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-   -   Mahindra XUV500 : Test Drive & Review (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/official-new-car-reviews/109469-mahindra-xuv500-test-drive-review-279.html)

Hi all.

We have done 70000+ kms on our XUV 5OO AWD in the last one year and three months precisely and its been an absolute joy.Of course,we too did experience minor initial niggles in the vehicle but the exceptional customer service did everything right to keep us satisfied.Parts that needed replacement were replaced without any delay.

I had been on a trip to chikmagalur(Karnataka) recently and on the way to Mullayanagiri I got a little enthusiastic to actually see the vehicle's offroading capability and willingly took it up a hillock which had quite some inclination without any major hurdles to the top.I risked it!!It made its way all the way to the top but not without running out of breath and shouting at the top of its lungs!Hill descent function worked perfectly whilst descending.It sure was enthralling but at a price.My clutch was burnt and shredded which made it noticeably hard to use resulting in the vehicle breakdown 3 days later back in Bangalore.Special thanks to SILVERWOOD for checking up on us at MG road.The clutch was replaced by Mahindra free of cost under warranty though wear and tear parts are not easily replaced under the warranty scheme.Bottom line is XUV 5OO AWD sure helps through the rough patches we might encounter in our regular commutes,farms,coffee estates or plain bad roads but definitely not worth venturing into 4WD specific terrains and definitely missed the 4WD option during this endeavor of mine.

Attaching few pictures of the same.

70000kms! I believe you would be the TBHPian with max ODO reading for their XUV.

The off-roading pictures are great. Sad to know that the clutch did not survive the adventure.

Yes,the car goes on outstation trips more than often.Also most of you who own this vehicle would know this is a brilliant mile muncher.Thank you SDP :)

Yours is AWD right? How did you miss the 4WD option then? (unless you meant 4 Low)
It is unusual that one incident results in frying the clutch. probably the clutch was nearing it's life (after 70000 kms) and the adventure accelerated the deterioration. Did you ride the clutch a lot during ascend?

Yes,I meant the lack of the low range feature.AWD definitely is less effective and more fragile than the 4WD system in a situation where high torque is required.Yes,I had to ride the clutch to the extremes during my ascent and combined with the 70000kms life,the clutch sure has taken its toll.Nevertheless,its all fine now.(Touchwood) :)

This is great news. I wanted book the W8 and now that they are coming out with automatic soon should I wait or it is wise to go with FWD itself. Well the decision can't be taken unless we know likely date of launch. Any idea about the launch date?

Wasn't the Auto on Scorpio troublesome? I believe I have heard quite a bunch of negative reviews on the Autobox.

If it were me, I would NOT take a plunge until I read positive reviews of 1L kms done XUV Auto.

Yes it was troublesome and Mahindra discontinued it as well.

Mahindra has recently relaunched the Scorpio AT with a new gearbox sourced from Bosch. The earlier one was from DSI (Drivetrain Systems International).

More details here:

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/india...ble-again.html

The Scorpio has a Longitudinal engine layout, whereas the XUV500's engine is tranverse mounted. So same gearbox cannot be used. We need to see test mules on the road before the launch.

OT: The autobox was not troublesome. M&M faced vendor issues and hence the supply was discontinued from that vendor bringing the production to a halt.

Actually the slope looks decent enough and the XUV should have made it quite comfortably, the tyres though may have lacked the grip for the terrain.

The Clutch possibly was on it's last legs anyways with the vehicle being at about 70,000 kms. M&M seem to being going out of it's way to replace the clutch for a vehicle of this age. Good work from them.

Congrats and wish you many more. It is quite commendable to see the XUV500 lived up so well till so far and is a very good example amongst the XUV500 fraternity. Surely gives something to cheer up for all those apprehensive of the XUV500, including me.

It is a good achievement gubbi555. XUV500 is a very capable vehicle and it will easily do this. It may just need getting used to.

But hope I do not sound like a spoilsport. I was holding my tongue in cheek until ACM spoke up. Actually XUV500 by all means should have been able to do better on this trek up the hill having better bhp and Nm and better spread as the backbone, way much better than Innova. I can say that having done quite a few such treks with Innova uphill without much issues, initially learning how to master clutch and brake and then how to slowly learn accelerating upwards. Care to take is not to do clutch riding more than necessary and let it get crawling first and then boost her up to accelerate slowly up the trek while observing gear-speed combination.

Hope you will not take this negatively and let down your spirits because of my saying so.

Congrats for the achievement.

Absolutely commendable of M&M to have done this. I am sure Toyota would have just turned its ears off and eyes blind on this one.

Yes,thats one thing I appreciate about Mahindra going all out to ensure the customer is king,always!The tyres definitely lack the kind of grip it used to have for the first 30-35k kms and is due for a change soon.The current ones are JK Vectra.But yes,though the slope looks okay from the position the photos were clicked it was way more inclined from the bottom actually.

Thank you Parsh.Sure do agree with you,but would like to mention that I had to halt the vehicle midway and getting back to momentum sure made me override the clutch and resulting in the mentioned damage adding to this was the lack of adequate grip on the tyres.I am definitely not used to offroading in any extreme condition as yet.But paying so much for a vehicle and the urge to find out what it can do made me go for it.If you ask me,I'd still say having a manual low range feature is better than letting a computer decide how much power is sent to each wheel at each instance and the torque variation at a click of a button.I've driven the XUV on mining areas with moderate rough patches and inclinations and yes,XUV is nearly perfect for such endeavors.But this particular drive up the hillock was hard on the vehicle frankly.The clutch and brake technique you mentioned might have surely helped,but to what extent is what Im not really sure of. Cheers. :)

Are you on the original tyres even after 70K?

I am not clear about this part. I thought riding the clutch meant keeping the clutch depressed on the descent hoping that it would cut off the engine and save some fuel (which is a misconception anyway). So when you say that you were riding the clutch during ascent, do you mean to say that you used the clutch a lot?