[gururajrv]

There's nothing that beats the looks of a dirty car your car looks great Axe!

BTW, I can't help but notice that neat looking modified Thar which is tastefully done.

[Tejas@perioimpl]

Fantastic Write up Axe77. Hope your kid had some exciting stories to share with his classmates in school.

Originally Posted by Kosfactor

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.

The amount of air that was aired down, left enough cushion for the rims. With airing down you need to worry more about side wall cuts than damage to the rims.

Originally Posted by viXit

Also they had no water anywhere to protect the electronics. If jeep is worried, I think you should be too.

When we do events, we also advice the client to avoid slush and water. The reasons are different.

Mainly, these cars do more than 100 rounds a day on the track rather than the 1-2 you would do while doing a training course. Secondly, when it's not your own car, customers tend to abuse the car which you won't do to our own car and drive carefully.

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.

That was a custom built track for the car and therefore they must have not needed airing down. Plus terrain was dry. In wet, without airing down you are going to side everywhere.

Could be the reason one car got beached.

Actually, with airing down, you reduce ground clearance and have more chances of beaching. This seems to be a simple case of the customer slipping off the articulation obstacle - error of judgement maybe?

[viXit]

Originally Posted by Tejas@perioimpl

Actually, with airing down, you reduce ground clearance and have more chances of beaching. This seems to be a simple case of the customer slipping off the articulation obstacle - error of judgement maybe?

When the front of the car went up in the air the driver couldn't see where the rut was and where the obstacle was. Hence the misjudgement. There were quite a few mixed signals and directions from the instructors who were definitely not in the best mood going round and round with the attendees.

But wheels were still on the ground, but no grip.
I speculated that airing down would have allowed it to come out on its own power.

It had to be towed out with a Wrangler.

Originally Posted by 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.

You're probably right.

But it was definitely a wasted opportunity. Water wading is quite important nowadays with all the flooding in cities.

Jeep guys at Hyderabad were definitely not 100% confident.

Is the meridian a 4x4 or an AWD? I think it's just the name of the variant.

Love the recovery pic of the white Meridien. Manual technique literally.

Unsuccessful actually. And quite dangerous too.

The car could fall into the rut or slide suddenly with a body part of one of the people there helping under it.

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.

Definitely. Big fan of his Overland Pajero thread too

For now I make do with being an idiot in slush and counting on fellow bhpians to rescue me.

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.

I implore you to drive their car there.
Just to draw the important and interesting comparisons between between the track and instructors you experienced at both places.

[Axe77]

Originally Posted by gururajrv

BTW, I can't help but notice that neat looking modified Thar which is tastefully done.

Thank you. That Thar was tastefully modified indeed. Although personally, I would not have gone so excessive on the upsizing of the tyres.

But for everything else, it looked gorgeous. Including the understated paint / wrap job.

Originally Posted by viXit

Is the meridian a 4x4 or an AWD? I think it's just the name of the variant.

Its a 4x4 with 4x4 Lock as well as 4x4 Low mode. I think the Meridian official review TBHP should have more technical details on this.

Unsuccessful actually. And quite dangerous too.

The car could fall into the rut or slide suddenly with a body part of one of the people there helping under it.

Of yes, fully agree. My response was unclear actually. I was finding it really amusing how they’d got a barrage of people to manually recover it when they should have been using more off-roader style technical ways to rescue the vehicle. I was silently appreciating the brief visual we got off Tejas recovering the LR Discovery Sport from a ditch it had gotten stuck in.

I implore you to drive their car there.
Just to draw the important and interesting comparisons between between the track and instructors you experienced at both places.

Will try buddy, time permitting. Right now not even sure if I’ll end up in Pune at all on the day.

[Turbolove]

Originally Posted by Axe77

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.

I'm glad that my post was helpful. Your Meridian looks wonderful in the mud. You're right, the LO grounds look completely different in monsoons, they look way more inviting too.

[viky_s]

Great Write up @Axe77. Closely following all the Meridian threads ��. The info has been very helpful indeed.
Recently we got the delivery of the Big Boy Jeep Meridian 4x4. I jumped the ship from Kodiaq.
I definitely plan to attend L1 course of Dr.Tejas once the 1st service is over and done.

BTW what tyre pressure do you maintain in the Meridian. Factory says 37 in front and 34 in rear but my go to Tyre shop said 33-34 all around.

[Axe77]

Originally Posted by viky_s

BTW what tyre pressure do you maintain in the Meridian. Factory says 37 in front and 34 in rear but my go to Tyre shop said 33-34 all around.

Thanks for the kind words.

I just maintain the factory specified for now. Haven’t gotten around to experimenting with slightly different pressure yet.

[viXit]

Originally Posted by Axe77

Its a 4x4 with 4x4 Lock as well as 4x4 Low mode. I think the Meridian official review TBHP should have more technical details on this.

4x4 is the branding Jeep gave to it's selec-terrain 4x4.
In a traditional 4x4 you have a transfer case sending equal power and no slip allowed between the front and back axles.

Jeep has a clutch pack here that decides when and how much power to send to the rear axle.(being predominantly fwd) it's a transaxle/transversely mounted engine sending power to the front wheels.

The 4Low is basically the first gear in the AT transmission.
4 L otherwise is a gear in the transfer case to aid crawl ratio. And the 4wd lock ensures that the rear axle clutch is engaged.(or disengaged?, Whichever sends power to the back)

Effective Diff locks are achieved by applying brakes on the slipping wheels. This is an extended capability of the ESP on the car.

All these systems work very well improving the car's behaviour on the road. Where you would use 4H in low grip conditions. And is almost as good as an old school 4x4 off the road.

Only compromise is durability. But it's not expected to be used so hard.

[Axe77]

Quick update on the car.

- Current odo: Just over 6000 kms.
- Got my first service done at just over 5000 kms (5100 something). Nothing major to report - its more of a general check up. They did however update my Jeep app (can’t recall what its called) for the central MID screen.
- DEF / AdBlue consumed is almost exactly 10 litres for 5000 kms. So basically runs through a 5 ltr can every 2500 km.

Now for the more exciting bits. We had a trip to Goa planned this week but cancelled that for a bunch of reasons. We decided to do an overnighter over Tues / Wed to Pune but with a trip out to Satara before we end up at Pune. Left at 5:45 am on Tuesday (25th) and headed straight towards Satara. Had brekker just after Khed Shivapur toll naka and then went straight towards Chalkewadi windmills ahead of Kaas and Satara. Got some nice pics around that area and then backtracked a few kms behind for Thoseghar waterfalls. It has a nice small walk from the parking lot that gets you to the “chotta” (small) waterfall.

Headed back to Pune from there but with lunch at Manas in Satara - quite famous for its mutton thali, keema etc.

The drive up to Chalkewadi is really quite beautiful. On the way in, I wanted to bypass Satara city so drove up on the highway till Shendre and then stepped off the highway to back track towards Chalkewadi. Its slightly longer but a much better route since it completely bypasses the need to go through Satara city.

Some pics below from the trip. Total distance covered door to door over the two days till our return home was approximately 615 kms.

Our brief time in Pune was quite well utilised too. We managed dinner at Malaka Spice (Koregaon Park), I managed a run outside the Pune racecourse as well as an easy and very short bicycle ride around Dhole Patel Road. I was staying right next to the BMW Motorrad / Mini / Byd showroom so also managed to get a look at the new Atto 3. It looks STUNNING! Folks do check it out at your nearest Byd showroom if you get a chance. I’m leaving a pic below of the Atto 3 as well.

The lovely winding road that leads up to Chalkewadi. This is an absolute driver’s delight.


Above and below: At the windmills at two different locations.



Thoseghar waterfalls


Mini mutton thali at Manas.


Above and below: The Atto 3.

[san.gaurav]

@axe77 thanks for such a detailed ownership review.

Could you please let me know if you experience any rattling sound around last two rows esp. on the rough patches of the road. I'm unable to zero it down to a specific area with 100% surety but mostly it seems from the single passenger seat (40% split side). It seems to vibrate on rough roads and leads to rattling. I have already multiple times tried to ensue the seat is properly fit in its place and also tried all possible recline options. But all efforts in vain.

The same rattle sound can be heard if I punch this seat with very light force. I wanted to check if anyone else has also experienced such rattles in the rear esp. with rear seat.

[Axe77]

Originally Posted by san.gaurav

Could you please let me know if you experience any rattling sound around last two rows esp. on the rough patches of the road.

No such issue for me. I do get a slightly squeaky sound at times but nothing crazy and definitely no rattles. But this has been the on and off gripe with many Jeep owners so definitely worth showing your SA and requesting resolution (if at all its possible). Their QC is clearly nothing to write home about.

[san.gaurav]

Originally Posted by Axe77

No such issue for me. I do get a slightly squeaky sound at times but nothing crazy and definitely no rattles. But this has been the on and off gripe with many Jeep owners so definitely worth showing your SA and requesting resolution (if at all its possible). Their QC is clearly nothing to write home about.

Sure, I will visit my SA and will ask them to give a thorough look on what's causing this issue. Hope it's a small and quick fix. Thanks

[SDO]

It has been a while since I loaded up Team-BHP and what a nice come-back reading ! @Axe77 Your review is neat and extensive with meaningful comparisons.

I was at a Jeep dealership few weeks back to service my Compass and had close quarter views of the Meridian and C5 Air Cross. Two well built and plush vehicles. Meridian was looking like a bigger Compass to me with a not so useable third row. I was sort of thinking what is the use of this vehicle for anyone who wants a third row. Your review changes that impression pretty well. I haven't driven it but I am sure having the Compass experience, the further refinements to engine and tranny are only making it even better. I sort of feel the vehicle is tad too longer but that doesn't translate into interior space. The well appointed interiors and clean exterior shape are quite good on Compass's big brother.

The only grouse is their ridiculous pricing for the Meridian and C5. They should have learnt the lesson from the abysmal sales of C5 which by itself is a superb package. Compass in my opinion is priced higher since the 2021 facelift. Meridian goes even higher from there in price and possibly down the slope in sales. A good package like that one deserves better. Our taxes and manufacturers profit ambitions won't help a bit.

Wishing you several thousands of pleasurable miles with your new steed. Be set for some niggles and rattles here are there. Aside, it will put smile on your face whenever you hold the steering.

[car-o-holic]

We have finally bit the bullet and are going on for the 4X4 Limited. Vehicle should be delivered in a week's time. PDI would mid next week.

Please do share any specific pointers for PDI. Will use the checklist available.

[Axe77]

Originally Posted by car-o-holic

Please do share any specific pointers for PDI. Will use the checklist available.

The checklist should be comprehensive enough. One aspect I’d ask you to specially check is the batter health in the menu. Should read somewhere between 13 and 14.3.

There have been a few isolated cases of the battery being weak. I can’t think of anything else off hand that’s specific to the Jeep / Meridian outside of our fairly comprehensive TBHP checklist.

All the best.