Tata Safari was love at first sight but the moment I started driving the vehicle, a number of no-go factors started appearing.
BHPian RahulG recently shared this with other enthusiasts.
My XUV700 MX Petrol – Buying Journey and Initial 2000 KM Ownership Review
Hello All, We recently completed a 1000 km road trip on our new XUV700 petrol and here I am penning down the initial impressions of the vehicle.
First of all, the decision to go ahead with XUV700 was full of confusion, multiple bookings and cancellations, as well as long family deliberations on whether we needed a new vehicle and how should I finalize my next ride. We started test driving from Scorpio-N Petrol and were almost sold on this due to its butch looks and feeling of sitting above all while driving. Decided to book ScoprioN Z4 Petrol AT in July 2023, with a tentative delivery date of Jan 2023. While I was okay with its not-so-appealing interiors, my wife and parents were not very convinced.
I decided to continue my search and test-drove Kushaq 1.0 AT, Slavia 1.0 MT, Virtus 1.0 MT, XUV700 P MT, TATA Safari MT, Honda CITY AT and visited KIA and NEXA for Seltos and Grand Vitara respectively.
One of my major criteria was safety ratings and thus was never convinced about KIA, Hyundai and NEXA vehicles. During the test drive, I liked Slavia and Virtus but was not able to convince myself to put my money into SKODA / VW after reading aftersales horror stories. TATA Safari was love at first sight but the moment I started driving the vehicle, a number of no-go factors started appearing, including dashboard design touching knee, heavier steering, spongier braking in the test drive vehicle and some family person’s feedback on Tata aftersales in Faridabad. Long story short, I decided not to consider TATA, VW and SKODA (although came very close to booking it).
After almost another month of decision conundrum, we decided to test drive Honda City AT for its no-nonsense proposition and features like ADAS, etc. at this price point. Spent some time with the vehicle and decided to book this as well with a good deal and delivery promise within a week. While I booked this, I cancelled the Scorpio-N P AT booking (as I was not able to digest fuel efficiency numbers of 7-8 KMPL). As luck would have it, I had to travel for an official meeting and delayed the delivery of Honda City by a week. This gave me some time to think through and I realised that neither I nor anyone else in the family was excited for this Honda City (as we have Ciaz, Baleno and Celerio at home and this felt more like another Ciaz in the way it looks). But all this led me to put a hard budget on my vehicle and I then decided to check out XUV700 MX Petrol, as this was the only vehicle which would give me some driving excitement and would be in the budget as well. Liked the overall value proposition, and asked the Mahindra Sales rep to check and arrange for this one within a week’s time, he confirmed and we took the delivery on Sep 18th, 2023.
Now coming to my initial impressions of the Vehicle, this car justifies every amount of rupee I have spent on the car. Steering is super light and responsive in the city and during my recent long trip to Punjab and HP from Faridabad, I could feel the comfort and stability on highways.
Things that I love about this vehicle include:
- Amazing driving dynamics
- Good road presence and feel-good factor
- The value that this variant brings at 15.8 Lakhs on-road
- Space and Comfort
- One surprising thing – highway tank-to-tank mileage on my first trip was 15.85 km/l and after driving approximately 150 km in the city and Kasauli ghats and returning home was 14 km/l. Which was more than my initial expectations.
Things that are not so great:
- No 3-point seat belt for rear middle passenger
- City Mileage is too low for daily usage
- Clutch travel is very long (though light) and can cause pain in traffic situations
- Wish Apple Carplay should have been provided. (thinking of buying a secondary Android just for Android Auto)
Keyword: Cancelled Scorpio-N booking & bought XUV700: Impressions after 2000 km