My Ambhaari: Mahindra XUV500 Buying & Ownership Experience

[raj_5004]

Re: My, Yet To Be Named, XUV5OO - Buying and Ownership Experience

Good to hear that you are enjoying the XUV buddy. The second pic for some reason is awesome! I really like black, silver and purple colour on the XUV, but sadly I had to buy white (family choice!).

 

[manuman]

Re: My, Yet To Be Named, XUV5OO - Buying and Ownership Experience

Well, back from my Chennai trip, a total distance of ~700KM covered.

Bad news - the road from Bangalore to Chennai - is not all that good. Especially beyond Krishnagiri, lot of diversions, narrow stretches, ongoing work, spoilt the fun. And as you go closer to Chennai / Shreeperumbadur, the tar on the road seems to have melted - even the white/yellow lanes are wavering.

The good news - XUV handled it very smooth! The on and off the road diversions, combined with public crossing the road (it was day time), pose you true challenge. But am glad that I had XUV for the trip. Did not feel all that tired, even after ~5 hours of drive. BTW, my colleagues gave me 'unsolicited' feedback, and confirmed the same. The guys were gaga over all the features, ride quality, and smooth functioning.

The car was loaded with 5 folks, and few small bags. Did not face any issue with the pull. The best part was the suspension - absolutely fabulous. Again, I am coming from my Scorpio SLX model; I have made at least 10 trips in my Scorpio on this route and that too when the road was fantastic.

During the trip, I maintained a speed of constant 100, occasionally going up to 120, and rarely above 120. Ensured the RPM does not cross 2500. Applied 'cruise control' for short stretches but couldn't really prolong due to the road construction. When I did use cruise control, it worked as expected.

The mileage - has gone up from 8.9 (when I bought) to 11.7 by end of the trip. The car is yet to complete 2000KM btw, hence am not unduly worried. Most of the 2000KM is in the city traffic, with AC on. I believe I need to put on couple of more thousand KMs on the odo, and also wait for first service before raisign my expectation.

Throughout the trip the A/C was on at 23 degrees (auto). Never noticed any issue with even Chennai, which is quite humid as we know.

Of course, the trip can't be perfect, isn't it? The only problem I faced is with cruise control, for a short period. On the way back to Bangalore, somewhere near Kanchi, the cruise control stopped functioning. After turning on the cruise, I kept my thumb on the + sign constantly to increase the speed. And then suddenly the cruise control sign on the dashboard console (green in color) disappeared. I did not panic; carried on. Had to take a tea break at some place, where I had switched off and on my car. Voila! The cruise control was back to normal.

I could not take pictures during the trip, sorry. We were in a rush hence could not; the construction work did not encourage us to take more than one break.

Btw, a morron on a two wheeler hit my stationary car from behind, at a traffic signal (in Bangalore). Got off to notice no damage whatsoever to the bumper/car. The bike was at a height which would hit only the black bumper; I found only some mark which I could rub it away. Of course, I gave him my piece of mind. The experience is similar to my Scorpio – where the fiber bumper had the spring effect, and was quite strong. Kudos to Mahindra for building rock solid cars!

In my next post, I shall write about my experience with RM (my own, and my colleague’s, who also owns a XUV). Escalated our not so pleasant experience with senior guys in M&M (through email) and they responded with a phone call within 45 minutes! We have setup a call to provide the feedback in couple of days. I shall share the outcome post that.

@Raj - white colored car, I learnt, brings lot of luck! One of the reason why many real estate businessmen buy white colored Scorpios/XUVs.

 

[manuman]

Re: My, Yet To Be Named, XUV5OO - Buying and Ownership Experience

Update after 1st Service:

Well if you are expecting something sensational, then you would be disappointed. It was as predictable as a Hindi movie – everything went very smooth

India Garage from Mahadevapura (Bangalore) called me twice in a span two weeks to remind me about my impending service. I had run around 4800KM hence decided to get the 1st service done. Planning a long trip to Coorg during first week of August hence did not want to service just before the trip; a two week gap between a service and long drive is always better IMO.

The coordinator called me to fix the day. I fixed it for immediate next day. The RM Umesh called me later to confirm. Though my colleague (who owns an XUV) suggested Sujith, I thought to try out Umesh as he is my assigned RM. I dropped the vehicle myself instead of leveraging Purple Club pick-up services (the service centre is few KMs away). I insisted that I want the vehicle on same day, because I had no complaints as such to be looked in to.

Dropped off the vehicle by 9AM, as soon the service centre was opened. Found most of the RMs had 4 vehicles each. Met RM Umesh and told him the only problem I had – Air-condition. Air-condition sometimes blew hot air rather than cold air. He immediately acknowledged that it is a known ‘software’ problem and will be fixed. Asked him to check thoroughly everything – apart from engine fluid change, filter change, wash / clean – check for suspension fasteners, tightening of all fasteners, and general inspection. Umesh gave an estimation of ~2800 rupees, and the breakup included some items I did not even recognize. I asked him to stick to what is a ‘must’ for first service, and not to fool me with frills. Tough tone helps sometimes.

Umesh called back by 5PM to confirm the vehicle is ready for pickup. Umesh explained the work done. Though he claimed tightening all the fasteners, I doubt. Oil was changed of course – Maximile Feo; it is called ‘engine fluid’ actually, not oil! Which was around 1710 for 6 litres. Then Maximile filter for Rs. 151. Including all the taxes, the bill came to ~1950. Not bad! The next service is at 15K I guess (need to check the manual). The first 3 service should hopefully cost very minimal as such.

It has been 10 days since the service, and I have driven ~300 KMs. I find no issues post service. Air-condition is working fine – though it was intermittent problem earlier; shall wait for some more time before declaring it is problem free. Also the upcoming ~500KM round trip to Coorg should help me figure out if there are any issues post service.

For now, I am happy with the service provided by India Garage

Here is a picture of the odometer right when I completed 5000KM.

 

[raj_5004]

Re: My, Yet To Be Named, XUV5OO - Buying and Ownership Experience

Update after 1st Service:

Well if you are expecting something sensational, then you would be disappointed. It was as predictable as a Hindi movie – everything went very smooth

...............

Here is a picture of the odometer right when I completed 5000KM.

Glad to know that your XUV is serving well.

The last time I had gone to my A.S.S., I had requested them to change the brake pedals in my car, since I wanted to improve the brake bite. They claimed it was out of stock and would call me in a week when its available.

Then I flew back to UK and they have never called. I have decided that I will mail the customer care of M&M, to make this a bit easier and faster for me.

 

[singh890]

Re: My, Yet To Be Named, XUV5OO - Buying and Ownership Experience

Congrats Manuman for achieving the 5000 kms mark.

And good to know that your XUV is serving you well without any problems.

What's the FE you are getting after the 1st service?

 

[manuman]

Re: My, Yet To Be Named, XUV5OO - Buying and Ownership Experience

@Raj: My XUV came with Bosch brakes, which I believe is better than the earlier one. I feel it is good (had to come to scratch halt due to some rough driving by trucks). I did not want feel the need because my drive has been only in the city and it seems to do the needful. But brakes (apart from horn ) need to be good on Indian driving conditions. No harm in tuning it to the level driver is comfortable with.

@Singh: The car info still shows 10.7KMs as average. I also installed XUV app in my iPhone but did not diligently enter the details every time I filled the tank. I cover <1000KM per month, mostly city drive. Hence reluctant to jump in to conclusion.

I have read about some XUV W6 owners getting as high as 17KM/Litre during long drive, and ~13KM in city. I would be very happy with 12~13 in the city. Shall wait for few more thousand KM before concluding on mileage.

 

[manuman]

Re: My, Yet To Be Named, XUV5OO - Buying and Ownership Experience

Rats!

Well, my smooth experience with XUV was rocked by a Rat (mouse) few days ago.

I took the car out over the weekend and switched ON the AC, as usual. Heard some ghat-ghat kind of sound which increased/decreased as I changed the fan speed. I quickly recalled my friends experience with a rat in his XUV – one of the rat had sneaked in and dumped some shredded paper. The noise was obvious hence he took it to service center. Upon inspection, it was confirmed that a Rat had caused the mess. After spending Rs. 300, he was relieved of the issue.

Well I wasn’t so lucky. I had too many personal commitments to attend hence could not take the car to service center. Managed to drive around without AC. But whenever I tried to switch on the AC, the noise flared up. Worst, this time some bad smell too! I switched off the car and tried to look inside the bonnet for anything obvious. What I noticed though is squeaky sound and some smell emanating from near the dashboard. It was beyond doubt that there was a rat in the AC duct or somewhere close by. Called up the RM immediately (who responded at first attempt!) who kind of confirmed my suspicion after couple of basic questions.

The smell got only worst by Monday. I had to take off and take the car to India Garage service center. RM Umesh gave me an estimation of 1500 to 4000, depending on what all they have to open to clean it up and replacement in case the Rat has bitten some electric component. I had no choice but to agree.

The service guys took a whilst to get started on my car (understandable, as I landed without any appointment on the first day of the week). But when they did, the smell kept them at bay for a whilst. Sprayed lots of ambipur freshener and opened duct from inside, below the dashboard. The rat had got stuck inside the AC blower and unable to come out. In fact, I was shocked to see the size of the rat ! It was too big to sneak in, and still wondering how did it get in? Refer the pictures. The tail itself was 6 inches long, without exaggeration. Unable to rotate the pictures hence couple of them looks odd.

Now – only the strong hearted need to read this paragraph. Since it wasn’t easy to pull out the rat, and there was no way to disassemble the AC blower, one of the macho guys had to literally cut the rat in to pieces and pull out the pieces. Post that, the guys took it to washing area and used some cleaning blower to clean up remaining pieces/hair from the AC blower. Of course, lots of freshener too.

When the fixed the AC blower back, some smell remaining but the worst – I could still hear some sound. I also felt the AC wasn’t effective. It was too late in the evening and my patience had run-out. I had to suggest them to replace the AC blower finally, to get rid of the problem once for all. Of course, the replacement fixed everything.

All fixed. The final bill – Rs. 7988 inclusive of part replacement, labor, tax; they charged me for the air freshener too! I tried my usual pressure and persistence (telling them that it’s a design flaw why I got in to this situation), but did not help much. The A.S.S. seems to be charging at will, ‘coz you don’t have labor rate card for all such things. You have labor charges clearly displayed only for standard service, such as oil replacement.

I share the blame for the same, but I think M&M has to own it too. Rats and alike are common in country. When one claim the car is designed for Indian conditions (such as road condition, humid weather, etc.), why not design it to prevent such mishaps? IMHO.

The RM Umesh suggested me to go in for a rat mesh to prevent, which was quoted as ~2000 but I was in no mood to spend more money after busting 8000 bucks. I park the car in my basement (not an apartment). I got some rat poison and shall place it around the car for few days. But I don’t know how long can I do this and will it really help. Going by Murphy’s Law – the rat might come in the moment I stop the poison ritual.

Need advice from fellow TAI’s on how to prevent it.

 

[TheG2]

Re: My, Yet To Be Named, XUV5OO - Buying and Ownership Experience

That really looks "Chi" types. Feed the rats well so that they don't look towards your car manuman

Jokes apart, a rat mess is the best solution available so far. You will get it much cheaper outside.

 

[Superbad]

Re: My, Yet To Be Named, XUV5OO - Buying and Ownership Experience

well. even my scorpio had its own share of rat problem.

it ate up the diesel fuel line and the rear wash pipe.

need to know of something which can get rid of rats for good

 

[Tornado]

Re: My, Yet To Be Named, XUV5OO - Buying and Ownership Experience

need to know of something which can get rid of rats for good

here is a link http://www.theautomotiveindia.com/f...322-how-prevent-rats-entering-inside-car.html

 

[Raja]

Re: My, Yet To Be Named, XUV5OO - Buying and Ownership Experience

@ manuman

Sorry to hear this mishap . My suggestion would be to fix the rat mesh with whatever precaution you can take .
Like you said if this a desgin issue then rats might very well come again .

I would suggest you to email mahindra CC and explain them that it is not a unique case of yours but many owners have faced this issue .
On other forum too I read people had same trouble .

Hope the incident doesn't happen again .

 

[patkar_a]

Re: My, Yet To Be Named, XUV5OO - Buying and Ownership Experience

That's something so bad,the extreme case.Bad luck buddy,Recently my car Ertiga was also infested by rat.

Get that mesh installed,buddy it might be a savior.

Keep some tobacco packet,with holes at various corner,it worked for me..

 

[bhvm]

Re: My, Yet To Be Named, XUV5OO - Buying and Ownership Experience

aww! that's terrible man!
and it seems almost impossible how such a large rat came inside. he's all rolled up in the blower!
is it possible that rat entered elsewhere, but got sucked in after turning on the ac ??

and any pics of the rat mesh, like how and where it will be installed etc?
my safari was rat attacked a few years ago. it chewed some wires that created a short and melted the headlight fuse holders!!

 

[manuman]

Re: My, Yet To Be Named, XUV5OO - Buying and Ownership Experience

Looking to tackle rodent problem, I went with tobacco as suggested by some petrol heads.

I am not still convinced though about effectiveness of the tobacco. Though it is cost effective, placing the tobacco safely (without causing any fire due to heat inside the bonnet), replacing timely, etc is a hassle.

Came across Ultrasonic Electronic Rodent Repellent product at a local car dealer. The dealer is quoting 4K but found it to be available online for 3K!

Buy Ultrasonic Electronic Auto (Car) Rat / Rodent / Mouse Repellent & Repeller - Varna Enterprises, Bangalore

Anyone has any experience with such product?

 

[Iron Rock]

Re: My, Yet To Be Named, XUV5OO - Buying and Ownership Experience

Very unfortunate and to be honest its impossible to design an engine bay which would be rat proof - at best the AC ducts that come in to the cabin can be made rat proof.
I dont really think a manufacturer can rat proof the engine bay, its impossible considering cooling requirements, efficiency of various components operating in tandem.

Rats have to find warmth during rainy season and winter, inevitably our cars become a cosy bungalow for them. I use black pepper powder , chilly powder and tobacco generously in the engine bay - but still there are no guarantees really!