Suzuki Grand Vitara :100000kms in 24 months - Short Term report

[sudev]

Comparative costs for GV / SX4 / Esteem for front suspension component as per SGP/MGP price list.


But for suspension seat (first item) rest of the items are more or less priced within the sticker pricing difference of the cars.

Am right now searching for a "performance" parts supplier to see if instead of rubber bushing I can source PU bushing.

[metropolis]

A 2007 GV cheap by 7 lacs is mindblowing. But needs attention on the checks, i fear the machine would not be under scanners

[anandpadhye]

Thanks for the pricing info.

BTW, is Maruti ready to replace only those parts of the suspension that are worn out (e.g. bushings, etc)?

Honda does not allow that. They compulsarily replace the entire suspension citing a reason that it's all press-fit so replacing parts at the dealer workshop can not match the strength of the original suspension!

Is this really true?

[sudev]

Just past 70K replaced the current (and worn out) Yoko rubber with a set of four Michelin's AT. The original were Highway patter M+S (mud plus snow) tyre's that come as OE. The new ones are also rated M+S but the tread pattern has slightly more "block" construction. Here a view of both.



The radius is approximately 10mm more. and in place of original 225/70/R16 the new one is 235/70/R16



After fitting on the wheel there is ample clearance around the wheel well. A closer look of the pattern. It has deeper tread. And is used on Scorpio's


Cost per tyre was Rs6700 all inclusive. Will post a user review after a tour in to Rajasthan which is in offing next week. First a look at Michelin tread and the next is Yokohama tread.

[sudev]

Just a picture for now of another exotic place that I visited riding the GV. A 30 kilometer of a crazy beach drive. The problem was once on the beach getting off was not easy due to soft powdery sand bluff's (visible on the right) that bordered the length. There was a steep incline on other side bottoming on to slush.

[sudev]

The beach was preceded by this windmill farm. Each of these seemingly small windmill wing is taller than three trucks end on end!!


My GV parked on the firm sand area between the water and soft powdery stuff. The fun drive on beach was done without engaging any diff lock or use of high / low range. On stretches I could hit excess of 120kmph but had to watch out for rocks which tend to pop out of sand. Here you can not brake hard. It would mean car digging in (one heck of job there after to take it out) or even worse flipping.


My first love....GV is second in all respects...even in the next sequence of pictures. It was one amazing place to enjoy the sea and sand in a unique style.


Coming out of the beach demanded some trick steering guidance and just enough acclerator. The wider pattern tyre's helped.

[Shakensoul]

Fantastic location and pictures, btw which place ?

[mmmjgm]

[quote=sudev;1110042]The beach was preceded by this windmill farm. Each of these seemingly small windmill wing is taller than three trucks end on end!!
Attachment 83310

My GV parked on the firm sand area between the water and soft powdery stuff. The fun drive on beach was done without engaging any diff lock or use of high / low range. On stretches I could hit excess of 120kmph but had to watch out for rocks which tend to pop out of sand. Here you can not brake hard. It would mean car digging in (one heck of job there after to take it out) or even worse flipping.
Attachment 83311

My first love....GV is second in all respects...even in the next sequence of pictures. It was one amazing place to enjoy the sea and sand in a unique style.
Attachment 83312

Coming out of the beach demanded some trick steering guidance and just enough acclerator. The wider pattern tyre's helped.
Attachment 83313[/QUOTE
The location is mandvi beach, a cousin has a resort there.

Hope you stayed at the resort, did you have a good time ? The beach is a private beach. Excellent place, very quiet.

Cheers
M M

[madan80]

Originally Posted by SumitB

Why don't you give Bosch a shot if available for the Vitara? People have reported that it rocks!

finally changed my blades from syndicate to bosh and the irritating Haze that used to appear has vanished... now its a lot safer.

[sudev]

Originally Posted by mmmjgm

The location is mandvi beach, a cousin has a resort there.

Hope you stayed at the resort, did you have a good time ? The beach is a private beach. Excellent place, very quiet

Which resort / place is of your friend? I did not stay at Mandvi but did only a day visit. Did not have any contacts locally of any place to stay so stayed put at Bhuj.

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by mmmjgm

Hope you stayed at the resort, did you have a good time ? The beach is a private beach. Excellent place, very quiet.

Does India have a concept of private beach? I thought all beaches in India are public, only exception being military or other restricted area.

[mmmjgm]

Originally Posted by Samurai

Does India have a concept of private beach? I thought all beaches in India are public, only exception being military or other restricted area.

The private beach is the property of His Highness Kutch, the earstwhile ruler of Kutch who has a family property at the beachfront.

During the union of India, the rulers had their private properties as well and the same was transferred onto their names. The beach at Mandvi has a private stretch of approx 1.15 kms which is privately owned, the title records show that the tide line is the extent of the property.

Due to the tide line, the property shrinks and increases twice a day (thanks to low and high tides)

Regards

M M

[sudev]

Okay so one of last task left for Desert Storm '09 was to make road book for the fist stage of the rally (Its strange that the nearest stages get done the last) So Sunday 3rd January saw us somewhat 3/4th of the way to Jaipur amongst outcrops of aravalli hills. We had driven the late evening the previous day to Behror, midway to Jaipur, so that we escape th early morning heavy fog. And it was a good decision. Early in the day here we are ready to do this river bed run with temperature showing very bracing 5degree we could only be thankful that there was no breeze and warm sun was out.


The track is almost running parallel to the NH8 and towards the end you can cross under the NH8 hearing all the heavy traffic thundering overhead on the bridge. After a while the sandy river bed became full of elephant grass(?) and while driving through you got the feeling as if you are cut off from the world. It was almost as if you are driving deep within a wild life sanctuary, say Crobett. The wild life part is not really that far fetched as this area is home to many panthers and as a local informed us just a couple weeks back one of the wild cat was trapped inside a hut and taken in to custody by the wild life department.



Apart from panthers the area is also full of neelgai, wild boars and foxes. Driving through this area was very interesting and at one point we had almost felt the need to engage the diff lock. Now we came to a patch of where the river was still flowing (although more like a drain and not much deep) and it was irresistible not to splash through and capture the same for memories. The track kept on crossing the water a few times and we had a blast.



The odo crossed 75k on return and fortunately there was no fog either till Delhi and surprisingly no traffic jams. The trip was also father-son bonding time and he drove most of the way up and down while I did the ardorus task of making the road book and refrain from doing back seat driving.

[sudev]

A proud local who was very inquisitive about our reason for being miles from nowhere. This was a small at a small tea stall on one of the connecting back roads.


My son standing next to tall reeds in middle of section









General area is nestling between the aravalli hills and sandy valleys.

[sudev]

Back from fun and drive of Desert Storm '09. The route covered was from Delhi to (almost) Jaipur to Bikaner to Jaisalmer to Barmer to Adesar (Little Rann of Kutch) to Bachau to Bhuj to Mandvi and back to Adesar to Dasda to Udaipur. The event ended there on 22nd and then we drove to bacl on 23rd to Delhi. Total of 3400kms on my Vitara for the entire trip. Overall odo stands at 83000km.

No stoppage for enything but fuel for the entire trip. No puncture on the not so new Michellin's which were put in at ~70k's. Lots of pictures on Facebook at Picassa. Look for desert Storm 2009.

For the entire Storm I got average of 8km/lit. This included mostly high speed (120~140) driving on highways and all the off-road. Return from udaipur gave 8.9km/lit but it was mostly done in 140+ zone. After returning I got the filter changed to a drop in replacement K&N and average has jumped almost a km/lit. Not only result of K&N though it well could be that after all that dusty driving the original filter was choked (more than that actually).