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-   -   TUV300 AMT problems & Mahindra's inability to solve them (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/technical-stuff/175734-tuv300-amt-problems-mahindras-inability-solve-them.html)

Bad days are not yet over!

Guys FYI I own a TUV300 AMT delivered in Feb 16 (deliberately taken 2016 manufactured vehicle so that it should be free of initial niggles). But since then, total of 6 times it has gone to the service center. Communications with Delhi NCR head, tweeted to Vivek Nayer, Anand Mahindra and Pawan Goenka too, but it seems Mahindra is not keen on fine tuning their AMT model.

Problems started with heavy jerks within the first month of purchase which was partially solved by flashing a new version of software, but gave birth to a new kind of problem of TUV300 occasionally sounding like a truck and AMT warning light flashing continuously. This was attended to after showing them the video proof of problem and to solve that problem, they changed the ECU (flashed with new software too) and FDM (as per service engineer), also changed modulator precautionary. Now that truck sound has not resurfaced since then and culprit was FDM (as per service engineer) which was blocking fuel supply causing heavy noise and AMT failure.

But this is not the end, now facing jerks and unwanted pulling + pushing + jerks while downshifting (especially coming down from 3rd to 2nd to 1st) at low speeds. So again, taken TUV to the service center (GSP Gurgaon). This time Delhi NCR head Mr Ravi and an engineer were there to simulate problems. Taken test drives and they have agreed that there are jerks while downshifting and very inconsistent behaviour of occasional acceleration and deceleration at low speeds - also RPM shoots upto 2500 while downshifting & creating a "whoooosh" sound. But to my utter surprise, the problems I reported were quoted as normal behaviour of the AMT.

So yesterday, just to cross check, I decided to take a test drive of Duster AMT and I tell you guys there were no such jerks or unwanted pulling + pushing during gear shifts, clearly showing how sensitive are the Mahindra people towards their prestigious products.

The worst experience I have gone through today itself when coming back from Delhi in the evening. I was stuck in a 3 km long traffic jam, and all the time I was struggling to control the TUV300 in AMT mode at low speeds. Imagine a situation when a car is 8-10 mtrs away and you try to push the A pedal - nothing great happens, then suddenly with a jerk, it takes off!! Similar with braking when it stops either before or after the distance you try to cover.

The TUV300 behaves like an absolute gem and is silent when in 5th gear at high speeds, but as soon as you touch the brake pedal, all the drama starts.

The root of the problem is their unprofessional way of testing vehicles during production and using customers as guinea pigs to test their niggles, which surely had happened with Scorpio and XUV500 as well. Their list of niggles is never ending. Now, after spending 10.5 Lacs, I feel I have been cheated. Its not me alone who is suffering - there are many like me. Now, I am seriously considering legal help in this matter.

Mr Ravi, Mr Vivek Nayer, Mr Mahindra or Mr Pawan Goenka - if you are reading this feedback, then please come up with one final solution to the problems or take back your vehicle. Why cant they understand - A better performing vehicle & peace of mind is what customer wants, take example from Creta and see their numbers too.

Thanks,

Feeling very sorry for you. Its awful that the woes of your TUV AMT are still continuing. It seems the service centre is not able to diagnose the exact root cause of the issue. Moreover other AMT users don't seem to be facing this issue as acutely as you are. Try to drive the test drive AMT & do the comparison. Write a detailed mail to <customercare@mahindra.com>. You will have to keep your cool and all communication with the service center or Mahindra should be with the sole purpose of getting a permanent solution to your issue. The service centre can't do much unless they are technically supported by company's R&D. You should insist that the experts from the company must visit the service center and address the issue.

Thanks for sharing, ezee! I'm moving your post into a new thread to warn potential TUV300 AMT owners. Have been hearing of AMT issues since the TUV300 was launched. Mahindra's inability to solve these problems is inexplicable.

Guinea pigs indeed. That's why they say, it's best to buy a Mahindra 2 years after the product is launched. Don't be part of their R&D club as an early customer.

Thanks GTO for moving this as a new thread, I hope we will be able to grow strong so that Mahindra can hear us loud and clear.

We are talking here and meanwhile somewhere while climbing to Ooty, one of my known person's TUV AMT broke down due to gears stuck in AMT and now not shifting.

Going for a new Mahindra product (or for that matter a new car from any manufacturer) is always a big gamble. Now Mahindra bringing in new technology (read: AMT) in a new car would make this (gamble) raised to the power of 2 :Frustrati. Looking at Mahindra's aftersales support, customer centric approach and the generous 3 years, 1 lac km warranty many have jumped the TUV bandwagon (myself included). However I chose a safer approach, that of a manual transmission although the AMT offer was very lucrative.

No doubt the early adopters of the TUV are indeed guinea pigs, the only question is have they donned this mantle knowingly or unknowingly. Mahindra should make an all-out effort to instill the much need confidence in all these guinea pigs. Though the AMT box is outsourced and there would be a tendency to disown it, Mahindra has sold the complete TUV package to the customer and not just the slush box. M&M should give a loaner TUV AMT to ezee and keep his car in their R&D to further deep dive and get to the root cause of the issue.

Thanks to ezee for sharing and GTO to move out to a separate thread so that it gains momentum and also many would be alerted regarding problems/solutions.

Be it Mahindra or Maruti Suzuki or Mercedes, it best to buy cars after 6-8 months from launch. Any issues or niggles are sorted out and it saves the customer the hassle of being Guinea pig (Read free R&D) for manufacturers.

I follow this for cars, mobile or any gadgetry.

Sad to see so many complaints cropping up on a car that Mahindra targets to get the sales figures ringing. If such is the attitude of ASC, the sales would eventually go down.

@ ezee ... I have seen similar behavior of the AMT unit in my friend's celerio. Clutch shuddering started as early as 5000 kms, clutch plate was replaced. Shuddering has again surfaced at 8000kms.
He has been told that this is a problem that Maruti is facing with its AMT units. there is quite a bit of unpredictability of how the car would behave to throttle inputs in bumper to bumper traffic and car moves like a rabbit while parking in tight spots.

Isn't this expected when a company launches a car every second month? Even the established global car companies with billions of dollars in R&D budget do not have a product cycle like this, and my god they are ugly.

I feel for you my friend and I hope Mahindra does something to alleviate the issues once and for all.

P.S. I was never comfortable with the idea of an AMT transmission. There are far too many unknowns as to what will happen.

Had also read in one of the posts in the TUV300 thread that Mahindra has stopped sales of the AMT variants due to these issues? Is this true?

The Diesel AT tag was one of the major USP's of the TUV300. As such, the sales of the TUV300 seem to be on the decline to ~2600 units in March from a high of ~4500 units in the couple of months after launch. The inability to resolve the AMT issues does not bode well for Mahindra.

Hope Mahindra takes immediate steps to completely resolve the issues.

I can empathize with you as I had a bike which had a lot of niggles and I had to give a lot of time, money and most importantly, patience to get it on the road and not in the garage. This issue should be taken very seriously by Mahindra as driving a car in traffic with the mentioned problems is dangerous for you and other travelers. Thanks GTO for understanding the gravity of the thread and moving it to an individual thread.

Ezee, I think all you whatsapp members of AMT should approach Mahindra together for better attention. Start tweeting to company heads, post on FB pages and take help of other internet places to show your collective strength.

Also, please be patient as it is going to take time!

Sorry to read about your troubles with TUV. Having to drive around in a car that accelerates and brakes as per its own sweet mood and convenience, must be extremely stressful for you. It's scary to think about the possibility where you might find yourself in a situation where you need to accelerate suddenly to get out of the harms way, or, brake hard.

Service advisor's act of acknowledging the problem, and then brushing it off as normal, is disgusting. Had recently been hearing good things about Mahindra's customer centric approach towards issues, especially when things are escalated to the higher ups. But, in your case there has been no response from the management either, which leads me to suspect that Mahindra has, indeed, launched a half-baked product with the AMT variant, and they have no real immediate solution for the erratic AMT box (about which we've been hearing a bit recently).

If finances permit, my suggestion would be to let go of your TUV, and buy yourself a reliable diesel auto (DSG, you stay out of this one, please). If the vehicle has been unreliable when it's new, I'm not sure you'll be able to trust it in the future either.

@ezee
I pointed out the same point (difficult to control the AMT in B2B traffic) during my test drive.

"4. Pressing acc. just after releasing the brake does not come into effect asap. It takes its own sweet time to engage the clutch. Note that this behavior in conjunction with "delayed creep" will result into frustration in B2B traffic."

I think that these issues are inherent to the AMT, as it needs to manage the clutch which is not a fluid-based coupling like the TC. Therefore, some jerks are unavoidable and cannot be eliminated completely.
The jerks can only be minimized at the cost of premature clutch wear-out.

I have been following, studying and staying away from AMT's due to the barbarism nature of the system. I genuinely wish that TUV came with a TC based automatic. I can live with the fuel (in)efficiency of a TC rather than the coarseness, rusticity of the AMT.
So much for an efficient (fuel wise) transmission system. No wonder it flopped in developed international markets.

hi @ezee

Thanks for putting up this issue in front of us. Sorry that you are facing such an issue. So now that you have put forth this here, the potential buyers who are planning to get a TUV300 AT can know what is happening out there.

One thing is that Mahindra are known for rugged cars but the customer service and support is pretty bad. It might be good in one point that they are entering into new tech for their cars but testing it out on potential customers is never good.

As @GTO pointed out it is right to not go for a car with new technology in the early stages when it is released. Though there might be a lot of R&D which had gone into it, but real time environment and issues might be way different it depends on how the user uses, maintains and also on the hit rate of that particular tech from that company. So it is better not to fall prey being Test mule for the company but rather be your own boss riding a must established and proved product in the market.

For now it is better you ask people at Mahindra to escalate this issue to their R&D team and ask them to give you another ride till they rectify the problem in your car.

Cheers man, have a nice day
Hope to see you happy and enjoying your ride soon

Rightly said - its still some time when even the first batch off assembly line too is reliable and trouble free from Mahindra (and few more manufacturers). If I recall correctly, XUV too had its share of niggles (some squeaking noise from front wheels when brakes applied). But I appreciate that Mahindra were listening and steadily improved the product. Hope they sooner fix the issues in TUV too.

Little :OT : Recently I was in Royal Enfield Showroom for the Himalayan. After 2 test rides and comparing Thunder Bird 500 vs Himalayan back to back, I had almost decided for the Himalayan. But the Assistant in Showroom (a very cooperative and friendly fellow) gently advised me to wait for atleast 4-6 months before going for a new RE launch - expecting some issues and the time RE needs to fix it. He made complete sense to me.