Ford Endeavour Travelogue – Mumbai To Goa!

With its punchy performance and spacious interiors, the Ford Endeavour 3.2 was the perfect companion for our journey

Goa might be confused to be a city but it’s actually a state and a big one at that. I say big because the airport sits in the centre and you have North and South Goa on either side, having a very different persona. Goa is also the home of most auto drive events and just a couple of weeks back, I had come to Goa via cruise and then flew back. The airplane journey is the shortest, usually done and dusted in 45 minutes sans the travel time to the airport and other formalities. The cruise journey was the longest though, took close to 17 hours plus the formalities. Which brings me to the best way to get to Goa or any place where water isn’t a barrier in between, ROAD.

Every year around my birthday, I visit Goa, just to sit and chill. April is a hot time and not the best time to visit Goa but it’s also a month where the roads haven’t been invaded by potholes yet. We booked the hotel rooms but were still undecided about the car. I was routing for a big fat German SUV with a monocoque platform, powerful enough for the highways and agile enough for the ghats but I was quickly shunned down by Javeid, who suggested we take the Ford Endeavour. Not having the time or energy to argue, I gave in, after all, he would be driving half the journey.

The plan was set, 3:30 AM we assembled in the parking lot, and 3:45 AM we drove away. I had slept for less than an hour that night so I was all dozing even when standing still. The idea with an early morning start is to avoid traffic and reach McDonald’s Kolhapur in time for breakfast, a.k.a. by 9 AM, we had done that before too when we did a trip to Goa in the Mercedes E-Class, how hard could it be? Turns out, pretty hard. As soon as we hit the Mumbai-Pune expressway, the insomniac lady in Google Maps shouted: “51 minutes congestion ahead”. Expectedly, we were in disbelief, a 51-minute congestion at 4 AM in the morning seemed hard to digest, seems like Google Maps had messed up.

But it hadn’t because there was a complete jam on the E-way for obvious reasons – too many trucks and they were driving in all lanes which meant cars couldn’t overtake. After a frustrating stop-go and crawl drive of almost an hour, we cleared the Lonavala exit and finally started to gain speed. Clearly, we were delayed by an hour already but further delays started to happen at toll booths as the line was just too long and no one really would stay put, they would try to dive in from every possible side to get in. We made a stop at McDonald’s on the Pune-Satara road, thinking of having a quick breakfast, much to the disappointment that the staff hadn’t come, it was just 6:30 AM but we made the most of the stop by going for a bio break.

The Red Bull had started to kick in my veins, it was time to take to the wheel. The Ford Endeavour looks intimidating, it looks heavy because it is heavy but you don’t feel the weight at all as the steering is light at low speeds and weighs up beautifully as you hit triple-digit speeds. The engine likes to rev a tad bit more than I would like though and that can be heard inside although the active noise cancellation feature does a great job of keeping the cabin quite.

The road was good in the sense there were no potholes or broken parts but the traffic was more or less crazy as trucks always drive on the right, no matter what. So much for cars advised to always overtake from the right, that’s impossible because trucks would dive to the right lane as soon as they got a chance. Motorcyclists would ride anywhere while some of them who wanted to take a U-turn, would pick their bike over the divider and get to the other side. With a 3-lane road, it didn’t seem as easy to make overtakes because when a truck tried to overtake another truck, it would take a real long time. But as we progressed closer to Kolhapur, the road narrowed to two lanes which made it even more difficult to overtake due to the aforementioned reasons.

It was at this time I realised why the additional money spent on the Endeavour 3.2 over the Endeavour 2.2 is well worth it. Get heavy on the throttle and you could make quick overtakes in small gaps too, there was just so much punch on offer, all the time. The 6-speed gearbox might not be the fastest shifting around but with 200 horses and 470 Nm, the 5-cylinders always had the oomph to dispatch slow moving vehicles with a blink of an eyelid. Performance was really the highlight of this SUV on the highways because it would pull so smoothly and swiftly to high speeds, enough to munch on the miles with little effort.

Despite leaving at 4 AM, we encountered an hour of congested traffic on the e-way

Finally we reached McDonald’s Kolhapur and it was 12 PM already, we were running 3 hours late, thanks to the traffic and crazy delays at the toll booth (they really need to get rid of the tolls and charge us the fees in fuel because we waste more fuel waiting in line than the toll amount itself). Once back on the road, we were looking for a fuel pump as the way ahead through the ghats would mean no fuel station and we were on half tank already, the Endeavour returning around 7.9 km/l of fuel economy. We entered Karnataka as Google suggested this to be the shortest route, stopping at Belgaum for fuel.

The journey ahead took longer than expected, again because of traffic in the Chorla ghats while reminding us once again why the 3.2 is better over the 2.2, the added punch from the bigger motor did help a lot to make quick overtakes through the narrow valley roads. Some broken roads were encountered too where the good ride of the Endeavour didn’t let us feel anything. A couple of emergency braking stops just reassured us about the Endeavour’s fantastic brakes. A couple of times, we had to take some off-road detours and the large ground clearance came in handy. However, to be honest, we never shifted the Terrain Response mode from the standard road, we never needed to.

We entered Goa and encountered some really funny bridges, which were so narrow that only one vehicle could pass at a time and oncoming traffic had to reverse. It took us a total of 12.5 hours (including 4 stops) to reach our hotel in South Goa, with a total distance of 600 kms and a fuel economy of 7.5 km/l. We weren’t tired at all due to the comfort offered by the Endeavour, the boot was full of luggage too and in this blazing heat, the good AC meant we didn’t sweat one bit although I would have appreciated ventilated seats. Rear seat occupants were happy too with the comfortable seats, good space, pliant ride and big windows for an airy feel.

The next 3 days in Goa were spent just chilling around, eating at different restaurants and just soaking in the sun. We drove less than 200 kms in the 3 days as the distances locally weren’t much but the ease of driving and parking (auto park does work quite well) meant the Endeavour actually didn’t feel its size.

In fact, being in the Goa mode, I didn’t even get shoes, I drove all along in chappals and shorts (now I am sitting in the same attire as I pen this piece). Javeid left back by flight and I had to drive back solo. So I planned to leave early by 7 AM, post a quick breakfast. Got up at 5 AM, loaded all the luggage (it helps that the Endeavour’s boot opens automatically when you kick below the bumper), had a quick bite at 6:30 AM and started to drive on the long 600 kms journey at 7:15 AM.

Google estimated a travel time of 10.5 hours from the hotel to home. I had fuelled up the previous night itself to save time (pumps aren’t easy to find near the resorts which are close to the beach). The idea was to take minimum stops and reach Kolhapur for brunch. The Chorla ghat was full of traffic but the Endeavour performed flawlessly with power available on tap whenever I needed it. In fact, I was so heavy with my right foot that the display read 6 km/l. At times when I really needed more oomph, I would pull the gear lever towards me to put the car in Sports mode, it was rarely needed though. A couple of times when I needed a lower gear, I realised paddle shifters would be a nice addition to the Endeavour.

I managed to reach Kolhapur McDonald’s at 11:24 AM which was pretty fast considering the traffic at the ghats, checking at the Goa border and the stop by a cop to check the trade certificate of the unregistered Ford. A quick bio break and Chicken Nuggets later, I was back on the road, staring down an almost empty highway which had traffic accumulate around cities and villages (that’s what delays you significantly, after the tolls of course). I wanted to fuel up at McDonald’s itself but the pump there wasn’t functioning. Google Maps read 350 kms, the DTE read 270 kms, I had to stop any which ways.

The punchy performance of the 3.2-litre over the 2.2-litre unit could be felt throughout the journey

The road was devoid of any potholes, was smooth throughout and other than the hiccups at the toll booth, this muscular beast was moving at a good pace. In fact, so good was the pace that I had reached the Mumbai-Pune expressway before 3 PM itself. Now a big credit does go to the car but also to me for not stopping and going continuously, lifting and coasting to increase the fuel economy which now read 6.8 km/l. Sadly though, the DTE showed the fuel was short by 20 kms to reach the destination, I had to fuel and I did a quick splash and dash for a 3 minute stop on the fuel pump on the expressway. I managed to reach with a driving time of 8 hours 14 minutes, an average speed of 71 km/hr.

This road trip of around 1350 kms with the Ford Endeavour has just rekindled my love for this full-size SUV. Throughout the journey, I felt comfortable and in spite of the long hours of driving, I didn’t get tired. The Endeavour is comfortable, loaded with features, drives really well and has a great tuning of the 3.2 mill for both city and highway driving. At its price, there is nothing that comes close to offering the level of SUV that the Ford does with the Endeavour.

Further Reading –

2019 Ford Endeavour Review
2019 Ford Endeavour Video Review
Ford Endeavour Long Term Review