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Old 8th May 2013, 12:24   #76
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re: Sita, Red Mahindra XUV5OO W8 joins our Family. EDIT: 1 Year & 35,000 kms up

Hilarious stuff! You do have a flair for creative writing .

Looks super clean and shining! Keep it up that way!

Liked the "sure sir, we'll replace the sprayer motor" bit! For me, they replaced the sprayer motor after I reported the problem for the third time.
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Old 9th May 2013, 01:07   #77
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re: Sita, Red Mahindra XUV5OO W8 joins our Family. EDIT: 1 Year & 35,000 kms up

Agree with SDP! Good write up and the color looks cool! Sad to see the car being hammered, but if that resolves the problem, then it is good!
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Old 21st May 2013, 09:24   #78
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SDP View Post
Hilarious stuff! You do have a flair for creative writing .

Looks super clean and shining! Keep it up that way!

Liked the "sure sir, we'll replace the sprayer motor" bit! For me, they replaced the sprayer motor after I reported the problem for the third time.
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Originally Posted by getsurya View Post
Agree with SDP! Good write up and the color looks cool! Sad to see the car being hammered, but if that resolves the problem, then it is good!
Thanks for the kid words SDP and getsurya.

The car has run close to 11k km in less than 4 months and it's been holding pretty good. She went to the service center for her regular 10k checkup. Couldn't engage India Garage, Chennai as they are super busy always and need prior appointment, atleast 2 weeks in advance. Since the 10k service doesn't involve anything major, gave her to Shiva Automobiles in Trichy.
It's a walk-in job. They hardly have any XUVs even on weekends. That makes the job faster.

At 11 a.m, give the car with the following observations (no complaints!!).
The electrolyte/water is leaking from the battery.
There's a intermittent error "Bonnet Open".
Left Pulling.

Advised them to do tyre rotation and wheel alignment and balancing. The RM informed me that usually the tyre rotation solved the left pulling issue. But he was not able to say how. This method has no become popular wisdom and may well be called a urban automotive legend.

At 4.30 p.m the same, receive a call that the vehicle is ready and I could pick it up. These guys work in a totally unorthodox way. No bill, no customer signature on any forms, no feedback calls. Nothing. I'm allowed freely in the work area, happily chatting with the technicians there, who are working in a rather casual manner. No arguments, no questions. They wouldn't say no, if I had said "I'll leave my XUV for reason and take that rexxton in the meantime". No seriously. I'm not kidding. Next time, I'm going to ask them exactly that.

Btw total "no-bill" of Rs.90, for replacing the windshield washer liquid.

Took the lady on a short highway run and to my utter surprise, the vehicle stayed it's course for quite sometime. And so the legend is indeed true. Let me observe this for sometime, before declaring that Sita is no more a Maoist.

The bonnet open error hasn't comeup in the last 400km so far.

The RM mentioned that nothing else was amiss in their checks and the vehicle is fine. Strangely, well rather pleasantly the vehicle seems a lot more responsive after this service. My friend who accompanies me on my office trips, remarked that I'm flooring the pedal more often, then in the past. My driving style hasn't changed atall, but throttle response is fantastic. Not sure what has changed. The FE hasn't changed much and I was able to beat that ogre-in-brown more than once. ****yeah****
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Old 21st May 2013, 09:49   #79
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re: Sita, Red Mahindra XUV5OO W8 joins our Family. EDIT: 1 Year & 35,000 kms up

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Originally Posted by Mudhalaipatti View Post
...
Took the lady on a short highway run and to my utter surprise, the vehicle stayed it's course for quite sometime. And so the legend is indeed true. Let me observe this for sometime, before declaring that Sita is no more a Maoist.
...
Please check the tyre pressures with a accurate guage.. especially front right tyre. Last time when I returned happy, realized that the right front tyre was bulging at the bottom. Checked the pressure, it was 22 psi! Horror! Got the pressured corrected to 32-30 and as expected Duma was prancing to the left.

Not saying that it would be the case with your vehicle as well. Just want you to be cautious of dirty little tricks from the service center personnel (wanted to use another word instead of personnel..which would have rhymed well with tricks, but never mind. This is a family forum )
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Old 21st May 2013, 09:54   #80
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Originally Posted by SDP View Post
Please check the tyre pressures with a accurate guage.. especially front right tyre. Last time when I returned happy, realized that the right front tyre was bulging at the bottom. Checked the pressure, it was 22 psi! Horror! Got the pressured corrected to 32-30 and as expected Duma was prancing to the left.

Not saying that it would be the case with your vehicle as well. Just want you to be cautious of dirty little tricks from the service center personnel (wanted to use another word instead of personnel..which would have rhymed well with tricks, but never mind. This is a family forum )
Thanks SDP, I was forewarned and forearmed. The front wheels had 36 and the rear had 33 when I took her out of the SS. Corrected it to 32 on the front and 30 at the rear. Drove the XUV for around 20 odd kms on highways with the SS pressure and for around 250 odd kms with the corrected pressure. In both cases, the vehicle remained on a straight line, at least for a few seconds, before pulling slightly to the left. No one was able to explain the reasoning behind this apparent self correction. Team BHP trained brain finds it hard to accept this as a legend. There has to be something to this. But then there doesn't seem to be a pattern either. Let's wait for the newer batch owners to put in their 10k km update and observe.
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Old 23rd May 2013, 09:42   #81
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re: Sita, Red Mahindra XUV5OO W8 joins our Family. EDIT: 1 Year & 35,000 kms up

I here by declare that Sita is no more a Maoist and she can maintain a straight line for a few hundred meters, before his subconscious mind/wheels veer towards the left. I must have mentioned something like operation green hunt or PC or something alike. She mended her ways. Good girl.

I may forget to blink, I may even forget to say GM to the grand master, but not a day passes without me spending close to an hour with Sita to get her back to her gleaming self. First she gets her dust off by Jopasu Car Duster. She hates it. The duster is more dirtier than the corporation broomstick, but still does the job. Next are the glasses. Oh boy. You would build a 1BHK glass house with the glasses in the XUV. And it takes quite an effort to clean them. The front windshield is THE mortuary for these house flies, highway cruising insects and sad butterflies. Once they dry out overnight on the screen, they are more like fossils. The archaeology guys should never see my screen. To convert the fossil holder to the XUV windshield, a liberal dose of water, soak for 5 mins, followed by the Megs Water Magnet to wipe dry. Next ArmorAll glass cleaner.

I had used news papers for a variety of purposes, apart from reading news. Have used to make kites. Have put to good use when the tap dried on a power off day. Used it to cover my school notebooks. Used it along with tyre rubber bands to make a cricket ball, a hard one though. Used it to woo girls, with my Abdul Kalam skills, rockets you see. Never did I imagine this thing could be used to clean car glass. When I read the instructions on ArmorAll, I discarded it as not feasible. But after multiple tries with MF clothes, torn 'baniyan' cloth, baby napkin (unused one, you see) and finally the newspaper, I can confidently say that newspaper is the most versatile piece of tool that we have in our everyday life. However ArmorAll is not the product that I would recommend, as it's only a little better than plain water. Planning to get the AutoGlym stuff soon.

Sita has 2 rounds of Collinite915 and so removing dust/marks is rather easy. Just a simple wipe would remove most of the marks.

Everytime I clean her, can stop admiring the design and the nifty touches here and there. But there are some design aspects that I'm not able to get a hang of it. Have a look at these.

Sita, Red Mahindra XUV5OO W8 joins our Family. EDIT: 1 Year & 35,000 kms up-innerpyramid.jpg

This is a kind of a inverse pyramid on the sides of the last row seats. What are these ? What are they used for.

Similarly there's this umbrella loop just behind the last row seats, on the sides. What are these for ? I haven't seen anything getting latched on to this.

Sita, Red Mahindra XUV5OO W8 joins our Family. EDIT: 1 Year & 35,000 kms up-umbrellaloop.jpg

The discovery continues.
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Old 23rd May 2013, 11:17   #82
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re: Sita, Red Mahindra XUV5OO W8 joins our Family. EDIT: 1 Year & 35,000 kms up

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mudhalaipatti View Post
....
Everytime I clean her, can stop admiring the design and the nifty touches here and there. But there are some design aspects that I'm not able to get a hang of it. Have a look at these.

Attachment 1086688

This is a kind of a inverse pyramid on the sides of the last row seats. What are these ? What are they used for.

Similarly there's this umbrella loop just behind the last row seats, on the sides. What are these for ? I haven't seen anything getting latched on to this.

Attachment 1086689

The discovery continues.
Those 2 that you have pointed out are the end-point arrangements for a parcel-tray. The parcel tray is not available as an accessory yet, but in future it would be.

PS: Beautiful writing as usual!
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Old 19th June 2013, 14:15   #83
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re: Sita, Red Mahindra XUV5OO W8 joins our Family. EDIT: 1 Year & 35,000 kms up

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Originally Posted by SDP View Post
Those 2 that you have pointed out are the end-point arrangements for a parcel-tray. The parcel tray is not available as an accessory yet, but in future it would be.

PS: Beautiful writing as usual!
Thanks SDP for the information and kind words.

It's been quite a while that Sita has roaming around in Cheap rubber on the inside. For a beauty like this.

Sita, Red Mahindra XUV5OO W8 joins our Family. EDIT: 1 Year & 35,000 kms up-dsc09989.jpg

The rubber inside was ugly, looked cheap and was incredibly damaging. It was like Rakhi Sawant in Amir Khan's lap. No offense to either one of them, depending on your 'fan' orientation.

Sita, Red Mahindra XUV5OO W8 joins our Family. EDIT: 1 Year & 35,000 kms up-oldmats1.jpgSita, Red Mahindra XUV5OO W8 joins our Family. EDIT: 1 Year & 35,000 kms up-oldmats2.jpg

The choice of buying the vehicle was a no brainer. The choice of choosing my Grand Master (or the other way around) was a no brainer as well. But the choice of floor mats on the XUV took me a good 4 months. Yeah 4 long, very long months. Reason - I was not convinced of the quality of the pricier options and the cheap ones were really cheap. The middle ones either looked cheap or appeared filmsy. Finally it was a contention between the more expensive 3D Kagu Mats and the 3M Noodle Mats (easier to call it this way). The 3M mats were quoted at 6.2k. They were dirt magnets. Attracted a lot of dirt from under your shoes, from the drain nearby and from the slow moving car on the other lane. You had to turn your world upside down, quite literally to shake the dirt off. It even retained water for a longer period than good old mother earth. But the looks were not appealing enough. You better straighten your hair darling.

The 3D Kagu mats augmented and complimented the XUV's beauty, but did nothing to subside the Grand Master's fury. A good 30K burnt already, in the name of car detailing. 3D kagu mats were quoted at 5.8K you see. Not exactly spouse friendly budget. But I'm persistent you see. I had to come up with creative means to grow money for this buy and finally decided to go for 3D Kagu Mats.

Here is the mat on the XUV.

Sita, Red Mahindra XUV5OO W8 joins our Family. EDIT: 1 Year & 35,000 kms up-3d1.jpg

Sita, Red Mahindra XUV5OO W8 joins our Family. EDIT: 1 Year & 35,000 kms up-3dfl.jpg

Sita, Red Mahindra XUV5OO W8 joins our Family. EDIT: 1 Year & 35,000 kms up-3dfr.jpg

Sita, Red Mahindra XUV5OO W8 joins our Family. EDIT: 1 Year & 35,000 kms up-3d2nd.jpg

Sita, Red Mahindra XUV5OO W8 joins our Family. EDIT: 1 Year & 35,000 kms up-3d3rd.jpgSita, Red Mahindra XUV5OO W8 joins our Family. EDIT: 1 Year & 35,000 kms up-3d3rd2.jpg

Initial observations : The black color is the only sensible option considering the interiors of the XUV and doesn't show mercy in exposing dirt or shoe marks. But it's quite easy to wipe it off. The small stones and other foreign objects don't get to settle the numerous hiding places, but are offered on 'The Plate'.
The Velcro kind of arrangement is great and doesn't let the mats slip of it's feet and off your feet.

Let me post a detailed review after some hard usage. Be rest assured on the review, as the mats would see the most foot fall in a day. 12 unique foot falls every day. No I don't screen movies in my car. I do carpool.

Last edited by Mudhalaipatti : 19th June 2013 at 14:18.
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Old 19th June 2013, 21:02   #84
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re: Sita, Red Mahindra XUV5OO W8 joins our Family. EDIT: 1 Year & 35,000 kms up

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mudhalaipatti View Post

The 3D Kagu mats augmented and complimented the XUV's beauty,
Lot of discussion on Team BHP forums on 3D Kagu mats, but first time I've seen pics. Looks neat and seems designed for the XUV.

But they are'nt washable, are they?
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Old 19th June 2013, 21:59   #85
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Lot of discussion on Team BHP forums on 3D Kagu mats, but first time I've seen pics. Looks neat and seems designed for the XUV.

But they are'nt washable, are they?
You seem to have missed following posts:

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/offici...ml#post2857744

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/offici...ml#post2858789

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/offici...ml#post2880461

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-d...ml#post2901858
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Old 19th June 2013, 22:20   #86
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re: Sita, Red Mahindra XUV5OO W8 joins our Family. EDIT: 1 Year & 35,000 kms up

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Originally Posted by SDP View Post
You seem to have missed following posts:
Thanks SDP, I missed all of them.
They certainly look good, but not VFM unlike my XUV
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Old 20th June 2013, 08:15   #87
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@Mudhalaipatti, My car mats are OEM and the price IIRC is 2800. This is a set comprising 2 front mats and 3 middle row mats, no mats for the kids row. Heavy, solid moulded construction using virgin rubber though.

But when I saw your pictures I realized that the OEM mats are well, just another set of floor mats. Compared to them, the 3D Kagu mats are waaaay ahead in fit and finish, so much ahead that they clearly redefine the term floor mats. Good decision and worth every rupee.

@Heavy Horse, let me disagree. They cost 100% more, but what you get is more than 100%. When compared to the OEM mats, that is.
Attached Images
 

Last edited by sandeepmdas : 20th June 2013 at 08:18.
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Old 20th June 2013, 08:55   #88
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Originally Posted by sandeepmdas View Post
@Mudhalaipatti, My car mats are OEM and the price IIRC is 2800. This is a set comprising 2 front mats and 3 middle row mats, no mats for the kids row. Heavy, solid moulded construction using virgin rubber though.
I have the same and I do like them. Good quality rubber. Good design, especially the red colored lining.

Quote:
But when I saw your pictures I realized that the OEM mats are well, just another set of floor mats. Compared to them, the 3D Kagu mats are waaaay ahead in fit and finish, so much ahead that they clearly redefine the term floor mats. Good decision and worth every rupee.

@Heavy Horse, let me disagree. They cost 100% more, but what you get is more than 100%. When compared to the OEM mats, that is.
Allow me to disagree partially. The 3D Kagu mats are undoubtedly better looking and better fitting. The durability reports are not very encouraging though.

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/modifi...ml#post2843433

Mudhalaipatti, sorry don't want to alarm you. But you might want to keep an eye on the driver's mat. Sorry again.
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Old 20th June 2013, 09:21   #89
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But they are'nt washable, are they?
Yes they are washable. In the last 2 days, the mat has seen it's share of mud and debris. The worst thing about the regular mats is that it let's slip mud/debris off tot he carpet and the carpet is in love with things like haystack. Doesn't come off easily. I have to 'pluck' each strand separately. With the 3D mats, I first do a quick vacuum and then wipe the mat with a damp cloth. The mat 'becomes' new. No problem of dirt spillage as well. But then I'm being cautious optimistic about the long term durability, I won't go anywhere and stay tuned for the most comprehensive long term review of the 3D mats. (Turn on the lights boys).

Quote:
Originally Posted by sandeepmdas View Post
@Heavy Horse, let me disagree. They cost 100% more, but what you get is more than 100%. When compared to the OEM mats, that is.
The 3D ones if they don't deteriorate over 3 years, then this could be called a VFM product. It definitely compliments the XUV.

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Mudhalaipatti, sorry don't want to alarm you. But you might want to keep an eye on the driver's mat. Sorry again.
Thanks SDP. I had gone through numerous reports and this one caught my attention as well. The distributor assured me that this is a one off case and that he would be happy to provide a replacement if the condition deteriorates in a year.
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Old 20th June 2013, 09:40   #90
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@Heavy Horse, let me disagree. They cost 100% more, but what you get is more than 100%. When compared to the OEM mats, that is.
Well I never got any OEM mats !! I bought the cheapest mats that are completely transparent and comes for about Rs 1200/-. I'm happy with them because the guy that washes my car takes them out on a regular basis, washes them and before putting them back cleans out the carpet. This has been quite effective and for whatever reason, the car does'nt collect much dirt and dust.

Btw, I really like your signature line

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Yes they are washable.
Thanks. Looking forward to your long term report.

Last edited by Heavy Horse : 20th June 2013 at 09:43.
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