The new Ertiga ZXi has arrived in the Car India garage.
That is good news for most of us because we do our best to avoid being crammed into the back seat of a car; forced to be mindful of not hurting the neighbours with our elbows. So, the long and spacious MUV has instantly become our first choice of transport in case the team needs to embark on a long trip. We look forward to long, comfortable drives and fervently hope the Ertiga will not disappoint in that respect.
The car in our long-term fleet has the all-new K15 petrol engine with Progressive Smart Hybrid technology. This engine is mated to an automatic transmission. So far, we have done a few hundred kilometres in the city and we are yet to find anything to complain about so far as the ride quality is concerned. The lack of a touchscreen infotainment system in the ZXi automatic variant did raise a few eyebrows, though (it is available only in the ZXi+ and ZDi+). We look forward to experiencing features such as Idle Start Stop, Brake Energy Regeneration, and Torque Assist during acceleration to find out just how much it will help with our daily commuting.
While the car is easy to drive around town, parking in tight spaces is slightly tedious owing to the lack of a rear-view camera. Our car has a couple of minor niggles which we will sort out in the next service and, hopefully, it will be smooth sailing thereafter.
By the way, some of my colleagues have already begun making plans for a family getaway to a nearby hill station. Not a bad idea to beat the Pune heat, eh? I believe it is time to make a WhatsApp group with my friends as well to plan a similar escapade.
