SUV for long drives.

The Fist dilemma was to which one to buy an Automatic of a Manual. However after a lot of mind deliberation I choose to pick up the Smart Diesel Manual Version. This is by far one of the best SUV's that I have tried my hands on. Just after taking the car, I couldn't resist a long drive. We did a road trip from Mumbai to Delhi and the performance has been overwhelmingly good. The SUV is very good. In terms of its size, power, volume and road clearance and also good on visibility ( apart from the pillar on the right ) Fuel economy for Diesel ranges from 12 to 16 depending upon the road, traffic congestion and the speed that you are driving. It's safe to assume that on one full tank you can reach about 750 KM to 900 KM easily with out worrying about refueling. The headlights are self sufficient and give extremely good night driving visibility. Braking is very good for the car and halts with out much effort even at high speeds with stability. The Vehicle does have some amount of body roll however that is inevitable for all SUV's. Comparatively to large size SUV's this one performs much much better than the others. Over all the ride quality is very good... Negatives: 1. The Touch screen is slightly sluggish 2. The right hand side pillar of the car on the front is not well placed. It blocks the view quite many time when turning around the corners on the right side. 3.The Lack of seat height adjustment in the co-passenger seat is a very big put off. not sure why was this not provided. 4. Storage around the gear knob would have been a good to have. Over all a very good car to go for if you like long rides or for that matter even city rides. The overall car quality is very good.