[vikramv4u]

Originally Posted by RunGaDa

Another winner from Kia. Thanks for the review and initial experience. This is definitely a good option, personally I would also prefer it over unnecessarily big SUVs. It’s a well sorted three row car and absolutely no nonsense classic design features.

Thank you.. yes it does feel like the right option considering features, price point, space etc so feels like a good balance!

Originally Posted by Raghav07

Congrats on the new car! My uncle also upgraded from a Maruti(WagonR AMT) to a Carens DCT Luxury Plus( but in Imperial Blue). The black looks good on your car.

Also, something I wanted to inform you, my uncle has got an engine issue after driving the car for 6 months and 3200 km. He has done a lot of city driving in it, and the car has been at the service center since Diwali. It was related to the fuel injectors apparently, so keep this in mind during your next service.

Wishing you happy journeys with your car!

Thank you for your wishes.. and sorry to hear about your uncle's engine.. was there a particular reason why this fuel injector issue was caused? Anything that other owners can do better (in terms of driving style etc)? Any insight will help.. or was it just unfortunately one of those rare issues.. Thank you!

[Raghav07]

Originally Posted by vikramv4u

Anything that other owners can do better (in terms of driving style etc)? Any insight will help.. or was it just unfortunately one of those rare issues.. Thank you!

I think it was one of those rare issues. My uncle has to be one of the most sedate drivers on the road. He drove the car 99 percent in Eco Mode and goes only 70-80 on the highway, not even crossing 90. But it was driven nearly 2800 km in Chennai city alone, maybe too much city driving caused this.

I will forward any updates regarding this, but please enjoy your car, I don't want you to worry about these issues.

[vikramv4u]

Its been a while since I posted an update.. so another brief update from my side..

Nov - First Service:
- Not much of work from the service centre side. They plugged in their OBD scanner and looked for any errors. Nothing was found (thankfully). Did some oil top-ups. Thoroughly cleaned the car from outside and inside. So, all seemed fine and I left from there around lunch time... but the twist was about to happen.
- Driving about half way i noticed that the Idle Stop Go (ISG) function had stopped functioning, tried a few things and it would not work. Called up the service advisor and he asked me to return back to the service stn. They tried a few things, but could not fix it. Interestingly, the 'electronics' guy in the service stn started criticizing the OBD scanner saying "this is not made for this new updated engine.. why do they give such equipments etc. etc." ... So, then they just decided to do some kind of a rest and reset and told me that it will take 4-5 hrs for that. Clearly I was not happy coz it was a working day and I had to work (albeit from home), but luckily I had somehow carried my laptop, so i started working, as they 'laid the car to rest' - quite literally it felt like they just left the car parked in one corner (maybe after doing something). 4H passsed by and I was getting nervous at 5PM now and they started the car, test drove it and luckily everything seemed ok. Drove back home and everything is ok since then. I did make some payment for the oil top-ups etc. but it was not a lot.

Dec: Small skirmish with the gate.
- Was taking the car out of my home and was focused on the front, but ended up touching my gate on the side. Some scratches happened. Felt miserable, but what to do - rookie error clearly and not enough focus on all sides! Picture of damage below.


- I had this 3M Perfect It compound at home and I had tried it on my earlier car and it had done a decent job in removing/ reducing the scratches impact, so i tried giving it a shot. It did a decent job, but not as the name suggests - perfect!


- See before and after comparison


Moving on to a more positive thing.

Mid-Dec: Did a quick day trip to the Isha Foundation near Bengaluru (Chikkaballapura). Good drive, nothing much to report. Everything peaceful like the below picture


Dec: Road trip to the Karnataka Coast via the hills
- Headed out with family to a lovely road trip covering an ancient village (Rudrapatna) -> then to the temple town of Hornadu -> followed by another temple town of Sringeri -> then to Surathkal -> covered Malpe beach and Udupi and ended the trip from Mangaluru. A total of about 8 days! No incidents whatsoever, car performed excellently thru the ghats and the plains. A couple of videos of the extreme darkness footage with stock headlights doing its job - didn't feel any lack of illumination in these roads atleast.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrgeZedn6JA

And one more very similar though

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqBwZhy1Xq4

Jan: Not at all a good start to the year
- Jan 2, first day to office on the first day of the new year and bang, an auto driver hits me from behind for no fault of mine - why? coz the dashcam seems to indicate he was looking to his right and riding the auto, whereas he should have been looking ahead. Dashcam footage below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kV86PVcfekY

Damages were as below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Cilg9c7Xnk

Went ahead with claiming insurance as the service centre gave me an approx estimate of Rs. 25K, so it was a no-brainer despite losing out on NCB. Car was out for about a week, but came back in a good condition! A job well done! Paid about Rs. 19xx out of my pocket as mandatory fees.

Mar: Hit 5k Kms
- Reached 5K KMS.


To celebrate, did a quick clean up of my Arm Rest and front seats. Used the 3M Interior Foaming product which I had bought a few months back.


Front Seats before and post clean up:


Arm Rest before and post clean up:


That's it to report. Will be heading off to a trip to Munnar and Thekkady and hope it will also be uneventful!

Thank you for reading!

Signing off with some serene shots from my trips mentioned above!

https://youtube.com/watch?v=XEd5axX9kEI

Malpe Beach


Sunset Collage: