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-   -   Reincarnating Orange Cheetah | TheRedSparkle Mahindra XUV7OO AX7L AWD | 1 Lakh kms done! (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-drives-initial-ownership-reports/247913-reincarnating-orange-cheetah-theredsparkle-mahindra-xuv7oo-ax7l-awd-1-lakh-kms-done-29.html)

... And so are your posts! It is such a pleasure reading about the adventures with your AWD beast.
For me, one of the obvious concerns with monsoon drives is about the car getting muddy and wet on the interiors. With wet umbrella, wet footwear, etc,, I fear that water may eventually cause damage to leatherette seats and floor (potentially rust in the longer term).

• Do you use any extra floor mat for monsoon?
• What precautions do you take before the drive?
• How do you treat the interiors after the drive?

Actually a fantastic question - and you gave me a reason to elaborate this important aspect of maintaining the interiors. A lot of folks with this light coloured interiors (also in Roxx now) would have this question.

To answer your questions one by one:

• We use the noodle mats. They are 7D kind. So there are very less open areas/ exposed carpet area. Because of the nature of the noodle mats, they hold a hell lot of dirt, water, muck in them and don't let you know about it! So this is a must have accessory or mat I would definitely recommend for everyone. The wet umbrellas can be rolled nicely and kept on the floor on these noodle mats. If the umbrellas are smaller, you can use the designated pockets in the door pad. The next opportunity, take umbrella out and clear the mats of any water that may have accumulated.
• Not exactly before or after the drive but I do have certain hygiene imposed for the occupants. I am very particular about not carrying super muddy footwear inside the cabin. And if they do, they need to take keep it on the floor, without wearing them while being seated. They got to be careful of not keeping feet on the back of front seats/ on the seat, etc. Also, each door pad is equipped with a napkin/ wiping towel. The back-pockets of the front row seats have ample old newspapers. With this combination, they should be able to keep the muck/ mud away. It's far easier to wipe the water drops on door pad when you see then instead of leaving it for long time. Passengers of my car are equally responsible and accountable for cleaning their own area. Takes only 5 seconds! Including my kids - no exceptions here. I don't mess with Kitchen at home, I don't expect home minister to mess with my car. Simple.
• Post Drives, I generally get a thorough vacuum cleaning done. If any stains, use simple damp cloth and wipe it out. If the stains don't go away, using 3M cleaning spray, clear them out.

Apart from this, I don't do anything extraordinary. I leave the exteriors dirty for longer time - it doesn't bother me. but inside of the cabin, must be clean and tidy. No throwing of objects, food or stuff loose in cabin. Some of my family members mock and tease me for this and some don't prefer to sit in my car - so be it! With all these precautions and routine, so far, I have not had any issues with interiors! Hope it stays that way :)

By the way, we just crossed 75K Kms on the odo :Cheering:

Is it only if the Adrenox thingy is up and running? What if we don't renew subscription/data plan?

Do they store the data somewhere so that even if OTA doesn't happen, they can plug in during service.

I am all for vehicle health diagnose, but with 360` cameras, microphones inside the cabin, GPS it would be a nightmare. Add to that our very lax privacy laws. Please don't bring smartphones into this discussion. You can easily brick your phone, but can't abandon your lakhs worth of car. And I like to believe that smartphone ecosystem is a lot more mature and regulated than data in vehicles, which insurance companies and authorities are hungry to get.

The eSIMs on car work differently. Typically it is bulk connections/ bandwidth purchased by manufacturers from network operators (Vi in our case). The entire fleet manufactured shall share the overall quota from the network operators.

So ideally, there is no effective "subscription over, tracking over" stage, I assume. The subscription termination only assures that you don't get connected car services - no guarantee that manufacturer will not be able to pull the logs whenever they want. In any case, car always stores some definitive set of data on the ICE/ onboard computers anyway. So during the service, offline mode, it can be retrieved too. Obviously the laws of size of data, duration, ability of CoTek person to so this is all in play for final output. And above all, I don't want to assume that whatever M&M builds as software works flawlessly :D

Again, I have kept my subscription active, so can't comment on other side of the subscription over observations confidently.

By the way, during my KL monsoon drive, the brake pad worn out indicator had come up which was a real use case and I never got the cal from M&M support folks! Probably folks there busy with Roxx and just warming up to this new proactive reach paradigm.

All in all, I haven't been thinking of all these things yet - just enjoying the car as it ages! Every time I get behind the wheel, it brings a wide smile on my face.

Don't renew connected tech and you are sorted, more over this was an ongoing discussion elsewhere, user should have the choice to choose esim provider and data plan etc.

If Mahindra is riding all these inputs to their DB on your data plan then you should not be paying for it.

And that put a "keeda"/ worm in my head. It's been a year plus since 3M guys had applied the PPF on bonnet - they wanted to see how it is holding after a year plus. I took this opportunity and got the car interior deep cleaned. Since the rainy season is not yet over, a simple wash and wax on exterior wad done. Some day later, I will get the paint correction and buffing etc done for the scratches #TheRedSparkle has!

The result is: Sparkling #TheRedSparkle!





The interiors are now much better looking, smelling better too. The AC vents were sprayed with disinfectant. The interior is much brighter now - missed to take the pictures. (took only video and haven't uploaded it yet.)

The difference is noticed by home minister - the moment she sat in the car today evening, she figured out where I have been in the name of meeting friend :D

The PPF is actually making difference on the bonnet - the different in shine on the surface is evident. The paint beneath PPF is still looking sharp and red while the adjacent panels show the age. And with all these highway mile munching drives, the bonnet PPF is protecting with those stone hitting/ paint chipping marks. The PPF takes the hit and self heals with the heat, sweet!

Looks great! Looks like brand new! You have maintained this car so well even after 70,000km! Kudos to you and your car.

And I was lucky enough to get a chance to meet @abirnale today at 3M and see this sparkling car in person! The car looked great! Just yesterday in one group we were discussing about pains of maintaining white interiors, and today I saw this car where the white interiors looked fresh like new, even after 70,000km!

It is always a pleasure and an inspiration to meet the Red Sparkle and the proud owner in person! Looking forward to the next opportunity to drive together with the Red Sparkle and its champion driver!

We did an impromptu drive to Dandeli on Sunday evening and returned on monday - a quick dash! The detailed log is here: https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/trave...ng-tigers.html

The odometer now stands at 76,842 kms!

Hey Avinash, based on your experiences of different tires used on XUV700, which one do you recommend and any thoughts or comparison points for Michelin?

Here is my experience so far after having used MRF EcoStreet as stock, Continental CrossConti as first set and current Yoko set:

• The MRF are an all-rounder tires. Hardest of all I have used. Speed rating is lowest. These are generalist - trying to please everyone! Noisy too but lasts longer. For me, they were puncture magnets! I lost one tire early in ownership owing to a bad puncture.
• The Continental set was softest of all - grippy and nice cornering ability! They are higher speed rated too. Perfect for black tarmacs! Oh, they wear out faster too obviously. One tire got a sidewall puncture as they aged more. I had to change it! Silent of all the three sets I have experienced!
• The Yoko are slightly harder than Continental, but still super soft compared to MRF. They burn faster too. High Speed rated. I like them on highway as well as for occasional rough roads. Least punctures in this set! Of all three I have use so far, these I like the most.

In Another 4-5K kms, I would need a new set :coldsweat

I am going to now shift from this H/T category to A/T. And my choices are:

• Apollo Aptera AT2 (availability in XUV7OO 18" sizes are a challenge!)
• Bridgestone Dueler AT002 - the easier available option, seems like copy of Apollo!

I am actually looking for A/T tires that are 70-80% highway inclined and 20-30% off-road. My usage has been on bad roads, country roads a lot and it will continue to be that way for at least another couple of years. May or June 2025, I wish to make a cross-country road trip from Bangalore into northern most parts of our country.

Hope this helps.

How about Vredestien? It has a size 245 60 R18 H rated tyre. It is HT btw.

That way there are tons of options in H/T.
But, Nope! I want 70-30 or 80-20 biased A/T tires only!
Open for experiments, if I get options for A/T that range below 15K a piece!

I could be wrong but when I researched normal HT SUV tires are meant for 10-15% off roading. AT have 30% bias for off roading. So a 20% biased AT will be almost a HT option only.

That may be right - the ask for A/T now is not just for off-road friendly nature of those tires, they also have better grooves/ buttons on them that helps with off-roading conditions. And again the off-roading here is for the roads with gravels, normal slush, country roads without tar, sharp inclines and declines. This still won't be in the territory of the 4x4s.

Yet another weekend, and after a long time, we managed to get a day drive on our agenda! Saturday morning, went out to have brunch/ lunch at Hali Mane near Yediyur/ Hassan Highway and then extended the drive towards Mavanuru Malleswara Temple and windmills. We found some nice lakes, shades and beautiful winged miracles to watch!

Summary of the drives in pictures:





























































And a glimpse of what we could record:
https://youtube.com/shorts/xqZ0ZhQsq...g87pssmVX2PPyE

And by the way, the rear left passenger power window has become inoperable with passenger door pad switch as well driver's switch. Most likely the case of conked off power window winding motor! Nothing new here - had happened to #TheRedSparkle earlier as well. This time its a different door. 5-Oh-Oh(s) had this issue too and now 7 Oh Oh - must be some supplier whose quality control missed it :D