[Vik0728]

Originally Posted by Dr.AD

Range of 927km on full tank:

In most of my weekend drives of around 700km or so, I can do the entire drive on one tank of diesel.

I really envy your drive Dr.AD but just feel so good at reading each and every single one of your getaways, as you justify a BMW Ownership.....Sheer Driving Pleasure!!

Just like you, one thing I almost always pride about my GT TDI is the DTE on a full tank, which shows in excess of 900 km. You are seeing a similar range in your 320 D, but the swag of RWD. This is what keeps me a fanboy of BMW, and if I own one in India, it's gotta be that 2.0 Diesel. Although, Robi's 340i is in another league as far as addiction goes.

Wish you many more such trips and much more driving pleasure.

[bhushan08]

Originally Posted by Dr.AD

Thank you!

I have driven to Yercaud multiple times, but I have never taken this road yet. I hear it is very narrow. Maybe I should try this next time just for the fun of it :-)

Dear Dr. AD, I inadvertently ended up taking this narrow road. Inspired by your trip, I decided to spend a day in Yercaud. I did not do the research and ended up following the google map.

It was the most hair raising drive I have ever done. There is no road, just potholes patched together. It is so narrow that only one car can pass and extremely steep, multiple hairpin bends with no railings. I was with my family including two young ones and we were all silent and scared until we started seeing the civilisation again. X3 made it through without damage and handled everything thrown at it with ease. But I shudder to think how I would have managed in a lower lying / lower powered car and it was still nerve wracking. I will not want to do this again! Contrast this with the salem route, that was was actually worth driving and enjoying.

God forbid, but if you end up with a stalled car, tyre burst, there is no way out. This route is taken mostly by bikers and/or the local experts

[Dr.AD]

Originally Posted by Vik0728

I really envy your drive Dr.AD but just feel so good at reading each and every single one of your getaways, as you justify a BMW Ownership.....Sheer Driving Pleasure!!

Thank you very much!

This is what keeps me a fanboy of BMW, and if I own one in India, it's gotta be that 2.0 Diesel. Although, Robi's 340i is in another league as far as addiction goes.

BMW 20d is really a wonderful engine. This engine produces a not too bad 188hp and 400Nm, and I almost always drive in "Sports" mode and enjoy pushing my car on the highways, and enjoy the bursts of accelerations. I do not baby the car on the highways in any which way. But in spite of that driving style it still gives me a great mileage and 900km+ range on a full tank.

But of course, the M340i is in a different league (a couple of leagues above 320d), and that is not even comparable here. In fact, M340i has double the horsepower than the 320d. That is a different car altogether. M340i is almost like a supercar whereas 320d is more like a poor man's "spots sedan".

Originally Posted by bhushan08

It was the most hair raising drive I have ever done.

Thank you for sharing your experience here. Sorry to hear about your ordeal. But good to know that your X3 managed that road well. BMW vehicles have a complete under-body protection (the "rough road package" given for India), and that makes them actually a bit safer on these roads where an occasional under-body hit is unavoidable.

I have never taken that road and after these recent reports, I will avoid that for sure. Actually the main Salem-Yercaud highway is in excellent shape and is a very good road for a fun drive with those 20 hairpin bends. I hope you took this main highway on your return.

There is no reason to take that other road you mentioned. Google Maps has just got that wrong. There was one occasion during the heavy rain last year that the main road was closed due to landslide, for a few days. Only that time there was this need for an alternative road. However, thankfully they cleaned and repaired the main road in just a few days and it opened for traffic again immediately.

Google Maps has gone really crazy, especially in last couple of years. I see now on so many of my drives that it suggests totally useless "shortcuts" or alternative routes to places instead of the proper good roads which I know exist. Sometimes just to save a couple of minutes in the ETA, it suggest crazy (sometimes non-existent) roads. And even that time saving is not real because if you happen to take that road, you will have to be so slow that all theoretical time savings are lost. In our Northeast drive in December, we faced many situations where Google Maps was just wrong and we had to ignore it and use our own common sense and manual map search to find better roads. In fact, eventually we resorted to BMW's navigation and that did better than Google Maps in some parts.

In summary, I have now stopped following Google Maps blindly. I always do my own route search and verify if Google Maps is indeed giving the right road. Sometime, just zooming on the suggested routes and examining it will show you that it is taking a shortcut around some major national highway or state highway. In those cases, I make a mental note and at that junction, ignore Google Maps and just stay on the main road till it reroutes me. Essentially, one has to be alert and decide which Google Maps directions to follow and which to ignore.

Again, I have seen this happening a lot more in last two years and ever before. I genuinely believe something has happened in the recent times that has broken Google's routing algorithms in India.

[bhushan08]

Originally Posted by Dr.AD

Google Maps has gone really crazy, especially in last couple of years.

Could not agree more. Google maps have indeed gone crazy. The route recommendation even while coming back (when I picked the Salem highway) was for a small road in Yercaud...complete randomness. Finally asked the locals and cops and they suggested the simple and sane route! Learnt my lesson. Will be checking the map and not sticking to real time map suggestions!

[Dr.AD]

A Puncture Repair and Tyre Check

As a habit, I monitor my tyre pressures regularly. In fact, I do that multiple times during a long drive. I have assigned one of the shortcut buttons for directly jumping into the TPMS menu and displaying the tyre pressure values on the iDrive screen. I use this shortcut button a few times during a typical long drive, and always when I start the car first time for the day, and when I park the car at the end of the day.

Everything was OK (the tyre pressure values were all fine) the last time I parked my car a few days ago. Since then, it had been a few days that I did not start the cur.

Then, when I started the car last night (after a gap of a few days) to go to dinner with my wife, I heard a ding and this message popped up as soon as I rolled the car out of my parking:


On a couple of occasions in the past when I had low tyre pressure, I had seen a message that says something like "Drive Carefully and Check the Tyre Pressure when Safe" etc. But this was the first time I saw this message that said "Stop Carefully". That means do not even drive the car. Just stop. Sounded serious.

And the reason was this. The rear right tyre had almost lost all the pressure, and it was practically flat:


In the past when I had punctures, I had seen the tyre pressure dropping down to 20psi. But never seen it as low as 3.9psi. This must have been a big puncture. Since it was getting late in the night, and I did not want to check the puncture in the night, I just parked the car back at my parking. We took our other car for dinner.

Today, I went back to my car, and topped that tyre to 38psi using my Michelin portable compressor. And then drove to my FNG tyre shop to check and get the puncture fixed. I was hoping it was only a puncture and not some other tyre damage during my last long drive.

Luckily, it was "just a puncture", and you can see a nail stuck here in the middle of the yellow cross:



The large nail that had gone inside the tyre:


I got this fixed using mushroom patch, and all is fine now.

While I was there, I checked the condition of all four tyres. It was in October 2019 when I changed my RFTs to these Michelin Primacy 3 ZPs. Since then, I have driven almost exactly 30,000km on these tyres. That is already more than a typical RFT life.

I was one of the "early adopters" of Michelin P3 ZP (ZP = Zero Pressure = Runflat in Michelin speak), and at that point, we were wondering if the tyre life would be too low (since the treadwear ratings were low for Michelin P3 ZP).

Referring to some of the discussions from October 2019:

Originally Posted by d3mon

Will be looking forward to know how they wear, as they carry a treadwear rating which is 25% lower than the Bridgestone RFTs, which mean that the tyre lifetime could be that much lower.

Originally Posted by Dr.AD

I will keep an eye on the wear and report it here.

Well, here is the report on that.

After 30,000km of driving (including varied terrains and weather conditions), this is the condition of my tyres:


Not too bad. I think there is still some life left. This is certainly not a bad condition for a runflat tyre after 30,000km of driving (typical runflat life is lesser than this).

Of course, tyre life is not my primary parameter for choosing a tyre. But these tyres are already good enough (for my kind of driving) on grip, handling, and ride comfort, which were my main criteria for choosing the tyres. However, there were question marks on teadwear, and hence reporting that here.

Overall, my experience with Primacy 3ZP has been very good. Maybe in another 5,000km it will be time to change the tyres, and there is a very good chance I will get same tyres again.

[Dr.AD]

Maintenance Update, and a Great Service Experience!

OK, for a change, this is a not a trip report, but rather an update on the maintenance of the car. And in the process, I had a rather nice experience at Navnit BMW, and would like to highlight that too (there are many dealership horror stories on this forum, so I thought it is only fair to highlight the good stories too, to show both sides of the business).

I had visited Navnit BMW to check if my brake discs needed replacement. I have ran almost 65k km on the original discs, and I felt it was way past the typical life of brake discs in these cars. However, turns out, my brake discs are still in good shape and it was confirmed by two difference Service Advisors who inspected the discs. They also called a technician to check the discs and do a test drive and test sharp braking. The discs came out of all these inspections and testing with more than passing parks, and I was told I should continue using the same discs. My brake pads also have a good amount of life left (I am on the third set of brake pads, by the way), and when the next time the brake pads need replacement, they would change both the pads and the discs together than time. After some discussions with SA I agreed to this plan. The braking performance is still as good as ever, and I have no reason to doubt their opinions. So in nutshell, I continue to drive on the same discs even after 65,000km! And for me the equation seems to be that one set of brake discs lasts as long as three sets of brake pads, which is not bad at all.

My car at the service center, in the middle of a sea of other BMWs on that busy weekend!

New Front Dampers under Warranty: By the way, in another note, my car runs out of warranty on March 30 (which is practically a week away). So while I was there to check my brake discs, I casually asked my Service Advisor if they would check everything and make sure there is no existing problem that I carry past the warranty period.

I had absolutely no complaints about the car from my side. The car was totally fine, and it was merely a courtesy question. Most dealers would brush away such questions and would rather ignore any in-warranty work in such cases (going by the usual dealership stories we read about). But here is where I had a very pleasant experience at Navnit BMW.

They performed something called "End of Warranty Campaign", which included a complete and thorough inspection of the vehicle. This campaign was free to me (the cost of this campaign was waived for me since the car is in warranty). And when they inspected the car, they found minor leaks in both front dampers. And they decided to change the entire set of front dampers, some related components, front swing arms, and some some more related components free of cost under warranty. Luckily, the parts were available, and all these part changes were done within 2 days. The total bill, as given to me in the invoice, but covered under warranty, was about Rs. 80,500.

This was really a great service by Navnit BMW, and very nice of them to proactively identify problems and replace these parts free of cost under warranty, just a week before my warranty runs out! Special thanks to my Service Advisor, Mr. Gangadhar, who did all of this work promptly, politely, and with a smile on his face!

Low Battery in Remote Key: Further, just as I collected my car back, and I jumped in and started the engine, I was greeted by a warning alert. This warning was about "Low Battery in Remote Key". I knew it was a simple matter to replace the battery in DIY style (replacing the battery in the key is so simple that this one DIY fix even I can do ). I thought I would go home and order new battery online and then replace the battery. However, my SA was standing right there and I just mentioned this to him. He asked me to just wait there for a minute, he ran inside, got a pack of brand new batteries, and replaced the battery right there on the spot! All free of cost! I have heard that BMW dealers charge some Rs. 600 or so for a battery change. But this gesture of replacing my battery on the spot, free of cost, was quite nice! It is not the cost of the battery or the replacement that is the point here (both these costs are quite small). But these simple and impromptu gestures make the customer feel quite nice!

Overall, I had a very pleasant experience, and I continue to have my faith in the dealership as I venture into the unknown territory of owning a BMW past the warranty period.

Unfortunately I do not have time for an immediate highway drive to test out the new set of dampers. I did a short drive in the city, and noticed that the new dampers feel firmer than my old dampers. This probably would mean improved handling on the highways, but again, I could not test that. I have been quite busy at work for these few weeks and that meant I could not really drive around much to test the new dampers. I would await a long and faster drive before writing more about how the new dampers feel.

Although a long drive was not feasible, I and my wife did a short "Coffee drive" in the night and as always, I enjoyed driving the car. The weather was lovely (it rained a bit in Bangalore and that cooled down the air quite nicely). So we opened the windows, sunroof, and had a very pleasant drive in the night enjoying that crisp weather, (my wife did not care much about this but I was for sure happy that I got new dampers too), and of course, the hot coffee!

A simple, short, city drive in the night for a cup of coffee!



Hot cappuccinos and a cookie to wrap up a good day!

That is all folks, at least for now! I will keep this thread updated as I venture into the mysterious and uncharted (for me) territory of owning and driving a BMW beyond warranty period.

[BeMyWings]

Thanks Doc, your experience with the tires and service serve a dual purpose. One to educate and second inspire confidence in someone who is new to these aspects (like me!).

[Dr.AD]

Weekend Solo Drive to Karwar

After a couple of hectic weekends which were spent working, I finally got a chance to do another weekend solo drive. I drove to Karwar area. I stayed at JLR Sadashivgad Sea View Resort, which is on Sadashivgad Fort. I had a great time spending a night on the ancient fort, overlooking the Kali River and enjoying the views.

I also drove around there exploring a few beaches north of Karwar. And of course, as part of the JLR package, took a boat ride to Devbagh Beach Resort and had fun exploring that island too.

I will probably write a more detailed report on that trip when I get time. For now, sharing a few car photos from this trip.

On the lovely ghat road between Hubli and Ankola:



Arrival in Karwar:



Somewhere on the beach near Karwar:



Entering into the 17th century:



Parked there with only an ancient wall for company:



Different modes of transportation, somewhere north of Karwar:



There are many such small islands there:



And a parting shot at one of the beaches there:

[Dr.AD]

Weekend Drive and Photoshoot in God's Own Country

After that solo drive to the beaches of Karwar, this weekend, it was time for a drive with friends to the beaches of Kerala. This weekend, I drove to Nileshwar, Kerala with my friend @robimahanta. Later, our friend @abirnale directly joined us at our beach resort in Kerala, and accompanied us on the return drive. I was driving my BMW 320d, and robimahanta was driving his Sunset Orange BMW M340i. And abirnale was of course driving his Red Sabertooth, the XUV700 AWD that is now quite well known on this forum.

As usual, our main agenda (and the only agenda) was to have a fun drive, do some fun photoshoots on the gorgeous locations we hoped to visit, and spend some time chilling in at a beach resort discussing again the same things - cars, drives and photography!

And we indeed had a fun drive. The roads to Kerala are hilly and pass through thick forests. It was an absolute blast driving the car down on those lush green ghats and watching the M340i and the XUV700 in the convoy around me. The three red cars (well, the Sunset Orange is almost red) driving up and down the hills and taking those fast corners on those scenic green hilly roads was a lovely experience.

The two BMWs started from Bangalore at around 5:15am, and reached the shores of Kerala much ahead of the expected time. The traffic was not too bad, the roads were lovely, and we took minimal breaks on the way. Thanks to all this, we managed some good average speeds, and by around noon, we were already near the beaches of Kerala.

On our way to Kerala, we drove through some scenic sections and smooth tarmac between Coorg and Kerala.

Scenic Roads with Smooth Tarmac

Photoshoot at a Drive-In Beach

Since we reached quite ahead of time, we decided to drive straight to the famous drive-in beach in Kerala, the Muzhappilangad Drive In Beach. We reached there when it was blazing hot and sunny, and the light was not exactly ideal for photography. Nevertheless, we did enjoy our photoshoot session, and managed to get some decent photos too.

Let me share the photos below. The two red cars on that lovely beach. That was the simple theme. The photos need no captions.

Relaxing at a Beach Resort

After the beach photoshoot, we drove to our resort, Neeleshwar Hermitage, which is a beach resort about 70km north of this drive-in beach. That 70km drive was a bit painful because of the mostly undivided, narrow roads and the incessant traffic on that section of NH66. After maneuvering our way through those 70 add kilometers through that dense traffic, and of course in blazing hot and humid conditions, we reached our beach resort. Thankfully, the beach resort turned out to be an awesome place. A perfect place to relax for the evening after a lovely drive all the way from Bangalore.

Our "Sea Facing Cottage" in the resort



Hammocks and gardens in the beautiful resort



We had a nice veranda, with good views of the garden and the sea a bit ahead



Perfect spot to relax and discuss cars and photography




A random photo from the resort gardens



A beach restaurant at the resort



Table with a view!



A small river nearby that flows in and merges in the sea

Surreal Sunset on the Beach

That beach resort has almost a private beach (almost, because technically there are no real private beaches in India). The beach was clean, peaceful, and was not much crowded. That was the perfect spot for us to spend some time watching the sunset. We got clear and colorful sky that evening. Fortunately, there was no haze and we could watch the sun go down all the way into the horizon on the sea. It was a surreal sunset. I managed to get a few photos of the sunset that I am really happy about. Sharing a few photos of that memorable sunset below.

A couple of boats on the horizon made the perfect subject!



A view of the setting sun



I was mesmerized by these boats on the horizon, against the setting sun



We could see the sun going all the way down (thankfully there was no haze), and a boat chasing the sun as it went down



The final moments before the sun went down!

Return Drive with the XUV700

Next morning, abirnale joined us for the return drive, and we had a great drive together through those lovely hills again. I had been talking about a photoshoot of the Red Sabertooth since the day abirnale got his car, and I finally got my chance in this drive. We found some scenic locations on the way, and enjoyed photographing the cars.

@abirnale's Sabertooth on a forest road

My favorite shot of the XUV7OO



The two beasts lurking around in the jungles



Sabertooth coming out from the jungles



Finally, a parting shot with the three red cars

Crawling Return Drive after a Sumptuous Coorg Lunch

In our return leg, via Madikeri, Coorg, we met our friends Mr. and Mrs. @megazoid (who were on their own drive) in Madikeri. With them, we had a sumptuous lunch at Coorg Cuisine, a restaurant famous for the Coorg food as the name suggests. The food was really good and that lunch, while sharing our drive stores with each other, was a fantastic experience!

After the lunch, the others had plans for staying back in Coorg, and I drove solo from Madikeri to Bangalore. That was the Sunday after a long weekend. That meant I ended up doing the cardinal sin of driving back to Bangalore after a long weekend. From Channarayapattana, I joined NH75 (Mangalore-Bangalore highway) which is my usual route. However, this time, that NH75 was jammed all the way from that junction till Bangalore. Last 100km on that highway (which is usually a fast and fun drive), was almost like crawling through city traffic. There were long jams (Google Maps showing thick red lines with something like +15 minutes delay many times) at several places, and the two lanes in our direction (overall it is a four-lane highway) had become three lanes of traffic crawling through those jams. After that excruciating drive, worrying about the cars of the side side scraping me (there was barely enough space to move a few inches either side), and crawling inch by inch to cross those long jams, I finally reached home, a couple of hours later than I had thought. This was the longest I ever took to reach Bangalore from Channarayapattana via NH75.

Overall stats for the return drive, which was my slowest drive in the recent years!

Except for that painful final 100km drive, this weekend was an amazing one. Definitely a memorable weekend drive. We drove on some fantastic roads, visited some scenic locations, enjoyed our photoshoots and even managed to get some decent photos, and had a fun time relaxing in a wonderful beach resort. What more can we ask in one weekend?

Thanks to robimahanta and abirnale for their wonderful company, and Mr. and Mrs. megazoid for the wonderful lunch and discussion session at Coorg.

That is all for this weekend. Thanks for reading!

[androdev]

Great stuff as always. Nothing like a dash of red with the backdrop blue and green. Haven't been to Kerala since Covid started. Hope to go there soon!

Originally Posted by Dr.AD

The final moments before the sun went down!

[Do] you realize the sun doesn't go down
It's just an illusion caused by the world spinning round

The Flaming Lips - Do You Realize?

[Dr.AD]

Originally Posted by androdev

Great stuff as always. Nothing like a dash of red with the backdrop blue and green. Haven't been to Kerala since Covid started. Hope to go there soon!

Thank you, androdev! This was my first Kerala trip too since Covid started. It looks like everything is back to normal there, and it is a good time to visit.

However, when we were crossing the KA to KL border (while entering into KL), we saw a huge line of cars in the opposite direction (entering KA) waiting for their vaccination certificates to be verified on the border. There were officials on the border checking these certificates one by one for each car. When we returned the next day, we were mentally prepared to face this delay, and we had kept our vaccination certificates ready for inspection. However, we took a different route for entry, and surprisingly, there was absolutely no check on that border.

Thus, while situation in Kerala is normal, one may face small delays in entry back into KA and may have to show double vaccination certificates.

[Do] you realize the sun doesn't go down
It's just an illusion caused by the world spinning round

The Flaming Lips - Do You Realize?

Haha. Good one. Thank you for reminding me of this :-)

[abirnale]

Originally Posted by Dr.AD

...
Return Drive with the XUV700
...
Thanks to robimahanta and abirnale for their wonderful company, and Mr. and Mrs. megazoid for the wonderful lunch and discussion session at Coorg.
...

Thank you AD for the kind words and amazing pictures! Thanks to @robimahanta and @megazoid - My Red Sparkle (aka Red Sabertooth - XUV7OO) experienced its first rain drive, the first longish off-road adventure to Mandalpatti without a drama, and a great evening with fireflies!

Thanks again - my post-pandemic explorations have resumed - I am sure we will do more drives together!

[arun_josie]

Awesome pics of the red cars both in beach and with trees all around. The resort is also is in a very nice location too.

Originally Posted by Dr.AD

However, when we were crossing the KA to KL border (while entering into KL), we saw a huge line of cars in the opposite direction (entering KA) waiting for their vaccination certificates to be verified on the border.

This is really strange, when things are back to normal why are they still asking for vaccination certificates?! I had been to Kasargod two weeks back, but didn't come across any such checks though.

[robimahanta]

Great pictures AD. It was an awesome two day trip from beach to rainforest. I am sure you would have loved the drive Megazoid and I did on Sunday. Sharing a picture of the M340i with the fireflies in Madikeri.

[Dr.AD]

Originally Posted by abirnale

Thanks again - my post-pandemic explorations have resumed - I am sure we will do more drives together!

Thanks Avinash. Yes, I am sure we will more drives together in the monsoon and looking forward to that.

Originally Posted by arun_josie

Awesome pics of the red cars both in beach and with trees all around. The resort is also is in a very nice location too.

Thank you Arun! Yes the resort is in a very nice location. Actually the resort is quite nice in many ways. The look and feel matches the scenic location. The room decor and the architecture is nicely done to match the landscapes around. Although this is a proper resort, it still has its own unique charm and does not feel like those big chains of boring commercial luxury resorts. This would be a great place for a family vacation too.

Originally Posted by robimahanta

Great pictures AD. It was an awesome two day trip from beach to rainforest. I am sure you would have loved the drive Megazoid and I did on Sunday.

Thanks Robi. I missed the rainforest experience with you guys. Yes I would have surely loved that experience of seeing those fireflies in the night and the lovely drive you guys had the next day. But unfortunately my work commitments did not permit me one more night's stay.

Sharing a picture of the M340i with the fireflies in Madikeri.

Wow! This is an amazing photo! Definitely a pro level photograph! Thank you for sharing here.