“Thunderbolt” Mahindra XUV5OO Detailed Review (5 Years Report)

[mayankdixit]

Copying from my own thread:
My Red Highway King: Tools

The story of my Winch access tool.Do you have it in your toolbox?
Within a month of purchase,I noticed the winch access tool missing in my car.It is required to lower down the spare wheel in case of puncture.The odd thing was it was clearly mentioned as "provided" in the owners manual.I started complaining to the customer care as well as the Auth.service centre.At first they failed to understand what actually is missing in the tool box.
When I persisted and showed them the manual,they clarified that newer xuvs dont come with this tool anymore.I demanded this tool to be provided to me because the owners manual says so.
Their reasoning was that its not required anymore and moreover they don't have it in the stock.Later on after many complaints to the cust.care ,Winch access tool suddenly appeared out of nowhere,in the showroom.The story ended with me as a happy customer with the complete tool box,Thanks to mahindra customer care.

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• 
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Obviously you are missing couple of tools here.

 

[bhvm]

Quite a Hawk-eye find doc. Yes, The tool is missing from my XUV. You are lucky to have one rare tool in your collection!

 

[mayankdixit]

Quite a Hawk-eye find doc. Yes, The tool is missing from my XUV. You are lucky to have one rare tool in your collection!

Thanks.
Yes I am too fond of tools,and I never wanted to miss any opportunity specially when I paid 16 BIG ONES from my hard earned savings.

 

[bhvm]

Thunderbolt Made a quick Dash to Saputara, Gujarat. Presenting pics for the same.

Was not expecting such pleasant weather in Oct. I was surprised.

The famous Saputara lake-

From the lake made it atop the View point. There are 3 such points in Saputara.

Massive Construction work going on by Guj. Govt.

Found this lonely patch.

Offroading in FWD? Sir yes sir.

XUV handled the offroad stretch very well. There were some dips. Little streams of water. Dust etc. Sedans could've hit their nose due to approach angle. Could not take photos, videos as I was driving.

Greeted by some exclusive views.

The valley view other side-

Anyone spot the helipad?

Now?

After visiting 2 hidden view points this way, the trail ended up in an open plan ground. Absolutely no one here but us.
Hard to find such places somewhere as crowded as saputara, that too on holiday.

More scenic views-

Time to go back where we came from-

The fun in Saputara is to drive on twisty roads with steep inclines. I could not capture the final climp which appears like 30~35 degree straight up. A Duster failed and rolled back. Then a Ertiga guy went up with his front tyres screeching & smoking badly. My Mom freaked and asked me to move away. But nah. She started chanting prayers. XUV did everything like a champ. No drama. My mom was relieved and even surprised how smooth it felt. At this same exact place, Few months ago in rain, My Elephant 4x4 could actually do a full hill restart, with all bystanders trying to pick their fallen jaws off the road.

The fun is multiplied due to very nice and well laid roads. But you sure need a powerful car. Can anyone help calculate how many degrees is this slope? (Note this is NOT the slope I was talking about before)

The road does a very good job of hiding the steep slope. its actually hard to walk here.

A friendly doggo-

I think he was curious at my phone

Or at me?

At the very last leg of Journey folks,

))DrumRoll please!((

 

[bhvm]

My Mind when going up the slope ( this is an exaggeration BTW)

 

[VISHNUCARCRAZY]

No problems @mayankdixit , I jack the car even by placing the jack underneath the rear bumper , jack is a support only as Mr.BHVM said.

 

[bhvm]

With the April Approaching Fast as well as Thunderbolt's 7th Birthday, I was time to renew the Insurance.
My Prev insurance was with HDFC ergo with an IDV of 6.2L and RSA. In the Years 18 & 19 They were able to give me Repeat IDV of past year, which has been floating to 6.2L, but in late 2019 and beyond, they seem to have made changes to their system as well as a Escalated call with their higher ups is not available. Their final IDV offer was not satisfactory nor they were willing to adjust it.

Imagining the Same Ordeal as I had with my Safari, I just moved on to Bajaj Alianz which gave me an IDV of 6.87L, Free RSA. The Premium came to 13.8k.
So both my XUV and Safari are with Bajaj now.

 

[vishnu vichu]

Thunderbolt Made a quick Dash to Saputara, Gujarat. Presenting pics for the same.

Was not expecting such pleasant weather in Oct. I was surprised.
View attachment 264924 View attachment 264925 View attachment 264926 View attachment 264927

The famous Saputara lake-

View attachment 264928 View attachment 264929 View attachment 264930 View attachment 264931

From the lake made it atop the View point. There are 3 such points in Saputara. View attachment 264932 View attachment 264933

Massive Construction work going on by Guj. Govt. View attachment 264934 View attachment 264935

Found this lonely patch.

View attachment 264936 View attachment 264937


Offroading in FWD? Sir yes sir.

View attachment 264938

XUV handled the offroad stretch very well. There were some dips. Little streams of water. Dust etc. Sedans could've hit their nose due to approach angle. Could not take photos, videos as I was driving.
View attachment 264939

Greeted by some exclusive views.

View attachment 264940

The valley view other side-


View attachment 264941

Anyone spot the helipad?

View attachment 264942


Now?

View attachment 264943

After visiting 2 hidden view points this way, the trail ended up in an open plan ground. Absolutely no one here but us.
Hard to find such places somewhere as crowded as saputara, that too on holiday.
View attachment 264944

More scenic views-

View attachment 264945

Time to go back where we came from-

View attachment 264946

The fun in Saputara is to drive on twisty roads with steep inclines. I could not capture the final climp which appears like 30~35 degree straight up. A Duster failed and rolled back. Then a Ertiga guy went up with his front tyres screeching & smoking badly. My Mom freaked and asked me to move away. But nah. She started chanting prayers. XUV did everything like a champ. No drama. My mom was relieved and even surprised how smooth it felt. At this same exact place, Few months ago in rain, My Elephant 4x4 could actually do a full hill restart, with all bystanders trying to pick their fallen jaws off the road.
View attachment 264947

The fun is multiplied due to very nice and well laid roads. But you sure need a powerful car. Can anyone help calculate how many degrees is this slope? (Note this is NOT the slope I was talking about before) View attachment 264948

The road does a very good job of hiding the steep slope. its actually hard to walk here. View attachment 264949

A friendly doggo-

View attachment 264950

I think he was curious at my phone

View attachment 264951

Or at me?
View attachment 264952 View attachment 264953


At the very last leg of Journey folks,

View attachment 264954 View attachment 264955


))DrumRoll please!((

View attachment 264956 View attachment 264957 View attachment 264958

Pretty late, anyway it's better late than never. Congratulations on hitting the magic number. Wishing you many miles ahead!

 

[bhvm]

Finally Found time to Repair the LED dome light (The repair was done in 2019 BTW. Writing the guide now)

As you see here, Few LEDs have conked off. And Other become dim.

The Light is held on by Clips. Take a bit of Effort to remove.

The Kind of Insulation done by Mahindra-

Finally The light is in hands. Lets Open it up.
To be Continued...

 

[bhvm]

Opening the lamp took time as everything is glued shut and has no Screws.

Finally we can see that LEDs have gone dark. Probably due to Heating.

And Why Would'nt they? The PCB is barebones Plastic and not even MCPCB which we get in 100Rs worth LED bulbs. Pathetic quality and Design of the lamp. Being Enclosed in Plastic casing with no Vents or Heatsinking further exaggerates the problem.

Testing it using a Transformer. One see the bad LEDs.

Figuring out the Light took some time but basic Layout is very simple. Just Regular Resistors and Diodes. No PWM driver IC used. The Lamp is being sold for about INR 900 which is Horribly Overpriced I must say. The BOM of this light is below 100 Rupees.

D Stands for Door switch. the X is not connected anywhere. Its a basic 3 wire setup, being fed directly with 12v.

 

[bhvm]

And being fed by 12v. It means I can go with regular 12v LED strips rather than custom made PCB. So I did.

And So I did. In my Typical Trademark fashion to achieve 4000K Color Temperature. A little bit of Continuity testing allowed me to Figure out the solder Points.

Testing at home

Testing done!
A diode was needed to Prevent the Backflow of Current to Door switch.

Ready to go inside the casing.

not wanting to go with Fevi QUick for Future Upgrading, Hot glue came to rescue-

SO there you have it. 900 odd rupee (Not in my books) Light repaired essentially for free. I will post the working shots tomorrow.

 

[deville_56]

Even before popping it open, I felt it was badly built, like from the first gen Indica era. Overlapping wires could've been avoided and black or white would've been neat. Definitely overpriced for the quality and shoddy for a million and half plus worth SUV. With 5050 SMDs, now it's like 54 times the stock SMDs .

 

[bhvm]

The Cheetah, True to its Name, Once again helped Moving the house. Well atleast half of it. As I have noticed due to flatbed design, the Luggage can be arranged much more effectively than Safari, Giving an Impression that XUV Can take more luggage.

With the Wrap of a blanket, you can't even see the Humongous luggage!

Sanitizers Galore!
Being the Undisputed Heroes they are, Our friend in times of the Pandemic. However they don't seen to Make friends with Leather and Plastic.

The camera was not clearly able to capture what i can see. But the leather feels worn out. As if paint peeling off.

The Gear lever has lost sheen and the rubber has become Tacky, Almost like Molten. Softened.

Giving us the Stark Reminder that, Sanitizer is Just another harsh Chemical.

I pray Daily for this Pandemic to end. Whilst the deaths are said to be under control, One thing this curse has killed amongst all,
The free bird feeling which we had.

 

[bhvm]

Adding the Pictures of Dome light Repaired. The Camera Does not pick up what Eyes can see. In reality the Light has become Slightly Brighter and fare more even (Due to higher nos LED diodes) than before.

The color Variation can be seen only if you know about it.

An Boosted HDR to give you an Idea of Warm-Cool mix of LEDs.

 

[bhvm]

The cheetah Went for PUC testing. Whilst I was expecting a 1 year PUC, the Print came only 6 months valid. I talked to the Booth Operator regarding this, He said that being online there is not much he can do and everything is preset.
Looks Like Obvious Misfit by the Data Entry Operators Hired by GOVT which have classified XUV as BS3 and BS4 in the same Document. Anyone has any Idea what could be done here? Its a Pain to Remember this every 6 months!