Mumbai Goa Solo Drive
Driving solo on the entertaining Mumbai-Goa highway in the Mercedes E-Class was a splendid experience for me to cherish
When you talk about Goa what comes to your mind? Usually a place where you go and chill with friends, have sea food and enjoy the sunset by the beach. However, this time around I had to go for a 3 day work project. Having a W212 Mercedes-Benz E350 CDI under my disposal, I was quite excited for the solo road trip. This was a unique experience altogether driving alone from Mumbai to Goa and back, wrapped in the luxury of a good ol’ German.
When you are planning for a long drive, especially solo, you need to get some good sleep. I was in no hurry since my crew was landing late in the evening in Goa. Planning to leave at 8 in the morning, I finally left at 9. Hitting the Mumbai-Pune expressway took around 2 hours in the rush hour traffic. Before entering the expressway, I decided to have some breakfast at McDonalds. Now I was ready to hit the highway intending to take my next stop at the Kolhapur McDonalds.
The E-Class is a versatile sedan offering both comfort and sportiness
Since I was in no rush to reach Goa, I had put the car on cruise control at 120 km/hr. The 7-speed transmission has an amazing cruising ability with the RPM needle ticking under 2000 RPM. And can you imagine the fuel range? It was returning 11 km/l and the total range on display was 900 km. That efficiency coupled with a powerful V6 under the hood made me feel quite happy on the highway.
Soon I got bored of the cruise control and ghats were approaching so I decided to have some fun putting the transmission in manual mode. A left click on the steering mounted paddle shift and the E wafts ahead overtaking a dozen vehicles and boy that solid handling on the curves! The torquey diesel engine gives the sedan a clean push out of the corners and the sorted dynamics make you feel confident yet comfortable on the ghats.
The luxury sedan is quite Indian roads friendly tackling bad roads without a fuss
I reached Kolhapur McDonalds by 2 PM, had lunch and then headed towards the Amboli ghats that lead to Goa. Now leaving the NH4 (Mumbai Bangalore expressway), the state highway roads get quite narrow, are inconsistent in quality and have no dividers. The road isn’t that busy though and that was one reason I wanted to hurry up now to reach before the sun sets. I was worried about the Benz bottoming out on bad roads and the tyres getting abused on the rough road.
However, the E350 impressed me with its ride quality and while I bit my teeth on speed breakers, it saved its underbelly very well. Now after such experience, I started to floor the pedal to reach before dusk. Zooming through the Amboli ghats was a satisfying drive and entering Goa was stress free because you don’t get traffic. I reached my destination by 6 PM, spending about 9 hrs on the road, which is quite impressive. Thanks to the extreme level of comfort and soothing sound quality of the audio system, I reached Goa fatigue free and even before my crew arrived.
Mumbai to Goa is a safe route for sedans, no need to worry about nasty bumps
During my project I gave the Merc some rest for 3 days. Due to the narrow lanes of Goa, we hired some scooters to commute. The Goa vibes made me crave for some sea food and our evening plans after work revolved around food and the beautiful sunset by the beach. Goa means vacation for all but this time it was a workation for me and I thoroughly enjoyed it, main point of attraction for me being the solo trip in the Mercedes E-Class.
This was an experience worth sharing. Usually people think twice about driving alone on long routes. I also did the same a few years back but once I started driving alone, it became an addiction. Driving with friends and family is fun, yes, but when you drive solo, you get to spend some quality time with yourself, discovering you. With the E-Class I felt very safe thanks to the high-tech safety features. The seat was comfortable, I had more than enough power on tap and an uninterrupted playlist of mine which kept me going. If you are planning a solo trip, don’t forget to get your car checked (specially tyres) and sleep properly before you leave.
