[GKR9900]

Hello everyone, I would like to share an experience with my Mahindra XUV5OO that can be best described as ‘Kuch Khatti, kuch meethi’!

The story begins by around May 2020. I was stuck at my workplace at Wayanad during Covid lockdown. So when things started opening up, decided to visit home as early as possible. My home is at Ernakulam which is about 250 kms away from my workplace. I drove home one weekend, spent some time with family, and was planning to leave after a couple of days. On the day of return, as I was about to get into the car, saw a small pool of oil lying beneath the hood area. I was alarmed and checked the oil level which showed a small dip, although above minimum level (have a habit of checking oil level every now and then, thanks to my dad). There were no warnings on the instrument cluster. We contacted the Mahindra dealer, Eram Motors Thrissur, from whom we purchased the vehicle. They asked us to bring the vehicle over. The dealership is 60 kms away from my home, but because we had some good rapport with them, decided to take the vehicle there. The leak was inspected and the issue was said to be a turbo O-ring leakage. As the vehicle was under warranty, the necessary repair work was done and the vehicle was returned. I returned to my working place. The vehicle was working flawlessly. I did a couple more home-workplace trips in between.
A few months later, a second episode of oil leakage occurred, again while I was visiting home. This time, there were few drops of oil on the floor, but because of the earlier issue, we got suspicious and decided to get it checked out. We first took the vehicle to a nearby Mahindra dealer, Vayalat Mahindra, as I had to return for work the next day. They suspected that the issue could be a dislodging of oil that was caught up in between the components in engine room during the previous leakage episode. As the service center here was comparatively new, we were not convinced and decided to take the car to Eram motors, Thrissur. This time, the complaint was diagnosed to be an 'engine front cover packing defect'. As parts had to be ordered and brought in, repairing took a few days. The dealership assured us that the complaint will not occur again. The following photos were clicked during this visit. I'm not a technically inclined person and hence am not sure on what exactly to make out from them.




The vehicle was working fine again for a few months and guess what! The leakage occurred again! The leakage was not major, there were a few drops in the parking area, but it’s hard to miss. We were frustrated about the recurring issue and called up Eram Mahindra. The car was nearing its 40,000 km service and decided to get the repair done along with that. This time, the complaint was diagnosed to be a 'defective sealant for the engine front cover packing'. They said that this might be due to some air bubble that got entrapped when the engine front cover was pasted during the last repair. Anyway, they rectified the issue and promised us that it won’t recur again. But I had my doubts.

Now, the funny thing is, a detailed report of the work carried out was never given to me. When asked about it, the service staff says that details of work carried out under warranty is entered into a Mahindra portal and those cannot be divulged to the owner, as per Mahindra's policy. I fail to see the logic of denying details of work carried out on my vehicle. The details mentioned above were communicated to me verbally by the service advisor. I was advised to check 'With You Hamesha (WYH)' app for more details. But sadly, the WYH shows only a 'running repair' title with no other details. Aren't manufacturers supposed to share the details of the work carried out in a vehicle to the owner, whether it is under warranty or not? I wasn’t pleased with this reply from the dealership, but didn’t pursue it further as I got caught up with a really busy schedule, both personal as well as professional. I had changed my work place closer to home in between. After the service cum repair work which was done in January, the car was seldom used, maybe for 500 kms or so. By February last week, the issue cropped up again, with the presence of a few drops of oil in the parking area.

Due to the recurring issue and the frustrating inconvenience it causes to my work and personal schedule, I decided to write a mail to Mahindra. Truth be told, I had no faith in getting a convincing reply other than ‘the dealership will look into the issue strongly’. Apart from the routine customer care email, got hold of the email ID of Mr Abdul Syed, Head Customer Experience, Mahindra & Mahindra. Wrote an email to him describing the repeated issues, lack of provision of a loaner car, inconvenience in work and personal schedule etc as shown below.


Within half an hour, I got a reply acknowledging the issue and an assured call from the Head of the Regional customer care team.


Enter Mr Kanteppa Patted, the Head of Mahindra Regional customer care, Kerala. This gentleman called me and apologised for the inconvenience caused and sought some time for enquiring about the issue in detail. I agreed and true to his word, he called me up after about an hour or so. He said he will dispatch two technicians as soon as possible to take a look at the vehicle and assess the degree of leakage. He also looped in Mr Sreevid Sreedharan, who is the Assistant Manager of Mahindra Regional customer care. They also assured me a loaner car for my transport. The technicians reached my home by evening and upon inspection they confirmed the oil leakage. I was planning to go to Wayanad the very next day to get my second dose of Covishield vaccine. The technicians insisted not to risk taking the vehicle for a long journey especially in the ghat section should something go wrong. They said they will report to Mr Sreevid about the leakage and he will contact me regarding further details. Mr Sreevid called me in the evening, again profusely apologising for the inconvenience caused. Upon learning about my travel plans, he offered to book a taxi with a driver for my Wayanad trip. The loaner car was not yet made available. I graciously declined and informed him that I will make the trip using my dad’s Elantra (I just couldn’t pass off the offer of driving a low slung sedan on winding ghat roads). He told that a flatbed would be arranged to take the car to Eram Motors, Thrissur. I insisted him to do that once I am back from Wayanad. He assured that the loaner car would be made available by then. I was back from Wayanad in 2 days. As already agreed, they sent a flatbed to my home to pick up the vehicle. The loaner car was not yet available, so they arranged for a rental car, a W6 AT XUV5OO as an alternative. Once the car reached the dealership, diagnosis revealed a seepage from the timing chain cover area. They informed us that repair work would be done and an extensive test drive and checking would ensue to check for any other leaks. They also mentioned about certain wear and tear items like axle bushes which would also be replaced free of cost. The vehicle was at Eram Motors, Thrissur for around a week. Multiple test drives of a combined 120 kms or so was taken after notifying me. They were unable to replicate the issue during this period. In between, Mr Kanteppa and especially Mr Sreevid contacted me several times to assure a proper rectification of the issue and whether anything else needs to be done. I gotta say, even in between the frustration due to the recurrent issue, the etiquette followed by Mahindra customer care team was praise-worthy and alleviated us of our concerns.



Our vehicle was returned after a week. Currently no issues have cropped up yet, but fingers crossed!

Now I had shared some part of this post in the XUV5OO thread, but to no avail. But I would like to know. Is this issue fairly common in the XUV? I mean, none of the leaks were major, but it tends to linger at the back of one’s head thus robbing one off the confidence to take long trips for the fear of getting stranded. I hope existing owners can shed some light on this. I am not feigning ignorance to quality issues in Mahindra products, but is something of this nature been reported before? Is it a manufacturing defect? I will be surely going for the extended warranty. Is there anything else that needs to be done from my part?

The second point that I would like to stress is the customer centric approach that Mahindra took in this situation, which has actually left us pleasantly surprised. I should have contacted them on the second instance itself, rather than waiting till the 4th episode. But the way in which they handled this issue was great, from arranging the flatbed to rental car, the timely updates, offering a taxi service for my trip. I usually see a lot of posts where our home grown manufacturers are bashed for the lack of customer satisfaction, but this sure looks like a turn for the better. I am not yet fully convinced that the issue won’t recur in the future, but the company has assured their assistance should a problem arise. Would love to know bhpians’ thoughts on this.

[ph03n!x]

I have been saying this multiple times in my 2020 Thar ownership thread and the Official Reviews thread - the way M&M handles real issues that are brought to their attention is outstanding - a fuel filter was air-cargoed for my Thar earlier!

I wish you many more KM of trouble-free ownership, do post some pics of the steed.

[Stolidus500]

Whenever you contact Mahindra through emails and twitter, they get into action otherwise it's a game of whodunit. Me as a customer and regional manager of area became acquaintances. After the email or tweet they get really active.

My dad once received a call at 6:30 am from them regarding a headlight issue. But my problem with Mahindra service at least at my place is they don't do anything proper at the first time, so a customer feels he/they are imposing on the workers but when you complain they run behind you to solve that, after 5 to 6 bouts of same scenario, I get my XUV serviced at my mechanic. I don't mind escalating a wrong doing but every service there was something new every time. I felt like a fool running behind them with emails like how many emails do they expect me to send so that they look into their processes? Paying 4000 as labour charges for a service is not problem for me but service provided should also reflect that. My XUV has gone atleast 3 times after a service was carried out. If you complaint too much then these centres start taking you seriously but my experience with XUV is anything to go by I will be steering clear of Mahindra.

[GKR9900]

Originally Posted by ph03n!x

I wish you many more KM of trouble-free ownership, do post some pics of the steed.

Thank you. Oh my! Where are my manners. Here's one that I took the last time I visited Wayanad.

Originally Posted by Stolidus500

But my problem with Mahindra service at least at my place is they don't do anything proper at the first time, so a customer feels he/they are imposing on the workers but when you complain they run behind you to solve that.. after 5 to 6 bouts of same scenario, I get my XUV serviced at my mechanic. If you complaint too much then these centres start taking you seriously but my experience with XUV is anything to go by I will be steering clear of Mahindra.

Come to think about it, I too had similar experiences. For the first two services, I forgot to mention the dealership service center not to do wheel balancing and alignment. And guess what happened? The car post service had an ever so slight deviation to one side. Took me another half day and multiple test drives to get it corrected. For a company like Mahindra and their supposedly premium product offering like the XUV5OO, prospective customers want things done the right way at first go itself.

[Stolidus500]

Originally Posted by GKR9900

For a company like Mahindra and their supposedly premium product offering like the XUV5OO, prospective customers want things done the right way at first go itself.

Oh I get horror flashbacks of their alignments. My stock set of tyres was ruined by them due to improper alignment but the tyres had done almost 90k so didn't take it further. I always had them do manual alignment on road till it tracked straight as they didn't remove alignment and balancing charges ever.
My point of contention is, everybody makes mistakes but same thing everytime even after multiple escalations made me never visit a service center after expiration of my extended warranty. Since then no new issue has cropped up and my car tracks straight.

[Raghu M]

I would like to add a point here. The way M&M is taking care of issues is fantastic. I had a very small niggle (rarely audible) in my new XUV300 (3 months old). I took it to VVC Motors which is very close to my residence. The technician had already gotten full details of the car, had gone through the manual to be fully sure of what he is going to check and resolved the issue in 4 hours. It turned out to be a very very minor sound from the IRVM. The service head, the job card writer and the technician were super cooperative and assured me that it will be resolved at any cost. They went for two test drives and later asked me to even have lunch with them. I politely said some other time and after one hour, they called me to the service area and explained what they did to diagnose the issue.

Later, I saw there were some grease marks near the IRVM, the steering and the seat areas. The service head came over and told me that only when the car is fully cleaned, it will be given for delivery. I was surprised by the attitude and the way they are treating customers. They asked me multiple times to wait in the lounge and watch television and that the car will be taken care of. After booking the 300, I had some apprehensions with M&M ownership but I can safely say that they have improved leaps and bounds. It is just awesome the way they are addressing issues. They personally called me when they had a check up mela going on and I got the underbody coating done for 2250/-. The service executive even told me that since it is underbody coating, I can get my car washed for free. I am thoroughly impressed with M&M.

[jeeva]

Narrating an incident that happened about 12 years ago.
My ~3 year old Bolero's doors and the bonnet started to rust. I write an email to their customer care. They call me back, apologise, arrange a loaner vehicle and a driver to pick up the Bolero. In a week's time, all doors replaced, anti rust treatment done, a good-will full service done, and the vehicle delivered home. This gesture from M&M won a lot of hearts, I must admit.

[sameerpatel90]

It's hard to gain trust again from the dealer or from the service rendered by OEM. Having worked in such scenarios earlier in the motor-vehicle service sector, all I can say is the lack of seriousness in the FI (final inspector) at the same time poor training environment within the dealerships by their technical co-ordinator (usually this position is assigned to a senior technician with over 10+years of experience) despite assistance from OEM's with regular service bulletins and repeat repair case discussions, the dealers are more focused over finances rather than customer services.

In my perspective, your vehicle repair job carried out by the OEM technicians is checked thoroughly and tested rigorously prior to handing it over to you. If you have spoken with the technician team they may have shown you the pictures taken while investigation purposes of repeated leakage occurrence.

Hope to see you burning some rubber back on the tarmac.

[Acid Burn]

Good morning

This is my first post on Team- bhp and I would would like to narrate the terrible buyer experience I am having with Mahindra and Mahindra.
I had booked an XUV 300 W8 petrol variant in December 2020 and was assured delivery of the vehicle by 26th January. I was asked to give my old vehicle before 25th December 2020 in order to avoid depreciation.
Later the delivery of the vehicle was changed to Feb 15 and then again to last week of Feb or first week of March.
Each time the dealership gave me non availability of semiconductor as the reason for delay.
I have called the customer service multiple times and each time I have been told the issue is escalated and they will revert back as soon as possible. I have written a mail to them and received a similar response however till date I have not received a call from their customer service nor received an email from them apart from the auto generated one.
Till date even the billing of the vehicle is not done and there is no delivery date on the horizon. Now I am stuck with having parted away with my old vehicle, paying booking amount of Rs 30000/- and paying 450/- daily for travel.

[GKR9900]

Originally Posted by sameerpatel90

In my perspective, your vehicle repair job carried out by the OEM technicians is checked thoroughly and tested rigorously prior to handing it over to you. If you have spoken with the technician team they may have shown you the pictures taken while investigation purposes of repeated leakage occurrence.

Yup! The first picture posted in the thread was shared by the service center technician over whatsapp. In each instance, they have explained the work carried out by mouth, but on asking to give some form of a documentation, they refrained. The response was that as the work done was under warranty, company doesn't allow sharing of intricate details. For the most recent episode, the area manager called me and explained to me in detail regarding the work done. He also sent an email with a brief outline of the work done.

Originally Posted by Acid Burn

I would would like to narrate the terrible buyer experience I am having with Mahindra and Mahindra.

That is quite a frustrating experience. A friend of mine recently had to go through something similar. Booked a Honda City and the dealership just kept on postponing the delivery date citing petty reasons. In the end, he cancelled the booking and is now on the lookout for another car.

I would advice you to email to this address SYED.ABDULHANIF@mahindra.com. I had received a quick response from him. Also, it would be prudent to start a new thread outlining all the details and the experiences you had in team-bhp. From what I understood, they do take us bhpians seriously.

[samuelv]

Very happy to see the responsiveness of the Mahindra team. Wishing you many more miles on your car!

It is a trend for dealerships for not deep diving in to the issue when the owner first reports it. This is not limited to a single manufacturer but others as well. Recently I had a steering issue with my Elite i20 where in there was a strange sound while turning the steering to the extremes. The car was returned thrice to Blue Hyundai and all that the service team did was torquing the bolts. Only after I emailed the the Hyundai customer care the service manager got involved and started looking at the steering, suspension and other related parts. The car was kept with them for almost a week.

I must say that Mahindra's gesture of arranging a loaner car was fantastic. In my case I opened my mouth and asked them for a loaner as I was going through a personal emergency and needed a car on standby. Blue Hyundai conveniently chose to ignore the request. Very insensitive!

[Acid Burn]

Thanks you GKR9900 for the super fast reply.
I would like to apologise for not mentioning that I had asked the dealership for loaner vehicle and I was assured same would be arranged. But same as the delivery promises on the date of delivery I was told that no vehicle is available with them and hence they cannot help me out


I have sent a email to Mr. Sayed on the email id provided by GKR9900; however looking at the prior responses I am not getting my hopes up.

[Acid Burn]

Good evening
I have received a mail from Mr. Sayed saying that there is shortage of some key components from Mahindra and they are trying their best to procure the same.
He has assured me that they will look in to my issue.
Will post an update upon further developments.


Once again would like to thank Team- bhp for helping me out in getting atleast a response from Mahindra

[GKR9900]

Originally Posted by Acid Burn

He has assured me that they will look in to my issue.
Will post an update upon further developments.
Once again would like to thank Team- bhp for helping me out in getting atleast a response from Mahindra

Hey Acid burn, glad that you're able to get a response from the Mahindra team. That's the beauty of team bhp. Fellow petrol heads who are total strangers helping each other out in whatever way they can. Do keep us updated on further developments.

[Ragavsr]

I ordered a remote locking kit for my new XUV300 W4 as it does not come with remote locking standard. After a week , we received a call stating due to logistical issues, it will take 1 month to arrive .

We asked them the reason for the delay which they were not forthcoming with and then asked to cancel and refund the amount paid. They said they will arrange and miraculously the part turned up army doorstep by next day evening .

The purchase was made on m2all.com and left ne thinking whether they prioritized supply to dealer orders or something like that .