An unemotional welcome turns into an emotional goodbye. Automobiles have this uncanny knack of sneaking into your hearts, right?

Bear with me, this column is a bit personal – it involves a bittersweet parting. After I moved on from Porsche India and gave up the fancy company car, I decided to try the new world of mobility, of non-car ownership and app based cabs to get to work.

- SRINIVAS KRISHNAN

Not a good idea, especially if you’re one of the most skilled backseat drivers in the world. It was teeth grittingly stressful trying to ghost-up shift gears, invisibly depressing the throttle pedal or nudging the entire car into the correct lane while sitting at the rear. Bringing my BP into control was more important than saving the environment by reducing one car from the road. In a frustrating three weeks flat, I decided to buy one after all.

I needed a not-so-tall SUV so that my parents could get into the car with ease, decent room inside for passengers and stuff, good build quality, an automatic transmission for coping with stop-go traffic, a petrol engine for refinement and of course, it had to be an involving car to drive – steering feel and handling were important. The other functional bit was that it had to have a large boot so photographers could move freely in order to take tracking shots, it should be a car that I should not fuss about when someone else was driving, plus could handle a bit of abuse. I was putting together features on vintage and classic cars for various magazines, so it needed to be part of my essential gear.