[abirnale]

Originally Posted by Dr.AD

Wow! These are absolutely fantastic pictures, abirnale!
….
Thank you for sharing these pictures. Looking forward to more pictures of your RedSparkle from the upcoming drives.

Thanks AD.

Here are some more pictures I extracted from the family digital vault







































And still working on making a video from other drone and GoPro footages.

[abirnale]

What brings wide smile on your face? For me, it is the weekend drive with family and the Red Sparkle. With monsoon rains and beautiful green all around, we find excuse to drive, every weekend.

This weekend, did a straight drive from BLR to Belgavi to visit a friend on the pre-text of seeing his newly built home

The drive was super fun - dark clouds, occasional drizzle, some heavy downpour, and beautiful views all around. The section especially around Hubli-Dharwad-Belgavi was fantastic. Every time we felt like soaking ourselves in that atmosphere, we took a break and went off-track to narrower diversions away form highway. The car ensured that we feel at home all the time regardless of whether it is a highway or state roads.

We clicked a tons of pictures, and shot videos too. The best we could, are being shared here for your viewing pleasure:

























The car returned the FE of around 12 on this drive - all time Zap-Zooming, literally The car looks great when it’s dirty! This Friday, heading back to MH coast line, hopefully traversing along the MSH4 - will bring you more rain and monsoon drive updates soon. Stay tuned.

[mentalmaxout]

Love reading your updates.

I myself have booked a AX7L Diesel automatic. Just wanted to ask - which accessories did you have it fitted ? after market or from Mahindra ?

[jkrishnakj]

Excellent pictures Abirnale. And so cool to see you go places and click memories. Loved those high altitude ones that mixed along with Mother Earth.

[abirnale]

Originally Posted by mentalmaxout

Just wanted to ask - which accessories did you have it fitted ? after market or from Mahindra ?

Thanks and congrats I got - foot mats, ICE Screen guard, Mudflaps, Alloy and Sensor from the M&M ASC. The black wrap from 3M, Custom set of foot mats from ludhiana seller.

Originally Posted by jkrishnakj

Excellent pictures Abirnale. And so cool to see you go places and click memories. Loved those high altitude ones that mixed along with Mother Earth.

Thanks It was fun drive with you to Kumta! looking forward to meeting you again on more drives.

[abirnale]

Today I noticed the tyre air pressures all around hitting to 29psi. Clearly we need top-up. Generally I keep about 34psi. (trial and error with neighbouring air filling stations - their 35 or 36 is on car 34.)

While filling the air today, I noticed a chirp and hazzard lights come on. I noticed that under the MID Menu for Vehicle Info, now I see “Tyre fill assist” with the animating image of car with the tyre getting filled in! Great discovery it was - as the tyre starts getting inflated or deflated, the corresponding wheel on the MID starts blinking/ animating for fill assist. I noticed this Tyre Fill Assist isn’t the screen you will always find in Vehicle Info menu. It comes up only when the car is in P/ Parked (Red Sparkle is AT) or Neutral with Handbrake (assuming for MT) only. Nevertheless, this was handy little aid for driver to literally assist with air filling in wheels.



Additionally, I am gearing for a long monsoon drive into MH region this weekend. The car is at 14500+ KMs and not sure how long the front brake-pads will last further. I called up Chrome Motors to inquire - they have stock and they are happy to dispatch one set to me to carry along. Just in case f the brake pad worn out warning comes, I can go to any nearby tyre shop/ FNG wherever I will be and get the pads replace. The cost of the brake pads is Rs 5100.

Literally Sahyadri is calling for monsoon drive and I am going with my buddies
Stay tuned for more updates and hopefully a feast of pictures and videos.

[abirnale]

The sneak peak of what happened over weekend:









The detailed account of this will come up later this week! We are not done yet

[Dr.AD]

Originally Posted by abirnale

The sneak peak of what happened over weekend:

Fantastic photos, @abirnale, and a fantastic drive!

I was part of this drive, and I got an opportunity to drive alongside @abirnale's Sabertooth on some lovely roads and to some lovely locations. I will wait for the detailed travelogue where we will see more photos from this drive. But for now, could not resist sharing a couple of quick comments on the red Sabertooth and a couple of photos.

The car is just amazing! We drove on a variety of road conditions, and the car was totally at home in any condition. The car can handle bad roads, potholes, puddles on the road, hilly roads, off-roads, and on top of all those adventures, when it is time to drive on fast and smooth six-lane highways, the car excels in that too! I saw the red Sabertooth doing all of these things, and doing it all in style! The car is a true all-rounder. In some sense, it the was the most perfect car in our convoy, given the variety of road and weather conditions we faced.

I also got a chance to ride shotgun with @abirnale for a short night drive, and loved the experience. The cockpit looks great in night, and the ride was quite comfortable.

The car overlooking the rough sea after conquering the terrain:



The man and the machine:

[niranjan.mulye]

If you are still in Ratnagiri we can arrange a XUV duo meet up

[abirnale]

Originally Posted by niranjan.mulye

If you are still in Ratnagiri we can arrange a XUV duo meet up

Thanks Niranjan - we all returned to Bengaluru on Monday itself - hope we will meet sometime in future.

Originally Posted by Dr.AD

The car is a true all-rounder. In some sense, it the was the most perfect car in our convoy, given the variety of road and weather conditions we faced…

Thanks AD - this is great to hear coming from you. Any ownership review coming from an owner is always slightly biased! Who doesn’t love their own kid more than neighbours Having said that, I still think, this car does a little of everything and thats like master of all trades and jack of none (barring one)!

There are three things in this car that everyone will agree to: great engine, better suspension over its predecessor or comparable to the competition, and on-road manners. Rest all is subjective - you can be impressed with the living room TV and sofa as it creates first wow experience or look out of the roof window and feel the bliss of raindrops falling on your head without making you wet! So there is a little for everyone in the car - the cake though is taken away by the one who takes control through driver’s seat. This is what I meant by using the reference of “barring one”. This car cannot stand chance in AWD section with a compass or another 4x4. Or you can’t probably go head on head with bad road manners of a Safari or Harrier… Or you can’t dare to compare with a Kodiaq (which is rare breed in itself, literally hard to get a new one). But if you look at the car, it does something good of almost all its comparisons in some limited manner, at the price-point that is hard to beat. I have had my share of ICE issues, but nothing that stopped me from taking the car out on any day I wished for. I still don't have Apple carPlay and i used a standby Pixel phone through the entire trip with a different SIM and thats not what I wanted to do. I listened to music as I was solo in my car and enjoyed it - did it satisfy the audiophile in me? Nope. So If I start nitpicking, this is the car you can stack hundred reasons against it. For my readers, let me state this on record - this is NOT the best car to own. BUT this is the car if you want to have something of everything! Better now because all the initial niggles and issues are sorted (with electronics, ICE will continue to evolve).

Going on the highway, the car doesn’t hold back from dancing like diva! Go to bad roads, exercise a little caution (give some respect to those crater like potholes) and she does exactly what you want her to. Last Monday, while all of the gang took direct route from Kolhapur to Bengaluru, I dared to detour into pouring rains via narrowest Tilari forest! I saw a swift and a Xylo broken and abandoned on the road there. That raised some doubts in my mind but I continued - and finished the drive with fantastic memories, without any issues. That’s the reasn I love my Car

More on the trip and that experience once the travelogue comes out in mainstream: for now, few more pictures to make your Friday:

























And the detailed travelogue on this latest trip is here: https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/trave...harashtra.html (Mutton Thalis, Beaches and Rains - A Monsoon Drive to Coastal Maharashtra)

[knrn]

Hi abirnale.

I wondered how I missed writing a comment on your thread. Ah ! It is never too late. Allow me to congratulate you for your wonderful acquisition. I have always felt that your infectious energy and enthusiasm is what pulls me to your threads. The orange cheetah was wonderful and the red sparkle even more so. True that there are a few lacunae here and there but then who doesn’t. One must always be thankful for what one gets and not envy for what one doesn’t. That is the spirit of life and found aplenty in your threads. The Xuv is a great package for what it offers, always has been and in it’s latest avatar has further enhanced it’s strengths. I had become a fan of the Xuv reading your previous thread and would’ve got it had it not been for the finances. Anyways it is a delight reading what you write and wishing you many more. Cheers.

[Ritesh_Dogar]

Originally Posted by abirnale

Today I noticed the tyre air pressures all around hitting to 29psi. Clearly we need top-up

Hi Abirnale, I have a XUV 7OO AWD without the L Pack. Can you please share what kind of warning are you getting and at what tyre pressure level is a warning displayed on the MID alerting of low pressure.
I dont get any warning or alert whenever the tyre pressure drops, neither does the MID show anything while the tyres are being filled.
TIA

[abirnale]

Originally Posted by knrn

It is never too late. Allow me to congratulate you for your wonderful acquisition…

Thanks for the compliments. I will continue to do my best to keep this thread updated.

Originally Posted by Ritesh_Dogar

Hi Abirnale, I have a XUV 7OO AWD without the L Pack. Can you please share what kind of warning are you getting and at what tyre pressure level is a warning displayed on the MID alerting of low pressure.
I dont get any warning or alert whenever the tyre pressure drops, neither does the MID show anything while the tyres are being filled.
TIA

Two things: whenever the tire pressure is beyond the threshold, it would show the air pressure warning symbol (yellow icon) on the MID console. It will also send the notification to AdrenoX app provided the car is in network and your app has those alerts/ notifications enabled. Technically if there is fast air leak, this warning should be shown. (I don’t know what is actually fast in M&M books - will search user manual again!)

The Tyre Fill assist screen is dynamically thrown on the MID console as the car detects filling. What you need to do is have the preconditions: Car not in motion/ gear, MID > Vehicle Info > Tire Pressure widget actively showing up. As the car detects the air filling, you will see the Tyre Fill Assist title and animations on each tyre as you fill air.

Speculated: Remote Key Battery Drain Issue -

This happened an hour ago. I couldn’t use the request sensor on driver door handle to unlock the car like I do usually. Tried using remote key as well. The LED on remote key was blinking bleakly but doors weren’t getting unlocked. Finally I resorted to physical key to manually unlock the doors, letting entire neighbourhood know that I am breaking my own car! The siren/ hooter went off. Stopped after a minute. I drove the car like that, parked again. The hooter went off upon switching off the car. Couldn’t use the remote again, neither did the request sensor on the door worked. Finally opened the keyfob cover, removed the button cell and put back after a minute or so. Everything back to normal! Strange incident, and I have no clue what happened and why! Good thing is it is back to normal. It didn’t strike me that I could unlock the car using phone app too! But since the alarm went off, using app thereafter was meaningless- it just wont allow me to lock or unlock remotely. After the power recycling on the keyfob though, things are all back to normal.

As a precaution, I changed the button cell in the fob CR2032 with a new one. I hope this is just the typical battery drain related something or may have affected the key if i had dropped it sometime in back or something similar. In any case, things should continue to work normally here onwards. I will update more if there is anything new I discover.

[abirnale]

Originally Posted by abirnale

I called up Chrome Motors to inquire - they have stock and they are happy to dispatch one set to me to carry along. Just in case f the brake pad worn out warning comes, I can go to any nearby tyre shop/ FNG wherever I will be and get the pads replace. The cost of the brake pads is Rs 5100.

I had to visit the Chrome ASC today to get brake pads checked - they are also running the free monsoon check camp. While being there I also reported an issue related to ICE not getting the GPS fix. And I was curious to see if they have the AWD propeller shaft bolt re-torque to be done on Red Sparkle.

The CoTek and mechanics team were prompt to take the car in and address all issues. The CoTek flashed the TSB based update to clear all cache from the ICE and reinstall the navigation software with the data. That seems to ave fixed the issue related to not getting GPS fix on the MMI maps on ICE.

Generally when the job card is created, we get to see the mandatory checks/ recall instructions or recall actions if any. Red Sparkle did not show anything to do with AWD and Propeller Shaft bolts etc. In fact zero recalls/ service actions. Regardless, I asked the entire underbody to be checked, all bolts to be re-torqued including the propeller shafts. Checked the brake pads from front and they needed to be replaced - it was just about to throw the warning on ICE. See the picture.



The cost of brake pad is actually Rs. 5770 (earlier typed wrong.) The same unit i procured a couple of weeks ago was used and car is ready to roll again. The check on rear pads suggested the life of about 8-10K still left. So the front brake pads worn out in about 17K Kms, rear will wear out in about 25K kms! Thats pretty fast but may be something to do with my aggressive driving and braking habits.

Another note - I had read some complaints about how the bonnet is misaligned with the uneven gaps at the corners above the head lamp. Thats mostly because the below rubber plug, at the corner of bonet you can see when opened, is not exactly at the same level on both sides. just twist and adjust such that both side plugs are equal in heights/ protruding to touch the body. That will ensure proper alignment without uneven gaps.



I must state again - the Chrome Service center every time goes out of the way to ensure the customers have their undivided attention and focus. not just because i am an old customer but I have seen that with other folks too. My old friend and SA is no more with them (moved out of Bengaluru for greener pastures.) and that hasn’t impacted my experience at Chrome. I still love going 20 Kms away from my home in the traffic or by paying Rs. 95 one way toll just to ensure that The red Sparkle gets the best care possible.

EDIT:
Also, missed to add a few pics I took yesterday when early morning I visited the Shivansamudra Falls: what a beautiful sight it is to see so much of water!













Now off for the week and into another weekend to drive the Red Sparkle in beautiful western ghats of KA. Stay tuned

[Sandegov]

Originally Posted by abirnale

By the way, the observation from the onward drive in rain are listed below:
- The MRF Wanderer tires aren’t as great as I thought. Especially the wet grip part of it. On the six lane smooth highway, there were few puddles on the inner most fast lane. When the car went over it at about 110-120kmph speeds, I experienced the clear aquaplaning. So much so that, at one point the car almost skid and was to hit the median. Since the speeds were not very high, I was able to steer and not end up hitting the curb. I think these tires aren’t anywhere close to the Yokos I had or Michelin for sure. I definitely want to replace these sooner with something that is grippy on highways as well as good for mild offroading.

If you want to get a first hand feel of Michelins on XUV 700 AWD anytime, feel free to hit me up. Am close to Chrome Motors.