My Grand Vitara Smart Hybrid AT: Impressions after a long road trip

The best benefit of the 6 AT transmission is the ability to use the paddle shifters even when in D mode and I used this extensively while on the ghats just for kicks.

BHPian Otto recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Ours is a Grand Vitara Zeta Smart Hybrid 6 speed AT. I recently did a round trip to Konkan (Ratnagiri) from Mumbai

We had an almost fully loaded car. Three adults but a very packed boot. To make things more challenging was our convoy of a Tata Hexa and our car.

I'm not a slow driver, not by any sense and my brother in law, who drove the Hexa, and who happens to be my motorcycle teacher and guru is a helluva lot faster than I am.

My point here is that this was a true test of handling and abilities.

I am overjoyed to see that our car kept up with the other car. Mumbai to Pune was uneventful and we kept to the speed limits. Got a return fuel economy of about 13 kmpl both ways.

On the Pune- Karad section, we were at higher speeds wherever we got the space. The road till Satara is 6 laned so we got some space and open stretches to pull speeds of upto 140kmph.

The Grand Vitara has a lot of power to go up to 150 kmph easily.

The ghats especially Amba ghat was a hoot to drive. The kick down function worked exceptionally well and I learnt that I could vary the downshifts by pushing the accelerator down half way or full way. A few times I would have the car downshift ready to overtake, only to be kept on hold waiting for a clear stretch, but in every single case, the car kept up with my heavy foot supremely well.

The best benefit of the 6 AT transmission is the ability to use the paddle shifters even when in D mode and I used this extensively while on the ghats just for kicks.

The manual shifting is a lot quicker if I had to clutch in and do it on an MT, so this is obviously a massive benefit.

Would I have liked a turbocharged engine? sure!

Do I miss it? Hell No!

Other good news:

We did some driving in pitch black roads and ghat sections and the headlights performed brilliantly. At no time did I miss additional auxiliary lighting.

Did some city driving, negotiated some U-turns, and navigated some narrow roads - the turning radius is pretty good too, reversing and close quarter maneuvering were pretty ok.

Music system worked well - Android Auto bugged out on us a couple of times but started working again when we carried out "Procedure Z" (shut down car and start again).

Suzuki Connect is kickass - showing the link of our very spirited ride on the ghat sections.

To - 27-Dec-2022.

Return - 30-Dec-2022.

The app gives off markers of harsh accelerations, braking, turns and this ride was lit up with these flags.

Fuel economy: Overall, we got about 13 kmpl on both to and fro trips from Mumbai including the expressway. On the ghat section, we got about 11 kmpl.

Highway stretches it went up to 15kmpl.

Pune- Mumbai expressway is downhill and so we did get more than 19kmpl for this part of our trip, so I don't deny that the car is capable of achieving the proclaimed figures.

I have no idea how to get a better fuel economy unless I start to lie about it.

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