One of my favourite radio channels is National Public Radio (NPR) in US and a show named click clack
http://www.cartalk.com/ hosted by two car garage owners in Boston, brothers Tom and Ray Magliozzi. They both are MIT graduates!..Its fun listening to these guys and their advises from marriage counseling to car issues. Check them out
Getting to Abhijeet’s point “ on GM and Ford “ resale values.. Click clack guys some time back were and probably are one of the most despised guys in Detroit because of their critics of American cars, especially the gas guzzlers Suburban, Hummer, SUVs. But since middle 90s, the US cars have really stepped up in terms of reliability and other features. They are cheaper to maintain because their parts are readily available ( can be scavenged from junk yards) and familiarity of the mechanics and owners. Equivalent of that in India is what mechanics in North call “jugaad”, they can retool a part if required. ( there is a better English for jugaad so pitch in).
I am really against driving above 100 km/hr in India no matter which road, especially that game of chicken with on coming traffic while over taking on 2 lane highway and narrow bridges or culverts.
In winter up north, the Fog ( or is it Smog) is a killer these days, never have I seen or driven in this thick a fog and this is from someone who lived in Minnesota and drove in heavy snow/blizzards (only once) through Wisconsin in extreme whiteout conditions. I could not find Radisson hotel near Delhi airport even though we were standing right in front of it!
Not knowing the budget which Mack The Knife has, I am all for Bolero, soup it up to tank grade with Fog lights, etc, rough ride is good for digestion system , exercises some of the other unknown body muscles, and getting late remember that famous safe sign “better late than never”. Parting remark has any plowed fields with mahindra or any tractor. You will start appreciating the rides..our farmer mates on the board can atest to that.
rgds
Navdeep
PS due to halloween look what they have in top 10 scariest cars
1986 Suzuki Samurai aka Gypsy
Scary for: Drivers
Rolling over is fine if you've got personal knowledge of Knuckles Goldberg's wrongdoings and you're heading into the witness protection program. Rolling over at 70 miles per hour on asphalt, when you're swerving to avoid an errant chipmunk? Not so good. These cars were cheap, so they were purchased mostly by young drivers — the people most likely to end up hanging from the seat belt with four wheels in the air. Scarier still, the Samurai wasn't that much worse than other SUVs of the era.
1987 Ford Festiva
Scary for: Drivers
Take a good look at this car. Kind of small, wouldn't you say? Now imagine yourself in a Festiva surrounded by amphetamine-snacking tractor-trailer drivers. Going 75 miles per hour. At night. In the rain. Scared yet? We sure are. We once got in trouble for saying this car came right from the factory with a funeral wreath on the grille
1973 Volkswagen Microbus
Scary for: Drivers
Here's a scary idea: Design a car so the occupants' legs are the very first line of defense in a frontal crash. Then add poor stability. Shaped like a pizza box standing on end, the Microbus blew around on the
highway like Calista Flockhart in a wind tunnel. Drivers never had time to worry about these issues, though; they were too busy trying to keep themselves warm in the chilly Bus.
but after 5 minutes or so the car started to jerk and the engine switched off. I had run out of petrol. Berk! 
