[Columbus_500]

This is the day when The COLUMBUS makes its entry into this grand stage called Team-BHP. He has been awaiting this day eagerly for a month and a half. And today my friends, I present him in front of you, for the world to see and for him to begin his conquests into the most uncharted territories!



So hello there Team-BHPians! I hope the dramatic entry of my XUV 5OO has left a lasting impression in your minds! This is my first real thread on this forum. Guessing the Introduce Yourself thread doesn't really count. I hope this will turn out to be a decent report. If not, sincere apologies in advance and please do provide constructive feedback for future improvements. So without further ado, let me get started with my first ever ownership report.

Background
Columbus is our first ever diesel car. Prior to this we had a 2010 Suzuki SX4 ZXi & a 2006 Honda Civic 1.8S. Well we still have those. Unfortunately, with the state of petrol prices here in India, we were left with no choice but to get a diesel vehicle. On an average, we were covering about 1500 kms each month. I wish this was all pleasure trips. Sadly it wasn't. As such it was getting to a point where the monthly fuel expense had begun to spiral out of control. A decision had to be made and this had to be done soon. July 31st 2012 was the date. Dad finally agreed to start looking for a new car. Research work was assigned to me and within seconds, Team-BHP was up and open!

From a criteria perspective, Dad didn't have too many. He was more like, find out what are the options and we can make a decision off that. But but did that mean, I didn't have any criteria as well?

I had a clear cut choice in my mind. The XUV 5OO. For as long as I can remember, I have been following this car. Right from when the first news came up about the W201 being in development, there was something about this car that piqued me. From a design perspective, I quite like the Scorpio. From a driving perspective, i love that go anywhere attitude that the Scorpio has. Assuming Mahindra's next offering would best the Scorpio, I waited all those pre launch days, crossing my fingers and hoping this global SUV wasn't going to be a disappointment! If design and go anywhere attitude was my only criteria, you might ask why was I so bent on the XUV 5OO itself! And that is a very good question. I have asked myself that same question a number of times.

I decided to make life easier and turn it into a multiple choice question.

Options were
1. The legendary Safari
2. The flop show Aria
3. The overpriced Fortuner
4. The latest hotshot in town, Renault Duster
5. The Handsome, Powerful VFM, XUV 5OO

Safari - Love the design and its age old cult status. However the lack of reliability was a major factor in sealing its fate. Having read numerous stories here on Team-BHP, there was no doubt that things were bound to fail in this vehicle sooner rather than later. To add to that, the interiors. Its just way too plain! It has a bit of that classy look, especially with that clock, but the third party music system is a big turn off. So Safari was crossed off the list.

Aria - This was a case of 'Do not judge a book by its covers'. From the exteriors, I don't think anyone can argue against the fact that Aria is just b*tt ugly. That whole MUV look can put anyone off. But step into the interiors and you would be pleasantly surprised. Space is at a premium. Seats are awesome. Excellent underthigh support. Center console looks modern. Basically it was pretty good! Despite really liking the interiors, I couldn't manage to overlook the exterior design. And soon enough, one more option bit the dust.

Fortuner - Love the exteriors. The whole macho look was too good. Step into the interiors, any one would step out immediately to check if they had accidentally stepped into an Innova. No offense to any one here owning a Foruner. Its one capable vehicle, however the interiors were a big No-No for me. And the biggest turn off factor was its price. Again, this is just my opinion. No intention to offend anyone. But paying 10 lakhs more for a car that lacks half the features and performs just on par with the XUV was just sheer stupidity to me. I am comparing the 4X2 version. Off-roading might be big selling point for Fortuner. It was not for me. I compared it against XUV 500 W8 and for me the winner was never in doubt. So one more down. Two more to go.

Duster - Duster was an interesting choice. In fact, this was a very serious contender for our money. Exteriors were good. Interiors were quite okay. Would have liked it if it had a bit more height. Took multiple test drives. The sedan like driveability was very welcome. Unfortunately I felt the performance of the engine wasn't so great. 110PS just seemed too little. Having got used to the power of the Civic, 110PS seemed like fitting the SX4 engine inside a much bigger vehicle. And as such, performance was something which we weren't too keen on. Price wise, we thought it was relatively high considering the product features we were getting in return. But that wasn't as big a factor as performance. Either ways, we kept this as a back up option until the very last day.

XUV 5OO - Where do I start about this gorgeous beast. Looks wise, this was a case of love at first sight. The over done face was a big talking point when launched. However I loved that aggressive face. Side profile was excellent as well. Only complaint was with the back profile. I thought it was just okay. Not a case of dislike, but instead it was more of okay, no comments. Took the first test drive of this just 2 days after launch in Bangalore. At that time, there was no real plan of buying a new vehicle. It was more of curiosity and the fact that I was following the development of this car in the longest time. Test drive lasted a grand total of 5 minutes! This was the maximum the showroom guys were allowing due to massive crowd demand. So out of that 5 minutes, the only positive thing I liked was the commanding view from the driver seat, seat comfort and the interiors. Performance and ride quality assessment had to wait till the next TD. Fast forward to March 2012. XUV has launched in Trivandrum by then. Decided to check out the vehicle once again. TD experience was slightly better. Lasted about 15 minutes, but most that was in peak traffic. So didn't get past 3rd gear plus questions still lingered around ride quality. But somehow in my head, I had really taken a liking to it.

So that was the status of things by July. Till this point, all the thoughts and opinions were just mine. Dad wasn't involved in any of it. When the decision to buy a new car was made, the five options had already dwindled down to 2. Duster or the XUV 5OO. My mind was long made up. Dad was in two minds about the Duster. He didn't mind too much about the lack of engine power. But he wasn't too keen on the interiors. In September 2012, Dad & I took a test drive of the XUV 5OO. This was the first time that Dad was seeing the XUV in flesh. All the previous test drives were by myself. Dad was smitten by the looks. After the test drive, things were almost finalized. People say third time lucky and it was definitely the case with the test drives. The sales executive brought the car home and we had a really lengthy test drive of 2 hours. Tested in at speed. Tested it on broken roads. Tested it in traffic. Played around with all the features in the car. Both Dad & I came out completely satisfied. My mind was made. Now it was all about getting Dad's go ahead as well. Luckily that didn't take too long. And by September 19th 2012, a booking was put in place for a W8 Moondust Silver XUV 5OO!

Dealership & Delivery Experience
Trivandrum has just one dealership for Mahindra. TVS Motors in Neeramankara. As mentioned the first test drive from TVS motors wasn't the best. But the sales executive was a patient chap. We had a different sales executive when we took the next test drive in September. This guy was even better than the first. He was very willing to bring the car home for us to take the test drive. Along with the very useful test drive, the attitude of this sales executive played a major role in going ahead with the booking.

At the time of booking, we had mentioned that we would need the vehicle by the first week of December at the latest. The SA guaranteed that we would definitely have the vehicle by then. Soon enough he was in possession of the booking amount cheque. We did not receive the receipt for the cheque at that time. Instead the SA promised he would bring it home as soon it was ready. And he did bring it as well by the next day. When we got the receipt, I assumed that our booking was in the system and Mahindra's system would have put an estimated date of delivery on the system.

When I asked my SA for the estimated date, he told me that the booking was yet to be entered into the system. Upon asking for the reason, he said that Mahindra only allowed bookings to be entered into the system once a month and it hadn't allowed till that point. Do note, this was after the 19th of September! That means no bookings had been entered into the system the whole of that month. I found that quite weird to be frank. Why would any manufacturer allow dealers to take bookings but allow them to enter it into their database only on particular days of a month. Didn't make too much sense to me. So I asked him, when can I expect this to happen. He didn't have a date and this worried me a bit.

The next couple of weeks, I followed up with the SA almost every couple of days to check the status of things. Finally on October 11th, when I call him to check, he tells me that the my booking has been added. A total of 15 business days after we made the payment for the booking amount!! So I asked him what is the estimated date and now he tells me that this is the standard period of 8 to 12 weeks from booking date. Eitherways, he again guarantees that the delivery will be made by December 1st week. Left with no choice, we put faith in this SA and pray that the delivery won't be delayed.

Rest of October & November passed by without much of a fuss. Around last week of November, the SA calls me to tell me that they have XUVs in their yard and that he could deliver it by first week of December if we could sort out the payment in the next 2 days. Having read up many ownership reports on Team-BHP, my first reply (apart from the obvious excitement) was to request for a PDI so that we can confirm the vehicle before making the full payment. To this however, he was insistent that the vehicle cannot be assigned without a full payment in place. This was baffling. I had ready many reports of people doing their full PDI before making the final payments. I tried to reason with him, but he wouldn't budge. In the end, we didn't want any delay in the delivery. So my dad called up the bank and asked them to disburse the loan. For the remaining payment, I went to the showroom and paid it by Cheque. The next day we get the VIN number and I also get the PDI done. Finally the delivery day arrives! December 5th 2012!!

Delivery was relatively a smooth experience. We had arrived ahead of time and the SA was busy with another delivery. So we had to around for a bit. Finally our turn came by. The features were explained to us once again. Quick photo session and out we rolled with our brand new Silver Mahindra XUV 500 W8!!

Overall dealership & delivery experience was just a satisfactory experience. Both Dad & I were of the conclusion that all the patience and postive attitude shown prior to the booking were just a gimmick. The SA's attitude had changed significantly since then. Either ways, COLUMBUS was finally ours! Nothing else matters now!

Dad & Mom during Delivery


Yours truly with the Key


Parked outside our Home for an Entry Photoshoot






Photo Shoot Round 2!

[Columbus_500]

Thoughts & Opinions

So I have had Columbus for about a month and a half now. Current ODO reading stands at 6591 kms! Well you must be thinking, that's quite a large reading in just 45 days! Yep, we did a mega road trip from Trivandrum all the way up to Bombay over the Christmas Holidays!! Not just that, we had a number of trips around Trivandrum to Poovar, Varkala and even up to Thiruvalla. For those not familiar with the Kerala Geography, these last three locations are in a 130 km radius from Trivandrum.

After having covered such a long distance, my thoughts of The Columbus can be summarized in a single word - Mindblowing!! This vehicle has surpassed all expectations that I had built up, having read various reviews. I will try to list down my thoughts in individual areas.


Engine Performance
Simply outstanding. This engine is eager to climb to higher speeds. Turbo lag is next to nil. The best part of this engine is the push back feel when the turbocharger kicks in. It literally feels like a cheetah about to pounce on its prey!! From an NVH perspective, the noise level is relatively minimum till the 2800 rpm mark. After 2800 rpm, the noise gets a bit louder. But at 2800 rpm, you are already higher than the speed at which the ting ting appears. All in all, this engine leaves a smile on my face each time I drive my Columbus!

Handling
When I drove the XUV for the very first time, I was apprehensive about moving from a sedan to an SUV. But XUV 500 allays all your fears in this department. You must have probably heard the story about XUV having the monocoque chassis atleast a million times. Even I did. But when you drive the XUV, thats when you realize what they mean by it. I am a testament to this fact. On my Bombay trip, we covered a lot of hilly areas and ghats. Especially on NH 17. At each turn or a hair pin bend, this behemoth would handle it better than you could ever imagine an SUV doing. Body roll is negligible, unless you go into a turn at really high speeds! While cornering, the XUV stays in line. At no point, did I get the feeling that the back would step out of line. The steering has good feedback as well. It weighs up nicely as the speeds go up. From a handling perspective, Columbus is one agile cheetah!

Ride Quality
The past 6500 odd kms have taken me over various types of surfaces. From the beautiful tarmacs of the Golden Quadrilateral to the absolutely cratered road between Nipani & Ajra, Columbus has seen it all. But seeing doesn't tell you anything about how Columbus tackled those terrains! At high speeds on the GQ, XUV is very planted. Very very minimal vertical movements. In fact, its very difficult to gauge the speed of the car when you are in the XUV. To add to it, my mom was sitting in the middle row. And since she was the only one in the back, she would lie down and sleep at times. And her comment was that the comfort & ride quality was akin to that of being in an airplane. The only issue was the air pockets when the road surface would get uneven! On broken roads, there's significant movement within the cabin. Passengers in the middle row definitely get a feeling of being thrown about. But this is on absolutely broken down roads. On smaller potholed roads, XUV can offer a pretty decent level of comfort if speeds above 40kmph is maintained.

Comfort & Convenience
I absolutely love the front seats. They literally hug you and pretty much eliminates any kind of movements. Seat compound is slightly firm and they are good for your backs over long journeys. And to add to that, the seating position. Driving from a high seating position is an absolute joy. Plus it eliminates tiredness pretty effectively. Also the rear reclining seats with the massive leg space set up a really comfortable middle row for passengers. From a convenience perspective, the best bit is the bluetooth phone connectivity. The moment I step into the XUV, it automatically detects my phone and pairs it up. All calls are then diverted through the car speakers. So far the voice quality has been excellent. The bluetooth music connectivity is a blessing as well. No longer do I have to rely on flash drives or CDs. I can just play them directly off the phone with no wires required at all. Its just brilliant!

Mileage
This is one area where I feel things could be slightly better. There has been so many reports of people touching 18kmpl on highways. Unfortunately no such luck for me. In fact if I go based on the infotainment display, its only 12.4 kmpl! I was able to average only a 14.7 kmpl on my recent Bombay trip. City mileage as well has been neither too high or too low. It usually hovers around the 12.4 mark. Hoping this rises a bit as ODO readings go up.

Summing it Up
Driving this XUV daily is one of my biggest source of happiness. It always puts a smile on my face regardless of whatever external conditions. In each area, the XUV performs above expectations. For anyone on the fence about purchasing the XUV 5OO, I would strongly encourage you to take the plunge!

Couple of Pics of Columbus from its various adventures!

Poovar






Somewhere near Krishnagiri on NH 7


Right after exiting the Bandra Worli Sealink in Bombay


Mahabaleshwar & Satara








Yellapur Ghats on Ankola-Hubli Road

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Initial Ownership Section. Thanks for sharing!

[rajeev k]

OH that was a nice introduction of the Columbus500 and its numberless avatar.
So you went on the rampage in the short period driving it to Mumbai and beyond. Clocking 6.5K KMs means an interesting travelogue would be out soon.

[Nonstop-driver]

Have read your intro and then this thread. This looks much better!

Originally Posted by Columbus_500

...Upon asking for the reason, he said that Mahindra only allowed bookings to be entered into the system once a month and it hadn't allowed till that point. Do note, this was after the 19th of September! That means no bookings had been entered into the system the whole of that month. I found that quite weird to be frank. Why would any manufacturer allow dealers to take bookings but allow them to enter it into their database only on particular days of a month...

...Both Dad & I were of the conclusion that all the patience and postive attitude shown prior to the booking were just a gimmick. The SA's attitude had changed significantly since then.

Strange & weird that a dealer hasn't made a requisition till 15 days of receiving the money. The Mahindra dealer (Koncept) in Noida would have given you the delivery within a month, so stating that Mahindra allows bookings only once a month is just farce, I suppose!

As for the SA's behaviour, this is noticeable of Mahindra. Once you commit the money, their attitude changes. The reason behind this as I've come to know is the meagre commission that they get. In 2007, when I booked my Scorpio, every sales of a Scorpio would have entitled them a commission of Rs 500/- per vehicle till they sold 5 Scorpios in a month and above 5 would earn them 600/-. Nonetheless, this should not be an excuse for a dealer/SA to treat customers badly. You may want to send an online feedback by registering at Mahindra site (and in my case, it has been actioned too!)

Note from Support - Only 2 smileys allowed per post.

[sumitdongerkery]

Hey Columbus! welcome Onboard. I can echo your sentiments completely since we have just picked up our XUV 500 W8 on 25th of Dec 2012. Car performs truly to its reputation. I had earlier owned an Octy and the comparision between these 2 cars always runs on the back of my mind although I truly understand that it should not be compared. Both the cars are champions in their own way. The only reason for me to dispose my octy was to pick up XUV. I had booked my car from Infinity motors in Mumbai on 12th Dec and got the delivery on 25th Dec. Infact the car was ready couple of days earlier but I decided to take the delivery on my birthday, 25th Dec. I had paid the booking amount of 1 lac and had requested the dealer to show me the car being alloted to me before insisting for any further payment. I was promptly shown the car on 20th at their Khopoli warehouse and I immediately realeased the balance payment. I was a bit surprised why this din't work for you. I had approached global at Thane initially to TD the car. Although I got the TD, the sales support was pathetic. That sales rep was not even knowing the features XUV was offering. Funny part was he was not even aware of the full form of the abbrevations he was quoting . I wanted to pick up the car and had conveyed Global sales rep that I would turn up with the booking amout on 10th Dec. But I was strongly looking out for an alternate dealer. Then I came across infinity motors. On 10th Dec I went to their showroom and was impressed with the sales staff and paid the booking amount on 12th Dec. Believe me I haven't recieved a single call till date from global asking me why I haven't turned up with the booking amount. Anyways bygones are bygones and currently I am one happy XUV owner.... Hope you too have a pleasant run with your XUV

Cheers

[TaureanBull]

Heartiest congrats and happy & safe journey ahead. Is yours a W6 model? Did not find it mentioned anywhere.

Keep updating the thread on regular ownership issues. Any up gradations planned?

[VishnuNarayanan]

Hello Columbus !
Congrats on your latest acquisition !
Nicely written up review.
Glad to see another fellow BHPian from Trivandrum.
Wishing you happy miles with your Cheetah
Drive Safe

[SDP]

Columbus, congratulations once again for the XUV5OO and thanks for starting a ownership thread. Loved the pics, especially the first wide one!

Originally Posted by Columbus_500

...

Summing it Up
Driving this XUV daily is one of my biggest source of happiness. It always puts a smile on my face regardless of whatever external conditions. ...

Fantastic! Couldn't have put that so well myself.

[Columbus_500]

Originally Posted by rajeev k

So you went on the rampage in the short period driving it to Mumbai and beyond. Clocking 6.5K KMs means an interesting travelogue would be out soon.

Thanks Rajeev. I hope to put something together at least in the assembly line next weekend! Let's see how that pans out. Haha.

Originally Posted by Nonstop-driver

Have read your intro and then this thread. This looks much better!

Thanks buddy! Appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Nonstop-driver

You may want to send an online feedback by registering at Mahindra site (and in my case, it has been actioned too!)

I thought about it. The only reason I backed out on it is because, I didn't want sales to affect my future servicing. Either ways, the moment I got the XUV, everything else went out of the picture.

Originally Posted by sumitdongerkery

Hey Columbus! welcome Onboard. I can echo your sentiments completely since we have just picked up our XUV 500 W8 on 25th of Dec 2012.

Thank you Sir! Congrats to you too on picking up this stunner of a vehicle! And that too on your birthday! One hell of a gift!

Unfotunately, Trivandrum has just one dealership. So not much of a choice here. The next nearest place where they have XUV is Cochin, 220 kms away from here. But yeah as you mentioned, bygones are bygones.

Originally Posted by TaureanBull

Heartiest congrats and happy & safe journey ahead. Is yours a W6 model? Did not find it mentioned anywhere.

Keep updating the thread on regular ownership issues. Any up gradations planned?

Thanks TaureanBull. Ahh sorry about that. How did I miss that out?! Well this is a W8 model. And no upgrades planned as such. Only accessories that we bought were the rubber mats. Kinda like them actually. Opted out of all the chrome fittings. I found them to be way too bling-bling!

Originally Posted by VishnuNarayanan

Hello Columbus !
Congrats on your latest acquisition !
Nicely written up review.
Glad to see another fellow BHPian from Trivandrum.
Wishing you happy miles with your Cheetah
Drive Safe

Thanks Vishnu! Really happy to have a fellow Trivandrum-ite comment on my thread.

Originally Posted by SDP

Columbus, congratulations once again for the XUV5OO and thanks for starting a ownership thread. Loved the pics, especially the first wide one!

Fantastic! Couldn't have put that so well myself.

Thank you so much man! And that's my favorite pic too!! Whenever I have to show pics of Columbus to friends/family, that's the one I always pick!

[Columbus_500]

Finally managed to get the Live to Drive on my Columbus. Ideally, I would have loved to put it on the bottom right corner of the bumper. But the positioning of the sensors and the overall design of the bumper made it tough. Anyways, couple of pics attached. Let me know your thoughts. Cheers!








PS: Think it would have been better if the background was black instead of yellow. And yellow font. Pretty much like the Got Bhp one.

[swiftnfurious]

That's a beautiful opening shot. If the SA was arrogant, you could have got the better off him by a small complaint on XUV FB page or on twitter. I have always felt that the sales teams in Kerala takes customers for granted as people just don't bother to fight. Time that we make them understand they can't take customers for granted.

Anyway seems you are having quite a lot of fun. Wish you miles of smiles & safe motoring!

[SDP]

Originally Posted by Columbus_500

...
Mileage
This is one area where I feel things could be slightly better. There has been so many reports of people touching 18kmpl on highways. Unfortunately no such luck for me. In fact if I go based on the infotainment display, its only 12.4 kmpl! I was able to average only a 14.7 kmpl on my recent Bombay trip. City mileage as well has been neither too high or too low. It usually hovers around the 12.4 mark. Hoping this rises a bit as ODO readings go up.
....

Columbus_500, do you use the tankful-to-tankful method for calculating mileage or depend upon on the infotainment display?

What is your highway v/s city driving split? 50%-50%?
Is your AC on 100% time?

Just trying to understand your usage. As you know I have doubts about the mileage I am getting in my car. If we can compare notes and are able to isolate the problem, that would be good.

[motomaverick]

Congrats Columbus on the Columbus . I hope you park the car under a roof due to all the Coconut trees I see in the pictures.

[Rigid Rotor]

Congrats on getting the XUV. That's a very nice narrative style you have there. The introductory story-book type first picture is really eye-catching. Wish you many happy miles driving your Cheetah-Columbus!