[KarthikK]

Hearty congrats on the purchase Bluu! Amazing thread and one of a kind, this is the only Kizashi ownership thread on all of team-bhp.

The car looks smashing to say the least. My car should have been in that 3 car photoshoot on the first page, if only I had managed to make it that day.

The last set of pictures are nice. The interiors look brilliant and fab, I must say. I'm going to take a test drive of your car very soon , and you better give it on a proper road, not near the traffic-jam-clogged ITPL vicinity.

How are the paddle shifters to use? How good is the automatic mode in detecting sudden inclines and downshifting to compensate, etc? How does the manual override feel?

[Bluu]

Originally Posted by KarthikK

Hearty congrats on the purchase Bluu! Amazing thread and one of a kind, this is the only Kizashi ownership thread on all of team-bhp.

The car looks smashing to say the least. My car should have been in that 3 car photoshoot on the first page, if only I had managed to make it that day.

The last set of pictures are nice. The interiors look brilliant and fab, I must say. I'm going to take a test drive of your car very soon , and you better give it on a proper road, not near the traffic-jam-clogged ITPL vicinity.

How are the paddle shifters to use? How good is the automatic mode in detecting sudden inclines and downshifting to compensate, etc? How does the manual override feel?

Thanks Karthik! Let's make another drive plan da. Woody's is near perfect for a quick breakfast run. Bring your new Punto!

I will answer your question about the paddle shifters in my answers to anandpadhye below.

Originally Posted by anandpadhye

Congrats @Bluu.

How is the CVT overall? I mean can you post some details?
I read somewhere that the RPM to speed ratio (in any given gear) can change depending upon driving style. Is that true? Did you experience anything like that so far?

And how is the manual mode? Does it wait till redline for the driver to upshift? And if you downshift, if you are in the valid RPM range, does it downshift instantly?

Does it shift to neutral on it's own if you brake and come to a complete halt, say on a red signal?

Cheers!

Thanks!

The easiest way to describe the CVT characteristic is to liken it to a turbo. What I mean by that is, if you are in slow-moving traffic, the transmission is a breeze to drive like any other auto box. However, consider if you are in free-flowing conditions and if you depress the accelerator and the car is not in the power band (if it is puttering in low-rpm in a high gear from FE sake) there is a fraction of a second before the car hits the right RPM and the surge of power comes through. This behaviour is very similar to the spooling of a turbo but the lag is very short. If during the kick-down acceleration the car is in the powerband, power delivery is immediate and brutal like I mentioned before. This is the rubber-band effect that is mentioned a lot about this CVT and while it would be nice if it did not happen, it definitely does not detract from the experience. Not unless you were the getaway driver for a bank heist but then you wouldn't be using an automatic in the first place!

The RPM to speed ratio definitely matches the driving style. You can be at 4,500 RPM at 80 kph in second while accelerating and can also cruise at 1,500 RPM at 80 kph at a higher gear. Not sure if I'm answering your question correctly.

I have used the manual mode sparingly for two reasons:

1. I was running in the car and did not want to cross my 4,000 RPM run-in limit.

2. Red-lining this car on surface streets is a recipe for disaster. The rubber band effect I described above is almost nullified in manual mode. There is so much power and torque and the gear changes are so quick that you can very quickly hit triple digit speeds. I am going to refrain from using that mode unless I am on a freeway.

To answer your questions, yes, the car will redline (6,500 RPM) in every gear and hold it till you shift. Downshifts are instant and multiple downshifts will keep raising the RPM. I haven't tried hard downshifting (5th to 2nd etc) yet so can't comment on how the car will handle that. I prefer the paddles to the stick for ergonomic and intuitive reasons. I just can't seem to wrap my head around the rally-style up-down action of the stick shifter.

In manual mode, the car will downshift for you if it thinks you have left it too late and may stall. I like this feature. The car will not shift to neutral when at a stop. I do it manually when at red lights since the cabin vibrations are almost completely removed when in neutral. Engaging drive gets a thrum started.

I have not driven the car on sudden inclines to know how well it will cope. My feeling is that the driver will probably feather the throttle to compensate for the incline rather than wait for the car to take action.

I hope this answers your questions. If not, please ask me again like you would ask a small child and I will try my best to answer.

Cheers!

[anandpadhye]

Originally Posted by Bluu

The RPM to speed ratio definitely matches the driving style. You can be at 4,500 RPM at 80 kph in second while accelerating and can also cruise at 1,500 RPM at 80 kph at a higher gear. Not sure if I'm answering your question correctly.

Thanks. Actually, I may not have asked correctly. I think I read about this on team-bhp itself on a thread related to NHC CVT. The owner said that even in the same gear (or ratio, if that's technically more accurate for CVTs), the RPM to speed ratio can vary depending upon driving style!!! That was very amusing for me. I will try hard and find that old post and send to you so you can comment. May be you can try what he was saying in that post - after your car has run in a little.

Originally Posted by Bluu

I haven't tried hard downshifting (5th to 2nd etc) yet so can't comment on how the car will handle that.

That's interesting. How do you tell the CVT to do multiple downshifts? By pushing the shifter to "-" multiple times in quick succession?

Originally Posted by Bluu

The rubber band effect I described above is almost nullified in manual mode.

That's really good. This means you have an almost perfect MT without having to wear your left leg out.

I have been reading about and monitoring the AT's and specifically DSG's available around - and none of them shifts to neutral automatically when the car comes to a complete stop. I wonder why? It definately will do a lot good to FE, brakes, transmission I feel.

Thanks for detailed answers.

Cheers!

[Bluu]

Originally Posted by anandpadhye

Thanks. Actually, I may not have asked correctly. I think I read about this on team-bhp itself on a thread related to NHC CVT. The owner said that even in the same gear (or ratio, if that's technically more accurate for CVTs), the RPM to speed ratio can vary depending upon driving style!!! That was very amusing for me. I will try hard and find that old post and send to you so you can comment. May be you can try what he was saying in that post - after your car has run in a little.

That's interesting. How do you tell the CVT to do multiple downshifts? By pushing the shifter to "-" multiple times in quick succession?

I'm going to sound dense but I don't think I understand the RPM to speed ratio thing. Please post that link and I'll try to understand it better. For me, the car behaves normally: you can hit the same speed at high and low revs depending on whether you're pedal-mashing or cruising sedately. The RPM to speed ratio varying in the same gear seems strange. My car has run in so I'm read to check this out provided you can supply some sort of an exercise for me.

Using the "-" paddle repeatedly in quick succession will result in multiple quick downshifts like you mention but I've only done this gradually and not like you hear in race cars where they drop a handful of gears when approaching a corner. The engine growls when the revs climb so successive downshifting definitely makes good music

[hooloovoo]

Originally Posted by IshaanIan

Not sure about the handles but the power window switches are the same as the sx4

Ishaan, can you please post details about the bluetooth you had fitted on your Kizashi? We haven't taken delivery of our car yet. The dealer is not able configure the bluetooth so we're trying to get help on our own. I know you mentioned the bluetooth on another thread, but that one's locked and I'm not able to PM you so had to resort to quoting you here Mods, if this is a breach of team-bhp etiquette, please forgive me!

[IshaanIan]

Originally Posted by hooloovoo

Ishaan, can you please post details about the bluetooth you had fitted on your Kizashi? We haven't taken delivery of our car yet. The dealer is not able configure the bluetooth so we're trying to get help on our own. I know you mentioned the bluetooth on another thread, but that one's locked and I'm not able to PM you so had to resort to quoting you here Mods, if this is a breach of team-bhp etiquette, please forgive me!

They first tried getting it integrated I really don't know how perhaps their plan was to import another head unit then in the end they just backed out and gave us a jabra freeway :P Its pretty cool its even voice controlled and the sound quality is good no issues. the aux I have no clue what they did but they integrated it perfectly and it works well too. The only downside is that while using aux I can't control the volume via the steering mounted controls.

[Hells_Fury]

Was your car parked on Edward Road (parallel to Cunningham Road) today (28-Nov) at around 2:30 PM?

[IshaanIan]

Originally Posted by hooloovoo

Ishaan, can you please post details about the bluetooth you had fitted on your Kizashi? We haven't taken delivery of our car yet. The dealer is not able configure the bluetooth so we're trying to get help on our own. I know you mentioned the bluetooth on another thread, but that one's locked and I'm not able to PM you so had to resort to quoting you here Mods, if this is a breach of team-bhp etiquette, please forgive me!

Oh and btw congratulations good to hear about another kizashi owner in the pipelines please share a few details on which dealership, transmission and colour you have picked also on the deal you managed to bag. I also meant to correct myself; my father recently let slip that we actually got a slightly better deal on our car bringing the on road price we had to pay to 14.18 lakhs hope that helps other prospective buyers of this car in pointing to how much they ought to expect

[hooloovoo]

Originally Posted by IshaanIan

Oh and btw congratulations good to hear about another kizashi owner in the pipelines please share a few details on which dealership, transmission and colour you have picked also on the deal you managed to bag. I also meant to correct myself; my father recently let slip that we actually got a slightly better deal on our car bringing the on road price we had to pay to 14.18 lakhs hope that helps other prospective buyers of this car in pointing to how much they ought to expect

Thanks for the info about the bluetooth! We booked a black CVT (not our first choice of colour, but both silver and white were sold out) from a dealer outside Hyderabad, who is a friend of ours. We got it for 14.65 + freebies - bluetooth, parking sensors. Varun is offering a similar deal, I posted the details on the new car price thread when we booked the car.

[IshaanIan]

Originally Posted by hooloovoo

Thanks for the info about the bluetooth! We booked a black CVT (not our first choice of colour, but both silver and white were sold out) from a dealer outside Hyderabad, who is a friend of ours. We got it for 14.65 + freebies - bluetooth, parking sensors. Varun is offering a similar deal, I posted the details on the new car price thread when we booked the car.

Nice to hear. I think that was the same one was talking about earlier and it is pretty much the last in this city congratulations again How are you getting the Bluetooth fitted?

[hooloovoo]

Originally Posted by IshaanIan

Nice to hear. I think that was the same one was talking about earlier and it is pretty much the last in this city congratulations again How are you getting the Bluetooth fitted?

I called Mitra after you mentioned the black one and they told me it was already sold. Ours is being shipped from the factory. We don't know about the Bluetooth yet. I told the dealer about the jabra one you got, he said he'd look into it.

[IshaanIan]

Originally Posted by hooloovoo

I called Mitra after you mentioned the black one and they told me it was already sold. Ours is being shipped from the factory. We don't know about the Bluetooth yet. I told the dealer about the jabra one you got, he said he'd look into it.

Do let me know when you can, how you go about the bluetooth situation. The Jabra kit is great but I am still looking around for something that is integrated. Even doing some research on alpine head units that I can have installed to pop up from above the dash. Thought that would be pretty neat; wouldn't ruin the look of the dash and I can use gps, bluetooth, and have a bigger screen for the reverse camera anyway someone please let me know if it is possible to have them fitted like so.

[hooloovoo]

Originally Posted by IshaanIan

Do let me know when you can, how you go about the bluetooth situation. The Jabra kit is great but I am still looking around for something that is integrated. Even doing some research on alpine head units that I can have installed to pop up from above the dash. Thought that would be pretty neat; wouldn't ruin the look of the dash and I can use gps, bluetooth, and have a bigger screen for the reverse camera anyway someone please let me know if it is possible to have them fitted like so.

Got the car today! Have posted pics in the Kizashi review thread. The bluetooth situation didn't work out well for us, the dealer was not able to properly integrate any device with the system. So we'll have to look around for a good device now. Will let you know when we decide on one.

[Bluu]

The car has completed 3,000 km of which 2,100 have been round-trips Bangalore-Chennai including a 1,400 run in less than 30 hours. It was tiring but not exhausting. I opted to use the Chitoor route since the construction on the new highway makes it a tedious drive and the toll doesn't justify itself. Ranipet-Chennai is clear of diversions and constructions which works in my favor and the best part is that I live in Kadugodi which means I can drive on the highway almost all the way to my front door without having to deal with city traffic. The four lane stretch of 70-odd km to Hoskote is awesome!

In other news, I purchased a Coverite Silvertech 'D' cover for the Camry for use on my car. My apartment has stilt parking and there is a massive monkey menace. There was no occasion when the car would remain clean since the monkeys used it as both their dining table and their toilet. The cover fits perfectly and quality is good. I ordered it from Carsingh.com and received it in 8 days.

[hooloovoo]

Originally Posted by Bluu

The car has completed 3,000 km of which 2,100 have been round-trips Bangalore-Chennai including a 1,400 run in less than 30 hours.

1400 in less than 30 is impressive! Our roads and cars seem to be getting better every year. My car has about 4,500 on the odo now (the majority from runs to and from Bangalore), and I'd like to share a few things I noted about it. I think a couple of them have already been mentioned by you earlier.

- The doors don't auto-lock when the car starts/ picks up speed.
- The A/C defaults to fresh air in auto mode, I need to manually switch it back to recirculate.
- The car's slightly sluggish in the 40-60 range.
- The average fuel consumption shows the volume of fuel consumed for the previous hundred kms. It is not the actual FE. I remember feeling all smug about that fact that the car gave ~10.5 in the city before I was disabused and disillusioned. So the actual FE = 100/ reading of average FE meter.
- The seats get really dirty, really fast. I had the car cleaned professionally a couple of weeks ago and this is what the seat looks like today. Have not found an effective seat cleaner yet. Do let me know if you know of a good one.

(Excuse the dirty floor, it's been raining in Hyderabad and I'm careless about tracking mud in)
- Bought 3D floor mats. They cost a bomb but fit really well. Cleaning them is easy and they match the interiors of the car well.
- Considering getting the 3M paint protection thingy done to keep the paint glossy. Not sure if it's worth it.