Took delivery of Mahindra 3X0: Impressions from a first-time car buyer

I've done 120 km so far, and here are 15 points I've noticed about the new SUV.

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Hello everyone and this is my first post here!

I took delivery of an AX5L AT variant in white colour last Friday evening (some pictures below). This is my first ever car ownership in India, and my first time buying a new car. (I am based out of NCR.) As enthusiastic as I am about a new car, nevertheless, I have driven only about 120 km or so over these past few days! Given this backdrop, here are some of my notes.

1. I had been considering (researching) buying a new car since about February 2024, and the 3xo was launched at a reasonably right time for me. It seemed to somewhat neatly fit my list of requirements and wishes even though I was in no particular hurry to buy.
2. I made my initial booking on May 15, 2024 (at a dealership and not online), and took delivery of my car on June 7, 2024.
3. The booking and buying process was relatively easy and smooth though not without some minor issues. Overall, I would rate it as a 9 out of 10.
4. I had researched (based on my preferences and tastes) and had decided to go with the white colour, and with some additional accessories, and these accessories may be seen in the pictures below. Also, I got a different set of Mahindra-provided seat covers right off since the fabric ones in the variant did not seem that comfortable to me and my partner.
5. In my thus far driving around, I am quite happy with the car, and it has not had any noticeable "niggles" save one which I will highlight below. I have mostly driven in some very slow-moving bumper-to-bumper traffic (especially on delivery day), and on some newer and nicer roads (UER in NCR) for a bit. I have been careful to drive under 80 km/h as perhaps noted in the user manual as the recommended speed limit up to 1000 km. (It's also possible that I picked this up from somewhere else for "breaking in" a new car.)
6. The dealership gave me about 3 litres of free petrol and I filled this free petrol with the default variant since the fuel station did not have EON 95 grade fuel. I later filled the tank with Indian oil's XP95 (whose EON is 95 as recommended in the user manual), and it took about 45 litres of fuel until the auto shut off. (This is some 3 litres over the stated tank capacity.)
7. I have been driving around only in Zip mode which was the default mode when I took delivery of the car.
8. All aspects of the car are seemingly in good shape and working as expected and/or well — AC, electronics, audio system, noise insulation, engine vibration — to name a few that I can think of.
9. I have not measured the mileage so far, and I'm slightly (just slightly) not paranoid about it! In the 120-odd kms, the car computer estimated the mileage to be 8 kmpl but I would assume this would improve over time. I am also contemplating that I would reset the mileage counter after about 500 kms or so so as to estimate it a bit better. In addition, I would also estimate it with the actual filled fuel after about two iterations of emptying the tank entirely. On this note, the user manual recommends not going below 10 litres of fuel in the tank, and perhaps I will adhere to this as well.
10. I did not have any issue with the steering, and because I owned my last car over 7 years ago, I don't think I have the sense to judge this like some other folks seem to have a noted (here or elsewhere). However, I don't believe that AX5L has steering modes: I could only locate the drive mode selector where the user manual says that there should be steering modes.
11. For this reason, I can't discern any turbo lag as well. Perhaps also, I drive quite measurably and don't floor the pedals (either the accelerator or the brake). As a result, I haven't also felt any "jerk of the head" as some others have noted.
12. The one weird thing that I could not figure out is how to get the rear wipers to spray clean! I now have a sense that the rear window has no washer fluids and this would be a slight (very slight!) disappointment but that would be okay. (My last car, which was a sedan, had no such feature back then.)
13. This allows me to now state the one "niggle" that I have noticed: in the auto hold, with the AC on when the auto hold light turns green on the dashboard, and I remove my leg off the brake pedal, I can feel the vibration of the engine and/or AC's compressor. Strangely, this does not happen without the auto hold. And it is the AC I believe because I turned the AC off and that small-ish vibration was gone.
14. To wrap this one up, Apple CarPlay is not present yet which feels like a rushed attempt to get the car into the market (we only tried listening to the FM radio up to now). Similarly, in-built navigation is also not yet available. Finally, it also seems that all ADAS features are not yet available too: in my limited fiddling with the settings, I don't think I saw anything about the automatic emergency braking or the lane-centering assist. I did get fog lamps installed but I was told that they would be enabled during the first service (after 1000 kms of driving the car).
15. All accessories that I wanted were provided except the parcel tray which was not available yet (but for which I have already paid).

So, that's that for now, and I'm glad to try and chip into any conversations around the 3xo going forward. Thanks all!

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