Beauty, they say, is in the eye of the beholder, well they are lying. There are things that are truly beautiful and there are certain things are sadly not. Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus (Victoria Terminus) is gorgeous, Majid station is not. Salma Hayak is beautiful, Uma Thurman is not. Now imagine full fledged sedans like Fiat Linea, Volkswagen Polo, Nissan Sunny, with no hindrances in design factor, everything proportional to the "T". On the other hand take sub-four metre sedans, a first glimpse and you cant resist twitching an eye, you cant help but wonder if something is wrong with this model.
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| Maruti Suzuki Swift |
Sub-four metre caught the trend due the stringent government's excise duty policy, forcing automobile gods to produce models of car that are anything but beautiful. Compare it with these scenarios: Railways suddenly decides to beautify the Masjid station like Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus with elaborate pillars, tinted glass roofs, gargoyles on roof tops. Or picture this Salma Hayek suddenly decides to have a breast reduction surgery, what would be your reaction, a big smear of absurdity and uncertainty would emerge on your face. So these scenarios prove a point that some things are beautiful and some things just aren't.
We know that a car's beauty is often defined by its curve and lines but the most simple yet complex matter it should retain its proportion. The only thing that I am good in designing is a hyphen and that too with a ruler, but I can even clearly predict the horrendousness that will be in store if someone tries to replicate the erogenous curves of an XK120 in the silhouette of an Ambassador.
Yeah I know India isn't well known in automobile industry for its design styling but rather known for its "Jugaadu" style of manufacturing cars and sub-four metre sedans fit this bracket perfectly. The problem with with the four metre sedans isn't the lack of beauty though. The problem is they are an embodiment of messed up priorities, and stifled innovations. India should be innovating cars with better fuel efficiency, better safety standards, rather than trying to include every nature of vehicular body into four metre bracket, be it be a SUV, MPV or a sedan for excise benefit.
In my opinion excise benefits should be imparted on car having six airbags, traction control, ESB, ABS, etc. A car should be benefited of its excise duty which gives more miles to the gallon, and if they are longer than four metre then I assure you we will survive.
As of now four metre sedans are scorching the sales chart but let me conclude its taking us, quite literally, nowhere.
