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My Mahindra XUV 300: A detailed account of the buying process

29th June 2022, 09:04 by Ananth Iyer

I was able to get the handling charges waived off on escalation to Mahindra.

BHPian asitmonty recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

I couldn't say this enough. Thank you Team-BHP. Because of this incredible group, I was able to pick up a good vehicle, had a much smoother buying process than I otherwise would, and saved myself from getting scammed off of at least 25k. I truly thank all of you, especially the founder, moderators/admins for keeping the entire group clean and organized, and to the active members who took the effort to share their experience. Thanks a lot everyone.

Now it's my turn to give back so that someone else may benefit from my updates/experience with this process.

Price Summary (June 2022):

XUV 300 Petrol W8(O) Manual

Vehicle Cost : 1,238,202

TCS 1% : 12,382

Discount (Accessories) : 19,350

EX-SHOWROOM PRICE : 1,231,234

Road Tax Registration : 126,060

Insurance : 33,452 (Initial dealer quote was 45,000)

Shield Warranty (2 Yrs) : 13,804 (Dealer quoted 15,800. opted out, bought through the hamesha app)

Fastag : 500 (opted out, got it personally)

Accessories : 26,000

ON ROAD PRICE : 14,30,550

Accessories from Amazon : 10,000

TOTAL EXPENSE : 14,40,550

Handling Charges: 4,000 (Dealer reluctantly waived off with pressure from Mahindra)

A slightly better formatted price list details

Timeline:

2021:

Oct - started test drives and decided on vehicle
Nov-Feb : waited for Dec/Jan discounts and just in case Mahindra announces a new model in 2022

2022:

Feb 21 - Booking done
May 13 - Unit billed to me
May 19 - Vehicle arrived at Dealer stockyard
May 23 - Dealer notified me of Vehicle in their stock (lousy)
May 24 - PDI completed
May 26 - ICICI Loan finalized
May 28 - Invoice signed
Jun 1 - Bank disbursed payment and RTO registration start
Jun 4 - Vehicle received

Selection Process:

I had zero idea of buying a car in India. And I started totally confused with the huge number of make/model options, insurance terminology, confusing process. Eventually, I decided that a bigger car would be nice (My dad had a hatchback - i10), but not the full size since it is too expensive and would be a little tight for my small garage.

After quick initial reading around, decided to check 5 models under the 15L price point that I had - Nexon, XUV300, Brezza, Urban Cruiser and Venue. My ride with Brezza and Urban Cruiser was ok. The interior was average and overall didn't feel great about either. Venue was a bit better overall, but the rear seats felt too tight, and so did the handling.

Nexon and XUV300 were definitely the winner from the test drive phase.

Between Nexon and XUV300,

Nexon -

Pros:

Very attractive prices - almost 1L lower than XUV300.
Boot space - bigger than XUV300
Sportier look than competition. Especially with the new Kaziranga.

Cons:

The bigger Boot space results in tighter spacing between rear seat and front seats. With the front seat retreated to accomodate a 5'10" guy, the knees of riders in the back would almost touch the front seat. My i10 has a better spacing compared to Nexon. The drop in knee space for rear passengers is obvious, given the extra boot space within 4m, compared to xuv300.
Curvature of the rear portion of roof results in much smaller gap between the head and roof, if you are taller than avg. I am 5'10" and there was barely a fist sized gap between my head and the roof. My i10 has a bigger gap.If your rear passengers are 5'6" or shorter, or if you are going to have kids in the back most of the time, you can consider the car.
Black interior roofs, makes the space feel smaller.

XUV 300

Pros:

Extra curtain airbags and ESC. I saw the link where impact on occupant safety due to side airbags was highlighted. We take highway trips (2-3 hours drive) every 3 months or so with my little girl in the back (she doesn't get into car seat). So, this felt important. Check these two posts for some relevant research material

Post 1

Post 2

Better seating space, gap between head and roof. Because of the flat design of roof, unlike Nexon's sloped, that extra fist size room makes the difference.
Less sporty, more SUV feeling
The sexy wheels - if you look at silver alloys vs diamond cut, chances are you will get the O trim just for its wheels

Cons:

Boot space is less. Though for practical purposes (specific to my case), it is big enough to fit a couple of large duffel bags, supplies and chairs for a trip to the beach. I don't plan to go on drives longer than 12 hours, so it is not a big botheration for me. For those occasional trips to airport to drop any of the US bound relatives, I can fold one side of the 60:40 back seat and fit in upto two additional big suitcases. Else, uber those 1 or 2 trips.
Expensive by 1 lakh, though still not overpriced
There is a huge gap in features between W6 and W8 (top trim). So, you are sort of forced to opt for W8(O)

Price

I have already summarized pricing details at top. Some additional info below.

Possible discounts and timing:

Dec - Feb : about 30k now (used to be close to 70k if you are lucky before the semiconductor shortage)

Mar - Jun : about 20k price increase : for 2022, it was in May

There is at least one BHPian from Chennai, who got 70k waived off in Dec 2020 (didn't save the post link). With the semiconductor shortage, and the pouring orders, right now no discount is going on. However, if you plan to buy a Mahindra towards year end (Dec/Jan) when they offer big amount on previous year manufactured cars, consider the overall loss.

For a 12L vehicle, When you sell your vehicle after, say, 10 years, the drop in value per year is about 60k. Unless the dealership is offering that much in savings, it is a loss.

More detail with pretty charts.

Big decision related to expected new models -

Should I get the car this year, or wait till Apr 2023 to get the new upgrade that every car site is talking about??

With XUV700 at 90 weeks delivery, and current 300s at a 13 weeks delay, I am skeptical about how long the 2023 XUV will take to be delivered. On top of that, at the rate Mahindra is raising prices, it is likely they would another 50k to the new model. So, at the end, decided the new logo, looks and features is not worth waiting a full year, year and half and paying 50k more. Though if recession hits, it may likely go cheaper.

Negotiating with dealer:

1. Logistics charges of 4000

I pointed out to SA that it is an illegal charge as declared by various high courts, but his dealership couldn't care less. I would have pursued it though if they would have forced me to pay. But fortunately, I got lucky here.

Twitter to my rescue:

I dropped a tweet tagging Anand Mahindra. In 48 hours, the GM at the dealership called. Tried to give me theories around why the 4k is a justified charge. I was polite but firm about not paying the charge. At the end, he declined to waive it and disconnected. Calls me back in a few hours and informed that as a courtsey, he will waive the handling charge. I am guessing, Mahindra has some sort of customer satsifaction targets for each dealer, and the dealership decided that the value of that is much more than my puny 4k. Good for me.

2. Insurance -

Dealer quoted 45k for insurance through IFFCO Tokio. When I checked online, IFFCO quoted 25k. Even the 2nd most expensive quote was 33k only. Though it was still confusing with so many insurers and a big price gap (lowest at 16k all the way to 32k). I did some data anlaysis using IRDAI data (from their website) and grouped the insurers by their claim settlement ratio and rejection ratio. Not surprisingly, the insurers with low settlement ratios also were the ones with the low prices. At the end, I picked within the top 5 insurers, despite the relatively high price. If I get into an accident, I would be unhappy enough. Minimizing the collection pain is likely worth the extra bucks.

Within the top 5 insurers:

HDFC Ergo - I picked this finally for approx 36k (for IDV - 1176291 + RTI + Zero Dep)
Bajaj Allianz - Most expensive
Oriental - Website Quote is not user friendly. So, likely claims process is not completely digital. Though i couldn't confirm
Royal Sundaram - Overall good, but they dont have Return to Invoice cover.
SBI General - Same problem as Oriental. Online quote cannot be done with Chassis. And their online sales team really sucks.

Once I decided the insurer, I told the dealer that I will get my own. They kept on justifying a policy through the dealer claiming it will make claims easier and faster. When I asked how would it help given the claim is now done through the mobile app and the insurer will send their own claim investigation person anyway, they just blabbered and had no clue what to say. Finally, they gave up and told me they will match whatever quote I have from online.

So, now I get a policy through the dealer for 2/3rd of the price they originally quoted and got a better insurer than they planned to have for me.

Oh, and the additional discount of 5k they had promised earlier, apparently that couldn't be done anymore. I guess that 5k discount for 'feel good' was from the extra 20k they were charging me for insurance.

I have posted an infographic that puts all insurers in a visual friendly manner using claims settlement ratio at this link. I hope it helps the ones like me who are new to this.

3. Shield warranty - a few of the reviews on Team-BHP had mentioned that it is better to get shield through the withyouhamesha app. So, verfiied and stuck to that option. Was cheaper by 2k compared to dealer's quote. The actual purchase on app took 2 minutes.

PDI -

The SA was reluctant for PDI and gave all sorts of reasons - against company policy, nobody does that, our Service Manager will do the PDA so you dont have to worry, and so on. But thanks to Team-BHP, I stood my ground and he finally relented. Took the checklist printout, and went through it page by page (about 80% covered). And it definitely is a must do. There was nothing big, but maybe about 10 minor things. A minor scratch on the bonnet, 2 or 3 weird marks on body, another 4 or so minor dirt marks inside. On every single item, the service manager either made an excuse or said 'it is like that'. But eventually said they would address it. (though the service manager fixed some and left others, so its better that you make the service manager write down the list, or at least whatsapp the list directly to him)

Few observations:

1. Download the Blue Sense Connect app before you show up. Helps you test the car Entertainment system, as well as you can see the trip details made by your car (in case it was driven around more than it should have been). Though I did it during the PDI, so it isn't a big deal if you have a good LTE connection at the PDI location. But still safer to get it before you leave.

2. Think about your accessories before you go for the PDI. I had already gone through the available accessories listed on M2All and the brochure that SA shared on whatsapp. After the PDI, I talked to my SA and got the prices for the ones I was interested in.

I looked at some of the accessories that were getting fitted for 2 cars, and that helped clear my choices a bit.

Mahindra has a nice website to check accessories look on the car. I played around on this site.

Loan

Mahindra finance offered me 7.2% (as of May 29 2022) fixed with 5k processing fee, whereas ICICI did 7.2% fixed with 5k processing fee and Union bank 7.4% variable with 3k processing fee. I confirmed with Mahindra Finance. But on the day of PDI, when I went to finalize the papers, turns out MahFin wants 6k insurance for the loan as well. Even though when I had asked him to list every single fee, he conveniently skipped that. Some members in my family were like - you are paying 14L already, what's another 6k. And they are right, 6k is not a big amount. It's more around, if the company is sneaky enough to do this, what else have they got hidden in that contract? I was sort of prepared mentally to walk out if this happens, and that's what I did. Reached out to ICICI, and they processed it at the promised rate. No hidden charges. Plus, it took just another 2 days. When I have waited 3 months, what's another 2 days?

Final amount payment and Invoice

As recommended by BHPians, I double checked all entries and turns out the Engine number was entered wrong. Just one letter, but obviously that would have been a pain if it got submitted to RTO. The SA was a bit reluctant to accept his mistake (this was something that regular customers wouldn't catch, but yay to TeamBHP). Finally, he accepted and fixed it.

Accessories -

I went for about 37k of accessories. 26k from Mahindra -
Intense Chrome Set - 10,880,
SS rear bumper guard - 4,800
parcel tray - 1,795
Illuminated Door Sill- 2,400
anti-skid dash mat, front and rear mud protector, body side moulding set, bumper corner protector set, fender garnish, door edge protector - total 4,950
Front middle grill garnish - wasn't available so have to do it later

And then another 10k from Amazon

1. Hi Art PVC, Faux Leather 7D Beige car mats- ₹ 5,700

2. Hi Art Rear Waterproof Tray Boot Trunk Mat - ₹ 2,000

Hi-Art is really owned by this guy Pulkit from Delhi (probably chinese orders). If you buy direct from his website mats cost 4950 instead of 5700. Though, it has its own risk (I ordered through Amazon since the returns with Amazon are less-hassle). Here is the direct website for the brave ones.

3. kinder Fluff Luxurious 210T Fabric Foldable Windshield Sunshade (L) - ₹ 1,500

We watched accessories videos on youtube where the youtuber would show each accessory's looks on a real vehicle. That, in addition to taking a glance whenever you got a chance (during showroom visit, or parked XUV's on road, or even one that would cross us on a drive) was very helpful in getting a true sense of how good/bad it looked

Delivery

The SA initially offered us to take the delivery at 4 pm on Friday. But I went with TeamBHP recommendation, and asked for Saturday morning. And it was a very useful decision. Nobody was in a rush, and they had a problem tracking my payment, so it took a good 1.5 hours from arrival to departure. I had been given 10:30 am, and based on my previous experience with their tardiness, I called them up at 10 to confirm. As expected they hadnt even started anything, I was asked to come at 11. To get the final payment for accessories, checking all reciepts/warranties - overall it took 1.5 hours at the showroom. So, plan accordingly.

For the demo, I was asked by the receptionist during the final handover and when I said I haven't got any yet, they said they can have a person come over to our place and do the entire demo (electrical, mechanical options, etc - the full deal). So, I have one coming in next week. I haven't asked if it is free though, but I think it is.

As @SMG recommended, I had ordered from a nearby shop and took about 20 breakfast packets of snacks to share some happiness. Their sales floor have about 8 employees. Don't know if it did spread some happiness, but at least I sure felt good about it. A hearty thanks to for putting up that guide for buying process.

Post delivery:

Upgrades that I have decided on based on my 2 drives with the car-

Headlight - there are about 4 really helpful posts by BHPians on headlight upgrade options.

Upgrades that I am not sure about yet:

1. Audio - Feels alright. Since we do not plan to go on 4+ hour drives yet (my daughter is 3 now and takes a lot of planning for longer drives), I will review it later.

2. Horn - sounds ok i guess

Useful links:

I am adding some links to posts from other BHPians, that I collected during my research. So that future buyers dont have to spend weeks scouring old posts. This thread is 50+ pages already

1. Oil change early at 1000 km

2. Headlight

3. Audio options : starts at 20k all the way to 1.2L

Thread 1

Thread 2

4. Replacing Tyres for better driving experience - ₹ 32k for Michelin

Post 1

Post 2

5. Full-body PPF and interior coating - ₹ 80k-1.2L

Thread 1

Thread 2

Good luck to future buyers. If there is any other information I can help with, please feel free to reach out.