2nd and 3rd impressions:
After the first impressions about the 150km drive primarily on the expressway, here are few more impressions from the local city drives over last 5-6 days.
1. After dilly-dallying, finally decided to take the XUV to work on Friday. Had surveyed the parking lot the day before to find the widest parking place so as to avoid doors of other cars touching my car. BTW, that reminds me, while waxing the XUV over the 1st weekend, I realized that the steel on the door panels is not as thick as I had expected. So dings and dents would be easy to get.
2. Started for work, was a kilometer into the journey and the RJ from a FM channel mentioned its Friday the 13th. Wow, what a day I picked for the first ride to office!
3. Experienced mild to moderate rains. The rain-sensing wipers worked properly. The front-wipers sweep the windshield well. The rear-wiper sweep was OKish.
4. In bumper-to-bumper traffic on the JVLR, I was quite conscious about the size of the XUV. Maintained 10+ feet of gap from the vehicle in front. A few tried to cut-in and got a blast of the horn and a high beam from me. A few still squeezed in, but most did not dared.
5. In the bumper-to-bumper traffic, kept on switching to 2nd gear as soon as possible (a habit from Alto days). Then slowly realized that with the XUV, you can even drive in 1st gear. Its not jumpy or abrupt like my Alto and gives linear acceleration till about 15kmph.
6. The 2nd gear, has a strong "pull" or "tug" and after switching to 2nd, many-a-times, I needed to brake so as to control the vehicle from surging ahead.
7. The gear notchiness in 1st and 2nd gear (especially the 1st) is quite noticeable in bumper-to-bumper traffic.
8. At city speeds, the brake need to be pushed farther (than what I was used to), to bring the vehicle to a complete stop. It happened a couple of times, that I applied the brake with the usual amount of force and the pedal traveled by about and inch and the vehicle was still creeping forward. Had to push the pedal farther by another inch or so to bring the car to a complete stop. This is not a complaint. Just a curious observation.
9. The Map-My-India in-built navigation user interface is not very intuitive and I took a while to get comfortable with it. I still need significant amount of time to type in a destination and start a route. When I am about to start the car, I don't have that kind of patience. So I am typically using "Take me home" navigation only.
10. Love the ACC! It chills superfast. One problem I discovered yesterday was that the AC vent on the 2nd row right side is not blowing any air. Had to increase the overall fan-speed couple of notches and reduce the temperature to make my dad seating in the 2nd row comfortable. Would get it checked in 1-2 weeks.
11. Turning radius is not bad at all. On Pokhran Rd No. 1, took a U turn to go to my kido's school and it did not bring the entire traffic to a stand-still. :-)
12. While returning from work on the first day, I was waiting behind another car in traffic and a lady on an Activa who was trying to park started backing up to allow another bike to come out. Her trajectory was directly into my passenger side door!
With me blocked on all sides, it was a true heart-in-mouth moment. Honked liked mad. Even another biker understood the situation and gestured to the lady. She was completely oblivious about what's happening and kept on backing up. In the mean time, the guy in front moved ahead and I darted behind him. A close shave with the Activa.
13. Although XUVs are common on Mumbai roads, there are still a few people who turn their heads, admire the beauty and look at who is driving etc.
14. The reflection of trees on the shiny console in the dash further reflects on the windshield. During driving, this created an illusion that there is smoke coming out of the bonnet from the left hand side. Was alarmed a couple of times.
15. The XUV is almost 6 feet tall. The roof is a pain to clean/wipe. There is no way I can even think about waxing the top.
16. The ride at city-speeds on Mumbai roads is not very pleasant. Need to get the tyre-pressure checked to start with. You need to really slow down even for normal sized speed-breakers.
17. Last 2 days, I noticed that if the bluetooth on my blackberry is on while getting into the car, the infotainment system pairs with it automatically (without any visible indication or any user-input). This is very convenient. I like technology when it is seamless and non-intrusive.
18. Have been idling the car for 30 seconds before starting it for the first time in the day.
19. I have zero experience in changing gears as per the RPM. The XUV manual does not help either in this matter. Can other owners, please share at what RPM do you up-shift?
Overall, I am getting comfortable with the XUV quite fast. In a week or two, would seriously consider taking the Duma out on a monsoon-weekend-outing.