Maharashtra A Test Drive Through the Western Ghats

&nbspIt&rsquos much nicer to marvel at thunder, lightning, dark clouds&mdashthe entire coterie that trails the post-monsoon&mdashwhen you&rsquore zipping along in an S-Cross, a nippy draught whistling through half-open windows, Vivaldi on the stereo, and foot down on the gas. That&rsquos completely different, say, from being seated in an airplane from Delhi to Mumbai with the craft shuddering and roller-coasting in turbulent winds and air pockets. &ldquoWhat are they doing&rdquo exclaims the man seated next to the emergency exit, casting an accusatory glance towards the cockpit (as if the pilots have deliberately engineered the weather to have some fun). No sir, the post-monsoon might not be the best time to take to the air. It&rsquos a completely different worldview from terra firma, though. The dark clouds still loom on the horizon but don&rsquot seem intent on making a strong statement the howling wind has dropped its intensity to a convivial breeze. Grins quick&shyly replace grimaces, and soon your motley group of auto hacks is speeding along to ver&shydant Nashik where, on Maruti Suzuki India&rsquos invitation, your aimless agenda is to wander about in the Sahyadris behind the wheel of an S-Cross&mdashthe manufacturer&rsquos brand new &lsquopremium crossover&rsquo.

The S-Cross has many virtues, as you discover later, but at first glance, it&rsquos the car&rsquos honest proposition that sets it apart. No disingenuous &lsquomuscular&rsquo styling hacks no half-baked SUV design cues that&rsquos pretty neat&mdashin a sea of unsettled pretenders, the S-Cross comes across as the genuine article. And that honesty extends to the solid build quality. This is the manufacturer&rsquos first lo&shycally produced foray into the premium segment, and it&rsquos obvious&mdashthe doors shut with a heavy, reassuring thud&mdashthat this manifestation of luxury is sheet metal deep. And heavy&mdashat 1,250kg, it&rsquos weightier than all compact SUVs in the market.

Further examination of the S-Cross is deferred to a concoction of wine, cheese and jazz at the Sula Vineyards, where we troop in for a soir&eacutee. Future visitors to Nashik ought to note that this is where you must sup, and ide&shyally, lay your hat for a couple of nights&mdashthe vineyard&rsquos Beyond resort is a hop-skip-and-jump from the winery and ideal lodging for a ripe weekend lazy lunches, bicycling and copious consumption of wine.

That pastoral sense of time is gone the next morning as you embark, two to a car, on the road to Trimbakeshwar. For those who have never driven around Nashik, the region has some of the best blacktops in the country. Sparse traffic, sweeping curves, and a horizon dominated by low hills make it excellent driving country. You follow the lead car, as suggested, to make a circuitous way out of town. City driving in Nashik is more manic than what you expect from such a pretty city. You roll along sedately, and the S-Cross negotiates traffic with ease. Once you hit the highway though, it&rsquos go time. The DDiS 320&rsquos 1600cc diesel is a spank&shying new Italian import, which releases 118 horses&mdashquick enough to catapult you to 100kmph from standstill in just over 11 seconds. For a car with serious gravitas, the S-Cross blitzes the miles with surprising urgency. It&rsquos not frisky though planted even in gale-like crosswinds, it keeps its composure and sticks to the rails even when thrown about in high-speed corners. Spirited driving like this cannot be expected to throw up frugal figures of consumption but having said that, the S-Cross is no guzzler. With an ARAI-certified 21.74kpl, the car is likely to be quite stingy when driven sanely.

The sheer size of the S-Cross is carried through to the interi&shyors&mdashthis is a genuine five-seater with a big enough boot to take luggage for everyone on a week-long trip. Yet it&rsquos not so large that you can&rsquot thread it in tight urban conditions. The all-black inte&shyriors are absolutely top-notch the leather seats look and feel upmarket a theme that&rsquos really driven home with the electron&shyic suite goodies&mdasha seven-inch touchscreen audio system (with USB, AUX, bluetooth connectivity, voice commands and navigation). The Bi-Xenon projector headlamps are a first in this segment as are the rain-sensing wipers and lights.

On another note, we didn&rsquot drive the DDiS 200&mdashthe other variant of the S-Cross but apart from the smaller 1300cc diesel engine, it&rsquos available in all four trims&mdashSigma, Delta, Zeta and Alpha. Maruti is selling both variants exclusively through its &lsquoNexa&rsquo dealerships&mdashglitzy, premium affairs that will only sell the company&rsquos luxury prod&shyucts. We&rsquore told that each buyer is even going to have his own relationship manager.

Back on the road, we get back from the 200km dash on the highway in just over two hours no small indication of just how well this car takes to the highway. And given that, it does remarkably well in the 20-foot-wide narrow lanes you and your colleague decide to enter in the older quarter of the city. You regret it immediately not because the car&rsquos complain&shying, but because the prospect of getting a scratch on that lovely red Prussian blue seems more than likely. Thankfully no such mishap occurs&mdashmost people on the streets are just too taken aback by your bravado (an inch away from utter folly), and phone cameras are out in full force. You get so engrossed in conversation with one of these excited denizens that you barely make it back in time to leave for the airport. At the end of the day, or rather day-and-a-half, you could easily spend another day at the Sula Vineyards, definitely a couple more exploring the roads around Nashik, and the S-Cross. In fact, a week-long circuit all over the Western Ghats, culminating with a zip to Delhi would be ideal. Come to think of it, next time around, consider just taking the S-Cross from Delhi and shelving air-travel altogether.