General Opinion - Drive ourselves or not!?

Hi,

We have someone who can buy us a Tata Sumo for us to drive around India for 8-10 months but everyone keeps telling us we're mad!

What d'you recon...Are we??

Your thoughts would be apreciated!

Don't even try it..atleast without 6 months of supervised training !!

The worst part is you have to unlearn all the driving you have done OR learned till date and then start from Indian perspective..

have you been to India before? If you have seen the traffic in India and you still think you can manage ....... why not? provided you have the right papers.

ok...from a practical point of view there are a few things to consider. Unless you speak hindi, tamil, punjabi, etc and you get lost, have an accident, that sort of thing - then it could get difficult - possibly quite dangerous in some cases. For the length of time your are talking about - would a driver would be an option?

I imagine some of the more seasoned travellers will chime in soon - but I think if you have the chance you should definitely do it - great way to see the place

You are mad. Absolutely mad. Don't even think about driving yourself in India.

Seriously... the roads are packed with trucks, buses and private vehicles whose drivers have little or no regard for other road users and care only about getting from A to B as quickly as possible. They weave in and out, overtaking on blind corners, with one hand permanently on the horn. You will be killed.

Firstly instead of Tata Sumo buy a Tata Indica or Maruti Zen which would help you navigate in city condition and also give good speed and mileage on highway...

Secondly You must have proper papers in order to buy a car in India and I guess there might be some problem in this regard. Instead pay some deposit to some taxi company so that you don't have to transfer the car on your name and can drive wherever you want...

but don't let that stop you.

Assuming your papers are in order, it will be challenging, make no mistake about that. Urban areas will be especially difficult. And as for language, you've got ten months, plenty of time to get lost; that to me is part of the adventure.

I did a similar thing in Pakistan years ago. Did I get lost? Yes. Get into an accident? Yes. Have one of the indelible adventures of my life? Absolutely.

The only issues in my mind are

-Indian Highway driving experience.
-Enough knowledge about not-so-safe areas in India to drive around in. (You can still go, but you need situational awareness at least, avoid night driving etc)
-Condition of car.

The rest is all workable, including language.

not!

To elaborate, I did not specify urban driving as a huge problem. Maybe I should have.

It will be painful and stressful specially if you are not used to driving in Indian cities (and even if you are), but it is more manageable, overall.

The highway has a lesser margin for error.

A Sumo is a good choice as the height will be an advantage for visibility and you can bully your way through traffic. I drive a Scorpio at weekends and my wife prefers my 'Western' style of driving which involves looking further ahead than the car bonnet (hood). But the concentration required can be exhausting. A local driver is not necessarily any safer .... Just easier.

Hey, this local driver is both safe and, err, easy

Wow, I was not expecting anywhere near that many Contributions, that said some very valid advice.

I suppose i should clarify our situation. We have a friend in india (up in Assam) who is buying the car for us before we arrive so papers etc won't be a problem as he is going to get these for us and have it insured in his company name.

All of the comments that you have made are the sorts of things going around my head. Our biggest concern sadly is cost. We're gojng to one of the cheapest places to travel in the world and yet we have chosen a high risk high cost mode of transport and my biggest worry is crashing the car and losing our £2,000 outlay. that said the main reason we decided to do this in the first place was that when travelling if you see somewhere that looks interesting and you want to go and explore, you can when you're in a car...you can't when you're stuck on a bus/train.

That said if the chaces of having a huge accident and losing our transport early on then it would have been a pointless waste of money.

That said this is meant to be an adventure....I'm just not sure throwing £2k away is the sort of adventure I'm after!

high cost.. depends how many are travelling.

high risk.. depends who is driving.

financial concerns with crashing the car: I would be more concerned about the occupants in this eventuality. On the Indian highway, if you crash, you have to be lucky twice.. lucky that the crash is not serious, and lucky that you get prompt and decent medical attention if it is.


Overall, though, a great way to see India. I prefer driving over any other form of transport anyday.

Plus you have to consider the safety of the vehicle at night. You'd almost have to stay overnight in hotels that have a drive-in section for parking and keeping the car overnight. If you get a driver in a hired car, the driver will sleep in the car, and he is responsible for it wholly, even if you cause an accident for instance if you open the door and a drive-by hits it and falls.

If you hire a car you can ask the driver any time to stop. You do not need your own car for that. Plus if you have a mechanic problem you do not have the hassle to take care of that.

I do not know if it was mentioned yet in this thread but it is common in India that mechanics that you go to on the road actually steal items from your car and replace them with cheap ones, and you won't even notice (assuming you are not mechanics yourself).