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Road trip with my 82-yr-old dad: Driving my used Maruti Jimny to Ooty

23rd January 2025, 11:14 by Utkarsh Chaudhary

The ride was excellent. My aged father had no complaints of bumpiness or swaying etc.

BHPian shankar.balan recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

I bought my Jimny second hand with 736kms done, in March 2024.

Since then, I've only done 2-3 quick joy rides to Mysore and back from Bangalore. And one longer drive to Chennai and back on a highly rainy flooded time in October. I wrote briefly about that drive on the Chennai- Bangalore route queries thread because I truly enjoyed driving the little Jim that time, on the Madras - Vellore- Chittoor- Palamaner- Kolar- Bangalore scenic route.

As a driving enthusiast, I have done poorly in 2024.

However, this changed yesterday.

I've tried to put my first real personal medium-long distance Jimny drive experience here - this is absolutely representative of my normal and regular use case and general route, over the last 35+ years

Hopefully, by God's Grace, this is a good beginning to 2025 and to driving my little Jimny (and other vehicles, more).

Though I grew up, lived and studied in the Nilgiris, since buying my Jimny, I have simply been far too busy to drive it up the hills - a big regret because in the limited time we have, we must make time to do things that we enjoy.

So we decided (my Dad and I) that we must just GO! And we finally managed to do so this weekend.

Nothing better than some ‘road trip time’ with the Man who taught me to Drive and who gave me such a first-class childhood on the plantations, surrounded by heavenly nature and the pets and plants which I love so much.

So yesterday, 10 Dec 2025, we Left home (HSR Blr) at 0630 sharp.

Got onto the Mysore Expressway through Nice Road at 0715. We had covered a 45 km distance.

Reached Columbia Asia Mysore Toll Road end at 0835 after covering the whole Mysore Express Tollway and took a left for the 20km run on the Mysore Outer Ring Road with its little normal criss-cross and traffic light stops.

Reached the Aashirwad restaurant past Mysore Airport - near the Mysore-Nanjangud toll booth on the Ooty road at 0850.

Had brekky there and left at 0930-0940.

Came to CCD in Gundlupet at 1030. Had a coffee and left at 11.

Stopped at the small Temple at the entrance to Bandipur as we always have done for the last several decades, as a mark of respect.

Reached Ooty peacefully at 1230 via Masinagudi-Sigur Ghat… after taking some photos at Lake Marlimund en route.

The traffic was Light. And we made a very good time indeed as can be seen.

The general holiday-making junta has not arrived in Ooty yet. This weekend at least, we will escape the chaos.

Next week, from Tuesday onwards till Sunday will be absolute mayhem here on account of the Pongal Holidays.

Thing is the little Jimny, being small and narrow and naturally aspirated, and non-threatening, yet as tough as old boots, saves one a significant amount of driving time.

It is not as if I drive too fast.

And as can be seen from the time stamps, the average speeds I've been able to maintain, while following all road rules, is very decent indeed.

For example, I never exceeded 90kmph on the Nice Road and the Mysore Express Highway. And on the Mysore- Masinagudi- Sigur- Ooty road I was buzzing along at the normal speeds.

The best thing is that I never had to slacken the pace and give way to anyone coming in the opposite direction on those narrow roads because this vehicle is tiny and goes anywhere so I simply had to drop two wheels onto the shoulder and keep going.

Wider cars could see my little Jim appearing in their rearview mirrors and were kind enough to let me pass them because for one thing I'm not a ‘threat’ and for another, I'm so narrow that I won't hold them up ahead.

And the best of all, no turbocharger, so no turbo lag and no turbo spooling up and down at speed breakers and curves and hairpin bends.

Keep rowing through the gears and there is really nothing to beat this little baby Mountain Goat!

No real slackening of pace needed because I have installed those stiffer body mounts and no ‘rear side Thud’ because of the taller bump stops and shock absorber extenders which I have installed.

With me and one passenger (Dad), the rear seats folded down and luggage comprising 2 suitcases and 2 duffel bags and a couple of ‘suit-carriers’ and ‘shoe-bags’ as well as all my normal car-related paraphernalia, the Jimny must have been carrying about 250kgs of load.

The ride was excellent. My 82-year-old Dad had NO complaints of bumpiness and swaying etc.

There is no perceptible lack of power and all that in the Jimny, because anyway in India, the average speeds one can achieve, are only in the region of 50-70kmph at best.

And even if all these other bigger and more powerful vehicles were to overtake one on the straights, one tends to catch up whenever there is some obstacle or other delay ahead.

If one is driving in the right gear at the right time, at the right places, in the Jimny, there is no issue with pickup either. One can keep up a strong and steady average pace.

And in the hills, yes, there are several steep climbs, but the trick is to anticipate and downshift to 2nd and when necessary, 1st, to get the maximum torque and pulling power as needed. (Synchromesh gears certainly help lot and the Manual Transmission is a real Joy) - one simply doesn’t have to slacken pace!

It is honestly MUCH better and more practically useful in the scenarios described above than my various other vehicles both past and present.

The only thing that provides the exact same feeling is the beloved Gypsy. And the Jimny has exactly the same DNA, but is perfectly suited for these modern times with all its creature comforts and user aids like AC, Power Steering and metal body and all.

Yet, it remains true to that essential, incredible, lightness of being!

The Jimny is really the darling of the experienced Hill Driver.

My verdict is that it is near PERFECT for our Indian conditions and especially MY particular kind of use case.

This really says a LOT for the Little Jimny!

What I have just spontaneously penned down here, is my genuine absolutely honest and true experience based on yesterday, 10 Jan 2025.

At the start: