Completed a really long trip with my Phoenix. Kharagpur to Mumbai (almost 2200 km) over the course of 3 days. Here is my experience:
Route Taken: The shortest route is via Raipur-Nagpur (1850 km). However, I was not very sure about the road conditions. Hence we decided to take a slightly longer route via Bhubaneswar-Visakhapatnam-Vijaywada-Hyderabad-Pune-Mumbai. An additional 300 kms but undoubtedly much better road conditions, especially post monsoon.
Stopovers: Day 1 at Vizag and day 2 at Hyderabad.
Road conditions: Kharagpur-Balasore stretch is quite good, though it is only 4 lanes. Then comes the worst part of the trip (Balasore-Cuttack) which is under construction and the road is very bad. The stretch from Cuttack to Brahmapur is good enough (though not the best). But once you cross Brahmapur and enter Andhra Pradesh, there is no looking back. The roads are just amazing - wide, almost zero potholes and such joy to drive on. Other than small stretches in between, the roads till Mumbai are super awesome.
Performance of the car: Oh boy! How it impressed me. It performed flawlessly for the entire stretch of 2200 kms, always ready to do anything it is asked for. The roads allowed the car to be constantly driven in triple digit speeds, and at stretches, speeds
far north ![Big Grin](https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/images/smilies/biggrin.png)
, and it did these speeds without a flinch. The stability was amazing and the car never felt nervous. The steering modes are super helpful and the sports mode added confidence at these high speeds.
I got to test the braking too. Got into a situation while entering Mumbai where an Alto in front did a sudden braking. I had to go all in (had speeds around 50-60 km/hour) and the car stopped without a fuss. The ABS worked perfectly, and fortunately for me, no one hit us from behind.
We were 3 of us and had to carry a lot of luggage. So we made use of the 60:40 split to make the car a 3 seater and generate maximum space possible. Once the seat was down, the boot space was impressive. Besides all the bags and other things, we had an ergonomic chair and we could fit the same in easily. The wide opening of the boot helped, and this is something a sedan with 450L boot wouldn't have accommodated. The width of the car ensured that the single seat at the back, helped us sit without a fuss.
The only negative I felt was the absence of the rear AC vents. This was the first time I sat at the back of my car for some time and I missed the AC vents at the back. Not that the AC is not effective, but it needs to be played with to make the cooling at the back pronounced. Just switching on the AC at 22-24 degrees would be super comfortable at the front, but it isn't effective enough at the back. We found the hack though - switching on the AC at it's lowest setting and then gradually increasing the temperature to optimum levels, cools the back effectively. However, the front passengers may feel the chill during the process.
As for fuel efficiency, I got 15.6 kmpl for the entire trip. I never expected any better, given that the car was never driven to extract economy, saw continuous high speeds, and experienced B2B traffic for long durations in Vizag, Vijaywada, Pune and Mumbai. I followed ashishk29's advice and maintained 36 psi.
Overall, it was such an amazing experience, and I look forward for similar ones very soon.
Here are some snaps from the trip.
![Mahindra XUV300 : Official Review-whatsapp-image-20210820-12.02.19.jpeg](https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/attachments/official-new-car-reviews/2200106d1688201734t-mahindra-xuv300-official-review-whatsapp-image-20210820-12.02.19.jpeg)