What I think of the Slavia after a 500 km road trip: 12 observations

The DSG is a charm, the AC works well & even after a spirited high-speed drive, the fuel efficiency was in the range of 14 km/l.

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Went on a Bengaluru - Kolar - Tirupati trip in my Slavia covering around 500+kms in total. Drove alongside the Innova Crysta since we were seven people and I decided not to stuff the Crysta to the brim. And the bonus was the newly laid road between AP Border all the way till Tirupati. Some takeaways from the trip.

1. Absolutely loved the vehicle and its overall mile-munching capabilities. It can reach and maintain pretty high speeds all day long and swallows distance in no time.
2. NVH at high speeds is acceptable. Hardly any engine noise and a bit of road noise only. No wind noises and the passengers never get a sense of speed unless they see the speedo.
3. Suspension is well sorted over undulations, expansion gaps and so. There is that initial bounce after which it settles down quick without any more drama.
4. DSG shifts are lovely. Yes, this might be a famed unreliable gearbox, but nothing comes close to the way the gearbox is always in the right gear and the most linear acceleration at all times.
5. In 7th gear, the car does 100 at 1900RPM and 140 at 2400RPM. Compared to this my SX4 used to do 100 at 2900RPM which is a sea of change in terms of refinement and capacity.
6. Steering weighs up well post 100kmph and even higher speeds isn't a problem. In the segment, this is the best setup I have come across especially for high speeds.
7. If I could cover 200kms in roughly 2:15hrs, it must speak a lot about both the vehicle as well as the road.
8. Brakes are very good even at higher speeds especially the bigger ones in the 1.5, but looks like the Goodyear Assurance tyres squeal under hard braking and this might need a change, but no freak moments due to this. I faced this squeal when I was doing triple-digit speeds and had to abruptly slow down for a speed breaker.
9. AC worked very well in the Andhra heat. No complaints even in Auto mode. Like I mentioned elsewhere, higher engine speeds >1.5K RPM cools very well. Compressor capacity is to be blamed here. Within Tirupati city, I used S mode and that sorted out the AC very well even though temperatures had crossed 35 degrees.
10. Even after a spirited high-speed drive, the FE was in the range of 14kmpl. What's surprising is that the engine can also switch to 2-cylinder mode at 120kmph on a flat road. That greatly increases efficiency. But unfortunately, my cruising speed was much higher than that most of the time.
11. Used XP95 all the while and the one time I used 91 octane petrol a few days ago, I didn't like the dullness in the engine hence I never used 91 again.
12. One issue I noticed is that some plastic caps on the wheel nuts have fallen off. This must have happened in the stretch between Nangli and Chittoor where bridges have very bad surfaces and expansion gaps.

Overall, I enjoyed every bit of the drive and so did the co-passengers with me.

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