[anjan_c2007]

They have received 70,000 bookings and the waiting list will last for about 12 months* making the waiting time test patience of many buyers. Though each prospective owner has paid a pittance of Rs 25,000 as booking amount in this uncertain market, an assurance from all the 70,000 persons to buy the SUV when their turn comes is very soothing and a secure proposition for the automaker to continue deliveries.

Now if there are one or more gremlins in the newly launched product that remain unresolved, within no time their will be a spate of cancellations and exits from the waiting list. We have seen this happening for the LML Vespa XE, Bajaj m50 and also the Fiat Uno that gave their once euphoric manufacturers, nightmares. The social media was non existent and it was only the power of the print media, innuendos, jive talking, coffee breaks and word of mouth that all spread the news rapidly that these automobiles have such and such defects and their bookings need to be cancelled.

Hence, this replacement of the XUV 700 is a marketing surgical strike by M&M as its aware of its new launch gremlins that the manufacturer gets perfected but only with the passage of years.

Mahindra XUV700 has clocked a massive 70,000 bookings so far this festive season, making it one of the top grossers among the newly-launched cars in India. Mahindra has already started delivering the new flagship SUV to its customers. According to the carmaker, at least 700 XUV700 SUVs have been delivered before Diwali.

Link
https://auto.hindustantimes.com/auto...996594081.html

*subject to risks that include production slow downs due to the then prevailing pandemic conditions.

[Ironhide]

Customer centric attitude sure, but by replacing the car, the company may have moved proactively to avoid bad publicity, and letting the world know of the gremlins in the new technology that they have put in in the car.

In an ever connected age where news spreads faster than wildfire on social media, any form of bad publicity would have meant disaster to the reputation of XUV 700. Maybe Mahindra didn't see it as good publicity - something that highlighted the chink in their armour, and hence the alacrity? I won't be surprised if that video, that was posted in the first post by OP and has been taken down now, goes missing from Social Media / YouTube too.

In addition, failure of a critical safety system like ADAS, supposedly the first of its kind in a car of its category, can lead to catastrophic outcomes on the highway. In any other country a failure resulting in accident(s) would have been reason enough for possibly an investigation by the concerned government department and maybe a lawsuit, with a hefty payout. But I don't recall any such investigations happening here. And thankfully it's not come to that. The so called "proactive approach" and "alacrity" may be a commendable but necessary step in preventing just such an outcome. I will not be surprised if we see quiet recalls for XUV 700 happening in the next few months for all or some of the cars that have been sold until now.

For owners who have already bought their XUV 700s, this thread would be one to watch out for.

Cheers !

[octane_100]

It's commendable that Mahindra moved in quickly and replaced the vehicle. Even premium brands have had their fair share of issues when they introduced newer more complex systems. All organizations go through a steep learning curve. Let's not jump the gun and demonize Mahindra.

[Maverick Avi]

I see customer centricity in the way a company treats majority of its customers. Having replace a car for one customer who has been haggling around and creating bad publicity can just be one way to save your face. I absolutely abhor high tech gadgetry in today's cars and try to only buy models with basic required features. No points in guessing that Maruti has been my chosen brand as they simply lag behind in features.

[veyron_head]

Great move by Mahindra even if I do agree this could be more of a face saver than a gesture of magnanimity.

One may-be-naive and little off topic question. If he drove the car home it means the car was already registered in his name (considering that driving with temp numbers are increasingly rare)? How does Mahindra replace the car with a new one then? If they gave him a new car with a new number plate, the old one will be scrapped or would it be sold to some unsuspecting customer a pre-owned car?

[gururajrv]

While this is a positive news for sure, I really am happy about dealership & Mahindra acting towards the interests of the customers. However, they’ve taken steps to ensure their XUV7OO didn’t get into the bad PR books where customer would make the car a garbage collecting machine / vegetable cart

A good damage control measure! However, the grave concern is about ADAS reliability. I really hope the system doesn’t act up and cause more grave issues on road while the car is in use! More tech, more complexity, less skilled staff will complicate things for customers.

Mahindra can use the car they’ve dismantled to analyse the problem back at the plant and ensure their ADAS systems are working as expected. I hope they reveal the issue that’s plagued the ADAS system on the car (plus & minus for their PR for sure)

[naikameya]

It seems like it was a PR damage control move. I don't think any electronic malfunction needs car replacement. Only mechanical and structural flaws would necessitate such a move.
If they had not resolved the issue, it would have created a lot of bad PR. Also, chances are getting the part would have taken a lot of time and produced one giantly unhappy customer.

This move allowed them to resolve the issue with INR 15-20lakh and create positive PR, which has been a major missing point about safer & better products from Indian companies.

[Naztone]

While it may be a case of good marketing /preemptive strike wrt bad publicity

At the end of the day-a customer had his car replaced when he faced a problem - that is the Crux of the matter - how many manufacturers in India : Indian or otherwise would bother

Extremely rare - hence kudos to Mahindra

[dust-n-bones]

This is certainly excellent news for prospective buyers as also raising the customer service bar in the entire industry.

What this definitely points at though is a quality certification hole in the assembly line. If a customer can so quickly figure out an ADAS malfunction, it should certainly have been spotted and fixed in the factory itself.

QA has been the bane of Indian manufacturers for a long time, and the job only got harder with a substantially more complicated product.

Mahindra certainly has a job on their hands which can make or break the product.

[pradeep_mvpa]

Originally Posted by Engine_Roars

Mahindra has just tried to save their face by replacing the car, they did not want this to be one of the first impressions of their showstopper product.

Such issues on a brand new car is surely worrying. But Mahindra's response to the situation is confidence inspiring for a potential customer. At least we did not see responses like "We will replace it with a high quality fuel pump"!

[Tony2298]

First of all it’s very nice of Mahindra and definitely it goes a long way in customer satisfaction but I think more than customer satisfaction Mahindra took this step as they are interested in finding out the exact problem and reporting to the vendor of the ADAS technology, thereby solving the problem in other cars by either rolling out a software update or changing some hardware component, if any.

Also it’s high time M&M to enhance its service stations by equipping the right machineries and training the service personnel with the technical know how and complexities of their newer lot of cars, common same person who was servicing a barebone Bolero cannot suddenly solve any niggles even if small of such an advanced and high-tech car like XUV. My personal suggestion to both Tata and Mahindra would be to absorb the service personnels from the now defunct Ford ASS which are closing as they do know how to work in advanced cars like Endeavour. Thank you!

[Everlearner]

I'm curious to know what happened with the registration of the car, assuming that it was registered before delivery. Did the company pay for a new registration or is there a way to transfer registration to another car?

[samtc13]

I am not sure whether it is possible to transfer the registration to a new car considering the engine/ chassis number (in this case, colour too) would be different.
It would be interesting to know as to what is the procedure when the manufacturer takes back the car which was already delivered/ registered- will it be an ownership transfer to M&M or dealer?

[Aviator_guy]

Originally Posted by veyron_head

Great move by Mahindra even if I do agree this could be more of a face saver than a gesture of magnanimity.

One may-be-naive and little off topic question. If he drove the car home it means the car was already registered in his name (considering that driving with temp numbers are increasingly rare)? How does Mahindra replace the car with a new one then? If they gave him a new car with a new number plate, the old one will be scrapped or would it be sold to some unsuspecting customer a pre-owned car?

I was thinking on same lines as I have never heard of car replacement. Companies in India don't even replace white goods which cost a fraction but only offer to repair it under warranty so this gesture from MnM is quite interesting.

My assumption is that car was still unregistered and the customer was offered another car. There is a trend to keep the car unregistered for as long as possible to get the feel of "new" car. In my hometown, it is not uncommon to see car being delivered on temp number plate and driven around without proper number(or even unregistered to wait for special series from RTO) for as long as possible to show off "new" possession

If that car was unregistered then what will M&M do?
Fix ADAS and pass on to next customer in line?
If car was registered then sell it off as used car post the fix? They will still get close to the full price given the high demand.

So in both these plausible scenarios, it is the unsuspecting customer who will be at the receiving end?

[Clouseau]

Originally Posted by anjan_c2007

The news links for this good deed done by M&M:

https://www.cartoq.com/mahindra-repl...lops-problems/

https://www.news18.com/news/auto/mah...m-4537799.html

How the heck is this a good deed? A defective car/product MUST be replaced/refunded as per a customer's wish. Like Bobby Jones once said when being praised for calling a penalty on himself during a tournament - "It's like congratulating a guy for not robbing a bank!"

Cheers!