Guys,
I had taken the baby out on a 1200 km drive over an extended weekend.It had been through 2 ghat section on our way to mangalore from bangalore (sakleshpur ghats) and agumbe ghats too. Started off with a brisk 200 km drive till hassan on the 4 lane expressway. reached there in 2 and a half hours time. Stopped at Sakleshpur for a heavy dose of snacks and tea,coffee. Then onto the ghats and the test of my driving skills started along with the test of my patience courtesy heavy vehicles (generally oil tankers on the ghats )
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It was a beautiful weather to drive the baby in. waterfalls and foggy roads everywhere. defogger was really quick and fast and very very handy indeed. The roads in the sakhleshpur ghats were crap. I could hardly see good roads anywhere. It wasnt humps on roads. It was more like Road in Humps. I felt like I was Off-roading. Took a good 2 hours to cover 50 kms. Felt the hard suspension in the brio baby at the rear. Never went to 4th gear on the crater-full roads. The state volvo buses were driving like they had to visit the toilets.
Finally reached Udupi and mangalore. Was searching for shell but in vain. Filled it up at HP and off to sringeri and hornadu via aanegudde (ganesh temple on ganesh chaturthi). Had to take aagumbe ghats to reach sringeri. On the way up the road was same as the sakleshpur ghats but very narrow road with steep inclined pin turns. I stopped the vehicle on one of the inclines with humps to check if Brio doesnt move on such surfaces (as many of them had complained here). Revvd it,clutch, 1st gear and vroooom it was up and going without a jerk of reverse. There were people working on the roads to cover the humps. reached the temple, done with the darshan and god had her grace on us. The road down was a breeze with the most beautiful of roads in the ghat section.
We then went to dharmastala and kukke subramanya and returned back home. Again via Sakhleshpur ghats. You really need to have safari stormes or tata sumos here. Again the same test of patience. Reached hassan and then again a breeze till bangalore.
Pros:
-Brio is a beast on highways. Feels planted and steady. Full of confidence
-Brio handles the humps pretty well if you have the patience to slow down from the beast mode to 1st and 2nd gears. Never scratched the underbody to road anywhere throughout the trip.
-You can feel the power of i-vtec on the steep hairpin inclined bends.
-Elders never complained of tiring in the rear seat.
-Great handler and fun to drive on sharp turns. almost 0 body roll
Cons:
-Stiff suspension.
-Very poor mileage on ghats ~9kmpl
-cabin noise at high speeds
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8yz4Qoh2Cg&feature=youtu.be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOm_B5wm3iY&feature=youtu.be
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