[someshb]

Car - WagonR Duo, Two and Half Months Old
Total Journey = 442 kms
Fuel Used - LPG and Petrol
Route - Bangalore -- Mysore -- Nanjangud -- Gundlupet -- Himavat Gopalswamy Betta

First of all I knew this isnt the right weather to go to any place in the Bandipur forest belt, but still went there because I wanted to drive my car.
This is not about the trip experience but rather on how I felt the car was.

Overall the car feels good, much better than what I expected. WagonR, unlike most people think, is stable at high speeds and can take long and fairly tight curves without you feeling unsafe at all. Just to give you a feel, if you can turn an Indica into a turning at 100kmph, you can do the same in WagonR at 80 kmph and still feel safe. (This is what 'I' felt, its 'my' personal opinion and I have driven a WagonR, indica and a Santro only).

The Mysore road was good road to drive my car at a high speed. I touched 120 kmph, and on a slope it went to 140 before I hit the brakes spotting a hump at a distance. I dont think the car's engine was feeling very good at 120, so 80 - 100 kmph is very much to the engine's liking and the car feels great.

Then came the stretch from Mysore to Nanjangud, the roads are bad. Its a little irritating in a wagonr on long stretches of bad roads compared to an indica. But you should enjoy it, whats the power steering for ha..? give some twists,try to avoid every pot hole on the way, everyone will like it, WagonR has more body roll too , so you will enjoy it more.

Now for the uphill climb at the Himavat Gopalswamy hills. 5 people were there in the car including me. First thing I did was to turn off the A/C. There was small stretches where I was forced to go to first gear, but car did fairly well in second gear given the long (almost 45 degree) uphill climb.

Coming back was a similar experience, but no problems from the car yet.

Overall Car is noticeably smooth on petrol mode than on LPG even at 100 kmph.

Mileage -- sorry, haven't calculated it yet, too lazy to do that (no, it doesn't mean I have lot of money ).

I have gone for a long drive in an indica before (Click Here), so my conclusion is if you drive 80% of the time inside city and go for occasional long drive, you can go for a WagonR, but if its teh other way, you might want to go for an indica.

[akroy]

Post some pics !!

Originally Posted by someshb

The Mysore road was good road to drive my car at a high speed. I touched 120 kmph, and on a slope it went to 140 before I hit the brakes spotting a hump at a distance.

I think it was just before entering Srirangapatnam. Thank God, you saw it early otherwise that hump is really bad for the car.

Originally Posted by someshb

I dont think the car's engine was feeling very good at 120, so 80 - 100 kmph is very much to the engine's liking and the car feels great.

Why? If an Alto engine like to do 120kmph happily (with or without AC) on Highways. How come WagonR engine not like it? I hope your car is not in run-in period. In that case, you should not have crossed 80kmph.

Abhi

[bblost]

Was a good read.
Nice Job

[someshb]

Originally Posted by akroy

Why? If an Alto engine like to do 120kmph happily (with or without AC) on Highways. How come WagonR engine not like it? I hope your car is not in run-in period. In that case, you should not have crossed 80kmph.

No, the car finished run in period. I just felt that because probably i dont like to be too harsh on my car and after touching 140, the engine sound was more for some time, first car you see and its still new, so its that period where you take good care of the baby. Car hasnt reached the stage where i will say to it 'if you want me to take care of you, you better perform buddy'.

[sukiwa]

Just to give you a feel, if you can turn an Indica into a turning at 100kmph, you can do the same in WagonR at 80 kmph and still feel safe.

Nice to know that you realised this. Due to more height of WagonR, it's better to take turns at slower speeds compared to other cars. Cross wind resistance can be problematic for lightweight, taller car like WagonR compared to other cars you mentioned.

[PatchyBoy]

Originally Posted by someshb

Car - WagonR Duo, Two and Half Months Old....

.....I dont think the car's engine was feeling very good at 120, so 80 - 100 kmph is very much to the engine's liking and the car feels great.

Are you sure that the run-in period is over? What is the Odo reading? I mean how many kilometers done from purchase? Anything less than 5000, then your car is still in run-in

Originally Posted by someshb

WagonR has more body roll too , so you will enjoy it more.

I dont get it. How can more body roll be more enjoyable?

Body roll: the car leans towards the outside of the curve. This interferes with the driver's control, because he must wait for the car to finish leaning before he can fully judge the effect of his steering change. It also adds to the delay before the car moves in the desired direction.

Source: Car handling - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cheers,
Rajan

[shatrughna]

very well covered info on the trip. I had owned a wagon R a few years back before excahnging it for an Indica V2. The drive comfort ( light clutch and steering) was better in wagon R and I had no problem upto 120 on any road. I had gone to Mahabaleshwar, Goa and also Shirdi from Mumbai in this car and on uphill if speed was above 80 there was no problem climbing up but when speeds were low, I had to switch down to 3rd or 2nd also many a times. Driving it with ac on makes it feel very underpowered on uphills.

max speedo reading I saw was around 149 on expressway. Good thing about it is that you can keep the pedal pressed for a longtime without any fear of misfiring or overheating of the engine( but FE will go for a toss).

I was hoping to see FE figures on duel fuel- but you havent calculated - so issues. Please, update it if possible, that may help many people to plan their trips or decide their next car.

Wishing you many happy long trips ahead.

[snaronikar]

Good write up. I too had a wagon R LXi previously. Good car. I did the trip to Sabarimala and couple of other long drives besides 100+ kms weekly twice. Nice car even though I did not touch beyond 120kmph for safety reasons. Post some pics (if taken).

[vnabhi]

Good posting. WagonR is a competent city car, though it loses out on the highway.I've driven it at 120 on the GQ, but at that speed, it feels a tad unstable, mainly on account of cross-winds. You may not get so much of cross winds in low slung cars like Alto. 100 is the comfortable speed for a WagonR.
The only hitch on highways is that if you have to overtake a convoy of 3 to 4 trucks on a state highway, the pickup is pretty slow,especially if you are at low speeds.

[naikpranav]

I have driven my Wagon R from Mumbai-Amravati-Chikhaldhara(melghat)-Jalgaon-Aurangabad-ahmednagar-Malshej-Mumbai superb drive, saw many many things on the way.

We drove from mumbai to amravati (1000 km) on the first day, with my dad and me sharing the wheel, this was a photography trip so we stopped only for photos, lunch was in the car, only a heavy breakfast and light dinner out of the car.

for the three of us, the car is comfortable enough, we carried 20L of water in a crate at the back, clothes for all the 8 days, food and snacks. the car returned an average mileage of 17km/l , there were no breakdowns, only once while i was going 110, an ST bus that I was overtaking pushed me off the road and we had a tyre burst, in the middle of a very straight road from melghat to jalgaon. we saw so much and phtographed so many things (wildlife, architecture, nature, landscapes), learnt a lot, made new friends...

overall the car is a great companion on the highway cuz its tall, on most highways you don't need to corner much, on ghats the power is a little less, but you can get used to it, the total package being a little underpowered and the suspension being a little hard, makes for driver changes about every 350 km, the backseat (2005 model Vxi - the backseat has changed in the newer models) is very good, either of us sleeps on it when we don't drive, so that we can go continuously, the air-conditioning is slightly lesser in capacity, but the extra headroom is a boon.... it never felt hot even in summer on a bare road in interior maharashtra (do carry your sunglasses)

I have been making 7-8 long trips (~500m one way) with my wagon R in the last 3 years, every year, it is great fun, now we are upgrading to a Skoda fabia, possibly even longer drives with that....

[naikpranav]

Some pictures

its can do some decent off-roading too....

[johy]

Pranav, you sure have taken your car places! Wonderful to see the Wagon R.

Where I live I have to do bad roads a lot and the car does them pretty well.