Looking for a good maternity hospital in Pondicherry and my wife and I want to get a scan done where the husband is allowed too. We’re from Bangalore and husbands are not allowed inside for any ultrasound.
Moved to Bangalore in February. Instead of flying and shipping the car, I decided to drive.
10 days of the road-trip with the route:
Delhi → Udaipur → Daman → Mumbai → Goa → Udupi → Bangalore.
The car was a Taigun GT 1.5 DSG, picked it up second-hand in October 2025. It was a year old with 7.5k on it. Used to drive a Polo 1.2 before this.
About the road-trip - Delhi to Udaipur
With an emotional goodbye to my house and people, I left Delhi in the morning around 8:30am. The expressway from Gurgaon just opens up and doesn't stop. I crossed Jaipur and Alwar without even realising it and the road is so good and so consistent that I just stopped registering distance. The 10.5 hour drive as per maps finished in 10 hours with 3 short stops and honestly felt like 3-4 hours of driving.
What surprised me on this stretch were the roads of Rajasthan, especially the NH48 and NH758 leading into Udaipur, most of the vehicles and trucks had decent lane discipline (for Indian roads), making overtakes easy and clean.
The car on this road was just in its element. Smooth road, long straights with gentle curves is exactly what I wanted to drive on with my car. Honestly, the whole thing was no effort and no fatigue. The cockpit felt calm throughout the drive and with good music on, distances were disappearing so easily. This leg alone sold me on the car for long drives.
Udaipur to Daman
Made some Portuguese friends in Udaipur hostel, who had to head to Mumbai in a bus directly from Daman. I advised them otherwise and extended the offer to join me on the road-trip via Daman and they could get the chance to explore this small old, sleepy Portuguese colony.
Exiting Udaipur at 5am was peaceful and easy, even the people at the paid parking were sweet and car was safe with full luggage, even if it was priced on the higher side. We entered Gujrat and hit the horribly uneven big 8-lane cement expressway, really bad of the high speed limit of 120. The car was constantly working through the unevenness and it just never settled into that comfortable rhythm the Delhi-Udaipur stretch had. I still don’t understand these cement roads, the Yamuna expressway one is still bearable with smoother ride but this was a 4/10 experience.
The stretch of passing Ahmedabad was particularly bad with metro construction running right across the highway, and then the expressway just narrowed down to 2 lanes, which was very well paved but the 4-lane expressway was small and cramped. Also, driving discipline which I experienced in RJ disappeared here as I saw people overtaking at 120+ on the emergency shoulder on a 2-lane side like it was completely normal.
There were not many places to eat or stop (at least with the portuygege friends), but we still had the jugaad roadside coffee, cutting and eating mangoes and finishing all the snacks we carried.
Reached Daman by 4:30pm, freshened up and stepped out to see what was around. The town itself was completely unexpected. Slow, old, almost asleep. I was staying opposite a Portuguese fort and had zero plans beyond freshening up. Ended up spending the evening with the new friends exploring the fort, walking to a black sand beach, which they had genuinely never seen in their life and even explored a church and school where they got to converse with a few people in Portuguese. Had an absolute gem of a time exploring this little colonial town.
Daman to Mumbai:
The trip kicked off with exploring Daman in the morning and then we headed for the shorter leg of this road-trip to Mumbai. The car only had the fuel enough to hit Mumbai, I wanted to fill-up asap. I needed XP95 and stopping at at-least 8 pumps and I could not find it anywhere along the route. The 9th had it but had no electricity to pump.
The road itself is wide but those cement roads continued and the car was working overtime on its suspension the whole way along with the slow, truck filled and factory laded surroundings. Closer to mumbai we hit some curvy roads (still cemented and uneven), funny pointy mountains all around but at least the scenery changed for the better and it became a beautiful drive visually but not a comfortable one still.
We hadn’t eaten anything except a light breakfast and finally spotted a McDonald’s. Orlando & Raquel had a great time ordering, probably the best cultural exchange when you visit a new country, trying McDonalds, made them try the McSpicy Chicken and our legendary piri-piri fries, they got some extra piri-piri sachets to carry back home with them.
Finally reached Mumbai in a slow sluggish traffic but then easily dropped them at the metro with a booked ticket to town and had a sweet goodbye. I headed for a head massage and some chilling with friends.
Mumbai to Goa
Decided to start early-early morning at 5am and via South Bombay to experience some Mumbai driving and city, specifically the new coastal road, the marine drive and the to take the Atal Setu, even timed it to hit the bridge at sunrise.
That was the best single stretch of road on the entire trip. Wide, smooth, completely open without any traffic at all. Drove the car with complete freedom with the engine efficiently and strongly cruising along and responding to paddle shifts and accelerations. I was genuinely laughing and smiling. I really wish there was a way to actually see the sea from the bridge because I had timed the sunrise perfectly, but turned out it was covered on both sides. Once I crossed to the other side, I was instantly hit by dust, trucks and bad industrial roads, I think it was Panvel. The reality came back very fast there.
From there to Goa was the worst road experience of the whole trip. Long sections just completely dug up for expressway construction, the whole route was patchy and rough with smooth sections of completed bridges which lasted only 2-3km max and then back again to dusty construction side-roads. The suspension and I were both unhappy. I’m sure the car is not tuned for this kind of road and honestly, it didn’t pretend to be either. I felt every bad patch well.
Eventually hit the nicer roads, still under-construction but a little hilly and ghats around and FINALLY the reward was there, Goa. Quickly opened the sunroof open, rolled the windows down, slowed down the car and probably the first time on the whole trip I just breathed a breath of fresh air. Honestly, uptill Mumbai-Goa, felt like this blanket of pollution wouldn’t leave me. Imagine it extending from Delhi-Gurgaon uphill Daman, constantly hazy.
Goa to South Goa
The most memorable drive, a very short leg, driven with my best friend who met me in Goa. This was the best part of the trip, this was pure driving joy. Beautifully curvy ghat roads with many blind curves, full tree cover on both sides, very less traffic and no one else around. I think the car was open to its full potential here. I didn’t feel any gearshifts, they so smooth during all the deceleration and acceleration on the ghats. The steering finally got to show itself off too on the curves, I could steer this car with basically one finger. There was no body roll on curves, even turning them at a bit of speed. The car just stuck to the road through every curve and I never felt even slightly out of control. Taigun responded to each and every tiny input immaculately. Also, credit where it’s due, very very well paved roads with no-potholes, well marked divider with solid and dotted lines given at the right places.
Honestly, after Delhi, I had forgotten what it felt like to have un-hazy clean view and to have greenery around. This leg reminded me.
South Goa to Udupi
This drive was mostly 4 lane highway but well paved for almost the entire stretch. Curving ghats and highway roads, beautiful scenery, the car handling everything cleanly. By this point I had full trust in how the car moves and that trust made the drive genuinely relaxing even on the twisty bits.
This is also when I finally made peace with the seats, they aren't dramatically bolstered or sporty looking but they hold you in place on every curve and after 2000+ kms they had not given me a single ache, and I drive with a lower back-injury. This whole route was selected to do this coastal road it was worth taking the scenic route, as it always is. The whole drive was filled with bridges off which you could see rivers and backwaters on one side which had deep deep greenery on both sides of the river and other side, you could see the river become wider and wider and meet into the sea. One little stretch puts you right next to the sea and that is a drive I did 3 times, u-turning repeatedly. Reaching Udupi was easy, relaxed and rewarded with an epic dinner dosa meal, something I had been looking forward for a while on this road-trip to move to the great south.
Udupi to Bangalore
Left early from my overnight Udupi stay, checked out the Udupi beach, one of the cleanest beaches, the water was pristine blue and families and kids and couples were peacefully enjoying the city beach. Went for a great breakfast, suggested by the good folks on reddit and then hit the road for the final stretch. By this point I felt like I knew every corner of this car.
The Sakaleshpura stretch caught me completely off guard with its lush green forest, beautiful hill roads, tree canopies covering the road completely, it was all breathtakingly stunning, an absolute pleasure to drive here. But, this is also where the DSG showed its one honest limitation, on the hill climbs it seemed slightly confused, held first gear a touch too long, then shifted a beat late once it found momentum. The car also doesn’t have a hill descent control so the car rolls down the hills with a confused RPM. Not scary or anything but just not fully sorted for hills specifically. Don't get me wrong, it can still probably still take any hill or a mountain but may not be as smooth. (Saying this after experiencing driving a Honda Elevate for a 14-day Spiti trip from Delhi once which handled hills very well)
After the beautiful hills ended, hit the nice and fast highway where cars were being driven well, the road was smooth but had construction happening in some parts. Didn’t mind that too much though. Even saw a Padmini cruising with windows rolled down. Living in Delhi, you never end up seeing these classic beauties and I am counting old Honda Citys and Mitsubishis. Finally hit the NICE road on the outskirts of Bangalore, which I was confused by the naming of but finally in Bangalore. Finally reached my destination Kengeri, parked the car and felt like this is the first time I stopped in 10 days.
2823kms done at 14.2 km/L across the whole trip on XP95. Drove for the joy of it, not for mileage with a lot of accelerations, hitting limits, working the car through curves. The mileage held up fine given how I drove. I didn't feel tired, not even a little bit and all credit to the Taigun. I used to think that driving 4-6 hours was a lot. Now with this car, 10-12 hours feel like nothing. Happy to answer any questions about the trip or the car.
The best trip I have ever taken, yet. With many more to come. Captured this from the POV of the car and roads and some anecdotes of people I met. Hope you all enjoy it.
Happy to answer anything.
Final car screen stats:
| Leg | Distance | Mileage | Fuel |
|---|---|---|---|
| Delhi → Udaipur | 682 km | 14.3 kmpl | 18.51L @ ₹95.65 (start) → 47.97L @ ₹112.52 (Udaipur) |
| Udaipur → Daman | 579 km | 15.9 kmpl | 47.97L @ ₹112.52 |
| Daman → Mumbai | 176 km | 14.7 kmpl | 50.76L @ ₹111.33 |
| Mumbai → Goa | 560 km | 15.7 kmpl | — |
| Goa → Udupi | 247 km | 13.6 kmpl | 45.37L @ ₹103.43 |
| Udupi → Bangalore | 407 km | 13.2 kmpl | 33.69L @ ₹112.52 |