Those who drive Hyundai Verna please stand up. Thank you. Ever wondered about the maximum fuel efficiency that your car can return? Well, even we, the automotive journalists, during our road tests give more of ‘real-world’ mileage figures but it makes for a good sense to see what’s the best (or close to best) mileage figure that a car is capable of.
It was for this reason that Hyundai invited over 30 automotive journos across all sources including internet, print and television to let them drive and see what sort of a mileage figure they could achieve. The Media Mileage Challenge kicked off from a small town outside Delhi called Manesar. After getting the cars tanked up, the fuel lids were sealed which would only be opened when the cars returned for the top-up after going round whole circuit which was close to about 120km.
So, off us all went. You see, automotive journos are enthusiasts too and driving the car to achieve maximum mileage figure meant torturing oneself to the point of madness. Endured we did, nevertheless. Driving in a fashion that we detest most, the aim of achieving the best possible mileage saw us resort to techniques that you would seldom see us practicing. Tucking behind trucks to reduce the drag, windows rolled up in the Delhi heat, air con turned off… aargh, it was a torture! And to lay icing on the cake, photography sessions meant that our average speed was fluctuating to a certain extent. Not good, particularly when you are racing (yeah right!) to get the most out of every ounce of fuel.
The rally over, results were announced. In the Verna diesel category, Bob Rupani and Nekzad Engineer of Auto India claimed the first place achieving a mileage of 42.46kmpl while Manish Sarser and Ashley Baxter of Autocar India came in second with the best mileage of 40.5kmpl to their credit. Third place went to Amit Chhangani and Rohit Paradkar from Car India and they clocked a mileage of 39.5kmpl.
Verna Petrol category had surprises in store and such results were not expected by any. Dileep Desai and Vikram Gour of Zigwheels.com came to a parking halt with a fuel efficiency figure of 30.1kmpl which made them win this category while hugely respected old hands Bijoy Kumar and Srinivas Krishnan of Business Standard Motoring finished second by achieving 28.04kmpl. Ashish Jha of CarWale.com (that’s me, for your information!) who was navigated by Suresh Narayanan of Auto Bild India came in third, attaining an average of 27.4kmpl.
And no, we were not driving in the confines of some segregated road. We did this run on proper busy artery of Indian roadways with commercial traffic and passenger cars alike (bullock carts too) zipping on it all the time.
It was a fun event which was also quite an eye-opener. It proved that although it is believed that bigger engines gulp huge amount of fuel, if driven sedately, the same motor can result in unbelievable mileage figures. So, you Verna owners, next time you’re on an open piece of road, go for the best mileage you can achieve. I hope that the climatic conditions are not as harsh on you as it were on us. Amen!
