First 800 kms with my Jimny AT: Impressions on city & highway driving

The narrow dimensions work. The car is very easy to maneuver in traffic, a delight on the Sea Link, and can manage to find parking easily.

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800km in my Jimny AT

I took delivery of my "Jim" last week, and have done around 800km in 9 days. This is a report of my 1st impressions:

Approx. 500km within Mumbai...

• The narrow dimensions work. The car is very easy to maneuver in traffic, a delight on the Sea Link, and can manage to find parking easily.
• The engine is adequately powered for city driving, and since I don't usually drive too fast, the pickup and overtaking capabilities are adequate. It is no speedster, for sure, but does its job.
• I was getting around 10.5 kmpl in the city, with around 50% air conditioning usage, and 50% driving on highways + 50% on congested roads.
• The height of the seating position, the large windows all around, and the large side view mirrors make it easy to drive. The large screen and reverse camera are very helpful, too
• Music system is surprisingly good, and the infotainment system with Android Auto worked seamlessly for me.
• Lack of space to keep larger bottles is a bit of a let down.
• Other misses for city driving in my opinion include 1. 360 camera 2. Connected car functionality and 3. Auto dimming rear view mirror.

...and around 300km on the Mumbai Pune Mumbai route.

• Jim is a joy on the highway, and I will be honest, I had my doubts about that. After 200km of driving, I still felt fresh. The car holds up well if you are not into racing and keep your ego aside.The road had a lot of potholes (I seriously think Maharashtra road builders use materials that dissolve in the rain!) and the car handled them like a boss! I started finding myself not slowing down for bumps, that's how good it was!
• I found that the power steering lost alignment quite often ie, when the car was going straight, the wheel was slightly turned to the left. It kept correcting itself after a while, but it was quite irritating to someone like me with low-level OCD.
• Going at 80 to 85 kmh, the engine was at around 2,250 rpm, and I thought it sorely missed out on another gear or two on the long flat stretches of the expressway. That would have helped fuel efficiency, which I clocked at 16.4 kmpl from bandra up the ghats to Pune and 20.1 kmpl on the way back down (no air conditioning was used, as the weather was outstanding!)
• Being tall, the car did tend to wobble a bit when there was a strong wind blowing (of which there was plenty) and at high speeds on wet roads, it seemed not as sure-footed as my earlier car, the low-slung Octavia. Got a bit scary once or twice on the way down on the western ghats, requiring me to lower my driving speed by 20 to 30 km.
• While climbing up the ghats, the engine + automatic gear box combination did feel low powered at times in D (drive) mode. Slamming down on the accelerator also didn't make much of a difference. But when I moved into gear mode "2" (I believe this keeps the engine in just 1st and 2nd gear) on the steeper portions of the ghats, the car came to life like Popeye getting his spinach! The revs climbed to over 3,000, the peppiness index went nuts and it climbed up the ghats like it owned the road. Wow!

So, to conclude, a good city car. A good highway car. Fun on the ghats. Slightly disappointing city mileage. But a joy, a pure delight, to drive! Just so, so, so, so much fun!

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