Alexandra Mary Hirschi, best known as Supercar Blondie is a renowned Australian social media celebrity, video presenter, and vlogger based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. She is best known for her automotive videos, mostly about sports & exotic cars, and enjoys a handsome fan following on social media with over 51 million followers on Facebook, over 12.3 million followers on Instagram, and over 11.9 million subscribers on YouTube.
According to Hirschi herself, she provides “insight into the supercar culture and what it’s like to drive these incredible cars in a light, fun way.” She is known among the Top 30 most influential women in the Arab world and has won multiple influencer accolades already. Her social presence is so dominating that big brands like Bugatti and Ferrari often advertise their products through her. Instead of being a typical automotive journalist, Hirschi usually posts short videos that highlight cool or unseen features of cars in a very captivating manner, with her focus usually on expensive luxury saloons, performance, or exotic cars.
Interestingly, Hirschi was born on the 21st of September 1985 and is in fact 6 years younger than the 7th gen ST-90 Suzuki Carry aka Pak Suzuki Bolan which is still in production in Pakistan despite being over 42 years old. More interestingly, the 7th gen Carry was replaced by the 8th-generation model in March 1985, six months before the Supercar Blondie was born.
Related: Suzuki Carry (Bolan & Ravi) Becomes 42 Years Old
While Hirchi does a lot of videos about performance & exotic cars, covering Pak Suzuki Bolan and highlighting its endless list of features & equipment will indeed be a very interesting thing to fantasize about. More importantly, a price tag of nearly Rs 2 million for a 45-years-old piece of history will be mind-boggling for Blondie. We can only speculate as to Hirschi’s response and the elements that she will highlight in the Suzuki Bolan. Let’s begin!
We’re now LIVE in Pakistan… for the first time yeah… and it is a big big surprise for me to see this… car??? Guess what? It’s called a Bow-Laaan… It looks like a very old generation of Suzuki Carry that’s usually sold in this part of the world. But to my surprise, it’s a 42-year-old car… yeah forty-two years old… gosh it is even older than I am!
Related: The Fool’s News
Ok so are you ready to explore this thing with us, can’t wait… To begin with, it has a key… a key! a traditional key that I saw in history books only. I don’t remember when was the last time I opened a car with such a primitive key but hey wait… there is no key opener on the passenger side door. What..? Are you kidding me? No key opener on the front passenger door??… lol. Guess I will have to go to the other side of the door so that I can unlock this…. thing… ewww! [starts walking towards the other side with the camera following her].
So now I am on the other side because it’s a right-hand drive car so I have to be on the right side of the car to open it but it’s strange it doesn’t even have a key opener on the other door. How do they manage to enter the car if it’s blocked by another closely parked car, I have absolutely no idea! Well.. forget about it lets… uhhhh putting all my force to twist this thing to open up and tadaaaa…. the door is opened.
Related: Just How Old The Suzuki Bolan Is..
Oh no, what’s this? no insulation, no floor carpeting, and the seats as hard as a rock! Uhhh I can hardly manage myself to get in but there is no seat adjustment (looking here & there), how do they drive this thing? And the steering, oh my God, and… (laughs) look at that dashboard… Oh Gawd I don’t believe it, even a toy car has better steering and materials than this. The meter has nothing to show except for a dial [giggles…], was that even necessary for them to equip this thing with a dial? I really don’t think so.
And it’s so hot here I can’t even operate the air-conditioning since it doesn’t have one.. but hey, it doesn’t even have a fan and they have covered the vents with plastic..a very cheap plastic… really I can’t believe it. It’s as if I am back in the 1970s and not 2023 but I have seen cars from the 70s and I can swear they are gazillion times better than this Bow-Laan. And look at this, I have to manually roll down windows with this funny-looking thing made from cheap crude plastic… and just look at this door trim… absolutely pathetic.
Ok now it’s time to crank up the engine, which they say is under my seat… lol yeah…. (starts the engine) and it sounds crazy.. (laughs)… not just that it sounds crazy the sort of vibration it gives in my whole body is… oh Gawd… (laughs)… unbelievable.. hats off for the company to keep making this thing even today but just look at this thing… its terrible.
Let me show you something special (bends down). Do you see? below the dashboard, they have left all these things uncovered and you can see how loosely they have put it together and the way these harnesses are dangling around… like… I really like the honesty of this company, they really don’t wanna hide anything, do they?
Let’s try to drive around this thing…. oh my God… it’s terrible… awww just look at how all the things are dancing in the car and it’s yet to cross 10 km/h. And the drive position is so awful… its so cramped and it’s terrible to be able to maneuver this thing… Oh my… no power steering in 2023, how much would it cost to add one to this vehicle? And the brakes… ohhhh… oh my legs are already in pain… you need to press it hard… ahhh so hard to be able to bring this car to a halt.
They say it cost you almost 2 million Pakistani rupees to buy this thing… I can’t believe it… two million for this? it doesn’t even have a proper safety shell, no airbags or brake assistance, no pre-tensioned seatbelts, no rear window wiper, no defroster, no intermittent wipers, no retract side mirrors, no anti-glare rearview mirror, it even has no carpeting or no insulation, no key on the other side, not even a fan… are you kidding me and two million, and even no alloy wheels? lol, and people buy this thing like crazy… only happens in this part of the world!
Uhhh… okay enough on the driving seat, let’s go back and check the back compartment. (Gets out…) You need to slide down this door but first, you have to… ahh push this button with all your might… and then…. uhh slide it to open using all your force… there is no easier way to open this thing. And look what’s inside… nothing? just a bench seat… nothing else? Oh God… I’m dead…. this thing is for two million rupees… crazy! absolutely crazy!
Related: Pak Suzuki Continues to Excite us with Disappointment
It has an obsolete 797cc engine which they say is Euro-II compliant, lol… euro two… I guess that was phased out when? in 1999? But more astonishingly they say they never brought about any change to this vehicle and it has been like this for over four decades. In fact, the original Suzuki Carry back in the 70s was better equipped than this Bow-Laan in 2023. Funnily enough, the Japanese stopped building this thing decades ago, even Thailand and Indonesia don’t build this ancient thing either, so they sort of source the required parts from some cheap vendors in China. But would it actually cost Rs 2 million to build this? I don’t believe that to be the case.
Unbelievable… and how many stars for crash safety? What..? they don’t test cars here… oh no… are you kidding me… I’m out of this world already…. gosh! Seriously though, I’m sure it would collapse like anything if they tried testing it. I feel bad for the folks that purchase and use it.
But to be honest, if I could give this car an award, I would love to… and the company.. well it deserves a standing ovation for selling this thing for two million rupees when actually this car looks as if it has been put together in less than Rs 200,000…. seriously. And before we wrap it up, I wanna congratulate all of you for keep buying this thing in this day & age… that too for over Rs 2 million.
Article originally published on 10th November 2021
Edited in 2023: Bolan price was updated, an image of Bolan’s engine was added & the numbers of Blondie’s Facebook/ Instagram/ Youtube followers were also updated.
A computer animation professional with over 23 years of industry experience having served in leading organizations, TV channels & production facilities in Pakistan. An avid car enthusiast and petrolhead with an affection to deliver quality content to help shape opinions. Formerly written for PakWheels as well as major publications including Dawn. Founder of CarSpiritPK.com
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