Booked a Mahindra XUV700; my dealership experience

XUV7OOs are being thoroughly checked by the service center before delivery.

BHPian fazalmirza recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Today, I had a chance to visit our Mahindra dealership and service center for my Scorpio scheduled servicing, 1,66,000 km. Met the GM sales, and service head and it was a nice and pleasant experience.

Anyway, talking to the GM Sales, I came away with the below observations:

• Multiple cancellations due to long delays. This should be good news for people who are ready to wait. (I expect at least 3-4 months being shaved off in delivery period for patient customers).
• Deliveries of petrol cars have become quite regular with batches of 5-6 cars coming each lot. I saw at least 3 Midnight Black colour cars awaiting delivery.
• Deliveries of diesel cars are seeing sporadic allotment.
• Internally, Mahindra has scheduled to show new Scorpio by May 2022. They also hope to resolve chip shortage by 1st quarter of 2022. (I find this highly unlikely).
• The XUV7OO customer is being accorded special treatment; I saw a couple of other customers for the Bolero Neo and XUV3OO getting nice welcomes with courteous explanations. Yet, MG is far upmarket in terms of dealership experience.
• Sales personnel, not knowing we had already booked the car, seemed too keen to inform us about AX5 models even when the display car was an AX7! Strange. Dad had to intervene, "why don't you just tell us about the car here, on display." Then I told him to relax for we have already booked the car: I just wanted to show the car to my Dad.

Brief discussion with the service head:

• Takes 3 hours at least for software update.
• Cannot be done over the air.
• Multiple updates have already come and latest being this week itself.
• XUV7OOs are being thoroughly checked by the service center before delivery.

I also took a smallish test drive for my Dad for whom it was first time sitting in the 7OO. He was impressed, but predictably asked when the new Scorpio is going to be launched.

Some observations:

• This diesel manual had approximately 4500 kms on it.
• Average in MID was a non impressive 9 kmpl.
• No rattles.
• Gearbox and engine performed as well or better than before. Special mention, gear shifts were butter smooth.
• That annoying thudding was completely gone but I felt the car to be marginally stiffer than before. Not the BMW GT suspension that I previously raved about. But still nothing to complain.
• I did feel some scope for sound dampening.
• White seat upholstery had not worn out at all considering test drive car's rough usage. I think this should be OK in long term.
• This AX7 non Luxury Pack car had one of its rear door handles not sitting flush with the body when closed. I noticed it while sitting at the back seat my Dad test drove. Opening and re-closing the door didn't help. Mahindra must provide a solution, quickly.

Overall, this could be a good space for Mahindra with the Thar, XUV 7OO, XUV 3OO, Bolero Neo (which they said is selling well), and the eminent launch of the new Scorpio. All modern products unlike the old school (current) Scorpio and to a much larger extent, the Bolero.

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