News

Kia Seltos 1.5 diesel: 80,000 km update including a long solo road trip

24th June 2024, 14:32 by Utkarsh Chaudhary

The two tank-fulls returned a fuel efficiency of 19.5 km/l and 17 km/l respectively and the air-conditioning worked well throughout.

BHPian ashis89 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

80,000 kms done, and in 4 years 7 months 18 days.

My usage has reduced considerably in the past year. Coyote goes on a long trip every 2-3 months and sees very little run in the city in the interim.

I came back from a 1700 km solo trip with Coyote. Drove down to Vijayawada and back. The two tankful of diesel returned 19.5 kmpl and 17 kmpl respectively.

The 100k service was done a week before the trip where, apart from the usual service, they changed the coolant and the transmission oil. While I didn't notice any difference due to the new pink coolant (the stock one was green from the factory), the new transmission oil did make its presence felt. Other occasional stiffness is gone and all the shifts are smooth.

AC worked well throughout and I kept it between 1-2 speeds throughout. Even with temperatures crossing 40, my father found the AC too cold if the blower speed was beyond 2 or the thermostat was left at the coldest setting.

The tyres are 41k kms old (the first time a set has lasted beyond 40k kms). And they are no longer silent as earlier. I might want to change them sooner even though they have quite some tread left. Grip-wise, they do the job but these Continentals still take bad roads and abuse very very well.

Off-late, I felt that the suspension rebound had increased. As if the car has developed a spring in its step! There's a hint of a nose dive when I brake hard and a bounce when I hit a dip in the road. And of course, there's increased body roll. The service center had certified that the suspension was good. Maybe it's the upsized tyres.

The DRLs are slowly turning yellow from the inner ends. Need to check if that's covered under the extended warranty (the broken AC vent wasn't!).

Now, the trip report - I started on a Saturday morning 5AM from Bangalore, taking the usual Chittoor (7:30AM) - Tirupati (9:30 AM) - Naidupet (11 AM) - Ongole (2PM) route. Reached Vijayawada by 4 PM. The Tirupati - Naidupet stretch is being 6-laned and the work is progressing at a good pace. I was driving on it after 6 months and half the roads are ready.

79k

Given the improved roads on the Tirupati Naidupet stretch, avg speed and FE weren't affected much

Clicked only 1 pic

Reached Vijayawada

Did some errands during my stay there. Also, got Coyote washed as Coyote had returned as a greasy animal from the service center post service. Good work for 400 bucks

Return was to be on a Tuesday. But I preponed to Monday. I have always liked night drives - peaceful, dark, well-lit roads, no local traffic to worry about, no cattle, no road rage and no heat. But security is also a concern at night and so I stick to known and busy roads for any travel after 9PM.

While I have done the Naidupet - Tirupati stretch several times, it was always in broad daylight, in the morning or afternoon. It was also deserted at times. Doing this stretch post-midnight seemed like a risk. On the other hand, the route via Hyderabad was well-versed but longer too. Played safe and chose the latter.

I had my dinner and started around 9:40PM. Reached Ramoji Film city by 12:40AM. Took some break on the ORR to clean the bugs off the windshield.

Most of those bugs had struck while on the Hyderabad ORR

A little after the road cuts off towards Mahbubnagar, there was a massive road jam on the highway. Road work + randomly placed concrete blocks had led to a small accident and also narrowed down the road. I was a sitting duck for a good 20 minutes there before I escaped. Traffic on the other side of the road had also piled up for a couple of kms

Crossed Kurnool around 4AM and got some rains here. Then crossed Anantapur around 6AM and took a power nap. I did have another couple of small breaks as well