[abirnale]

Just thinking loud and I may be completely wrong -

A bright MBA kid joined for an internship. With some good oration skills and ability to impress, came up with a brilliant idea - hey, lets do W9 - that will keep the market guessing, consumers thinking something new is happening in XUV space. And it will keep the XUV in discussions while some steep competition is making good headway into this space. The boss says, brilliant! But we need to talk to our numerologist. The Oh Oh needs to be sorted out. Ugh.. ok so what next? Well, you see, the W9 is an odd number - breaks into the monotony of even number series. That break with W9 will break the series. And to balance the numerology - take off the W8 from list, Wait.. what? the balance is still not achieved? ok, what's more costly stuff? yes - take off those side and curtain airbags from W8.. err W9! Super - now we have a balance.

How I wish I am proved wrong... And to all W8 variant owners - your cars are legendary dinosaurs - extinct. Ask for more resale price!

Kudos to the M&M - They have disrupted the industry yet again - W10 is the only variant that is really loaded. Oh and for the 170 bhp - thanks to all new launches - XUV still is value for money - so until someone really eats into our sales, we don't bother with 170bhp version! Hurts to see M&M going down on safety norms on versions W9 (erstwhile W8) :(

[abhishek46]

To be frank, Mahindra is just dishing out what the 'majority' market wants.
Majority of the road users do not use seat belts, at the back. An airbag is useless in that scenario.
As an example, given a choice between Alloy Wheels + Touchscreen Navigation and 6 Airbags, I am sure the majority will go for the Alloys & Touch A/V.
The 'safety' mindset, is just not there in our 'indian' minds.

[nd4$pd]

Extremely disappointed to see M&M drop the side and curtain airbags from the (now) 2nd from top variant. I typically buy cars that are the safest variant at the least price (which happened to be the W8 when I bought my XUV). Now, folks who prioritize safety will have no option but to pony up for the W10.

[VEA]

Did the W8 come with leather seats? If yes, it has been omitted in W9. So are the puddle lamps.

[Caesar]

I know it is "comparing apples and oranges", and "different class of vehicle addressing different needs altogether", but W9 being more than 2 lakh cheaper than Compass Longitude O; what does one get there?
1. Smaller city footprint
2. Marginally better mileage
3. Better tuned engine
4. 1 seat less - 4 vs 5; other two being folded to put luggage
5. Better build quality and more contemporary looks, in and out
6. More fun to drive
7. Potential issues with maintainability - smaller service network

Is a car the toughest thing to shop for? Good this is the only thing most guys fancy shopping for.

[viraj_s85]

As a long term owner of 1st Gen XUV 5oo (W8) I feel M&M should now focus on redesigning the model all together rather than fiddle around with adding variants.

The Key areas which M&M has to address for XUV 5oo,

1. Get usable luggage space with all 3 seat rows in use (Will be a Huge Plus if 3rd row can recline like that of Crysta )
2. Cant expect same performance as Body on Frame but improve overall Suspension (Maybe use Rally Setup )
3. Maybe move-over from Butch styling to subtle one (Huge Maybe)
4. Provide Interior customization options

Personally I feel rest of the car (minus above points) is quite reasonable.

[a4anurag]

Originally Posted by viraj_s85

The Key areas which M&M has to address for XUV 5oo.

I'll say provide customers with the interiors having better fit and finish.

Materials used in the car be of good quality read plastics.

[RavenAvi]

I think this move by Mahindra has more to do with placing a fairly-loaded XUV500 variant against the Jeep Compass Sport.

The pricing of Rs 15.45 lakhs (same as the Compass Sport diesel, ex-showroom Delhi, when launched) can't be a coincidence.

Now, after the increased cess implementation, the Compass Sport diesel's price has gone up to Rs 15.99 lakhs, so the W9 at Rs 15.45 lakhs would seem like a superb VFM option against it.

Of course, they could have at least offered 4 airbags to make it a bit more complete.

[desiaztec]

Originally Posted by a4anurag

BMW already has the similar nomenclature so not sure if Mahindra would use 'X' instead of 'W'.

Just that BMW goes the odd number way (X1, X3, X5) and Mahindra the even number way (W4, W6, W10).

OT, but BMW has an even in X6 too :-)

[supertinu]

Originally Posted by VEA

Did the W8 come with leather seats? If yes, it has been omitted in W9. So are the puddle lamps.

Yes atleast the prev gen XUV did have leather seats and puddle lamps all around with W8. Same was the case with newer W8 I believe.

As discussed by others, this move seems to be putting a model directly comparing against Compass.

[GTO]

Originally Posted by viraj_s85

As a long term owner of 1st Gen XUV 5oo (W8) I feel M&M should now focus on redesigning the model all together rather than fiddle around with adding variants.

Our homegrown car manufacturers indulge in long product lifecycles. Look at the Scorpio (16 years), Bolero (based on a decades old UV), Thar (put together from decades old parts) etc.

This is unlike Japanese car manufacturers & Hyundai who launch new generations every 5 - 6 years. It's a mixed bag with the Europeans. Some are fast, others are slow (e.g. the current VW Polo has been around forever).

[PrideRed]

Originally Posted by GTO

This is unlike Japanese car manufacturers & Hyundai who launch new generations every 5 - 6 years. It's a mixed bag with the Europeans. Some are fast, others are slow (e.g. the current VW Polo has been around forever).

Toyota is an exception here. Barring Corolla most of their cars have had long shelf life. Etios is 7 years old, Innova ran for almost 12 years and so did Fortuner. In general I see SUV's enjoy longer shelf life as compared to Sedan's.

[maddy42]

Originally Posted by GTO

Our homegrown car manufacturers indulge in long product lifecycles. Look at the Scorpio (16 years), Bolero (based on a decades old UV), Thar (put together from decades old parts) etc.

This is unlike Japanese car manufacturers & Hyundai who launch new generations every 5 - 6 years. It's a mixed bag with the Europeans. Some are fast, others are slow (e.g. the current VW Polo has been around forever).

Could it be because of the market size domestic manufacturers like M&M operate in? Product development costs are high and as sales are predominantly in the Indian domestic market, the ROI may be the factor in these decisions? It's annoying to see the domestic manufacturers sometimes play catch up. We have a old Bolero and it takes forever to get parts! The power windows and AC were issues for a really long time and took multiple visits to the dealerships to get this sorted. Just launching new versions and inability to support them makes us not want to touch M&M for our next buy.

Safety is a joke when you consider that the Thar will miserably fail any tests for safety. It doesn't even have airbags. This is across all manufacturers as even Toyota offers drum brakes in their Fortuner!

Maddy

[himanshugoswami]

Epic Fail by Mahindra and IMHO a regressive step. Im so gald I got m W8 in March this year and now that version will be an instant classic since the W8 is by far the best value variant of the XUV.

[jayeshnd]

I still think that it is printing mistake on the brochure or website. How do I digest higher variant having less safety??