Suzuki Grand Vitara: 2,32,000 kms & 7 years ownership

jaysmokesleaves · 21st March 2009, 12:57

You are on quite a trip sudev. India is SO SO big and there is so much to see that I wonder if I will run out of time.
That is a lot of miles on ur little truck.
Post some pics if you can.
Cheers.
J

sudev · 21st March 2009, 16:58

Thanks J. Would you believe that all through the Desert Storm 09 I had tw cameras in my "truck" and I did not get chance or time to take one single shot of it? Would have loved to post pictures but I think we get more time to shoot and enjoy when doing recce's for the event rather than during the event.
BUT man what enjoyable drive and fun it was. Planning on a little side trip in next few days. Will post pics.

sammyboy · 24th March 2009, 13:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by sudev

Welcome on board sammyboy. I take it you are also an owner...post a pic of your vehicle?

Aaah I wish I was an owner sir

I drive the humble Ikon 1.3 which will complete 4 years in June. I plan to hold on to it for atleast 2-3 more years as it is only 38k kms young. But, finances permitting my next vehicle would be the Vitara. Till then enjoying reading your's and Samurai's reports. I believe in owning only 1 car at a time so it has to be completely dependable and the Vitara seems to be just that.

nandishpal · 24th March 2009, 13:48

sudev,samurai
i always had a soft corner for the GV the first time i drove a GV 5 years back i was totally ammused.an SUV with petrol engine with great capabilities on road & off road.i own a forester & i am happy with it.given a chance from my dad GV will definitely be my second car in my garage.reading the reviews of your car at 80,000 i think i am not doin justice to my forester by not doing too much off roading.please keep me informed about the technical differences between the old & the new GV as i had drivven an old GV.

Rudra Sen · 24th March 2009, 14:07

80000kms in 18months!!! Some people just don't like to be at home.

Great going sudev.

hrag · 24th March 2009, 14:10

Fantastic. You are using the Grand Vitara the way it is meant to be used.

sudev · 24th March 2009, 15:47

Okay was able to get two pictures of the Vitara doing off road section.

This is middle of Great Rann of Kutch. The area is known as "Banni" and edges the great salt plains of the Rann. With all the scrub jungle you see it is so confusing that even people who had been through couple of times got lost. Each tree bunch looks exactly like another and there are tracks of camel carts all over. We could negotiate this only becuse we had GPS tracks. A group of four cars got lost within 500 meters of my location and it took me almost an hour to locate them and get them back on track. They kept on going in wrong direction and by the time they turned back all the tracks has got mixed up in fine powdery dust.

Suzuki Grand Vitara: 2,32,000 kms & 7 years ownership-100_2932.jpg

Passing through a sandy river bed. I was expecting that I may have to do a diff lock or at worst use 4L but nothing of that sort happened and the entire 20 kms of river bed was done in 2nd/3rd. On a longish straight I even hit 4th. The suspension is able to take lot of abuse and made short work of the bumps and undulations.

Suzuki Grand Vitara: 2,32,000 kms & 7 years ownership-100_2983.jpg

sudev · 24th March 2009, 16:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by nandishpal

I own a forester & i am happy with it.given a chance from my dad GV will definitely be my second car in my garage.reading the reviews of your car at 80,000 i think i am not doin justice to my forester .....

Great car you have in your garage and does superb job in tackling lots of off roading. I know since we have also used Forrester extensively to do road surveys for Desert Storm for last three years. Great handling. Price of spares and availability is an issue.

Most of the people I know do not use their SUV's off road since they are "afraid" I have been urging people to join a event like the Storm and get kick out of off-road driving without hassle of getting struck somewhere alone. This time Gaurav Chiripal did just that and ended up winning the SUV category of TSD. Or devote even more time and energy and become and official in the event. Join in the recce's and route finding missions.

Go out and do a test drive of new GV from a showroom. You will find lot of difference. The engine is more saner Straight 4 instead of V6 guzzler. You will get decent F.E. Other comments are already available on this and Samurai's thread.

Samurai · 24th March 2009, 16:34

The amount of torture GV can take can absolutely put Jeep to shame. I drive hard through all kind of horrible roads without second thoughts in both vehicles. The Jeep starts rattling after a while, needs some adjustments, tightening, etc. But the GV needs nothing, it forgets all about the bad roads after crossing it, makes me forget too.

In fact, only after driving the Jeep in the same horrible stretches I do in GV I have come understand the resilience and reliability of GV.

sudev · 25th March 2009, 11:39

Coming from you with your vast experience this indeed confirms what I have been experiencing. Suspension is stif but makes short work of potholed roads or off-road undulating terrains.

I do not have feed back on other SUV's than Pajero which has been (ab) used a lot for similar travels and comes close to such reliability.

sudev · 27th March 2009, 11:12

Hmmm got it on facebook that there is an OTR planned by few friend over the weekend. Wondering if I should take my track along and see what it can do??!! Any other GV owner in/aroudn Delhi whoul would like to bring along his/her champ here?

tsk1979 · 27th March 2009, 12:23

sudev, check the 4x4 thread. There is indeed an OTR on March 28th planed by NIOC. You can PM guys on that thread

sudev · 28th March 2009, 17:04

My definition of week end was Sunday and theirs was early morning Saturday. No could do 8-(

Did you make it?

tsk1979 · 29th March 2009, 00:48

Yup I did! Thread already started. Pics coming soon.

sudev · 30th March 2009, 12:37

About a fortnight back I had been to Chandigarh and back. With outside temperature at 34degree I had felt during the afternoon return trip that even pushing the knob below 20degree the car was not cooling enough.

In fact during the latter part of last summer also I had felt the loss of cooling but over came it by just pushing the temp know to 20degree and forcing the aircon fan to full blower setting in auto mode.

At the last service I forgot to tell Motorcraft MASS that they also need to check the air-con as it seemed not be cooling enough. And the summer has not yet set in!

Since the vehicle had done fair bit of off-roading through dusty Ladakh, Rajasthan and Rann areas I expected the coils to be choked and needing cleaning. Sunday last I had sent the car for aircon cleaning and expected that this will involve de-gassing, opening the evaporator and cleaning it and re-charging.

Suprise. The GV has a fine air filter placed over the evaporator coil (under the dash board) which was chocked and all that was needed to be done was to take it out, clean it (something like cleaning air filter) and put it back.

Now I am feeling chilled during hot after noons (Delhi was very hot last week) even with temp setting at 24 degrees!

Good and cool design.

21st March 2009, 12:57	#91
jaysmokesleaves Senior - BHPian Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Mostly Mumbai Posts: 1,702 Thanked: 1,452 Times	You are on quite a trip sudev. India is SO SO big and there is so much to see that I wonder if I will run out of time. That is a lot of miles on ur little truck. Post some pics if you can. Cheers. J
	() Thanks

21st March 2009, 16:58	#92
sudev Distinguished - BHPian Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Gurgaon Posts: 3,838 Thanked: 3,179 Times	Thanks J. Would you believe that all through the Desert Storm 09 I had tw cameras in my "truck" and I did not get chance or time to take one single shot of it? Would have loved to post pictures but I think we get more time to shoot and enjoy when doing recce's for the event rather than during the event. BUT man what enjoyable drive and fun it was. Planning on a little side trip in next few days. Will post pics.
	() Thanks

24th March 2009, 13:48	#94
nandishpal BHPian Join Date: May 2006 Location: bangalore Posts: 492 Thanked: 80 Times	sudev,samurai i always had a soft corner for the GV the first time i drove a GV 5 years back i was totally ammused.an SUV with petrol engine with great capabilities on road & off road.i own a forester & i am happy with it.given a chance from my dad GV will definitely be my second car in my garage.reading the reviews of your car at 80,000 i think i am not doin justice to my forester by not doing too much off roading.please keep me informed about the technical differences between the old & the new GV as i had drivven an old GV.
	() Thanks

24th March 2009, 14:07	#95
Rudra Sen Team-BHP Support Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Bangalore Posts: 11,590 Thanked: 6,532 Times View My Garage	80000kms in 18months!!! Some people just don't like to be at home. Great going sudev.
	() Thanks

24th March 2009, 14:10	#96
hrag BANNED Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Bangalore / Madras Posts: 1,982 Thanked: 31 Times	Fantastic. You are using the Grand Vitara the way it is meant to be used.
	() Thanks

24th March 2009, 15:47	#97
sudev Distinguished - BHPian Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Gurgaon Posts: 3,838 Thanked: 3,179 Times	Okay was able to get two pictures of the Vitara doing off road section. This is middle of Great Rann of Kutch. The area is known as "Banni" and edges the great salt plains of the Rann. With all the scrub jungle you see it is so confusing that even people who had been through couple of times got lost. Each tree bunch looks exactly like another and there are tracks of camel carts all over. We could negotiate this only becuse we had GPS tracks. A group of four cars got lost within 500 meters of my location and it took me almost an hour to locate them and get them back on track. They kept on going in wrong direction and by the time they turned back all the tracks has got mixed up in fine powdery dust. Passing through a sandy river bed. I was expecting that I may have to do a diff lock or at worst use 4L but nothing of that sort happened and the entire 20 kms of river bed was done in 2nd/3rd. On a longish straight I even hit 4th. The suspension is able to take lot of abuse and made short work of the bumps and undulations.
	() Thanks

24th March 2009, 16:34	#99
Samurai Team-BHP Support Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Bangalore/Udupi Posts: 25,828 Thanked: 45,536 Times View My Garage	The amount of torture GV can take can absolutely put Jeep to shame. I drive hard through all kind of horrible roads without second thoughts in both vehicles. The Jeep starts rattling after a while, needs some adjustments, tightening, etc. But the GV needs nothing, it forgets all about the bad roads after crossing it, makes me forget too. In fact, only after driving the Jeep in the same horrible stretches I do in GV I have come understand the resilience and reliability of GV.
	() Thanks

25th March 2009, 11:39	#100
sudev Distinguished - BHPian Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Gurgaon Posts: 3,838 Thanked: 3,179 Times	Coming from you with your vast experience this indeed confirms what I have been experiencing. Suspension is stif but makes short work of potholed roads or off-road undulating terrains. I do not have feed back on other SUV's than Pajero which has been (ab) used a lot for similar travels and comes close to such reliability.
	() Thanks

27th March 2009, 11:12	#101
sudev Distinguished - BHPian Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Gurgaon Posts: 3,838 Thanked: 3,179 Times	Hmmm got it on facebook that there is an OTR planned by few friend over the weekend. Wondering if I should take my track along and see what it can do??!! Any other GV owner in/aroudn Delhi whoul would like to bring along his/her champ here?
	() Thanks

27th March 2009, 12:23	#102
tsk1979 Team-BHP Support Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: San Jose, CA Posts: 23,717 Thanked: 22,825 Times View My Garage	sudev, check the 4x4 thread. There is indeed an OTR on March 28th planed by NIOC. You can PM guys on that thread
	() Thanks

28th March 2009, 17:04	#103
sudev Distinguished - BHPian Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Gurgaon Posts: 3,838 Thanked: 3,179 Times	My definition of week end was Sunday and theirs was early morning Saturday. No could do 8-( Did you make it?
	() Thanks

29th March 2009, 00:48	#104
tsk1979 Team-BHP Support Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: San Jose, CA Posts: 23,717 Thanked: 22,825 Times View My Garage	Yup I did! Thread already started. Pics coming soon.
	() Thanks

30th March 2009, 12:37	#105
sudev Distinguished - BHPian Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Gurgaon Posts: 3,838 Thanked: 3,179 Times	Aircon problem and solution! About a fortnight back I had been to Chandigarh and back. With outside temperature at 34degree I had felt during the afternoon return trip that even pushing the knob below 20degree the car was not cooling enough. In fact during the latter part of last summer also I had felt the loss of cooling but over came it by just pushing the temp know to 20degree and forcing the aircon fan to full blower setting in auto mode. At the last service I forgot to tell Motorcraft MASS that they also need to check the air-con as it seemed not be cooling enough. And the summer has not yet set in! Since the vehicle had done fair bit of off-roading through dusty Ladakh, Rajasthan and Rann areas I expected the coils to be choked and needing cleaning. Sunday last I had sent the car for aircon cleaning and expected that this will involve de-gassing, opening the evaporator and cleaning it and re-charging. Suprise. The GV has a fine air filter placed over the evaporator coil (under the dash board) which was chocked and all that was needed to be done was to take it out, clean it (something like cleaning air filter) and put it back. Now I am feeling chilled during hot after noons (Delhi was very hot last week) even with temp setting at 24 degrees! Good and cool design.
	() Thanks