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A 4200km trip in a Volkswagen Virtus GT and Mahindra Scorpio N

6th February 2025, 16:15 by R Patil

It was a family trip to the temples of Ukhimath, Joshimath, Rishikesh and Haridwar

BHPian tsi_niks1989 recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

4200 KMs Roadtrip from Pune to Joshimath

The day we got the GT, I had this urge to take it to either Leh-Ladakh or Auli-Joshimath from Pune. Since I lived in Gurgaon for more than 9 years, I enjoy the experience of driving in hills in Uttarakhand and Himanchal and find it engaging. For this trip, we finalized Joshimath as our final destination and geared up our two cars - Virtus GT and Scorpio N (belonging to my brother BHPian @acquillew). It was a family trip to the temples of Ukhimath, Joshimath, Rishikesh and Haridwar. Closer to the date, both the cars were loaded with the basic tools to do a DIY if need be.

The Itinerary:

Day 1: Pune to Vapi (306 KMs)
Day 2: Vapi to Ahmedabad (380 KMs)
Day 3: Ahmedabad to Jaipur (646 KMs)
Day 4: Jaipur to Rishikesh (530 KMs)
Day 5: Rishikesh to Ukhimath (170 KMs)
Day 6: Ukhimath to Joshimath (134 KMs)
Day 8: Joshimath to Haridwar (276 KMs)
Day 9: Haridwar to Noida (210 KMs)
Day 10: Noida to Kota (477 KMs)
Day 11: Kota to Indore (314 KMs)
Day 12: Indore to Nashik (435 KMs)
Day 13: Nashik to Pune (222 KMs)

We had a few working days in between so had to plan destinations within 6-7 hours of travel time.

Day 1: Pune to Vapi

We started at 4:15 AM from Viman Nagar, Pune for Vapi in order to avoid the traffic mess in Mumbai and near Palghar due to the ongoing road construction (leading to pathetic driving experience). Feels bad to see the road which was in better state earlier become a driver nightmare now. Crossed Mumbai by 7:30 AM and fortunately we encountered lesser traffic than expected but the road construction did delay our scheduled arrival time in Vapi by around 30 minutes. We stopped for breakfast and reached Vapi by 11:00 AM.

Day 2: Vapi to Ahmedabad

Started again at 4:15 AM, the road conditions are in much better state from Vapi to Ahmedabad. After Rajasthan, Gujarat roads are one of the best that I have driven on till date. We reached Ahmedabad by 9:30 AM and stayed at my brother’s place where the GT rested along with the Scorpio-N.

Day 3: Ahmedabad to Jaipur

After a day break, we started early in the morning around 4:30 AM from Ahmedabad to Jaipur. Both the cars were full with luggage, and the rear seats of the GT were full in order to keep space in the Scorpio-N for our parents’ luggage who were to join us in Haridwar. Reached Nathdwara in around 4 hours, had breakfast and reached Jaipur by 2 PM. Road condition was good in general except for a few patches which are under construction.

Day 4: Jaipur to Rishikesh

This had the longest travel time, as we also had to make a stop at Haridwar to pick up our parents travelling from Lucknow. We left Jaipur at 4:00 AM and, after taking one stop for breakfast, arrived Haridwar by 1:00 PM. There was a lot of traffic jam in Haridwar city and roads were also comparatively busy enroute Rishikesh. We reached Rishikesh hotel by 2:30 PM, went to Triveni Ghat for Ganga Aarti in the evening and called it a day.

Day 5: Rishikesh to Ukhimath

Started at 9:00 AM after breakfast and reached Ukhimath by 2:00 PM. From here the roads to the mountains start, the route is scenic but with a decent number of hotspots for probable landslides. One can see stones (small as well as bigger ones) on the road at multiple places. During the journey, we stopped at two places- one near Dhari Devi temple and another at Devprayag. In the evening, we visited the Ukhimath temple and joined the evening aarti which was a serene experience. Life on the mountains is peaceful and the people are very kind and always ready to help. We used the Scorpio-N for local commute after reaching the destination of the day and it never showed any signs of stress. It was comfortable enough for five passengers given the distance is less than 10 KM.

Day 6: Ukhimath to Joshimath

Ukhimath to Joshimath is when things started becoming interesting from the driver’s viewpoint. Lot of winding roads, it was a playground for the GT and it did not disappoint (more on the driving experience later). We started after breakfast by 9:00 AM and reached Joshimath by 3:30 PM. The KMs travelled might be less than 150 KMs but due to landslides the main road was closed and we were redirected to new routes which needed another mountain to be crossed. The road conditions were not good and the entire stretch was best for a single car. After about 40 minutes of detour, we were back on the main road which was decent but we had to wait for 15-20 minutes at three places for the ongoing road construction.

We stayed for two days at Village Connection Homestay in Joshimath hosted by Mahavir Ji. A special shoutout for him as he made sure everything was in place throughout our stay. We were greeted by hot tea and mixed pakodas in the chilling weather which was 4 degrees at 3:30 PM. Evening temperature can go down to zero degree or below depending upon your luck. We requested for a local Garhwali thali for dinner and it was delicious, highly recommended. Next day morning we went to Joshimath temple, early morning temperature (read 6 AM) was -4 degrees. It was a beautiful experience; the temperature can go down further so one should go fully prepared to such destinations.

Day 8: Joshimath to Haridwar

We started downhill to Haridwar at 5:00 AM from Joshimath. It was pitch dark and given the mountainous driving, we found very few cars till 7:00 AM. We were able to cover more KMs with the early start. With just one stop at Rudraprayag for breakfast, we reached Haridwar by 3:00 PM. The road condition is decent but there was a lot of traffic in Haridwar. We went for Ganga aarti the same day and called it a day.

Day 9/10: Haridwar to Noida/Kota

Haridwar to Noida is 200 KMs journey but due to winter season, the Meerut Expressway is full of fog and visibility almost zero. Owing to this, we started late for Noida at 6:30 AM and reached by 10:30 AM. It was a rest day, we had to visit few of our relatives. Next day we started for Kota from Noida, roads were good with 70 percent driving on the Delhi Mumbai expressway. Anyone travelling using the expressway should be aware that the e-way has no rest areas opened after you cross Dausa so please plan accordingly. We reached Kota in 7 hours as the e-way is not fully operational and has diversions which welcome you to city traffic on the way.

Day 11/12/13: Kota to Indore/Nashik/Pune

Returning back to Pune had just one thing in common: Bad Roads. From Kota, we took the NH52 till Indore which continued half way till Nashik. NH 60 is getting same treatment as the NH8 from Mumbai to Ahmedabad. Concrete roads are being laid down forcing roads to be closed for long stretches and single lane available for the people paying toll taxes. Nashik to Pune Road reminded me of Midtown Madness game which I used to play in my childhood. I kept on saving the GT from potholes on both the lanes, but as in the game if you save 9 out of 10 that 1 precious large size pothole will be waiting for you. Seriously, MH has the worst road conditions compared to any state I have driven till date.

The Drive

Now coming to the most exciting part - the drive experience. In one word, I would say it was ‘Exhilarating’ as advertised by VW. GT is the car which will get your heart singing the whole time you are behind the wheels. I am listing down few observations from the trip below which might help prospective buyers and owners:

Performance: This is the first thing that comes to the mind when you drive the GT. Be it the highways, expressways or twisty mountain roads - performance is plenty. It becomes a different entity on open roads – keeps on pulling smoothly based on your inputs. The engine note is sporty enough to let you lower down the volume of your music system and enjoy listening to the engine. If you thought that expressways and highways are the ones where the car excels, you would be surprised by the way it handles the twisty mountain roads. It is a superb handler and you can feel the rigidness of the MQB A0 IN platform on the corners. The side bolstering on the front seats keeps the driver and co-passenger comfortable. In city traffic as well as sections where we encountered landslides and broken roads on the mountains, the DSG struggles sometimes at lower gears. That same engine note becomes super noisy and feels as if it is crying to shift a gear up. Thankfully, the paddle shifters provided can be used for these situations and it helps control the unplanned struggles of the gearbox at low speeds.

Efficiency: We covered a total distance of approx. 4200 KMs in this trip, driving on different terrains where we encountered traffic, lot of broken roads, useless ongoing constructions as well as landslides. The GT has returned a mileage of 18.1 KMPL for the entire trip which is unbelievable honestly. Pune-Mumbai section got the best mileage of 22.1 KMPL followed by Noida to Kota which was 21.2 KMPL. On the hills the mileage was around 13-14 KMPL and for rest of the sections it was in the range of 18.5-22 KMPL.

Practicality: This is the primary advantage of having a sedan, you can fill up the boot to the full and you will still find some space to keep your knick-knacks. Boot is large enough for 4 medium size suitcase and two cabin luggage or backpacks.

Ground Clearance: I know we all love low slung sedans but this is a major advantage of the VW twins over the competition. Sure, the stance from the back gets a bit awkward but the advantage of having that 10-15 mm more GC is greater. The car was fully loaded yet it did not touch a single time even on non-existing roads or roads affected by landslides. We had our super capable Scorpio-N leading mostly on our way to Joshimath which had most of the landslides but it was for precautionary purpose. This trip has given me the confidence to plan a Leh-Ladakh trip in future with the GT.

Some other bits: The car has completed 29k KMs in 2 years 3 months and has zero rattles till date. It is running on stock tyres and battery and I was happy to see the car starting without any issues even at temperatures less than zero degrees in Joshimath. The ceat tyres are just good enough, they do the job but if I were to buy today, I would change them to better ones.

This was our longest road trip and it was delightful as well as eventful. It was like an immunity booster for the soul. We not only explored the roads across different states but also relished delicious food and met people who were equally warm from 6 different states – GJ, RJ, UK, UP, MP, MH. I look forward to take more such road trips in coming years. With the road infrastructure improving across the country, I believe roads will become the preferred mode of travel in future specially for us enthusiasts who love to drive.

P.S. As a fun travel game, we counted the number of states whose cars we came across in our journey, and the final number was 19.

Summary on the numbers crunched on this trip:

Total KMs travelled: 4200
Fuel Consumption: 237 L
Fuel Bill(Mix of XP95/Shell/Regular Petrol from HP & IOC): 24961 INR
Toll Tax: 5887 INR

Signing off with few pictures from the trip. I hope you enjoyed reading the post. Thank you!

Beautiful snow ranges surrounding NITI valley