My impressions: Mahindra XUV700 diesel MT

The steering is very light, almost Hyundai light. This means that driving this car in the city is very easy.

BHPian NotanF1driver recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Hi All,

I have booked an XUV700 AX7 L Diesel AT after the 65,000 bookings announcement came out from Mahindra, so I won't be getting the car delivered anytime soon. After going through numerous Youtube videos and reading the posts in this thread, I took a TD yesterday.

I wanted to drive the diesel AT variant, but the said car was undergoing a software update on that day. I settled for a MT variant for the TD for the time being. The drive was short and I deliberately took the car to a not so good patch of the road, rather than the highway. My observations were:

• The driving position is commanding and the adjustments for seating position was found to be adequate enough to find a comfortable position.
• The steering adjustment is good as well.
• The engine note was heard inside the cabin. I could feel the vibrations on the gear lever and on the clutch pedal. While accelerating, the engine note was more pronounced.
• The steering is very light - almost Hyundai light. This means that driving this car in the city is very easy. It weighs up as speed builds - I prefer this over heavy steering setups.
• Brakes have good amount of bite to it. Stopping power was really good.
• Clutch is light and the travel is really long. The gear shifts felt a bit cumbersome as well.
• Power is adequately served. The car never found lacking power at any moment.
• The screens are of good quality - However, I did not find it too much to play a major role while driving. It looks good, but, I would not have minded a normal instrument cluster.
• Seat comfort at the front is good.
• Ride quality is good as well. I felt (looking at the car), that it would be a boat on bad roads. Mahindra has come a long way from the 500! The car is composed and handled bad roads with a tad bit of firmness, but was not uncomfortable.
• The 360 degree view with adaptive guidelines is a boon when it comes to maneuvering the car in tight spots. I felt it to be accurate and extremely useful.
• I did not test the ADAS features on the road.

Now, coming to the points which confuse me:

• I had taken a couple of test drives in the Harrier earlier. As far as I remember, something about the Harrier felt more premium. The doors had seat materials used, the top dash had soft touch plastics. I can't explain more - may be I am wrong, may be it is the conventional instrument cluster, I don't know!.
• The NVH levels for a 25+ lakh rupee car was not acceptable for me. May be the AT variant would be better. However, in my mind, the Harrier AT felt smoother than this engine.
• The seat cushioning is on the firmer side, at least, in the middle row. I felt the Harrier's seats to be more comfortable and just about adequate in terms of bolstering and firmness.
• The screens are very good. But are they as useful? I'm a bit unsure if the wow element would die down in some time - The 360 degree camera view is surely an exception.

I will take a TD of the XUV700 diesel AT variant soon. I am also planning to do a TD of the Safari too. This would confirm if my thoughts are true. But, what do you guys think? Has anyone taken a TD of Safari and XUV 700?

Here's what BHPian Monty1 had to say on the matter:

I had driven both the Harrier and the Safari, 2 brilliant looking cars. I agree to your point that somehow despite less features and gadgets both the siblings look plush and more premium than XUV 700 and IMO looks better from the exterior too. However following are a few points about the driving experience about the Harrier and Safari which led me to tilt towards the XUV:

• While driving on bad patches, there is a lot of rattling noise, I dont know the exact word for it but it sounds like " kach kach" as if two plastic plates are rubbing against each other especially from the footwell and near the glove box area and from the 3rd row pillar area.
• Most obvious point is that the steering is really hard and its difficult to maneuver in the city bylanes.Engine when gets into turbo range it sounds harsh, I mean there is difference between a rythmic hymn and being harsh, the Kryotech was on the later spectrum.
• The back of the Safari feels like it slightly swinged when changing lanes suddenly.
• Clutch felt hard too for the manual transmission.
• Considering the price, although I'm not a features guy, still both Harrier and Safari felt very basic, especially the infotainment system was crashing more frequently than the Sensex.
• Last and foremost the sales experience was not that good, I mean I had blocked time for TD on their websites but not a single call, I had to call the nearest dealer myself. Even after that the TD was cancelled without any prior information from the dealer side. I had to personally go over to the showroom on a weekday and book the TD and yes it was completely vacant and not like they were very busy but still.

Here's what BHPian T2luvroads had to say on the matter:

I had a TD of the XUV700 MT & AT diesel of AX7, felt great on hardware, liked the driving dynamics and the suspension, I am not attracted much on features, basically I shall be considering AWD AT version if at all, the main matter is that there are no proper 4WD options in any of those vehicles across competition at least it is offering AWD. My considerations are Force Gurkha or XUV700 AWD or Alturus G4 4WD:

• Force Gurkha: A very little spin in busy traffic felt it easy to live with, don't know about highway behaviour yet, but XUV is alluring.
• Alturus G4 4WD: Cost is steeper and challenging for me to consider, didn't have TD experience and none of the Mahindra showrooms have any vehicle for TD in Kolkata & Howrah. Though several medias on YouTube & our esteemed Team BHP forum gave it a full marks, good discounts on offer, a rumor of withdrawal of the brand is another question pinching in subconscious mind about the ASS in long term ownership.
• XUV700 AWD: Already said my feelings, now the doubt is whether can it be considered for the tour & travels with family in places like Zanskar Valley, winter Spiti expedition, roads leading to upper Mustang Nepal, Sandakfu and many more such off-road destinations. I don't have any experience with XUV500 AWD to judge the XUV700 on the AWD platform.

Once a year drive to off-road destinations is the bare minimum expectation, alongside the driving dynamics within city traffic and pleasure for highway cruise are major considering factors. Looking forward for suggestions and guidance mostly on XUV700 AWD AT diesel.

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