Part of the plan was to park the Jeeps in a formation for pics, flag hoisting, have breakfast prepared by the home stay, a walk to the river/stream nearby, and then a short off-road drive inside the estate.

BHPian arun_josie recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Independence Day Drive with 80 Jeeps:

This was a short drive organized by the Bangalore Jeep Club(group of Jeep owners). The drive was to a home stay (Devadhama Estate @ Irlapodu) via some scenic roads. The initial plan was to go via Kanakapura but when the number of participants increased, the route was changed with the assembly point at a huge ground on Harohalli road and then a convoy drive (split) via Kulumedoddi, Kumbaradoddi to Devadhama Estate @ Irlapodu. This is a scenic route and passes via few small villages.

Around 80 Jeeps participated in this drive. The plan was to meet at the assembly point, drive to the home stay, park the Jeeps in a formation for pics, flag hoisting, have breakfast prepared by the home stay, a walk to the river/stream nearby, and then a short off-road drive inside the estate, some fun games, lunch and an option to stay till evening and return after tea/snacks.

It was a very nicely organized event by the BJC admins and volunteers. Handling 80 Jeeps and 130+ people is no small feat and requires lot of time and energy. It was flawlessly executed by the organizing committee.

Also, some goodies and a t-shirt to commemorate the day were distributed to all the participants.

PPS Motors had sent a technician along with a Meridian for test drives.

It was nice to meet some Team BHPians as well.

Here are some pics:

51 Jeeps parked in the famous Jeep grille formation and the No. 75 to mark the 75th Independence day:

A pic from the ground level, this looks more like a stock yard:

Flag hoisting was done as well:

This was at the initial assembly point:

Waiting for my turn to park in the formation:

A river/ stream nearby:

A drive to Hyderabad and back:

I started around 12:30 PM from Bannerghatta road (near Meenakshi mall) and it took me 2 hours to exit the city. Once on the highway, it was a nice and smooth drive except for some random speed breakers. I maintained the speed in the 110 range. I hit the Hyderabad ORR around 7:45 PM and reached my destination near Gachibowli by 8:15 PM. So, it took me 7 hours and 45 mins from door to door.

Hyderabad city from ORR looks really awesome! Also, the city has developed a lot recently with lots of skyscrapers and flyovers all around.

Looked very futuristic in the night.

I experienced the Hyderabad traffic and some nice biriyanis for two days. Started the return journey at 2:30 PM yesterday. I stuck to the same speed range of 110-120 Kmph with a 45 minute dinner stop near Devanahalli. I crossed the Hebbal flyover at 10PM and reached home in another 45 minutes. Thankfully the bangalore city traffic was lesser than I expected.

During this drive, I noticed lot of new eateries on this highway. Few years back, we had to search a lot for a decent stop. Now you have options like Paradise Biriyani, KFC and few other popular ones as well on the highway itself.

While going to Hyderabad:

ODO @ 95,000 kms:

During the return in front of the Kia factory:

Overall trip details:

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Considering the figures in Bangalore traffic in rains, I am convinced that the fuel efficiency will not go below 9 kmpl.

BHPian sou_3749 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

5 month update:

I had a chance to check full tank FE with only city drive as the last 2 months the rain gods have stopped me to have any long trips.

• Car model: 1.4 T Prestige Plus Manual
• Total distance covered: 432 kms
• Total fuel consumed: 39.9 ltr
• Avg FE calculated: 10.82 kmpl
• Avg FE as per MID: 11.8 kmpl

Total drive time : 23 hours. It took me 2 months to fill the tank and the trips were very short. This is with AC 50% of the time but mostly with full load of even 9 people couple of occasions.

Considering the figures in Bangalore traffic in rains, I am convinced that the fuel efficiency will not go below 9 kmpl.

And then I did a long drive to Chennai during the long weekend.

Upward journey:

• Distance covered: 353 km
• Avg speed: This time I kept the speeds around 100+ most of the journey just to check the effect of higher speeds on FE.
• Load on vehicle: 5 adults and 1 kid with 100kgs of luggage and 100% AC.
• Avg FE : 17.3 kmpl

Return journey:

• Similar parameters for distance, weight and speed.
• Avg FE : 16 kmpl

I always find the return journey to have 1.5 kmpl less FE mostly because of altitude difference.

So yes there is negative impact on FE if we go above 90 kmph. Last time the same yielded a FE of 18.5 kmpl when I kept the speeds around 90kmph.

In all these, I did find that the FE has taken a hit of around 1 kmpl. I hope it will improve after oil change.

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Engine response when compared to the petrol AT is easily noticeable. Where I felt the AT variant to be slow to respond and sluggish to pedal input, the MT variant felt outright peppy and fun to drive.

BHPian argchoff recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

I feel I should now share my ownership experience of the 1.4 liter petrol manual sport Compass after driving it for around 300km. I will keep the review focused mostly about the car and its performance in general as my post sales and service experience has been extremely disappointing so far.

As we all know it is impossible to get a test drive of the Sport petrol manual variant, i hope my review would assist in potential buyers seeking to buy this variant.

Firstly I would say I was and still am totally hooked on the Tata Harrier XZ in terms of looks and drive quality in spite of the known niggles like quality, fit and finish and the dashboard hurting the left knee. However because of the uncertainty of the future of diesel engines and possible DPF issues I decided to skip diesel vehicles all together. That left me with only petrol cars with manual transmission to choose from and I tested the XUV700, Skoda Kushaq, Kia Seltos GTX, MG hector MT. Since Jeep compass manual was not offered for test drive I test drove the AT petrol and also tried the Hector CVT back to back with the AT petrol Compass.

• Mahindra XUV700: Most powerful among all the contenders, very responsive. However I found the quality of interior fit and finish not so good. Also the long waiting time for the AX7 was a turnoff.
• Kia Seltos 1.4 GTX: Peppy and fun to drive till the car went over some uneven roads. The worst suspension ever with the car making squeaking noises over uneven patches. This was felt even more when i sat on the back seat. I was able to press the metal with my thumb near the lock assembly when I opened the driver side door. The metal appeared very thin. That experience matched the GNCAP ratings I saw on the internet.
• Skoda Kushaq: Thoroughly enjoyed the 1.0TSI. The 1.5TSI though more powerful, for some strange reason kept stalling at low speeds. Luggage space was less and the car appeared more like a hatchback than SUV. Did not feel like value for money.
• MG Hector hybrid MT: Sluggish and under powered. Car had too much body roll.
• Jeep Compass petrol AT: Car felt reluctant to move from standstill / crawling speed in auto mode. No matter how much pedal I applied, the car took its own sweet time to gather any speed and i was unable to do any quick overtakes. Amongst all the cars the suspension and handling felt the best. However the sluggish response of the automatic gearbox was not to my liking at all.
• MG Hector CVT: Immediately after the Compass petrol AT I test drove the Hector CVT. As soon as I applied the accelerator pedal, with ever so a very small couple of seconds delay the car took off nicely and gathered speed quickly. Overall I felt the car was way peppier than the compass AT and overtakes on the Pune - Bangalore highway happened easily. However as my preference was for manual transmission Hector was dismissed.
• Compass petrol MT: SE showed me the car in their stockyard. For a base model with fabric interiors, the car was impressive in terms of the premium feel I got looking at the interiors. The fabric quality with its orange stitching felt very premium and the grey fabric insert in the dashboard and doors felt classy. The fit, finish of the plastics, steering column and dashboard was very good and did not feel cheap at all if compared to the XT+ version of the Tata harrier or Hector sharp. Booked the Sport variant in red color.

The difference in the engine response when compared to the petrol AT is easily noticeable. Where I felt the AT variant to be slow to respond and sluggish to pedal input, the manual variant felt outright peppy and fun to drive. I do not understand why Jeep does not have this manual transmission in the Limited variant. If it was, I would have upped my budget and gone for that. Gear shifts are smooth and precise and pick-up is good. However if the revs drop below 2000 RPM whilst on the move and you shift to a higher gear, there is a sudden power loss felt and it takes time for the engine to respond till the RPM needle nears the 2000 mark. Sometimes if this happens at a time you want to do quick overtakes, it becomes difficult to do so and I felt the need to shift down to lower gear, losing a precious few seconds and sometimes not able to execute the overtake. This was something I could do effortlessly in my Ford Fiesta 1.6 NA petrol car. This intermittent temporary power loss is felt in the first 3 gears only especially between 2nd and 3rd gear. As mentioned by other owners of the same variant, the 1st gear is very short and changing to 2nd gear is necessary as soon as the car is in motion. I think if the engine was tuned to engage the turbocharger around 1500RPM or earlier the car would not feel loss of power at any point.

The AC cooling stops / reduces when the car comes to standstill at traffic lights. A soon as I apply the accelerator, the cooling resumes. In the May heat the AC is effective from a fan setting of 5 and above only.

TPMS is now available in the sport variant also. The infotainment system is responsive and the audio quality is excellent.

I love the ergonomics of the car, everything is in the right place and driver friendly. The metal quality is good, doors are heavy and shut with a nice heavy thud. Overall the car feels built like a tank.

Suspension is excellent and simply devours bad surfaces. I felt the steering to be on the stiff heavier side and this is noticeable at slow speeds. However at high speeds this is actually very good, in that the feedback is perfect.

A very quick description of the after sales/service experience:

The car I received came with an inherent paint flaw which I failed to notice while inspecting the vehicle in the stockyard. Almost on every panel there were bubbles in the paint as if residual debris on the car was painted over leaving small bubble like bumps. These are not easily noticeable unless one looks at every minute detail. I got the delivery of the car in middle of May 2022 and the VIN indicates manufacturing date as April 2022. As soon as I made the full payment, I got a message from the dealer that a different car has been allotted to me than the one I was promised before payment. They took me back to the stockyard to show the newly allotted car so my suspicions were sort of hushed. Fearing I was being given an older car, all my concentration was checking for paint shade difference and VIN (which was April 2022). The car was delivered with a slight scratch on the front left bumper which they agreed to rectify and took the car away two days after delivery. When the car was returned, the bumper was painted so poorly that even a road side novice with a spray paint can could do a better job. That made me check the rest of the car and that's when i noticed the bubbles. Dealer insisted to fix the paint issue in the service center so I took the car again myself over there. While I was discussing the issue with the CRM, I saw that a large crowd had gathered around my car. Fearing that some one dashed my car, I ran out only to find that their service staff, without my permission had removed my front left wheel and was in the process of ripping out the black mudguard cladding, trying to access the foot well area on the passenger side. After escalating this issue, they stopped and said, " Sir we forgot your keys in the car and the car is locked. Due to this we cannot move your car and other customers cars are all stuck right up to the main road". Apparently they were trying to access a lock reset button in the foot well area. I made them stop the activity, got their driver to take me back home and went back with him to the service center with the 2nd key. I have escalated the issue to FCA India as the dealer response has been very elusive and disappointing. I certainly won't be taking the car there for servicing. The space is crammed up, service staff is arrogant and unprofessional. One word of advice to future buyers: Insist, absolutely insist on filling up the registration form, especially the chassis and engine number and take a photo of the same.

The car as a product itself is amazing and fun to drive. However the sales and service is pathetic, dishonest and incompetent. This experience has taken away what could have otherwise been a happy buying experience.

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Almost every time I change gear from 1st to 2nd, it takes about 1-1.5 seconds to slot the gear. Quite irritating to drive in traffic and sometimes dangerous too.

BHPian Kanna_8118 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Hello guys,

I drive a BS6 2020 Tiago XZ, I have almost no issues with the car in my 1.5years of ownership except a weird issue with gear change and the infamous petrol choking once in a blue moon. But the main issue is with the gear change. Almost every time I change gear from 1st to 2nd, it takes about 1-1.5 seconds to slot the gear. Quite irritating to drive in traffic and sometimes dangerous too.

Done a bit of search on YouTube and ATOM (Facebook group for Tiago Owners). Looks like quite a number of people face similar issue with slotting the gear into 1 or 2 or 3. The culprit in all the cases is found to be a loose gear cable attached to a mount. Please refer to the attached image below taken from a YouTube video:

In my case, the left grey colored cable is slightly loose with the green colored mount. I tried what everyone has suggested and pressed it gently to it's place. It worked for like few minutes. In the last service I had taken the issue with the mechanic and he's not sure if the loose cable is the culprit; I had done the pig-tail update for engine-lock issue and I was told there is an update with the gear selector mechanism, they just added a washer to where the grey cable ends and ta-dah the update done, and as I have suspected, the issue still persists. I insisted to the mechanic that the issue is with the loose grey cable and to satisfy me he tightly wounded a metal wire around the cable to keep in its place. I know this mechanic for a while now and his jugaad's always work. Unfortunately not the case this time. It worked okay for 2 days and then back to normal. Every time I open the bonnet and press the grey cable to it's place, gear shifting is smooth for a few minutes and then back to normal.

I have taken the issue with a F.N.G who previously worked with TATA and as per his experience, the green colored mount needs to be replaced which cost a whooping 10k. He advised me to wait for parts from a wrecked car. Apparently, the Indica has the same gear box and the issue existed from Indica days. Has anyone in this forum faced a similar issue? I am open to any solutions.

Please note that the nearest T.A.S.S is around 40kms, over-crowded, understaffed and takes an whole day to get even an minor oil change. Also, I had a minor accident with the car and missed a service schedule by 3 months due to Covid, so I am pretty sure warranty cannot be claimed.

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On the highway, I get 14-15 if driven sedately (cruising speeds of 100 to 120km/hr), if pushed hard - 10 to 11km/lt.

BHPian Sathya_sc recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

I recently got the Slavia 1.5 MT Candy White. 2200 kms done in the 1st week of ownership. Love every bit esp the MT with that sweet red line upwards of 6000rpm. Realistic FE in city is around 9-11km/lt depending on traffic. On the highway, I get 14-15 if driven sedately (cruising speeds of 100 to 120km/hr), if pushed hard - 10 to 11km/lt.

I had a Linea T-Jet (and a 320d before this), the handling is one notch below the humble T-Jet.

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Our first preference was the Virtus. What a beauty she is!! The Slavia was not considered then since it had the same heart.

BHPian samsristi recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

A BIG thank you to all.

I would like to start this first post with a big THANK YOU to Admin for making me a part of this family. Secondly, Thank You to everyone in this forum for the immense meticulous help that you all have been providing to the likes of me in educating about cars and how to fall in love with them. Today with all your help, I am the proud owner of a Skoda Slavia 1498 MT and I would like to take this opportunity to pen down my two cents about this lovely gem.

Why the hunt?

I owned a Red Vento TSI Sports Edition. Fell in love with the car the day I took a TD 4 years back. An engine with a DSG which cannot be bargained with, cannot be reasoned with any other car in that segment at that time. I spent 85,000 kms with her; took her all the way up to Manali from Bangalore, and all the way South to Kanyakumari. And numerous trips to Kolkata. However, there wasn’t a year of my ownership wherein I did not claim my insurance. I felt like she had a magnet which attracts other wheels to crash on it. Apart from other small incidents, once a 16-wheeler crushed over my right fender while I was standing on a toll gate. Once the throttle body gave up. This June, a bus rammed at 90 degrees to my driver’s door due to a brake failure. And that’s it, I gave up. With a heavy heart, I sold my car to CARS 24 at an acceptable price point.

Options?

It was very clear in our mind (me and my best half) that we will not move away from VAG due to its build and safety. With all the unfortunate incidents, although mentally tormented, we walked out scratch less. And since we are a member of the near to extinct species “The Sedanists”, our choice was really either a Virtus or a Slavia.

Buying Experience:

Our first preference was the Virtus. What a beauty she is!! The Slavia was not considered then since it had the same heart, and it did not win us over the Virtus with its looks in some of the posts that we had seen. I test drove the 1.0 manual, and it had a decent powertrain. The 3-cylinder noise was there, but it’s not bothering at all. However, I did not have a good customer experience at Bangalore Motors Mysore Road. I will not get in too many details and bore you to a nap. I decided to take a walk to PPS Skoda Mysore Road.

Well, it did not feel it’s the same group. Where VW was “Take it or leave it”, Skoda experience was quite the opposite. Their “On your toes” behaviour forced me to stay with them and I had to shut my thoughts to visit another VW dealer. Now about the car. From the perspective of looks, it is quite a stunner versus what I saw virtually on my LCD and LED panels. I would humbly suggest not to drop the ball based on looks until you a have a face to face look at it.

Now the drive. I test drove the Slavia 1.5 AT, and immediately felt the difference to its 1.0 sibling. The refinement is absolutely to the next level. This felt like a true upgrade from my 1.2 TSI motor. The DSG behavior is very similar though, lightning fast upshifts, however slightly delayed downshifts.

Since I had decided to go with a manual transmission this time for a peace of mind, my mind by now was pinned on the Slavia 1.5 MT. I was lucky that there was a silver available in stock. Even though I liked the shades of Blue and Carbon Grey, we decided to settle for a color that doesn’t attract much attention. Booked the car immediately. All the processes downstream were smooth and quick. I would like to thank Nandita and Abhishek from PPS Skoda for all their efforts and I wish they keep up this good work in future. They were very patient and accommodative to all my queries. They updated every progress on time and finally; I got my Zeus delivered on 24th July.

How big is Zeus?

I will not get into the dimensions here since we have a very detailed official review. The point that I wanted to make is that this car feels 20% bigger than my Vento in terms of interior spacing and exterior LXBXH.

From the looks perspective, It has a very aggressive bold stance. The creases are prominent and gives it quite a masculine look.

Performance:

I did not have a chance to TD the 1.5 MT combo however I thought I had a hint about its performance based on my 1.0 and 1.5 AT test runs. And I was so very wrong. Awesome, brilliant, mind blowing are too meager to describe what I feel when I am behind the wheel of this machine. I have not experienced any car under 2 million yet, which provides this level of comfort, power, refinement, and stability. It ticks all these boxes with grace.

City performance:

With a lighter steering, city drive has become a lot easier. The immaculate suspension set up absorbs road undulations with such ease that you might forget you are driving a sedan. Crawling in 1st gear is much easy since you don’t need any throttle input on a zero-degree plane. From 1st, when you move to 2nd, the acceleration becomes a little aggressive and you would need some clutching there if you are in a bumper-to-bumper traffic.

You can coast and accelerate without any lag in 2nd gear at an approximate speed of 5kmph. This is assuming you are on a plane road with no inclination. Below this, you need to drop to 1st to avoid stalling.

City Mileage:

I am currently getting anywhere in between 10-12 kmpl in city. I am primarily driving in 3rd gear with seldom downshifts. My Vento 1.2 under these conditions used to return anywhere in between 8-10 kmpl.

Highway Performance:

Honestly, I did not have any experience handling so much power before. The power feels like a ticking bomb which will unleash with the slightest tap on the pedal. Due to the run-in period, the max RPM I took him was at 3000 RPM in 2nd and 3rd and I dropped the idea to do that again until I get a good bonding with my car. I am not a sedate driver. I have frequently red lined my Vento without a problem in my very initial days of its ownership. But this feels a different monster altogether. It pulls like someone has tied it to a slingshot! This clocked 140 kmph in 6th under 2500 RPM!

An important point. Before the Vento, I had a used Civic which I clocked 70000 Km. We all know the refinement level of that engine. After driving Zeus, I get this exact same feeling when I am at cruising speeds. The reason I state this is to give you all a perspective of the refinement level of this engine.

Handling:

Changing lanes at high speeds greater than 100 kmph was a breeze. I did not have an opportunity for fast cornering yet, but I can tell from its dynamics that it would be a walk in the park.

Braking: The big front calipers inspire confidence. The bite is good and slows your car down quite fast without any fuss. The braking power is miles ahead compared to its 1.0 Virtus sibling.

Mileage run 1: I did a 200 km run on highway which had mix of dotted traffic, Ghats and open stretches. My speed was mostly in a range of 90 to 120. It returned me 15.5 kmpl.

Mileage run 2: This time I drove an open stretch of 60 kms. I was mileage conscious this time and cruised at 80 kmph. It returned me 18.8 kmpl.

A humble suggestion: On a highway drive, if you want to down shift to overtake in this car, please rev match. The power surge is too high in this maneuver, and it might throw the car off balance if you do this at a higher speed. Also, it will unsettle the passengers in the car.

Interior:

I am in love with its interior. I do agree there are some cost cutting measures that can be felt here and there with eagle eyes, however this does not bother me at all. The moment I get inside the car, I get a satisfying plush feel. The much-criticized infotainment is very well integrated and does not feel aftermarket at all. On the other hand, I feel the UI of this system feels more tactical. It feels that it is designed for this car. The previous all touch screen was good but had an Android UI feel which for me did not go very well with the kind of statement this car makes with its performance.

AC Performance:

The AC should keep you comfortable, however I must say that my Vento had a better cooling. Please do not get me wrong here. This compressor keeps me comfortable at all times. I run it in Auto mode with internal circulation anywhere in between 22-24 degrees. And it does the job well. My only point is, at this setting my Vento used to give me a chill after 30 minutes, but this doesn’t do that. It keeps me comfortable. I am not sure if that is good or bad from a performance perspective.

One thing I don’t like is this all touch system. My Vento controls were much more tactical and easier to adjust. Also, every time I switch it on, I have to re-engage the inside air recirculation.

Small Niggles:

Not sure if someone else has faced this issue, but couple of times it failed to engage the 1st gear and slotted itself to a no man’s land. The rear-view camera failed to activate a few times. By cancelling the message and reengaging the reverse it came back. Wireless charging is not working. I plan a visit to PPS on this, but I am not concerned too much after reading previous reviews on how it heats up the phone.

The auto headlamps warning comes up when it starts to rain in Bangalore in an overcast situation and it doesn’t budge from the MID display. I must switch on the lights to get rid of it, which is annoying. I mean who gave the 2 million, you or me?

Final few pics before I close. I am planning a Goa trip on 3rd August, and I will post my experience with this machine. If you have read this post, you should have known by now I am all gaga over Zeus:

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.

At around 3500 km, I got a call from them that VW had come up with a fix. They then sprayed three coats of a lubricant over the beadings and said this will solve the issue.

BHPian Osteon206 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

There is a fix available from VW for the creaking/rattling door issue issue. In the 1000km inspection service, they said adjustments were made in the door, but the issue persisted. Then at around 3500km I got a call from them that VW had come up with a fix. They then sprayed three coats of a lubricant over the beadings and said this will solve the issue. But some creaking persisted, at this point I got a little impatient and insisted they do something better.

Had a word with the service manager, which is when I learnt about the existence of anti-friction strip. So during the second inspection service they assured the issue will be sorted out soon and that their service head was at Pune for training on this.

But what surprised me was that the dealer told me that VW was paying only for 3 doors' anti-friction strip, I insisted they apply this to all the doors - i was told I'll have to pay Rs. 400 for the 4th door strip, I just wanted the problem to be sorted and agreed to pay. But this is not cool VOLKSWAGEN INDIA.

What VW should have done, is made a recall and fixed the issue than irritate customers who preferred Taigun over Creta/Seltos and made us go through this ordeal to get this fix.

I felt Rs. 400 is actually the cost of 4 strips. Details about the strip itself - it's made by Saint Gobain, attaching pics of the fix and the bill for reference.

Following this fix done at 8300km I've never faced the creaking issue again. The car has run 11900km so far.

Please bear with the long post, wanted to share my experience with the other issues faced by me and others as well.

But one issue i face is that the one touch up of the driver side window doesn't work properly most of the time - the window rolls up halfway and rolls back down, whenever this happens it happens twice. The third attempt it stops midway, following which the one touch up just gives way, I've got so used to this routine that I don't even attempt one touch up now.

They have done basic setting of the windows multiple times, other than this issue, I'm just loving the car so I've even stopped complaining about this hoping that when the electrically folding ORVM is available anyway the window will get a new motor which should solve the issue.

I'm just hoping someone from VOLKSWAGEN INDIA is reading all these minor issues faced by customers.

As for the AC, I've figured out a way of cooling down the car sooner - pop up the sunroof, crack down all 4 windows just a couple of inches down, let the AC be at 22-24 degrees Celcius on auto with outside in circulation, at this point don't use ventilation of the seats - the car cools down to a not uncomfortable space within 30seconds, i close the windows at this point, within the next 30 seconds the car cools down further and i shut the sunroof as well. The fan blower speed will still be high, so i switch to manual and decrease fan speed to 3 and also switch to inside circulation. After about 2 minutes I then switch to Auto with inside circulation. I've got so used to this routine now. As for the efficiency of the AC, i have never felt that it's not able to cool the car (highest temperature I've faced so far is 36.5 degrees Celcius).

As for the mileage - I have a sedate driving pattern, excepting revving on empty roads just to hear the engine roar in the first and second gears occasionally. I always always wait for about 30 seconds after turning on the engine for the rpm to reach from 1500 to 1000, initially i used to wait just 10 seconds after a cold start and journey on, but this gyaan of waiting for the rpm to drop was given by a close friend Dr. KCK from Coorg who owns a Skoda Kushaq 1.0L MT style variant. I get an average mileage of 16-18kmpl (60% highway & 40% city). Within Mysore city I get around 14-16kmpl, on dual carriageway highways where I can't use Cruise control I get around 17-18.5kmpl. On proper highways with cruise control mileage is sweet at 20-22kmpl. Max I've ever got is 23kmpl. I always keep the AC at 24, sometimes higher. I never keep the AC below 22.

PS.: Have tinted the windows using Garware lite NF carbon films with 50% Visibility. Front and rear windshields have clear films rated at 70% visibility, of a generic brand.

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The clutch was reasonably light compared to my Duster and the manual gear shift was also very smooth.

BHPian Ulysses recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Today I got to TD the Scorpio N at India Garage, Mysuru. Initially, I got a message from the sales guy that Z4 MT 4WD is available, but when I reached the dealership for TD, it was mysteriously absent. When inquired, I was told that the vehicle has gone for service. Anyway, since I wanted to experience how the MT works in the Scorpio N, I drove the Z4 diesel MT version in green color.

Before the TD, I did a few measurements with a measuring tape:

• GC at the bottom of the lower arm of the front suspension is exactly 200mm. Hence, GC will be a bit higher for other parts of the body.
• The floor of the vehicle is 2 feet high up from the ground. Hence elderly people and anyone with mobility issue must keep that in mind. Also, during ingress and egress in wet or slippery conditions, one should be careful not to slip and fall.
• The driver and passenger seats are 21 inches wide (end to end) and about 16 inches of back support (balance is the side contour). Hence, people with a wider body like me, finds it uncomfortable to seat in these seats for long time as the side contour was pressing against my rib cages. In a long drive situation, it may be a serious problem. I measured the seats of XUV 700 and it has got about an inch or inch and half extra space, which makes the seats more comfortable.
• The inside width of the car was exactly 5 feet or 1524 mm (door to door) in front and middle rows. In the third rows it was less (about 1300 mm, approximately, as I could not measure from inside).

Now coming to the drive experience:

• The clutch was reasonably light compared to my Duster and the steering was also light. The manual gear shift is also very smooth. Overall, it is not at all straining.
• There was minimal noise inside cabin. I did switch off the AC and ICE to see cabin noise.
• Apparently there is no bad or broken road nearby the showroom (as told by the sales person) because of which I could not check the suspension on bad road. But they said, they are going to have an off road track somewhere in Mysuru soon, where all these features could be tested.
• Although on even roads the suspension is smooth, the vehicle shuddered with a thud on a couple of potholes where I could take the vehicle on at about 40km speed. I would say the Duster negotiates such potholes a bit more smoothly.
• Also, even with 370 nm of torque, I could not experience the pressed-back-to-seat kind of pulling effect, while speeding up in low gears. It pulls, but rather uneventfully. Here also the Duster 110 PS is a bit more exhilarating.
• Taking a U Turn was not much of an issue, although I could not test it on a narrow street. However, I could reverse park it at a very narrow and tricky space at the dealership (the sales guy was visibly scared, when I told him I am going to park the vehicle myself at the dealership parking bay). The reverse camera is not great (a bit grainy) and I had to trust the ORVM to park.
• The guy said diesel would give about 11/12 kmpl and petrol would give 8 or 9 kmpl. Not a very impressive figure for petrol, especially for those thinking of long drives.
• Apparently, the Mysuru dealer has already got 300+ inquiries (add to cart) and about 100 payments. Impressive numbers if he is correct. However, that means, if M&M, goes by their promise of price protection of the first 25K, It is quite a bleak chance to get it.

I have also booked a Suzuki GV Alpha All Grip. I have not seen the car yet, but reading reviews here are some pros and cons (although it may seem insane to compare these two).

Pros (GV AWD over Scorpio N-petrol):

• Better mileage.
• Availability of 4WD/AWD in Petrol (Scorpio N only has 4WD in Diesel).
• Lesser cost vis-a-vis features (e.g. panoramic sunroof etc.).
• Similar or slightly more GC.

Cons:

• Street presence (Sleek horse vs Big Bull).
• Build quality, toughness (Scorpio N is a BoF) and possibly bad road ability (although I have not driven GV, but Scorpio's suspension seems tough).
• Under powered engine. Although it promises 100 PS, but nothing compared to Scorpio. Same on torque numbers, although it can only be ascertained after driving.

May be BHPians who have already seen GV can add more insight to this.

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The car is doing well, no issues so far except the auto up/down of driver's side power window which is a hit or miss (works properly only sometimes).

BHPian Osteon206 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

I got the 15000km oil change service done a couple of weeks ago at exactly 5 months after purchasing the car. Surprisingly service cost was less than the estimate given (Rs. 11000), which was welcome. It costed Rs. 6790 including Wuerth AC disinfection. I opted out of getting the exterior and interior detailing priced at Rs. 4500 which included a complementary wheel polishing worth Rs. 2500. The car is doing well, no issues so far except the auto up/down of driver's side power window which is a hit or miss (works properly only sometimes). I'm doing a Mysore to Goa roadtrip soon. Will share more details as well as route/road condition update soon.

P.S.: With a light footed driving I'm getting an overall mileage of 15kmpl (60% highway & 40% city usage - Thankfully no bumper to bumper slow moving traffic at Mysore so far except on days with Special events at Chamundi temple or during Dusshera) - Calculated by tank full to tank full method. From the past 2 months I've been using only Indian Oil XP95. The car is a 1.0L Topline MT.

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The C3 will remind you of the original Renault Duster's ride when it was launched and if you are an old codger like me, it will remind you of the long gone Peugeot 309's superlative ride comfort.

BHPian arjab recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Yesterday, in Calcutta, I test drove the C3 turbo for a long time, in a mix of maddening urban traffic and some open roads. Being an existing owner of a Nexon Turbo petrol, a Tiago petrol and a first gen G13B Swift I could make a decent subjective assessment of the little Citroen. Needless to say, my views are entirely my own. Thought of sharing them on the forum, in case it helps anyone.

Engine & driveability:

For a 3 cylinder direct injection turbo, the unit is rather smooth. On cold start there is a slight hint of vibration percolating through the steering wheel rim, which smoothens out as soon as the temperature gauge touches its second notch.

I do not know the exact specifications, but to me it felt that for the turbo at least, Citroen must be using a contra-rotating balancer shaft or a dual-mass flywheel to dampen out inherent "unbalanced" nature of any three cylinder unit. I would say this powertrain is up there in terms of refinement with the now forgotten, but brilliant 1.0 litre EcoBoost from Ford which powered their Ecosport.

The indirect injection 1.2 Turbo petrol of Nexon and the same engine in its naturally aspirated version, which powers the Tiago is agricultural in comparison.

The engine is very tractable in the low and mid ranges. Turbo boost starts building up, from what i guessed below 2000rpm, maybe somewhere in the region of 1700-1900 rpm, equating to roughly 24kmph in 3rd gear. The car pulls seamlessly, without any hiccough, velocity building up strongly after 45kmph and you can ride that creamy, torque wave right up to the soft revv limiter, which from the engine note, i guessed it would be somewhere in the region of 5500 - 5800 rpm.

Citroen has calibrated the ECU and the fueling very nicely. There are absolutely no jerks at low to very low engine revolutions. The vehicle gathers momentum effortlessly without any hesitation even when you are lugging the car at low speeds in a high gear.

The gear ratios are well judged and evenly spaced out. The shift action feels very nice and the gearshift lever has a smooth "mechanical" feel with well judged detents ensuring you never experience a "mis-shift".
3rd gear is very flexible. I dropped to as low as 22kmph in 3rd gear, then floored the accelerator and the little Gaul responded smartly, boost building up from 35kmph onwards in one linear flow.
The Tata 1.2 turbo is simply outwitted in this department. The erstwhile Ford Ecoboost 1-litre also loses out to the Citroen's powerplant in the low end tractability stakes.

Suspension, ride and handling:

As everyone now knows, the C3's suspension setup looks most ordinary on paper. From what i could infer, Citroen has waved its magic wand and used its decades of experience in suspension tuning by doing a stellar job in calibrating the damper rebound control valving. When you hit an undulation, the C3 soaks it up like a sponge and then when the wheel is "released" it is done in a very nice and compliant way so that there are no unpleasant thuds and thunks with the lower control arms hitting the bump stops on full "release". From a subjective point, the suspension travel felt greater compared to other competing models. The Citroen has progressive rate coil springs. Add a long travel suspension, tall 65-aspect ratio tyres, finely tuned seat cushioning and nicely calibrated dampers and you have a level of ride comfort which is truly impressive for a car in its segment.

The C3 will remind you of the original Renault Duster's ride when it was launched and if you are an old codger like me, it will remind you of the long gone Peugeot 309's superlative ride comfort.

The steering is nicely calibrated. It has a smooth, self centering action and is commendably weighted. It is not bristling with feel, like say a Tata altroz's steering but the helm has very little slack in the "on-centre" position. What is advantageous is the compact steering wheel diameter and the relatively less number of turns, lock - to - lock, which gives the car an added dimension of agility.

Features, space and comfort:

I belong to the Jurassic era of motorists when driving meant straight-forward simple mechanicals residing in a well tuned chassis chained to a manual gearbox - the setup which you can exploit the whole day and have a lot of fun. I always believed that: forget top speed; make an ordinary hatch handle 20% better and you will reach your destination 20% faster. and Citroen has done that I feel.

This car is not for the "Gen Z" digital brigade. It does not have half the things in terms of features, that its Japanese or Korean equivalent has. It will not appeal to a considerable percentage of the car buying populace. But to that minority of us that still love driving and pine for a nice, mechanical connect with the car, the Citroen hits the spot.

The seats are excellent. Supportive all around with variable density cushioning it should ensure comfortable motoring for many hours. The combination switches feel good to operate and most buttons, knobs and levers do their job with a rustic yet positive feel.

Yes, I have booked one. Delivery time, as on date, is being quoted at 3 months.

It appears that the PSA EB series, which won the International Engine Of The Year award in 2015, turbo engines supplies to India are limited. This is because Citroen is importing the Turbo engines from their plant in France and have been allocated a fixed number of turbo engines to import per year into India. The naturally aspirated one's are made by PSA/Stellantis India in Tamil Nadu and supply is not an issue.

Anyways, i am not in a hurry. I am pleased with the fact that in today's world, overrun by digital gizmo's and controlled by clinically accurate "connected systems", someone has made a nice, affordable, comfortable, analogue motor car which is very nice to drive indeed!

And that is exactly what I prefer.

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