Mahindra XUV300: 20,000 km update including fuel efficiency and service

I have heard of Tata Nexon and other XUV300 owners touching 20+ km/l. Maybe my driving style isn’t able to reproduce that.

BHPian krishnakumar recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

20000km update:

I’ll follow the FAQ format and cover the major updates. Feel free to chime in with your thoughts and queries!

So, what’s the summary?

The car has been an excellent road companion, through and through. I still regard it as one of my best decisions. A really comfortable and safe car, especially for the highways. The key highlights continue to be:

• Always has enough grunt to pull through slow-moving traffic, ghat sections etc irrespective of the load.
• Great ride comfort, there is a slight bumpiness while going over certain road conditions (especially when there are a lot of undulations) but it’s well-tuned for most Indian conditions.
• Feels like a tank and it is rock solid, I did get to experience two instances and it proved to me that I had put money on the right car.

On a recent trip to Trivandrum, my hometown. I crossed the 20,000km mark on this trip.

Emerald Lake, near Ooty - road trips on this car are just superb. Boot space is really not that much of a problem as it is made out to be. The comfort, space inside, performance, all make this car superb for this type of use.

At Krithi Car Care for some bodyshop and detailing work which was long pending. As always, KP's and Meena ma'am's attention to detail is excellent. I got them to do some repainting work on the bumper and bonnet. These were replaced due to two separate incidents almost a year ago - but the painting job done by ASS was pathetic. This, wow this is almost OEM. During my 20000km service, the SA was shocked to hear that it was repainted - he said it was nearly impossible to make out even while taking a close look at the car.

What have been some of the persistent snags?

Fortunately for me, there has been no mechanical or electronic snag (except for a Bluetooth issue with the infotainment system that was fixed in a software update). The car has been very reliable on a variety of road and weather conditions. However, minor cosmetic snags are starting to pile up a little:

• There is a squeaky sound coming from the driver seat. As always, the car gets a perverse pleasure in not reproducing the defect at the service station (is it the same with y’all??). It’s not there always in any case, and I particularly notice it while starting the vehicle after a long parking time.
• There are minor rattles from the dashboard trims, particularly from the piano black finish trim in the center console, clear acrylic panel on the instrument cluster and the piano black trim on the driver side AC vent near the door.

The above are, to be honest, very minor and my wife is easily able to ignore them. For the OCD in me though, it definitely ticks! Apart from this, the car has been rock solid, touchwood.

What are some of the things that can be improved?

Night time visibility continues to be a major concern, even after upgrading the bulbs to Osram Nightbreakers and double-checking headlight calibration (personally calibrated it as well). On a recent trip back from Ooty, it was raining heavily and I couldn’t see a thing. Worse than what I have experienced in other cars.

So a major upgrade is in order and I’m planning to go with the HID route. I checked the setup that BHPian Goandiaries has done to his XUV300 and it is very good. Sharp cutoffs and excellent visibility.

Honestly, this is really the only major ‘functional’ improvement that is required in the car.

How was the 20000km service experience?

The service experience was good although it took 1 full day and I decided to take the day off to monitor.

I had a really bad experience with Sireesh Marathahalli service center. I had given the car for repair work (on the front bumper and radiators) post a minor incident and they broke one of the A-pillar trims (not even close to where they were working). They had covered this up using some jugaad and did not disclose it to me.

I found it out later at Krithi Car Care when I had gone there for some body shop and detailing work. I lost my trust in the Sireesh service center and decided to change the service center for the 20000km.

Decided to go with PPS Thanisandra (a few BHPians recommended) and it was definitely better. It was a general service, nothing complicated and they did fairly well. Although, I’ll have to see in further services how they fare.

I did the service at 19600km itself because I had a 1500km trip coming up. The usual was changed as per schedule, Engine Oil, Oil Filter, AC Filter and although not part of the schedule we inspected the Air Filter and changed that as well.

One of those times we get to take a good look at the underbody. I have to say, Mahindra has done an excellent job with the underbody, all parts neatly tucked away and the majority of it covered up.

SA told me that the brake pad life is great and good for easily another 10,000km. Driving around with a dog has made me a bit more conscious, use engine braking and smooth slow downs. However, I'm a bit concerned about the rust on the wheel hub - SA said this is normal because of cast iron but is this okay to have or should I do something about it?

Scheduled AC filter replacement. For the last 1000km or so, we did see the AC effectiveness coming down. Post replacement, AC performance improved noticeably. Interesting point - my dog's hair found its way till the AC filter.

Air Filter did not need a replacement as per schedule - but looking at the condition, I asked them to replace it. For Indian conditions, we really would need to replace things in shorter durations to ensure optimal performance.

The only sore point of the service experience. I really don't understand why service centers have to apply this obnoxious icky grease all over the dashboard to make it shiny. Ugh, had to spend an hour wiping this off using some soap solution after coming back home!

What is the fuel economy that I am getting?

My fuel economy is roughly 17-18 kmpl (measured by full tank to full tank) which is not great but not terrible either. I have heard of Nexon and other XUV300 owners touching 20+ kmpl, maybe my driving style isn’t able to reproduce that.

Here is the trend of fuel economy that I have gotten so far:

What are some of the mods being planned?

Top of the list is a headlight conversion. I’m planning to go for HIDs for low beam projectors and LEDs for high beam reflectors. I’ll definitely miss the convenience of Auto Headlamp (definitely useful for the many underpasses in Bangalore), but my usage being primarily highway and often unlit highways/upcountry roads, overall I think it’s safer. Still researching and deciding on the final setup - will be posting a thread on this for details as I plan to do a DIY.

Second in order is a good 5D/7D matting. I have a Golden Retriever and it becomes extremely difficult to clean up as the hair sticks to the standard free floor mats they have given. I’m planning to go for some PVC kind of material along with some carpeted mats that I can remove when taking my dog.

Some pics to close the post with:

During a meetup with BHPian Goandiaries (whose car is on the left). We had a sumptuous breakfast at Murugan Idly and discussed our cars for a long - time well spent!

The CSUV trio being reviewed by my boy, Casper. The Nexon and Sonet are my postgrad friends' - this segment is the quintessential 30s/small family car in my opinion. I even started a thread to discuss on this topic before deciding on the XUV300.

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.