Three test drives of the Mahindra XUV700

I noticed some issues during the second test drive and the third test drive was all about checking the ADAS features of the SUV.

BHPian avi01gupta recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

This will be my first post, and I plan on it being as informative as possible.

I managed to book our XUV 700 on 7 October at around 10:45 am online.

Although we were approached by a dealer near our house and he had taken a post-dated cheque and booking details on 3rd October itself with a promise of early booking but I had my doubts so I went on with an online one as well.

Turns out, the dealer wasn’t able to book, the salesperson said the server had crashed and they could only manage 5-7 bookings.

Later we cancelled the dealer booking and went ahead with the online one. Though the online one shows confirmed, there is no contact from the dealer end yet.

I took three test drives of the same model AX7 L diesel AT and came out with new points after each test drive.

First Drive

Having waited for the car since 14th August, the first drive was nothing but a delight. The big infotainment screen, comfortable seats, impressive performance and general road presence was better than I ever expected.

The diesel engine was impressively silent and had a strong pull which lacked in the Safari. I had driven the Safari too on that date and it doesn’t accelerate with happiness.

Though there was one observation, the electronic parking brake system was a hit or a miss. I have driven a few cars with EPB to say that yes, I know how the system works, and it’s a good-to-have feature but in the XUV, it seemed like a headache, more of a nuisance. The button wouldn’t work, sometimes the car would shudder up till 10 kmph as if the brake is deciding whether to remain on or off, and all in all, it felt a bit cumbersome. I could be wrong or maybe it was just a one-off niggle in a one-off model.

Second Drive

This was the time I started noticing some drawbacks.

Started off as a passenger. The ride quality was pretty good, but road and wind noise were evident. The plastic which is on the pillars and especially the one that marks the side curtain airbag was very flimsy. I could press it and shake it and it would move all reflecting subpar quality.

It is evident that low-grade plastic is used all across the cabin and the soft-touch fake leather covers are used conveniently at all the places one would generally look.

Now don’t get me wrong, this is not necessarily a bad thing, since the low quality wasn’t in the face, it genuinely seemed like an intelligent decision to keep costs in check for the sake of its competitive pricing. We can’t expect VAG level qualities, can we? Then we should also be open to spending north of 50 lakh on a Mahindra. We are already getting engines and features which are at par, at a solid build quality.

While driving, my observations were the same as before, on it being an amazing engine but I feel all the information on the infotainment display and the settings can be a bit distracting.

Third Drive

This drive was all about testing the ADAS capabilities of the car and it was a rather short drive.

Some of my notable observations from the drive are:

Since it’s India, one cannot stay in their lane strictly when people with two-wheelers are trying to get ahead of you from all sides.

I was on a flyover, the car had identified my lane and was keeping me in the lane. A biker tried to cut me off from the right and in retaliation, I swerved a bit to the left but the car actively resisted and that was an issue for me because it interfered with my judgement.

Later during the drive also the car was acting weird because on some sections of the road, the lane markings were disappearing or faded, and it was intervening quite a lot to make me go in a straight line. Maybe some people are okay with this tech and obtrusion but such active obtrusion of the car in my driving annoyed me and I instantly turned the lane keep assist system off. I feel it’ll definitely be better suited for highways and might cause accidents in the city.

My Conclusion

The car is an extremely well-packaged one. It has more than adequate tech gimmicks for it to feel fresh down the line. Cost-cutting is there but it has been implemented intelligently where most of the time it will not be a glaring omission. Performance for both diesel and petrol is class-leading although the automatic for petrol is a little less calibrated. I just wish they are able to do the deliveries efficiently otherwise now the competitors know where to hit and it’ll be no surprise if they try to poach the bookings.

Have received no update about the delivery date. The dealership says there’s no word from Mahindra.

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

I talked to my dealership and they said that a final intimation is awaited from Mahindra's Sales Head Office, which is expected by 29th only. Post that they can reveal the delivery dates. Not sure if this is just some diversion tactics or if there is any truth in this statement.

Here's what BHPian kachamohan had to say about the matter:

Hey guys! Received an email from M&M stating that my delivery date is 28-NOV-2021. Also folks, please do check for the mail in spam/junk as it was the case for me.

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