Another Winner! XUV5oo This Time!

Cheetah inspired Styling: Somehow gone is the boxy styling of earlier Mahindras.

Not many believed that this is a car from Mahindra, an Indian-company known mostly for its dated-Jeeps. From the owners of hatches to BMWs, everyone stopped to have a look, making the Mahindra showroom staffs to work in deep shit! Modern design, the one that has a nice sporty stance, on its 17-inch alloys, Mitsubishi Outlander like in the way it carries its weight, the long wheelbase, tapering roof and rising beltline, all makes the XUV5oo look quite dynamic and modern and makes people to think it as a premium SUV.

If the styling doesn’t make your jaw drop, then the price certainly will. With a starting price of just Rs 10.8 lakh, this car is to certainly set the cat among the pigeons. That’s why Mahindra, with an over-whelming response to XUV at 6,000 bookings in just two days of launch, is under a crisis of backlogged deliveries. The company’s decision to price the XUV aggressively has paid off and people are storming dealerships to book their vehicles, fetching the waiting period to three months.

Even thought Mahindra calls it a global SUV, it is made in mind the sociology of Indians. The brilliance of the XUV lies in the fact that it scores highly in areas that Indian customers give importance to and less so in the area that don’t matter as much. That means making sure there are no half-measures when it comes to space, comfort, styling and, most important, best-in-class fuel efficiency. It is packed with equipments that one can find only in a Rs 20 lakh-plus SUV to strike straight at the heart of every value-conscious Indian buyers. However, there are compromises as well, making it fall short of global standards. The interior quality is still below the Innova standards, and the dynamics too are still not as accomplished as something like a CR-V or a Fortuner.

Lots of space and comfort on offer. However, last row is fit for kids only. And no boot if you prefer last row!

This is the first Indian SUV to be built around a car-like monocoque chassis, which makes it lighter than a traditional ladder-frame SUV. It has a car-like independent suspension and a plenty of usable space between the long wheel-base. The XUV is stuffed with plenty of features – the touch-screen audio system with voice command, Bluetooth connectivity, satellite navigation, key-less entry, Micro-hybrid with start-stop system, etc. The safety features includes Antilock brakes (standard on all variants), ESP or anti-skid control, tyre pressure monitor and six airbags on W8 variant including curtain airbags. So, what else we want for the money??

The XUV gets the familiar 2.2-litre mHawk engine, similar to the one in Scorpio. It now produces more power and torque – 140bhp and 33.33 kgm – and is now transversely placed, making it equivalently powerful to the Force One and the Tata Aria. On-road performance is impressive with less turbo lag. Thought it is not a hard-core off-roader, it does have a differential lock and hill descent control for light off-roading tasks on the four-wheel drive version. The ARAI fuel efficiency figure for the XUV is a class-leading 15.1kmpl, which is a heavenly boon for a car of this size.

I do not want to reiterate the fact that the Mahindra’s all-new car is a winner, witnessing the market response. The XUV5oo is a perfect blend of true sedan like ride and handling or SUV-like aggressiveness. And all you get this is at a mouth-watering price. So, what else do we want??

Also Read: Mahindra XUV 5oo. Hype & Reality