[Sommos]

I had paid for the extended warranty (Shield) and RSA for the fourth and fifth year combined but things were not getting updated in the WYH app. Everytime I spoke to the SA he diverted the onus on M&M. Finally after two months from the purchase of the vehicle, my patience ran out and I wrote a simple tweet to Mr. Anand Mahindra. By-the-way I have experienced this to be a very simple and effective way to shake up the dealership and get them to act. Any customer concern forwarded by the Chairman's Office gets due weightage and priority. In this case, I had to tweet again when no response was received from the dealer's end within the schedule date and time.

It was revealed that though the dealer had received the money from me, but they did not enter the data in the system. In the meantime the Shield Warranty prices has been revised w.e.f. 25-07-2022. The Area Sales Manager sent me screenshots of the entry in the system, which was done on 31-08-2022, after my complain. The Invoice for the Sheild shows the new price - not sure if the differential was borne by the dealer. The data was updated in the WYH app within three - four days. The car is now under warranty till June, 2027.

[Sommos]

Introduction :

Last time I did a long journey on my car was in May 2019 to Pune and December 2020 to Durgapur-Kolkata. Even after the purchase of the new car, I was engrossed in my day-to-day office duties and mundane activities of life. Finally one evening I decided that I need a brake and made a plan to use the Durga Puja holidays to go out. Till now all vacations and outings were usually planned as per my son’s college vacations, but this time he was not available. Mentally, this was tough to digest for both of us, but this is the truth of life – eventually, as parent we have to let him go his own path. So we started making plans for our first vacation without our son. The initial plan was to go to Varanasi – but son wanted to visit that place too and hence Varanasi had to be kept aside for the future. The next place that came up on the list was Agra and we thought to bundle Bharatpur-Mathura-Vrindavan in the same trip.

The distance from Bhilai to Agra was 1080 KM approximately and as per Google maps would take around 19-20 hours and the distance from Bhilai to Bharatpur, RJ was 1100 KM and would take 20 hours. There was a lot of discussion between wife and son on the topic of whether I can still cover this sort of distance at one go, since I have not travelled for three-four years and also had Covid in between. The result of all the discussion in the house somehow managed to dent my confidence level and on top of that I now have a brand new car (XUV 700) and the social media is abuzz with all sort of negative feedbacks about the car. Finally, it was planned that we would start as usual at midnight and try to cover the distance at one go, however, we will be flexible and comfortable throughout the journey and halt at Jhansi or Gwalior for the night, if so required. Meanwhile the Orion was running well without any major issues (touchwood) and had a customary check-up at the MASS on 29-09-2022 and was ready for the journey.

On 01-10-2022 I had a good amount of sleep both before and after lunch. We had our dinner by 07:30 in the evening; again had some rest for three hours. By midnight, bags loaded on the car, fuel tank filled both Orion and myself was ready for the long journey ahead.


The Journey :

After locking the house and the gates, we started at 12:15 AM and took NH53 up to Nagpur. It was Navratri time and there is a famous Maa Bamleshwari Temple in Dongargarh, where people visit throughout the day and night. There was heavy rush of such visitors on the road resulting in minor jams and this continued for some 60 KM. Such jams were crossed from the left side muddy shoulders as the loaded trucks and smaller vehicles would not dare to venture there. Rest of the journey till Nagpur ORR was casual and we crossed Nagpur at 03:50 AM and proceeded towards Seoni on NH44. A few KM towards Seoni we saw a man just opening his tea stall and we stopped there to have tea and had some rest. To cut the story short we crossed Seoni at around 06:00 AM; Sagar at around 09:00 AM; Jhansi at around 12:10 PM and reached Gwalior at around 01:15 PM; a distance of around 930 KMs. We located “Cocina Highway Retreat”, a decent restaurant with clean toilets on NH44 and stopped for lunch. On the route we stopped for fuel at Lakhnadon and Jhansi and also for homemade breakfast at around 09:30 AM somewhere after crossing Sagar. Gwalior to Bharatpur was another 3 hours journey and after having a relaxed lunch we started at 02:30 PM and reached Bharatpur around 05:30 PM after crossing Morena and Dholpur. There was heavy traffic from Gwalior to Agra on NH44 till we took a left turn on NH21 towards Bharatpur. We had a little trouble locating our hotel “Laxmi Vilas Palace” in Bharatpur but finally reached there with some help from the local traffic police. Thus we covered somewhere around 1130 KM in a span of 17 hours and 30 minutes, including breaks.


The Road :

The roads, throughout, was mostly in good condition in spite of the prolonged monsoon this year. Both NH53 and NH44 are four lane highways and maybe it is now time to extend both the highways to six lane, specially NH44. There are innumerable tolls on NH44 and I lost count of the number after some time. NH44 crosses over some of the prominent rivers of the country namely the holy Narmada, Betwa and Chambal (which is the boundary line between MP and UP and MP and RJ). We also crossed some rivers, the names of which I have never heard before, namely Kawari (near Morena), Asan river (near Chonda/ Chondha), Sindh river, Pahuj river, Dhasan river and Shahzad river. We could also see many lakes / dams on both sides of the NH and we stopped for a while at one such dam called the Govind Sagar Dam on Shahzad River just before Lalitpur. The road crosses over another dam called Shahzad reservoir, which actually is huge in size, after crossing Lalitpur.


The Car :

This was the first long highway drive with the “Orion” and I had some doubts about the capabilities of the car or how it would behave. The bonding between the car and myself was yet to be cemented and was still at a blooming stage. I have mentioned in my initial post that I sorely miss the steering feedback of the Linea. This was an opportunity to push the XUV 700 to its limits and verify it’s capabilities. I will list my observations one by one.

a. The first 60 Km the roads were crowded and it was just coasting around, but after that I slowly but steadily started accelerating from 70 till 90-95. Since it was dark all around I decided to keep the speed below 100. The first thing that I noticed was that the throw of the lights was adequate. The high beam plus high beam assist (extra lights that come up as the speed crosses 80 KMPH) lit up the road ahead up to a sufficient distance to give you the confidence to drive at triple digit speed. This can be viewed from the videos attached with the post. Also the impact of the high bean assist can be clearly seen.

b. The steering wheel, which is feather touch in normal city driving, does weigh up in the highway drive as the speed increases. At 90-95 KMPH speed it do weigh-up maybe around 70-75% of the Linea’s HPS but the steering feedback was still absent. This is no HPS and it would be foolish to expect the precision feedback from this steering wheel. The 18 inch tyres and the FSD does a beautiful job of keeping such a heavy and high GC vehicle stable by controling the body roll and the car glides over the broken patches of the road.

At the same time I must say that the car maintains its composure even in high speeds and cutting across lanes to overtake the trucks was easy. Only during some sharp turns on the elevated highway over Pench Jungle reserve did I feel slightly nervous. In the daylight the car was driven mostly at 115-120 KMPH and it continued to maintain it’s composure.

c. Tested the ADAS and the ACC with stop and go function during daytime and loved the feature. Pressing the brake pedal over rides the ACC but there is no need to actually use the brake manually. The ACC was set at 100 KMPH and the car was driving itself maintaining the lane. When a vehicle was sensed ahead the car would slow down to adjust with the speed of the vehicle ahead and maintaining a safe distance between the two cars/ vehicles. The driver has to engage the indicator and change lane and the car would accelerate on its own till it attains the set speed. I used this feature for more than 100 KM continuously but then I started feeling sleepy and I disengaged the feature.

I tried the ACC again on the Yamuna Expressway, on our way to Mathura, and after some time I started feeling sleepy. I did not try to engage the ACC on the return journey from Agra.

d. One thing that I enjoyed the most during this journey was the absolute power of the mHawk engine. Specially after driving the underpowered Linea multijet for 10 years, I enjoyed the power available on the tap. This is my first automatic and I clearly do not understand in which gear the car is in; I only make a guess from the speed of the car. The Aisin auto box is perfectly in sync with the engine and the car responds even to slight pressure on the accelerator. But when the car is at moderate speed of around 50KMPH and the accelerator is pressed hard for a quick overtake, there is a slight lag of one or two seconds before the car starts to accelerate. The XUV can smoothly drive around at 120 KMPH all day – I prefer this speed because beyond 120 KMPH the buzzer rings constantly and causes irritation.

Some memories :

The Route taken :


First cup of tea for the day :


The road ahead - NH 44 :




Breakfast under a shed :


Govind Sagar Dam :



After a lot of dilemma over three months I finally decided to fix the Stainless Steel rear guard. Though I know that this maynot be the right thing to do, finally heart won over the mind and this was done from the showroom just three days before the journey.

The Orion also got the AWD batch and magnetic window shades on all seven glasses before the journey.


The trip meter :
I forgot to start the trip meter from home and did the reset just after crossing Nagpur. So please add another 230 KM distance and 3.5 hours journey time.


Crossing the CG-MH border :

http://youtu.be/wQSe40U7VRk

NH-53 before Nagpur :

http://youtu.be/ehAkWYwYj0A

https://youtube.com/watch?v=RF7H8SIpcOU

NH-44 near Seoni :

https://youtube.com/watch?v=RJ_Hgv22438

[Sandegov]

Originally Posted by Sommos

The Orion also got the AWD batch and magnetic window shades on all seven glasses before the journey.

Lovely travelogue Sommos and its nice to know that the ACC was used over 100kms

I have the same AWD badge and stuck at the same location

Could you please let me know which sunshades did you get and any feedback on it? I am looking to pick one myself so your inputs would help

Btw your videos say they are all private and not visible

[Sommos]

Originally Posted by Sandegov

Lovely travelogue Sommos and its nice to know that the ACC was used over 100kms

I have the same AWD badge and stuck at the same location

Could you please let me know which sunshades did you get and any feedback on it? I am looking to pick one myself so your inputs would help

Btw your videos say they are all private and not visible

Thanks for the information about the videos. I have changed the visibility status and hope you can see them now. If they are still not visible kindly do inform.

The sun shades were purchased from Amazon. Link - https://www.amazon.in/dp/B09NVQMKXS?...p_mob_ap_share

I primarily chose this one because it covered all the seven glasses. The first and the second rows are decent, I would say. But the problem is with the rear glass one. It does not have any magnets and used to fall-off very often. Before this jouney I had to put up double sided tape at a few places and fix it properly. It has not caused any trouble till now.

[Sommos]

03-10-2022 - Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary

Bharatpur is a quaint little town with connectivity to Jaipur (178 KM), New Delhi (180-190 KM) and Agra (55 KM). The Keoladeo Ghana National Park or as many people prefer to call it-the Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary is a spectacular bird sanctuary as-well-as historical one, in its own way. The Maharaja of Bharatpur is credited for its creation in 1890. He got a large area enclosed with embankments and further divided it with earthen dams called 'bunds' creating a large number of marshes and lakes. Thus, Bharatpur is mainly an artificial creation i.e. man made. Conservation efforts was originally started by Dr. Salim Ali and the area was declared as a national park in March 1982. In 1985, Bharatpur was accepted as a World Heritage Site.

The name 'Keoladeo' is derived from the name of an ancient Hindu temple devoted to Lord Shiva in the sanctuary's central zone while the Hindi term 'Ghana' implies dense, thick areas of forest cover. The park was a hunting ground for the Maharajas of Bharatpur, a tradition dating back to 1850, and duck shoots were organised yearly in honour of the British viceroys. We were told that in one shoot alone in 1938, over 4,273 birds such as mallards and teals were killed by Lord Linlithgow, then Viceroy of India.

The park's location in the Gangetic Plain makes it an unrivalled breeding site for herons,storks and cormorants, and an important wintering ground for large numbers of migrant species namely the Siberian crane (an endangered species), Dalmatian pelicans (which are two meters in length) and minute ones like the Siberian leaf warbler (which is merely the size of our index finger). Several other species of cranes-corcomorants, egrets, darters, herons, storks, geese, ducks, eagles, hawks, kingfishers, owls also make Bharatpur their temporary abode. This avian kingdom also hosts mammalian species like nilgai, sambhar, chital, black bucks, jungle cat and the wild boar. The large rock python (which is spotted at Python Point beyond Keoladeo temple) as well as its nemesis, the mongoose, are found in appreciable numbers.

The Salim Ali visitor Interpretation Centre at Bharatpur (inside the reserve forest) is working tirelessly towards building awareness and stakeholdership among the local communities and visitors for the conservation of the wetlands. It is however closed, since the inception of Covid in the country. The best time to visit the pakt is December to February (peak winter) when a large variety of migrant birds can be seen. Only battery operated electric vehicles (6 nos. donated by IOCL), man pulled rickshaws and cycles are allowed inside the park area for safari.

Our stay at Bharatpur was the Laxmi Vilas palace - a heritage hotel.


Our ride for the morning safari.
Rode a rickshaw after decades. Due to the broken road inside the park, the ride is not comfortable at all.


Some bird species that we could capture in our mobile.









Travel details from the Adrenox app.

[Sommos]

04-10-2022 - Taj Mahal - Agra

Darwaza-i-rauza : Gateway to the Taj Mahal.


View from the Darwaza-i-rauza.


View from the garden.






Side view - from the mosque on the left side.


Carvings over the main entrance.


Other intricate carvings on the walls of the structure.





A panoramic view of the carvings on the wall.

[Sommos]

06-10-2022 : The Return Journey

Our stay at Agra was the Radisson Blue hotel. On the 6th of October we had a sumptuous breakfast, paid off the hotel bills and started our return journey at 08:30 AM approximately. The roads were not so crowded, maybe due to the morning hours, and soon we were onto the NH 44 / AH 43 towards Gwalior. Crossing Gwalior (bypass), Jhansi we reached Sagar at around 01:00 PM and had our lunch at a roadside dhaba. We faced sporadic but heavy rains in the afternoon and that resulted in loss of time as the speed had to be brought down. We reached Pench forest just after 07:30 PM and decided to have our dinner at the Tathastu Resort, Khawasa, Pench. Our intention was to check-out the resort property for another trip in last week of November by the ladies of the colony. We had a detailed discussion on the type of accommodation available and the rates along with our dinner and started again at 08:40 PM. By the time we reached Pench, we had already decided that Bhilai would be another 5 hours journey and we would cover the distance instead of any night halt in between. We travelled for another 5 hours non-stop and reached home at 01:10 AM on 07-10-2022. The Orion brought us home safely, without any fuss, after covering around 1100 KM in sixteen and a half hours at one go and passed the test with flying colours.

The return route.


Some pictures of the road.














The trip meter from Adrenox app.


The statistics from the MID.


Total distance travelled. I will repeat, the trip meter was started at Nagpur, so kindly add 230 KM and 3.5 hours to the data.


The toll details.
Agra Toll details.pdf

[Sommos]

Had to do two Nagpur trips in between for airport pickup and drop.
Both time the journey had to be done in the middle of the night.
The Orion performed well and my confidence on him is increasing after every such outing. The engine has fully opened up and the growl of the mighty mHawk can be heard clearly, yes - even from the inside. Two things that I'm yet to test in the car are the manual shifting of the gear and the AWD. I never felt the need to operate the gear manually; rather I'm enjoying the automatic. I would request the experts in the forum to suggest how to check the AWD facility.







The Orion has crossed 7K figure in four months.

[Sommos]

Second Key assignment :

Got a call from the Service Centre that my second key fob has been received at the dealership and they created an appointment, on their own, for the next day at 04:00 PM. Yesterday, reached the service centre to pick-up my second key at the appointed time. The job card/ repair order (as M&M calls it) was prepared and the following additional jobs showed up :-



After about one hour I noticed that my car is still parked outside. So I casually walked upto the Co-Tek and asked him the reasons. I was told that they cannot find the second key. There I learnt that all the consignments of the second key is kept with the Stores Manager and he is unable to locate my consignment. I told him the key code (I had a picture of the same in my mobile) and the consignment could be traced in 10 minutes. I saw at least 20-25 other consignment packets containing the second key fobs of various cutomers. The consignment contains the Key Code as well as the last 8 digits of the Chasis No. hand written on the cover. It would be easy to find the consignment from any of these two data. Printed on the consignment cover is the price of the key fob which is Rs. 3865.00 inclusive of taxes.

The assignment of the second key and the DATC (Dual Zone auto temperature control) flashing took half an hour. The DEF level was at 46% and the Co-Tek advised me to get a 10 LTR refill. After re-filling the DEF the level is now at 93% - a loss of 3% while re-filling. Cost of the 10 Ltr container (plus pipe) is Rs. 960.00.

The service centre has a very strange rule, which I encountered for the first time. All job cards and fund collection is stopped by the system at 06:30 PM and no vehicle is officially handed over after that time. The Service In-charge handed me a manual gatepass, instructed me to transfer the money to the personal account of the SA and assured me that the RO would be closed the next morning. Received the closure notice and Invoice copy in my mobile today morning.

In my town, the showroom is located at the heart of the town and the service centre is situated in the outskirts and the distance between the two is around 15 KM. The 32 GB memory card is available at the showroom (infact all accessories are sold from the showroom only) but the staff there are un-aware of how to fit the same. Whereas, the Co-Tek is aware of the fitment process but he does not have a supply of the spare part. This time I carried the memory card with me but since it was already late, the Cotek denied opening the car.

The consignment carrying the key fob -

[Sommos]

Originally Posted by RavenAvi

Big Brother is Watching!

Also, I came to know day before yesterday that higher-ups at Mahindra are keeping track of ownership reports. My first free service report was seen and the unavailability of parts issue was followed up at Paramount by their higher-ups from the Head Office.

I too had a similar experience today. The CRM at the Service Centre called up to enquire about my complain to HQ. I was astonished as I had submitted no complain against the service centre. When the lady told me the nature of the complain, then I realised that the origin was from this forum. I had written the following in my last post - it was not a complain but only a statement of fact. The company's media monitoring team could not differentiate a statement from a complaint.

The service centre has a very strange rule, which I encountered for the first time. All job cards and fund collection is stopped by the system at 06:30 PM and no vehicle is officially handed over after that time. The Service In-charge handed me a manual gatepass, instructed me to transfer the money to the personal account of the SA and assured me that the RO would be closed the next morning. Received the closure notice and Invoice copy in my mobile today morning.

In the meantime got this from Amazon :-



The Orion got a graphene coating last weekend :-

[Sommos]

Originally Posted by Torque&Power

I contacted my nearby Mahindra Service Centre regarding "service bulletin issued for change of the lower arm bush of the XUV700's suspension". They were clueless and according to them, there's no such recall/ notification from Mahindra. However, there are a few LUCKY XUV700 owners whose service centers have rectified the suspension issue.

Is there somebody on this forum who has got his/ her XUV700 suspension rectified under the recall?

Thanks in advance.

Same thing happened with me. I contacted the regular service centre in my town about the "XUV700 - Implementation of modified front Lower Control Arm" (Ref No. 2022-SUS-PPC-03435) with a copy of the technical service bulletin and the CRM has no idea. She asked me whether I have received any mail and later promised to enquire and get back with further information.

Mine is not a lone incidence and many owners are reporting similar experience in the different WAP & FB groups. Is it that M&M did not educate and inform their Service Centre Managers properly or is it that the Service Centre's are trying to play with the customers ?

I have experienced this repeatedly that there is a huge gap between the expectations of the premium customers (specially those who have migrated from Honda/Toyota/Ford etc.) and the actual service provided by MASS. Even FCA service, which is not actual great, was far better than this. Service Managers at MASS may be dealing with a first-time situation where the customers come fully educated about the nature of the recall.

Anand Mahindra Sir, it is time to think about a Nexa sort of seperate dealership facility for your premium cutomers.

[Sommos]

Benares is older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend, and looks twice as old as all of them put together.

- Mark Twain wrote in 1897 of Varanasi

The history of a country is sometimes epitomised in the history of its one of its principle cities. The city of Benaras represents India religiously and intellectually, just as Paris represents the political Sentiments of France. There are few cities in the world of greater antiquity, and none that have so uninterruptedly maintained their ancient celebrity and distinction.

- Rev. M. A. Sherring in his book The Sacred City of Hindus: An account of Benaras in ancient and modern times published in 1868

Varanasi is one of the world's oldest continually inhabited cities. Kashi, its ancient name, was associated with a kingdom of the same name of 2,500 years ago. The Lion capital of Ashoka at nearby Sarnath has been built as a commemoration of the Buddha's first sermon there in the fifth century BCE. In the 8th century, Adi Shankara established the worship of Shiva as an official sect of Varanasi. Since ancient times, the city has been an important centre of Hindu devotion, pilgrimage, mysticism and poetry contributing to its cultural importance. Tulsidas wrote his Awadhi language epic, the Ramcharitmanas, in Varanasi. Several other major figures of the Bhakti movement were born in Varanasi, including Sant Kabir and Sant Ravidas.

The desire to visit this holy city was always there since childhood, but the visuals of the crowded narrow lanes and by-lanes of Kashi was so deeply stuck in the mind that a visit to Kashi was always postponed for later. The maddening crowd always makes me feel sick. The recent developments to the city, the pictures of the clean ghats, the Namami Ganga project etc. rekindled the desire to make a visit to the city. It was decided in 2021 (when we booked the XUV700) that our first long tour with the XUV700 would be to Varanasi, but it had to be postponed once again in October 2022 and we instead travelled to Agra & Mathura. Wife too had a strong desire to visit Varanasi. With son coming home for the end-semester holiday, a plan was hatched to visit Varanasi.


Route to be followed :-

A search on Google maps showed the following route options :-

a. Bhilai – Bilaspur – Ambikapur – Renukoot – Varanasi - 670 KM.
b. Bhilai – Kawardha – Shahdol – Hanumana – Varanasi - 675 KM.

Both these routes are mainly through single lane NH and / or SH – so they were discarded. Another route was Bhilai – Kawardha – Mandla – Jabalpur – Rewa – Varanasi and one of my friend had recently taken this route. However, Bhilai – Bemetara – Kawardha – Mandla – Jabalpur, a distance of around 370 KM would be on single lane NH30. Finally decided to take Bhilai – Nagpur ORR – Seoni – Lakhnadon – Jabalpur – Rewa – Mirzapur – Varanasi route because of 4 lane NH all through. The distance would be around 975 KM total, considerably more than the shortest route shown by Google maps. I would any day prefer a smooth 4 Lane NH for stress free driving and roadside amenities even if it means travelling some extra KM.



The Journey :-

Started at 12:30 AM on 24-12-2022 from Bhilai, crossed Nagpur at 04:00 AM and reached Jabalpur at 08:00 AM. From here the driving was done by my son. We missed a turn near Mirzapur and had to travel via Chunar – Ramnagar, thus entering Varanasi from the completely opposite side and as a result had to cross through the busy (and mad) city traffic. Ultimately we reached Radisson Hotel, Varanasi at around 05:00/ 05:30 PM.



The MIDWAY TREAT restaurant by MP Tourism is a great idea towards passenger amenities across the highways in MP. Some of them are closed, but the ones that are running provide very decent options for veg meal and snacks plus washroom facilities for the ladies. We carried our home made lunch but had tea/ coffee and paneer pakoda in one such restaurant. On the return journey we even had our lunch of Kadhai Paneer and Tandoori Roti in the same restaurant. Fellow BHPians may lookout for this Midway Treat restaurants on their way through MP.




Varanasi - attractions :-

During our stay at Varanasi we had our lunch / dinner at these places, some of which are very famous :-

a. Bati Chokha restaurant - pure Bihari style Litti Chokha was delicious. They provide other options too.
b. Kashi Chat Bhandar.
c. The Ram Bhandar – for Kachauri Sabzi and Jalebi (morning) plus variety of Chat in the evening.
d. Shreeji Sweets – for Mallaiyo.
e. Sweets at Ram Bhander was also delicious.


Our travel plans were as follows :-

25-12-2022 Morning – Kashi Vishwanath darsan – online booking is available for Sugam Darshan and Aarti. Very early in the morning, around 4:30 – 5:00 AM and late at night after 9:30 can provide you an opportunity for a peaceful darshan.

25-12-2022 Evening – Cruise on the Ganges – online booking available and they show all the 84 ghats of Varanasi plus the Ganga aarti.

26-12-2022 Morning – Sarnath – 10 KM from Varanasi and a visit to the waevers village.

26-12-2022 Evening – Hired a boat to see the Ganga Aarti at Dashashwamedh Ghat. You can even go directly to Dashashwamedh Ghat and sit on the banks or on a boat and view the Ganga aarti.


Return Journey :-

On 27-12-2022 we returned back from Varanasi. Though we planned to start by 08:00 AM but could actually start only at 10:00AM. The exit from Varanasi was easy, soon we were on NH31 (Varanasi – Lucknow), then Varanasi RR (6 lane newly built) and then on to NH 19 (Grand Trunk Road – AH 1). At Aurai we took a left turn towards Mirzapur on to NH135. This continued till Mangawan where NH135 joined onto NH30. NH30 continues through Rewa – Maihar – Katni – Jabalpur – Mandla – Kawardha – Bemetara and passes through Raipur. It is also called Raipur - Prayagraj highway. On the return journey, since we started late, we decided to take the shorter route through NH 30. From Bemetara we took SH5 to Dhamda and then Bhilai. But I regret this decision as this road passes through the Kanha Tiger Reserve and Chilpi Ghati and does not have any decent stops for family, specially ladies. As a result we had to do with chocolates and sweets and skip a proper dinner. However the road, though single lane, was decent except for a few places where construction / repair work is going on, but has lots of humps/ breakers. There is no fear of any LW extremism but there are chances of wild animals and snakes crossing the road. Finally Orion brought us home just after midnight.




The Car :-

The travelogue would be incomplete without a mention of the Orion :-

a. By the end of journey the Orion has crossed 10,995 KM within six months of delivery and is due for second service.

b. I still miss the HPS of the Linea and the connect with the road and the feedback and is getting used to the EPS of the XUV700.

c. At low speed changing from second to third gear the engine makes some revving noise which is audible from the inside. Otherwise cruising at 100+ KMPH, the engine is silent and effortless.

d. The headlight is adequate when in full glow but that happens only at speed above 80 KMPH. At low speed or in low beam on single lane highway with trucks coming from the front, I felt the need for some additional light.

e. At low speed over bumpy roads the thud noise feels like an irritation. Will try for replacement of the Lower Control Arm during the second service but so far the Service Centre refuses to listen.

f. The football-in-the-boot is a distraction many a times, especially in a long journey where you fill the tank more than once to ensure that you always have sufficient amount of fuel in the car.

g. The greatest irritation though is the infotainment screen. The profile keeps updating all of a sudden without any trigger point. There were areas where there was no mobile signal and this can be understood. But sometimes even with adequate mobile signal, the GPS went for a toss and the maps started floating from one side to another.

h. There were several occasions where the Bluetooth connection had to be disconnected and reconnected for the Apple Carplay. It is not possible to do so while driving.

i. During the return journey I was using the Apple maps and was surprised when Apple maps took me through Katni town in order to avoid several diversions on the main NH where road construction/ repair in going on. I know because I had faced the diversions during the onward journey.

j. Used the HDC (hill descent control) while coming down at Chilpi Ghati and found it to be very useful while coming down in steep ghat roads. The speed was controlled at 20 KMPH (set speed unknowingly) without the brakes being applied.

k. During the drive a langur suddenly jumped onto the roadside pavement and I had to take a sharp evasive action. The ESP came to the rescue and controlled the vehicle. Also once when I had to apply the brakes suddenly, the blinkers started automatically. These are useful features.

l. The mechanicals of this car is very robust. Only if the electrical/ electronics were as good as the mechanical systems, this car would be a complete enjoyment for the driver.

m. I love the brute power of the 2.2L mHawk engine, the perfectly syncronised AT box and the ease of driving this car. I always use the default Zap mode and do not care much about the mileage. But I have observed that Orion returns a mileage of 16+ on highways and 13+ in city driving, all by tankfull method and not by the MID. This is one car that can take me comfortably and without any fatigue to 1000+ KM in a day. Next on my bucket list is a trip to Rajasthan and Gujrat.

n. I'm using the ADAS (full facilities) right from the begining and found it to be very helpful. Infact it has helped to change my driving habbits to a very cautious one.

Some random pictures taken on the road :-










Sharing the MID data :-









The Adrenox figures :-





Lovely boat on the Ganges :-

[Sommos]

Random pictures of some prominent and beautiful ghats of Varanasi and the Ganga Aarti.

One can wash off the sin of killing a cow by taking a bath in this ghat.


The Kashi Vishwanath mandir corridor (recently inagurated by the Hon'ble PM.














The Aalamgir mosque.



Rare Neel Kamal.

[Sommos]

Second Free Service -

Took the Orion for Second Free Service on 05-01-2022 after booking a slot through the WYH app.

Apart from the normal jobs related to Second Service, the followings issues were reported by me :-

• Front RHS side window not working properly.
• Suspension noise at slow speed (gud-gud noise).
• Faced infotainment sceen blank 3-4 times.
• ESP sign comes up while crossing humps or culverts.

The change of oil - engine oil was changed promtly and top up of coolant and DEF was done. Later on I noticed that DEF has not been charged in my bill but there was another item MAXIMILE ELITE 250 ML (part details - DFOILELITE025) was appearing in the bill. From @abirnale's thread I learnt that this should be the differential oil.

The Lower Control Arm was dismantled and I was expecting them to change the old one with the new/ improved one. But to my utter surprise they took the pair out, applied some oil / lubricant to the bushes and refixed the old ones as-it-is. The 250ML oil mentioned above may be used here because I never noticed any top-up or changing of the differential oil - I have to check from the service manual the mandatory oil changes. The circular for the new LCA was shared with the CRM on 04-Dec-22. I even talked with the Services In-charge why the LCA is not being changed and showed him the circular of M&M - but at the end of the day nothing was done on this account. I definitely plan to escalate this issue with M&M now for I know for sure that XUV 700 is only built at the Chakan plant and is also prior to the VIN mentioned in the circular (mine is June'22 manufactured) and is therefore eligible for the replacement. In the adjoining bay another White XUV700 was undergoing replacement of the Slave Cylinder. In that car also the mechanic removed the LCA, applied lubrication and fitted it back. I'm not sure this is being done for all XUV700 at the dealership. Today morning I noticed that the gud-gud / dug-dug sound is still there in my car.

On my request, the front brake pads were also checked and I was informed that they are fit to go for now. The dealership neither bothered to do tyre rotation or WA and WB. M&M recommends tyre rotation at every 10K in their manual but not sure why the service centres are not educated enough. In my case the two front tyres were dismantled to access the LCA and it would not have taken much time and effort to do a tyre rotation.

The car was then shifted to the Co-Tek bay for software issues.

The issue with the front RHS window was that if the window was pulled down partly and then if close/ up button was used, the pane would still go down all the way instead of going up from midway. The person dealing with this (he is not the Co-tek and I have seen him there for the first time) tried hard to convince me that this is normal and the pane will go down all the way before it comes up again. There was no point in arguing with an unknown person, but I told him very clearly that I'll make a video and send it to M&M. He then became active, talked with the co-tek, brought out the diagnostic laptop and did some flashing and thereafter the issue was sorted.

Regarding the other software issues i.e. blank screen and ESP issues, he brought a pen drive and did some update including disconnecting the battery and reconnecting it again. What exactly was done and why was not communicated to me but today morning the ESP sign came up again. So apparently, for me, things remain the same.

The SD memory card had to be installed next. I was carrying the SD card from October but somehow due to time constraints it could not installed. Today morning when I requested the Co-tek, he promised to do the job. The whole glove box and part of the panel had to be dismantled to insert the memory card. It is really funny why M&M cannot pre-install a memory card (costing Rs. 1 K - again this is M&M listed price) in a 20-25 Lakh car.

Here is a snap of the dismantled front panel. Notice the Silver Box on the extrme left. The slot for the memory card is between the Silver Box and the panel.



By this, it was already 02:00 PM and so I requested the SA to skip the washing part and prepare my bill. I'm not complaining here, but this is a statement of fact that it took slightly more than one hour to check the tyre pressure and perform test drive (by the shopfloor managers) and release the RO to the SA. I made the payment (bill attached) and came out of the workshop at 03:21 and this is how the MID looked. Notice the ERROR in place of the KM in both places and the HHC sign. The (now famous) HHC sign appeared for the first time in my car.



The Bill -
[ATTACH=Bill 05-01-2023.pdf]2400612[/ATTACH]

[Sommos]

Noticed a new behaviour in the car, post the Second Service.

In the morning when I opened the car only the driver door unlocked. The RHS rear door did not open. I was in a hurry to reach my office and without trying anything else I opened the rear door from inside and put my bag etc. on the middle seat.

By evening I understood that the car is behaving differently and this is not a glitch. When you press the unlock button only the driver side door opens. All the other three doors remain unlocked and cannot be opened from outside. You press the unlock button a second time and all the other three doors open up.

If you press the unlock button twice in quick succession, then also only the driver side door is unlocked. All the other doors open only on a second press of the unlock button after the driver side door has unlocked.

This was definitely not how things worked for the last six months.
What caused this to happen - I'm not sure.
But some flashing was done for the driver side door (during the second service) - to rectify some issues with the glass, that was reported by me.