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Perks of the new job: renewed respect from the watchman, other drivers, beggars etc.

Disclaimer: Experience-wise, I am a new driver with all of two months of suicide-inducing, insane Mumbai traffic and one Mumbai-Pune roundtrip under my right foot. Naive impressions are my own and probably have nothing in common with the official line.

On with it then.

So I convince the ancient Maharashtrian guard to open the showroom and hand me the keys. He confirms that the name on the visiting card is mine, twice (it wasn’t). Following which, he hands me two plastic things with two buttons each. This, to a man who’s car and bike keys are interchangeable for the most part. Okayyy… quick call to the dealer tells me I just need them near me to start the car. Knob where the key should be starts the car. I step outside to check if its on, it’s that quiet at idle.

Okay, I confess. I stepped outside because the car wouldn’t move at all and felt like it was wheelying. I forgot the handbrake. Why one would use the handbrake for an automatic car with the ‘P’ mode, I don’t know. But then, I’ve never driven an automatic before, much less an automatic that I couldn’t pay for with both kidneys, liver, heart, eyes, nervous system, limbs etc. Or maybe, as is the financial fashion these days, I just sell myself short.

Down the ramp and off home, which is half a kilometer away. The vehicle has sharp steering, and is certainly easier to maneuver than my decrepit Maruti 1000. Turning radius feels smaller and the power steering has a nice feel, unlike the Playstation-like Hyundai i10. Destination reached, I proceed to park in single file between an old Armada and a new Scorpio. This SUV feels big, but isn’t. It easily fits within the width of a Mahindra. CVT transmission makes parallel parking incredibly easy, and I made out like a pro.

Half an hour later, it’s off to pick up the wife from the train station. Strange man is next to her in the parking lot, singing aloud, trying to catch some attention. Large SUV crushes gravel and said romeo’s self-esteem. Meanwhile, super-enthu eccentric rich mechanic neighbour kid has hitched a ride and is playing with the console and rattling off specs from his photographic memory. Climate-control: check. It reads your mind and gently breezes over sweaty toes. Temperature control makes me shiver, but then my fridge makes me shiver; so for the naturally-insulated, mileage may vary.

Audio system is a six-speaker Rockford Fosgate with a 10″ subwoofer. It’s plenty loud and has overpowering bass. If you’re a pimp, you’ll like it. I don’t. Steering-mounted controls work as expected and the readout on the head unit is reasonable, if a bit short for anything but single-word song titles. The car came pre-loaded with greatest Goan konkani hits, which I purused. This should count as a plus.

Bells and whistles abound, as they should in a fully-loaded car. Electrical driver’s seat has enough adjustments to choreograph short performance-art skits. The car beeps and complains if you move without both seatbelts being fastened. It complains (I think) if the car is off and the headlights are on. It complains if you’re too close to something behind you (an override for this feature will be needed if you’re driving in traffic).

Sunglass receptacle on top is neat and opens up in a smooth, damped motion. Center arm-rest is comfy and has a large storage compartment beneath. CDs go into another roomy box on top of the dash, while the glove box is where it should be. All power windows, of course, and the dash is LCD and reads speed, mileage, fuel level, whether the doors are open etc. The light inside is smart and switches itself on and off depending on the situation. Very useful, and it fades out gracefully.

I DON’T GIVE A FUCK! JUST TELL ME ABOUT PERFORMANCE section

2.4 liter, 4-pot MIVEC. Disc brakes all round. Brakes rock my world. Stopping from 80 to almost zero for a 90-degree right turn was smooth and effortless, with no drama. Wife later mentioned that she slid from the right side of the back seat to the left, then fell behind the passenger seat. Must remember to take note of well-being of family members while driving fun cars.

Power is adequate, but not thrilling, even to a driver who wouldn’t know any better. The CVT is a pleasure to drive leisurely, but annoying if you want performance. Thankfully, the Outlander has paddle-shift, which are paddles of fun. Kick down two or three ratios and the engine growls and surges ahead. Relatively. It’s fast, but not brutal or scary. I had no issues punching the throttle between traffic and making quick strides before jamming the brakes at a stoplight. Still, full-auto CVT is more for smooth, worry-free drives. Use the paddles for any fun.

Suspension is decent and I had no problems flicking through the gears at 100 clicks on stone, gravel, butchered tarmac. My wife was doing 100+ on Palm Beach road and scared herself when she looked at the speedo. Effortless, quick. Cosseted, safe feeling inside with great brakes are all confidence-boosting. Handling is great as far as I can tell, and the size of the vehicle was a non-issue. Super visibility, much respect from tailgating bastards. Nobody cuts you off, and few can catch up anyway.

The car also has a 2wd/4wd/lock knob, but I didn’t use it. Lights are HID and excellent. Wipers dead silent, which is a good thing when you keep putting them on when you want to signal right. High-beam flasher took some getting used to, since the toggle and the flash motions are in the same direction (towards driver).

To sum up: Fun, fatigue-free, well-sorted and well-loaded. Looks great to me and I think the Outlander should have no problem competing with the CR-V and Captiva. At about 24 lac on road, the price is probably not outrageous. Not much else I can report based on two hours of driving.