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Did a 1700 km monsoon drive with my 9 month old Honda Elevate CVT

8th October 2024, 11:05 by Dev Shah

Driving the Honda Elevate through the rains with the Western Ghats and Arabian Sea for company was a mesmerizing experience.

BHPian amandal1810 recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

1700 km road trip with the Honda Elevate:

The odometer reading was at around 5500 km on our 9 months old Honda Elevate ZX CVT, when my wife and I started planning a 1000km+ monsoon road trip. We are based out of Bengaluru and have driven to the usual long drive destinations such as Coorg, Ooty, Kodaikanal, Chikkamagalur. We hadn't driven to any sea beaches yet, so we finalized this route: BLR -> Udupi (2 days) -> North Goa (3 days) -> BLR. We have been to South Goa before, so we decided to skip this. This was going to be our longest road trip yet.

We started on 21st Sept (Saturday) at about 6.30am. I was monitoring the BLR-Udupi route discussion thread on TBHP. The usual route is via Sakleshpur, but this route was impacted due to landslides. So instead, the Agumbe Ghat route was finalized, which goes via Belur, Hassan, Balehonnur, Hariharapura. Then came the mighty Agumbe Ghats whose hairpin bends are more challenging than those of Ooty (Kalahatty route). The Elevate maintained its composure with its impressive handling and free-revving engine. I did not feel the need to switch to manual mode (S mode) for gear shifts - the CVT was sufficient. We finally reached our stay at 5pm. The drive was challenging and exhausting.

The next two days were allocated for sightseeing in Udupi. The weather was good, with occasional rains and it mostly stayed cloudy. However, the high humidity was a downer (but its part of the monsoon package). We came across a bridge near our stay which had almost zero traffic. It turned out to be the perfect photoshoot spot:

Another photo from Udupi, somewhere near Mattu beach - the road here is on a thin strip of land, sandwiched between the ocean and a freshwater lagoon:

On 24th Sept we drove from Udupi to North Goa (Baga). This was one of the most scenic routes we have ever driven on. It goes along the coastline and occasionally climbs over the Western Ghats. We stopped for some pics at Maravanthe Beach and Murudeshwara Temple. We encountered heavy monsoon rains on the way. Driving the Elevate through the rains with the Western Ghats and Arabian Sea for company was a mesmerizing experience. The Western Ghats are the greenest at this time of the year and is the perfect time to explore this area. We reached our stay at about 3.30pm. Surprisingly, we were not much tired after an 8-hour drive, thanks to the cloudy weather and the comfortable seating of the Elevate.

The next three days were allocated for local sightseeing in and around North Goa. Crowds are thin during this time of the year in Goa. Several restaurants and cafes stay closed during this off season. But we had no intention of clubbing/partying. And this is the best time to visit Goa for sightseeing. Here are some photos, shot somewhere in North Goa:

Our return journey to BLR was planned on 28th (Saturday). We were mentally preparing ourselves since this was going to be the longest drive we have ever done. Good sleep is of primary importance before such long drives. So we decided to start late at 8.30am after breakfast. This meant that we would reach BLR by about 11.30pm and would be able to avoid the office hours heavy traffic. Google Maps showed an ETA of 12 hours but we had assumed 15 hours inclusive of bio breaks, bad roads and traffic jams. The Anmod Ghat route was finalized based on the GOA-BLR route discussion thread. The roads were great throughout except for a few KMs of very bad roads and an adventurous patch of off roading (more on this later) near Tinai Ghat. By the time we reached home in BLR at about 11pm, we were beyond exhausted.

A photo after mud off roading at Tinai Ghat:

This journey gave us more insights about the car. Here are a few positives and negatives that we noticed:

Never encountered a single instance of windshield fogging. AC was always on and we did not have to fiddle with the air throw direction.
The suspension setup is commendable. During the return journey (GOA to BLR), we encountered a few KMs of bad roads with huge potholes near Anmod Ghat. The Elevate managed them quite gracefully.
We (unintentionally) tested the off-roading capabilities of the Elevate during the GOA to BLR drive. At Tinai Ghat, about 200m of road had washed away leaving behind mud slurry and slush. I wrote a detailed post about it here at the thread. The Elevate passed with flying colors.
There is sufficient power for executing overtakes on single lane highways. There is a delay of about a second for the acceleration to kick in after pressing the gas pedal. But I feel its only a matter of getting used to. There is always the option to use the paddle shifter to down shift.
Auto high beam is useless during night drives. On a 6-lane highway with divider, the high beam almost never triggered automatically. I am not sure why. Maybe the algorithm enables low beam when there is a vehicle ahead (going in the same direction). I had to manually enable high beam.
High beam throw of the headlights is excellent for night highway drives. However, I felt that the low beam throw could have been better.
The TPMS accessory (SkyShop C240 Pro) is acting up. Its no longer charging via the micro USB cable. I will try a DIY fix.
The intensity of rains was changing frequently as we drove through the coastline and ghats. This is where I missed auto rain sensing wipers. I had to fiddle with the wiper speed settings a bit too often.
As many has reported here, the windshield washer sprayer and the wipers are bad. The wipers were leaving streak marks on the windshield. However, with repeated rains and wiper usage the marks gradually went away. The wipers will need to be upgraded (Bosch ones maybe?). Is there any way to upgrade the washer sprayer?
Reiterating one of the major cons of the Elevate: sound insulation is very poor at highway speeds. In city traffic, external noise seeps in and is super annoying. I want to clarify that the vibration and harshness levels (VH part of NVH) are very well contained, both at idle and 100kmph.

Trip meter and odometer at the end of the trip (Fuel economy is lower than expected because we had idled for about an hour with AC on):