[.anshuman]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

Just add a small plastic low hanging guard under the bumper. GC is lowest point. So 170mm will be breached, and this plastic is anyways useless so even if it hits or breaks who cares.

Exactly this is what Mahindra seems to have done to XUV-500. According to report in Times of India, Mahindra is planning to launch a modified version of the XUV-500 which will come with a lower 160mm Ground Clearance compared to 200mm of the existing car, to get it out of SUV classification in Goverment of India's new taxation norm.

Full Report here: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/b...w/20962676.cms

[SDP]

Originally Posted by MaxTorque

Finally it's official, a slightly cheaper variant of XUV500 is coming. Mahindra has reduced the ground clearance of the vehicle by 30mm (200mm to 170mm) to avoid additional 3% tax. Nice strategy to deal with funny rules.

The full report is here.

This is interesting! Thanks for sharing!
What are they calling this one? "XUV5OO - Sedan class"?

Isn't it interesting that while other manufacturers are raising the height of existing hatch/sedan platforms, beefing up the look a few notches and then selling them as SUVs, M&M is taking the exact opposite direction? Talk about illogical govt. polices giving birth to even more illogical counter measures from the manufacturers.

[pranjal1984]

Which means the ground clearance of xuv500 will be exactly equal to that of good old maruti 800. I wonder what kind of offroading Mahindra wants us to do. It has now the tag of the suv with the lowest ground clearance. All of a sudden ecosport and duster look more butch and off road capable.

[rajeev k]

A ground clearance of 160 mm for XUV 5OO? Leave alone off-roading, it is going to be tough on the roads itself. A cruelty to all of the so many innocuous looking bumps we find everywhere everyday. Even the alto has 170 mm GC.
Or is it a ploy to hood wink the law. M&M would perhaps, offer an after market GC improvement kit to make it worthy again.

[.anshuman]

Originally Posted by pranjal1984

Which means the ground clearance of xuv500 will be exactly equal to that of good old maruti 800. I wonder what kind of offroading Mahindra wants us to do. It has now the tag of the suv with the lowest ground clearance. All of a sudden ecosport and duster look more butch and off road capable.

Ground clearance is just a paper specification, the claimed specification does not necessarily convey the right picture. Just look at the GC of Mahindra Scorpio, you'll know what i am talking about.

The manufacturers have lots of scope to Under-value or Over-Value it to serve their interests, without making any major changes to the car. For example the lowest part in XUV's underbody is the Plastic engine guard, which sits at some (IIRC)~165mm, this part does not hamper the ground clearance as the bumper is angled to help with approach angle and even hitting it won't damage the underbody as the sump and gearbox are located few inches higher. I do not know the actual definition, of what really is counted as a part of GC, but if some useless part is fabricated for purpose to get the GC spec down few notches, it will serve the intended purpose without hampering the real world usage. And it would be even better if the part can be removed/modified easily.

Let's wait to get complete information regarding the changes made to the car, and to what extent does it really hamper real world usage(if it does).


I own a XUV-500 AWD, my car goes into the rough frequently. I know my car well, even with that plastic guard hanging low at 165mm i easily managed to cross some of the toughest of sections in Changthang and Zanskar regions of Ladakh, without scraping or any kind of damage.



I intend to say that even if the paper spec might say 160mm, that may look lower than even a Honda Civic(170mm??), but in real world it may not mean anything(if the changes are what we are guessing here). Even the comparisons it may attract will not give the correct picture.

[pranjal1984]

Anshuman I appreciate your detailed perspective on the ground clearance. But don't you think that many potential buyers will change their decision after seeing the ground clearance specification on the manual? Majority of the buyers nowadays see the specs so my point is it wont be tough for them to focus on that low ground clearance point of the xuv and use it as an excuse to move to other products.

[dhanushmenon]

About a month back, I had seen an article which says a cheaper variant of XUV 500 will be out somewhere in October.
This was a six seater!! Yes, six seater. I do not know how they are going to manage that! Probably, three in front and three in the second row. Also heard that the gear knob position is being re worked to accomodate three in the front row. This vehicle would be sub 4m in length and would be called XUV 300.

Looks like Mahindra is trying to do a Quanto with the XUV too

[rajshenoy]

A stupid rule by Govt and M&M trying to tackle the same. 160mm GC on XUV500 defeats the purpose of buying the car itself !!

When our roads are not so great, i think we should instead put extra tax on vehicles having low GC.

Anyway, I am hoping M&M does not play with suspension and only adds some accessories to make the GC appear low. We can then get rid of it .

Any idea on launch date of W4 ? and these updated XUV models ?

[.anshuman]

Originally Posted by dhanushmenon

About a month back, I had seen an article which says a cheaper variant of XUV 500 will be out somewhere in October.
This was a six seater!! Yes, six seater. I do not know how they are going to manage that! Probably, three in front and three in the second row. Also heard that the gear knob position is being re worked to accomodate three in the front row. This vehicle would be sub 4m in length and would be called XUV 300.

Looks like Mahindra is trying to do a Quanto with the XUV too

FYI, Mahindra's S101 Monocoque(also speculated as XUV-300) is not a chopped version of XUV-500. It's an all new Duster/Ecosport sized vehicle under development. It has nothing to do with modified XUV-500 with decreased ground clearance.

Please read the entire discussion here: http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian...v-spotted.html

[volkman10]

Mahindra XUV500′s ground clearance lowered; Now costs INR 33,000 less.

That’s a whopping 40mm of lost ground clearance, especially for an SUV. As a result, Mahindra has fitted a ‘stone guard’ which will protect the engine underside in uneven roads.

http://indianautosblog.com/2013/07/m...-reduced-85864

[Heavy Horse]

Well M&M have done it. Lowered the ground clearance to 160 mm. Personally I don't agree to this change since this entails a saving of around Rs 30K. For a Rs 16-17 lakh car that amount is peanuts. I know Mudhalaipatti spent that amount just on cleaning materials for his XUV !! Poor judgement from M&M in reducing a major defining characteristic of an SUV.

Source : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/b.../20962676.cms?

[.anshuman]

Originally Posted by pranjal1984

Anshuman I appreciate your detailed perspective on the ground clearance. But don't you think that many potential buyers will change their decision after seeing the ground clearance specification on the manual? Majority of the buyers nowadays see the specs so my point is it wont be tough for them to focus on that low ground clearance point of the xuv and use it as an excuse to move to other products.

Let's leave this part for Mahindra to decide, none of us understand the target market better than Mahindra. If they think the cheaper price will be more attractive to buyers than the GC specification, there must be reason behind it. We Petrolheads cannot really do anything if the masses are ignorant, let's leave all this to the sales staff at dealerships .

To us, the end users and the well informed BHPians, what matters really is the concern whether the changes will effect real world usability. My post is to clarify what this really means.

[slicvic]

I guess this stone guard can be removed in 15 mins in the wrokshop, and so after registration every one will have the original XUV ground clearance back and escape paying a higher price.
The next budget might have stricter norms and develop a proper classification. Till then its going to be all manufacturers decreasing the ground clearance.

[rkg]

It appears GC definition is distance between road and lowest metal part in the body of the car. Please correct me if iam wrong.

Earlier XUV had a plastic engine guard ( stone guard). Hence GC was calculated between lowest metal part and ground , and it was 200mm

I think now they might have changed this guard to a metal one, automatically GC gets lowered.

If it is that easy to change GC without affecting the driving dynamics, why not Scorpio and Xylo. These have 180mm GC as against 200mm of XUV. It would have been lot easier to reduce 180 mm to 160 mm rather than 200mm to 160mm.

[urajkumar]

It really is sad that M&M is forced to do such things since the govt policies are unfair to them. I dont see any reason for vehicles with high GC (considering the way govt maintains the road) to be taxed extra. If they wanted to conserve fuel efficiency, they should just tax basis the ARAI ratings which would help in the longer run instead of coming up with silly policies like this.

At least they should have given them a couple of years notification to work on something instead of suddenly implementing the law with immediate effect.

From a SUV, it will now become the illegitimate ugly child of the Wagor-R & Sx4 couple.