[TheIndian]

Mahindra XUV500 W8 FWD White
Age: 21 months till now
Mileage: 48,000 kms

Snapshot till now (in pictorial form).....



Snapshot till now (in Vital statistics).....

• Age: 21 months till now
• Mileage: 48,000 kms
• 5 services done till now. Each of the 5 scheduled services were morning-evening affairs i.e. my XUV has never been away from me overnight and never spent overnight at MASS !!
• Trips / Long drives done:
  • Ladakh Drive : Zoji La - Zanskar - Leh - Nubra - Turtuk - Pangong - Chushul - Hanle - Tso Moriri - Rohtang - Manali
  • Rajasthan : Mumbai - Kumbhalgadh - Jaisalmer - Jodhpur - Udaipur - Mumbai
  • Kerala Drive: Mumbai - Valparai - Cochin - Munnar - Alleppey - Wayanad - Ooty - Mumbai
  • Couple of drives to Saurashtra in Gujarat
  • Goa
  • Mahabaleshwar
  • Numerous drives to Lonavala.
  • Malshet Ghat
  • Numerous drives to Surat
• No niggles till date !! Touch-wood ! No Rattles. Nothing.
• Modification Done: NIL till last month (I'm an OEM stickler). Installed HID in low beam projector just 15 days back after long deliberations.
• Parts replaced: As I'm an "Factory-fitted-OEM-parts" stickler, I avoid warranty replacement as far as possible. The only parts replaced under warranty are clutch pedal & Headlights assembly. In the 1st month of buying, I felt that clutch pedal was sticking in between and was not coming back fully. However, my driver never felt it. So it could be a false alarm too. But MASS replaced the clutch pedal. Headlights replaced just 15-20 days back as before installing HID, it was found that the rubber cap of high beam is damaged in one-side headlight and about to get damaged in the other side. I was advised to replace Silver Box of Infotainment system last year when I complained that there was some malfunction observed briefly. I refused to replace it and it has been working alright without any further malfunctions. Front Brake Pads changed a 4-5 months back (at about 37,000 kms).
• Precautions: Though Mahindra specifies Engine oil change interval at every 20,000 kms, I change it at every 10,000 kms service. Mahindra Engine oil is quite cost-effective at 1900/- for 6 ltrs. I also change balancer bar bushes at every 10K kms service (though it is also not specified to change). They are also not costly.
• Preferred MASS: Global Gallarie, Thane. I was not happy with the 1st service check-up @5K kms done at Infinity Autolinks, Chunabhatti. A forum-friend had suggested RM Tanveer Shaikh at Global Gallerie, Thane and since then I had never let any other RM or any other team except for Tanveer to lay hands on my XUV. Excellent guy, excellent workmanship & services. Five-stars in terms of Customer delight.

Journey so far...............

Rajasthan Drive





Ladakh - 1...on the way to Zoji La





Ladakh - 2... Zoji La





Ladakh - 3... on the way to Zanskar - Rangdum - Drang Drung





Ladakh - 4... Magnetic Hill, Service/ wash at Leh, Khardung La, Nubra, Chang La





Ladakh - 5... Pangong & the beautiful trails of Pangong to Hanle thro' Chushul





Ladakh - 6... Tso Kiager, Tso Moriri and back





Assorted pics... Rohtang, Kerala, Malshet, Lonavala




Buying decision:

I was upgrading from a sedan and took test drives of following cars:

• Mahindra XUV500
• Tata Aria
• Renault Fluence
• Chevy Cruz
• VW Jetta


Liked XUV500. Shortlisted it. But there is a long thread on Niggles on the forum !! So, what to do?

I took a chance and asked the Sales Advisor if I can keep the TD car a couple of days with me on a week end!! To my surprise, he agreed. He dropped the car with me on a Saturday noon with the fuel tank filled to the top. He even asked me that if I want I can take it to Goa for a couple of days! I said, no no, I would just drive around and keeping the car with me for a couple of days might help me in experiencing the minor minor items closely.

I drove the car around within city as well as on Western Express Highway & NH8 towards Kinara Dhaba a couple of times. Liked it. Family also liked it. The reason for going with 7-seater in spite of a small family of 4, is the comfortable ride for the kids in the long journeys that I regularly undertake. (A friend jokingly commented after seeing the pics of the car while we departed on our first long drive to Rajasthan in XUV saying “you’ve made it a 1-bedroom flat”).

I booked the White XUV500 W8 with Infinity Autolinks, Mumbai with specific instructions to only book the car from their stockyard that has Bridgestone tyres and not JK basis the feedbacks I received from a friend. I went all the way to their stockyard (quite far... ahead of Panvel) for PDI. After doing PDI, gave a go ahead to the dealer to allocate that car to me.

The delivery experience was not so smooth. They delayed it by 2-3 days saying registration was not being done due to heavy rains and all that. We planned a weekend trip to Lonavala for which my brother & family were coming to Mumbai. However, there were no signs of delivery of my XUV till 5 pm on that Friday. Finally I had to write a mail to VP-Customer Service at Mahindra at 5 pm on a Friday and within 15 minutes I received a call from the Manager that he’ll deliver the car anyhow to me on that day even if it becomes late in the evening. Went to dealership at about 7 pm and drove out with the car at about 8 pm.

Likes:

• Superb driving comfort. No fatigue at all. In my last Kerala road trip, I drove single-handedly for 1100 kms for 16 hours in a day, and took off fresh next day early morning for another long day of drive thro' the jungle. Same with all other road trips - Ladakh, Goa, Gujarat, Rajasthan etc.
• Very comfortable seating position as above.
• Build Quality - No Rattles, No niggles even after demanding Ladakh drive. What I noticed is that every minute item is well thought of. Be it grip lock of rubber mouldings or scres that keeps bumper screwed to the body - you put the screws in their place, the panel alignment takes care if itself (what's a panel gap? )
• Superb pick up and power. The cheetah takes off truly like a Cheetah and doesn't struggle even in 5th or 6th gear.
• Steering (thankfully Hydraulic) - precise and gives feedback
• Road presence
• Gizmo's and features
• Chilling AC. Quite powerful.
• Lots of storage places. Each door has a bottle holder.
• 3 no.s 12V charging sockets (one each at each row) is quite handy.
• Superb legroom in the middle row seat (I use services of a driver for my daily city rides Home-Office-Home)
• After Sales Service: Just superb. Morning-evening affairs. Unscheduled running repairs visits not required till now!

Wishlist/ What could have been better:

• One touch up window at driver side is sorely missed
• Ride could have been better at slow speed on potholes!
• Low beam headlight could have been brighter (I've now put HID in low beam projectors).
• Third row seat could have been specious with more legroom (not used it till now except folding it for Kids bed or putting luggage)
• Cool glovebox (under front seat armrest) could have been bigger to accommodate longer bottles. Don't know, though, how it would have been possible.

[TheIndian]

Engine:

mHawk Engine turned out to be a pleasant "surprise". The popular perception is that Tata / Mahindra engines are not refined as compared to Japs or Korean cars. However, on the contrary to my expectations, mHawk has trumped / ticked all check-boxes.

It's powerful. One tap on the pedal and the Cheetah prowls with a surge. What's a low-end turbo lag? Even in higher gear, when speed reduces and you want to gain speed again, it doesn't give any kind of strain and surges ahead without needing downshift. In fact, initially I had to put in conscious efforts to control the speed (my previous car was a NA Petrol).

On the high-end too, the engine doesn't give any signs of running out of breath.

Brakes:

I found the performance of the brakes to be quite satisfactory though popular online feedback is that the bite needs improvement. Another popular online feedback is that Brake pads need to be replaced at shorter interval. However, even after the demanding road trips I've subjected my XUV to in difficult terrains, I've cahnged front brake pads not earlier than 38,000 kms on the ODO

NVH Levels:

Just superb. A couple of times initially, I felt that the horn is weak and I might need to upgrade it. But later when I was driving with the front window rolled down and when I honked, I could hear the loud sound. Huge difference between the instances when windows are rolled up & are rolled down.

Interior Space

Oodles of space. Front row is but obviously quite comfortable with oodles of leg room. If front row is quite comfortable with oodles of leg room, middle row trumps it too. Middle row is like a cricket pitch ! How I wish the middle row had adjustable channel to slide it forward / backward to increase room in the third row which is one sore point for it can accommodate kids only. Adults might not be comfortable seating in third row.

My another wishlist of the boot space. There is no space behind third row unlike Innova. I don't like fixing luggage carrier on top even in long road trips. Fortunately, smaller & nuclear family means we don't have to use third row seats for seating.

However, once you flatten third row, it can swallow luggage like anything. During our Ladakh road trip, we removed the third row seats altogether and it accommodated 4 adult's demanding luggage for Ladakh trip including three 20 ltrs Jerry cans.



Tyres:

I insisted on Bridgestone over JK tyres when I purchased the car. THe stock Bridgestone are still doing well after 50,000 kms and treacherous Ladakh terrains. May be it'll easily last another 10-20K kms

Features & Convenience:

• Love the static bending lights
• The low beam has projectors though the stock lamps are 55W H7 halogens. I've recently fitted 55W H7 HID in low beam projectors.
• Auto Headlight - I don't use this as during day time one tends to forget to turn it off while turning the car off, and when you restart the car in the night, the headlights is Auto-ON while cranking. I hate keeping any electrical system ON while cranking (I even have a habit of not putting off or turning on any electrical / electronics appliance at home directly thro' AC mains keeping appliance switch ON, that's a strict no no for me though modern devices have safeguards now). May be this habit ensured that I didn't face frequent fusing of headlight lamps like many XUV owners earlier faced.
• Auto Start-stop of engine at traffic signals: I don't use this feature as well.
• Rain sensing wipers
• Love the Tyre-Tronics.
• Mahindra has a couple of Smartphone Apps one of which shows the pressure, temprature etc of each tyre
• XUV has sensors at various places to alert. e.g. when my front brake pads were worn out, it gave me an alert. I heard someone sharing that he got an alert for low level of brake / clutch fluid. So on and so forth.
• Hill Hold function is a boon
• Like Hill Hold, there is a Hill Descent control function too.
• Power adjustable ORVM's
• Follow-me-home & Lead-me-to vehicle headlamps are quite useful in day-to-day life.

Driving Position & Comfort:

Excellent. 5 Stars. The seat hugs you - the side cladding does it's job very well. Under thigh support is superb. There is lumber support too. I keep the seat at its topmost height/ position and quite far backward for a relaxed position. I keep the steering at it's lowermost position and pulled out towards me. This allows me to touch the side lower part of the steering with both palms with right elbow resting on the door side support and left elbow resting on middle armrest.

On lighter notes, I usually refer the driving position as "like seating on a sofa-set". It's that comfortable. In on of my road trips, I drove 1100 kms in a day from Mumbai to Krishnagiri, TN (ahead of Bangalore) and still I was raring to go further.

Interior Storage:

Very well thought of. All 4 doors have bottle holders which can hold 1 Ltr bottle. The front 2 doors even have Umbrella holders from which water can sip out without interior getting wet.

Suspension and Ride Quality:

Excellent for a high GC SUV or soft roader or whatever you call it
Except at low speeds in city on potholes, it gets a bit bumpy.

Handling and Stability:

Superb again, for a car with 200 mm Ground clearance. The handling is almost like a European sedan !

After-sales Service:

Top-notch. Superb. Ensuring Customer Delight. Till now, for 50,000 kms run, for 22 months, my XUV has not spent overnight at MASS. In IT parlance, it's kind of ZERO downtime

Till Now, total 8 visits to MASS - 5 scheduled service (6th 50K kms service is pending now), 1 visit to replace brake pads, 1 visit to replace tail lamp. Not counting one specific special visit for a general precautionary check up before Ladakh trip.

First Service - 5K kms (in 2.5 months of buying):

Done at Infinity Autolinks, Chunabhatthi
General Check up
Engine oil & oil filter replaced
Total bill - Rs. 2,577/-

Average experience to start with. RM was not knowledgeable. I had to escalate to the Service Manager who did exceedingly good job covering for his RM and delivered the car back at 7.30 pm on the same day.

Second Service - 10K kms (in 4.5 months of buying):

Major drive before the service: Road trip to Rajasthan
MASS: Global Gallerie, Thane. From here my love affair with Global Gallerie, Thane started. Went there on a reference from a forum friend. 5-stars to RM - Tanveer Shaikh at Global Gallerie, Thane
Engine oil & oil filter replaced
Replaced Ballancer Bush bars
Fixed rat-mesh in cowl area
Total Bill - Rs. 3257/-

Engine oil change was not scheduled at 10k kms service. It's scheduled at 20k Kms service and then at every 20,000 kms interval (40K kms, 60k kms etc). But I thought 20k kms is too long a period in Indian conditions and in B2B traffic in Mumbai. So changed it.

I thought about changing engine oil at every 5,000 kms reverting to simple good old no-nonsense mineral oil. But then Mahindra Feo Maxi Mile engine oil is very cost effective at Rs. 290 per ltr. So, decided to stick with it with 10k kms period as replacement frequency.

Third Service - 20K kms (in 8.5 months of buying):

Major drive during this period: Road trip to Goa & another to Saurashtra, Gujarat
MASS: G3 Motors, Goregaon being nearer to home. Not as satisfied as Global Gallerie and hence reverted to Global Gallerie for all next services
Engine oil & oil filter replaced
Fuel Filter replaced
Air Filter replaced
One headlamp changed (it was fused)
Gear Oil topped up
Total Bill - Rs. 7694/-

Fourth Service - 30K kms (in 11.5 months of buying):

Major drives: Ladakh road trip
MASS: GLobal Galleri, Thane
Engine oil & oil filter replaced
Balancer Bush bars replaced
Rear Mud flaps fixed (thanks to Ladakh trip)
Sump Guard fixed (thanks to Ladakh trip)
Driver side Wiper blade replaced
Total Bill - Rs. 6608/-

Except for loose Sump guard and rear mud flaps, the demanding Ladakh drive didn't have any effect on robust Cheetah

Fifth Service - 40K kms (in 17 months of buying)

Engine oil & oil filter replaced
Fuel Filter cartridge replaced
Element Air Filter Foam type
Air Filter assembly - Mesh
Balancer Bush bars replaced
AC disinfection
Total Bill - Rs. 11,691/-

Just after this service, I did another long road trip - A road trip to Kerala
This shall be covered in the next service which is due now.

[TheIndian]

Here is the maintenance log till 45,000 kms:





With this, the journey till now is covered. Shall update further as the Cheetah prowls on.......

[Eddy]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing.

[vivekkr_99]

Very nice review "TheIndian"". It is an awesome car for sure. Great to see that you are really enjoying the Cheetah. I too own a Cheetah for the last 6 months, and it is about to touch the 10K mark. From the usage of features you listed down (auto lamp especially), it seems same for both of us. All the best for covering more and more happy miles in your beast.

-Vivek

[Sheel]

Nice ownership read there

I am interested in your HID for low beam. From where did you procure it? Cost? And a photograph of your low beam, when lit up and the throw it has on the road.

Hope this request won't be a bother

[TheIndian]

Originally Posted by Sheel

Nice ownership read there

I am interested in your HID for low beam. From where did you procure it? Cost? And a photograph of your low beam, when lit up and the throw it has on the road.

It's a humble Chinese BrightStar HID which I got from a local shop / vendor. I had some very specific need for selection of a shop / vendor (may not be appropriate to detail it here though). The cost is Rs. 7,800 for the HID conversion kit.

Here are some pics that I have.....












.....And this happened during our quick road trip to Rajasthan last week



.....And this is how it tuns into 1 Bedroom apartment on long drives as one of my friends fondly calls it. This was taken just before our Goa road trip last year, somewhere in Jan / Feb-2014

10" Sony tab goes into that spider (white color) seen on the back side of front passenger seat with movies loaded and synced to car's infotainment Bluetooth for audio....for the kids in that "bed"

[TheIndian]

Have never done Wheel Alignment / Balancing & Tyre Rotation at MASS. I get it done at a private Alignment garage called "Straight Line" at Santa Cruz. Excellent experience till now. In all my earlier cars, I used to insist on manufacturer-recommended pattern for tyre rotation.

In the first visit Straight Line guy asked me - do you want me to do tyre rotation as per manufacturer recommended pattern or my way?" I asked how does he do it. He said we check the tyre treads, "feel" the tread with touch etc. By that time, I could guage that these guys know what they do so told them go as per your way. Trust The Experts. . And till now as expected, they've never disappointed me in alignment / balancing. Just perfect every time. No left / right pulling.

The only mistake that they did once is to overtighten the wheel bolts by pneumatic machine. And that was the alignment I just got done as a preparation to my Ladakh trip. Fortunately, as per my precautionery list for Ladakh trip, I got the bolts checked to ensure that it's not very tight that I can't open them in the middle of nowhere in Ladakh. To my horror all the bolts were so much overtight that even MASS couldn't open them. After huge efforts when they opened them, 12 of the wheel nuts became useless due to this and I had to spend Rs. 912/- to replace those 12 nuts (they are heavy and not so light in weight). It's mentioned in my excel maintenance log under the section "Ladakh Checkup".

[TheIndian]

The 50,000 kms service is getting delayed. The RM to whom only I allow to touch my XUV in MASS is on long leave. Will have to do it in 1st week of June when he resumes. By then ODO would show about 51,500 kms

Originally Posted by TheIndian

The RM to whom only I allow to touch my XUV in MASS is on long leave.

The RM is only an intermediary, preparing the job card, noting down your complaints apart from mandatory replacements and passing it on to the servicing personnel. They actually go through the vehicle's service history and prepare a schedule, according to which the actual work is carried out. So, you need not wait for the RM's return from his long leave, IMO.

[Singh09]

That's a very nice and detailed review of your buddy. And you have done some serious road trips though. I have recently crossed 60K mark with my XUV. Will put up a long term ownership review shortly.

Originally Posted by J.Ravi

The RM is only an intermediary, preparing the job card, noting down your complaints apart from mandatory replacements and passing it on to the servicing personnel. They actually go through the vehicle's service history and prepare a schedule, according to which the actual work is carried out. So, you need not wait for the RM's return from his long leave, IMO.

+1 to that. I also get my car serviced when my RM is present. But he also pulls the service record first and then make a job card. But good relation with your RM comes handy sometimes. When i had to get my 50K service done, i didn't had much time and next day i had to leave for a long road trip with my wifey. I took my car at Sterling Mahindra, Faridabad. My RM was on leave but i called him and he arranged a quick appointment and i gave my car around 4:00 Pm and got it back by 6:00 pm.

[TheIndian]

Originally Posted by J.Ravi

The RM is only an intermediary, preparing the job card, noting down your complaints apart from mandatory replacements and passing it on to the servicing personnel. They actually go through the vehicle's service history and prepare a schedule, according to which the actual work is carried out. So, you need not wait for the RM's return from his long leave, IMO.

Agreed. That's why I insist on this guy

He was a technician under another RM till 2 months back and is now promoted as RM. In that MASS, I don't need to know anyone except for this guy, not even his earlier RM ! I can close my eyes and accept his workmanship on face value (except of course keeping a close eye on any additional unnecessary job like AC cleaning/ flushing etc due to dealership pressure)

Originally Posted by Singh09

That's a very nice and detailed review of your buddy. And you have done some serious road trips though.

Thanks. We did another Road trip to Rajasthan just 2 weeks back.

[TheIndian]

The next day of taking delivery. Just before driving to Lonavala....



Kids' bedroom getting ready for Rajasthan road trip 2013





Somewhere around Bharuch....Rajasthan 2013

[TheIndian]

Glimpses of Rajasthan Drive - November 2013

Ancient system, still operational !





Wall surrounding Kumbhalgarh Fort....Second longest Wall after the China wall



Radhanpur Jain Temple



Kumbhalgadh Fort at night





The one and only...Jaisalmer Fort (from our hotel)






Sam Sand Dunes





Jaisalmer speciality - Maangilaal ka Mirchi Wada



Jaisalmer Fort at night

[TheIndian]

Jaisalmer to Jodhpur road is a dream run. Good tarmac & sparse traffic









This is one important thing one needs to factor while driving on Rajasthan roads



Sunset at Jodhpur



Jodhpur's speciality - Shahi Samosa