The new SUV feels far superior even when compared to my old Mahindra XUV500.
BHPian kab_drive recently shared this with other enthusiasts.
I got my XUV 7OO L AT AWD on 4th April and have driven it around 1500 km. I won’t talk about the things, at least in detail, which has been covered so many times by other members. I am no expert and still getting accustomed to the car. My observations till now:
Ownership & Driving Experience
- Moving from XUV 5OO FWD 2012: XUV 7OO is a very good upgrade and based on my experience with M&M, feels like it will be a lot more peaceful (fewer trips to ASC) when compared. Interiors are much better and ride quality is far superior. The engine and gearbox are gems which was the case even with 5OO. I don’t like front facia but then most of the time I am driving so not a real problem. The cabin is spacious, but my family finds 2nd row has a little less space when compared with 5OO.
- ADAS: I use cruise control extensively on highways, and after changing the settings Adaptive Cruise Control behaves more to my liking. It took some time for me to get the hang of ACC. I keep lane assist on all the time. I have a habit of using indicators even when there is no other vehicle close by, so have no issues while changing lanes. Smart pilot behaves as expected. A collision mitigation system is also on, both on highways and within city limits. At 1500 km, the system alerted me 4 times in total. 3 times when I was changing lanes while navigating 2 slow-moving tracks and I was too close to a truck, the system did apply brakes but with slight steering input car behaved as expected. Lesson learned not to try this manoeuvre like how I could do this in my 5OO. Another time, a motorcyclist was parked on the left side of a right curve and the system thought I might collide, but since I followed the road system didn’t apply brakes, and the car behaved as expected. Within city limits, I haven’t faced any issues even when it is on. Traffic sign detection is not very accurate, and don’t intend to rely on it as it is more of a distraction than a help. Rather signs on built-in maps are very accurate. High beam assist I haven’t tried it yet, since it auto turns off the high beam when it locates other cars in another lane even on highways. Driver drowsiness detection, not sure if it really works, after certain hours of drive it reduces a lot even if I stay active within the cabin. This is still fine as I feel this will alert me way before I feel tired and lose focus. Overall, in my opinion, for a driver like me who leaves a lot of margins and most of the time stays within reasonable speed limits this system is a good addition.
- Sounds: Yes this needs a special mention, and I am not talking about 12 speaker Sony System. There are way too many alerts in the car. When I drove it out of the dealership within 10 mins I was irritated, I have changed a lot of settings but since there is no way for me to mute certain sounds like indicators, etc. I am not happy right now and hopefully, this option can be introduced through software updates. One scary situation I faced while on a highway drive was with my navigation. I had navigation just to explore the features. I was not following the map since I knew the road. Suddenly next instruction was so loud (at max level and I got a good taste of the 12 speaker system) that I literally jumped out of my seat. I have muted the map, I never used audio clues so not a deal-breaker as of now. Speed alert on 80 is non-intrusive and on 120 it becomes continuous but with music on is not disturbing. Some of the sounds are delayed I believe, for instance, I am cruising suddenly a chime will come with no information on the cluster. It becomes tough to understand why that sound came esp. without getting distracted on a highway. If the warning/alert was read that would have helped.
- Transition from MT to AT: Effortless, fun to drive both in traffic and climbs. Auto-hold and M mode works very well. The First 2 gear changes are at 2200-2400 RPM, in the manual I would have shifted earlier but I believe the gearbox will need some time to settle and this should get better or I will get used to it. I couldn’t get the hang of it on the downhill drive and ended up using brakes a lot more than I would have liked to, hopefully with little practice and reading I will get it right.
- Efficiency: Most of my drives are with cruise control so kept it around the 90 km/h mark with the occasional burst of speed. I got an average of 18 km/l, yes you read it right. This number tallies with the tankful method too. My drive is 30% city and 70% highway. The best I have seen is 21.8 km/l on the cluster. Now I didn’t expect this esp. given it is AT AWD.
- ESP light blinking: There have been multiple reports of this at least on the AWD model. I got it thrice after the front wheels went over the speed breaker. But on other countless instances on similar speed breakers, I didn’t see this. Once I felt the loss of power not certain was it really the loss of power or my hesitation in accelerating, something I will observe further. Theoretically, as per the user manual, acceleration is modulated by the ESP system to get the car out of the situation because of which ESP kicked in. My experience could be because of it.
- AWD experience: I haven’t really tried an off-road trail. But I could drive with ease on a mud trail, and loose gravel with confidence. I haven’t seen torque distribution maxing out. And torque steer is no longer the worry like how it was with 5OO.
- Visiting service centre: I had 1 visit i.e. for the first service at 1000km. I was in and out in less than 2 hrs. In comparison, in my first month of ownership of 5OO, I had multiple trips and at times problems persisted even after the visit.
- Other interesting bits: This car has a lot of features that are not part of the marketing material, things like Brake Disc Wiping (BDW), etc. Though it also needs a lot of time to read through the user manual, it is important to read through that because it talks a lot about when things won’t work.
Buying experience
I didn’t drive the car before booking and the first time I drove XUV 7OO was when I took delivery of it. I felt good when I sat inside one during the unveiling and since I had XUV 5OO knew what to expect. TD is a very important aspect but the part which also weighs in a lot for me is a reliable service centre and how customer-friendly manufacturer policies are. My relationship with preferred ASC (Chrome Motors) continues from 5OO days and I have no complaints. And M&M has been very responsive to all my queries in the last 10 yrs.
I really wanted petrol but the AWD offering made me change my decision to diesel. I booked AX7 L AT AWD on the 8th Oct and I got a price that was applicable on the 7th. The booking process was very smooth for me. I was hoping to get the car delivered before my 5OO turns 10. And I got the delivery date which I would have picked myself i.e. March – April. After the wait, the dealer (AMPL Indiranagar) started the process as per the proposed timeline. The delivery experience was very smooth. Never had to hassle with insurance, accessories, etc. and all questions were answered patiently. I had a date and time preference for PDI, registration, and delivery. Everything was followed and they went out of their way at times to ensure the delivery experience was smooth. I did the PDI, made the payment, and got the car with the preferred number and time i.e. on 4rth April.
Based on my 20 days, I will echo the consensus and I find it a worthy replacement for 5OO. To really enjoy the car and all the features I believe one should read and be very well versed with the behaviour of the car/features under given circumstances. Infotainment can be more user-friendly e.g. if you want to change ADAS settings, it needs a lot of clicks to navigate to settings. I am sure there is a lot more to the car which is yet to be explored.
Keyword: 9 key observations on my Mahindra XUV700, after a month of ownership