[ashishk29]

Originally Posted by shipnil

I think there won't be any change with addition of airbags as I think poor rating was due to unstable bodyshell.

I can understand the common buyers still going for Kia Seltos but a member here is definitely aware of the unsafe product and still recommends is something I don't understand.

Right on both counts.

Airbags do not add up towards the NCAP score unless 6 airbags are common across ALL variants, including the base ones.

And even then it wouldn't score much higher since it was borderline 3 star to begin with. For that matter, Ertiga has a better GNCAP score than the Seltos. Let that sink in.

Originally Posted by venkyhere

It's totally your call whether to forego a good product because of bad sales experience (which is a one time thing) , and gravitate towards a medicre product which boasts of excellent sales experience (which is again a one time thing). A bit like having authentic tirunelveli halwa from an obscure dark-hole-in-the-wall 'shop' on the street v/s having the same tirunelveli halwa prepared by linen clad chefs from a 5-star hotel.

I am of the exact same thought. I would rather have a one time bad buying experience and lifetime(give or take) own a good vehicle(which you would drive every day in your life) rather than be wooed by pre-sales charm and give in to a severely mediocre product. As the saying goes, "Good things come to those who wait".

Originally Posted by rnkgrg

Attempting to discredit a criticism with another criticism is a very common logical fallacy. And in this case, only we as the consumers end up losing and not the OEMs.

While I completely agree that Seltos is not a safe product for the price they are charging, it does not discount Mahindra of its responsibility of ensuring quality buying experience.

And while it is definitely not enough, Kia has listened to the customers and responded with standard six airbags in their latest offering. And there's a very high probability that this has been possible, only because we cited the example of the Indian OEMs and called them out.

Hope Mahindra listens to our criticism as well.

I believe the original attempt wasn't to discredit a criticism with a criticism. More so to highlight the ephemeral nature of the pre-buying experience with the daily reality of owning the car.

Absolutely agree that it does not absolve Mahindra of giving a decent buying experience. They should work on that front. However I would like to highlight that this experience is highly subjective to city, dealership, and so on. When I went for the TD, they gave me a proper tag like thing, we had access to multiple standing 700s to inspect, we were given water, coffee while we waited for the TD. Yes, we did have to wait, but the wait was well taken care of.

Also, Kia does NOT offer 6 airbags as standard. A feature is called "Standard" only and only when it is available in every single variant of a car. Kia does not offer 6 airbags in the base variant. Seltos has 7 variants and only the very top-most variant offers side airbags.

Originally Posted by shipnil

While I agree with you regarding the the sub par experience you are having with the dealership and Mahindra, hope your definition of product experience / service also includes a decently safe product. Hope you / your friend are proactively urging Kia as well to make Seltos safer for the price they are charging.

I agree. Better to be patient and get a good car than be charmed by pre-sales stuff and buy an unsafe car.

Overall, I would like to add some thoughts for new car buyers here:
Do not be charmed by pre-sales experience. It is at that point that the company is trying to win a customer. They will try their hardest. This experience does not necessarily reflect the actual quality of a product.

For example:

During a Seltos TD, a dealer rep may show you how the air purifier works, and you may find it interesting. But you will only get such a feature on the upper variants.

However during a XUV700 TD, the dealer rep cannot possibly show you how important a 5 star GNCAP rating is. But, this feature is common across ALL variants, and I am quite sure most will agree that the 5 star is a far more important feature than some paltry air purifier.

Don't go by dealership pizzazz and drama. Research the product, and put a hefty weightage on safety. That safety rating can be the difference between life and death.
And this is especially important when I hear this typical age old line from nearly every driver I've met "But I drive safely". No. It doesn't matter. The streets are filled with idiots. You cannot possibly ignore the danger they pose to you.
I have personally been rear-ended by a mini-bus on the highway at ~70kmph because he completely ignored my turn indicator and just kept pushing his lane. Was I driving unsafely? No. But the other person was. And I still got hit.

Point being, take safety seriously, and be patient. I understand this is frustrating, and unfair. But the world is hit by a silicon shortage like never before.
Even Toyota had to globally cut down their production by 40% over it.
Compared to Toyota worldwide, Mahindra is small fry. So they are obviously going to be hit by the shortage even worse, considering the amount of electronics that go into modern cars, and especially one with ADAS.

Rant over. Peace out.

[padmrajravi]

Originally Posted by shipnil

I can understand the common buyers still going for Kia Seltos but a member here is definitely aware of the unsafe product and still recommends is something I don't understand.

There aren't much choices in that segment. Seltos atleast has a crash rating. Creta does not have one. Hector, Compass and Harrier have the same oil filter problem because of the MJD 2.0 and is unlikely to get any better rating as per info in the forum. The only crash tested one is XUV700 and it is available only with a year waiting period.

[noufal.ps]

Folks, I test drove Xuv700 yesterday. Drove Petrol AT and Diesel AT for a good 8-9 kms and liked everything but ride quality.

Suspension is on the stiffer side (plus Bangalore roads) and I could feel everything on the road, literally everything. My current ride is Rapid 2015 and CRV 2014, well CRV has excellent ride (I can throw at anything on road). I found Xuv700 stiffer/bad ride quality compared to even Rapid.

Any of you have similar observation? XUV expert opinions please

[Manojah]

A video on ADAS limitations -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WmS...l=PowerOnWheel

[Abhikumar629]

Originally Posted by noufal.ps

Folks, I test drove Xuv700 yesterday. Drove Petrol AT and Diesel AT for a good 8-9 kms and liked everything but ride quality.

Suspension is on the stiffer side (plus Bangalore roads) and I could feel everything on the road, literally everything. My current ride is Rapid 2015 and CRV 2014, well CRV has excellent ride (I can throw at anything on road). I found Xuv700 stiffer/bad ride quality compared to even Rapid.

Any of you have similar observation? XUV expert opinions please

Never felt that way during the 2 test ride that I took. Maybe the tyres in the TD car would be overinflated. In-fact every review has talked about their mature suspension set-up. Might not better the Safari but no less than that.

Originally Posted by nirleo

No offence but, they cannot manufacture and deliver one car of a variant, just because they have it as a variant.
Also as the AWD variant requires lot of chips, they would have decided to utilize the chips more efficiently and deliver more cars of other variant requiring lesser number of chips than 1 AWD variant car.
But as you rightly said, the people who have booked the AWD variant (like myself) are eagerly waiting for more videos on actual user reviews.

I disagree with the logic of AWD chips being utilized to manufacture more vehicles. AWD system is not assembled by Mahindra but rather procured from a Tier 1. No Tier 1 will hand over their chip to an OEM to manufacture more vehicles and take a loss for themselves. They can better manufacture more units and sell to other OEM that requires it. Also the spec of the chip might not always match what the OEM is short of. There is something else to AWD shortage and not only chip as the problem.

[abirnale]

Originally Posted by Abhikumar629

There is something else to AWD shortage and not only chip as the problem.

Exactly - the supplier is struggling to fulfill the demand and meanwhile M&M is focused on clearing the plate that they have filled with so far. I don't think there are any AWDs delivered to any customers yet - the first sets will start rolling only around end of Jan. Few customers might get in last week of Jan while other in first two weeks of Feb.

All the folks who were told that their AWDs are coming in Dec - has anyone got them? I am imagining unanimous "no". The online order status is also not updated, neither the dealers have any clues! Try calling the customer care too - i would be surprised if they tell you anything specific :(

[Knighted06]

Guys, I've seen a few test mules of XUV 700 still camouflaged and being tested in different parts of Tamil Nadu, any idea why its camouflaged? I managed to click these pics of what is most probably a XUV700 AX5 on 26 dec in Besant Nagar beach. No idea why its so heavily camouflaged, or why it is parked in the parking lot of a beach. I have seen a few test mules being tested similarly camouflaged and being tested accompanied by a Thar when I was driving from Tirupathi to Thanjavur as well.

[fiat_tarun]

Originally Posted by Knighted06

Guys, I've seen a few test mules of XUV 700 still camouflaged and being tested in different parts of Tamil Nadu, any idea why its camouflaged?

Simple. The many test mules rarely ever have their camouflage removed !

The same test fleet will be used to test various components - could be alternate sources, different designs, general durability testing, etc. and every test car does not need to be a new variant that is to launch soon.

It is too much of a process to bring the cars in and remove the camouflage, since these test cars have a very short and rough life anyway.

[Guna]

Originally Posted by abirnale

I don't think there are any AWDs delivered to any customers yet - the first sets will start rolling only around end of Jan.

There is a single AWD model which got delivered as reported in one of the FB groups but that seems to be an odd case.

Originally Posted by Knighted06

. No idea why its so heavily camouflaged, or why it is parked in the parking lot of a beach.

Interestingly, they still carry the older grills which were spotted on the earlier test mules.

[rnkgrg]

Originally Posted by venkyhere

It's totally your call whether to forego a good product because of bad sales experience (which is a one time thing).

Okay, I might have been misunderstood a little. We haven't cancelled our XUV700 booking and do not plan on doing that either, especially on the basis of the bad buying experience.

Originally Posted by shipnil

I think there won't be any change with addition of airbags as I think poor rating was due to unstable bodyshell.

I can understand the common buyers still going for Kia Seltos but a member here is definitely aware of the unsafe product and still recommends is something I don't understand.

As for bad dealership experience, we have an excellent thread. Link below.

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/india...l-because.html (Had a bad sales experience at a dealer? Please do NOT eliminate the car model because of that!)

Dear Mods, if this post is not relevant to the current thread, please delete.

Again, as I said, it is not enough what Kia has done, but it is a step in the right direction. Kia has been told what they need to work on and they will work on that in the future.

And since it was not enough, we are calling them out and will continue to do so in the foreseeable future, as you did in this post.

All I am saying is we not to hold Mahindra to the same standards, and call them out if something unacceptable is found out.

And I did not recommend Kia Seltos as a product. I don't think I am qualified enough yet to do that. I just created a contrast between the two booking/buying experiences. As a prospective customer, I would love to have as much information as possible before making a purchase decision. This was just my two cents in that. You win some, you lose some. Mahindra might have a good product on hand, but in the buying experience they are losing out.

Originally Posted by ashishk29

I believe the original attempt wasn't to discredit a criticism with a criticism. More so to highlight the ephemeral nature of the pre-buying experience with the daily reality of owning the car.

Absolutely agree that it does not absolve Mahindra of giving a decent buying experience. They should work on that front. However I would like to highlight that this experience is highly subjective to city, dealership, and so on. When I went for the TD, they gave me a proper tag like thing, we had access to multiple standing 700s to inspect, we were given water, coffee while we waited for the TD. Yes, we did have to wait, but the wait was well taken care of.

Also, Kia does NOT offer 6 airbags as standard. A feature is called "Standard" only and only when it is available in every single variant of a car. Kia does not offer 6 airbags in the base variant. Seltos has 7 variants and only the very top-most variant offers side airbags.

I get your point. The buying experience should not factor in big time in the purchase of a vehicle. But it still something that you wish for while on the look out.

And regarding the dealership vs. OEM point is where I stand corrected. Buying experience is largely controlled by the dealer and mine could be one-off bad experience. Generalizing that to Mahindra might be wrong. But I would still hope for better quality control by Mahindra in these regards.

I am a newbie when it comes to understanding how GNCAP ratings work, I won't comment on that. But it was Kia Carens that I was referring to. IIRC, it comes with six airbags as standard across all it's variants.

Anyhow, this has been a great discussion with you all. I think we should put an end to this here or we risk going off topic.

P. S. - I am sorry if mis-quoted someone. I am still trying to learn my way through the forum systems. Cheers!

[n13tzsche]

I have a question here regarding sunroof on cars and specifically to XUV700 which i am contemplating as my next car.

Can we install roof rails/racks on a car with sunroof?

I tried confirming this with customer care of mahindra and even though he told me it will not look good but he said they can be installed. Upon searching more i could see that sunroof somehow messes the integrity of roof and hence roof rails are not installed.

Anyone who has an idea around this or has taken delivery can confirm?

[TorqueTwist]

Originally Posted by MayurS

16K for a michelin that’s the lowest I ever heard. Even continental’s are costing 19k here each for 235/60 spec. Could you share the details of the tyre shop from where you bought yours ?
Thanks you

Can't reveal buddy. Shop belongs to a close friend of mine and the selling price for the said set of tires are 17.5k per tire. Yes Conti and Michelin are evenly priced.

[nasir88]

Originally Posted by Knighted06

I managed to click these pics of what is most probably a XUV700 AX5 on 26 dec in Besant Nagar beach.

This is most likely a very early test mule. Notice the faux wood like finish on the gear console (which must have been axed later). Also it has the standard non led headlights seen on the AX3 now.

[Guna]

Evoindia channel is participating in engage4X4 which also includes an XUV700 AWD. We may be finally able to see some good reviews on the AWD.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CX-noH4B..._web_copy_link

[Vivek Menon]

Overdrive 700th Episode. They are driving XU7 700 AWD. Guess slowly we are seeing AWD's in action.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mu4_8JBzdV8