Maruti Ertiga to Mahindra XUV700 upgrade: Likes, dislikes & impressions

I've owned two Ertigas back to back over the last decade and was tempted to buy yet another Ertiga/XL6, but finally decided against it.

BHPian harishhm74 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Got my AX7L AWD Diesel AT (Midnight Black) beginning of this month. I had booked on opening day and had the price protection valid (cool savings of more than Rs 2 L). With this buy, I broke the decade-long monotony of ownership of Ertiga (ZDI 1st gen 2013 and ZXI AT - 2nd gen 2019).

Initial Experience

Driving the XUV700 is positive especially since it brings excitement amongst my kids to see the whole new digital gadgetry and the large sunroof. Over this short period, most of my likes/dislikes are no different from what others have already shared in this thread.

Upgrading from Ertiga AT

My Ertiga AT (2019) had everything I wanted except a sunroof. My most liked feature was SVHS for guiltless stops at traffic signals, 4-speed AT/1.5L did its job effortlessly on daily city traffic and on highways and kept me sedated in my driving, with sufficiently large boot space even with all seats up. It had 80-90% of what Innova would give me at 1/3rd the price - and was really tempted to go for another Ertiga/XL6 (that had 6-speed AT and paddle shifters, cruise control, 360 camera and other better gadgetry). But then decided to splurge a bit and was also drawn in by XUV700. When I booked the XUV, the proposed delivery date of Aug 22 coincided with my lease expiry of Ertiga AT, so didn't mind the long wait. I did toy with ditching XUV for the upcoming new Innova but was not sure of delivery times and dropped that plan.

Delivery Process

Was quite ok - I had some run-ins with the arrogant sales manager threatening to de-allot the car despite having multiple times clearly told them & they're every forgetful customer service desk of procedural lead times required to complete my leasing process (close my existing lease & start a new one). Many ironies in their arguments but for another day. Their GM Sales stepped in and personally attended to the delivery and kept that arrogant sales manager away from me. The rest of the delivery staff were good & cordial throughout the process.

The delivery day was also quite eventful with the famous Bangalore rains and it was home delivered in the midst of pouring rain at 9:00 pm after some anxious calls

What I liked in XUV700

• Effortless and very light Steering (almost feels like a toy car)
• All the new gadgets and fully loaded feature set - most liked - 360 camera, navigation in the instrument panel and auto seat adjust (and royal welcome by an auto slide back on entry and exit)
• Of course, the kids love the sunroof, digital panel and Alexa-based commands, mobile/watch-based remote operations
• ADAS - seems to do its job but I am still not comfortable trusting it fully
• Fun of sheer power at hand (especially for me graduating from 1.5l Ertiga)
• Mobile App with trip history including visual playback of the trip

What is not so good

• Front suspension has a kind of rumbling sound - need to check if this is normal or something I need to get it checked
• Stays in high rev and lower gears for a long time (this is similar to XUV500 AT too) which is a bit annoying in slow traffic (engine sound too is higher)
• Missing the SVHS/micro-hybrid in AT at traffic signals (needs to move to P to switch off the engine)
• Indicator/Blindside Cameras are useless during the actual turning (as the steering wheel blocks the view) and normal "side crashing" from bikes happens during the process of turning
• ADAS breaking is too jerky (maybe I need to play with the settings to find the optimum behaviour)
• Wireless charging - too slow and heats up the iPhone - will need to switch to cable-based charging
• In-built Dashcam is really useless (No way to access files from SD card, no continuous playback (5 min videos - difficult to search) - I have gone for an external dashcam
• In-built GPS sometimes is glitchy - doesn't detect the correct location and needs sometimes to restart the engine
• Of course the boot space with all seats up

Maybe I am over critical but these dislikes in no way hinder my overall positive feeling toward this vehicle and looking forward to driving on the highways (which I plan to do in October) after the first service.

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