Chevrolet selling inferior vehicles in India?

That thick black smoke always catches my attention on the highway. It doesn’t ooze out from any industrial chimney, and not even from any garbage pile on fire. It blows out of a Chevrolet vehicle - the Chevrolet Tavera.

Everyday I commute from Delhi to Gurgaon in Haryana as I am working there in one of the Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) firms in Global Business Park, a built-up commercial area with lot many MNC’s running their offices. The road taken for office is the National Highway-8 (NH-8). My cab picks me from my place in Delhi and just after 15 minutes of commuting, it reaches NH-8. I like the traveling time. Our cab, after crossing the busy Delhi area now speeds on the broad, open six-lane highway. The morning air seems refreshing with mild sunshine.

A few white-colored giants zoom ahead our cab and wake me up from my dreamy world. It is the Chevrolet Tavera that speeds away with a thick black smoke behind, right before my eyes. This vehicle is mostly used as a taxi to fare passengers like me to offices in Gurgaon. I always wonder; how come an American vehicle manufacturer is selling a vehicle so poor in quality that its exhaust pipe always oozes out a heavy black trail with it. It’s not that no other vehicle is used as a taxi. There are many, Maruti Omni (Petrol or CNG), Tata Indica (diesel), Toyota Qualis (diesel) and a few others.

I regularly drive my Maruti Alto, so I am not an amateur. Then I apply my brain….. What can be the reason behind the smoke coming out of Taveras?? Every time the transmission level is changed (gear shifted), a huge ball of black smoke is seen. Why can’t I see the same phenomenon in other vehicles used as taxis? All vehicles are manufactured by reputed car makers, then why only Tavera?

Tavera is manufactured by one of the biggest automobile manufacturers in the world and that’s Chevrolet. I wonder how an American manufacturer can be so poor in technology. I can’t understand all diesel vehicles running on the same quality of diesel don’t emit the same thing. Is the engine faulty? Is the technology substandard? Can any inferior quality vehicle be sold in India that doesn’t even comply with the vehicular emission norms??? And there are thousands of Taveras running daily….

Only the manufacturer knows the truth…I can only come out with guesses and interpretations each day.