Jan 22, 2008 01:15 PM
8622 Views
Hi All,
I happened to drive an SX4(of my Brother-in-Law) in Pune for 4 days, covering around 500 - 600 KM within and around the city. The following are some salient points noted:
1) This car has got quite a flat torque at low RPM. In city, I'm quickly able to move to second or third gear and at less than 2000RPM able to maintain the pick up. In simple terms, this car does not give jerks due to high speed low gear or shakes due to low speed high gear. Good one for easy city driving
2) The car maintains a good speed span after 50. In a long stretch(Pune to Lonawala), I hardly came down to 4th gear. this car was managing to zip through between 50KMPH and 140KMPH just by manipuating throttle and brakes. The all four wheel discs with ABS is a major plus here.
3) One thing I liked was wheel base and ground clearance. You get enough space within and outside! The legroom is, I should say, the best is all C-Segment vehicles I've tried to drive.
4) Boot Space. ooh. you can put in 2 big men inside! Just kidding. On a serious note, this is the biggest bootspace I've seen in this segment.
5) Safety features are as per market standard, right from auto door lock to Side impacts etc. My BIL spent extra money and got SRS Airbags also. Good feature indeed.
6) The A/C Knobs / controls, inset audio system etc are also good. You have an audio control on the steering wheel too. Good one. There is a display that shows external temperature. They could have given another display to show the internal temperature(in actuals) also. Otherwise, the A/C is up to the mark and never hinders with performance of the car. The car was able to recover from external temp of 32 degrees to an inset of around 24 degrees within some 5 minutes of run.
7) My BIL says this one gives a mileage of around 11. I'm not sure of this. Moreover, mileage is not a factor that is seriously considered in this segment. It is rather performance and comfort that are considered.
8) One thing I don't like is the visiblity for the driver. When you take a sharp 90 degree right turn, you'll find that the front right mast(called the A-Pillar) is hiding the visiblity completely! The fixed glass pane in front of the pillar does not help. In technical terms, the blind spot in right starts right from the point of driver seat instead of starting from the B-Pillar. In simple terms, you need to be very careful while taking right turn.
9) The next bad thing is the rear visiblity: My BIL was so troubled by rear visiblity(during taking reverse), that he has installed a third party parking sensors.
Overall, this one is good! If you had had good experience of being behind wheels of a C-Segment 3-Box model cars, then you are good to go! Otherwise, you'll take some time to get accustomed.
