[JJay]

As always, to the point and well written review .

If we keep debatable build quality aside, kudos to MSIL for their market reading skills and arranging/modifying their products accordingly as it surely knows the wants and expectations of people from particular segments (s presso, XL6 being the latest examples).

A Professor (in his late 50s) in my institute who was using chauffeur driven Audi A4 has recently switched to this as his daily driver.

I believe in most cases this would not be an only car in household. These urban chauffeur driven corporates/entrepreneurs and small families (typical family of 4) with occassional visit of parents/relatives are the targeted customer base for this car and it seems that MSIL has winner in their hand.

This car has made Innova Crysta petrol variant almost dead and according to dispatch numbers even diesel Crysta (maybe lower variants) and Marazzo is feeling heat (not entirely due to XL6) eventhough they belong to different price sphere.

[locusjag]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

Believe you are referring to this post from RavenAvi.

39% of high tensile steel is used on the XL6, and the same percent was mentioned for the launch of the Ertiga as well.

Though we cannot judge safety entirely with that aspect - may be worthwhile to note that competition like the Mahindra Marazzo not only uses 52% high tensile steel, but is also tested 4-star compliant by the Global NCAP.

My bad! I thought it was you who had posted that information. Apologies.

[satishv1987]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

Other Points

• Maruti Suzuki has claimed to have invested Rs. 100 crores into the development of the XL6.

Serious question, how efficient is the R&D at Maruti if they had to spend Rs 100 crores to come up with an Ertiga which has more creases on its body and one less seat in the middle row? The petrol engine is being reused. What did they spend all the money on?

[sureshkishore]

Great Review! A nice dissection of the XL6 for all car enthusiasts following Tbhp.

I like the value versus utility proposition offered by the Ertiga and is on my mind for my next car.

The interiors of the XL6 looks upmarket in that black shade and looking from the front it's a killer.

I am not sure about the missing middle seat and those horrible wheels.

There aren't many competitors for the XL6 except perhaps one, pre-owned innovas.

In Kerala you would get a pre-owned 6 year old Innova 2.5 Vx for XL6 money.

But need to wait and see how the market responds to it.

[Reinhard]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

The Maruti-Suzuki XL6 is on sale in India at a price of between Rs. 9.80 - 11.46 lakhs (ex-Delhi).

Ah here it is. First of a string of official reviews that should start pouring in this month & in the next one Five starer as always! Rated already.

Thanks CD & Leoshashi for the review as well as quite a few key aspects. Especially the cost of the LiIon battery for replacement and the necessity of running the engine for at least 30 minutes every week. Thats a key item to remember for those who won't be taking out this car from the bungalow parking regularly OR those globe trotters who travel for work frequently and have to keep the car idle at home till return.

I feel we should mention the missing airbags for the 2nd and 3rd row as a glaring omission. This is a premium offering & has a potential to be used as a chauffeur driven vehicle with owners in middle row! Dumb to give no side / curtain airbags for them or the children while calling it a premium SUV IMO.

Couldn't agree more about the wheel size & how the terrible wheel arch claddings are dwarfing them even further. What were the designers thinking I can't imagine.

The XL6 being priced OVER the SCross shows how weird our market really turns out often. The SCross is such a well rounded & excellent vehicle. Capable, versatile & really good bang for buck. Yet - an MPV spin-off running only on petrol beats it as a flagship of the NEXA. Ironic.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by VJ05

Team-Bhp September car sales data proves this - While Ertiga sold 8391 and 6284 in Aug & Sep respectively, XL6 sold only 2356 & 3840 units in comparison. Even if I consider, XL6 was launched late in Aug, sold via so-called premium 'Nexa' outlets and market slowdown, these numbers are not so great.

On the other hand, with some minor changes - Maruti has achieved about 18% growth in the MPV space operated by the Ertiga, amidst the recession seen in the market. We may not realize it when we see Ertiga and XL6 as different on the sales charts, but with this move - Maruti sold more MPVs last two months than the best selling small cars from Hyundai.

Although it is still too early to predict the long term trends, we can be sure that Maruti will be happy if the combined sales numbers for Ertiga + XL6 remain above the average numbers achieved with only the Ertiga earlier.

Originally Posted by satishv1987

Serious question, how efficient is the R&D at Maruti if they had to spend Rs 100 crores to come up with an Ertiga which has more creases on its body and one less seat in the middle row?

100 crore is only 10% of their usual budget for the development of a new car. The new Ertiga, for example, was developed with a budget of 900 crores. DZire had an even bigger budget of 1000 crores.

[Reinhard]

Originally Posted by satishv1987

Serious question, how efficient is the R&D at Maruti if they had to spend Rs 100 crores to come up with an Ertiga which has more creases on its body and one less seat in the middle row? The petrol engine is being reused. What did they spend all the money on?

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

100 crore is only 10% of their usual budget for the development of a new car. The new Ertiga, for example, was developed with a budget of 900 crores. DZire had an even bigger budget of 1000 crores.

Also - the R&D expenses are a very easy escape hatch for large organizations like MSIL to show write offs and expenses. Most organizations inflate these numbers (totally within legal boundaries of course). And the R&D I'm sure includes expenses towards surveys, staff training, material procurement for marketing, campaign planing etc.

[SS-Traveller]

Thanks for a nice review, albeit one that I was looking forward to 2 weeks ago - my cousin took delivery of an XL6 Alpha AT at the end of September.



Driving impressions:
• It feels more like my Ciaz (The Ciazzler® | Our Nexa Blue Maruti-Suzuki Ciaz Petrol (Alpha)) and less like a diesel Ertiga.

• Smooth and noiseless around the city, haven't had the opportunity to take it on the highway, but I'd expect similar NVH to the Ciaz.

• Touch and feel of the controls and view of the console is more Ciaz than Ertiga.

• City average is around 11.5-12 kmpl in moderate to dense Delhi traffic, which is commendable for a 4-speed automatic. Ciaz to XL6, there's a weight gain of ~150kg, plus poorer aerodynamics, so I'd expect lesser highway average for an XL6 compared to a Ciaz.

• The second row captain seats are superbly comfortable. My cousin has a chauffeur to do the majority of his driving for him, so these seats were the actual deal-maker for him. Made me nostalgic about the captain seats of my (now sold) Scorpio (Hawk-On-Fours® (H-4®) with a tail - Scorpio mHawk 4WD EDIT: Sold!).

• Impressive turning radius, but twirling the steering quickly causes some "snagging" because of the not-perfectly-round steering wheel with its flat base. Guess it would be a matter of getting used to it, but I much prefer a perfectly round steering wheel.

• The remote key looks el cheapo compared to the Ciaz's key. It doesn't have a remote boot release or sensor-based button release unlike the Ciaz, so effectively we need to unlock the whole car before the boot can be released.

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

• Thanks to BHPian Leoshashi for sharing the price of the lithium-ion battery. It costs a whopping Rs. 53,685 to replace. Further, one must never let this battery discharge completely as it will not recharge again. Maruti recommends a minimum of 30 minutes of engine running time per week to prevent this from happening.
• The dual-battery setup of the petrol isn't proven yet.

The Li-ion battery and the ISG unit are under warranty for 5 years/100,000 km, irrespective of whether extended warranty has been purchased or not.



On standby (parked car), the Li-ion battery does not discharge much - I've found 3 bars remaining at the same level after even 1 week. I've also left the car unused for 3 weeks, and the bar has reduced by 1. So running the Li-ion battery down completely would need the car to be parked far longer than 1-2 weeks.

The Li-ion battery does not receive charge unless the engine is in deceleration mode (foot off the accelerator), but only above 1500 rpm. In a manual transmission car, e.g. my Ciaz, downshifting to slow down helps this charging greatly. Haven't figured out how it responds in the XL6 (or Ciaz) with AT.

[sayoojl]

Any idea whether it is feasible to replace the middle row captain seats in XL6 with the bench type seats in ertiga?

[King_pin09]

I had the opportunity of taking the test drive of the XL6 recently. My observations from the test drive are as under,

1. The low LED beams are rather poor, could not cut through moderate rains. Only at par with the halogens on my erstwhile 2016 Ciaz (though white in color). The high beam is just sufficient.

2. It has a small turning radius and can be maneuvered in tight spaces easily.

3. The all-black interiors of budget grade plastic can draw mixed opinions. I am not a fan of all-black interiors, either.

4. The fabric lining for roof feels premium / much better than the felt lining on the competition.

5. The dash board philosophy, as NEXA says is called “Stone Finish” and not “Faux Wood” as being assumed by some customers.

6. Footwell lighting is broadly missed. Maruti could have provided it.

7. But yes, the Alpha variant had a 'sort of' auto closing wing mirrors.

Overall it is a good car to buy if your initial target was for the Ertiga but could extend the budget slightly upwards.

[hkollar]

Originally Posted by Reinhard

The XL6 being priced OVER the SCross shows how weird our market really turns out often. The SCross is such a well rounded & excellent vehicle. Capable, versatile & really good bang for buck. Yet - an MPV spin-off running only on petrol beats it as a flagship of the NEXA. Ironic.

Maruti is extremely stupid not to offer a Automatic option with S-Cross. Deal breaker for many.

[busydrive]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

Driving the 1.5L Petrol MT

I had been to a nearby Nexa showroom to see the XL6 in person. The display car was in Khaki Green color and looked good overall. The doors didn't show much flex like the new generation swift. Good seating height and overall ingress and egress was good. Was also happy with the bonnet view from driving seat.
What is worrying me is the view of the engine view as mentioned in the quoted picture. I see very less steel in the section that actually works as crumple zone, specially behind the fender areas. You can see lot of plastic in the engine bay. Even the wheel arches are all plastic and are visible! I was comparing this with my 2010 Dzire which isn't a great benchmark itself but was atleast having all these portions covered in metal. The engine grills, light areas are very weak and flexes even when gently pushed.
I needed a 6 seater automatic and was looking at this as an option, but not very keen after seeing the car in person. Even though my primary driving is within the city, here also one needs to be careful as there are so many cases of mini trucks jumping dividers and hitting head on.
On the review, a very well written one. Thank you very much for this.

[SS-Traveller]

Originally Posted by King_pin09

My observations from the test drive are as under,

1. The low LED beams are rather poor, could not cut through moderate rains. Only at par with the halogens on my erstwhile 2016 Ciaz (though white in color). The high beam is just sufficient.

I'm surprised about your perception of the headlamp illumination, because I thought both high and low beams are sufficiently powerful in the XL6 (much better than the Ertiga or old Ciaz's headlamps, and quite similar to the Ciaz's LED beams), though with a slightly bluish white tinge. Perhaps it has to do with the rain, where the lenses may not have been clean, or the fact that the low beams were set too close to the ground (I've had to adjust my Ciaz's beams upwards soon after delivery).

[King_pin09]

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

I'm surprised about your perception of the headlamp illumination, because I thought both high and low beams are sufficiently powerful in the XL6

Well, I have penned down the statement based on my experience. The vehicle was a demo version used for test drives, and there could be more than one reason for the reduced intensity.

Perhaps, you are correct in the sense that the moderate rains too had a role to play here, but then the head lamps are expected to cut through them effectively, aren’t they? Another reason I can imagine is that the cluster surface was soiled due to rains or similar effect (I did not check the surface as I walked straight into the showroom after the drive).

Cheers.

[vinair]

Are there changes made to the brakes on the Ertiga? For the auto variant at least? If it's the same set up as on the Ciaz auto, then I wouldn't say its very confidence inspiring on a people mover. With full load (though there is EBD), discs all around should be mandatory. Full marks to Mahindra for all 4 disc set up on the Marazzo!