The 118 NE may have had teething troubles, but it was actually quite a sturdy and reliable car. It had a proven Nissan engine powering it and the body was quite solid, very unlike the Marutis and the other cars of the current crop. I had gone on a joy ride to Nandi once, in a friend's 118 NE. He was a superb driver and was showing off all that it could do. He was hugging the left-shoulder of the road, as he should have been, when we were climbing up Nandi. It was about six in the morning and the visibility was quite low: we could barely see five feet ahead of the bonnet. We were just about half a dozen curves before the top when disaster struck. A KSRTC bus which was coasting down with the engine and the lights turned off bore down upon us. Since it was a sharp turn and the bus isn't exactly very narrow, he chose to take our side of the road too, to ensure he made a quick turn. When we saw him, he was three feet in front of us. I was in the front seat and I remember thinking that it may be the last thing I see. My friend pulled as far left as he dared in the second before the bus made contact. The bus had attempted to swing too, in the last moment, so the front portion of our car went below the right side of the bus. The bus stopped partially because of its own brakes and partially because the 118 NE stopped its progress. Our car was stuck underneath the bus. The bus driver chose to start off on the offensive, but when he realized that we weren't backing down and that he'd indeed come downhill without any indication (not even the horn), he chose to end the discussion in haste. After a series of forward and backward jerks, the bus backed off the car and went its way. We called for our trusted mechanic who drove there all the way from Bangalore in a little over an hour and half. All it took was the application of a crowbar to get raise the front end off the front wheel and the car was driven back to Bangalore for repairs. Oh, there was no other damage, other than the slightly crushed bonnet. Not even a cracked windshield, though the car had been buried almost to the windshield, underneath the bus. Any injuries to us? A slight cut on my finger. Seconds before the crash, I'd picked up an audio cd and was preparing to load it into the player. The collision caused my hand to hit the dashboard hard enough to shatter the cd! It was the broken cd that caused the cut! That was all the damage we took! Any other car such as any of the Marutis, I probably wouldn't have been around to post this comment.
Oh my goodness! Well, the trouble with most 118NES was the fuel pump, and I guess your friend got a really good car. I'm glad you survived with just a CD cut...
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