It's time to get connected!!!

It all started with a fight. I wanted more money for shopping. Nah, I am not interested in clothes or accessories but wanted to bring some more books in to my library. My husband was fed up of spending a huge sum every month in to books. Well, it is understood he is not that in to books. So, difference in opinions, difference in preferences and difference in choices lead to one big fight. Who cared about the fight, I was only disheartened for not getting sufficient money to spend. “Who asked you to take a break from work” my mind reminded at the wrong time. Frustrated when I logged in to Indiblogger, flipkart vouchers were floating everywhere. Being new to Indiblogger, I wasn't sure if I should really take part in the contest. The website “carconnect” did appeal to me (as I love cars) but the flipkart vouchers looked even more appealing as I always bought books through flipkart on discounts (Proud to be an Indian). Finally, after two days I decided to give it a try and hence, www.carconnect.in occupied my laptop screen. One more disappointment was on its way. It asked for a facebook log in only. And I had logged out of facebook about one and half years ago for lots and lots of personal reasons. I tried and searched for other log in options but my bad, nothing popped up on my screen. I gave up. Joining facebook was impossible for me; hence carconnect and those flipkart vouchers looked miles away.

Five days passed and every day I would log in to indiblogger, look at those flipkart vouchers, make a list of books I wanted to buy and even open facebook log in page only to close all the windows simultaneously. Finally, on the sixth day I took the pain of reactivating my facebook account and created my account in carconnect.in ready to take the next step. A step towards my voucher! Honestly, I cared less about carconnect imagining it would be like other websites comparing car prices, giving some reviews and explaining car’s overall performance. How different it could be, I asked myself. But something else was waiting for me.

The moment my profile was created, I knew what I had to do next. Share my driving experience and never log in to carconnect after that. Being honest here!!! But before doing that, I took five minutes to decipher carconnect. It definitely looked different than most of car comparing websites. It looked like a social networking website for car lovers. Now that is something creative and different. My instant reaction was “viola, I have found something nice here”. So my sharing of long drive experience got postponed.

A quick walk through carconnect :

What is carconnect?

Carconnect is a networking site exclusively for car lovers. Like most other sites, we get to know about the new launches and compare cars and read some interesting news about cars but the added bonus is people can share their experiences of long drives and happy moments associated with cars. For people like me, who love reinforcements in life, there are badges to earn by sharing experiences. It is pretty cool, haan!!!

Initially, I thought this website will take all my energy in decoding it. But thanks to its user friendly design, everything was in control of my fingertips.

Home page looked user friendly and easy to comprehend. 

So what to do next once the profile is created?

For a person like me, who loves reading I took some time and started enjoying other’s long drive experiences/car experiences. Some of the faces and names were known to me through indiblogger, hence wanted to promote their post. Only if this website gave us an option to like and promote other’s posts it would have been blissful.

We can also add people through facebook and have our own friend’s circle here. We get to know what they drive, what they want to drive and all their driving experiences.

MAKE CAR FRIENDS!!!

The next part is my personal favourite. Leader board is the progress report card of sharing experiences. Here people are ranked based on the number of badges earned. The moment we log in to carconnect.in and create our profile we earn a bronze badge. To earn a silver badge we need to submit five posts regarding our car experience or long drive experience. After sharing ten experiences we get a gold badge, after fifteen experiences a diamond badge and the final is platinum badge after successfully posting twenty beautiful driving experiences.

SO WHO IS ON TOP TODAY???

The next section is for long drive lovers. This section has all the information related to different routes and lots of posts regarding specific places. Easy to search! If you want to know how people coped up in Ladakh, then just click on Ladakh and you have got all the basic details for your next drive.

I PICK LEH!!!

Is it Mahindra XUV or Honda CR-V?  Which one should I buy? Then here is a way to know the most suitable car for you. Under compare cars section, you can select any two cars of your choice and a detailed report of comparison reaches your email box within 48 hours. You name it; they will evaluate and send you the details to help you make the best choice.

WHAT IS YOUR PICK???

The next segment is car news. If you like to know all the hot happenings of car world then this is your destination. You get all in and in information about different cars, where cars are getting manufactured, which company has stopped manufacturing a particular car and lots more. It is a trivia for cars and from now on, you won’t miss a single detail.

DAMN!! NEVER KNEW ALL THIS!!

The final section is about new launches. Planning to buy a new car then maybe you want to wait for a while and study the new market releases. Who know if you wait for another three months you might be able to afford a better upgraded version for the same amount. And for all those car fans who like to be updated with the new models and their specifications, you have hit the right place.

THIS KEEPS ME UPDATED!!

What did I do after studying this website quite closely?

I have been on so many long drives. I didn't know which one to write as my first post. 

SHARE YOUR PRECIOUS MOMENTS HERE!!

Finally, after a long discussion with myself I wrote the most memorable long drive experience with my husband (who was just my friend then) and was pushed back in time. Thinking about past events, opening up those old folders and looking at those pictures always makes you feel special. My anger towards my husband, which was silently hidden in for almost a week, vanished in seconds. Immediately I messaged him and told him, he could sponsor for my books alternate months. I would call it, power of love or may be power of memory. Carconnect in fact gave me a way to connect with those sweet memories and made me pen them down. I was only glad that I decided to write for this competition.

Few negatives about carconnect

Every beauty comes with a black spot and indeed carconnect has some. Like I said before I wanted to promote certain posts and make them popular so that many more people could read them. Well, these options are not available in carconnect. However, we can like some posts via facebook.

My post took a long time, more than twelve hours, to get published (at this point, it is still under moderation). I only hope they quicken this process so that we get the pleasure of seeing our posts published and stop checking the status every hour!!!

I wished the log in was through google plus also. I do agree half of the world is in facebook. But there are people like me, gotten bored of facebook or tired. So if they enhance their log in information, google will be more than happy to serve I guess.

My thoughts about carconnect

It is obvious by now that carconnect has gathered all the car lovers under one roof. It has given us a home. It is not about comparing two cars alone, it is a much bigger platform for all those car fans, long drive admirers to do something more exciting in life. It is not about what you share in a post but what you have done in your life to get qualified to write them. You will start feeling a rockstar when you earn a platinum badge, not because it is the highest medal given but you have a life worth a platinum badge. People say, experience makes man perfect but I say experience makes a man complete. Have new experiences, share them and try living other’s experiences too. Audi R8 is my dream car and I am waiting to read a post on it in carconnect. May be I will never buy it (fingers crossed) but I will be more than happy to read the feelings of a man who drives it. This is why I liked this website the moment I spent five minutes on it.

My take on carconnect

You all car fans out there go and check out carconnect. I am not promoting it or maybe I am but I believe in the slogan “pehle instemal karo phir vishwas karo” (First use it to trust it). I am sure you will all love it.

Don't connect only with cars but also, with people who share your interests!!!

P.S:  Everything was done to earn those flipkart vouchers but more than that I want that platinum badge and my photo beneath the first man who earned it in carconnect. 

Find it interesting? Then check it out at http://www.carconnect.in/

This post is written for indistuff, as a part of indblogger, in association with carconnect. 

HAPPY DRIVING!!!