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XUV700 MX diesel: Likes, dislikes & niggles after 6 months of ownership

2nd January 2023, 12:16 by Rahul Nagaraj

Have been consistently getting a fuel efficiency of around 19 - 20 km/l over the last few months.

BHPian StarVector recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

I have covered over 11K kms on my MX Diesel XUV 700 including a 2000 km round trip on the Pune-Mumbai-Mount Abu-Nathdwara route. Thought of sharing my experience over the last six months.

The car is a pleasure to drive, I wish you could see the grin on my face every time I take the car out for a spin. The sheer & brute power available on tap is more than enough for all of my driving needs. More on this later.

Firstly, the good things

The car is a looker. The size, built, design (subjective) and road presence makes people turn their heads. Even now I meet people who are interested to know about the car even though the number of XUV700s has steadily increased on our roads.
Space and Comfort: The car is quite spacious and comfortable. During the recent long trip, we travelled with a full load of passengers and luggage. My family was overall happy with the space available. Full marks to M&M here.
Engine: A lot has been discussed regarding the 2.2L Diesel engine. We get a detuned variant of the same engine in the MX variant. From my experience, I feel that 153 BHP power is more than enough for this 05 seater. This was also validated during my recent trip where the engine was able to meet the demand of quick acceleration and negotiate the ghat section on road to Mount Abu without any fuss.
Suspension: Overall I would rate 7/10 for the suspension, for the most part, the suspension setup does a really good job and even the body roll is well controlled. However, as other fellow members have pointed out the response to sharp bumps and craters could have been a little better. During my recent trip, I had the tyres crashing over sharp craters twice with an audible loud sound. I had to pull over to inspect for any visible damage. Thank God that everything was ok!

The not-so-good things.

Although the paint quality is good, I feel that the paint lacks the strength to tackle the wear and tear common to Indian conditions. I can already see a few shallow marks along with swirl marks on the engine hood and other places. I regularly apply Turtle Wax Graphene Infused Wax but I am still looking for a better solution to provide more durability to the top coat of paint.
MX variant comes with stock halogens bulbs which at times are insufficient while driving on roads without median dividers.
Gear Box: As such, I haven’t had any major problems with the gearbox however the gear ratios could have been a little better. Often the car gets stalled in second gear which wasn’t the case in my previous car (Wagon R). Also, gear shifts aren’t really very smooth the and gearbox is still notchy especially while shifting to first gear.
Handling: The car handles well but I feel that it lacks the weight and feel when negotiating sharp corners at higher speeds.

Niggles faced so far

Often the infotainment screen becomes unresponsive. This happens when I start the car in the morning; the screen comes up as normal but does not respond to the touch gestures. In such cases, the date and time is also incorrect and it shows the date and time when the engine was last switched off. Surprisingly the issue gets resolved after a few hours. I have already reported the issue to the Service Centre thrice, but they have not been able to provide a lasting solution.
Squeaking sound from doors/ B pillar. I started facing this problem couple of months ago. Initially, I thought that the sound is from B pillar, but the SC guys told me that the sound is from the doors. They lubricated the gaskets and tightened the doors but the issue hasn’t been resolved completed. Now the sound is very faint and you wouldn't notice it if music is being played. I will discuss this once again with the SA during my next visit.
Sound from the flexing of plastic panels on the dashboard. This started a couple of months ago. The sound is generated by the flexing of plastic panels on the dashboard while going over craters and broken roads. SA told me that the issue is normal and moreover they will not be able to correct the issue unless they can locate the exact place of origin of the sound. Even I did not push much because I do not want the SC technicians to open up the entire dashboard of a relatively new car.

Service Experience & Support from M&M

I have got my Car serviced by Sahyadri Motors, Wakad (Pune) and Salasar Auto, Thane. The experience has been good at both places. I had complained regarding the suspension noise at both locations however the correction (read retorquing) done by technicians at Salasar Auto was much better. They did a better job of tuning the suspension response. I am yet to get the front lower control arm replaced for my car. Planning to do that soon.

One more issue that the owners of MX variants are facing is the lack of promised Android Auto feature. It has been more than a year since the car was launched but still, there is no sign of the Android Auto feature availability. M&M is not even providing a committed date or deadline for when this feature will be available. Without the Android Auto feature, the infotainment screen is pretty much useless.

Now coming to the mileage figures I have achieved. I am a very sedate driver and drive with a light foot. About 70% of my travel is on highways only. As per the tank-to-tank method, overall, as of now I have achieved an average of 18 km/l (all fill-ups combined), with the best of 22.2 km/l I got on my trip to Mount Abu. I have been consistently getting 19-20 km/l for the last few months.

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