3500 km Pune to Kerala road trip in my Volkswagen Virtus 1.5 MT

I kept getting 17+ km/l on highways over long distances - 18+ in one particular 6 hour drive. Quite happy with that. On mixed drives it gave me 14-15 km/l.

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I did a 3500 km Pune-Kerala round trip in my 1.5 Manual over the last few days.

All types of roads and terrains were encountered on the way - highways, hills, unpaved roads, broken roads, those terrible narrow gravel roads deep in the hills, anything that a trip like this could throw at us. It was a lovely experience with the car overall, and I got to know a bit more about what the car is about during this trip (the learning journey continues).

- I did manage to scrape the belly 3-4 times - Mostly when I completely underestimated the height of some of those crazy speed breakers, and approached them at the wrong speed. It didn't help that we were fully loaded.

- I believe the 1.5 is a bit more front-heavy than the 1.0, and that may need to be taken into consideration while going over humps

- Long distance driving is a breeze - we came out quite fresh after 13-14 hour drives.

- Rock solid at 100+ speeds, as expected from a VW. Sudden minor change in directions at high speeds doesn't upset the car (I generally don't do it, but on highways during long drives, you come across a few instances where you need to do some quick manoeuvring).

- I usually kept the speed at 100-110 kph on empty highway stretches, and the engine purrs along nicely at this speed. An occasional push at the gas pedal to overtake etc is met with great enthusiasm. A lot of power available on tap, and that's addictive...

- The engine is two-faced - absolutely quite and refined at moderate cruising speeds, and immediate switch to beast mode once you press the gas. Slow driving through Kerala was a breeze too, and I found the stress levels to be much less.

- The lack of low end torque (below 1500 rpm) can be felt at times when driving through low-speed sections like Kerala, and the solution is to downshift when in doubt.

- I kept getting 17+ km/l on highways over long distances - 18+ in one particular 6 hour drive. Quite happy with that. On mixed drives it gave me 14-15 km/l. In very slow city conditions, 10-11, or sometimes lower than that, depending on how bad it is. All on XP95.

- Overall quite happy experience so far, no issues faced. First service (1 year) due in a month (need to fix the missing "T" on the front grill that some lowlife had flicked).

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