[magikrider]

amazing experiences! you are making full use of your XUV I must say. wish I could also plan such long pleasure trips!

one thing that surprised me is the fantastic average you are getting! I get around 12kmpl only! my car has recently passed 3000kms mark in 2 months and the average showing is around 12-12.5 always! and i also checked it with tank full to tank full method and the figure I got is the same. the MID calculated average is pretty accurate. usually i travel with 3 passengers in my car. once when I started to time my upshift around 1500-1800 RPM and drove carefully to increase the average, it went down even more! so I now drive normal and usually upshift around 2000-2500 RPM as I heard that if you dont let the turbo kick in and drive in low RPMs, your average can get worse! rarely I have touched 3000-3500 RPM during pedal to metal style of driving when I am in a hurry or get an empty stretch at wee hours but usually i drive in a pretty relaxed manner but still I don't understand whats wrong that i never get average above 12-12.5kmpl!

[debuda]

Originally Posted by magikrider

amazing experiences! you are making full use of your XUV I must say. wish I could also plan such long pleasure trips!

one thing that surprised me is the fantastic average you are getting! I get around 12kmpl only! my car has recently passed 3000kms mark in 2 months and the average showing is around 12-12.5 always! and i also checked it with tank full to tank full method and the figure I got is the same. the MID calculated average is pretty accurate. usually i travel with 3 passengers in my car. once when I started to time my upshift around 1500-1800 RPM and drove carefully to increase the average, it went down even more! so I now drive normal and usually upshift around 2000-2500 RPM as I heard that if you dont let the turbo kick in and drive in low RPMs, your average can get worse! rarely I have touched 3000-3500 RPM during pedal to metal style of driving when I am in a hurry or get an empty stretch at wee hours but usually i drive in a pretty relaxed manner but still I don't understand whats wrong that i never get average above 12-12.5kmpl!

1) Frequent long pleasure trips in the XUV : I have clocked 7300 KM in two months. I could do this because I'm retired and can go anywhere whenever I want. Furthermore, I'm super excited with my new wheels and feel like taking it for long drives frequently. I know that this new josh will taper off eventually.

2) Mileage : Are you driving only in the city? I'm getting high mileage because most of my driving so far has been on the highways. Also, being winter time there is negligible use of AC. I accelerate and decelerate gently and use brakes minimally. Most of my driving is within a band of 1000 to 1600 RPM. On the highways I often upshift directly to 6th gear from 3rd or 4th and rev up gradually from 1000 RPM in 6th gear. I don't find any turbo lag in the XUV and have observed that it can pull even from 900 RPM in 6th gear as long as one is gentle with the gas pedal.

[Heavy Horse]

Originally Posted by debuda

2) Mileage : Are you driving only in the city? I'm getting high mileage because most of my driving so far has been on the highways. Also, being winter time there is negligible use of AC. I accelerate and decelerate gently and use brakes minimally. Most of my driving is within a band of 1000 to 1600 RPM. On the highways I often upshift directly to 6th gear from 3rd or 4th and rev up gradually from 1000 RPM in 6th gear. I don't find any turbo lag in the XUV and have observed that it can pull even from 900 RPM in 6th gear as long as one is gentle with the gas pedal.

Debuda, how's your second gear behaving after the work you got done in Jamshedpur, prior to this trip?

[me_sid]

Amazed to see the pictures, particularly the snap of Nathula. And good to see the FWD XUV conquiring the Nathula. I would definitely like to see two travelogues a) BHutan & b) Sikkim . So it seems you have a hurculian task ahead. And yes once again Salute for conquiring NathuLa!
How did you find the roads enroute particularly Bhagalpu-Purnea- Dalkhola sector. Recent news is NH34 upto Malda is in horrible condition.Rajgunj onwards okay types, Dalkhola onwards butter smooth.

[debuda]

Originally Posted by Heavy Horse

Debuda, how's your second gear behaving after the work you got done in Jamshedpur, prior to this trip?

Second gear is now fine. Will write in greater detail soon.

Originally Posted by me_sid

Amazed to see the pictures, particularly the snap of Nathula. And good to see the FWD XUV conquiring the Nathula. I would definitely like to see two travelogues a) BHutan & b) Sikkim . So it seems you have a hurculian task ahead. And yes once again Salute for conquiring NathuLa!
How did you find the roads enroute particularly Bhagalpu-Purnea- Dalkhola sector. Recent news is NH34 upto Malda is in horrible condition.Rajgunj onwards okay types, Dalkhola onwards butter smooth.

1) I have posted a picture-travelogue at http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...ml#post3009173

2) Bhagalpur-Purnea-Dalkhola sector is wonderful. No issues.

3) I'll post a technical report in this thread on the performance of my XUV during the arduous drive to North Sikkim soon. Watch this space.

[debuda]

ODO : 7300 KM; Drive to Gangtok, Nathu La, Lachung and Yumthang in Sikkim, India.

I have already posted a picture-travelogue at http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...-xuv-w6-2.html . Now here’s the tech report :

Overall : Though I had driven the XUV for more than 5000 KM (including to hills of Kasauli and Nainital) before this trip, it is only during the drives to Nathu La and North Sikkim did I realize what an SUV is really all about. The roads were terrible and the gradients were steep but the XUV took everything in its stride without any huffing and puffing. The ride was never overly uncomfortable and I could maintain 20-40 KMPH on some very bad surfaces. I found the ground clearance adequate as well.

Suspension: Performed superbly throughout. Took some pretty severe jolts and bottomings without raising an eyelid! I guess this drive was really needed to ‘break-in’ the suspension. Some very minor squeaks were audible once in a while but by and large the suspension did what it is supposed to do quite silently. I now have much greater confidence in the ‘punishment taking ability’ of my suspension. The ride quality on the roughest of roads was definitely not magic carpet like but not bone-shattering either.

Tyres : The Bridgestone Duelers performed admirably under very rough conditions. The roads often had sharp stones and boulders and though I am yet to examine my tyres under a magnifying glass, a casual inspection reveals that there is no obvious damage. Traction and cushioning were good.

Steering : Simply wonderful. Personally, I can’t think of a better steering for my XUV. Handling is almost sedan-like and I’m quite satisfied with it.

Engine : A gem of an engine. Responsive, powerful, silent, torquey and fuel-efficient. Pulls even from 900 RPM. There were occasions where I felt that it would have been better if the engine had 30-40 more horses. But such occasions were few and far between. Anyway, what would those extra horses have given me – just the thrill of doing in 3rd gear what I am now doing in 2nd. No big deal really.

Transmission : Superb. Butter smooth. Am running out of adjectives. Earlier I had a problem with my second gear. Now it is as good as gone. Two reasons – the cables were changed and (arguably more importantly) the gears / engaging mechanisms have bedded in nicely after massive use in the hills. To put things in perspective, out of the total distance of 1925 KM covered in this trip, about 550 KM were in the hills of Sikkim where 2nd and 3rd gears were used most of the time. By hindsight, my 2nd gear seems to have been a problem child which needed some ‘ragra’ to straighten out!

Brakes : Grinding noise, spongy feeling, etc, etc – these happen in other peoples’ XUVs, not mine. I’m quite happy with my brakes, and mind you, brakes are required to be used frequently in the hills even if correct gears are being used while descending. Also, my driving style is such that hard braking is almost never required. However, there was one occasion in the plains when the car ahead of me braked suddenly and I got closer to that car than anticipated despite braking in time. Probably I need to press harder on the brakes; my earlier cars didn’t have ABS / EBD. I need to experiment more on this issue before I can definitively declare that my XUV’s brakes are perfect.

Failure : There was only one – out of the two horns, the LHS one stopped working suddenly. I like to religiously honk at blind curves on ghat roads (strangely, I found that very few vehicles in Sikkim follow this practice) and I wanted to fix this as the decibels were much reduced with only one horn. Once, when I had to stop on the road for a long time due to a road-clearing operation, I started working on this problem. I removed the front grill (my wife helped me) to gain access to the horns and found that one wire had snapped (at the crimping point to a connector). I made some temporary arrangement (I carry some essential tools in the car during long drives) which is working fine till now.



Niggles : There are a couple of body squeaks, could be from the dashboard or doors, haven’t been able to pinpoint it. But they are quite minor, really.

Sub-zero temperature performance : My XUV spent two nights at Lachung (9,300 feet). During the first night, it was parked under a shed and when I started the car the next morning at 2 deg C ambient, the glow plugs remained on for 3-4 seconds and the car started in the first crank. But on the second night the car was parked under the open sky and was nicely ‘frozen’ (ambient temperature fell to sub-zero levels and my car was never started from 1 PM to 7 AM, i.e., for 18 long hours including the entire evening and night, and so it can be assumed that everything in the car reached the ambient temperature of minus 4 deg C) – when I switched on the ignition the glow plugs remained on for 6-7 seconds and the car started on the third cranking, when I applied a slight pressure on the gas pedal. But once the engine started, it idled nicely on its own without any accelerator.





Other sub-zero temp. issues : The windshield (like the entire top part of the car) had a thin and hard sheet of ice and I had to pour hot water over it to clear it. The washer fluid had frozen and thawed out after operating the car for an hour or so. None of the windows could be rolled down as there was ice on all of them. Everything became normal after warming up the car.

Mileage : I reset the DIS average before starting from Jamshedpur. It started from 9.0 KMPL and rose steadily to 18.0 KMPL over a couple of hundred KM. I expected the average to start falling after Siliguri (due to hill roads) but it was showing 18 KMPL even after reaching Gangtok. This obviously means that by the time we reached Siliguri the actual average was close to 19 or 20 KMPL. After the drive to Nathu La the average dropped to 17.3 and after reaching Yumthang the average reached its minimum level of 16.1. By the time I descended to Siliguri, the average had recovered to 16.4 and I finished the trip (at Jamshedpur) with an average of 17.4 KMPL. Though there were only 2 of us in the car with little cargo and AC was never used, an overall mileage of 17.4 KMPL over a drive like this (1375 KM in the plains + 550 KM in steep / treacherous hill roads) is AWESOME.

[magikrider]

Originally Posted by debuda

1) Frequent long pleasure trips in the XUV : I have clocked 7300 KM in two months. I could do this because I'm retired and can go anywhere whenever I want. Furthermore, I'm super excited with my new wheels and feel like taking it for long drives frequently. I know that this new josh will taper off eventually.

2) Mileage : Are you driving only in the city? I'm getting high mileage because most of my driving so far has been on the highways. Also, being winter time there is negligible use of AC. I accelerate and decelerate gently and use brakes minimally. Most of my driving is within a band of 1000 to 1600 RPM. On the highways I often upshift directly to 6th gear from 3rd or 4th and rev up gradually from 1000 RPM in 6th gear. I don't find any turbo lag in the XUV and have observed that it can pull even from 900 RPM in 6th gear as long as one is gentle with the gas pedal.

Sir, dont get me wrong. I wish you keep on making such trips and post your experiences here. it inspires us! 7300 km in 2 months is amazing! you are pretty adventurous I must say and good for you. one must make full use of time and such beautiful vehicle one has & may this josh go on forever!

about the milage, looks like your driving style is very relaxed. but as you said if you are driving usually between 1000 to 1600 RPM then you are not making much use of the turbo which I guess starts after 1600 RPM. and according to BHPians here in the forum, you should not upshift turbo engines very early before the turbo kicks in. that will actually give you worse average! but apparently, you are proving them wrong! my drive is mix. its 40% city and 60% highway. and upshift between 2000-2500 RPM. and get an average of around 12-12.5 kmpl. when i tried to upshift early once for around 200 kmpl, my average went down to 11.5 kmpl. so was thinking whats wrong. is it the car or my driving style?

[SDP]

Debuda, fantastic experiences and fantastic mileage.

Where's the fun in seeing India from the backseat of a battered yellow-board Innova? You are experiencing India the right way!

Going by your example, I am looking forward to an early retirement.

[debuda]

Originally Posted by magikrider

about the milage, looks like your driving style is very relaxed. but as you said if you are driving usually between 1000 to 1600 RPM then you are not making much use of the turbo which I guess starts after 1600 RPM. and according to BHPians here in the forum, you should not upshift turbo engines very early before the turbo kicks in. that will actually give you worse average! but apparently, you are proving them wrong! my drive is mix. its 40% city and 60% highway. and upshift between 2000-2500 RPM. and get an average of around 12-12.5 kmpl. when i tried to upshift early once for around 200 kmpl, my average went down to 11.5 kmpl. so was thinking whats wrong. is it the car or my driving style?

I would recommend that you go for a long (at least 100 KM) drive on a good highway and reset the DIS average after reaching the highway. Thereafter, drive steadily between 80 to 100 KMPH in 6th gear for 70-100 KM and see the DIS average. Do let me know your findings for information.

Originally Posted by SDP

Going by your example, I am looking forward to an early retirement.

I took early retirement (not VRS) 7 years ago when I was 54 years old. It took me some time to come to terms with retirement but by and large I have been engaging myself in activities which are close to my heart and I am reasonably happy and stress-free. But I never advise anyone to take early retirement because it is a personal decision and what is suitable for me may be unsuitable for you.

IMHO, to attain 'Nirvana' (I claim to have attained it more or less) one has to draw a line as far as one's financial goals are concerned. In other words, one has to decide what kind of lifestyle one wants to have till one's dying day and whether there is enough financial security to do so. The problem with most people is that they keep raising the bar with increasing financial affluence.

[SDP]

Originally Posted by debuda

...
I took early retirement (not VRS) 7 years ago when I was 54 years old....

IMHO, to attain 'Nirvana' (I claim to have attained it more or less) one has to draw a line as far as one's financial goals are concerned. In other words, one has to decide what kind of lifestyle one wants to have till one's dying day and whether there is enough financial security to do so. The problem with most people is that they keep raising the bar with increasing financial affluence.

Debuda, this is beautiful.

In fact, I am chasing that illusive "bliss" or "Nirvana" and have come to similar conclusions. One has to know what he really wants in his life. Most chase money because everybody else is chasing it. Many don't even know how much is enough and what exactly are they going to do with all that they are hoarding up. Almost everybody is confused between what they "need" and what they "want". Our "needs" are finite, but "wants" are infinite. Sorting out this basic dilemma seems to be the key to the path towards happiness.

[rajeev k]

Originally Posted by debuda

I took early retirement (not VRS) 7 years ago when I was 54 years old. It took me some time to come to terms with retirement but by and large I have been engaging myself in activities which are close to my heart and

Had you joined TBhp then, we would have been able to see more photo filled informative threads.

[SS-Traveller]

Originally Posted by debuda

Sub-zero temperature performance : ...
ambient temperature of minus 4 deg C) – when I switched on the ignition the glow plugs remained on for 6-7 seconds and the car started on the third cranking...

Interesting. So no issues with diesel gelling inside the tank and pipelines at (-)4*C there, even without additives!

[debuda]

Originally Posted by SDP

Our "needs" are finite, but "wants" are infinite. Sorting out this basic dilemma seems to be the key to the path towards happiness.

Well said, SDP. I couldn't agree more.

Originally Posted by rajeev k

Had you joined TBhp then, we would have been able to see more photo filled informative threads.

I too wish that I had discovered TBHP earlier. Well, better late than never, I suppose.

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

Interesting. So no issues with diesel gelling inside the tank and pipelines at (-)4*C there, even without additives!

AFAIK, diesel gelling normally takes place below minus 9 deg C or so. I have heard that in western countries they sell 'summer diesel' and 'winter diesel' with different levels of anti-freeze additives. I have no idea whether in India the oil companies add anti-freeze additives in diesel being sold in very cold places in winter. Before leaving for North Sikkim I had filled up my tank at Gangtok.

After a bit of Googling I learnt that when temperatures go down to sub-zero levels, the first problem in modern diesel engines arises due to freezing of water in the fuel filter-cum-water-separator. Obviously, this problem will be more acute if a lot of water has accumulated in the fuel filter.

Fortunately, when my XUV was frozen to minus 4 deg C, I did not encounter any serious problems. I started the engine without much difficulty and let it idle for 20 minutes or so before trying to move the car. Meanwhile, I had defrosted the windshield by pouring hot water over it. The main problem I encountered when I tried to move the car was loss of traction -- there was a thin layer of ice around my wheels and my front wheels started spinning. I overcame this problem by moving my car back and forth a couple of times.

[SS-Traveller]

Originally Posted by debuda

After a bit of Googling I learnt that when temperatures go down to sub-zero levels, the first problem in modern diesel engines arises due to freezing of water in the fuel filter-cum-water-separator. Obviously, this problem will be more acute if a lot of water has accumulated in the fuel filter.
Fortunately, when my XUV was frozen to minus 4 deg C, I did not encounter any serious problems. I started the engine without much difficulty and let it idle for 20 minutes or so before trying to move the car.

Lots of discussion about starting problems faced by multiple members at similar high altitude + low temperature situations as you had been in. Similar engines too. The links are:
1. http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/techni...altitudes.html
2. http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/techni...altitudes.html

Hence I wondered. Good to know you didn't face such issues.

[Sheel]

Originally Posted by debuda

I like to religiously honk at blind curves on ghat roads (strangely, I found that very few vehicles in Sikkim follow this practice)

You really don't need to. Locales always drive in their side of the road (corners included) come what may. Don't over-take in the curves.

I too was under the impression of sounding the horn, but with 20 corners in a kilometer, how much would you honk & I frankly feel it wasn't required in & around Sikkim. The driving is so much stress-free. Everyone keeps to his/her side & don't use horn. I particularly like this aspect.

Yes, it does take some time to get used to this.