"Sarah": Mahindra XUV5OO Detailed Ownership Experience

[suhas]

How did we arrive the name, we have to pick between two and my daughter choose to go with "Sarah" - here comes Sarah from Cincinnati to Chennaiciti

Click below to find more.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/...o-fastest-record-science-usain-bolt-olympics/

Our interest to own a SUV was not something started this year, in fact a few years ago when we were looking to buy a four wheeler we did consider Scorpio. But during the Test Drive when applied brakes my wife and my one year old little angel fell forward. So straight NO that time. Exactly two years ago, we stopped by TATA show room and there was hardly anybody to engage us. We looked around ARIA and felt it is bit overpriced. As time passes by, we wanted to give another shot.
The list of vehicles we had in mind is, ARIA, Ford Ecosport, Storme, XUV5OO. Test drove twice each vehicle.

Aria:

We started of XUV and Aria in mind and the list grew as we were making progress. There is an emotional connect for us to look at ARIA two years ago or even today. Guess what that was due to my little angle again. I will not be surprised that we will continue look at even during our next hunt. My daughter RIA, her complete name is A.RIA so all she wanted when we get that vehicle is put a dot with marker and claim it her brand. Two years ago she did not realize how expensive that wish was but today the reason for not selecting this vehicle is beyond affordability.

Pros:
Stable ride, Luxurious interiors, Spacious third row is more spacious than both XUV and Innova, contemporary gizmos. Ample storage space, Even when tried sudden swings the vehicle stood rock stable.

Cons:
Looks, Looks, Looks monthly declining sales (Single digit (lower side of)).

Ford Ecosport:

Goods: Sporty Rear, Very good mileage, decent boot space, features filled, proven engine, good boot space.

Cons: Felt congested between Driver and co-passenger, fits only four. Less head clearance.

Technical:

Did not get me SUV feel, Pick up was a big letdown for high way driving. Still puts you between sedan and hybrid hatch. The test drive has really helped me to drop Duster from my list. Base model is almost comes with no features. Launch of FSport has one way or other delayed my migration efforts. But it worked in my way and Mahindra reduce price by 33k. Try to give a positive spin.

It is by far the best choice for urban usage precisely couple with two small little kids. You must be highly ambitious to imagine anything beyond on its offerings.

We are left with Storme and XUV.

A small commercial break Need to step out, please bear with me.

 

[suhas]

Re: "SARAH" - Detailed XUV 5OO Ownership Experience

XUV experice:

Our first driving experience with XUV 5OO was not pleasant. Perhaps the quality of the vehicle that was offered for TD might be one of the reasons. Right after the drive developed discomfort in my right knee. When tried to take the vehicle in to my parking lot we noticed huge burnt smell. Immediately got on to www to understand what the crap it is. TAI is one of the greatest find during my car hunt within no time I started engaging more with many of you online since then. Though there are limited reviews available straight from owners but what impressed most is the unselfish attitude. The way you all take personal time to share knowledge and self-experience felt amazing. In today’s world information has the power. You all having willingness to share is a great quality. Let's keep it flowing.

I learnt a lot on TAI, whether it is IronRock’s detailed coverage of the product since its inception, or the way Singh890 maintains glossy and shiny looks of his beast, or kinshuk.arya’s beautiful Optimus and cleaning advises to Vicky, how much Raj_5004 is missing his XUV or Manuman’s horrifying (Ratatouille) ghastly experience, oh my god!! Warns me where not to park this car.

On the other side, went through passionate ownership reviews from Vicky, Rahul on Strome acquisitions, I thought why not we give it a shot. Honestly, we did not carry any baggage on both M & M and TATAs. We went out to give a fair attempt without much worrying about resale aspects. BTW, Storme was never in my family’s imagination. With most difficulty I managed to pull them to the same show room where we first looked Aria two years ago. This time there was a SE to guide us in. As far as the ambiance is concerned nothing much has changed from last time I visited the pace two years ago.

Storme’s Experience:

There is Astean Black Storme VX in display and we liked it. Entire family fell flat on its elegance looks coupled with commanding stance. Very much impressed with color shade & quality of plastic interiors. The glitter is what added additional beauty. One of the selection criteria we had is the vehicle has to fit in to parking lot at home. SE collected all my details and supposed to come home the weekend for TD. Neither He did show up nor informed about change in plan. Next week, went to second dealer and he arranged for TD over the weekend. The guys did not come on time but with multiple reminders reached home. I took the test drive. The experience was neutral. There is nothing wrong or nothing great we felt about the vehicle. It did not get us the needed punch that needed to close on this immediately. So the race did not end here.

I made several visits to the showrooms, took multiple TDs, went through online forums, user reviews, marketing reviews and finally read never ending niggles.

Each time I go through a review, my mood happened to swing between these two models. One thing is very clear it is not that simple to choose one between. I started a new thread to figure out XUV5OO W* vs Storme VX which one is technically a superior vehicle, keeping the affordability aspect aside. I don’t think I was very much successful with the attempt. Here is the link in case you are interested to learn a few details,

http://www.theautomotiveindia.com/f...tata-storme-vx-vs-mahindra-xuv5oo-w8-one.html

 

[suhas]

Re: "SARAH" - Detailed XUV 5OO Ownership Experience

Each time I go through a review on this forum, my mood happened to swing between these two models. One thing is very clear it is difficult to choose one between. It has to be closer fight between a great passion or affordability. I tried my best to separate these two and find which one is a superior. No one answer. Opinions are much divided, both beasts are equally good.

When Tenali Ramakrishna was asked to choose between bowls of wealth and wisdom, he mixed both and drunk. We landed same situation here. If I could mix TATA stance and commanding view with Mhawk tuned engine, and features that is the ideal choice I would love to make. Unfortunately things don’t work that way here. So I have to make the hard choice between the two.

 

[suhas]

Re: "SARAH" - Detailed XUV 5OO Ownership Experience

Here is comes some comparison.

 

[suhas]

Re: "SARAH" - Detailed XUV 5OO Ownership Experience

Observations on Storme –

Likes:

Majestic looks, Commanding view, sober interior, Ride quality due to relatively softer suspensions, excellent color shades compared to XUV.

Things didn’t go well for us with Storme

1) Relatively stiff drive
2) Almost naked dashboard
3) No adequate air bags
4) Jump seats
5) No sales aggression
6) Pathetic reputation

Personally I give equal or even more weightage to 5 and 6 points.

My Impression about TATAs, (purely personal)

I have seen folks on forums extend a greater confidence in TML than what TML crew has within themselves. I don’t find them charged at all. The fate of any product heavily depends on conversions, which means their ability to convert window shoppers, leads in to actual sales. It could be lack of confidence in their own product or something else but I see them just giving up the opportunities. Some of us even think that they are enjoying a stronger legacy and they don’t care much about buyers like me. For the sake of discussion, if I had to buy this argument the sales figures did not explain that. Their numbers are down trending with sales dipping each quarter. I learnt TML is working hard to improve after sales support but that is not just sufficient. I found issues with sales as well. TML has to bring all efforts to put horses before the cart. Sales / Marketing team should create much needed positive vibe. When I reached out to bunch of my friends in different places, they all found me crazy at my consideration. Instant response was why ”TATAs boss”. During the TD they have very a little to even talk about their product. I am not surprised TATAs maintaining higher standards in Mumbai or Delhi but southern states (at least in Chennai) story is completely the opposite. Also, when checked with them on why there are no single Storme on Chennai roads, the response I received was "you usually found them on high ways". Hmmmm, was not what I expected to hear.

Then I started a separate thread for two reasons, 1) to segregate Storme from its siblings and 2) compare head to head with XUV W8.

Unlike the past, there are more express high ways in India allowing us drive at higher speeds forced me to put Safety features ahead of everything, which left me with Storme VX XUV W8.

Why it is XUV – High speed pickup, Acceleration, drivability, features, Sporty design, Cruise control, third row facing road. 2 plus years of continued efforts M & M to make it a niggle’s free.

I think it was the third TD, I happen to drive a relatively new TD vehicle that covered 700 km. It completely blew off all my concerns about the niggles. SE purposefully made me to drive fast and apply sudden brakes. No braking noise, no drama just it stopped the way I expected it to stop. Very lighter clutch. Smooth gear transition. Also, more than 2 years of fine tuning gone in its way.

Kids kids kids, both my kids liked XUV. Especially my daughter liked the third row. Though the vehicle will not carrying at its full capacity but the option of road facing third row give another option for kids to switch between.

One thing I have not mentioned so far is about my son. He is a gadget geek. His dream car is Lamborghini, not even my dreams that I could think of. I wish he should own one when he grows. He liked XUV much and very reluctant to even consider Storme. He plays all the electronic games and within no time he champions that. For this league Storme has nothing to offer.

So it is XUV, then which color to pick.

 

[suhas]

Re: "SARAH" - Detailed XUV 5OO Ownership Experience

Here is what we short listed.

 

[suhas]

Re: "SARAH" - Detailed XUV 5OO Ownership Experience

Off late we came across too many white and Silver color XUVs. So tried hard to not to catch the same trend. Even looked at Artic blue but not sure how it looks to be in sun light. In last one week or so two of my colleagues at work own 2 Blue XUVs.

Since my son liked purple in one the TDs I purposefully asked for a Purple XUV, guess what the color did not look that great to us. May be due to a two year old TD vehicle with less maintenance.

We have one Silver Civic and Red Innova in our family so try do something different.

Finally, we went ahead with White XUV that comes with light colored interiors.

Which dealer to go with??

 

[suhas]

Re: "SARAH" - Detailed XUV 5OO Ownership Experience

Why the dealer –
Among the three dealers I met, two of them were proactive. But the one I went with, shown a greater interest in doing business with me, shown high degree of flexibility, willing to work on getting best offer. This guy got me 8K corporate discount but the others two have responded helpless citing my company was not listed for the corporate discounts. This guy went an extra mile to get the approval from M & M. Finally we agreed up on the price, accessories and the “delivery date”.

Our plan is to get the beast on my wedding anniversary (08/25) or my daughter's birth day (09/02). We got out our ford fiesta on my son's birth day so tried to repeat the same for my daughters B'day. But we end up choosing anniversary since it was an auspicious day too

We chose the dealer and paid 40k advance on 18th August and delivery in a weeks time.

Freebies: Reverse Camera, Side body moldings

Other discounts: 8K coprporate

Accessories:

Here is the list of accessories:
1) Reverse Camera (part of the deal)
2) Side steps (settled against 8K corp discount)
3) Rear guard (Dilemea to get) but dropped side body molding.
4) 3D mats (I had no clue but learnt on TAI)

I downloaded and carried a print out of PDI spreadsheet from this site. Did a thorough check but the vehicle happened to be from May slot. Immediately I have rised a red flag to get car from July lot. M & M agreed. I pushed for PDI for this vehicle too. I found a phenomenal change between this one to the one initially one assigned to me. This seemed damn good.

I noted an issue with one of the head lights and took it to their notice. They took care of the same before the delivery.

Here comes a few snaps from PDI.

 

[suhas]

Re: "SARAH" - Detailed XUV 5OO Ownership Experience

Odometer clocked 13 KM at the time of PDI

 

[suhas]

Re: "SARAH" - Detailed XUV 5OO Ownership Experience

Engine, battery, no oil leaks, VIN on chassis looked in tact.

 

[GM88]

Re: "SARAH" - Detailed XUV 5OO Ownership Experience

Congrats on your XUV500 Suhas. I find the XUV500 looks the best in these two subdued shades - White and Black. Rest somehow don't gel with the rather aggressive styling of the vehicle. Good choice of the car as well as the color. Nice comparison you've written there between the XUV and Storme. Clearly Storme's interiors are a let down and the feature list is too low to even stand a chance against the XUV. On the outer overall looks front, I find the Storme to be just a tad better with the more Butch front. But overall as a package, XUV500 beats it hands down specially when comparing the VX version of the Storme. Do keep us updated on the car's performance on the long run. Hope you crunch many many miles with your new beast. Drive safe!

 

[suhas]

Re: "SARAH" - Detailed XUV 5OO Ownership Experience

View from Side

 

[suhas]

Re: "SARAH" - Detailed XUV 5OO Ownership Experience

A few more

 

[mukeshus]

Re: "SARAH" - Detailed XUV 5OO Ownership Experience

Congrats Suhas on your new acquisition.

That was a exhaustive comparo and initial experience.

Wish you miles of Safe & Happy Motoring.

 

[suhas]

Re: "SARAH" - Detailed XUV 5OO Ownership Experience

Snap of Fuel cap