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My Mahindra XUV700 petrol AT: Highway drive observations

16th December 2021, 21:03 by Dev Shah

The mStallion engine and Aisin transmission are a match made in heaven.

BHPian nasir88 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Hi all,

Wanted to share some observations from my recent highway drive over the weekend, which was around 370Kms (including 30% city driving) in my AX5 P AT. Below are the trip details:

I was able to get a mileage of 13+ based on the information display. While I did not calculate exact tank-to-tank, the figure seems to be fairly accurate based on my fuel top up in between.

While I would not say I was driving light footed in any way, I was definitely not going all pedal to the metal since its a new car . I did hit the 120 km/hr reminder several times though, and generally drove in the 80-100 km/hr range.

Mileage: As noted above, I am satisfied with this mileage considering the size of the car, and also considering the city run in between. Although if it had touched 15, it would have been awesome (wishful thinking I know).

Ride and Handling: I am not very educated about suspension setups, but the FSD suspension definitely appears to have an impact at high speeds. Having driven a xuv500 and scorpio before, it is safe say the xuv700 has improved by leaps and bounds. Body roll is negligible and the car easily soaks up potholes without losing stability. Driving dynamics are definitely better than my Gen 1 Creta, and seem closer to a sedan.

Engine and transmission: The mStallion engine and Aisin transmission are a match made in heaven. The car silently purrs along like a NA car would when at low speed, but as soon as you push the pedal hard the transmission is quick to downshift and bring the engine to life. Initially I thought Mahindra had been unfair to the petrol engine by not giving it drive modes. Turns out the car is always in Zoom mode, you just need to press the pedal.

Braking: The brakes have sufficient bite and inspire confidence. I did not drive over wet patches or gravel however, so no comments on ABS and EBD.

Interior comfort: The car was very comfortable over the long ride and people on the backseat were very happy with the legroom. While the seats are on the firmer side, this became beneficial over the long ride.

NVH: This was the part I was most impressed by. The car was extremely silent at even high speeds, and several people in the car even commented that they did not feel the car was on when it was idling or at low speeds. While many people have been doing economy wise calculations when deciding between petrol and diesel, I think improved NVH should also be one of the considerations.

Cons:

The IRVM is very bad and rattles a lot at high speed. The night visibility is also very bad as only part of the reflection shifts properly when toggling day/night.
The sunroof sun shade also rattles a bit when driving on uneven roads at high speed (with shade open and roof closed). Not sure if this is common with all cars as this in my first car with a sunroof.
While the light steering does weigh up as the speed increases, the weight increase is a bit sudden, which initially surprised me, but was easy to get used to.
Android Auto is still not working, and fiddling with the inbuilt navigation is very time consuming. There should ideally be a way to add destinations in the map using the Adrenox phone app to make this easier.
I could not find any inbuilt music app in Adrenox, but Alexa is able to play random songs from Hungama music and Jio Saavn when asked to play music. Surprisingly, Alexa is not able to play music from Amazon Music.
The door handles are very difficult for anyone new to figure out, so you will need to either open the door for them or wait for them to figure it out after several rounds of instructions. This becomes even more difficult in the dark, so any lighting or indications around the handles would have helped.

Also, the first service reminder came on at the end of the trip (200Kms before it was due). It also gives a reminder every time you start the car, so eventually I caved and took it for a service.