IndiaInc: Audi makes extra-durable horns for cars sold in India

Now this is luxury.

According to India's Economic Times newspaper, Audi equips its cars with special, extra-durable horns for the grueling work of driving in India. (Apparently extra loud ones have been banned by most municipalities).

"You take a European horn and it will be gone in a week or two. With the amount of honking in Mumbai, we do on a daily basis what an average German does on an annual basis," the paper quotes Michael Perschke, director at Audi India, as saying.

"The horn is tested differently – with two continuous weeks only of honking, the setting of the horn is different, with different suppliers," he said.

Personally, I think Audi may still be underestimating how tough its horns need to be. Before I bought a car, my pain and suffering prompted me to invent the Pedestrian Horn around 2003. Now, in one hour of driving, I use my horn more than I did over a decade of driving in the US.

And I'm totally Zen compared with the average Haryana taxi-wallah or professional chauffeur.