[Ranga]

Originally Posted by sijesh

IMHO You have made the right decision by going for W8.

Leave alone the alloys and other goodies like foldable mirrors that you get, but the 2 safety features sealed it for me:

ESP and airbags(6 of them)

Honetly I know more about ESP after booking the W8:
Without Stability Control - YouTube

With Stability Control - YouTube

In the Indian context the safety aspects always takes a backseat , while in the US it is mandatory to have airbags, ABS and ESP in any vehicle. Where as down here even when one buys a car with more than 10Lakhs you may not get any of them(ex. Only the Innova top end comes with dual airbags and ABS, which is so sad)

On the other hand manufacturers like skoda, volkswagen and ford etc. do get away with placing the turn indicator controls and wiper controls on the opposite sides. In europe there are strict laws and standards for car manufacturers.

From these point of view XUV is a fantastic product from Mahindra where the basic model comes atleast with ABS+airbags.

But things like ESP should also be made mandatory for India as you umpteen number of unexpected things or cows and dogs on the road.

If these do not convince you, having alloys and other things that you plan to fit after market may not be covered by the standard insurance.

Wow , this video is a real eye opener for ESP .I totally agree that we have lot of un expected visitors on our high ways and we need to keep in mind above safety aspect while buying a suv .

[MAS]

Originally Posted by Infiniti.Rahul

I have a strange predicament and thought will discuss this with others and see what popular opinion is.

Well, W8 is a good choice. Please stick to it. The difference is not much and is not worth to change it. More air-bags and ESP means more safety. Please do not compromise safety.

Originally Posted by sijesh

Honetly I know more about ESP after booking the W8:

Excellent Videos. Eye opener. Thanks a million . This is very much essential for Indian roads

[magikrider]

Originally Posted by tachobells

imminent price hike from Mahindra (rumored to be around a Lakh).

frankly speaking I wouldn't mind even paying the rumored price hike if they sort out the initial niggles and issues reported and also improve the interior quality including the plastics and seat covers. but without these improvements, a price hike can be a risky proposition and might just upset many potential buyers. as the price is one of the strongest attraction of XUV. or maybe instead of the price hike they can come out with a XUV AWD Highline, a la BMW, with the above said things as well as a few more features thrown in! wow! that would just baffle the competition! and I am sure there would be many takers for such an option. I would take it in a heartbeat!

Originally Posted by sijesh

Honetly I know more about ESP after booking the W8

good videos. I think ESP is all the more important in an SUV. but sadly people dont notice all the safety aspect and instead just think about the amount saved on W6 and then getting the accessories fitted of own choice from outside. I am talking in general here. as there are people who would spend almost similar amount (the price difference between w6 and w8) on better accessories from outside.

[sidwadia]

QUOTE=nitinralli;2564494]So were you able to get the insurance from outside? How did you manage to get out of dealer's trick of getting into his deal? Please share.
One more thing, i still think that you are paying little more than what you can actually get from outside. For e.g. i was given a quote of 26K 0% depreciation from SBI for W6 so i guess for W8 it should be around 30K max. Do check it bro cause i still think that you can save more on this.[/quote]
Nitin,
The facebook update from the XUV500 clearly states that no dealer can force buying of insurance from the dealership only. Thay have asked customers to complain about such errant dealers. Suggest you share ur comment on FB.
Cheers
Sid

[Infiniti.Rahul]

Originally Posted by sidwadia

Nitin,
I have been qouted a final figure of 37832/- for the zero depreciation on the XUV W8 FWD by ICICI Lombard.
Not sure if this is as competitive as other insurance providers in the market.
Friends, I believe the insurance quotes have been discussed somewhere on the thread (but I just can't seem to locate it), request members to share their info/advice on this quote pls !!!
I have to make the DD tomm for the final payment & would appreciate your views.
Thx in advance
Sid

Dear Sid and NitinRalli,

Good news for you guys. Mahindra has just posted on Facebook Fan page that its not necessary for the client to buy insurance from dealer. Here is the text reproduced verbatim:

Dear customers, M&M does not require any dealer to have a customer purchase insurance on its vehicles only through the dealer. Please write to us at customercare@mahindra.com if you are aware of any deviation from this policy.


Guess your troubles on being overcharged should be over. Someone high up in Mahindra has taken notice.Take care!

[nitin.rai]

Originally Posted by Infiniti.Rahul

Dear customers, M&M does not require any dealer to have a customer purchase insurance on its vehicles only through the dealer. Please write to us at customercare@mahindra.com if you are aware of any deviation from this policy.!

Adding the link - https://www.facebook.com/MahindraXUV500FB

[tachobells]

Originally Posted by Infiniti.Rahul

Guess your troubles on being overcharged should be over. Someone high up in Mahindra has taken notice.Take care!

Thanks to BHPian swiftnfurious.. It's Anand Mahindra himself who has initiated this.

Originally Posted by swiftnfurious

I have posted it on Anand Mahindra's twitter account & XUV 500 FB page. Please don't wait for a response from the mail box. Most of the time you just get the automated response. So please make sure that you talk to the customer care and get things escalated, especially when you don't have much time. Please do paste about this on the FB page as well so that more people view the issue and more of them respond if they have gone thru similar problem.

[swiftnfurious]

Looks like the efforts to get the attention from the manufacturer have been paid off. So all those guys who want to take own insurance can go ahead and do it. Am attaching the pic of the post too. Please do take a print out of this if you feel a need; while visiting the dealer.



My respect for M&M as a company & Anand Mahindra has grown multiple folds with this incident. Way to go Mahindra! Hats off for a positive turn around!!

[harimakesh]

Great to Know Mahindra has a functional ear and listened to the wooes on the captive insurance explotation by dealers on XUV5oo. Surely respect for Anand Mahindra has been enhanced.

Please fix the initial QC niggles Quickly and launch XUV5oo with A/T across all models and offer sunroof as option. This will make another kind of wave in the market in favour of Mahindra.

[throttleking]

Saw it in flesh yesterday, first impression, its a car!!! It is nowhere close to Fortuner, Safary, Endy or Pajero in terms of size. To some extent it doesn't even come any close to Scorpio in looks department that the SUV should have. People are just going crazy behind the pricing,in my personal opinion I would buy an Sedan loaded with features rather than XUV. and if i have to buy SUV it is not XUV for sure.

[nitinralli]

Originally Posted by sidwadia

QUOTE=nitinralli;2564494]So were you able to get the insurance from outside? How did you manage to get out of dealer's trick of getting into his deal? Please share.
One more thing, i still think that you are paying little more than what you can actually get from outside. For e.g. i was given a quote of 26K 0% depreciation from SBI for W6 so i guess for W8 it should be around 30K max. Do check it bro cause i still think that you can save more on this.

[/quote]

Originally Posted by Infiniti.Rahul

Dear Sid and NitinRalli,

Good news for you guys. Mahindra has just posted on Facebook Fan page that its not necessary for the client to buy insurance from dealer. Here is the text reproduced verbatim:

Dear customers, M&M does not require any dealer to have a customer purchase insurance on its vehicles only through the dealer. Please write to us at customercare@mahindra.com if you are aware of any deviation from this policy.


Guess your troubles on being overcharged should be over. Someone high up in Mahindra has taken notice.Take care!

Originally Posted by swiftnfurious

Looks like the efforts to get the attention from the manufacturer have been paid off. So all those guys who want to take own insurance can go ahead and do it. Am attaching the pic of the post too. Please do take a print out of this if you feel a need; while visiting the dealer.

Attachment 836503

My respect for M&M as a company & Anand Mahindra has grown multiple folds with this incident. Way to go Mahindra! Hats off for a positive turn around!!

GAME, SET, MATCH to ME ME ME
Finally all my efforts to get my own insurance paid off. It has been a week long fight and with the help of you guys, specially swiftnfurious for posting it on Anand Mahidra twitter account. A big Thanks to you bro.
I went from Area sales manager to VP of Koncept auto. I stood my ground and didn't bow down to there tricks. I have never fought like this before in my life for my right, maybe a little "Anna" effect on me. Did all kind of search for insurance from all companies and provided them with what all i could find.
And finally today, they all went down like a deck of cards. Got a call from VP Koncept auto and SA (Salman Malik) saying that they are providing me with a "discounted insurnce", hah yah sure. They also said that if you are not happy with what they are offering, then i am free to have my own from outside (Bingo).
Here's the mail from them:

I tried to connect Mr. Nitin but was not picked up by him. Our executive salman talked to the customer about our discounted proposal matching with outer market. Still on special case we can also consider the case for his own insurance.
Regards

TOPHAN PATTANAYAK
Vice President(operation)
Koncept Automobiles Pvt. Ltd

NOIDA-201301 (India)
Phone:
Moblie:
Website : Mahindra, Mahindra-Mahindra Dealer New Delhi and Noida - Koncept Automobiles



Sent: 03 November 2011 08:53

Subject: Re: URGENT: Dealer's charging extraordinary amounts for Insurance for XUV 5oo

html> head> meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-16"> /head> body>
Dear Tophan ji,

Please address the customer complaint immediately.

Regards
Sent on my BlackBerry® from Vodafone
From: nitin ralli <nitinralli@hotmail.com>
Date: Wed, 2 Nov 2011 23:56:21 +0530

Subject: RE: URGENT: Dealer's charging extraordinary amounts for Insurance for XUV 5oo

Hi Puneet,

Thanks for the reply. I am still waiting from Mr Toophan to get back to me on this.

I think my concern was misunderstood a little. My concern is, how can a dealer state that Insurance is "mandatory" from him only. I guess there is no rule as such that it has to be from dealer only. If a customer does not want to go with dealer insurance, then he should not be forced to obey dealers terms. As per your statement below “Dealer will definitely like to do the insurance in house but if u feel its on a higher side there is always a scope of discussion between u & dealer.” I agree that dealer would “like” to have the insurance in house however he cannot force customer to buy it from him only. What I am trying to say is why should I “discuss” this with dealer and not simply take it from outside?

To cut the story short, what i need from you or Mr Toophan is a written statement that I am free to choose my own insurance deal weather from dealer or from outside. If you can provide this to me, then I would be more than happy.

Looking forward to you reply.

Regards,
Nitin

Once again thanks to all and like me, down go down and stand for your rights.

[PRADEEP KUMAR]

Originally Posted by throttleking

Saw it in flesh yesterday, first impression, its a car!!! It is nowhere close to Fortuner, Safary, Endy or Pajero in terms of size. To some extent it doesn't even come any close to Scorpio in looks department that the SUV should have. People are just going crazy behind the pricing,in my personal opinion I would buy an Sedan loaded with features rather than XUV. and if i have to buy SUV it is not XUV for sure.

This is pretty much the same i felt and expressed in my earlier post.
Somehow i feel it will never become a Dadagiri car because of its soft looks!!
I would really like to know the number of people who want to Upgrade(?) to this from Bolero/scorpio/safari, intention is to know how keen are people who have been used to SUV driving
cheers!!

[m_upreti]

Originally Posted by throttleking

Saw it in flesh yesterday, first impression, its a car!!! It is nowhere close to Fortuner, Safary, Endy or Pajero in terms of size. To some extent it doesn't even come any close to Scorpio in looks department that the SUV should have. People are just going crazy behind the pricing,in my personal opinion I would buy an Sedan loaded with features rather than XUV. and if i have to buy SUV it is not XUV for sure.

Originally Posted by PRADEEP KUMAR

This is pretty much the same i felt and expressed in my earlier post. Somehow i feel it will never become a Dadagiri car because of its soft looks!!
I would really like to know the number of people who want to Upgrade(?) to this from Bolero/scorpio/safari, intention is to know how keen are people who have been used to SUV driving cheers!!

As days pass by the head rules over the heart and I personally feel that the closure of bookings was a blessing in disguise, after living the butch and raw looks of the Scorpio, the XUV certainly lacks the punch (talking purely in terms of looks and road presence), I think waiting for the upgraded Fortuner would be worth it.

[maheshramaling]

Originally Posted by m_upreti

As days pass by the head rules over the heart and I personally feel that the closure of bookings was a blessing in disguise, after living the butch and raw looks of the Scorpio, the XUV certainly lacks the punch (talking purely in terms of looks and road presence), I think waiting for the upgraded Fortuner would be worth it.

+1. Just coming back from a test drive of W8 version and I would give 5 stars for all the gizmos they have added in this car (especially the navigation system, leg room in 2nd row).

In my opinion;

Pro's of XUV 5OO:

• Powerful engine
• Competitive Pricing (though I wouldn't say as cheap)
• Loads of Gizmos
• Leg Room in 2nd Row

Con's of XUV 5OO:

• Lacks orginality in most of the areas (most aspects, including the car shape)
• Cheap, cheaper & cheapest plastics; Though plastic quality is leap ahead of other mahindra vehicles - yet, it is uncomparable to the quality in other vehicles for e.g., Innova.
• Loads of Chrome (this could be a positive thing for Chrome lovers - but I hated it)
• Though the grill & front portion are head turner, a slight push/ knock will tell you that they are not very sturdy & can break with a small impact.
• Steering Rod is placed too close to the clutch/ break pedals. In fact, as you turn, the rod touches your shoes. Felt like we were in a truck!
• Practically there is no space to even keep a single bag with the 3rd row placed.
• Lights & lights everywhere. Felt like I was sitting in a movie hall. Personally - I am not a fan of lighting in car beyond the necessity.

In fact - my friend wanted to buy this car, but I have given a thumbs down. In summary - this is not a practical car & in the current composition - I will never buy this car or recommend to any of my friends.

[nilanjanray]

Guys, the XUV is a crossover. The Fortuner is a body on frame 4WD low range offroader. Each has its pros and cons. Earlier we used to look at the needs of the potential buyer and then advise (so many threads e.g. Outlander vs. Fortuner, Yeti vs. Fortuner etc.). Nowadays we are having a straight duel b/w the XUV and the Fortuner. Wonder why? Does pricing change the basic characteristics of the vehicle?

If you want/need a tough, big 4WD SUV, go for the Fortuner/Endy/Pajero and be willing to sacrifice some of the creature comforts (read the feedback about the G-Wagen in the Mercedes travelogue - that is a 1.XX crore vehicle - and has its own quirks that are considered to be adding to its 'character'). You want a nice handling, fancy featured crossover, go for the XUV (or Outlander or Xtrail etc. if budget permits).

And do you think most people who want to upgrade to a 20L+ vehicle will consider a XUV? As I mentioned in another thread, I asked a couple of friends planning to upgrade to a SUV from C+ sedans, and none of them were considering the XUV. Their budget was upto 25L. And they were favouring vehicles that were at the upper end of the budget. Seems counter-intuitive, but perfectly understandable.

IMO the higher end Safaris, Scorpios and the Innovas will get hit by the XUV. The more expensive 20L+ SUVs, not so much.