BHPian Dippy recently shared this with other enthusiasts: As car enthusiasts, we have all test-driven many cars over the years. Whether it is to decide on a new purchase or a casual drive to get a feel of the car you like. While some cars really impress us, others leave us disappointed. This is my experience of the worst car I have test-driven to date. And that is 21 years ago. The story begins in the year 2004, a couple of months after Team BHP was born. It was the month of April, and I was at home relaxing on a weekend when the doorbell rang. It was the postman, and he handed over an envelope to me. The envelope said, “You are invited”, and there was a picture of a red car at the bottom. I instantly recognized it as the San Storm because I had just recently heard of it. I opened the envelope, and inside was an invitation to come and test drive the San Storm. Naturally, my first reaction was “Why not?” So the following Saturday morning, I set out to drive the car. The showroom was located in the Prabhadevi area in Mumbai, right where the VW showroom stands today. There were two cars parked there, a red and a yellow. One gentleman greeted me and allotted me the yellow car on seeing the invitation. He gave me a quick lowdown on the car and handed over the keys. Fun part, he didn’t even accompany me on the test drive. He just sent a helper from the showroom along. Before the drive, I took some time to check out the car. Horrible would be an understatement. It was so badly put together. There were bubbles in the paint, huge and uneven panel gaps throughout the body and a shabby soft top which felt cheap. The interior was even worse. It was a mashup of multiple cars from that era. It had power window switches from the Ford Ikon, AC front panel from the Fiat Uno, light and wiper switch from the Maruti Esteem, steering wheel from an Opel Corsa, gear knob and some other stuff from the Fiat Palio. I started off driving and headed to Worli Seaface. In those days, that was the only road where you could do some spirited driving. But little did I know that the word ‘spirited’ didn’t find a place in the Storm’s dictionary. The 1.2-litre Renault engine with 58 BHP was lethargic to say the least. Reaching 5000 rpm was a long shot. It was crying at even 3500 rpm. The 5-speed manual gearbox was the worst in terms of shift quality. On one round of Seaface, I revved the car to the redline in 4th gear, and instead of going to 5th, I ended up going into 2nd. You can imagine how the motor must have cried then. I literally thought that the car was going to fall apart. I did a couple of rounds and handed the car back to the dealership. The sales guy told me they had 87 orders, and the price? A cool Rs. 6.27 lakh on-road in Mumbai. I just smiled and walked away. Getting back into my Zen AT, I felt at peace. This was easily the worst car I have ever test-driven. In all these years, nothing can come close to this experience. I’m sure many of you have your own stories to tell. Let’s hear them. And oh, GTO was also with me during the test drive. I’m sure his version of the experience will be equally entertaining. A few pictures I had clicked back then: The rear three quarter: From the dead rear: The interior at a glance. Look closely and you can see the mashup of parts. Check out the test drive invites in the red envelopes on the dashboard : And finally, me giving a thumbs dow to the Storm: Read BHPian comments for more insights and information.
