[trrk]

Originally Posted by svsantosh

1) great work on the bumper

Thanks. The credit goes to my driver and the watchman. The idea of course was mine.

Originally Posted by svsantosh

2) almost forgot you also have this CVT other than the Marina... too bad I missed to see it when u came for the wedding - would have been crucified if I had walked out of the wedding to chk out ur car..!!

I would have been an enemy for the whole family if you had done that. CVT is what I drive mostly especially when leaving town. Marina inside town for the diesel economics.

Originally Posted by svsantosh

3) 14-15+ is great FE on a Auto Tran of a car of this size.

the overall mileage of 13.30kpl is also good.

Originally Posted by svsantosh

4) Psst - how many month since you got this car? Going by the 66mths ownership record of yours, please let me know in case you are going to sell this.

Will do so, but it won't be in a hurry. The automatic was my criterion, ease of entry and higher seats were common criteria. The back seat space and more importantly the ride was better in the Corolla. But did not feel it was worth the 3+ lakh difference and the CVT was irresistible for me.

May not sell in a hurry. An affordable diesel automatic is what I am waiting now.

We liked the Xylo. If it comes in automatic, we might be tempted.

[trrk]

Hi,

I got this:


The bits and pieces!


In action or rather at the end of action!

[appuchan]

Great Rajesh. Let me know the sources. Did you get it brought over from abroad? How much did you pay? Now you can practice hypermiling in its true sense . I had it on my old Santro. Now I need to get it installed on my i20 or Civic.

[govigov]

@trrrk, where did you source it from. have been hunting for it from a very long time. dont want ot have it shipped here from the states.

where is the OBD connector in the nhc?

[ImmortalZ]

Ooo! I've been wanting one for a while too. Please do post post and source.

[trrk]

Hi,

Thanks to govigov, Immortalz and Appuchan.

@Appuchan: Isn't it transferable from vehicle to vehicle?

@govigov:

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/techni...ml#post1354408


For those of you who want the bare facts, go straight to the bottom, please!


In all my years of surfing the net as well as my long life, this is the first time I am buying anything by paying in any currency other than Indian rupees.

Having no contacts abroad to really help me out in this, I searched the net. The Scanguage website though offers online purchase don't ship it to India. So a casual search pointed me to a seller in ebay who was offering to ship it to India (anywhere, in fact!).

I almost thought that God did not want me to invest in this when none of my supposed to be 'international' debit cards worked. The only credit card I have is a Canara Bank one which is valid only for India.

A close friend offered to help and so the purchase was made using his credit card details. The seller promptly shipped it on 22nd of May. It left the USA on the 26th of May and landed in India on the 1st of June. Cleared foreign customs on the 2nd of June. This was as per the United States Parcel Services website.

With no updates forthcoming, I tried emails to our postal department concerned with foreign mails and true to form have kept mum so far. I tried an email to USPS and in 90 minutes came back a reply informing me that they also have no further updates and that only the sender could initiate any complaint.

An email to the sender elicited helplessness as he rightly said that it is in your country's postal department!

Enquiries in the local post office did not help except providing a number in Kochi. The person in Kochi gave another number related to a Customs controlled post office. A lady after hearing me out, asked me to call in the evening. In the second call, she assured me that it was sent to Alleppey on that day (17th).

On 18th when there was no parcel, I again called her. She rightly said. "If you have bnot got it today, you will get it tomorrow"!

So on a check with the local post office on the 19th, the parcel was found with our post man. The 'delay' probably was because that it was in the speed post channel, but with the regular post with the additional baggage of a demand note for customs duty.

So the parcel took all of 17 days from Bombay to Alleppey. I was happy that it was intact.

By the way, ten days after using my friend's credit card, I got my renewal card from Canara Bank. They had upgraded me to their international credit card.

A big thanks to all those who read through the above.

Now the raw facts for the impatient among you:

Source: Ebay seller -MileagePros
Price paid: Rs 9621.38 (credit card)
Customs duty paid: Rs 2515.00
So Total paid: Rs 12136.38 (includes an extra cable)

[trrk]

Hi,

With a discussion going on about the temperature guage, the scanguage showed me the temperature as follows.

Cold start: 28 degree C - blue light on

Blue light went off at 54 degree C.

The temperature settled at 84 degree C.

[trrk]

Hi,

This is a school trip.

Distance: 32 kms
Time taken: 0.8 hrs
Max RPM: 3207
Max Water Temperature: 84 degree C
Average speed: 38 kph
Max Speed: 75 kph
Fuel used: 2.02 litres
Fuel consumption: 6.3 litres per 100 kms.

The fuel part of the Scan Guage is yet to be calibrated.

[ImmortalZ]

That is awesome mileage! I've been trying to get a hold of one. High exchange rate holding me back at the moment.

[netarchie]

Hi Trrk,
Thats a great little gadget you have got.
Lets see if I can manage to get hold of one !

[trrk]

Hi,

Originally Posted by ImmortalZ

That is awesome mileage! I've been trying to get a hold of one. High exchange rate holding me back at the moment.

Let us wait for some more to be happy about the mileage part as that part has to be calibrated over one or tow petrol fills. One fill is over. But after the second fill, it would be time for its service when I will have to remove it.

If by chance, you are coming over this side, you can try this with your Civic.

Originally Posted by netarchie

Thats a great little gadget you have got.
Lets see if I can manage to get hold of one !

Thanks. If somebody can bring this down, I am sure you can save on the customs duty. The manufacturer does not ship to India and so I got it off Ebay. The sender listed it as a automobile computer!

[trrk]

Hi,

This is a school trip by the driver.

Distance: 30.5kms
Time taken: 0.7 hrs (42 minutes)
Max RPM: 2677
Max Water Temperature: 85 degree C
Average speed: 41 kph
Max Speed: 85 kph
Fuel used: 2.0 litres
Fuel consumption: 6.5 litres per 100 kms.

The fuel part of the Scan Guage is yet to be calibrated.

Now some figures got through a Blue Tooth GPS receiver connected to my Nokia 6275 and running a software called Navigami.

Distance: 30.6kms
Total Time taken: 43.26 minutes
Moving time: 41.56 minutes
Overall average speed: 43.8kph
Average speed: 42.3 kph
Max Speed: 85.5 kph

I am surprised at the distance for today as the run was the same as last time.

The Scan guage appears to be quite accurate so far. I wish it measures time like we do in minutes, hours etc instead of the decimal hours.

The City would need to go for service in another 400 kms.

[trrk]

Hi,

Originally Posted by trrk

I am surprised at the distance for today as the run was the same as last time.

The difference in the distance is because of a detour made on my run. I forgot to check the car odometer on that day. But I did today and promptly forgot to add it in the previous message.

The car odometer showed 31.3kms.

The speed part of the scanguage also needs a little calibration and the difference could be because of the less than ideal calibration that I did.

[trrk]

Hi,

The ScanguageII is supposed to undergo a fuel calibration sequence to improve the accuracy.

After the first fill, the dillup seuence is supposed to be done without any adjustments to the value of fuel put in. The fuel volume put in is adjusted to the actual value (if there is variation) the second time and later on the system is supposed to need no adjustment.

So the first fill up post ScanguageII gave me 13.17kpl over 285kms. The ScanguageII results always showed good mileage, but the next mileage was only 10.53kpl over 235kms.

Since the next service was due and I needed the car for personal use, the school runs were restricted to two. Then I took the car on the NH47 south of Alleppey and then for its service to Ernakulam. Most of my driving is centred around the 60kph speed which yields good mileage.

The Scanguage was disconnected before handing over for the service and was reconnected after the service. So it missed out on the 4 kms which was done as a trial run by Honda. I did not tell them about the Scanguage.

At the end when I got back home, this was what the fuel guage showed. from previous experience, until I got the fillup done, I was not sure of the mileage as the fuel which goes in may or may not correlate with the needle position.

The guage when I parked the car after returning home after service:



This was today morning before the car went for its fillup:



After the tank fill, the Scanguage showed that it took in 16.16 litres which would have given a mileage of 17.77 kpl.

But the car (for once, it decided to correlate with the fuel guage) and took in only 15.12 litres giving an amazing 19.11 kpl!

Let me see how it does for the next tankful with the regular runs. This time I hope to compare the Scanguage recorded distances and actual figures. I hope the figures would be more reliable without any disconnection of the guage in between the fills.

My car had its 35000kms service on 03/07/2009. Will put up details later.

[trrk]

Hi,

The 35000kms service was on 03/07/2009. The scheduled time was 0800hrs and to my surprise, the centre was not even open at 0745 hrs. A service camp elsewhere and a leave was the issue. Anyway the car was taken in by 0820hrs and handed back to me by 1250hrs.

This time the service was done with the odometer reading 35001kms.



Only once did I get to retain the above as it is diligently taken back before car delivery. When I asked that I needed a copy, I was told it is the policy to take it back before delivery and the bill is what I am entitled to.

So I thought I will take a photostat. As I also needed to have a breakfast, I thought I will combine both. Refused a car drop as well as a car (the sales person who sold me my car is friendly), I got out and turned right and walked towards north on the Ernakulam byepass. I got a photostar and breakfast and then willed myself to walk back. More than 50% of the walk back was on will power alone since the sun had come out and did not have company or water. Later I understood that it was a 2.2kms distance and I had walked 4.4kms that day. It must be atleast 25 years back that I must have walked more than a km in a day.

Is it the same across all the service centres across brands, that we are not entitled to a copy of this check sheet?



A Rs 200 labour charge was sneaked in and I have only me to blame as I did not cross check it with the check sheet. I should be careful the next time.

the next service at 40000kms is supposed to be a major one and though they normally deliver the next day, I was assured of same day delivery if I take the 0800hrs appointment.

The bill tells me that I am due for next service in three months. But my manual says 5000kms / 6 months.

The only time I put up an enquiry with Honda about a similar thing, the answers came from the service centre only.

The manual says 3.4L of oil and 3.7L of oil without / with filter change. I have been charged 3.7L every time and I was told that the billing is that way only.

Somebody in Bangalore did report a 3.4L oil charged for without oil filter change. A request for a copy of the bill has not yet fructified to ask for an explanation from Honda on this.


My car waiting to be taken into the service area.


Protection from dirt!


The front one - all of 35000kms


The rear one - of the same vintage.

A little OT:


Jagdish Khattar's Car Nation is almost bang opposite, adjacent to the TVS Mahindra Renault showroom / service centre.

My next service would be most likely in October / November.