[roby_dk]

Originally Posted by swami69

Why people call XUV as a butch vehicle and having a sporty stance ? is because, they have compacted the length and loss of boot space, else, this car will also look like Innova or HEXA and we will call it "Van" looking. So, this way or that way and each one has the preference.

I beg to differ on the above point.

Length of SUV's which possess the same butch looks or having even better street presence than XUV are tad longer.

Endeavour : 4892 mm
Fortuner : 4795 mm
Pajero : 4695 mm
XUV : 4585 mm

Hexa and Innova design is totally different than XUV they actually possess the van kinda looks, even if we make them short they will be looking like Ertiga. I don't see any impact in increasing the length of XUV rather it will add on the VFM factor as most of the owners have complains on the boot space.

[swami69]

Originally Posted by roby_dk

I beg to differ on the above point.

Length of SUV's which possess the same butch looks or having even better street presence than XUV are tad longer.

Endeavour : 4892 mm
Fortuner : 4795 mm
Pajero : 4695 mm
XUV : 4585 mm

.

If XUV matches Fortuner & Endeavour in dimensions, GC etc., to retain the butch looks, also space for the boot & with all the features, then either XUV will be priced at 30L + or both Fortuner and Endeavour wil be out of market at current XUV prices + everything above.

The Dimensions, presense and all other factors are relative to the price bracket they are in and that was my point.

Swami

[nitinralli]

For people in Delhi, prices are out. Infact all states now.

[manishk123]

They're still continuing with the stupid cheetah claw door handles. Look really silly.

[JediKnight]

Mahindra mentions that they have reworked the suspension. It will be very interesting to see if the low speed ride has improved. This something i find very annoying in the current XUV. Also this is a key strong point of its direct competitor: Tata Hexa.

[Guna]

Originally Posted by abhi7013

Its impossible to offer real leather to a car at this price point. And you also wouldn't want to have real leather in your car! You cannot stand the smell, heat and costs a bomb to maintain.
Just wondering if there are cars at all that offer real leather.

That is true. It could be soft-touch leather like material (Face lift Outlander came with one). But in high end cars, it must be leather. Question is, why try such gimmick (fake stitches) in the first place?

[Mad Max]

Originally Posted by Guna

That is true. It could be soft-touch leather like material (Face lift Outlander came with one). But in high end cars, it must be leather. Question is, why try such gimmick (fake stitches) in the first place?

Would you like the seven different types of plastic on the dashboard or this? At this price point, I am glad they finally sorted out the plastics where possible.

Overall the XUV remains a terrific bargain for what it offers.

[TORQUE_AANJANEY]

Today I took a test drive of the new W11 Automatic at Sireesh Auto near Silk Board Bangalore. I have a 2014 W6 (purchased from the same showroom) and though I have at most couple of times driven the 2015 facelift, I have never driven it enough or engagingly to actually notice differences. Mind you most customers of 1st gen would naturally skip the 1st facelift and start paying attention post the 2nd facelift (if at all their experience hasn’t been bad with MASS or the car itself). So my observations would be strictly between the 1st gen and the 3rd gen XUV.

Here are my observations. (I was too distracted by the horrible traffic building up near Silk Board so missed taking pictures of most of my observations. I plan to take another test drive next week at my place so would probably fill the blanks in the current observations then).

1.) Exterior – Much has been said and will keep it short. The rear looks much better IMHO vs my XUV. That unnecessary bulge around the number plate was silly. The rear looks much refined now and it looks better on darker shades. In fact the XUV in general due to all the bling (chrome accents) looks better in darker shades. The chrome strips on the sides will be subjected to the infamous stone shipping on XUV and will soon look dated. Not a good choice of placement I think. The front chrome is not metal but rather fiber cover molded in chrome (as per the accessories manager in the showroom).

2.) Interior ambience and fit & finish – I’m one of those few who loved the original red ambient lighting on the cheetah vs the new cool blue. It’s a very unpleasing shade of sky blue rather than like a royal blue shade. I also think M&M should have never changed the dials from red lighting and white dials to all blue since the last 2 generations. So while that was disappointing I felt the plastics on the dashboard (yes the leather sticking on top of the dashboard has a plastic underneath) and on the central console to be a little more rigid. I think the one on mine they are soft touch but squeak and depress when pressed hard. The new one doesn’t have anything like that. However the plastic quality of the armrest and the cup holders along with the space for the parking brake hasn’t improved. M&M missed attention to detail here.

3.) Seats – A lot is talked about the new seats. They are good with the right amount of firmness however the quilting on the seats is a bit more deep to the liking and hence is a bit uneasy when you first get on the seats. It’s not uncomfortable at all but just something you would expect brushing against your back at first.

4.) Infotainment – Quite a few party tricks but overall gimmicks. They should have focused on making the infotainment look more polished and more fluid to use. My comparisons here are with Hyundai’s unit on i10 / i20 or the Ford’s SYNC3 on EcoSport / Endeavor and now even the small Freestyle. I just didn’t like the fonts, smoothness and also the fact that they used a black background for the infotainment especially when they have a below competition level brightness of the infotainment system. Rear camera in broad daylight was clear and guidelines worked fine. Couldn’t check performance in darker ambience. There is a millisecond lag as you slot in reverse vs the rear camera view to show up. Nothing discerning.

5.) Audio Output – The car’s Android Auto wasn’t registered by Mahindra with Google hence couldn’t be used. I used Bluetooth to connect with my phone (Pixel 2 XL). The sales person was too enthusiastic for me to give a verdict on the sound quality. I spend good 5-6 mins to tune the sound settings. I found no preloaded equalizers gave me a satisfactory feel. Rock, Jazz and others felt like over empowering bass and mids and highs were nonexistent. Not to forget the doors started to rattle with that unbalanced overdose of base at higher volumes. It just felt the speakers and equalizers weren’t calibrated. After a few song and few mins of listening thought best of going back to “Flat” or “Normal”. Increased the Bass to 7 (range 10 to -10), Mid to 4 (range 10 to -10) and treble at 4 (range 10 to -10). I also think the new age XUVs have lesser volume steps vs the first gen W6. I think if previous gen had 30-40 steps the new age has 20-25 steps of volume adjustments. Naturally the volume seems loud relative to the range. The increments are larger vs my model but the old one is no slouch. The software tweaking from Arkamys has only given it a heavier bass which is not balanced and seems like an overdose for the speakers and they start to rattle. After the test drive I made the sales person listen to the audio on my W6 and he wouldn’t agree that I haven’t upgraded the speakers.
(My settings on my old W6  EQ – “Rock” | Bass – 8 | Treble – 4 | Mahindra Modes – “Off” | AVC – “High”. I feel the sound quality is best on Bluetooth with my phone vs AUX & USB which defies logic but it’s true. I have stopped using AUX and USB since I figured that out on my W6).

6.) Ride & Handling and NVH – All 3 have improved significantly vs my 2014 model. How much has it improved over the 2015 facelift is something I can’t comment upon. But I felt the car damn stable. Suspension now works a lot more quietly and side to side movement (the famous rolling of the XUV) while not gone is considerably in check. NVH levels are impressive with some extra dampening done in the car but the engine in the AT is too noisy between 10kmph till about 50kmph till when there is a lot of noise but not a lot of progress, regardless of whether you drive with a heavy foot or light foot. Handling is tight as ever but I was less impressed with the steering. It felt way too light to my liking for a car of this size. On my 2014 model the weight is just perfect. My W6 steering is light to maneuver (vs that of Hexa) but heavy enough to remind you that you should be careful of the size and the high CG. I hope since the 1st gen M&M hasn’t moved from hydraulic units to EPS units. The steering lacked a bit of feel and weight and though lighter in city traffic it was a bit nervy while doing triple digits on the Electronic City flyover. However the car was glued to the road and the 18” rims actually felt better than my 17” on ride comfort. I think the 17” on lower models may be even better. If I would rate Hexa’s ride quality at 100 on mostly plain roads and mildly broken tarmac, the new age XUV should be right there not below 97-98. That’s how much the gap has been closed. Loved that about the new age XUV. I also felt the braking feedback was much better and there was no slack in the pedal and then a sudden bite anymore. It’s linear and progressive as it should have had been always. The tires also have lesser road noise and better grip than my stock Bridgestones on the W6.

7.) The new motor – Since I didn’t test drive the manual but rather the AT, it’s not a fair comparison between the W11 AT and my manual W6. However the acceleration with the foot to the metal could easily suggest this is a slightly punchier engine and with power served at even slightly lower RPMs. The mHawk 140 is still a hoot and you often wonder if this is a naturally aspirated or a turbo charged unit. That feel has further improved with the new XUV. The only fly in the ointment is the AT between approx. 15kmph till about 50kmph, where the gears are held longer than they should have had and that affects 0-100kmph timings. Basically if you are at 30-40 and need a sudden surge of power to overtake a small gap in traffic, the AT won’t oblige most of the times. You can either slot it to manual, but that button based manual is – “yuck!”. Yes it kicks down a gear as soon as you slot it to manual and doesn’t upshift automatically as the RPM redlines but it’s a horrible implementation by M&M. The fact that they have pasted it on the new Rexton (XUV700), makes it very less desirable for me vs. what it was until yesterday. But otherwise the AT is tuned for spirited driving and shouldn’t disappoint as soon as you hit 50kmph.

I noticed a few small things that I hate on the new XUV vs my old model. Things M&M should have best left alone. Why fix something that ain’t broken?

1.) Removal of air volume control on B pillars for 2nd row seat occupants

2.) The mute button now actually just mutes the sound but doesn’t pause music playing on your phone. So once I unmuted the audio I was surprised to find my phone was playing songs all this while in the background. You need to pause now using the infotainment screen, taking your eyes off the road. Yes they moved to the function in the literal sense as per how the button is mentioned but even if the earlier was an error, it was a welcome one. It was more useful than the current implementation.

3.) The light intensity switch next to the headlamp leveler and fuel tank lid opener now only controls the brightness of the ambient lighting (lights next to front seat reading lamps, door handles, etc). Gone are the days they used to control the brightness of the dials and the cluster and the infotainment screen. It was a true bummer. The fixed brightness with headlamps off and slightly decreased brightness when headlamps are on are now the only 2 levels of brightness available. Why Mahindra?

I also plan to take another test drive of the XUV at my place which has big potholes and hill like speed bumps in nearby roads (courtesy water tankers ploughing all day long through that stretch) to test the ride quality on really bad roads vs just mildly broken tarmac. The Hexa in its test drive on that stretch passed with distinction and the Endeavor 3.2 just destroyed everything in competition at same, lower or higher price bracket than itself. Let’s see how the new XUV scores.

I short I liked the new XUV for more reasons than I hated it. I’m still not convinced to confine myself to the same cockpit for another 4-5 years. Also I still need to take another test drive on broken potholed roads to see how it rides. Otherwise it’s a fantastic new value proposition for anyone planning to buy one. XUV 1st and 2nd gen owners might just wait till next year for the new Tata H7X and see how the new Land Rover Discovery platform fares. I’m thinking as well to wait out another year to see how that fares and also get long term reviews of this new plush XUV.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by TORQUE_AANJANEY

The software tweaking from Arkamys has only given it a heavier bass which is not balanced and seems like an overdose for the speakers and they start to rattle.

Arkamys software would have been used to improve the sound stage, rather than the actual sound. If you felt the audio playing higher (dashboard level) rather than down below from near the foot speakers - then that is Arkamys in action.

[abhi7013]

Finally got the time to test drive the XUV this weekend along with my uncle who has booked the W11 manual. My findings are relative to the car i own: Hexa. So let me put down my observations in points:-

1: Looks:The front of the SUV appealed to me much more than the older version. However, the rear is a real eye-sore. I don't know why Mahindra did not include LED tail lamps in the cluster while, as another member mentioned, the scorpio has it. Really love the way Hexa looks in low light with the flowing LED cluster.
Both SUVs now look mature with the XUV loosing its menacing stance. Could be good or bad but for me, its a welcome change.

2. Engine: this is one serious thing that has it going for XUV. Its a real peppy car to drive around and i love the response time of the engine, unlike the one on Hexa. I did extensively test drive the older gen XUV while finalising on the Hexa last year. The NVH in this model is very much improved but the road noise is a bit observable. In the Hexa, things are really quiet in the cabin until the engine crosses 2.5k rpm. Zero road noise till atleast 90 to 100 kmph!

3. Seats: No arguments, i love the ones in my car. They are firm and really are a boon for long drives. The armrest is at the perfect position for me during highway runs and i can simply relax and sit back. In the XUV, i found the seats rather soft to my liking. No comments on the second row comfort as i could not examine it in detail. I prefer not to comment on the third row! We all know how it is!

4. Features: loads and loads of it in the XUV! I love the smart watch concept and the touch screen interface. TATA really missed it when it comes to the infotainment. The screen is puny for such a huge vehicle. I loved the interface provided on the XUV.
BUT, and a huuuge but: i really expected good audio quality after looking at the banners of the new XUV. The "virtual woofer" is actually a joke. I could be spoilt by the audio quality in Hexa, but then, it seriously is not at all impressive in the XUV.

5. Drive: the suspensions have improved marginally and given the new state of tune of the engine, you do tend to go fast to enjoy it. As a result, the ride seems bumpy on broken roads. Speed breakers which i cross without sweat in the Hexa are very much noticeable in the XUV. Mahindra is not yet there when it comes to comfort. But it definitely is the better car when it comes to handling and braking. You will really enjoy driving the XUV in city:, overtaking is a breeze!

Conclusion: We did decide to book the XUV manual for my uncle, the important factors being new looks, features, factory fit sunroof and the key less entry. As i say all the time, its a feature driven market.
For someone who values features more and is particular about buying a car that LOOKS more SUVish, then look no further. The engine is good and so are the features associated.

As for me, am definitely more satisfied having bought the Hexa for its sheer comfort and ride, better quality seats and interiors and stable highway performance. Audio is unbeatable despite the small infotainment (which few folks prefer that way surprisingly) and the cabin is a far better place to be in! If i were to buy a car today, it still would be the Hexa no doubt!

Having said this, its really amazing to benefit as an Indian customer, when desi brands compete neck to neck and come out with one blockbuster of a product after another! I just wish we set a new standard for the global automotive industry and pioneer the future advances in technology ever driven by mutual competitiveness!

[abhi7013]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

Arkamys software would have been used to improve the sound stage, rather than the actual sound. If you felt the audio playing higher (dashboard level) rather than down below from near the foot speakers - then that is Arkamys in action.

I thought that was due to the relocated tweeters in the front A pillar rather than on the dashboard.

[Surprise]

Spy shot images of XUV didn't impressed me, but looking in person is completely different and looks very good. Dashboard is much better & seats are comfortable than the outgoing version (infact the one before which I own). Was told they have made some changes in air intake and larger turbo has been in place for the new tune. Alloys on top end variant looks nice. Waiting to see the red colored in flesh.

[m_upreti]

Originally Posted by Surprise

Spy shot images of XUV didn't impressed me, but looking in person is completely different and looks

Caught a glance at T2 Mumbai Airport. The front looks much better than the previous versions, the rear however was much better in the outgoing versions. The interiors are much more premium. Pricewise and lookwise XUV still remains the best in class.

[GKR9900]

Motoroids road review is out. That red color looks wicked. Wonder how it looks in person!

https://youtu.be/fLTvCKrOjj4

[SDP]

Originally Posted by GKR9900

Motoroids road review is out. That red color looks wicked. Wonder how it looks in person!

...

He mentioned "Twin exhausts" and "TPMS display" as new additions!