My Mahindra XUV500 had done 1.25 lakh km & was still going strong but I needed a change. I wanted an SUV with AWD capability.
BHPian abirnale recently shared this with other enthusiasts.
I bought XUV7OO AX7L AT Diesel AWD – from a 2022-manufactured batch!
You might have seen my ownership thread earlier on the forum about the orange Cheetah – while it was in our lives as a family, our lives were full of stories revolving around it. If not, see this. Statistically speaking, zero-trouble car for me. The car changed my liking forever. I used to love those three-box designs but then XUV5OO changed it forever. I can’t imagine my garage devoid of an SUV. The only mistake(?) I did in buying it was, I ruled out AWD for mere 1 lakh and change. I realized this later – an SUV without an AWD is like an urban poser only. They anyway help you wade through the small overflowing gutter water on the road and those mighty potholes.
Anyway, fast forward to 2022, Cheetah was still going strong but I needed a change (of a few things I can change in life, the car is one of them). Don’t get me wrong – I still love that car. I am clear that I want an SUV that has an AWD capability and definitely with the best engine that can munch 1000+ kms every day if I need it to drive at triple-digit speeds and yet leave me fresh at the end of the day. Oh, and it should be below 30 lakhs INR. Do you think the criteria are already laid out for nothing else but XUV7OO? Maybe – and this in no way I consider as a great upgrade – my hope was for something more aspirational… but then still not ready with the kind of bank balance one needs for that… Anyway, some other day we will talk philosophy and YOLO/YODO stuff. For today, let me just be practical.
By now you must have guessed, there are no contenders to go through and comparisons to make. Like they say in the corporate world, play your own game.
So lets’s just skip to the best part:
- The (Over)hyped Booking, Test Drives, Waiting and Moving goalpost
- PDI Formalities, Process and Dealer Experience
- The Delivery Day Experience
- The Highlights of Car – Likes and Dislikes
- The Glitter – ICE Features deep dive, Adrenox
- The Mechanics – Engine, Transmission, Suspension and Performance
And then we will continue with routine updates on the car, answer the questions if any, and share the joy with you, readers.
And before you dive deeper – here is striking change: from butch, bulky to slim and trim!
If you can identify the similarity – the car and the owner, are more agile and tamed now in their newer avatar!
Oh, and by the way, the XUV5OO never had a real name – just Orange Cheetah. Since XUV7OO is an evolution close to Orange Cheetah and probably the same feline family (I assume), we will call it “Red Sabertooth” due to these LED DRLs a.k.a Red Sparkle for its glittering presence on the road!
The (Over)hyped Booking, Test Drives, Waiting and Moving goalpost
Ever since the old car – the orange cheetah (XUV5OO) crossed into 125K Kms mark, this itch was there in the mind if this engine will last… if there will be any bigger issues and so on. Luckily, nothing like that actually happened. But then every now and then I continued to crave for the change – the cravings were not so strong that I was hunting seriously or making efforts towards so. Occasionally I would test drive a Jeep Compass or similar AWD/4×4 cars and come back telling myself that they are very costly and not the same size and ability to haul stuff as XUV5OO does.
When the XUV7OO was launched, we were casually looking at the launch event and then seeing the review videos from a number of media houses. They were great and slowly the thought that this car may be the right replacement for the existing one started seeping in. Mind you – this is not a serious upgrade in my opinion, just replaces the existing one with a relatively better thing. The deal was sealed when better half put her foot down and asked me to book as soon as it is available. I tried convincing her and myself that it may be the time I look at Endy or T-Fort. I love Endevaour more but Ford had different plans.
As a casual event, when the test drive and demo cars arrived with dealers, I was connected with a relatively newer dealership in the town – PPS Mahindra (Automotive Manufacturers Pvt. Ltd.) I was offered a private screening of the demo car on Oct 3 and asked to come back for booking on Oct 7. I went all the way from South Bangalore to North Bangalore to see the car in flesh at their newest and biggest service center. I and my 8 year old son sat in the car, I could test drive and loved the feeling. The only thing that was pending is confirmation of AWD availability at the launch. I was clear in my mind – I am ok with any engine, any drivetrain, and trim as long as it offers the AWD. To my luck, the car was offered with AWD in two variants AX7L and AX7 in diesel. Keeping the questions about DPF/ Diesel BS6 norms etc. I chose my option AX7 L – and did the booking with PPS. I paid Rs. 21,000 for booking – the exact trim I always wanted – Red Rage, AX7L AWD (Available only with AT and Diesel, so that comes as a mandatory combo).
The next three weeks went by with routine waiting and follow-up – like everyone else, I was not sure when my car will be delivered. On one side I was hoping that I get it ASAP and on the second thought that I should be waiting for a relatively niggle-free car which is ideal to be rolling out in March 2022. Yes, I know Mahindra cars for the past six months – although lucky that no serious issues, I was still skeptical.
At the end of October, I received the email stating that my car will be delivered in Dec First week – that was a pleasant surprise. A lot of early owners who bought Petrol AT/MT were reporting good things and I was mentally getting ready to bring the car home in December – even though it will be a 2021 model at the end of 2021! And this is exactly where the trouble also started. The way things worked – Dealer personnel had no clue of any dates, any visibility into the deliveries, and Mahindra was extremely secretive. You call customer care or send an email to them or write to the head of customer care, the answers are the same – no clear details. On the online portal where the booking information is displayed, the dates kept moving from Dec 4 – Dec 12 – Dec 21 – Dec 29 – Jan 30 – Feb 6. It was just too much uncertainty overall. During the last week of 2021, I even made plans to drive with a new car – even before the car came. And then ended up being frustrated. This was getting on my nerves – I finally reached to the top officer in customer care – he promised tentative delivery by End of Jan. I assumed it would definitely be Feb 15-16! I only kept following and did not take any actions – just followed up. Until one day I heard from PPS Dealer that they are billed for the cars to be dispatched and told that my car is lined up in the batch coming at the end of January! Moreover, I was told that the car would be Jan 2022 manufactured.
This was the best news, only to be frustrated further! I quickly started reaching out to the friend who wanted to pick my Cheetah – worked out everything to ensure that the Orange Cheetah finds a caring den for it. The Orange Cheetah has gone, I was without a car and being tossed between various Mahindra officials for not having clarity on when exactly the car will be delivered – the online portal stopped showing any date… Then I had to make humongous efforts, call for favors to involve influential folks to get visibility. The good thing is Mahindra worked perfectly well when the pressure was mounted from top to bottom. I finally got the perfect visibility into the car and its delivery timeline. Once the car was loaded on the truck, the ball was in PPS Mahindra’s court!
Since this booking had garnered a lot of eyeballs and escalations and probably fanatic follow-ups in the last two weeks, everyone ensured that there are no more delays. The blessings in disguise – the time it got delayed from Oct to Feb – gave me a good amount of time to get my finances in order. While the delivery was not clear, I kept visiting various branches of PPS Mahindra and they helped with short test drives to keep my interest alive. I think that was a great thing done by them.
Here are a couple of pictures from the test drive, booking, and intermediate visits to the showroom.
The first for me – my first Indian AT car maybe… that left hand and left feet need to be tied up together!
The driving experience
Explored the drive modes – Zoom is where I might be staying all the time. I don’t know the word FE.
This is how the ICE Screen was seen first time in person from inside the car.
With new me, I attempted to sit in the third row with my son and I was ok there. Won’t be sitting there ever but the ones I want to have revenge from will be pushed in that row.
View from the second row – felt a little less under-thigh compared to my XUV5OO and not so commanding view from the second row.
The Sky-roof is really large – I recall my XUV5OO sunroof breaking incidence from Himalaya trip… if this breaks, what would I do?
When you close the roof and see it from the second row.
The cameras are a wonderful thing – on solo drives with the family, I would never again ask my better half to get down and guide me to the edge of the mountain to reverse!
View from the third row.
We had multiple cars – the silver looked like everyday color.
The White somehow looked fantastic – PPS did not have Red color there while I was around, the red was getting washed and I never caught a glimpse of it.
My booking is actually with PPS Mahindra – Indira Nagar whereas the delivery will be done from the Kanakapura branch (it’s closer to my home) while the complete support, services, PDIs, etc is done from their HRBR branch! I must appreciate their patience – while I was angry at the whole process, they kept holding on to their nerves and worked with me.
To summarise
- Mahindra should have given more clarity to customers at all times.
- Changing dates is ok, but it should not be abrupt. And changing, again and again, is definitely not a good idea.
- When the customer care guys say, contact dealer, they better ensure that dealer has some info about it.
- The whole process is made the dealer personnel look like puppets.
But glad, I went ahead with PPS as they demonstrated extreme speed and flexibility when it came to their part of the game.
Keyword: Replaced my 2015 XUV500 with a new Mahindra XUV700 AX7L AWD