What’s the matter with the car I’m driving?
Don’t you know that it’s out of style?
Should I get a set of white wall tyres?
Are you gonna do the miracle mile?
Now-a-days you can’t be too sentimental
Your best bet’s a true baby blue Continental
Hot funk, Cool Punk, Even if it’s old junk
It’s still Rock n Roll to me.

—from Billy Joel’s song "Its still Rock ’n Roll to me"

Billy Joel would have been disappointed. His song was old fashioned then. It is archaic now. The slug-out between the Fiat and Ambassador, and later between the Premier Padmini and the Ambassador, seems as old as Methuselah himself. A car is no longer four wheels, a chassis and a hood that can carry a family of four or six in comfort. Since the slew gates opened in the mid-90s, the Indian automotive market has been inundated with the best brands the world has to offer. Ergo—like power dressing, we now have the era of power driving. Today, the cars vying for visibility on Indian roads include the Opel Astras, Mitsubishi Lancers, BMWs and Mercedes’ of the world.

They bring with them a strong brand, a great deal of style and a lot of features. Prepare to be sneered at, therefore, if you don’t know what MPIJ means, or if you are innocent of such knowledge as which car offers a GPS (global positioning system). And sorry—you’re not getting the answers here!

To kick off the new year a little differently, Dataquest asked Indian IT’s top chief executives which cars they drove and why. What was the first car they owned and what is it that they look for when buying a car in today’s changed auto firmament? For more on that, read on...

Abraham Thomas, CEO and MD, IBM India
Abraham Thomas has a case of the blues. The first car he bought at the age of 18 was a Daihatsu Charade in light blue. The Honda City he has now is a dark blue, as have been most of the cars he’s owned in between. He also has a beige Mitsubishi Lancer, but that, he says with a wave of his hand, "is used by my wife and children. Blue is the color I love".

Thomas changes his car every three years or so, looks at safety features first and then comfort, when buying a new one, and while in India, prefers to be driven around rather than drive himself, which is what he does back home in Singapore. There he drove a SAAB 9000, which, he says, "was a joy to ride thanks to features like acceleration, control, safety, comfort".

Lakshmi Narayanan, President & COO, Cognizant Technology Solutions
Narayanan bought his first car 16 years ago. And of course, it was a Premier Padmini. "I exercised the choice between the two cars that were available and I chose the Premier Padmini. You all know what the other choice was," he quips.

Today, Narayanan owns an Opel Astra Club and knows exactly why. "I have a fancy for German-engineered cars. The best car I ever owned was an Audi four-door sedan. German engineering provides a certain solidity and reliability to the car," he says. Opel is a "German engineering product," hence the choice. Narayanan is also a self-confessed backseat driver. "I prefer to have a driver, but do the driving through constant instructions to the driver. I dislike the traffic, and hence the driving." He adds with disarming candidness—"My driver dislikes me. I’m a very painful passenger."

Narayana NR Murthy Chairman and CEO, Infosys Technologies
Stories abound of Narayana NR Murthy’s simple lifestyle. One goes like this—when Infosys got its first-ever order (from Mico), Murthy went on a scooter to collect it. And someone suggested to him, politely, that it might have been a good idea to hire a car. Infosys’ chairman did not, in fact, own a car till 15 years ago and his first ever buy was a Fiat. Today, he owns a silver gray Opel Astra because, he says, "It’s a great piece of engineering. I am an engineer and I value engineering excellence." As for what he looks for in a car, the answer remains disarmingly simple—comfort.

D Kannan, Director & CEO, Pentasoft Technologies
Kannan is one of the few on this list who started out with an Ambassador 15 years ago, followed by various cars from the Maruti stable. Today, he owns a Mitsubishi Lancer, which he favors for its elegance, comfort and features. His car-buying decisions are influenced by some very basic considerations—brand, compatibility with Indian roads and service back-up.

Pramod Khera, CEO, Aptech
The first car Pramod Khera ever drove was a Premier Padmini. He preferred that over the Maruti 800 because it looked sturdier and he was told that maintenance costs would not be too high. "These things were important 15 years back," he says. Today, he owns a Mitsubishi Lancer but his fundamental requirements haven’t changed much. He likes the Lancer for its steadiness and ease of maneuvering. As for speed, here’s his side of it—"Speed is not of much help in Mumbai!" Khera employs a driver for week-day travelling, but loves taking the car out by himself for long weekend drives.

ML Tandon Chairman, Celetron India
Tandon started out with an OldsMobile. Today, he owns a BMW 7 Series and his "other car" is a Mercedes 500. Tandon has long been partial to the Merc. He owned a 300 Series 20 years ago and has had the 500 for the last 15 years. "Both are fun to drive," he says. "The BMW handles better, while comfort, legroom and reliability are better in the Mercedes." His buying decision is influenced by "responsiveness, pickup, maneuverability and prestige".

Manoj Chugh CEO, Cisco Systems India
No big surprises here. Manoj Chugh, like many at the time, was driving a Fiat 15 years ago. Today, he owns a Honda City—a car he is partial to because of its comfort and safety features. In fact, Chugh’s basic requirement of a car consists largely of comfort and ease of driving. Like some others, while he does prefer to drive on his own, he employs a driver. ANd that’s simply because "you get more work done while on the move that way".

Balu Doraisamy Managing Director Compaq India
Compaq India chief Balu Doraisamy is an extremely private man and this is not the kind of information he wanted to share. However, he made a one-time exception, and here it is. Doraisamy drives a Mitsubishi Lancer, which he favors for its size and comfort as well as an excellent AC. His first car was a Nissan, bought about 20 years ago. From there, he moved on to a BMW and a SAAB. Given traffic and road conditions, he prefers a driver in India and opts to drive himself when overseas.

Suresh Vaswani President, Wipro Infotech
Twenty years ago, Wipro Infotech’s head honcho was driving his father’s Fiat. When time came for him to buy his own transport, he chose a motorbike. In fact, it a wasn’t until a few years ago that Vaswai chose to buy and drive his own car, his very first being a Maruti 800. Unlike most of his peers, Vaswani’s been extremely loyal to his cars. The only other car he bought since his first was a Maruti Esteem—which he still drives. He’s got utilitarian tastes – the car’s overall performance is fine and it is comfortable to drive—and he wants nothing more. As for the Esteem, "I don’t want to give it up till it gives up on me," he says.

Rajeev Kaul Managing Director, Microsoft
Twenty years ago, Kaul was driving the scooter most of India was driving—a Bajaj Chetak. Coming as he does from a younger generation from most of the others featured here, no surprise that his first car was a Maruti 800 15 years ago. Today, he drives an Opel Astra for the same reason he bought the Maruti a decade-and-a-half ago—ease of driving and a comfortable ride.

Bhaskar Pramanik Managing Director, Sun Microsystems
Pramanik is a self-confessed gadget freak. No surprise, therefore, that he owns and drives a Mercedes 200 CDI and also on occasion, an Opel Astra. Why? The usual suspects, really, as far as the Mercedes is concerned—performance, features, styling and power. As Bhaskar says, "the Power is fantastic... on demand." Other things that he watches out for are speed, ease of driving, suspension and road-handling, and the Mercedes performs superlatively on most of these, though ease of driving may be a bit of an issue on narrow Indian roads. Like Rajive Kaul of Microsoft, the first car Pramanik ever bought was a Maruti in 1985. Since then, he has had a Contessa, an Esteem VX and a Merc 190E.

S Ramadorai CEO, TCS
The first car the TCS head ever owned and drove was a Volkswagen Beetle. This was in his days before joining the company, when he was still in the United States. When he moved to India, he had to abandon the Beetle for a Standard 10 and a while later, for the Padmini 118 NE. These days Ramadorai owns a Honda City—a car he’s partial to because of its reliability and durability, though he no longer drives himself. "I prefer a driver these days because it gives me the time to read and reflect."

Ajai Chowdhry Chairman & CEO, HCL Infosystems
Chowdhry has very fond memories of the first car he every drove. "When we started HCL, 25 years ago, we had to meet our delivery commitments to our customers in IIT Chennai. I still remember picking up the first few desktop computers personally from the airport and delivering to my customer in my Fiat. There are fond memories of my first car." Today, Chowdhry owns a BMW. One of the surest ways of offending a car enthusiast is to ask him "Why BMW?" If he deigns to reply to this rather blasphemous question, he’ll tell you—"Because BMW is God." Chowdhry didn’t say that, but simply mouthed—"Engineering excellence." Now, what more can one add to that?