CEOs On Drive

Mahesh Tharani gets driven from Goa to Mumbai on premium SUVs by some corporate head honchos and he's not complaining…

It is 3 a.m. and I am searching for my walkie-talkie. I need to complain about the electricity going out. I have no idea why the lights have gone off but I am sure as soon as I get on the handset somebody from LeasePlan will fix the problem. Then the veils of sleep lift and it hits me that this is home in Mumbai. Things had been different yesterday. Three days earlier I was flying down from Mumbai to Goa to attend a drive from Goa to Mumbai via Chiplun in eight Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs) to be driven by CEOs and managing directors of pharmaceutical companies and BPOs. It isn't everyday that a journalist gets to be driven around the country by people who should under normal circumstances have been sitting in the back seat. From driving in Nissan's X-Trail, an SUV not yet launched in India, with Stephen Gerlich, managing director, Bayer India Ltd to arriving in Mumbai in style in the Mitsubishi Pajero driven by Raghu Kumar, business unit head, Novartis Consumer Health India Pvt Ltd, it was perfectly planned and executed by LeasePlan India.

Burning rubber on the highway

From the time we landed in Goa everything seemed to be taken care of with a treasure hunt organised for the entire group. A long search for the bottles of champagne all around the 75-acre property of the Leela Resort and a lot of dancing later everybody hit the sack for the big day. A day where rubber would burn and the horsepower and torque of each of the cars would be on everyone's lips.

I am off in the automatic Honda CRV (priced at Rs 14.9 lakh) with Dr Ashok Alate, managing director, Ferring Pharmaceuticals, and his wife zipping through the narrow National Highway 17, which hardly qualifies as a highway since it winds its way through quaint little towns in the state of Goa. Dr Alate says, "These highways are very small, something needs to be done about them." I wonder whether anything would ever be done about it and whether anything should be done about it. After all, that's what makes the place what it is and any alteration would make it like any other city that we live in.

The 91-kilometre sojourn in the Honda CRV comes to an end and from one comfortable ride I switch over to the Nissan X-Trail (priced at Rs 23.8 lakh) which is driven by Stephen Gerlich. His wife Marion sits besides him and in true European style they open up the available sun-roof. "We're evaluating the car, let's try the horn," says Gerlich. He's drumming his fingers on the steering wheel and increasing and decreasing the volume from the volume controls on the steering wheel. "Very comfortable, but it's too expensive, it drives well," says Gerlich. The back seat is probably not the most comfortable place to be sitting with very little leg room, and after the 70-kilometre drive through the gladed road we get to lunch.

We had expected the eastern rains while in Goa and it hadn't rained. We didn't expect it to begin raining while we were in Ratnagiri district and sure enough it did. The water came down in bucketfuls. Sandeep Sethi, managing director, Johnson Controls India Pvt Ltd and I teamed up in the Suzuki Grand Vitara (priced at Rs 17.9 lakh) and that's when I got my walkie talkie to co-ordinate with the other cars and the organisers from LeasePlan who were driving in the lead car, the Ford Endeavour (priced at Rs 13.94 lakh for the basic model, however the Endeavour at present was worth Rs 15.6 lakh).

Sethi who had come without his spouse would have preferred driving without the rain. "I could test the car better, but all said and done this car is very good, it even has elbow room," he says. We're driving through the stark clay red panorama that is Ratnagiri, with the Eagles and Santana playing on CD. "These guys have organised this very well, they've thought of almost everything, there's music, there's chewing gum, there's water to drink and plus they have a back-up car and petrol in spare. This is good," he says.

We roll down the windows as the rain stops and the quality of road deteriorates. We're just about getting used to the wind on our faces when we literally drive in to a heavy downpour. After a comfortable 100-kilometres of a very comfortable ride in the Grand Vitara, it's time for the last changeover for the day and this time I am being driven in the Hyundai Terracan (priced at Rs 19.9 lakh) by Jan Brusselaers-Behets, Veerle's husband. Veerle Behets is the managing director of LeasePlan India and her husband Jan is a giant of a man, with a sense of humour.

Jan takes to the wheel and the steering looks like a toy in his huge hands. "See the company has organised the rain so that the MDs could test the cars out," says Jan with a smile. "They tried to organise snow, but that wasn't easy in this part of the country," he continues. The Terracan is spacious and for a person not very tall, I literally walked in and out of the car at the last stop for the day, the Taj Gateway at Chiplun.

The next day's drive begins in the Ford Landrover Discovery, which according to the hand guide provided to me is priced at Rs 50 lakh, but I am informed that the car we are driving isn't that expensive. The price tag is for the newest version they are going to launch soon. Pradeep Damle, country manager, Ferro International Services Inc and his wife have been living in the US until recently when they shifted to Pune. Damle has been driving SUVs for some time, but is finding controlling difficult. The roads are bad and the car is not responsive, "I swear I drive well, but this is difficult, I guess it's already driven a 100,000-kilometres, that's why." It is a steep road and while the Pajero ahead of us climbs with ease, the Landrover is having problems. "It's built like a ship," I say. "Yes and it moves like one too," says Damle as he tries to steer to keep the vehicle on the narrow road.

Seventy-seven kilometres is enough for us and we're looking for something better to either drive or be driven in. The Chevrolet Forester (priced at Rs 13.4 lakh) is a break from driving SUVs, because it qualifies more as a car than an SUV. Raghu Kumar, business unit head, Novartis Consumer Health India Pvt Ltd says, "It doesn't even handle like an SUV, it's like driving a car. I liked the drive of the Vitara, it really gripped the road well." We're listening to Mukesh and the drive is comfortable as we cruise down a bad road, which we are not aware of, due to the suspension but are informed of by the hand guide, which describes the route where description is possible.

The Ford Endeavour is looming as the next car that I get driven in and the experience of the first Ford wasn't the best and least expected from a company that has made a car like the Mustang. "Navanit have you heard Karunesh?" I ask as I bring in a CD from the other car. We begin the drive and a few other cars overtake us. "This car is grossly under-powered," says Navanit Narayan, managing director, Epicentre Technologies as he digs into his bag of chips, while his wife looks at him, informing him that that's the last chip he's eaten for the day. The car is comfortable and the drive smooth. We're approaching the Mumbai-Pune expressway and we take a divert for lunch in Khandala, which also serves as our last changeover.

I arrive in style in the Mitsubishi Pajero (priced at Rs 20.5 lakh for the basic version, the car which we drive is fully loaded and valued at Rs 40 lakh) to Mumbai. I am driving for a second time with Raghu Kumar and his wife as we cruise down the expressway. The high powered Pajero is on song as the road zooms past us backwards, the car is silent enough to make us feel that it weren't on.

The drive has been perfect, I have used the walkie-talkie to let the lead car know where we are and also to listen to music playing in the other cars. I have even used the handset to ask about the Chinese Grand Prix, but, unfortunately, when it came to mosquitoes at home, the walkie-talkie was missing.