine size, output, 0-100 times, car dimensions, interior fittings and what not. However, all of that is in the brochure as well but the art of the review is in the subjective things. The stuff that they do not tell you in the brochure, and things which you can only get to know once you drive the car.

Keep in mind, my perception of a vehicle can be very different to that of my friends in the automotive writing trade. The way we review cars is also quite different depending on where we drive them. The ‘first drive’, usually a short one on a (very straight) highway, does not reveal much, other than giving an idea of acceleration and the interiors of the car, alongside seating position, luggage space and some other ponderables. This is a mere reason why I love spending a week or two with a car, sometimes even longer. Doing so can give you a strange appreciation of a vehicle. For close to two months, I drove the Diesel AMT version of the Grand i10 Nios and while the gearbox was far from being smart, indeed slow would be a better adjective, I grew to appreciate the size of the car, its superb handling and overall appropriateness for urban conditions. If you have a long urban commute, one where you cover over 50 kilometres in a day, this is the best you could possibly buy. Yes, it can be more peppy but who am I to argue with 21 kilometres per litre.

It brings us to the other point, how I (and most other serious auto reviewers) look at aspects like ride and handling, and even acceleration for that matter. For example, acceleration is not something you do with a 0-100 speed run because other than a few expressways in India, it’s illegal. How many times in real life, after you have turned 25, do you drop the clutch drive like a maniac off the red light, especially with expensive petrol? So you look at how quickly and effectively you head off from a traffic light or toll gate, changing gears at the right engine speeds. Then you observe how the gears respond, keep an eye on the engine speed and notice when and where you need to change. The fact is that most cars sold in India are driven in the city and have to be the urban warriors.

Then there are ride and handling, again imponderables for many ‘car reviewers’ and something that no brochure can tell you. Therefore, I have often seen comments and sentences from proper reviews appearing on certain motoring sites, sometimes entire paragraphs. This is something you can feel yourself being shoved into the side bolsters or even off the seats when you take a sharp turn. At times, you get surprised at how well and true a car handles after you turn the steering, and while most front-wheel drive cars tend to understeer a bit, that is that the wheels do not turn as much as you want to, you learn to compensate for that. I did not expect the Renault Triber I am currently driving to take the sweeping right-hander at the end of the Barapullah flyover as steady as it did. It is no Lamborghini or even a BMW 3-series for that matter but sometimes cheap and cheerful cars today can surprise you too with just how nicely the steering is weighted, how the car turns and how much (or little) body roll there is. One of my major issues with the MG Hector is the lack of precision in the steering and the grotesque amounts (for a modern vehicle) of body roll.

Then there are other things that we consider, stuff like the utilisation of space, something that despite the Maruti S-Presso’s less than stellar looks, it does extremely well as does the Renault Triber. And while car companies talk about how much space or lack thereof, their boots might have, you actually need to see how high or low the loading lip is. Consider ergonomics, where the switches are, how solid or not the switches and dials are and check seat and steering adjustability. There is one of my personal bugbears, the quality of plastics, because while you can always change your seat covers, you cannot change the look and feel of the plastics. If the plastics feel like shit, too ‘plasticky’ (yes, I see the irony there) they can ruin a perfectly good vehicle which has brilliant mechanics. Nowadays, I find myself giving a lot of attention to the layout of steering wheel controls, let alone everything else.

Yes, it is a fun job and I thank my lucky stars for doing it for almost two decades. I get to travel a lot, drive on amazing roads and get to experience some amazing scenery. But do not think that I, or folks such as the other jury members of the Indian Car Of The Year (ICOTY), have an easy job because it is not just about liking cars, driving and travelling. At the end of the day, this is a serious business and anybody who says that it isn’t, does not know what it takes.