[Rajain]

Our homegrown auto majors - Tata and Mahindra have taken their time, experimented with ideas, have had their share of failure but off late (in the last 2 years or so) - the vehicles coming from their stable are very desirable, powerful, good looking, international features and above all - safe.

It was not long ago Mahindra had a Quanto, G4 Alturas and Rexton - and there were hardly any takers. It was not long ago Tata had Indigo Marina, Tata Spacio, Tata Bolt. And see today where Tata is. Amongst the first to get in front and really push for EVs.

We would love to have a market where there are multiple players having 8-10% of market share rather than 2 of them taking more than 65% and others jostling for the remaining 35% with a few in 1-2%.

The long waiting periods from Mahindra tell us something about some very niche segments. Take Thar for instance. The only other competition - The Jimny, is selling half of what Mahindra is. In fact Thar's demand may have gone up after Jimny came. In my mind Gurkha is not even in the picture.

I have driven to Leh in a Tata Safari (Second Gen) and it was such a wonderful vehicle - powerful, sturdy and above all safe. Take any of the adventure groups and Mahindra dominates. Tata - what about a 4x4 Safari?

And then lets give a big shoutout to XUV series. When Indians were looking out for urban SUV - Mahindra plonked a whole range in it to choose from. Anyone looking at XUV 700 will tell you it is perhaps the most evolved product of the last 15 years from one auto manufacturer.

And when you look at some of the other manufactures - Take Maruti for instance, same set of engines, barely stitched up interiors, cost cutting everywhere and a minus 5 on safety!! I mean look at Jimny. One can stand on its accelerator, hope that it will cross 100 kmph before iphone 20 is launched. Look at where Verna or Virtus are and then see where Maruti is. Like the R&D stopped getting any funding and the generation of 1990s designers still orders around. No wonder Suzuki has no major fan following anywhere in the world except the very cost conscious and 'kitna deti hai' Indian population.

Good stuff Mahindra and Tata. Keep evolving. India is proud of you. Just one cause to reflect - please, like literally please - get the QC and service centres give a more international level experience. The QC and service centres compete with each other on who sucks more.

Cheers
Rajain

[OffRoadFun]

Both Tata and Mahindra have proven sceptics (myself included TBH) wrong! And that's a great news. It's a story of perseverance, determination and continuously striving for improvement. And unlike say GM/Ford or Hyundai/Kia winning in their home countries at least partly due to shall I say economic jingoism, they have earned it through superior features at an attractive price. At one point it seemed that Koreans and Japanese will wipe out everyone from the Indian (non luxury) car market. XUV is indeed a great SUV at very attractive price with powerful engine and loaded with features.

The demand is indeed insane for Mahindra XUV700. My neighbor, who had booked an XUV700 months back and was supposed to get the delivery in next six months, finally cancelled the booking and got an Innova Hybrid (got lucky there)!

[Burgman_tales]

This is the equivalent of "flash sale" which Redmi used to do to create a perception of low supply and high demand

[prawns.curry]

Hi

This is my first post at team-bhp. Have been spending hours reading this forum until i dozz off at night.
Well I too have booked XUV700 AX7L D AT, around 25th March 2023. Its already about 8 months now. I haven't heard anything from the dealer either. The booking is made at a dealership in Vapi, Gujrat.

Because its a small city, we dont have any other dealers except the one that I have booked. And this dealer owns all dealership within 200kms. So technically leaves me with no option for getting my car sooner.
Moreover I was away staying abroad and had booked it while I was not in the country expecting it to be delivered by Diwali. And the sales rep did assure me to get it delivered by Diwali. I dont see it happening probably until Jan-Feb now. Sales rep does emphasize that Mahindra is pumping up the production and they see more billings happening. I dont know how much of it is true. But keeping my fingers crossed.

Is this the usual waiting period of 8-10 months for the top-end variants?

The registration will happen in Daman (U.T) and there are less dealers away from my place who would release the car from the showroom without registration. So I cant try to pick it up from Mumbai or some remote location.

[gauravdgr8]

I think this is a marketing strategy to attract new bookings and keep that cash register ringing. That's over 16 crores just in booking amount every month.

2 of my friends bought a Mahindra, XUV delivered in 6 weeks and Thar in 2 months. Both top end, one a a Diesel, another petrol.

[astro-wolf]

Originally Posted by ashvek3141

Well, I just happened to call a M&M dealer here in Goa and she mentioned that both, the Thar D & P AT's have a wait time of 5-6 months.

I'd suggest that you try in nearby city. From my experience, waiting times were longer in big cities (Bangalore, Kolkata), but smaller cities (Tier-2 towns) had shorter waiting periods. The could be because of the vehicle allotment process of Mahindra.

Just FYI, I asked around in Bangalore, West Bengal, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh. In all the states except Karnataka, I enquired in multiple cities. Demand could've increased a bit because of festive season, but the crunch should ease up soon if that is the case.

I am not sure about Thar, but Mahindra is sending free float XUVs to the dealers (confirmed this in all the above mentioned state). These are the cars that dealer didn't get a booking for, but the company still sent them the vehicle. Something like an extra vehicle to sell. It can be any model and any colour.

Delivery process is like following:
1. Your booked vehicle arrives in due time and you recieve the vehicle.
2. Somebody else had a similar booking but they cancelled it and your file moved up.
3. Somebody else couldn't arrange the finances at the time of delivery and your file moved up.
4. A free float vehicle was recieved at dealer which is similar make and model.

[Bhodrolok]

I checked on a petrol AX7L and was told delivery in 8-12 weeks in Bangalore.

With this kind of backlog, I don't see any incentive for Mahindra to launch the update to the XUV which it really needs.

[Rajeevraj]

Something seems off on the numbers unless something has drastically changed in the last month. I was checking out the Thar for a friend around 6 weeks back and the SA said delivery in 4 weeks.

[himanshugoswami]

I booked a Scorpio-N z8L Petrol AT early Nov. the official delivery time is 10-15 weeks but my dealer tells me it may come within 6-8 weeks

[volkman10]

If you are not able to climb the monthly sales chart consistently (dispatch numbers) all these booking numbers have no meaning.
Most manufactures show these kinds of bloated numbers maybe to trigger the stock market pricing.

[Pardus]

I had booked a Mahindra Scorpio N Z8L MT 4X4 on October 13th and got a message about the allotment by October 25th. The vehicle was ready for delivery by the 30th, however, I took time for loan, PDI, and registration and took delivery on Nov 5th. I even wondered if the dealer was trying to push a demo car, but after checking the VIN and vehicle in person, I was clear it was not a demo car.

So really not sure if the backlog is real or just a strategy to get attention. Or if some models and delivered faster and others aren't.

[Dippy]

Originally Posted by ashvek3141

Well, I just happened to call a M&M dealer here in Goa and she mentioned that both, the Thar D & P AT's have a wait time of 5-6 months. This is far cry from the situation about 2-3 months back, when they were 'almost' readily available. Idk what has changed in these 3 months to shoot up the wait times by more than double.

Moreover, the booking amount has a cancellation fee too, which is unheard of in today's times.

When i booked my Thar P AT 4x4 in June, there were cars ready for delivery. These were 4x4s and mostly in Red and Black. The RWDs had long waits.

I got mine in a month. On paper they had given me a 2 month waiting period.

However now, waiting even for 4x4s have gone up. A close friend booked one like mine a couple of weeks ago and he has a minimum 3 month waiting period for the 4x4 P AT.

I think those who want a Thar RWD are buying the 4x4 or whatever they can get their hands on.

And it is a fact that the Thar is getting consistent 10000 bookings a month. This despite knowing the 5 door is coming.

Its anyone's guess what will happen when the 5 door launches.

[indie_honda]

A couple of days ago I was traveling the Chakan area where Mahindra plant is located and noticed heavy expansions ongoing, when asked someone who works there he confirmed it is a part of expansions which will help increase their production capacity.

[jagzrk]

I am actually way more worried about the service / after-sales backlog. I sold my Ecosport for Scorpio N and very quickly realized the number of service centers that accept Scorpio N are less than the number of service centers Ford operates in Pune. This when Ford has left the country.

It is extremely difficult to get an appointment within 2 weeks at my nearest service center and it just keeps on increasing. Even at the service center, the staff seems overloaded with the number of vehicles that show up. Although I must admit, the Sahyadri Wakad service center still did a good job of scheduling, worked on all mentioned jobs and did not make me wait too much.

I hope Mahindra also steps up their after sales game by opening more service centers at-least in major cities. Personally I feel they are still way better than Tata after sales having experienced both brands but if this continues I doubt the service centers will maintain quality given the volume of vehicles visiting them.

[Ranga]

The waiting buzzword for a Mahindra might wary if you raise up to the Luxury versions .
i checked for a scorpio in bangalore recently and was dumbstruck that one car vendor has at least 2 cars available to allot in next 2-3 days.

Note both are high end 4 X 4 AT versions

This might not be sure in case of XUV 700 AWD Luxury variants . Can any of the members from bangalore comment on if we have the XUV also available in a similar fashion ?