I realise it's been one year since I updated something about the Wagon-R. It was running quite less in the beginning of 2017 but picked up quite a bit after May with multiple trips to Thrissur and me taking it to Chennai and back right now.
It's been running fine except for the many number of punctures. One puncture got extremely bad and it was right on the highway in midnight. The rear left tyre just tore apart literally. Since we had to replace it, the tyre guy sold my dad an used tyre for quite a price and sadly my dad fell for the trap. Right now, three tyres are MRF's with atleast 5k more life left whereas this one is quite a bald Goodyear with not more than 1k safe life left.
I took the car to chennai on the eve of Gandhi Jayanthi. It was an urgent call and due to the end of the festive season, I couldn't find a single means of public transport available so had to take a quick decision of driving down to Chennai. The onward trip took quite some time while the return was very quick. The car performed quite well and could notice some interesting points during the entire trip. I drove solo for the entire trip.
1. Out of my three cars - Nano, Eon and Wagon-R, I realise the W-R is definitely the most comfortable on the highways though it still definitely is not the right car for the highways.
2. The steering is decent till around 90, starts getting vague at above 100 and as it reaches 110, its just plays around like some video game console. The centre is totally lifeless and gets really scary!
3. Potholes and undulations need to be handled with utmost care - I find the suspension generally weak and fragile from my earlier experiences and it also gets quite noisy.
4. The engine is pretty nice on the highways when the load is really less. You can overtake with some confidence as the mid-range is pretty strong! Low-end is absolutely a disaster as every time I stop and start, it's so lethargic and lazy to move.
5. I have never liked the drivers seat of the Wagon-R much. The right leg fouls with the power window console while the left leg fouls with the centre console. The seat lacks sufficient lumbar support and I have always felt the need to stretch myself in between the drive to avoid pains. From my experience, the Nano has the most fatigue free seats out of the three cars I have.
6. Having kept speeds between 90 and 100 kmph most of the time and occasionally upto 110 kmph, I was surprised to have got an FE of 20 kmpl!
Trivandrum (west fort) - Chennai (Mylapore)
Starting Time - 5.30 am
Arrival Time - 8.00 pm
Total Km - 784
Duration - 14 hours 30 minutes
Breaks - 1 hour
Total Driving time - 13 hour 30 minutes
Total Average Speed - 54 kmph
Average Driving Speed - 58 kmph
The Trivandrum - Nagercoil stretch had a lot of diversions through horrible roads due to some ongoing flyover works. Also, moving from the Dindugal route towards Trichy route through Madurai was a complete mess too! Yet another time taking stretch was from Kattankulathur to Chennai which took a hell long time!
Chennai - Trivandrum
Starting Time - 11.00 AM
Arrival Time - 12.00 AM
Total Km - 800
Duration - 13 hours
Breaks - 1 hour
Total Driving time - 12 hours
Total Average Speed - 61.5 kmph
Average Driving Speed - 66.7 kmph
I could manage to pass through the bottlenecks (upto Villupuram and Nagercoil - Trivandrum) during non-peak hours hence saved almost a couple of hours.
Sharing a few photos of my car.