[Mudhalaipatti]

Originally Posted by Sathya_sc

After reading your posts, I assume you are in CHN. Take your vehicle to India Garage and contact Mr Vijay and tell my name (Sathya). The service exp that i have got from Vijay and IG is simply outstanding. He knows XUV in and out. Give it a try.. Send me an email so that I can send his number to you.

Thanks Sathya. PMed you.

The first major niggle hits me this morning.
As usual I start to office, this morning. Start the vehicle. Let it idle for a min. In the mean time I reset the FE, trip meter, choose my fav radio station. Get the vehicle out of the compound. After a few seconds, I get a error on the infotainment system, that something has gone wrong and I have to restart. **Uff**. The red screen of death for the XUV.

I stop the vehicle, take out the keys. Wait for a min and then start the vehicle again. The problem appears to have vanished in thing air. I drive for about 500m, let the vehicle/engine reach optimal temp and switch on the AC.

Wait ! Something's amiss here. I'm not getting the usual whiff of cold air on my right hand. I check the vents. The throw from the right vent is less. I increase the blower speed, but the speed is not proportional and I can feel the difference in throw between the right and left vents of the steering wheel.

I switch off the AC. Wait for 30 seconds. Stop the vehicle, take the keys out. And then start the vehicle again. This time follow the same routine, with the same results.

Something snapped and the throw from the right hand vent is significantly lower than the rest. Now since I'm getting some throw and the speed does vary based on input, I'm assuming that the software controlling the speed of the blower is at fault and not any other mechanical component. Not the fan/blower.

I tried going to auto mode, econ mode and frustration mode. All the same results.

Now this has become a No 1 priority to fix.

[sumitdongerkery]

Your issues are scaring me! I just got my XUV first service done on saturday and had hardly any complaints. My car does Thane to BKC five days a week and occassional weekend outings. Thats roughly 350Kms every week. Its clocked 5000Kms in 3.5 months time and considering the usage i had no complaints during the first service. Also the servicing bill was Rs 2090/- only which comes to me as a big relief after using and Octavia. I mean the biggest advantage of owning and Indian brand I guess.

Also some additional info:

In one of my discussions with a very informed person about Mahindra XUV, I was told that XUV has 2 distinct sensors for the DTE and the average fuel efficiency. They are nowhere related. Average efficiency simply indicates how efficiently you are driving while the DTE calculates the distance to empty based on the fuel left in the tank. It is not linked to the other sensor but recalculates based on some fixed assumption of average efficiency. IMO its 10KMPL. So again IMO DTE can be misleading when the tank is completely filled but it continously corrects itself as and when its approaching empty. Not sure though how practical this logic is.

Cheers

[sumitdongerkery]

Guys! I might be going off topic, but can someone tell me where exactly is the phone mic in the XUV bluetooth system

[krishnaraja]

You have rear view mirror, if front of that is glass holder, then conversation mirror, then the two light switches. Mic is between the switches.

[Mudhalaipatti]

'No, no. It's not a taxi'

'No. I'm not in to any sort of trafficking'

'Yes it's just under 3 months old'

'You see, it's a 64 km round trip everyday, plus 350km round trip to my home town every weekend'

'Yes I drive close to 100km every day'

'No. Not these days. I found a perfect seating position and I don't have back ache or neck ache anymore'

'Err. No. My sex life hasn't been affected. Atleast that's what I think'

Now that I put to rest the argument. Here is the source of the argument.



The Cheetah has been holding up phenomenally well, apart from the usual issues of kids and adults ogling at the XUV and ofcourse the stupid brakes and the malfunctioning windshield sprayer and the negative caster and that Duster Ogre-in-brown trying to win a race every day. The last thing is something that I can't help much and the rest is something that Mahindra can't help much. You see, of all the people and Optimus Primes in the world, we Indians are the most self satisfied, forgiving folks, I tell you. How else do you justify a completely satisfied XUV customer, even with all this additional baggage.

Can 50 paise burn a hole in your pocket? It can, if you keep adding this 50p to the diesel price every month. The FE is hovering between 12kmpl and 13kmpl most of the times and with the ever increasing fuel costs, the economics of owing a diesel car is kind of negated. But I don't squirm, everytime I see that Ogre-in-brown overtake me. I hear it's 10 or less for that thing. *hahaahaaa*. I manage a wicked smile. The winning smile. Ever heard of the tortoise and hare story, you bigger-half-of-fiona.

Tachophobiac and a Cheetah. It's like MMS being vocal and aggressiveness. Oxymorons dude. Comeon. Don't be a duh. I retort to the passenger-in-comfort remarking at the steering wheel shudder at 130kmph. I rev her to the sesquicentennial number and the shuddering is gone from the steering. It's now in me. I can't continue this speed on Indian roads and so slow down to 120kmph. The century figure appears to be too slow and 120 appears ok. But 130 is very good. But the Cheetah wants to shake this speed off and either move up or down. Umm, you can never understand a lady, can you.

Villages and small towns are the hot beds of innovation. Great creative minds at their weirdest best. They extract water out of thin air, make a goat fly and endure the XUV to carry Briyani - a good 40kg cooked one, and some other paddles that they called utensils and some other kids to hold the briyani in place and the Briyani pot to hold the kids in place. A total of close to 100kg of mouth watering eatables and ear watering load. Village folks were happy, not to have lost a gram in transit, even on bad and bumpy roads. You could loose you head, if you lost a leg piece from that Briyani. Good Cheetah. Vegetarian Cheetah perhaps, they remark. Even after 5 days, my car smells like it's been fed Briyani, instead of Diesel. Good for me, if the Cheetah feeds on Briyani. It definitive is less expensive than it's regular D feed.

And now it's time for an open letter to the Cheetah, Sita.

Dear Cheetah, were you a born Flagellant or becoming one. Don't know if it hurts you. But it definitely hurts me to see yourself hurtling small stones and debris on to yourself. This mortification of flesh is something that I can't stand for long. Is that the front wheel design (negative caster) or the Bridgestone duellers that are playing here. You can't keep directly these projectiles on to yourself. You are already in a bleeding red color and white dots are not adding to your beauty. Don't try to imitate your Masai Mara inspiration, for those dots. This is happening quite frequently on roads with loose gravel. NH-45 is being relaid to it's pathetic lowly standards and until you either grow wings or fins, we'll have to take this road to earn my daily wages and your D dose. Please be considerate and try to redirect the tiny ones and the big ones too, to that ogre-in-brown.
Thanking you.
Your's apologetically.
The One

[Surprise]

Thanks Prabhakar for such a detailed ongoing review.

Originally Posted by Mudhalaipatti

Also as against the manufacturers recommendation, I have bumped up the pressure and got a fairly decent ride and a fairly decent FE. If I were to ask for a sweet spot, it would be a loading factor of 4 with 36 and 34 as tyre pressure.

Slight increase in FE is okay, but will not the ride get harsher due to over inflation? Its around 15% over inflated in this case

Originally Posted by SDP

When I am driving alone, the ride is bumpy even at 32-30PSI and doesn't deteriorate noticeably even at 36 or even 38 PSI. If at all, the FE improves by ~0.5 kmpl. So it does make sense to over-inflate the XUV by 2-4 PSI.

But 36-38 psi is an increase of 5-7 psi...surprised there is not much of a difference in ride quality

[n.devdath]

Originally Posted by Mudhalaipatti

I tried going to auto mode, econ mode and frustration mode. All the same results.

Now this has become a No 1 priority to fix.

Was this fixed? How?

[Mudhalaipatti]

Originally Posted by Surprise

Thanks Prabhakar for such a detailed ongoing review.

Slight increase in FE is okay, but will not the ride get harsher due to over inflation? Its around 15% over inflated in this case

But 36-38 psi is an increase of 5-7 psi...surprised there is not much of a difference in ride quality

Yes, there's not much difference in ride quality, even if I increase the pressure by a good 15%. But the catch is to have 4 or more occupants in the car to even out the ride. Even within recommended pressure values, if it's just 1 or 2 occupants, it's a rough ride. Feels like you are on a cycle, with wooden wheels. Mahindra tractor's legacy you see.

I suspect the XUV's suspension is tuned for a fully loaded car and the increase in tyre pressure is absorbed by this setup.

Originally Posted by n.devdath

Was this fixed? How?

Apparently it was a bug in the infotainment system and during the first service, the error code was cleared and it's back to normal working. I may need 'NEO' to figure out the bug.

[SDP]

Originally Posted by Surprise

...
But 36-38 psi is an increase of 5-7 psi...surprised there is not much of a difference in ride quality

Let me address the first!

I am not a habitual "over-inflater" and have done once unknowingly (misplaced by pressure guage and relied on the tyrewala's guage) and once for experimentation.

Now coming back to ride at higher pressures:
During my Gujarat trip, the tyrewala guy filled up ~38-40psi in all tyres and I did not know it. The vehicle had 4 adults + 2 kids + luggage for 8 days (and we don't pack lightly). You won't believe if I say that the ride was extremely satisfying. In fact when I was driving from Ahmedabad to Somnath during the hot day, the tyre-pressure in one tyre went up all the way upto 48psi. In fact the TPMS gave an alert. The road was bad. But the ride even at that high a PSI was fantastic purely because of the loading and the speed.

[FlyingSpur]

I read somewhere that over-inflation is as big a culprit as under-inflation leading to tyre bursts. Personally I generally stick to the recommended values at all times. There must be some reliable calculations behind them for sure.

[Surprise]

Originally Posted by FlyingSpur

I read somewhere that over-inflation is as big a culprit as under-inflation leading to tyre bursts. Personally I generally stick to the recommended values at all times. There must be some reliable calculations behind them for sure.

Probably it should be in TBHP only

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/tyre-a...n-tyres-2.html

[Mudhalaipatti]

Originally Posted by FlyingSpur

I read somewhere that over-inflation is as big a culprit as under-inflation leading to tyre bursts. Personally I generally stick to the recommended values at all times. There must be some reliable calculations behind them for sure.

Agree. But wish to experiment with the settings, to explore how the XUV handles this. As I and SDP have found out, the ride quality is not impacted. Does it impact long term durability of the vehicle. We'll have to sit on it to find out.

[Mudhalaipatti]

Originally Posted by SDP

Thanks for the detailed review. Any shots of the inner lining? How soft is the inside?

SDP, I owe a reply, a long pending one that is.

Here are some of the photos of the inner lining and outer lining of the car cover. It's been holding on for over 2 months very well.

Outer Lining


Inner Lining against the outer lining

[SDP]

Thank you!
The material indeed seems soft and of good quality!

I am slowly getting bugged by the dust. Might explore the cover option. Thanks for the review and snaps.

[Mudhalaipatti]

Sita is a Maoist. For sure she is. What else do you call one in bleeding red and is extreme leftlist. Maoist right. Henceforth Sita, the XUV in red, XUV veering left would be called Sita, the Maoist.

Maoist or not, she is a beauty isn't she. Not a day passes without someone walking up to me and admiring her. "Sooper car Sir", "You have a nice car" are default comments. I would be surprised if I didn't get a admiring look on any given day.



The menacing vehicle that you see on the far left corner is the beast banisher. The Little One drives it. Gives quite a tough time to the Maoist. Had to be in this shot.





Upkeeping this beauty is my weekend job. This weekend job has improved my muscles better than any workout. Oh yeah. Muscles to match the XUV muscles. Check out the schedule and decide yourself.

Step 1 - Car Shompoo Megs NXT car wash, with Auto Craft Wash Mitt
Step 2 - Wipe Dry using Megs Water Magnet and MF
Step 3 - Clay + Megs QuickDetailer
Step 4 - Megs Ultimate Polish
Step 5 - Collinite 915
Step 6 - Hear !@#$%^ from the Grand Master, at having spent the whole day with the Maoist and not with the family, watching sobering TV sops.
Step 7 - Pretend not following step 6

It's either a 5 step process or a 7 step process, depending on your marital status and your mental status.

If you have attained nirvana, then there is interior detailing as well.



Oh btw, did I tell you the hammering The Maoist got, for letting the wind in. See those scars here.



While I was trying to relax in the customer lounge of Shiva automobiles in Trichy, an enthusiastic hammerhead started his stone age practice and by the time I reached the shop floor, it was too late.

When my jaw dropped seeing this, he said "This is how we do it". I was so angry, so pissed off that I clenched my fist, reached in to my martial arts bag and picked up the DSC and started clicking photos. The damage was not just on the body.





This is the customer lounge. I understand that since the volume of XUV sales in Trichy is less, there's no separate shop floor and no separate customer lounge and I'll have to share the space with drivers, cockroaches and sleeping beauties.



The RM and shop floor manager are cooperative chaps and are ready to do anything for the customer. I mentioned to them, that the windshield sprayer is not working, perhaps there's no water. RM said, sure sir, we'll replace the sprayer motor. I doubt if he would blink an eye, if I asked for a engine replacement.

Having seen the carnage, I asked for paint touch up on the affected areas, least any sort of rusting starts off. Paint job done in 30 mins flat. Not questions asked. Apologies for the out of focus pictures. Next time my DSLR would accompany me to the shop floor.