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Mahindra XUV700 AX7 diesel: Test-driven by an XUV300 owner

12th October 2021, 15:30 by Rahul Nagaraj

Surprisingly, my XUV300 has three features that I found missing on the XUV700.

BHPian ashishk29 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Got my hands on a demo and test drive today. Here are just some basic thoughts, first observations and stuff.

I went to Shiv Auto wings Bhosari. I was greeted by the staff, handed a pamphlet with 3 QR codes for booking, demo video, and brochure respectively.

I was told to register my details at another desk, and they then arranged for a walkaround and demo. One of the customer reps took my pamphlet/basics sheet and submitted it for the test drive queue.

Had to wait for some time. There's quite a lot of rush! Just 6 months back when I bought my 300 from this very showroom it was pretty much empty How time flies!

Now on to the car. The one I drove was an AX7 Diesel Manual. No Luxury pack or AWD:

Overall build quality is very good. Good quality materials, fitting looks good. No odd creaks or rattles even after knocking around on a lot of the panels.
Panel gaps are good for the most part, however, some panel gaps are a bit larger compared to most others. Especially the one at the hinge of the tailgate.
This is a nitpick, but I noticed that some of the body elements don't align properly. The indicator strip on the tailgate doesn't align with the one on the brake light unit, the spoiler line doesn't match the one on the side.
Tailgate is very well built! It does not at all feel like a plastic/fibre material. Good job on that.
Ingress/egress is fairly easy. The car is not too tall to make it difficult.
Tailgate takes every so slight of an effort to open. But closing it is very easy. No need to bang the tailgate either. It locks in place quite easily.
Reaching the third row is fairly simple. The flip-up seat locks down in place with quite an audible sound! Was a bit shocking at first.
The third row is actually usable. Not the comfiest, surely. But my 6'1" friend could sit at the rear. Their knees are all over the place, but he did say that back support and leg support was decent. Good to see AC vents and blower control for the third row.
Having said that, the second row AC vents do not have a blower control. It is controlled directly by the front row.
Second-row seats are a bit upright by default, but they do recline and get more comfortable. However, this does compromise the third row.
"Skyroof" is massive, and lets in a lot of light.
I liked the cockpit. Everything is well organised and in the right place. AC vents are in a good position. I like the buttons below it. A wireless charging pad is a great add on.
Steering wheel is adjustable for rake and reach. A definite must-have.
Power seat controls are FUN! I loved using those to reach my ideal driving position. And the placement of the controls on the door is perfect. I definitely wouldn't have liked playing with those buttons at the bottom of the seat.
The steering wheel is chunky and nice to hold. The piano black finished spokes look great. And the sort of "handle" crafted into the bottom spoke makes it great to handle.
The displays are bright and clearly visible. I was a bit apprehensive of how they would be in sunlight, but they fared well.
The engine is fantastic. It has a lot of grunts, and the response is very linear. There is no sudden surge at the turbo point. I like that. It pulls clean and has a good amount of pull right from the get-go.
Having said that, I am not satisfied with the refinement levels. I was clearly feeling some vibrations on the clutch pedal, and definitely some vibes every now and then on the steering. I did not expect this from something that costs a literal million more than my 300. And to make it a fair comparison, even my 300 hasn't done its first oil change yet. So it's also still running on the stock oil.
The engine is audible, but I won't hold it against the 700 because I was having quite a bit of fun with the engine and hence was revving it
Driver assists work great. Lane keep assist starts when you hit 60 km/h and will bring you back on track if you slightly swerve off the line. It will let you switch lanes comfortably. It doesn't intervene there.
The sales rep in the car was also confident enough that he told me to deliberately tailgate the car in front of me, to demonstrate the emergency braking. And the car did perfectly! It detected the car in front with still about 10ft of distance and the moment I was less than 10ft I got strong shudders on the steering, mild braking, and a warning on the console. Emergency braking is perfectly done. Happy with the response.
Handling is quite good. My friends on the second row mentioned that the suspension is definitely stiff, but not stiff enough to be uncomfortable. There is some amount of body roll, but it's to be expected. The bottom line being, it handles very manageably for a car of its size.
Also tested the auto hold. The car perfectly locks in place even when you leave the brake pedal, and the auto-hold disengages when you apply even a tiny bit of throttle. Note though: It won't be happy with any attempts to crawl forward on idle, and it will let the engine stop for that.
Engine and steering response changes noticeably across the 3 driving modes. The option to create a custom mode is good to have.
The 360-degree camera does a good job, though the software stitching might feel a bit artificial.
However what's important is that the camera unit can take a micro SD card, and will record the views from ALL the cameras! This is FANTASTIC. No more need for aftermarket dash cams. This is probably my most favourite addition.

Now on to some smaller tidbits:

I was VERY impressed to see proper felt lining in ALL the wheel wells. Greatly helps NVH.
The fuel lid, and the area around the fuel nozzle are completely covered! Good attention to detail.
Material quality and design on the dashboard are well done. I liked the faux leather and faux wood finishing. It's well done and does not come off as tacky.

And now on to some misses:

Why no auto-dimming ORVM in a car of this cost! All the equipment is so cool and proper modern age, but the mirror is the same old manual dimming unit.
No mirror or vanity light on the driver's side.
There are door stop lamps, but they are a bit small. They're perfectly functional, but I feel they could've been bigger.

I'm specifically highlighting these three because my far "inferior" 300 gets these things. At a million less.

A couple of pictures:

This colour is probably gonna be a hit. It looks really pretty in person.