[SDP]

Originally Posted by princey

Congrats on the DUMA. Looks smashing in the Red. Your review is excellent, simple, straight from the heart and the family certainly looks justifiably proud.
Few questions
Did you feel any difference in the various XUVs that you test drove over period of time since its launch to the Duma, in terms of various improvements in gearshift, clutch hardness and brakes?
....

Thanks princey!
During the TD period itself, when I took the 3rd TD in Jan'12 (apparently on a newer vehicle), there was noticeable difference in the gearshift notchiness. I have never felt the clutch as hard, so not noticed any difference as such. The steering rod rubbing against your foot when the clutch is fully depressed, that problem has been rectified to a decent degree (NOT completely) by a new design in the current batches. Brakes still feel the same. I have yet to hear the much dreaded grinding noise.

Originally Posted by princey

....Was anything additional asked by dealer to speed up the delivery?
....

Not really. Mahindra's pointing to the dealer for delivery-dates is not a good trend. That gives the dealer a certain amount of control in terms of manipulating the dates. In my case, the dealer was quite transparent with me and told me when the vehicle was billed at the factory and when it landed at the yard.

[HotChillyPepper]

Originally Posted by dockap

The Odometer of all XUVs can be reset only once within the first 250 kms. Maybe M&M implemented this feature so the all owners will have 0 kms displayed on the Odo at the time of delivery. ( I do not know if this is a regular feature in high end cars )

Almost all European cars have got this feature. Though they do it end of PDI and not in front of customers.

-HCP

[lsp]

Congrats Sanjay on the 'Duma'!!

It looks smashing in Red. Ive seen quite a few samples in Delhi but mostly white, Silver, black & grey. Hope you enjoy many many kilomiles with her.

PS: I met you on 9th Nov 2011, before going to Seattle.

[naveenchhillar]

Hey SDP, congrats for your new baby.

What did you do while the fuel lid openor button got pushed back completely. how did you manage to open it ?

BTW- I use Black W6 & having a mixed feeling. Some great driving till date, backed with some intermittent issues.

[SDP]

Originally Posted by lsp

Congrats Sanjay on the 'Duma'!!

It looks smashing in Red. Ive seen quite a few samples in Delhi but mostly white, Silver, black & grey. Hope you enjoy many many kilomiles with her.

PS: I met you on 9th Nov 2010, before going to Seattle.

Lalit, looks like we know each other. Let's catch up soon.

Originally Posted by naveenchhillar

Hey SDP, congrats for your new baby.

What did you do while the fuel lid openor button got pushed back completely. how did you manage to open it ?

BTW- I use Black W6 & having a mixed feeling. Some great driving till date, backed with some intermittent issues.

Thanks Naveen.

To its credit, the switch opened the lid before it vanished in the dash completely .
I am still on first tank-full. There is a manual fuel-lid-opener in the trunk/3rd-row area. Have checked it and it does work. I will use that one till I get the switch repaired.

[SDP]

2nd and 3rd impressions:

After the first impressions about the 150km drive primarily on the expressway, here are few more impressions from the local city drives over last 5-6 days.

1. After dilly-dallying, finally decided to take the XUV to work on Friday. Had surveyed the parking lot the day before to find the widest parking place so as to avoid doors of other cars touching my car. BTW, that reminds me, while waxing the XUV over the 1st weekend, I realized that the steel on the door panels is not as thick as I had expected. So dings and dents would be easy to get.

2. Started for work, was a kilometer into the journey and the RJ from a FM channel mentioned its Friday the 13th. Wow, what a day I picked for the first ride to office!

3. Experienced mild to moderate rains. The rain-sensing wipers worked properly. The front-wipers sweep the windshield well. The rear-wiper sweep was OKish.

4. In bumper-to-bumper traffic on the JVLR, I was quite conscious about the size of the XUV. Maintained 10+ feet of gap from the vehicle in front. A few tried to cut-in and got a blast of the horn and a high beam from me. A few still squeezed in, but most did not dared.

5. In the bumper-to-bumper traffic, kept on switching to 2nd gear as soon as possible (a habit from Alto days). Then slowly realized that with the XUV, you can even drive in 1st gear. Its not jumpy or abrupt like my Alto and gives linear acceleration till about 15kmph.

6. The 2nd gear, has a strong "pull" or "tug" and after switching to 2nd, many-a-times, I needed to brake so as to control the vehicle from surging ahead.

7. The gear notchiness in 1st and 2nd gear (especially the 1st) is quite noticeable in bumper-to-bumper traffic.

8. At city speeds, the brake need to be pushed farther (than what I was used to), to bring the vehicle to a complete stop. It happened a couple of times, that I applied the brake with the usual amount of force and the pedal traveled by about and inch and the vehicle was still creeping forward. Had to push the pedal farther by another inch or so to bring the car to a complete stop. This is not a complaint. Just a curious observation.

9. The Map-My-India in-built navigation user interface is not very intuitive and I took a while to get comfortable with it. I still need significant amount of time to type in a destination and start a route. When I am about to start the car, I don't have that kind of patience. So I am typically using "Take me home" navigation only.

10. Love the ACC! It chills superfast. One problem I discovered yesterday was that the AC vent on the 2nd row right side is not blowing any air. Had to increase the overall fan-speed couple of notches and reduce the temperature to make my dad seating in the 2nd row comfortable. Would get it checked in 1-2 weeks.

11. Turning radius is not bad at all. On Pokhran Rd No. 1, took a U turn to go to my kido's school and it did not bring the entire traffic to a stand-still. :-)

12. While returning from work on the first day, I was waiting behind another car in traffic and a lady on an Activa who was trying to park started backing up to allow another bike to come out. Her trajectory was directly into my passenger side door! With me blocked on all sides, it was a true heart-in-mouth moment. Honked liked mad. Even another biker understood the situation and gestured to the lady. She was completely oblivious about what's happening and kept on backing up. In the mean time, the guy in front moved ahead and I darted behind him. A close shave with the Activa.

13. Although XUVs are common on Mumbai roads, there are still a few people who turn their heads, admire the beauty and look at who is driving etc.

14. The reflection of trees on the shiny console in the dash further reflects on the windshield. During driving, this created an illusion that there is smoke coming out of the bonnet from the left hand side. Was alarmed a couple of times.

15. The XUV is almost 6 feet tall. The roof is a pain to clean/wipe. There is no way I can even think about waxing the top.

16. The ride at city-speeds on Mumbai roads is not very pleasant. Need to get the tyre-pressure checked to start with. You need to really slow down even for normal sized speed-breakers.

17. Last 2 days, I noticed that if the bluetooth on my blackberry is on while getting into the car, the infotainment system pairs with it automatically (without any visible indication or any user-input). This is very convenient. I like technology when it is seamless and non-intrusive.

18. Have been idling the car for 30 seconds before starting it for the first time in the day.

19. I have zero experience in changing gears as per the RPM. The XUV manual does not help either in this matter. Can other owners, please share at what RPM do you up-shift?

Overall, I am getting comfortable with the XUV quite fast. In a week or two, would seriously consider taking the Duma out on a monsoon-weekend-outing.

[n.devdath]

Originally Posted by SDP

19. I have zero experience in changing gears as per the RPM. The XUV manual does not help either in this matter. Can other owners, please share at what RPM do you up-shift?

For a smooth ride, good fuel efficiency and a healthy turbo, it is recommended that you keep the engine as much as possible in its 2000rpm band. So, you can shift gears when the vehicle crosses 2200rpm so that by the time you declutch, shift and reclutch, you are back in the power band.

DO NOT lug the engine at low rpms even though it feels more comfortable and does not stall.

[PGA]

Originally Posted by n.devdath

For a smooth ride, good fuel efficiency and a healthy turbo, it is recommended that you keep the engine as much as possible in its 2000rpm band. So, you can shift gears when the vehicle crosses 2200rpm so that by the time you declutch, shift and reclutch, you are back in the power band.

DO NOT lug the engine at low rpms even though it feels more comfortable and does not stall.

Absolutely, never try to lug the engine but my experience has been that it is just not possible to rev up the car to 2000 rpm in the normal course. It just has too much power in that band for driving on Indian roads. So I do up shift at relativly lower rpm. Whenever required downshift to accelerate and get into coasting mode again.

Any major harm of such a drive on turbo?

[n.devdath]

Originally Posted by PGA

Any major harm of such a drive on turbo?

If you drive at low rpms continuously, the turbo does not spin, if the turbo does not spin, it is not lubricated, if it is not lubricated for long periods, and it is suddenly required to spin, it might damage its very precise and delicate bearings, axles etc resulting in a very fat bill to replace a failed tc.

[scopriobharath]

Originally Posted by n.devdath

If you drive at low rpms continuously, the turbo does not spin, if the turbo does not spin, it is not lubricated, if it is not lubricated for long periods, and it is suddenly required to spin, it might damage its very precise and delicate bearings, axles etc resulting in a very fat bill to replace a failed tc.

Devdath - How should we handle the typical office and back drives in any city. The 9-6 job will warrant to drive in traffic and i doubt whether the turbo will be in use for a lot of time. I presume at least for one hour the turbo will not kick in assuming i drive from electronic city to say shivaji nagar(as long as i drive in stop-go traffic).

[PGA]

Originally Posted by n.devdath

If you drive at low rpms continuously, the turbo does not spin, if the turbo does not spin, it is not lubricated, if it is not lubricated for long periods, and it is suddenly required to spin, it might damage its very precise and delicate bearings, axles etc resulting in a very fat bill to replace a failed tc.

Thanks for the info, 'in principal' your contention is appropriate. But specifically for xuv, if you see the owners manual, recommended gear shift points correspond to 900 to 1200 rpms. If the designer wanted us to operate in the band around 2000rpm to safeguard turbocharger, he would have given higher speeds for these shiftpoints which would have corresponded to higher rpms especially in higher gears. Also the max torque zone would have been placed a little higher than existing 1600 -2800 rpm.
Therefore I feel TC lubrication issue at lower rpms must have been catered by M&M. Otherwise it would be quite difficult to drive the vehicle in normal city traffic.

[SDP]

Originally Posted by n.devdath

For a smooth ride, good fuel efficiency and a healthy turbo, it is recommended that you keep the engine as much as possible in its 2000rpm band. ....

Originally Posted by PGA

.... But specifically for xuv, if you see the owners manual, recommended gear shift points correspond to 900 to 1200 rpms. If the designer wanted us to operate in the band around 2000rpm to safeguard turbocharger, he would have given higher speeds for these shiftpoints which would have corresponded to higher rpms especially in higher gears. Also the max torque zone would have been placed a little higher than existing 1600 -2800 rpm.
....

Thanks guys!
Was searching for power-curve/power-band and torque-curve graph for the the mHawk engine. Could not find it. Gave up after 20-30 minutes of search.

I believe, XUV has the same engine as the Scorpio, but its tuned differently. So technically, the power-curve might be slightly different in the Scorp as against the XUV. Still I was searching for any reference to Scorpio's power-curve. Could not find even that.

Any pointers?

[magikrider]

hey SDP... what is the running-in procedure like? has the mahindra guys informed you anything or do you follow any procedure?

experts and other XUV users also please throw some light on this..

thanks.

[SDP]

Originally Posted by magikrider

hey SDP... what is the running-in procedure like? has the mahindra guys informed you anything or do you follow any procedure?

experts and other XUV users also please throw some light on this..

thanks.

The Owner's Manual gives very little information about the running-in procedure.
It specifies the running-in period as 1000kms and mentions that the engine might consume more engine-oil during this period (and its normal).

I am following the general running-in advice found in TBHP:
1. Stay below 2500 rpm. (Not sure about the 2500 number though)
2. Drive at a varied speed and varied RPM levels (Avoid cruise-control)
3. Drive smoothly. Avoid sudden acceleration and sudden braking.

Can't think of anything else. May be fellow BHPians can contribute a few more precautions.

Edit: I am going to re-read the following thread:
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/owning...r-new-car.html

[SDP]

Originally Posted by magikrider

hey SDP... what is the running-in procedure like? has the mahindra guys informed you anything or do you follow any procedure?

experts and other XUV users also please throw some light on this..

thanks.

Originally Posted by SDP

...Edit: I am going to re-read the following thread:
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/owning...r-new-car.html

Read it completely, yes, all 35 pages of it! Took around 7-8 hours of reading, but I guess its worth it. When you plonk in 15L Rs on a car that you love and intend to keep that car for at least the next 6-8 years, one needs to take care of it.

Here's something that I found on that thread:

Originally Posted by DieselFan

Diesel engines need a different running in as compared to petrol. Diesel engines should not be babied (Go at low speeds/RPM while in the Run in period).

Team-BHP recommends that you change your engine oil after the first 1,000 km. As with all new engines, you will find that some metal slivers have found their way into the oil. From this point onward you can stick to the manufacturer recommended intervals.

I am going to follow the above advice.