[Stryker]

Some background
I’ve been a member here since June 2005, when I bought my Baleno Lxi. This was my very first post here (Stock tyres on the Baleno) I might say my driving profile has changed since then. I no longer consider 100 as high speed, for example! Bring on the corners, I say! The Baleno completely changed my outlook towards driving. Not posted much since then, but I have been following every significant event here. People like GTO, Samurai, v1p3r, Rudra Sen, et al are like friends, never mind the fact that I have never met them and probably never will. Thanks to everyone here that makes Team BHP what it is today. That comes from the heart. Now onto the main story.

The desire
Ever since Mahindra launched the XUV back in 2011, I have always wanted one. "Me wanty" was the first thing that popped into my mind when I saw the launch video. The hype was so much back then, all over the web and print media, that this was the only launch I ever saw, then or since. I drive (or used to drive, gotta get used to that!) a 2005 Pearl Silver Baleno Lxi which served me amazingly well for that past eight years.

At Gyanabharathi Campus (Bengaluru University) sometime in 2006 I think.


On the way to Yercaud, during May 2011. Note the monkey watching me!


I drove all of 48500 kms in that car over the period, so you get a good idea of my usage. Of course, the first three or four years I was using it only on the weekends or on the occasional highway trip so they don't count for much. It is only in the last three years that I actually started using it for my daily commute to office and wherever else I wanted to go, so about 80% of the usage has come in about 40% of the time. Sorry for rambling, let me get back to the main topic.

Why move from a sedan?
Last month, we went on a three day holiday to The Tamara, Coorg, near Madikeri. I'd recommend this place to anyone bored of the regular resorts in Coorg. We drove over there in my car as there were only three of us, me, wife and darling daughter. The roads are pretty good all the way to Madikeri after which the roads are so-so. While the Baleno never let us down at any stage in any way, I still felt it would have been nice to have a bigger car with a better GC and higher driving position, the better to see the innumerable potholes and the ability to get onto the shoulder with a lot more confidence. Earlier to that, we went to The Windflower in Pondicherry and took the Vellore-Arani route based on advice here. Then too I felt that same. A sedan is built for good roads, highways and pure bred city driving. It will take some punishment and not complain much, but too much is never good for them. In May, we went to Red Hills Resort in Ooty and I was thanking my stars that we decided not to take our car, as there was no road to speak of during the last few kms. My friend’s Scorpio in which we were travelling came up there without any drama, though.

My family consists of me (duh!), wife, 11 year old daughter and my 72 year old mom. My extended family also includes my sister-in-law, her husband and their two sons (aged 13 and 6) and we almost invariably travel together for most holidays. They own a 2006 Tata Indica, so we regularly take both cars since all of us will fit in neither my car nor theirs. We felt it would have been good to have one car where we could enjoy the good times together, while we can. This is not the only reason to go for bigger car, of course, but one of the factors I considered for deciding. Now they are buying a bigger one too, but that is another story... We also have a great circle of friends (some of whom are lurkers here as well) who also get together fairly regularly for weekend holiday drives to several places in KA/TN/AP/KL. The frequency of these holidays are increasing over the last year or so, due to various factors, be it one day trips or weekend jaunts. Have car, will drive. Scorpio, Quanto, Xylo, XUV, Palio, Baleno, Linea, Innova are mostly the vehicles we drive in. Nothing very fancy, no Beemers or Mercs.

The decision
The biggest factor was the fact that I just wanted the XUV! Reasons come later, this time the heart ruled and I just let it take over. I had decided to wait for the second generation or iteration just to let Mahindra iron out most of the niggles and problems that would undoubtedly accompany a launch of this magnitude. This, as we all know, happened in March this year with the much touted fix for the brake problems and the various fixes for the Infotainment system and electronics in the car. I had no more reason to delay the decision so after some discussions with my wife, we decided to go ahead with the plan.

I never really considered buying any other vehicle since my wife was very sure she didn’t want another sedan (strictly four seaters, even the best of them) and I was already sold on the XUV anyway. My daughter just wanted as many of us as possible to travel together, since they get to have much more fun that way. My mom didn’t have too much input on this, as long as she didn’t have to bend or climb much to get into the vehicle. My dad would have had some strong views, but he passed away early last year, may his soul rest in peace. But I am sure he would have loved the XUV for the ease with which he could have got in and out.

I did for a couple of hours consider the Duster, but wife said no because it was essentially a four seater masquerading as a five seater. I dropped it because did I mention it? I was sold already on the XUV. Oh and I also happen to think that the Duster from the front looks like a surprised face (a la ) with those head lamps, no offence meant to any Duster owner here.

Another major factor is that in that budget range (around 16L give or take) there is absolutely no other vehicle that is a 7 seater SUV with the features we were looking for. Safety, performance, gizmos, looks, presence, etc all point to the XUV and only the XUV. When I first visited the showroom, I saw the Rexton and while it looked really good, it was way out of my budget range with the starting point as around 23L on road. But it really looks fantastic and it has everything one would want from a car in the price range.

Which variant?
So the XUV it was. The W6 was a little too basic, no side air bags, no alloy wheels (although the upgrade option is present), not too many gizmos, BW infotainment system and hey I did have a slightly bigger budget anyway. The AWD was considered overkill for my driving profile and style, since I never plan to take it seriously off road. Maybe like the Baleno changed my driving style completely, the XUV will change it too, but at the moment it is how it is. Moreover, Debuda’s blog has changed the way I think about AWD and if he can do so much with an FWD, I can comfortably do much lesser with the same. So the W8 FWD variant was what we decided on. Fits bang on my budget and has everything I want. Or maybe I subconsciously tailored the budget to fit this one!

Which dealer?
The dealer experience goes such a long way in deciding on the vehicle, if you are dithering a bit about which one to buy. The final decision will probably depend on who treats you better! But in my case, it was more a decision of whom to buy the XUV from, rather than which car to buy. As such, I had only three choices. India Cars, Anant Cars, Sireesh Auto. So which dealer to buy it from? This one was a no brainer for me. Three of my circle have bought Mahindras from Anant Cars on Bannerghatta Road and had nothing but good things to say about the people there, so that was that. One of my friends also knows the MD/CEO of Anant Cars pretty well and as such, I was assured of a good deal in any case, not that his intervention was ever required.

The dealer experience
As I mentioned, the dealer experience is sometimes a clincher in many a decision. In this case, even though the decision was already made, I must mention that the guys over in Anant Cars are a great bunch of people. The Team Leader for XUV, Mr. Arun, who handled my case personally, is a very helpful and pleasant person to interact with. A couple of other people also were very good and all in all, it was a very good experience with them. I’d recommend this dealer any time in case any of you is wanting to buy any Mahindra vehicle. They have also recently opened a branch on Mysore Road, next to the BHEL factory, if that is closer.

The test drive
I requested them for a test drive on the following Sunday, since that would mean my family would be able to accompany me for it. My wife works too, even on Saturdays, so the only option was a Sunday. The dealer graciously accepted without any murmurs and duly, a white W8 FWD arrived at our doorstep albeit two hours late. We took it out for a long spin in city traffic conditions, some narrow lanes, some broad roads, some reasonably heavy traffic (being a Sunday, it wasn’t bumper to bumper but it wasn’t light either) and of course a longish run on the NICE toll road.

I was very satisfied with the performance and I questioned the representative at length about the brakes issue and all the other niggles that have been reported here and elsewhere. He answered all my questions to my satisfaction and was quite knowledgeable about the various problems that were originally reported and have since been claimed as resolved with the March 2013 update.

My wife liked that sheer amount of space available inside and the huge glass areas that gave wonderful outside visibility at all seats. My daughter never wanted to come out of the third row and said she was quite comfortable there. She was already planning long trips with her cousins and how much they would enjoy the undisturbed ride. When I took the vehicle over some bad parts of the road at around 40 kmph, she said she felt some jolts but nothing unduly uncomfortable. When I went over some major potholes at a slower speed, the bounce and sway were actually much more obvious.

The only drawback we felt was the absolute lack of luggage space when all three rows are up, but there seems to be sufficient space under the middle row of seats as well as in front of the legs (if you “adjust” a little bit), so that wasn’t a major factor. However, if we are to carry any decent amount of luggage especially when six or seven people are travelling, the roof rails seem to be the only option.

The vehicle seems to be built for the highways and the long, long straights. It was a pleasure flooring the pedal and feeling the surge. 100 comes and goes without you noticing it and only when the chime starts you notice that you have hit 150. No drama, no shivers, nothing. “Slow down now, this is more than enough. Who do you think you are? Schumacher?”, my wife says and I did, although there was absolutely no traffic on the NICE road at around 1:30 PM. So the vehicle passed the test drive passed with flying colours.

Deciding the colour
I initially wanted to go with Volcano Black or Dolphin Grey. In fact, my order booking form at Anant Cars also mentions the same colours. However, I took my wife and daughter over to the showroom for a visit before finalizing on the colour and both of them nixed the Black. This was because the Black exterior features a beige/brown interior combination and neither of them liked it on the grounds that it would be difficult to maintain and it would get dirty very quickly. The Grey comes with a black and beige combination, so it was deemed much better. However, the showroom had a vehicle in Opulent Purple parked outside in bright sunlight and my wife found the colour very striking. She was of the opinion that it would also be dark enough to be considered Black at night and with the added advantage that the interiors would be of the required black/brown combination. Now, dare we go against our better halves when it comes to decisions like this? Well, let me be honest, I liked it too. So Opulent Purple it was.



The deal
After some initial discussions and the mandatory “haggling” over what accessories will be ordered for the vehicle and out of that what will be thrown in free by the dealer as a sweetener, the following were ordered:

Night Vision Colour Rear Camera (free)
DZiner Rubber mats (free)
Side footsteps (yet to be fitted)
Body side moulding – the chrome strip along the sides
Illuminated scuff plates – the ones that show XUV500 in blue when the door is opened
Under chassis coating

I managed to get a decent discount on the paid items too, due to some name dropping and creative haggling, so I think I managed to get a good deal out of the whole thing.

ICEing the XUV
The only option is to replace the speakers, of course, since the head unit is built into the Infotainment system and as such, cannot be separated out without some major circus. That would void the warranty anyway, I think.

After one listen to the audio at mid to high volume, I decided that the speakers must be replaced with something better. I wanted to go with the Infinity range from Harman, since that is what I had in my Baleno and they sounded simply awesome. The dealer mentioned that he could replace the stock speakers (they seem to be Nippon, decent at low volume but not too good at mid or high, unless you don’t care much for audio) with a set of Infinity PR6500CS component speakers along with the JBL GT-X626 4 Channel amplifier for a reasonable sum. I checked up the prices at various online retailers, as well as the neighbourhood car audio guys, and found that the price was a little on the higher side for the speakers. But I decided to go with the dealer fitment since that would mean I would have the audio from day one and I need not spend any more time searching out for a good audio outfitter. So that was ordered and included in the accessories list too.

The PDI
Once the financials were agreed upon and before I made the final payment (the amount I held back was nearly six lakhs, the down payment part of the whole deal), the dealer organized a PDI at their premises. Armed with the exhaustive 11 page printed T-BHP PDI document, me and a good friend of mine started the PDI and took two hours to go through every one of the points thoroughly. We were not allowed to take the vehicle out of the compound and onto the main road itself, so a small “local” drive had to suffice. The compound is quite big, so that was OK.



All the points checked out and no discrepancies were found. None. I was one happy camper at the end of that particular PDI. Once the PDI was done and dusted, I made arrangements for the final payment and the deal was closed in full. Of course, the NCB was transferred over from my Baleno to the XUV, which resulted in an outright saving of approximately Rs. 20,000/- on the insurance value.

The delivery
Finally, the day that I had dreamed of for three long years arrived and we presented ourselves at the showroom bright eyed and bushy tailed. The obligatory coffee and bottled water rounds with the attendant small talk were dispensed with and the rep started the long process of going through the delivery documents in detail. “The keys, man, where are the keys?” were all that I was asking. “Patience Sir, all in due time” was his answer. Once the documentation and sign offs were over, we went outside and saw the vehicle decorated with the garland, ready for pooja and hand over.

The dealer appointed Shastriji performed quite a detailed pooja and even made a “J” out of flowers on the bonnet for my benefit.



That took about 10 minutes and then came the moment!



I drove out carefully and took about 45 minutes for the 20 km drive home, mostly in second and third gears since I was a little apprehensive of shifting to fourth. A smooth and easy experience. Helps when you have been driving since age 15, for more than 25 years, though! The family Premier Padmini, then a Maruti 800, then a Maruti Zen (the first car I bought) and a Maruti Baleno. Being a Maruti driver for nearly 15 of those 25 years, it is quite a different experience driving a non Maruti car.

The pooja at the temple
A more thorough pooja was organized in the evening at the Ganesha Temple near my home, where most of our family functions are organized and dates for important events are fixed. A hilarious incident occurred there. The Temple is on two levels, with each level accessible by a different road. Car poojas are held in level two, right in front of the main entrance, but the approach road is a little tight and narrow. I requested the pooja on level one, since I found a parking space just next to the entrance and managed to cajol them into agreeing. The Shastriji came down, saw my car and immediately exclaimed, “Bigger cars come up to level two! Why we just performed a pooja for a Tata Indica! Your car will definitely come there!” I was like “Man, this is nearly twice the size of an Indica”. But he was adamant and I had to move it to Level Two for the pooja. Maybe he meant Tata Aria, I have no idea!

First Impressions
I like the smooth way the car moves without any jerk while changing gears. They are quite a bit notchy, especially first and second and that takes getting used to, since my Baleno’s gears had become so butter smooth I could change them with one finger. No really, I mean it.

We went out for a long drive of around 130 kms yesterday to somewhere beyond the airport and back and boy, is this vehicle made for the highways or what! It just begs to move into fifth and jumps to 120 without the tacho going too much beyond 2000. Reasonably quiet too, no gruff roar, no rattles or squeaks. Just a deep throated VRRROOOOOM, if you catch my drift. With all the windows up, it is quiet inside too. We were eight people in the car (five adults + 3 kids in the last row) and there is absolutely no time at which the car feels underpowered. Of course, I haven’t tried anything like a Ooty level grade yet, but that will probably be soon. My in-laws were with me and they were very happy with the ride quality. “First class” says my father-in-law. My mother on the other hand felt that the Baleno’s ride quality was better. I told her “Sedans are always better in that department, but can it carry eight people like now?”. “Well, that is there”, she said. Moreover, the airport road is in a state of constant flux what with the long overhead toll way coming up, so that must be taken into account too.

Some photos:










Likes

• Almost everything! Looks, presence, performance, capacity, space…
• Zero turbo-lag. You press the pedal, you move forward as expected.
• Zero shiver on the gear lever when you start or stop the engine. No wild horses prancing like in a Scorpio or a Xylo.
• The high seating position. Takes some getting used to after 20+ years of road huggers.
• Fuel efficiency for such a big engine. Shows me 13.4 after the 130 kms run.
• Humongous fuel tank. 70 litres without a “top up”. Car Info showed well over 800 kms “distance to empty” after a full tank! Still early days, I guess.
• The new audio system sounds spectacular at high volume, when you are alone in the car.

Dislikes

• The plastic quality. Could have been much better, especially the buttons on the centre console.
• That reflective centre console. Spoils the view out of the front, especially at around noon time.
• Can't think of anything else, but it is too early for that I guess

On a side note
Whew, this one took nearly four hours to write! On a Monday, you ask? Well I just had my wisdom tooth surgically removed this morning and the doctor has ordered three days rest. No office, yay!! So I am kind of free at the moment. Hurts a lot, but it had to go.

My daughter came home from school just now and asked “Appa, how are you?” I said “I’m OK but it pains, Putti” (Putti means female little one in Kannada). She immediately hugs me and gives me a kiss (on the other cheek, I was careful) and says “You will be better now!” I ask you, which son would ever do this? I can just imagine my nephew going “Kiss my Dad??!!” with an unspoken “Dude, are you nuts?” in his eyes! Ah, daughters!

And finally...
All photos were taken with my iPhone 5 with some mild editing in Photoshop. I haven't had time or good sunlight to do a proper photo shoot, though I am planning one once the sun is out and will upload pictures once done.

[SDP]

Congratulations Stryker for the new shiny purple XUV!

Very good review and fantastic start for a ownership thread. I am impressed by the quality of the snaps from the iPhone5 as well. One of the rare cameras that can capture the true shade of the oppulent purple XUV.

Congratulations once again and drive safe. Don't push it to get that ting-ting sound too often.

[dZired]

Congratulations on your purchase mate. Your beast looks stunning in opulent purple. Like SDP said, I too am impressed with the photo quality of iphone-5.
Well on a side not, I loved the ending of your thread. Its true that a son would never do such kind of stuff, well even I never did.
I wish you many happy miles of cruising with the purple beastie.
Take care and Drive safe!

[rishi.nandan]

Let me be the first to congratulate you! Nice choice of color and lovely narration..

[Stryker]

Originally Posted by SDP

Congratulations Stryker for the new shiny purple XUV!

Very good review and fantastic start for a ownership thread. I am impressed by the quality of the snaps from the iPhone5 as well. One of the rare cameras that can capture the true shade of the oppulent purple XUV.

Congratulations once again and drive safe. Don't push it to get that ting-ting sound too often.

Thanks SDP. One of the threads that inspired me to go for it was your "Duma" thread! Yeah, the camera quality on the iPhone 5 is pretty good. Even I was surprised with the reasonably good colour fidelity of the tiny sensor. Doesn't look like much on the small screen, but load it up in PS on a PC and you will see every little detail!

And don't worry, that ting ting was only with the test drive mule, not my car.

Originally Posted by dZired

Congratulations on your purchase mate. Your beast looks stunning in opulent purple. Like SDP said, I too am impressed with the photo quality of iphone-5.
Well on a side not, I loved the ending of your thread. Its true that a son would never do such kind of stuff, well even I never did.
I wish you many happy miles of cruising with the purple beastie.
Take care and Drive safe!

Thanks dZired. As I mentioned above the iPhone 5 is great as a handy, quick camera. Again on the side note, I never thought of kissing my dad either. Wish I had at least hugged him once when he was around, but I guess sons never have it in them to emote as well as daughters can, especially towards their Dads!

[carzone]

Fantastic report there Stryker.

Loved the colour of the XUV. Looks different.
It is one my dream cars as well. Hope you stay away from posting in the niggles thread and have a great ownership experience.

Oh ya! iphone 5 has a great cam.

EDIT: Just saw that everyone here is commenting on the quality of the iphone's camera. LOL

[EagleEye]

Congrats on your new XUV Stryker!
We were seriously considering buying this. Almost did too, but for the lack of an automatic transmission version.

Now, only if there was an XUV 5OO mated to a 6-speed VW DSG gearbox with on-demand 4WD! Siiiigh... one can dream.

[DocRock]

Congratulations, Great buy. I also got my W8 Opulent purple delivered 2 weeks back.
It is a wonderful color. Drives beautifully. Enjoy the ride and drive safe.

[sandeepmdas]

Congrats Stryker...!

BTW I also own an opulent purple XUV and I just now turned green with envy when I learnt you've got a reverse cam as freebie. I paid for the mats and that was just three months back (TVS Trivandrum).

I don't know anything about your usage pattern but generally the first thing you'd need is the Jopasu car duster. I also bought a Black n Decker car vacuum cleaner from Flipkart.

Also don't forget to download the latest softcopy version of the XUV owners manual from the MM download section. If you have an Android handset/tab the MM BlueSense app comes handy with some very useful functions.

[hellmet]

A really well written review, and I could feel your emotions as I read through it. I love the part about your daughter kissing you

Your baleno looks so well maintained and cared for.

Happy kilometre crunching on your new drive. May you write many more such reviews for us all to enjoy.

[DicKy]

Congrats on your new Cheeetttaahhh.. And what a colour. Opulent Purple. Looks almost like black, some more interior pic please,.

Originally Posted by Stryker

Some background
I ask you, which son would ever do this? Ah, daughters!

C'mon, that's not fair. Am 21 and i would not think twice about kissing my dad.

[Stryker]

Originally Posted by rishi.nandan

Let me be the first to congratulate you! Nice choice of color and lovely narration..

Thanks, Rishi. I'm sure you were the first, although the post order says otherwise.

Originally Posted by carzone

Fantastic report there Stryker.

Loved the colour of the XUV. Looks different.
It is one my dream cars as well. Hope you stay away from posting in the niggles thread and have a great ownership experience.

Thanks, carzone. I hope to stay away from the niggles thread too.

Originally Posted by EagleEye

Congrats on your new XUV Stryker!
We were seriously considering buying this. Almost did too, but for the lack of an automatic transmission version.

Now, only if there was an XUV 5OO mated to a 6-speed VW DSG gearbox with on-demand 4WD! Siiiigh... one can dream.

Thanks, EagleEye. You can certainly dream on about the VW DSG mated to the XUV. Never even heard of anyone attempting such a radical surgery on any vehicle! Maybe you can be the first?

Originally Posted by DocRock

Congratulations, Great buy. I also got my W8 Opulent purple delivered 2 weeks back.
It is a wonderful color. Drives beautifully. Enjoy the ride and drive safe.

Thanks, DocRock. Congrats on your vehicle too. Have you posted an ownership thread? Don't remember seeing it and I have read almost all of them, I think.

Originally Posted by sandeepmdas

Congrats Stryker...!

BTW I also own an opulent purple XUV and I just now turned green with envy when I learnt you've got a reverse cam as freebie. I paid for the mats and that was just three months back (TVS Trivandrum).

Thanks, sandeepmdas. Another purple XUV owner? Here I was, thinking it is a rare colour! You have an ownership thread? Congrats to you too.

Originally Posted by hellmet

A really well written review, and I could feel your emotions as I read through it. I love the part about your daughter kissing you

Your baleno looks so well maintained and cared for.

Happy kilometre crunching on your new drive. May you write many more such reviews for us all to enjoy.

Thanks, hellmet. Good to know you liked the daughter part. It happened while I was proofing the post, so I thought I will include the incident. My Baleno has stood by me through thick and thin, it is only fair that I take good care of it in return. After all, it never asked for much, it was such a well behaved beauty.

Many more such reviews? Well, I don't plan on buying any new ones so quickly!!

Originally Posted by DicKy

Congrats on your new Cheeetttaahhh.. And what a colour. Opulent Purple. Looks almost like black, some more interior pic please,.

C'mon, that's not fair. Am 21 and i would not think twice about kissing my dad.

Thanks, DicKy. I felt the interior pics would look all the same, so didn't post any. In any case, I will post some when I get around to taking them.

Incidentally, be honest, when was the last time you kissed your dad?

[hellmet]

Originally Posted by Stryker

Many more such reviews? Well, I don't plan on buying any new ones so quickly!!

Haha, I meant many more reviews of such quality, but of your expeditions and experiences with your new XUV5OO

[bnzjon]

Congratulations Stryker.

Well written review and good pictures from your iPhone 5. Excellent choice of colour but be mindful that you need to maintain the body squeaky clean to bring the best out of that colour.

Congrats again and drive safe.

[DicKy]

Originally Posted by Stryker

Thanks, DicKy. I felt the interior pics would look all the same, so didn't post any. In any case, I will post some when I get around to taking them.

Just asked cause haven't seen the black/plum combi interiors, (but now searched and saw it in another thread)

Originally Posted by Stryker

Incidentally, be honest, when was the last time you kissed your dad?

Well, he is abroad right now, but when he is home, strange it may sound, everyday. Technically this February end.
But have to admit none of my friends do so and even my kid bro hesitates unless asked for. False sense of masculinity maybe.
Well you are right. 90% sons hesitate to kiss their dad after reaching a certain age, but some like me... never hesitates.
Cheers.