30000 km review: XUV700 owner shares 11 observations after 10 months

The ADAS features are kind of underrated. I am using all of them & they have been very helpful. But I do remember that ADAS is "driver assist" & not "driver substitute".

BHPian abirnale recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

This has been an amazing journey - in about 10 months, 30,000 Km driven across just KA, MH, GA and a very small part of KL!

This happened a few days ago:

30K Kms Overview

Considering this milestone being crossed, I thought of highlighting some more observations about TheRedSparkle:

1. The ownership has been mostly without any issues and lesser number of visits to ASC than I had imagined when I bought the car! The ESP blinking issue is something M&M formally concluded to be normal and there is no need to have a fix for it. I have just learnt to live with it.
2. The CarPlay integration and ICE features leave a lot to be desired - there is no update or fixes in sight that assures zero blank screens, disconnections and slowing down the load times for certain apps. Not sure if this is part of those old chips which came early in the cars? By the way, knock-on-wood, there have not been any recalls, issues or niggles with TheRedSparkle so far. The only issue was with the co-passenger power window winding motor which was addressed in the swiftest manner.
3. M&M knows their powertrain like no one else! Beautifully tuned - biased towards performance and less towards FE! “Kitna Deti hai” type owners won’t find this great to own but for anyone who loves to drive across the length and breadth of the geography, this is it! I have not used Zoom mode other than when I needed to keep up with RWD Germans! Zap does just perfectly. And Zip is my choice of drive mode when I am not rushing to my destination.
4. Like every other M&M car (for that matter most cars), if you do any work related to opening any panels, you can expect minor niggles like a rattle. Avoid as much as you can. I currently have one rattle of some plastic hard panel vibrating slowly in the dash on the co-passenger side. It was introduced probably after the early days of SilverBox replacement - or during the first cabin air filter replacement. Real irritant this one is in an otherwise well-insulated and silent cabin.
5. I have observed that after a while of usage of the car, when the novelty dies down, all you use is routine BT connections for your phone, some music via connected app like Apple Music or YT music etc from your phone. The inbuilt navigation is a perfect companion for the second option in navigation. First still is Google Maps via Android Auto or Apple CarPlay. And while on this topic again, android integration is far far better than Apple CarPlay - the issue is maps screen doesn’t occupy the full ICE screen like Apple CarPlay does when in maps mode.
6. I have been changing the car engine oil every 10K and using the same M&M-specified stock oil from ASC. They typically keep telling me to change only at 10-30-50 and so on but I know I use the car a lot in idling mode for AC, calls on BT etc. and engine life is more used than just driving.
7. I am yet to find the most ideal tires in this size for the car which are true AT. My need is for bad roads as well as fast highways. Not many options - not sure if this is still an odd size or tire industry still doesn’t consider this as a size worth spending their efforts on.
8. The SVR system is great for all-around visibility- I love this system! The complaint though is the inability to copy the footage when needed. Extremely cumbersome to retrieve the videos - and the fisheye/wide view is almost of no use. I still need to explore using a dash-cam. Ideally, the Adrenox should allow direct BT or Wifi connection with ICE and retrieve recorded videos, stitched the way it shows on the screen and allow us to use it if we want to. And hey, with some of those settings on the car ICE, why not allow Adrenox to update directly? Too much to ask, I guess.
9. The in-cabin facilities still lack - a useful 12v socket in front for a portable tire inflator, missing boot light, missing ambient light, the third-row seats sit plush to make a flat floor but have lots of open spaces between seats edges and perimeter that you will end up dropping smaller items in these holes! And I said this earlier multiple times - no usable space in the boot for small stuff storage. It’s my wish list to have some easy fitting/removal system for third row - it's 99% unused for me and I can probably take those seats off and stow away until needed.
10. The ADAS is kind of underrated - off late I am using all the features from ADAS, specifically AEBS, LKA + SmartPilot and Traffic Signs recognition. They have been absolutely helpful and without any issues. Not even once I had regretted it. It may be the case due to which the brake pad life is reduced but I am not complaining. The key to remember is - it’s the driver assist and not the driver substitute! I have been able to maintain legal speeds most of the time, thanks to the info that comes up on MID after reading the signpost which I have missed. The AEBS is an absolute must for ACC to work and that is such a help on long drives on those highways where lane markings are correct and no city-like traffic trying to occupy “whatever is left” of the road!
11. So far, the headlights have been serving me well for the city as well as highway drives. I can easily maintain low triple-digit speeds at night. I do not feel the need to upgrade the lights. The fog lights are not so great though - luckily in south India, there is not much fog. A tinge of yellow in the fog lamps is desired for better visibility during the real foggy conditions.

At the end of it, this is mostly that one car that does a little of everything for someone who doesn’t demand a German-like performance or an American muscle.

And now we head into the X’mas travel - hoping to drive more and bring you the updates from the road about our beautiful country and the car! Stay tuned.

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