BHPian fawad0222 recently shared this with other enthusiasts: Dear Team BHPians, I recently went on my first road trip made purely for driving nirvana and love for the nature and I did it using an automatic, petrol, self drive rental car from Revv. The car was Maruti Suzuki, XL6 automatic, 2024 manufactured and had run around 25,000 kms. The road trip started from Bharucha jetty, Fort south Mumbai, where we took a ro ro ferry service to Madhwa jetty, Alibaug and then drove on Maharashtra state highway msh4, sticking closest to the coast, used ferry crossings at many places and reached Goa in three days. Total distance covered was around 1800 kms.over a week. This was the first time I drove an XL6/ Ertiga. We were 4 people, with a very healthy luggage as the couple with us was coming from US and was enroute to Lucknow, their home place and we all were to spend another 4 nights in Goa with other friends who were reaching there directly.Maruti Suzuki XL6: Things That Impressed MeSpace: Enough space for us and for the luggage too after folding the third row. Even when all the three rows to be used there is good space left in the rear for one day trip to any place. Comfort: I drove the car three days staight, stopping at nights only and none of us ever got really tired. Even the American couple had no complaints sitting in the second row. During the return journey I had driven almost for 10 hrs straight covering more than 550 kms on NH 66. AC: I wouldn’t say it was a chiller but we all were comfortable throughout our journey made under the harsh konkan sun.The wind screen with IR cut glass and side windows with green uv cut glass really helped. Ground Clearance: the car never scrapped its belly even for once though it covered some tough terrains, while fully loaded. Engine and Transmission: Coming to the crux of this post and about which you all would be most interested in, I would dare to say that I found the Suzuki engine to be work horse like, never complaining, rising up to the occasion whenever asked to with a snarl, which was music to my ears. Those who have driven on this route know how tough it is at many places with steep climbs and surprisingly the engine was never found to be wanting, not even once.The pickup at least to me was fine with car reaching high speeds pretty quickly. I touched 120 kms/hr speed many a times in our return journey on the empty highway and had to will myself to slow down. Since highway is still unfinished at many a places, the traffic was scarce so I didn’t have to take many overtaking maneuvers but I did some while driving on the the excellent Panjim to Madgaon 4 lanes highway and it was clean and effortless. I found the transmission to be quick, jerk less with almost unfelt change in gears. The cars picks up speed very nicely from the standstill and I never experienced that the transmission was searching for the right gear. In higher speeds, yes car took little more time to respond but there were paddle shifters available which unfortunately I wasn’t knowing to operate so that is also taken care of in my view. I give full marks to the transmission and the engine knowing about them before hand, suiting my style of driving completely.. Efficiency: This is where I found it to be slightly underperforming especially when the maruti cars are known for their frugal engines. The car display never crossed 12.5 km/litre and I didn’t do the top to top fuel filling calculation. Overall it showed an average of 11.8 km. Perhaps it was because most of the drive happened on ghats and we did drive spiritedly. Looks: I found it be a good looking car and only thing I don’t like about it in looks is the part of the rear lights, stuck on the boot panel, which I think is non functional too. Overall the car surprised me with its engine and transmission. The car proved me wrong on both the counts. Now only things this car lacks and which is a very important one, is safety. The car has only one star in 2024 Global NCAP rating. This is the only aspect which would stop me buying one as In very near future I have to buy one. So my request to Maruti, please make it safe. That’s all. Thanks Check outBHPian commentsfor more insights and information.
