MAHINDRA and Mahindra, which has been a fixture in the South African automotive market for eight years, owes its reputation to robust, good-value SUVs. The Indian manufacturer’s local product line-up has grown gradually from the early days and the latest addition, the seven-seater XUV500, tested here in range-topping W8 4×2 spec, represents a welcome surprise.
The XUV500’s appearance is characterised by a macho stance, over-emphasised wheelarches and elaborate and bolt-upright taillamp clusters adorned with swirly prints. It’s fussy but sufficiently butch and gives the impression of being a larger vehicle. The monocoque design has endowed the XUV500 with more interior space and reduced mass compared with its older brother, the Scorpio, but this large crossover remains a hefty and rugged vehicle with a mass of 1 832 kg (85 kg lighter than the 4×2 Scorpio CAR tested seven years ago). The XUV500 is also slightly longer and wider than its sibling, but not as tall thanks to the absence of a ladder chassis.
One of the fortes of the entire Mahindra range is interior space and the XUV500 is no exception. The front seats are more comfortable than they look and offer excellent shoulder support. The middle row is split 60:40 and these sections fold and tumble forward to provide easy access to the last two seats. These are also more spacious than most for occupants six and seven, and both seat rows can be folded for the transportation of goods. Note that the last row of seats will not fold fully flat, meaning that bulkier cargo might slide towards the rear hatch when in transit.
Our W8 test unit had leather upholstery in two-tone brown and beige, which appears rather old-fashioned. The fake wood on the facia is too shiny and looks cheap, and the opinion of the majority of testers was that matte-black vinyl would work better and would not reflect sunlight into occupants’ eyes as much as the bright plastic.
The infotainment system offers everything: a single-CD slot, USB and iPod ports, sat-nav, DVD player and a touch screen. Unfortunately, the system did not work too well. On our test car, the radio initially refused to snap out of mute mode, although it did try for a tenth of a second. The USB and CD player took a long time to read and, if we switched to some other mode and then returned, it failed to read the device. To be fair, this was merely a software issue and, after sending the car back to its supplier, the vehicle was returned within a day with the glitch fixed.
The infotainment system is generally easy to use once you become familiar with it, but the sat-nav system is too clunky and user-unfriendly.
While we are griping, we should mention that the headlights do not work on bright if the switch is in the auto-on position. There is a second USB port in the facia-top storage bin that doesn’t seem to have any functional use. A bonnet switch connector came loose and was manually reconnected, while we encountered a number of tyre-pressure warnings (which were later also corrected by the supplier).
The cabin does have redeeming qualities: there are very useful sunvisor extensions that block out more sunshine when necessary, double glovebox compartments, lots of cupholders and, intriguingly, umbrella compartments in the door pockets.
Mechanically, the XUV is far more accomplished than its interior suggests. The clutch has lots of bite, with a loud thunk if you release it too quickly, but the engine is very forgiving and seldom stalls. The powertrain is smooth, not particularly noisy and, with six forward ratios, the going is easy and unfussed. In fact, some of the gears can be skipped if your left arm gets lazy; very seldom possible on a diesel. Both clutch and gearshift are quite heavily weighted, as with most SUVs.
The XUV can cruise comfortably at 140 km/h and acceleration is not bad for a large seven-seater. It even chirps its Goodyear Wrangler AT front tyres in second and third gears. Zero to 100 km/h clocked in at 13,3 seconds as opposed to the 17,16 seconds of the 4×2 Scorpio we tested, while braking was also better with an average stopping time of 3,19 seconds from 100 km/h to zero.
Dynamically, the XUV500 continues its impressive turn. The gearbox feels substantial and the steering is really good, with excellent turn-in and an acceptably tight turning circle. Cornering ability is sound for a vehicle of this type, with surprisingly little body roll. The ground clearance of 185 mm is not great for an SUV but is acceptable for a front-wheel-drive crossover-MPV-cum-SUV.
TEST SUMMARY
After the electronic glitches were ironed out, the XUV500 underlined its overall impression of solidity; most of the team enjoyed driving it and gave its powertrain the thumbs-up.
Unfortunately for the Indian marque, the Chinese manufacturers are also making rapid inroads in this segment. Where Mahindra does have an advantage is in a well-established, if a trifle limited, dealer network, plus a proven track record (with the Scorpio, in particular).
Whether South Africans will prefer this crossover model to the Scorpio is debatable, as even the 4×2 version will be a lot more capable off-road than the XUV. On the other hand, the XUV500 offers significantly more every-
day appeal than any of its purposefully rugged stablemates and shows that the company boasts impressive expertise when it comes to engineering an on-road vehicle.