8 yrs with my Ford Aspire diesel: Still makes me smile when driving it

As the engine oil was fresh, the engine felt as smooth as a petrol with just slight diesel clatter.

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The car turns 8 years this week and has run 54,400 kms. Less for a diesel engined car but that makes it more enjoyable for me since the engine still feels and sounds new.

The last couple of days saw a round trip to Chennai and back covering 650 kms. It had been a while since I drove to Chennai because of the roads works on the highway as well as metro construction in the city. Since I had to move some luggage, I had to use the car this time and was able to use part of the new Blore-Chennai expressway from Hoskote upto the KA-AP border. I had done this stretch on my motorcyle last November when it was not open yet and in a car, it is different driving on it.

The onward journey was sedate since there was family and I kept to a constant speed of around 90-100 most of the way. I ended up using just a bit more than a quarter tank of diesel as a result. As the engine oil was fresh, the engine felt as smooth as a petrol with just slight diesel clatter when feathering the gas pedal.

The return was a bit different since I was alone. The speeds were higher and the car felt as eager as when I first got a remap done when over taking traffic in the same stretch of road, between Chennai to Vellore. The shocks seems to be slowly loosing their effects. At high speeds, they are still okay, but low speeds , especially on thick rumble strips is where it gets annoying especially since this car never had that softness when going over a rough roads.

The return also saw some high speed runs on the new expressway which was more or less empty. I was able to go close to 4200-4300 rpm in 5th and also in the process, the coolant temp hit 100c which was a first. I didn't keep it there for long and it is good for a short while as it will burn off all the soot deposits in the exhaust. I did a 4th gear pull and even after all these years, it put a smile on my face.

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