
Originally Posted by
rsnald
teka...makasabat nga dito. medyo nadedehado crosswind owners.
my comment for the crosswind will be based mainly on my 196,000+km experience in driving my unit w/c i got back in 2001 (an xto).
I have logged my fuel consumption from day 1 up to now... call me a data control freak.. but I did and still do, and so far, in its whole lifetime, i have averaged 12.56 km/liter combined highway/city driving and i often push my unit to 100-120kph if traffic will allow me. So as to its fuel efficiency, no question about it. the highest i got for a two day travel was about 16km/liter, 2 passengers, going up and down baguio, di naubos yung full tank ko from manila-to-baguio-backto-manila.
as for its tendency to belch black smoke, yes it does have a tendency to belch black smoke specially if you don't pay careful attention to having the air filter and the fuel filter replaced regularly. cleaning and purging the exhaust manifold w/ water also helps. but mainly, these two filters have a lot to do w/ the crosswind's tendency to have black smoke. using biodiesel added to your fuel tank at 0.5% to 1% dramatically reduces the black smoke and surprisingly makes the engine run more smoothly and run w/ slightly more torque and power. this effect of biodiesel is well known among biodiesel afficionados. before anyone contests my claim, please do a search on my posts regarding biodiesel. i've been using it since 2003. my emission test records proves that with proper care, the crosswind (and perhaps any diesel engine for that matter) will not belch that much black smoke - my emission tests from 2001 to 2006 was below 1.0. For 2007, i experimented on not changing the air and fuel filter and did not change oil. I got a 1.5 average... still passing, but definitely not as good as the 0.65 average I got the previous year.
lastly, if you're comparing innova and adventure to crosswind, well, i agree innova has an edge in terms of refinement, having a more powerful crdi engine..but then again...i'd bet in the long run, the simple mechanical mechanism of the direct inject 4ja1 engine will be easier to maintain and fix. this engine can practically last a lifetime if it is properly maintained and parts will not run out (well any engine will, i suppose). but i beg to disagree if you say that an adventure is better... engine wise or offroading wise.
as to its semi-offroad capability... to those familiar w/ that dirt road mountain pass traversing san mateo, rizal going to marikina, i took my xto thru that road and it so happened that it rained the previous night. i was lucky the road was kinda downhill but my crosswind made it through... either by sheer luck or (i hate to claim) by gutsy driving.
my 2 cents..