35,000 km with my XUV700 AX5: Likes, dislikes & service experience

I own a Scorpio S10 too. The service experience for the XUV 700 was not too different.

BHPian S.I.N.G.H recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

The Buying Experience

9th Jan 2022 – The day we welcomed our beast home – The mighty XUV 700 AX5 D AT. COVID was still prevalent, but we went ahead to get home the beast! One of the thrills was that this was one of the early deliveries in my vicinity, hence was excited to turn some heads.

Residing in Delhi, we picked the vehicle from the Lochab Mahindra, an amazing dealer from Rohtak. The first drive home was a breeze. About 100 km of expressway gave us a feeling of what the vehicle is capable of. A flick of the pedal and we were awe-struck with the response!

The odometer reads 35k kms now.

Likes

Dislikes

Being an enthusiast, wanted to have some hands-on quick DIYs.

Made a clip of the activity and posted it online. Sharing the link in case someone wants to see:

• Video 1
• Video 2

The Service Experience

My old association with the brand – Though the brand has worked very hard on the brand image overhauling, not much has changed at the workshops. I own a Scorpio S10 too (1.25 lakh km done). The service experience for the XUV 700 was not too different. The service advisors were busy upselling.

The current experience – The hassle started with multiple trips to the workshop for software updates, though the first one was through a home visit by one of the dealers, henceforth I visited the workshop! Going to the workshop in the morning with the smallest of the jobs and not returning before day end. Repeat issues coming up. With every software update, the tech guy forgot to reactivate the reverse camera accessory which made the camera non-functional till the time it was reactivated. The front suspension noise is the most irritating of all. But really happy with the speed with which Mahindra as an OEM has rectified the issue and got the solution to customers retrospectively.

Video 3

Solving this, we took the car for multiple trips to Amritsar, Nainital, Manali, Rohtang Pass, Dehradun, Mussoorie, Kasauli, Jaipur, Jim Corbett and many others! The drive was a breeze. Except for the buggy infotainment, there wasn’t much of an issue until 20k kms when the front brake pads got worn off! For a vehicle with no ADAS, not aggressively driven, 20k is less for brake pads to get worn out. Being an engineer and from the automotive industry, this seemed to be an early wear. Nevertheless, being a wear and tear item I did not bother too much and got it replaced.

The Irony with NVH

The major issue started at about 25k km when the driver-side door started to rattle along with the rattle from the tweeter pod and air-cutting noise from the sunroof. Surprisingly, none of the services had the sunroof checked by the dealer for any lubrication or cleaning. This is surprising as it might cause the premature failure of the rails, which would later be put on the customer citing operating in dusty conditions.

Got the vehicle checked 3 times between 25k and 35k kms. The door noise immediately reappears in a day or two after visiting the workshop. The air-cutting noise in the vehicle is very uncomfortable in the cabin.

The vehicle sounds like an old Bolero. The worst was when during the last visit I sounded all this to one of the dealer service leads and also to one of the representatives of the OEM through email (Not taking names or designations as the aim is not to get them in trouble). The door noise reappeared and the worst part was that the headliner had grease stains

Again escalated over email, the dealer called back. The surprising part is that I could not visit the workshop on the designated date. Ever since, neither the dealer nor the OEM representative has bothered to check if the issue is resolved. The no-show of the customer was not a concern for them at all.

This time, I am not too keen on sending the vehicle for a hit and trial. Either the door latch is faulty or the door beading is fouling against the body and making the noise. The sunroof is also making noise, especially while opening in hot temperatures. I just hope this is addressed by them professionally this time. The plush and comfortable experience of the vehicle is turning sour day on day now.

Talking about our enthusiast groups now

As a group, we managed to get together 100 XUV 700 owners and go for drives. The families joined and met on Sundays at places close to Delhi. Talking about the experiences, the models and variants each one drives, mods and much more. We named the group Counting XUVs! Thankfully, this has more than 250 owners now. Will write more about this in another thread as there is too much to discuss.

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