My delivery experience was not very pleasant, and I had to involve Mahindra customer care many times to fix things with the dealer.
BHPian rpmmachine recently shared this with other enthusiasts.
Hello everyone,
I took delivery of my AX7 Luxury diesel automatic (13382) on 5th January 2022 from Punj Mahindra Hoshiarpur (Punjab), which is one of the worst dealerships I have ever seen. The vehicle itself is a gem and so far, I have enjoyed every second of driving it.
My delivery experience was not very pleasant, and I had to involve Mahindra customer care many times to fix things with the dealer. Mahindra customer care was very helpful every time. In the past, I had very pleasant experiences with Nissan (Jalandhar), VW (Jalandhar), two Mahindra dealerships in Jalandhar (Makkar and Raga) and never faced any of these issues with them.
Booking:
I booked the vehicle on the very first day i.e. 7th and transferred the money to the dealer 2 months before for the booking itself. I sold my main car which was a Nissan Teana in December 2021 because the news that the XUV will be launched was circulating, and I had decided to sell it and use my i20 for the rest of the time till the XUV700 arrived. The booking was smooth. 2 days earlier, my sales advisor advised me to add the desired vehicle to the cart, and at 10:02 am my booking was punched in.
The dealer called on 17th December that the vehicle would reach the dealership on 20th and the delivery was planned for the 25th.
Vehicle arrival at stockyard and PDI:
My vehicle arrived at the dealership on 26th December 2021. I did the PDI as per the Team BHP checklist on 27th December 2021. As you all know, in India, we have respect for our parents’ religious thoughts and shubh mahurat, etc., the way they are brought up and are comfortable with. Therefore, the delivery day was decided as 5th January 2022. The same was told to the dealer. Here comes the worst part. The sales GM from Punj Mahindra told me that it was not possible as they had to bill it on the 30th or latest on 31st because of sales pressure. I had requested him that this way my insurance will also start from 31st and my vehicle will be there at the dealership. It was just a matter of 5 days, but he told me that this order was from Mahindra itself. I came home and decided to drop an email with a tweet to Mahindra customer care. They replied positively that for 10 days, every dealer should hold the vehicle and on the 11th day only could they pass it to another customer in the queue. The regional sales head as well as the GM of Punj Mahindra Hoshiarpur was in the CC list in the reply to my email from customer care. I called him and confirmed that the vehicle will be billed and delivered on 5th January 2022.
Insurance and accessories:
On 17th December 2021, I had requested a sales advisor for a list of what all accessories were available with them as I had selected so many accessories online to buy along with the vehicle. She told me that they don’t have any of the requested accessories other than sidesteps and a rear bumper guard. I immediately told her to book both of these for me and it was decided that I could order other things like pedal covers, illuminated scuff plates, satin (matte) chrome body cladding, etc online, which they would fit for me as they didn’t have these in stock with them and they had not ordered any of these.
I had placed an order for all the accessories on 17th December 2021 and only 2 items were delivered only on 2nd January 2022 after lots of emails and follow-up with them.
As the vehicle delivery was planned for 5th January, for a smooth delivery, I went to the dealership on the 3rd to hand over the accessories to them i.e illuminated scuff plates and satin (matte) chrome body cladding so that they could install them a day before delivery.
I chose Tata AIG Insurance as they have a cashless tie-up with Mahindra. Added all the bells and whistles and got 25% NCB transferred from the previous car. Rs. 67,000 was the premium for the AX7 L diesel automatic with all the add-ons. The dealer quoted Rs. 95,000 for Tata AIG with all the add-ons. So I took it directly from Tata AIG customer care on call.
Delivery day:
A day before delivery i.e. on 4th January, I called the dealership to confirm the delivery time and it was fixed for 13.00 hours. At around 11.00 hours, my friend reached the dealership before my family to check if everything was ok and to our surprise, the accessories handed over 2 days earlier were not installed and the car was super dirty. He called me and then I followed up with the SA. At 11.30 hours, they called me to inform me that one of the illuminated scuff plates (opposite to the driver’s side) was damaged, a wire came out of the unit itself. I was shocked because if they had checked on the 3rd itself, it would have been rectified till now. But on the delivery day, what could I do? I called M2ALL customer care and they were very helpful and told me to remove all the 4 pieces and they would arrange the pickup as well as replacement once the parcel with the damaged pieces reached them. I took delivery of the car without scuff plates.
Except for Rs. 1.2 lakhs (approximately), the money was already sent to the dealership a day before the delivery i.e. 4th January 2022. But still, no one entertained us and we were sitting there in the dealership waiting for the delivery. The XUV was sent for washing and cleaning after 15.30 hours only, and my family was frustrated till then.
At 16.30 hours they settled everything, and I bought an extended warranty as well as RSA for the 4th and 5th years. Finally, the car was delivered after 16.30 hours and to my surprise, it was not properly cleaned. The seats were dirty and the interiors, as well as the exteriors, were dirty. But I didn’t want my family to wait anymore. So we took the delivery at 17.00 hours (approximately). They didn’t even explain to me any of the features and told me that home installation will be done in a day or two. No one showed me the tools or the warranty card for the battery.
The dealer refused to install mud flaps, which were available with them as they didn’t have an accessories person available with them.
After delivery experience with Punj Mahindra, Hoshiarpur:
After delivery, I was waiting for the home installation, but no one called me. I called them for the home installation and waited for 12 days, but nothing. In between my system hung twice (black screen) and Alexa was not working. The battery got drained. I went to Mahindra Jalandhar for a software update.
No one came from Punj Mahindra and that forced me to tweet. After a tweet and email, someone called me for the home installation. I told him about the battery drain issue and Alexa not working to which he told me that he will bring the software update for my car.
A person from Mahindra Kotak, Mr. Manpreet came and updated the software. He told me that Punj Mahindra was like this only, and they would work only when they get complaint emails from customer care. He was well educated and very helpful. Got my system updated to version 6.0.41 (something like this).
XUV700 AX7L diesel automatic problems and observations:
After a bad experience with Punj Mahindra, I decided from then onwards to go to Makkar Motors, Jalandhar for everything.
After the day I got the home installation done, I didn’t use my XUV for 2 days, and on 3rd-day, I decided to go to Makkar Motors for the 1st service, but the car refused to crank as the battery was dead again. I called the dealership and they told me that RSA would take around 2 hours. So, it would be better to take help from the local battery shop to start the car and come to the dealership.
I called the local guy who came with spare batteries and a charger as well. He connected the charger for 10 mins, removed it, and asked me to check. I tried and the car started. Then I went straight to the dealership (Makkar motors, Jalandhar). I reached there at 10.50 hours, told them about the battery issue and that Alexa was not working at all. He appraised me that a new software update was available and they would do it for me.
It took 7 hours for the 1st service as the dealership was super busy and got my car back at 17.30 hours. I checked the software and it was updated to version 7.00.11, which is the latest one till today. Alexa is still a surprise for me, sometimes it works and does not work most of the time. I think the problem is with the Vi SIM card and not with Alexa.
Problems encountered till now:
- Battery Drain Problem: The car suffered from the battery drain problem twice, and I feel this is due to the connected car features like remote start/stop and other features such as tracking the vehicle online at all times. I think the 4G SIM card is draining the battery and the users should be given an option to disable the connected features from the system settings so that once you shut down the car, it should disconnect everything from the battery. I don’t use the connected car features at all. If someone wants to use these features, they can enable them from the system settings in the car. Following androdev’s thread on the Bosch C7 Battery charger, I have ordered one for backup. My family is making fun of me that after spending more than Rs. 25 lakhs, I need a battery charger for the car, which was never required in my previous cars – not even in the Nissan Teana or the i20, even if I didn’t use them for 6 months. You can check the videos on Captain Sareen’s YouTube channel for the same. Here is the latest video by him. According to him, the problem is in the “Silver Box”. If this is the case, then I expect Mahindra to officially recall and replace this part for everyone. Not everyone uses the car daily and not everyone likes the connected features. This problem must be solved ASAP for everyone.
- Alexa doesn’t work: I don’t need Alexa at all. I have the Gaana premium app and would request the Mahindra team to add Gaana to their app store. Mahindra should focus on adding a few more apps to their app store like Gaana, Apple Music, etc. The problem is with the Vi SIM card as whenever my car is in the garage (which is open on 2 sides), on startup, I can’t even see the Alexa symbol on the infotainment screen and Alexa doesn’t work. I need to take the car outside on the street, park it there, and restart the car 2-3 times for Alexa to work. While on the highway, Alexa stops working when we are out of the city. Even at a few spots in the city, it won’t work at all.
- Cruise Control (Adaptive Cruise Control): The AX7L automatic comes with Adaptive Cruise Control. To use cruise control, you need to enable the emergency braking. Otherwise, if you select “Warning Only”, the cruise control will not work at all. This is such a pain in cities like ours, where people don’t drive in lanes and according to rules. Someone will overtake you through a small gap and your ADAS will kick in for emergency braking and someone can hit your car from behind. I have tried adaptive cruise control at least 30 times and it won’t work in my city. We need an option for normal cruise control in the AX7L automatic as well, because after spending more than Rs. 15 lakhs, I am still driving without cruise control. I never experience this problem in my previously owned cars and present cars with normal cruise control.
- Continuous recording through 360 degree camera in AX7L: As explained by the service manager, the AX7L can record from the cameras into the memory card continuously if installed. I gave them a 16 GB memory card. But there is no option to transfer the recording from the pen drive to phone via the software through the USB port. Mahindra should look into this and provide us an option to copy the data.
While I enjoy driving the XUV700 every bit, I am waiting for the Mahindra team to solve all these problems with software updates. Mr. Anand Mahindra should look into such dealerships that are defaming the Mahindra brand. Mahindra can soon replace Toyota in terms of customer support as well as reliability as per my experience so far (subjective).
Few pictures here from the day of delivery:
Battery problem:
XUV700 battery while charging through Bosch C7 battery charger:
Latest software version:
The Alexa symbol has not appeared and it is not working:
After restarting, the Alexa symbol appears and it starts working. Mahindra should add the time along with date here:
iPhone 13 Pro Max sits perfectly in the wireless charger slot and is getting charged:
The symbol shows that the phone is charging through the wireless charger:
Fuel Log on Mahindra’s “WithYouHamesha” app is better than the “AdrenoX Control” app as it also shows the kilometers at which fuel was filled. I am using both apps right now, and will see which one is better for calculations. You can also see the cost per km there only.
AdrenoX Control screenshot:
WithYouHamesha screenshot:
Keyword: Pre & post delivery experience: My Mahindra XUV700 diesel AT