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2000 km journey in my Virtus: Road trip update & ownership experience

4th August 2022, 12:04 by Utkarsh Chaudhary

Even when loaded, the car won't feel stressed & you can munch decent miles, however, the fuel efficiency in the city isn't great.

BHPian IceManMK1 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

2000+ km road trip update

Recently took the car out for a long drive to Chennai (Kochi - Coimbatore - Salem - Ulundurpet - Chengalpattu - Navalur) and it was a joy driving the 1.0L. A couple of folks who tried the car out were unwilling to believe this was a puny 1-litre engine!

I got an average fuel efficiency of 19.1 KMPL for the whole onward journey on the MID. By a rough calculation, it was close to the actual fuel economy of 18.88 KMPL.

The return leg saw a lot of traffic, slow-moving vehicles killing the overall fuel efficiency and increased my travel time considerably.

Total onward journey: 612 Kms
Traffic split: 85% highway, 15% crawling traffic (A/C on 95% of the time for the journey)
Average speed: Maintained 88-92 KMPH on the highway, with very less sprints of up to 115 KMPH

Total return journey: 705 Kms (Took a small detour via Palakkad)
Traffic split: 75% highway, 25% stop-go traffic (The stretch between Angamaly to Ernakulam was painful, to say the least)
Average speed: 86-90 KMPH, few bursts of speed
Average fuel efficiency: 17.9 KMPL

I had a loaded trunk with furniture, 9 bags and the seat folded. I'm confident that even with a heavily loaded car, the engine + gearbox will not be stressed and you can munch decent miles.

Few pointers on the overall ownership

City fuel efficiency is pathetic (the traffic here - even more so). You won't get decent figures until D3. From D4 onwards you see the average economy climb.
Lot of brake dust!! I will get this checked in the upcoming December service. I am concerned about the brake pad wear.
AC is not a deal breaker: I was driving in heavy traffic inside Chennai for a week and the compressor didn't throw a tantrum even once. This was in the morning 9 AM hustle.
Valet mode is a boon: Had to give the car to a couple of concierges at hotels, and one of them came back saying they can't operate many features. Nifty small trick and quite useful.
Ground clearance is underrated: I had a few bad patches in Chennai near interior Tambaram, I was observing an Xcent cab ahead of me struggling to get through them. The Virtus? It just held a line and went on without a worry about scraping the underbelly over all those craters.

I have started to hear some rattles near the rear door and I will get them inspected and fixed too. I had the ceramic coating done post-delivery, and cleaning the car is a drama-free effort. The dirt comes cleanly off the body and doesn't leave any marks behind. I will probably get the PPF sometime later this year.

Signing off with a pic