The Sunny Diesel was launched sooner than expected and quickly picked up the numbers in a diesel driven market. We Indians love diesel cars and there is no reason not to like the Sunny. Besides being spacious, it has a big car feel, or should i say Caar as the adverts put it and certainly looks a segment higher than it is. We have already driven the reviewed the Sunny Diesel at the time of the launch. I take the Sunny Diesel for a highway spin and get pleasantly surprised by its fuel economy.
Being a doctor, i sometimes have my consultations in and around Mumbai which can be as far a Pune or Nashik at times. This time i choose the Sunny Diesel from the Motorbeam garage for my trip to Pune. My basis for selecting the Sunny was diesel economy, large boot and king size legroom at the rear.
The Renault K9 is perhaps the most versatile engine in the Renault – Nissan JV. This 1.5 litre engine powers cars right from the Nissan Micra to the Renault Fluence. On paper, its comes across as an engine which can just about pull the Sunny but in reality its a different story. The Sunny is a big car and the K9 does its job well. Power is available right across the rev band with a hint of lag at the initial RPM’s. The Sunny produces 86PS at 3750 rpm and a maximum torque of 200 Nm at 2000 rpm which is sufficient for the job.
We fuel up to the brim and set the trip meter to zero at the start.
My trip was a predominant highway run, from Navi Mumbai to MG Road in Pune. I kept the speedometer between 100 & 120 on the expressway to simulate the speed most people do in the given conditions. . The Sunny Diesel offers better driving dynamics as compared to its petrol sibling and feels more planted on the road at high speeds.
We spotted the Mahindra Xylo Mini enroute.
After 312.7 km of driving, the MID reads something like this. Its impossible to believe that the Sunny returned 25.4 kmpl, there has to be an error. To get the more appropriate figure, we follow the tank to tank method and fill her up to the brim to calculate. 15.12 litres of diesel fills up the tank to the maximum and then its simple maths. The calculator reads a whooping 20.68 kmpl. Simply phenomenal for a car of this size. What amazed me the most was the fact that the Sunny returned 20.68 to a litre with 5 people on board and luggage stowed in the boot.
The Sunny is total value for the buck. Diesel power, mindblowing fuel efficiency and tons of room at the back and in the boot. I still cant get over the fact that i spend only 700 bucks on fuel. This is brutal efficiency.