XUV700 ownership experience including AdrenoX, 20K km service & more

Mahindra should improve the neck support for long drives. I believe that the Tata Safari offers slightly better neck support with its headrest.

BHPian rudra_shiv recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

From January to March 2024, I drove just 1,000 km, mainly on city roads to visit my in-laws, shop, and see relatives. During this period, RUDRA had a peaceful time without any heavy use.

AdrenoX Renewal

In April 2024, I renewed my AdrenoX subscription at a discounted price of 2,499 Rs. (I believe the AX5 should be priced between 1,500-2,000 Rs. due to its lack of many remote monitoring/control features). The activation took two days.

What's New with AdrenoX 2024 (Updated):

• Personalized Greeting Messages: Customizable with your favorite voices.
• A 90% lag-free user experience: Improved UI/UX, aside from the initial app loading time.
• Mahindra Lens: An in-built feature that details errors shown in the cluster when scanned with the camera app.
•  Toll Diary: Tracks toll recharges and expenditures.
•  EcoSense Leaderboard: A leaderboard for XUV users.

What Needs Improvement:

• The AdrenoX app still takes half a minute to load initially.
•  The remote control features tab takes 10-30 seconds to load.
•  Mahindra Lens sometimes fails to accurately identify symbols and provide correct details.
•  I can't link my Equitas Fasttag with AdrenoX and am unsure where to get help. This feature works smoothly for most users.
•  Alexa struggles with What3Words and often has issues when asked to play music.

Areas for Mahindra to Improve on AdrenoX:

• AX3 and AX5 owners pay the same subscription fee as AX7 owners but don’t get all the features. Remote window closing and climatic control options are greyed out for us. While Remote Engine Start & Stop requires an automatic transmission, Hyundai offers it even in MT models. Mahindra should adjust the pricing or offer similar features to AX3/5 owners.
• Maintaining the 2,499 Rs. pricing is a welcome move. Pricing it at 2,000 Rs. would be even more attractive for all the users considering the feature reductions happening across variants.
• It would be helpful if the app could display MID warnings remotely for users who have chauffeurs.
• The clutch and brake press counts need optimization to avoid causing concern.
•  Alexa is still a hit or a miss. SIRI in CarPlay also not working as expected. But Android Auto is working like a charm without any hiccups.

Overall, my experience has improved compared to the first year, and I believe Mahindra will continue to enhance it year by year. Good job, Mahindra!

M4U App:

Additionally, there have been a few feature additions in Mahindra 4 You (which was With You Hamesha before):

• SUV Digital Certificate that details the service records, age, and warranty info in one single PDF. This is cool.
•  Place to store our legal documents safely in the app.
•  The service calculator has a small bug, it considers a higher price for the engine oil in the app. That's okay, it just needs a small fix.

Overall Experience with RUDRA - 2 Years, 21k km & Counting

1. Engine - An Engineering Marvel: No issues so far. The engine is excellent to drive, and the exhilarating feeling when you press the accelerator post 1.7k rpm is pure joy.

2. NVH: The cabin is super silent, with minimal engine and wind noise. This is a very impressive piece of engineering to me. All you hear is a very mild engine + turbo sound and the tire noise.

On the bad roads, the suspension sound creeps in noticeably. Maybe Mahindra should improve the quality of the material used for floor damping.

Keeping bottles in the door pads does give rattles, maybe Mahindra should give a felt lining there or a soft touch material to avoid the rattle sounds.

Here are some screenshots of the NVH levels from the mStallion engine at various places:

Outside the car just near the driver door:

Inside with the engine idling at ~1k rpm without AC:

Videos

• NVH of the mStallion Engine at idle
• NVH of the mStallion Engine at idle with the AC on

3. Braking: Previously inconsistent I guess due to the faulty vacuum pump, now the vacuum pump has been replaced, the brakes feel consistent and assuring. The brakes are consistent and reliable, boosting confidence when driving at high speeds.

4. Infotainment: Initially it was very buggy, but it has improved significantly after software updates. CarPlay still disconnects randomly but is much better. Android Auto is smooth with no issues. One thing is, they should work on a way to project Google Maps in the MID.

5. MID: Clearly provides all necessary data, and the menus are categorized in a good way. The lack of RHS controls in AX5 is painful and diverts the driver's attention while driving if we are to change anything in the MID.

6. In-built Apps:

• India Today offers a live scorecard for IPL, which is cool.
• EcoSense provides almost accurate values for each trip.
• Mappls is good but needs improvement in route suggestions. Having it built into the system instead of online maps would be better.

7. Seats:

• First Row: Initially, it took some time to find a comfortable seating position. Once set, the seats became very accommodating and well-contoured. Mahindra should improve neck support for long drives, Safari offers slightly better neck support with its headrest.
•  Second Row: Very wide and comfortable, fitting 4 lean adults or 3 adults with enough comfort.
•  Third Row: Strictly for kids and adults under 5'5". Slightly claustrophobic and bouncy at high speeds but manageable for 200-300kms trips.

8. AC:

• Front Row: The driver-side AC is decent and almost adjustable to my comfort. The co-passenger side is a chiller. If we keep both hands on the steering wheel (I prefer 9-3) it affects the AC hitting your chest/head from the left side. Other than that, it is perfect!
• Second Row: AC vent placement could be improved. Maybe the mounting on the B-Pillar might have helped, OTOH, they should have given a blower control for the 2nd row. I would rate this as adequate.
• Third Row: A dedicated AC vent with blower control is a great move, ensuring comfort for the human adjusting in the 3rd row.

Overall, the AC performance is good but could use minor improvements for better efficiency and user experience.

9. Exterior Paint Quality: The paint quality feels above average but chips easily from stones and picks minor scratches.

10. Suspension:

• Slow Speeds: Mahindra and suspension sounds are inseparable. A mild thud sound persists over speed breakers with a noticeable rebound. Compass and Harrier twins perform better here.
• Speeds above 40 kmph: The ride quality is very comfortable and planted, even beating cars in a segment above on decent roads.

11. Steering: Mahindra’s steering calibration is precise and gains weight at high speeds, enhancing confidence. It's a gem in the city and superb on highways. Whichever team designed it, whoever involved, deserves a raise in pay and even a promotion

12. Fuel Efficiency:

I mainly use IOCL (90%) and BPCL (occasionally).

• Within City: Average 11-11.5 kmpl, with lower figures in heavy traffic.
• Highways: ~13.5 kmpl at 80-130 kmph and 15 kmpl under 100 kmph. While acceptable, a 10-15% improvement would be welcome.

13. ASC: Full marks for ASC (CAI Mahindra) in Coimbatore. They are supportive, listen to feedback, and follow up diligently.

What Was Greatly Missed:

1. ESP: For sure, this is a great miss. Give the pay cut to the one who proposed and decided such a confusing variant-wise feature breakup. AX5 Diesel was offered with ESP but AX5 Petrol was not. While gliding on the highways, on various instances found the need for ESP (especially on the last trip with full-house).

I really urge, request, and wish Mahindra to release a retrofit kit for ESP in MX, AX3, and AX5 variants to the owners who are willing to fit it in the ASC at an extra cost.

This will save the thousands of lives of the owners & families who trusted you Mahindra.

Between, a good from Mahindra and a big kudos from my side for keeping 6 airbags+ABS+EBD+ESP as standard in 3XO.

2. Minor Features: Cruise Control, RHS Steering Controls, two USBs in the front row, only one USB C support in the 2nd row, lack of blower control for 2nd row, puddle door lamps, placement of 12v socket are minor but noticeable misses.

3. Suspension Noise: Still persists slightly. I've decided to live with it.

4. Reliability of mStallion: Concerns remain as 10 out of 102 members in a WhatsApp group for Petrol owners had engine replacements. This is creating concerns & panic for the other owners in terms of its long-term reliability. I understand this is due to the manufacturing defect in their valve heads and guides. This causes engine oil to seep through the pistons and get into cylinders. The problem is this issue is diagnosed to the owners who have run 3k km, 5k km, and even 35k kms.

The only way for the owners to diagnose is to check on the throttle responsiveness and keep a check on the engine oil levels at frequent intervals (well, every time I look at the dipstick it's a seat-edge thriller feeling for me).

Having said that mStallion is an engineering marvel. 198 horses pulling the 2-tonne beast with a 380N-m torque at its peak. The adrenaline rush above 1.7k rpm is a wow experience every time you press on the A pedal for sure. It's the case of the long-term reliability that concerns all of us leading to an unwanted post-purchase dilemma.

Mahindra should consider improving QC standards for their engine assembly. And I strongly believe they have already been addressed in the later batches.

Issues Faced During the Ownership:

• Canister issue - Fixed
•  Floaty feeling >100 kmph - Fixed
•  Suspension thud noise - Persists slightly but improved a lot with the new LCA. Looks like this is never-ending hence decided to live with it.
•  Unusual engine sound - Fixed with vacuum pump replacement
•  Boot door crack - Under observation

Short trip to Trichendur to meet Mom's favorite

I drove ~800 km from Coimbatore to Trichendur with 5 adults and 2 kids. RUDRA handled it well, but the lack of ESP made cautious driving under 100 kmph necessary.

Snapshots from the trip (AdrenoX app):

The total journey

From Coimbatore to Trichendur

The way back to Coimbatore

Jan to Apr, Coimbatore was feeling so close to the sun with a peak of 44 deg (which feels like 48 deg), the May was an unexpected downpour. That made Coimbatore behave like Coimbatore again.

Let's get back to the juicy bits, the 20k service experience

I dropped, stayed, and picked up the car from CAI. Mr. Dileep and Mr. Saranth were welcoming as always. It was a regular service involving fuel and carbon filter changes, completed in three hours.

Spotted a crack in the tailgate in the mold line near the Mahindra logo. It was an unexpected one for me

Surprisingly, the fog lamp was found not working. ASC couldn't determine if it was a rat bite or a foreign object cut. It was fixed in 15 minutes.

Wheel rotation and alignment check done, camber adjusted accordingly:

Status of brake pads:

Acc. to the ASC technician, front brake pads can last another 5-7k km, I am hoping it will last 10k km at least.

Rear brake pads should last at least another 10k km:

Added the brake pedal covers to RUDRA, and this definitely feels cool and sporty (kindly agree to it at least for me)

Fog lamp wiring - Fixed
Fuel Filter - Replaced
Carbon Filter - Replaced
Tailgate crack - Was requested to check if the crack developed and take a countermeasure accordingly.

One thing I missed this time was the bonnet and door alignment. My bad, I should have told them. Somehow missed it. There is a minor misalignment in the bonnet (which only Car OCD people like me alone could notice).

Reg. the door alignment, I have temporarily managed by tapping the door lock hinge in the pillar. Mr. Dileep told me it was very minor + just a 15-minute work and that I could do it when I am sometime around the ASC.

I tried adjusting the rubber plugs under the bonnet, but it did not help either. I will pass it on sometime later this year when I am around the ASC.

RUDRA shines bright in the cosy, cloudy weather - eye-catching, exhilarating, and wonderfully sparkling after a fresh wash!

Finally, the much-awaited bill is here:

20k free service for a beast of this segment costing ~1.8k is surely a great relief to the owners of Mahindra. Kudos to Mahindra for this.

Additionally renewed the insurance at CAI itself for 27.5K which includes Zero Dep + RTI + Consumables + Engine Protect + Personal Belongings + RSA. I opted out from Tyre Cover this time as the beast has covered 21k already.

Will be getting the PUC certificate this week.

Rudra is all already & pampered enough to go many more miles in the coming year.

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