The Crysta would screech on curves making us feel slightly uncomfortable. Nothing like that with the Hycross.
BHPian bangarchand recently shared this with other enthusiasts:
The already booked Hycross reached my home on 1st. Sept. I had graduated or to be more precise shifted from the Innova Crysta to this. Only yesterday I took the car out for a reasonably long journey of 500 KMs. But the road I travelled to test the car and for us to get acclimated to this mule was ideal because I had climbed up and then down through the western ghat road to Horanadu, Bhadravathi and Shimoga.
The car behaved excellently on the winding roads all through. The Crysta used to dislike that road if you pressed the pedal harder. It would screech on curves making us feel slightly uncomfortable. Nothing like that with the Hycross. Its response to curves is fluidic and you don’t get any jerky feel nor will you be pushed to the side while taking turns. Actually it is as good as any lowly laid sedan on the highways. The fact that it has a monocoque body unlike the body on frame structure of Crysta works in its favour.
The car starts in EV mode and hence for once, you will be unsure if it has really come alive. The car starts moving as soon as you shift to DRIVE or REVERSE mode and release the brake. So you need to be quite careful. If it is manual, you will get a sense of when it starts moving since it happens only after you release the clutch.
The car, once on the move, starts shifting from EV mode and ENGINE mode seamlessly. It happens probably depending upon the RPM which is too technical for me. However, one does not have to keep thinking about these changes. But every time you release the gas pedal it shifts to EV mode.
Now something about the TORQUE. People generally believe that diesel ICE engines are pretty strong on torque. But that seems to be a hype right now. The Hycross is off the block pretty competently even when it starts on a gradient. Since the sound in both EV as well as petrol is very less, one might feel that it is not pretty strong. Actually the Crysta is not as agile as this even though the sound that comes from the diesel engine makes you feel that it is strong. Even overtakes are done with ease and aplomb. Even at high speeds (I don’t get to cross 110 on this road) there is no body roll at all. Crossing 100 kmph is similar as the Crysta.
Now about the mileage. After I took delivery, the car mileage was hovering around 13 driving around town. The MID display gives you the average mileage for when the tank was filled last. For this trip I filled it and did exactly 500 kms including ghat roads. The average, shown on MID peaked at 18.5 kmpl for a while and finally settled at 17.9 kmpl. That I felt was pretty commendable for the size of the car and the gradient of the road. I am not sure if the reading is accurate but the service technician at the first service today said that if I refill the tank, the numbers could be 1 or 2 higher. But I am not sure and can only vouch after I refill.
The interior of the car is much superior to that of the Crysta. The features are not comparable to MG or Hyundai but are still pretty good enough. The driving posture is fine. But since it is automatic you feel that your left leg is numb and actually you feel it is slightly rigid when you get down. That could be true of all automatics.
The noise level is very minimum inside the cabin and even when you roll down the glass, not much is heard as it is petrol.
The suspension is generally soft. But when negotiating the road humps or similar, you feel that the front shocks are not very comfortable over them. So you would feel a ‘dug..dug..’ sound then.
The road presence of the car is pretty pronounced basically because it is new with not many around on the road as yet and obviously because it is very huge. The auto headlamps come alive much more frequently than what you want, I felt.
The driving comfort is very satisfying and it just prods and provokes you to embark on a tour to Himalayas once again.
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