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Clocked 35,000 km in a year on my XUV700: Ownership experience so far

15th February 2023, 14:44 by Utkarsh Chaudhary

It is miles ahead of the Mahindra XUV500. It happens to be a good overall package available at a decent price.

BHPian abirnale recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

The RedSparkle aka Red Sabertooth ain’t a garage queen!

Exactly a year ago we took delivery - probably the first AWD in the state rolling on the Bengaluru roads. Since then, we have not looked back! Multiple home trips through the highway have been just routine drives. Munching 1500 Kms back to back in two days is no challenge now. Maybe a dozen visits to ASC for the past 35K kms and nothing much to complain about, the car serves as a decent all-in-one single-car solution for me.

Like I said earlier, 7OO is better than 5OO. And the price point at which I got it was just perfect. I am probably lucky that this car did not feature in any major recalls like LCA, Clutch or fuel lines-related things. The car has its share of quirks and sore moments. The area in which it excels and is second to none is mechanics. The gem of the engine which is mated to great AT with descent suspension and an array of safety features makes up for ICE struggles! M&M will enjoy the leadership in this space for the foreseeable future it seems - the competitors are big on gizmos and screens while M&M is attempting it with already solid mechanics on the car.

The highlights of the year that went by are the numerous long drives we did in this car during monsoon months, typical ferrying on highways to our home town and back, and our weekend explorations. A couple of off-road excursions around town while lake-hopping were fun too. All kinds of roads taken, the car thrived, sometimes survived too. The RedSparkle is miles ahead of XUV5OO - I don’t really miss the Orange Cheetah. Having said that, this car isn’t something out of the world. It just happens to be a well-rounded package at a decent price tag.

What I love about the car most is its mHawk mill brilliantly mated with Aisin AT. By the way, this is the comparison with like-minded back-benchers in the same classroom. Don’t count the German elites for comparison - or for that matter, its European inspiration. Oh and obviously like everyone else - “my car is the best car”! By the way, this combination though powerful in terms of BHP and Torque, returns fantastic mileage if driven carefully. The problem with the car is, you wouldn’t notice it reaching triple-digit speed in a short span and there goes the FE for a toss! See these overall figures:

If one drives with light feet (A pedal as well as B), you should see better mileage, and longer brake pad life. RedSparkle needed two sets of brake pads so far! That's almost double what Orange Cheetah used to!

This car is mechanically superior to its competition but otherwise just about it. The missing auto-dimming IRVM and the boot light are such an irritant. Hopefully, the next facelift would include it. A mediocre list of accessories (mostly filled with gaudy chrome) is another complaint I have. The ICE is finally much more stable and “functional”.

The last update is stable, and includes Silverbox flashing as well as some more ECUs via their laptop tool. I am an iOS user and CarPlay just works OK-OK. Android though is fantastic - the integration with the second screen is superb. The Android ICE display now comes with tiles (can’t custom size it though), utilising the large screen very well and giving nicer clues on the second screen for navigation. I feel like using Android with the car though it’s hard to carry two phones (iOS for all other uses and Android for just car). I am hoping that the minimum CarPlay does is - allows Google Maps to be zoomed in and out using pinch touch gestures on the screen.

The RedSparkle is running the second set of tires - thanks to the stock MRF wanderer that I had to change early, the Conti will last for another 15K kms easily. And then the hunt for better AT tires will be resumed. The last 35K run was not the perfect travel journey - mostly it included our hometown runs and going around the town for routine work. I am hopeful that our weekend explorations will continue and at least 1-2 long drives of about 5K kms will become reality this year. With that hope, sharing some more pictures for your viewing pleasure: