My fuel efficiency seems to have increased and am now managing around 14 km/l on the highway.

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I find that after covering around 15k km the mileage has somewhat increased. These days I’m managing 11-13 km/l even in mixed traffic which otherwise was between 9-11 km/l even in light traffic. However on the highways too it remains in the 12-14 km/l band itself but I must admit it’s never driven in an economy focused manner. What is insane is that if you manage to cruise in sixth gear, the FE returned is higher even at speeds of 110 or so. In that way, I realised that 80 km/h puts the car in fifth most of the time and this isn’t very efficient. And this is in normal mode and not in Eco.

Had a highway drive last weekend from Bangalore – Chikmagalur – Sringeri – Shimoga – Bangalore. Sat in the middle seat for a while and I can easily claim that the ride comfort is unmatched. The car was loaded with six people and in the sweltering heat of these places, the engine was on most of the time. AC works effortlessly and keeps the car cool. Got an average FE of 12.5 km/l end to end.

One issue I noticed is that the tyres were giving up on the ghats when coming down and taking curves. Of course, this is a 2400 kg mass when loaded and the speed was almost at a discomforting level for passengers But I thought the tyres were soft and might be grippy. At 17k km of not so sedate driving the brake pads to have life left in them. I normally would consume brake pads every 12-14k km on the SX4. Considering the Crysta is close to twice the weight, automatic with reduced engine braking, and brake discs of similar size, the life is pretty good. But I would have liked them to be a bit sharper.

Due to the conditions of drive, the DPF did not have to trigger regeneration for more than 550 km which otherwise would normally happen between 200-250 km. Especially the return drive from Shimoga to Bangalore via Chitradurga which involved sustained driving at high speed. I’m sure the DPF would have been cleared of whatever it had so far.

That completes 17k km in almost two years and we have been extremely happy with the purchase.

Here’s what BHPian mug:mush had to say on the matter:

I recently completed 60K service of my 2.8Z Crysta (run 57K) and am still on my first set of brake pads! I tend to use engine braking more, by manually moving to sports mode when required. At 55K km, I changed the stock tires to Michelin ST4 and couldn’t be happier with its high-speed performance, soft and silent ride, All in all, we are thoroughly enjoying our ownership, more than any other car, so much so that I sold my second car – a Jazz CVT as it had run only 12K km in the last 4yrs and often overlooked for its big brother

Here’s what BHPian simplyself had to say on the matter

I changed my first set of brake pads at 1.08 lakh km.

Even then, three pads are just about fine but one was gone.

Of course, the car is used mainly for highway travel. City driving was only about 25%

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