Took my Altis 1.6 to highway today and drove some good 40 KMs. I was driving at around 120-130 KMs/hr speed when I was honked from behind to give side to overtake. I gave the car side to overtake, and it was a GLI auto driving at about 140 KMs/hr speed with simple ease. Since, my Altis 1.6 has merely run 200 KMs so far, so don't prefer flooring it to high speeds, but when the road became clear, I pushed the throttle down a bit to test the acceleration power of 1.6 cc 1 ZR-FE engine, and was well able to overtake GLI auto with quite ease at around 140-150 KMs/hr but since engine was new, so I avoided flooring it at high speeds.
Moral: The purpose of writing this excerpt is to testify that GLI auto is certainly not an underpowered car. It may be sluggish while leaving the mark, but can achieve commendable acceleration with ease, notwithstanding the old 1.3 cc engine being used in it.