[fusionbang]

Originally Posted by abirnale

Sunay, apologies for the delayed response. Here are two pictures i took with new bulbs. The low beam are new bulbs and second one is high beam with stock bulbs.

Based on my observation, the distance is slightly more than I used to see in original stock bulbs. Light spread is pretty much same. I intend to replace the high beam too with new bulbs that I have already ordered on USA amazon site.

Thanks for the pics Avinash And apologies is not all required buddy, because with all the busy schedule you are taking time and updating the thread with all the required information.

Coming to the throw of the lights, it is almost the same as stock bulbs but only change being the color of the light. Still adding these bulbs on high beam also will surely improve the throw especially under street lights and when you have oncoming vehicles.

Very soon I will go ahead with the bulb change and will post a proper comparo of different combinations.

[vaspro]

Originally Posted by abirnale

Of course Srini.
...
There is one more scratch this morning on the bonnet, albeit minor. Luckily the alarm went off and I rushed to car. By the time I reached there, no one was around. Upon close inspection I found few very minor scratches on bonnet. Not sure if that was the reason to trigger alarm or something else. But clearly, I have someone in apartment premises who is not happy with me or my vehicle

Thanks Avinash will PM you.

It looks like you need to install a wireless surveillance cam in your parking area. These repeated attempts at vandalism are really worrisome.

[abirnale]

Nothing much has happened in the past 10 days but there is this old niggle resurfaced - today while on the conference call for around 10 minutes, the bluetooth background noise (chic-chic) was heard. Its pretty much like interference noise and at times becomes very irritating. This I am not sure is something to do with bluetooth connection itself or the phone or the infotainment system but clearly the recent infotainment software upgrade hasn't fixed this issue

The side chrome lines on last quarter panel are holding pretty good so far and the car is showing 6200 Kms on the odo as on date!

[MindOnWheels]

Congratulations Avinash. Your orange cheetah looks cool.

Never driven an XUV 500, have booked one on ZoomCar during our trip from Delhi to Corbett soon.

Excited!

[abirnale]

Originally Posted by MindOnWheels

Never driven an XUV 500, have booked one on ZoomCar during our trip from Delhi to Corbett soon.

Thanks @MindonWheels

ZoomCar XUVs are the best way to test the car - driven by many people some time considering the leash it is on and sometimes recklessly. But that gives you a fair idea of how vehicle is after few abuses. Not sure if they have the new generation ones in their stable but do insist on newer ones if they have any. There is a big difference in some of the parameters like brakes, gear shifts and if you like the creature comfort in top-line.

n_Aditya once drove it on BIC and his experience was awesome. Your's will be nicer too. Post the pictures on a travelogue thread from Corbett. Its on my bucket list too

[KAN]

On the XUV facelift infortainement system front - do you also get the electric disturbance on the FM transmission when horn is used?
I get the electric disturbance (hush-hush sort corresponding to the horn blowing pattern) when I use the horn my XUV.

[abirnale]

Originally Posted by KAN

On the XUV facelift infortainement system front - do you also get the electric disturbance on the FM transmission when horn is used?

No, not at all. I use horn less but whatever I have used, I never found any issues with FM radio reception/ interference so far.

On the other hand it happened that couple of times the FM 104 channel lost signal completely for around 10-20 seconds or so in last two weeks. I switched the channel and they were fine. Not sure why it happened with a specific channel 2-3 times. I don't think the channel went blank themselves as I feel blanking out for 10-30 seconds three times in two weeks is pretty impossible. And I am sure I was inside the city which does not have any signal jammers etc

[MindOnWheels]

Originally Posted by abirnale

Thanks @MindonWheels

ZoomCar XUVs are the best way to test the car - driven by many people some time considering the leash it is on and sometimes recklessly. But that gives you a fair idea of how vehicle is after few abuses. Not sure if they have the new generation ones in their stable but do insist on newer ones if they have any. There is a big difference in some of the parameters like brakes, gear shifts and if you like the creature comfort in top-line.

n_Aditya once drove it on BIC and his experience was awesome. Your's will be nicer too. Post the pictures on a travelogue thread from Corbett. Its on my bucket list too

Thanks for the heads up Avi. I spoke to ZoomCar (Delhi) and got to know that they have only the XUV 500 W6 model, both 2014 and 2015. They dont have the W8 and W10. And, which ever is available at the time of pick up, thats what I get. So, hope, I get the newer model.

Yes, I shall pen a detailed travelogue on my return

[abirnale]

Here is the most awaited trip we intend to take starting tomorrow -

The onward route - Bangalore - Kolhapur - Satara - Ashtavinayak Pilgrimage Route - Pune.



Take a break at home town on the return leg, if time permits visit Sanquelim and then back to sweet home -



And the planned trip trivia -
Starting on - Thursday Oct 15, 2pm; Halt in Kolhapur
On Friday Oct 16 - Pune and First Three Ganesha temples, Halt at Pune
On Saturday Oct 17 - Remaining Ganesha Temple, Halt at Pune
Sunday Oct 18 and Monday Oct 19 - Buffer, Meet Friends, Relax
Tuesday Oct 20 - Visit to Home Town for Dasara (Hint: Search on Youtube for Kavathe Eland Dasara)
Friday Oct 23 - Leave Home, Visit Sanquelim - Kids want to see grand parents
Saturday Oct 24 - Back home to Bangalore.

Total KMs - approximately 2200 - 2400 Kms
Duration - 10 calendar days

Seems like an ambitious travel plan especially with two kids - 9yrs, 2.9 yrs old. Vehicle is mechanically fit and ready. It has been not washed for past 3 weeks I will still be at work until tomorrow lunch break. Things can take ugly turns as far as timing and planing is concerned. Prepared for it.

My Plan may fail, but I wont fail to plan. Wish me luck, and stay tuned for further updates.

[fusionbang]

Good luck Avinash on your upcoming journey Have a safe and comfortable ride with your beast! Based on your designation and the current transition happening at your office, I understand how busy you are, but it is great to know that you make time for your family and the cheetah to go on vacation and spend some memorable time with them! Hats off

And yes, I will be in Goa on 23rd and if time permits we can catch up.

[Indian]

Avinash, wishing you a nice vacation. Keep posting about your travel and how cheetah is behaving in the trip.

We will be taking cheetah to Dandeli-Karawar this weekend. Looking forward to the holidays.

[sathya_nars]

Avinash, wrt chic-chic sound during BT calls, it's a bug being fixed by Mahindra, no fixes released to customers yet.

[abirnale]

Left Bangalore around noon yesterday and reached Kolhapur by 9pm.

The odometer just when we were leaving home - Reset the trip meter to zero.


It was eventful journey that ended with nice food in Dehaati Restaurant with typical Kolhapuri cuisine. So much so that, forgot to take pictures of the food

Today started from Kolhapur at 7:30am and did below stretch -

Kolhapur - Satara - Khandala - Lonand - Nira - Moregaon. Then Moregaon - Supa - Daund - Sidhtek by lunch time. There after reached Theur via NH9 same route with Daund. We were able to reach Ranjangaon by 4:30pm. And then back in Pune for night halt!

So far covered approx 1200 kms!

Some pictures from today -

This was after Lonand, before Nira


When we pulled over near Moregaon, our first stop -


On the bridge - exiting from Sidhtek



I Will upload pictures from camera upon return to base. Also a lot of good things about how XUV behaved on this trip will be updated too.

Tomorrow is the longer run towards Narayangao/ Bhimashankar and then to Pali - Mahad.

I will update more on the travel tomorrow.

[achyu]

Originally Posted by abirnale

I Will upload pictures from camera upon return to base. Also a lot of good things about how XUV behaved on this trip will be updated too.

Tomorrow is the longer run towards Narayangao/ Bhimashankar and then to Pali - Mahad.

I will update more on the travel tomorrow.

Nice pictures, Avinash! Look forward to seeing more and to reading whether your Orange Cheetah was at it's best behavior .

Cheers

[abirnale]

What 10 days of absence at work can cause? As soon as I returned home on Sunday evening (yesterday) I had to attend to many calls and actions. A super catastrophe was waiting to happen may be But we will worry about that later.

The past 10 days, we visited all the places I marked in the maps in my earlier post. The total running was 2920Kms! The Odometer when parked back in home @ Bengaluru, reads 9279 Kms. A little short of second service landmark!




Here are some photos from our trip -

While we climbed this hill - Lenyadri, our Cheetah did everything to make sure we were safe and having fun.



We took our Cheetah to our farm too -



Kids enjoyed the farms and farm produce. This was nothing like our A/C restaurant outing.



The temperature were always souring around 37-40 degrees celsius. Something that my kids couldn't really take it up well.

The most important drawback I find in our XUV is lack of separate AC/ blower for second row. It takes time to cool off the passengers in second row after an hour of parking under bright sun. There is rear A/C with separate blower but that is not very effective since we don't use last rows anyway.

Apart from this, there is absolutely nothing to complain about the car. It performed like a seasoned player on the battleground. Be it maddening traffic between Bengaluru and Tumkur or scaring the Bajirao's of Pune city who drive in the middle of road on their bikes with 10 mph top speed! We had faced best to worst roads on this trip. The suspension, comfort for passengers and ability to gobble up all potholes is impressive. I am comparing this with my old car - SX4. After driving for long distances in the traffic, bad roads, good roads, not even for a moment I was tired or feeling exhausted. This was big plus over all my previous expeditions of such long drives. I was apprehensive about how to manage the leg pain if I use clutch-brake too frequently. But that situation never arose.

I have the feeling that this vehicle inspires for more spirited driving and yet easy to tame at various situations like curves, straights as well as zig-zag on highways and narrow lanes. I think I have a confidence to drive this car as much as one can drive a small hatch back in the traffic or a planted sedan on the highways. Not to mention, I love pasting it on the NH4 albeit in the safer limits of sane driving.

Here is one parting picture taken at Belgaum Suvarna Soudha building - I passed the location many times but never had chance to stop and click a picture.



And after all this abuse, the colour still shines like new with all this dirt -



Next is what? May be a 500 Kms weekend run and second service