Team-BHP > Team-BHP Reviews > Official New Car Reviews


Reply
  Search this Thread
5,550,278 views
Old 14th October 2011, 15:17   #166
Senior - BHPian
 
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Pune
Posts: 1,799
Thanked: 2,570 Times
Re: Mahindra XUV500 : Test Drive & Review

Great review manson! Makes me want to loot a bank Honestly, its a crime to compare the XUV500 with any other SUV esp since most fall in the higher price bracket. Its probably the first feature packed SUV that people can afford. People who buys sedans cause there is no SUV option in reach.

The proof that the pricing and package is right from Mahindra's is in the sold out board! Further bookings deferred says the TOI today.
Nilesh5417 is online now  
Old 14th October 2011, 15:24   #167
BHPian
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Pune
Posts: 920
Thanked: 372 Times
Re: Mahindra XUV500 : Test Drive & Review

Can anyone confirm the kerb weight and gross weight of the car, I have it as 1750kg kerb and 2450kg as gross but some folks mention 2450kg as kerb weight which would be a lot.
raul is offline  
Old 14th October 2011, 15:33   #168
BHPian
 
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Pune - Now in Munich, Germany
Posts: 778
Thanked: 129 Times
Re: Mahindra XUV500 : Test Drive & Review

Most of my long ride were never on super smooth highway. It is mostly remote part of the India and the road surface were not smooth. My Palio handles it very well with 2 on-board, but if it is fully loaded, 4 occupants, the ride become hard.

How it is with XUV 500? is it bumpy or soft on remote side of the country? Most of the time I will drive with my Wife and Son.
pawan_pullarwar is offline  
Old 14th October 2011, 15:34   #169
BHPian
 
Ksingh544's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Delhi, Jammu
Posts: 230
Thanked: 485 Times
Re: Mahindra XUV500 : Test Drive & Review

Just to add my 2 bits onto a comprehensive review, the 1 review which everyone on this forum waited with baited breath. Great job, thanks a lot.

The clutch for me is too light for a vehicle of this size, but then as a friend pointed out my last 2 vehicles have been a tempo trax & 2.6 crde scorpio so maybe im used to a heavier clutch.

I know the vehicle is heavily overbooked but im worried M&M may take this to be a sign of over confidence and their customer service is going to become slack. having been for the launch in delhi & then again for the TD i could sense a cocky attitude; the sales exec didnt even bother explaining anything of the car to me during the TD(not that we at bhp need it) but all the same that sale experience should not ever be compromised.

I hope they get this aspect of their sales delivery together because as GTO put it this is truly a game changer ; all eyes on Force One now !!
Ksingh544 is offline  
Old 14th October 2011, 15:35   #170
BHPian
 
man_and_machine's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Bangalore
Posts: 518
Thanked: 450 Times
Re: Mahindra XUV500 : Test Drive & Review

Great! So the XUV deserves a consideration when a 12L budget for a diesel is set aside. There is and ad in the TOI in Bangalore from Mahindra for thanking/apologizing for the booking/stopping of booking on the XUV.

I would really wait and watch for ownership reviews on Team-Bhp especially on the ***.
man_and_machine is offline  
Old 14th October 2011, 15:36   #171
Newbie
 
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: mumbai
Posts: 9
Thanked: 0 Times
Re: Mahindra XUV5OO : Test Drive & Review

Quote:
Originally Posted by manson View Post
The Smaller yet significant things:

Body-coloured white scuff plate looks terribly out of place here:

Thats vinyl sticker to protect chrome...

Thanks for the super cool review and specially awesome pics !
Silhouette is offline  
Old 14th October 2011, 15:44   #172
Senior - BHPian
 
m_upreti's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Amsterdam
Posts: 1,587
Thanked: 319 Times
Re: Mahindra XUV500 : Test Drive & Review

Quote:
Originally Posted by skuz View Post
~have a stupid doubt.. Say i am standing in the middle of a GQ, and the following vehicles are coming at me at say 150 km/hr (no brickbats, am not driving, am just taking the role of the stupid jaywalker) - XUV, fortuner, innova, crv - which car should i jump in front of, to save my skin
None, its not the brakes but about the person who supposed to be pressing them
m_upreti is offline  
Old 14th October 2011, 15:45   #173
BHPian
 
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: LA <--> Bombay
Posts: 473
Thanked: 213 Times
Re: Mahindra XUV500 : Test Drive & Review

Awesome review as always.

Expect a flood of bookings when they reopen.

Only concern is the reliability.

Hope Mahindra can make sure that the niggles are rectified quickly for owners as I don't think the reliability factor is gonna stop people from buying this one.

Cheers
sahakar is offline  
Old 14th October 2011, 15:46   #174
BHPian
 
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: US/India
Posts: 342
Thanked: 140 Times
Re: Mahindra XUV500 : Test Drive & Review

Awesome review. Tbhp is getting better with each review and raising the bar higher.

Coming to the vehicle, its one superb package. This vehicle can easily conquer the 12-20 lac rupees market. Makes a compelling case for itself. I only hope MM can match the package with similar after sales.

Last edited by naveenvenkatesh : 14th October 2011 at 15:46. Reason: Spelling
naveenvenkatesh is offline  
Old 14th October 2011, 15:49   #175
Senior - BHPian
 
VeluM's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Bangalore
Posts: 1,777
Thanked: 1,479 Times

Quote:
Originally Posted by lucifer1881
Why is such a hoopla being made over the lack of space in the 3rd row? This car is not a people mover. Having a 3rd row is a 'good to have' feature, not a necessity. If you want a 3rd row, get a Xylo or an Innova or an Aria. This is an SUV. 5 people is what most people will ever want to seat in it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by nevertouchme
exactly, I wonder why?
take a safari, those jump seats are simply useless & no complaints there? rightly said, it's an SUV and not an MUV.
There is no hoopla, it is just an observation and a drawback of the vehicle. Also, the XUV is not an SUV IMHO, it just looks like one. A colleague was interested and booked one, but had a tough time explaining to his family that this is not to be considered as a 7 seated as the last 2 seats cannot be used by any other than children or adults under 5'2". They were like, what's the point, the Innova is better.

I don't mean to suggest in any way that the Innova is better, it is just to point out that a lot of people do think that way. And it is amplified by the fact that this will be the first step into the 10+L bracket for a number of people, my colleague included.

Separately, that also brings me to think that a lot of people will be happy with the A.S.S provided by Mahindra and their Purple Club. I don't really expect there to be many complaints about the vehicle, except the last row. We'll have to wait and see, but I'm reasonably sure.
VeluM is offline   (2) Thanks
Old 14th October 2011, 15:52   #176
BHPian
 
kaiserketkar's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Pune
Posts: 182
Thanked: 82 Times
Re: Mahindra XUV5OO : Test Drive & Review

Quote:
Originally Posted by manson View Post
Ample 200 mm of ground clearance. Spare wheel will not be easy to remove. Meaty looking exhaust tips:
Is the process of taking out the spare tyre the same as in the Scorpio? Why do you think the spare will not be easy to remove?

Quote:
Originally Posted by manson View Post
Seen here are the controls for the start-stop system, ESP OFF and the hill descent (extreme left):
What is that last switch beyond the hill descent control? Why would you need a switch for seat belts?

Quote:
Originally Posted by manson View Post
The clutch isn’t too heavy, but it isn't effortless to use either. Whoever drove the XUV5OO had some sort of complaint with the clutch pedal.
Although I didn't get a chance to TD the 500, the clutch pedal at standstill did seem quite a bit more tense than my 2.2 mHawk Scorpio. Wonder if we'll have a repeat of the 2.6 Scorpio days!

Quote:
Originally Posted by GTO View Post
Mahindra would do well to make free pickup and drop-off mandatory for every XUV5OO sold. The lesser the number of XUV customers that visit a Mahindra workshop, the better
Amen to that! Current facilities at M&M workshops are at best suitable only for drivers and taxi owners.

Quote:
Originally Posted by manson View Post
The exact intervals would be indicated in the owner's manual. However, I expect the XUV to have identical service intervals as the Scorpio, i.e. 5,000 kms because the XUV uses the same 2.2 MHawk motor in a different tune.
Although, the Scorpio has a 5k service interval, alternate intervals are pretty much checkup and topup services. I hope they'll change that to the more convenient 10k intervals for the 500. Would make the load at the workshops also lighter [especially considering the initial response- the fact that there'll be a sudden surge of vehicles for free service a few months down the road]
kaiserketkar is offline  
Old 14th October 2011, 15:53   #177
Team-BHP Support
 
manson's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Bombay
Posts: 3,933
Thanked: 4,156 Times
Re: Mahindra XUV500 : Test Drive & Review

Quote:
Originally Posted by R.I.P View Post
What i fail to understand is how were they inspired by a cheetah.

Neither is it lean as a cheetah, nor does it look like one from the front. I mean from which angle do they think it looks like one?
From the 'PR' talk I gathered their Cheetah angle implies the 'go anywhere' character of the XUV. IMHO the XUV would have sold as many numbers even without that cheesy resemblance.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Guna View Post
One of the things I noticed is, the door trim is all hard plastic. Soft Padding around the body contact points would have given nice feel
The door trim is infact done in soft touch material.
manson is offline   (1) Thanks
Old 14th October 2011, 15:53   #178
BHPian
 
niks_devil666's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Pune
Posts: 535
Thanked: 237 Times
Re: Mahindra XUV5OO : Test Drive & Review

Great review ! the xuv looks great and the pricing is spot on
is the AWD version a full time 4wd?
niks_devil666 is offline  
Old 14th October 2011, 15:56   #179
BHPian
 
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: Navi Mumbai
Posts: 63
Thanked: 64 Times
Re: Mahindra XUV500 : Test Drive & Review

Quote:
Originally Posted by lucifer1881 View Post
Why is such a hoopla being made over the lack of space in the 3rd row? This car is not a people mover. Having a 3rd row is a 'good to have' feature, not a necessity. If you want a 3rd row, get a Xylo or an Innova or an Aria. This is an SUV. 5 people is what most people will ever want to seat in it.
You said it mate! And that is not just a functional difference between an Aria (essentially an MUV) and XUV... but a difference of character trait! which comes through in it's stance and radical design.

I'd like to borrow the term from bicycles where they have 2 kinds of hybrid cycles: road focused and mountain focused. Even in crossovers there should be 2 types: Aria is a people-mover focussed Crossover whereas XUV 500 is a off-road focussed crossover!
inomad is offline  
Old 14th October 2011, 16:05   #180
BHPian
 
revved_up's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: New Delhi
Posts: 802
Thanked: 791 Times
Re: Mahindra XUV5OO : Test Drive & Review

Fantastic review guys and totally agree, this one is a game-changer!

Quote:
Originally Posted by kaiserketkar View Post


What is that last switch beyond the hill descent control? Why would you need a switch for seat belts?

I think that might be the passenger airbag off switch.
revved_up is offline  
Reply

Most Viewed
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Team-BHP.com
Proudly powered by E2E Networks