My XUV700 AX7L AWD: Memories created after a year & 20k km of ownership

I plan to hold on to the SUV until a good EV or hybrid version becomes available in the market.

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Sorry for the long gap here, but I’m back and intend to keep coming back. I got busy with a new role in life and just took some time off here. Apologies to everyone.

Introduction:

We booked my XUV on the 2nd day of the booking and received the vehicle on 18th Jul 2022. It’s been a year, and we have completed a milestone that we decided before taking the delivery of the vehicle – the 20K in a year milestone. Mine is an AX7L AWD version with an added weight of stock alloys and Yokohama tyres as the 5th tyre. I replaced my motorbike type 5th spare wheel as soon as I got my spare OEM alloys. Let me delve deeper into the car and the roads we travelled.

Additional info:

I keep all ADAS features on, and I have learned to drive with this. While it took some time, now I can drive with Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) even in busy Bengaluru traffic. We have a pet, and we are a family of 4, excluding the pet. This is the max we can travel in the 7-seater car. A little extra space behind the 3rd row would have helped, or some temporary carrier option over the sunroof.

The Initial Attraction:

The ADAS and expected 5-star safety rating (when we booked the car, it had not received the rating) were the primary attractions. As I mentioned, I always kept all safety features ON, and it took some time to learn, but it was worth it. Moving up from a CVT-Baleno to TC-XUV700 took no time to learn things. The additional power punch added to the driving comfort compared to my smaller hatchback. Now, the best part of all the experience and features we got is that it gave enough confidence to my wife, who finally started driving after learning almost 8 years ago in Mumbai. Now she takes the car on all the bad roads of Bengaluru, and I don’t have to worry about them!

Adventures on the Road:

I would like to thank the fuel pumps here, which have washrooms and are cleanly maintained across our trips. Also, Cafe Coffee Day (while they are scarce as we go north), where we get our standard coffee, and pets are generally allowed.

Last year, we took 4 major long drives:

Bengaluru – Hyderabad – 1300 km: Superb Highway and Nehru Ring Road of Hyderabad is truly amazing out of all roads driven to date. A 120km speed limit and a total length of 155km of this ring road is simply majestic.
Bengaluru – Rourkela (Via Vishakapatnam) – Hazaribagh – 4200 km: Reached Rourkela in 2 days and drove 1000+ km on day 1 without any fatigue. Travelled through the eastern coastal belt mostly till Berhampur (now Brahmapur, Odisha). Followed by state highways and sometimes forest shortcuts. Throughout the journey, there was just one stretch which had a 100km speed limit.
Bengaluru – Rourkela (Via Nagpur) – 4750 km: Again reached Rourkela in 2 days and drove 1000+ km on day 1 without any fatigue. Travelled mostly on lonely roads here with little places to stop. Throughout the journey, many stretches had a 100km speed limit.
Bengaluru – Dhanuhkodi – Kanyakumari – Vagamon – Mysore – 2000 km: This was a fun summer trip where we decided to see the sands, the hill, and the zoo on the same trip.

Maintaining the Beauty:

After the delivery, I had taken my car to Krithi Car Care for a full-body PPF (excluding the top) and an internal ceramic coating. This has helped me maintain the factory look in the best possible way to date. Being a lazy cleaner, I think that’s the best way. On another hand, they suggested using – a Jopasu Car Duster, and Sonax High Concentrate Gloss Shampoo along with 1 mug of clean water. A very simple process that turned out to be extremely sufficient to bring back the shine in the case of light-mild dirt.

Two niggles (cricket terminology): I hit a cut tree trunk while reversing, and on another occasion, I had to apply the sudden brake and a 2-wheeler behind just did not apply brakes even when he was sufficiently away almost 30 meters. Sadly, this cracked the ABS rear bumper at the same place, which I fixed with 3 black electrical tape. This has been holding on for a year now, and I think it can go on for more time.

One more silly issue is that the automation of my driver-side window malfunctioned. To fix this, the whole rubber runner and the motor had to be replaced. This was done on 2 separate service centre visits. Now I have an occasional rattling sound coming from the driver’s door, which I do not intend to fix. I have learned to live with this, apart from many other things, and I truly believe if I can live with it, I will not get it fixed.

Service History:

Total Count of service station visits: 8

250 km: SD Card Installation (this should have been part of the package). Paid labour of 150 INR + 700 for SD card.
1715 km: Had to make an emergency trip to Hyderabad, so the first 1k check was delayed. I kept the service station in the loop while delaying this.
2860 km: TPMS installation for the 5th tyre and new alloy. No additional labour cost.
8518 km: 10K service preponed, as I was going home on a week-long 4k+ km trip. DEF and Engine Oil changes were the major ones. The first complaint of car drifting left. The tyres were rotated, and they said it is fixed. I was travelling the next day and hence did not check (my bad). Overall 6.5K was paid.
15444 km: The car was locked by traffic cops in a non-parking zone and unknowingly moved ahead to realize we can’t. It broke the inner splash shield and the mudguard of the front RH wheel. Replacement charges 2K plus labour. I got the DEF top-up done and overall paid 4.3K. The left drift was still there, so the SC rotated the tyres again and reduced pressure to 31 from 33. I was not fully convinced, but the occasional pull was still there. I then started blaming the roads to take my mind off it.
15631 km: Driver-side runner and motor replaced for free. This was done to fix the malfunctioning of the window operation. By this time, I had given up on the left pull as I said I learned to live with it.
18536 km: Got the rear sequential indicator after shouting on Twitter. The whole 4 rear lights got changed.
20323 km: Got 20 K service done. Brake pads are still good for another 5K km. I drive a lot on ACC within the city and the highway. This was a little unexpected as I had read that a lot of folks are complaining about this quick change. Overall paid 4.6K as I changed the engine oil again, oil filter, carbon filter and DEF top-up. I have got a MAPPLS update, which I will talk about separately.

Milestones and Mileage:

With all this, the car gives a happy 12 km per litre in the city and a very satisfying 16 km on the highway. While I have tried various diesel types, the variation in per km drive is not economically better for the premium version of diesel from both HP and Shell. I can’t really comment on what happens inside the engine with the premium fuel type.

The car has crossed 20K in its first year, and we hope to reach more in this second year.

Lessons Learned and Habits Developed:

Since my wife and I started driving, we set the rear mirror in a common position and agreed not to fiddle with it.
I use my left hand to control the driver door switches as they cannot be reached with the right hand.
The panoramic sunroof is more used at night for me.
I’m spoiled by remote ignition; whenever I can, I use it. VI sim capability is still a challenge even in the city.
My wife and I use different keys and use the profile settings to our needs.
The accumulation of brake dust is quite high and needs constant cleaning.
The piano black finish is overkill. It’s extremely difficult to keep it shiny and clean. It now has a lot of scratches and does not look pleasant any more.

Wishlist:

Drive mode change through Alexa. Or the same button could have been configured to multiple presses to select your preferred drive mode. It’s not a good experience to press the button near the knee and then go to the touchscreen and change it.
Alexa should control all windows separately with little more functionality. We open the window at various levels like half open or completely open.
ORVM (plus the internal RVM, in the future) could have been linked to the profile setting so that one does not have to realign it frequently. Also, it would have been linked to driver-seat memory option.
The UI of ADRENOX could have been designed better to reduce the number of clicks. For example, to reach navigation, you need to touch the screen more than 3 times. Why Mahindra?
The armrest just slips forward always. Ok, I can live with that, but then the bottle holders are just not reachable anymore.
The car should have a little more space to accommodate stuff after the third row. I have to leave out 1 person always to accommodate on a 7-day trip.
We had asked Mahindra guys from the very beginning that they should take back the things which we changed from Day 0 – life scuff plate setup and spare tyre. A reverse logistic on this should be designed.
The quality of the 360 camera could have been a little better, faster and crisp.
The keyless entry should also be present on the co-passenger side door. At present it’s only on the driver’s side.

The Future Together:

I plan to hold on to my XUV until a good EV or hybrid version becomes available in the market. Additionally, I’ve been contemplating replacing my Baleno with a car that possesses the body of a Skoda, a hybrid engine like that of Toyota, and features ADAS. My budget for this dream car is 15L. However, it seems that such a car does not yet exist in the market today.

At the end I would like to add that over time, the car brings a sense of safety in you, and the confidence to drive on narrow roads as well grows on you. Upgrading from a Baleno took some time adjusting to the size of the beast, and on a lot of occasions, it felt like now a bike or an auto will scratch, but luckily, it hasn’t.