[ishlinea7260]

Originally Posted by Axe77

My car is a little past 3000 kms

Hi Axe77 , have you faced any problematic issues in the car?
TD’d one today and the reserve fuel light was on, surprisingly the range shown was 4,29,000 kms!.
I am not kidding, I showed it to the SA and he was clueless.

[Dry Ice]

Originally Posted by ishlinea7260

Hi Axe77 , have you faced any problematic issues in the car?
TD’d one today and the reserve fuel light was on, surprisingly the range shown was 4,29,000 kms!.
I am not kidding, I showed it to the SA and he was clueless.

Damn, that is not a Jeep, but a spaceship! It can get you to the moon and still have juice left to go round some of the abandoned lunar modules!

[Axe77]

Originally Posted by ishlinea7260

Hi Axe77 , have you faced any problematic issues in the car?

No issues with the car whatsoever so far (touch wood). Its done its fair share of highway as well as city duties. Review remains true to point on most fronts still. I do read (via general social media) about a lot of owners having some issue or the other and some dealerships not being up to scratch on being able to assist, which exacerbates the negative experience stemming from such issues.

City FE is an abysmal 6-8/8.5 kmpl depending on how bad the traffic is. Highways is barely early double digits (mostly sub 12/12.5).

TD’d one today and the reserve fuel light was on, surprisingly the range shown was 4,29,000 kms!.
I am not kidding, I showed it to the SA and he was clueless.

Sounds like some sort of glitch in the MID. I’m sure it must be something easily resolvable. Shouldn’t happen at all of course.

[Hayek]

Amazing review Axe, and congrats on the new car. Catching up with months of Team BHP threads I missed. Must say the Meridian (keep forgetting the name I must say - what’s with Compass, Meridian, Latitude and Longitude) looks really impressive on the road - as good as a Grand Cherokee in my view. The rear seats, like those in my Allspace are best used as emergency jump seats (I remember a trip in the US with a friend’s Grand Cherokee with his daughter riding in the boot on a ice box - strictly illegal I guess) rather than as real seats. Interiors seem good. Am surprised you found the seat squab length of the Kodiaq inadequate - we find the one in the Tiguan far superior to the X3.

Think you are doing quite well with city fuel efficiency of 6.5-7 given your office run, which is probably the worst in the world (unless you are keeping Zia hours ). For highway drives, SUVs have a problem - ultimately they have to overcome a lot more wind resistance than a sedan like your GT - the mileage you are getting is very similar to what I get on the X3. (my city ride to BKC is far better than your thanks to the Connector)

For others’ benefit, I must say that in similar conditions, mileage in my Tiguan is ~10% lower than in my X3, so the Diesel vs Petrol cost difference is tolerable and the refinement of the Petrol is well worth the difference if you run 10000 km per year or less - the incremental cost of petrol vs diesel is just ₹34,000 per year, which is nothing in the context of ₹40 l cars.

Best wishes and may you have my tens of thousands of miles of great motoring with this car.

[Axe77]

Originally Posted by Hayek

Amazing review Axe, and congrats on the new car. Catching up with months of Team BHP threads I missed.
...
Am surprised you found the seat squab length of the Kodiaq inadequate - we find the one in the Tiguan far superior to the X3.

Thank you for taking the time to read it.

I agree with you on the X3 / 3 GT. The Meridian and Kodiaq sport better second row seats than both these BMWs (I drove an X3 for two weeks in Spain a few years ago, so familiar with that as well).

I just felt the Meridian is a hint better than the Kodiaq on this front. But again, I've not managed to see these together so can't comment with absolute certainty.

For others’ benefit, I must say that in similar conditions, mileage in my Tiguan is ~10% lower than in my X3, so the Diesel vs Petrol cost difference is tolerable and the refinement of the Petrol is well worth the difference if you run 10000 km per year or less - the incremental cost of petrol vs diesel is just ₹34,000 per year, which is nothing in the context of ₹40 l cars.

Absolutely agree with you on this. If I had to choose all over again, I'd definitely pick petrol over diesel. Its just that absent ready availability of Kodiaqs for me, this wasn't a real option. The VW too was not available in the larger Allspace guise but only in the regular format and didn't appeal as much. Plus, my particular awful route (Lower Parel to Parel) made me even more wary of possible DSG woes in those extreme conditions, specially since the car is driver driven and I can't control mitigating measures like switching to N, all the time, when they're driving.

[robby0707]

Originally Posted by viky_s

The overall car doesn’t feel airy and the 2nd row is smaller than the Kodiaq/Meridian.
The Shoulder width is less.

Hey. Just checked out both the car yesterday. Space, be it cabin width or legroom is definitely more in Tucson. However, the window lines are a bit high and shorter people can feel that they are sat low. This was even a big problem in the older Tucson (I’m an owner). Also while the Tucson interiors are on, they are too similar to the Alcazar / Creta and doesn’t give the premium feel that the jeep does.

[PrideRed]

Nice and well documented report on Meridian. Did you take the Meridian to offroad event? Recall seeing a Mumbai registered green Meridian on social media.

[Axe77]

Originally Posted by PrideRed

Nice and well documented report on Meridian. Did you take the Meridian to offroad event? Recall seeing a Mumbai registered green Meridian on social media.

Indeed I did. Watch this space for a brief report on the day’s shenanigans!

[Axe77]

I have been meaning to take the Jeep off tarmac ever since I got it but was clear I'd only take it under proper guided supervision for the first time and also use the occasion to learn the technicalities of off-roading from an expert, while at it.

No other name was in my mind except our fellow DBHP'ian Dr. Tejas, who I've had occasion to meet previously as well through a common friend. Decided to finally sign up for his L1 training last Sunday. Took my son as well to make it a nice father - son day long outing.

Dr. Tejas is Asia's first certified I4WDTA trainer - you can read more about him (or actually I4WDTA) here:

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/4x4-t...-my-story.html (Becoming Asia's first certified I4WDTA trainer - My story)

This is an old thread however and his school, Learn Offroad is much more recent, active since about 2019 if I'm not mistaken. You can read a wonderfully detailed report by BHP'ian TurboLove on his L1 outing with his Compass at the same location I had visited. The report is at the link below.

https://www.team-bhp.com/news/learni...-newbies-india

The day in detail

The off-roading location was somewhere around Pali. 9:30 am reporting time means we had left Mumbai by about 7:20 am to reach well in time.

The day started with about 90 minutes of a basic theory session around power, torque, workings of the differential, locking the differential etc. Even basics like ideal driving position were covered.

It had been raining a fair bit the whole weekend so the terrain was definitely going to be a tad more "interesting" for L1 levels. I was reading TurboLove's thread again and with my own frame of reference now, it was amazing to see how different the same location and terrain looks and feels between dry season and peak monsoon.

There were a total of 4 cars in addition to Tejas' first gen Thar: these were a V2 Thar diesel A/T; a gypsy; a LR Discovery Sport and my Meridian.

Tyre pressures were reduced at the beginning itself and we then started off with some basic obstacles including a spotting drill where we teamed up with one learner spotting for another driver and then switching roles. Decided my son will do the spotting drill for me (with some guidance from Tejas from behind him )

From here we moved on step by step to more difficult obstacles before breaking for a late lunch. By the time we wrapped up at the location, it was almost 5 pm.

The Meridian is definitely a very capable 4x4 machine - there's no doubting that. Much more capable than the likes of AWD monocoques but definitely nowhere even close (at the risk of stating the obvious) to the lovely Thars and Gypsies with their insane articulation, ground clearance and even superior crawl ratios. The Jeep will tackle some really difficult obstacles with aplomb but if you're serious about rock climbing every weekend, you really must get yourself a Thar / Gypsy / similar custom built vehicle.

Nothing more to add really. While its the videos that really best demonstrate the day, I'm constrained to leave the rest of the story via pics, some of these from screengrabs from videos shared by Dr. Tejas. These are not all the obstacles we navigated but whatever I could get from the pics / videos from others.

Picture time


Warm up to off-roading. Typical conditions on some interior roads in Maharashtra.



Above and below. Close to the venue and before time means extra time for some quick pics.





Above and below. Outside our briefing area. Typical setting during monsoons around the Western Ghats. I absolutely love driving during the rains just for the outstanding greenery around.




Part of the line up for the day.



And we're off and away deeper into the wilderness. Solo pic above and the line up below.




First order of business. Reducing air pressure to about 2/3rd of the default levels.



Above and below. Obstacle number one.
Entering and exiting this ditch.






Obstacle two: Climbing this mini hill to get a feel of the different wheels lifting off the ground. Also emphasizes sideways entry to such hazards.


Obstacle three: Navigating these iron pipes. You'll see this in the thread linked above as well. Note the vast difference in the greenery around during this season.



Above and below. First set of obstacles completed and on our way to the next.





Above and below. Mud patch entry. I tried this multiple times but didn't manage to exit the obstacle cleanly after repeated attempts. Finally had to clamber out from one side of the obstacle and exit via the "chicken” route. This is where the Thars and the Gypsy simply showed their effortless class. The Discovery Sport got similarly stuck like my vehicle. Drier conditions or more off road biased tyres might have improved our chances of climbing out I reckon.




Several attempts later. Absolute battle scarred and mud strewn exterior to the car. I think my car cleaner will expect an early Diwali bonus this month.



Above and next two pics below:
This one was tricky. A steep hill descent followed by a sharp turn and then a steep climb on slippery moss ridden rock face. We had to turn back and return from another side path that had deep ruts. Navigate a turn through that and again climb back on the same rock face. Navigated the entire obstacle only to knock my front bumper while circling around for the second attempt. Cracked the chrome strip at the base of my bumper in the process but I'll take that over what could have been a lot worse.




Wheel in the air before the climb up the slippery rock face.


Final obstacle: driving with the car sloping sideways, one wheel on higher ground and the other in the deep ditch.



Above and below. Exiting the obstacle. Wheel high in the air at some point.




Same obstacle. The LR had slid inside and we got a 101 session on using some recovery tools to bring it out.


The mud ridden car is finally calling it a day. Certificates in hand, we head out for our drive back home.

[GTO]

Great post, Axe . Yours might be the first customer Meridian that actually went offroading, and I am sure you see your SUV with greater respect now. Don't wash it for a couple of days, Jeeps look their best when they are dirty . Will be an awesome conversation starter in the office / home parking.

[Kosfactor]

Super! I doubt many would ever attempt something like this sort on a vehicle that costs so much. Well done.

A small observation - perhaps a good idea to maintain running air pressure in tyres or even over inflate a bit , those alloys look very expensive, best to preserve them. Traction isn't much of a problem since you have other vehicles to lend a helping hand when needed.

[viXit]

Nice post!
Want to attend Dr.Tejas' course someday.

A couple of us from HYD took the wheel at Jeep's event here showcasing the meridian's capabilities.



It can hold it's own on most terrains quite well thanks to the wizardry that FCA has engineered into it electronically. Individual wheel braking and all for diff locks etc.

But the overhangs and long wheelbase made sure that the track was quite tame. Also they had no water anywhere to protect the electronics. If jeep is worried, I think you should be too.

Nice to see you taking it off road. Helps to get familiar with the car.
Scary airing down such low profile wheels. No airing down during our drive IIRC since I don't remember seeing any TPMS lights flashing. Could be the reason one car got beached.

[Axe77]

@Vixit:

I think the water aspect may simply be a factor of it being peak monsoon still in MH. I doubt Jeep would be concerned about it from an electronics standpoint - such 4x4s do have a rated level of water wading ability I would reckon.

Reducing air pressure actually is a fairly common aspect of off roading but of course and given that you’re at really slow speeds it should not be overly concerning. The important thing of course is to get it back up to required levels when you’re back on tarmac.

Frankly, even on my alloy (not spoke) shod Triumph Tiger, when we’ve hit the sand, its been essential to knock down tyre pressure to as low as 13-14 psi (normal is 36/42, front and rear).

Love the recovery pic of the white Meridien. Manual technique literally. You must actually do a session with Dr. Tejas when an opportunity presents itself. His L1 is very well structured, following which he has a day long L1 recovery techniques and thereafter an L2. You get to learn even recovery tools and techniques in his recovery course.

Jeep is doing a similar event around Pune this weekend. Small chance I might be riding my bike around that vicinity and if that happens, will try to drop in although I may or may not opt to drive their car - will just observe.

[ScorpWarp]

Originally Posted by Axe77

I have been meaning to take the Jeep off tarmac

This is exactly the reason my heart keeps pulling towards Jeep Meridian than Tucson or Kodiaq. Head says no due to limited space and not so brilliant gearbox. I got an invite for the Jeep offroad event this weekend. Although I am very tempted, I am avoiding it because I know that after experiencing the offroad capabilities it would be very difficult to rule Meridian out.

Thanks Axe77 for very interesting and useful post.

[The Blue Panda]

Wohoo, this is amazing

I just loved the different types of "off-roading" you folks did, and too excited to be part of something similar in future. I don't own an off-roading car though (at-least for now ), but will definitely try to get an opportunity to pair with someone

Originally Posted by Axe77

I have been meaning to take the Jeep off tarmac ever since I got it but was clear I'd only take it under proper guided supervision for the first time and also use the occasion to learn the technicalities of off-roading from an expert, while at it.