Mahindra KUV100 test driven - Unofficial - short review + test drive
Hi All,
One of my cousin's has returned from USA & he is looking for a good hatchback main criteria being
1. Power
2. Space
3. Moderate maintenance costs (Maruti preferred)
4. Hatchback (inclined towards Ritz)
5. ABS & AIR BAGS MUST.
So we went out and test drove a lot of cars - Maruti - Celerio (Petrol & Diesel), Ritz (diesel), Wagon R, Hyundai - i10 grand and a few more.
Then we saw the launch of KUV100 and visited the Mahindra showroom on Airport road (near Yelahanka) great customer service when we visited, but could not test drive as it was post 6pm.
They promised to arrange a test drive at our home - Nah, they never bothered to call us.
So we went to the Mysore road showroom, near the metro station and we took a test drive. It was a 5kms test drive (trust me, its more than enough to weigh this car).
My review will also be a partial comparison between this car and many other similar price bracket cars. I will not be commenting on the looks - as that is a subjective thing.
All images are from google search & belong to respective owners*. From my next test drive I will make sure, I carry a good camera along.
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What I liked are:--------------------------------------------------
Interiors -
- Spacious cabin for 5
- Good AC & legroom is ample for all 5 occupants
- the 6th seat serves better as a handrest
- Underseat storage in front is a nice idea (safely store your camera/ipad/wallet etc)
- It has a flimsy but purposeful carry away bucket too (with 2handles to it)
- Nice textures on all plastics (interiors), top end and mid variants get Piano finish on some parts os dashboard & door pad trims.
- Rear seat gets a neat integrated arm rest.
- Small storage space below carpet (rear seat area) where u can easily store a pair of 9size walking shoes
- Gear lever finish is awesome - makes you feel you are buying a premium segment car
- HVAC controls are top notch - positioning of these controls is nice
- Gear shifts are effortless - reminds me of Chevy Enjoy
The engine bay, body & wheels -
- 3rd gear & turbo kick = best time to enjoy in this car
- Engine bay is spacious and most parts are spaced out - no jugaad style fitting or last minute welding ideas etc
- The ENgine bay has a strong horizontal beam at the front that can take care of most of the sub 50kmph bangs, more than that - no idea.
- The engine mounts & their positions are such that in a crash, the engine falls down on the road and will not enter the cabin/firewall area (as told by sales rep)
- Thicker sheet metal used everywhere (way better than Ritz, swift, beat etc)
- Doors close with a nice thud sound and no where you will feel cost cutting in terms of metal parts
- All variants comes with 185/xxR14 - unlike the competition switf & ritz that come with 165/80R14 for lower variants and 185sction for higher variants
- Optional Airbag offered for 20K extra on any variant of your choice - no compulsion to buy only top end
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-What I dint like--------------------------------
Interiors -
- The roofline drops towards the rear of vehicle, so anyone above 5.6ft will have to bend a bit to get into back seat. Or you are sure to hit forhead. This aint a WagonR/Nano that you walk into the rear seat.
- The dashboard height is too much, driving in ghat roads etc will need a bit of neck movement and spotting kids/huge stones/street dogs will be a challenge sitting inside this car.
- The handbrake plastic handle feels a bit cheaper than rest of all plastics inside the car
- Stock music system is a screamer and lacks bass completely (Dapic feels better than this)
- Dikki/boot door gets a partial cardboard cladding with felt cloth stuck to it - no full size plastic cladding here
- The stepney wheel has to be lifted to your hip height, in order to put it inside the boot (lifting a R14 wheel in hot sun/rain wearing good \clothes - is not easy)
- The sixth seat is a joke, if at all someone does sit there and you happen to slam the brake the gear lever would really do severe damage and the lap belt wont do much to save the passenger in terms of a frontal collision.
Body, wheels
- Uneven paint finishing on most panels(inner sides) - open the boot door and the area above the tail lamp lacks proper paint coat. Same thing follows in engine bay, stepney wheel area etc - faded paint effect.
- The engine options are the biggest let down, both petrol & diesel come with 3cyl only - big car with a small engine.
- I never bothered to test drive the petrol, the diesel disappointed me as it lacks the punch it needs to move a car of this size.
Actual Drive:
- The car with 3adults in it struggles to move in half clutch (unlike ritz/swift - You will miss that 1.3MJD big time)
- The turbo kick is felt around 2300rpm and loses steam at about 3500rpm
- If you are loaded fully (4 or 5 adults) the car has to be ripped in each gear or too much of sluggishness will be felt.
- The engine noise is audible inside the car, post 2800rpm the sound is actually noticed by everyone in car (not as bad as a celerio D)
- With 3 adults on a flat road, I could not use 5th gear @ 55kmph, turbo lag is very evident
- Slow drivers, who prefer slow gearshifting and mileage oriented driving will not like this car as it jerks a lot.
- The rpm rises quickly from 1500 to 3500rpm, but the minute you touch clutch pedal, the rpm drops way too quick, if you are not quick in shifting gears, everyone will feel the jerkishness in the drive
- The car definately deserves the bigger 1.5D that does duty in Verito, in fact the enginebay does make you feel like they are testing the market with a tinier engine than required.
- Engine is not refined like a Fiat/Hyundai - Vibes from the 3cyl engine will be felt in bumper to bumper traffic. If you keep the engine @ high revs then yeah feels smooth.
- Coasting slowly in second gear in peak hour traffic is impossible!
- The power steering assist is a bit more than needed, even at 40kmph the steering does not weigh well. Feels too light.
- The brakes are good - nothing to complain about (neither are they great - like grand i10)
Thanks for reading.
