Folks
Hope you are doing well. I just wanted to give you an initial feedback of my drive from Hyderabad to Wellington (approximately 870km away).
I stopped over at Mysore over night and reached the next day afternoon to Wellington. The drive was excellent at 100/120kmh. From Mysore to Wellington I took the short cut via Masinagudi. The climb was very steep with about 36 hair pin bends and steep climbs. The car easily crused between 2nd and 3rd gear on the steep climbs.
I enjoyed the drive very much.
Updated 30/1/16
Folks
The car has now done 13k km. My previous update mentioned about the Infotainment defect.
This was replaced in Dec 15 and since then it has been fixed. No issues at all. I went to Chirala a coastal small town in A.P. the drive from Hyderabad to Chirala took about 7 hrs with a few breaks in between. The car crused at 100/120km/hr. I got a whopping average of 16.7km/Ltr. The road was excellent for a few small stretchs of rough road.
Most important point don’t trust Google maps it can land you in very difficult situation I got stuck in one such place however was lucky to recover.
The drive was a pure pleasure.
We were just 3 of us so there was ample space to sleep in the car.except for the music the car was absolutely silent.
Mahendra has built a nice product.
Even today you don’t have a car at that price point with so much to offer.So if you are undecided about what to buy go for it. update as on 22/11/15
I now clocked about close to 10k km. the car is doing absolutely fine, however there seems to be a known problem in the infotainment system in the W6 model. It will suddenly go mute during driving before emitting a burp sound similar to the sound when u Pull out a wire from a running speaker. When I checked with the decler said it is "known problem". When I asked them why did they not replace it before customer complained, there is no response. They called me~3 weeks later and replaced it with a new part, to my utter surprise this replacement was faulty. I had to return back without the fix. Another 2 weeks later they called me again, this time the replacement worked but only for a day before the problem repeated. I am not happy with Mahendra’s dealing of the problem. The dealer was constantly engaging with me, but poor guys will have to depend on Mahendra.
So folks the car is over all good, but make sure you search the net and ask for known issues with XUV500 before buying it.
This is a small problem, I guess they will fix in some time. I would still advice if you are undecided what to buy go for the xuv it is value for money
update 31/8/15
The car has now completed 9000+ km and the quality of ride, milage And comfort is as good as it was on day 1. Excellent pickup, at 3rd gear with an rpm of > 1500 it will push you to the back of the seat when you press the accelerator peddle. It is thrill to drive it.
The cabin is silent except for the music. I would say there is no other car in this segment that gives you the quality and features at this price.
I would say if you have the budget for a small suv top end model you should atleast look at xuv500. You will definitely feel the difference . My suggestions is if you have a 15lks budget take a look at the W6 model.
update 9th April:
The cheetah has now done 5k km ready for 1st service. The experience is awesome, very smooth, fantastic accelaration even when climbing a steep slope. "Kitna dati hai?" It is an unbelieviable 14.5+ khpl unbelievable? Ya the secret is to drive at low rpm on the 6th gear at 60km/h, let the car role in neutral before it reaches the signal or where you have to stop. Use the start stop feature . So far it has been a very good experience however I am worried about the clutch feedback from other people. I will come back after I do 5k more km. my recommendation is you can go for it. First 100 km feedback:
After a lot of deliberation, discussions, email to Mr Anand and a reply from Mr Ashish(probably head of sales for Mahendra automotive division) I decided to buy the Cheetah. It was not easy for me to make that decision especially since I did not opt for any finance.
I bought the W6. So far absolutely marvelous the only difference that I find between the drive feel of my previous car a Wagon R and XUV500 is the acceleration in the 1st gear, while the Wagon R was much faster, the Xuv500 is slower, however the smoothness(I am not an auto expert) is very comparable to the Wagon R.
In the Wagon R, I used to struggle to hear the sound of the engine, sometimes I used to accidently turn the ignition starter on when the engine was running? since it was hard to hear the engine, in the XUV500 is loud and clear so mistake:)
Well I am not writing a review to compare the cat with a cheetah. So far the vehicle has been absolutely a pleasure to drive. I get a good view of the front left edge of the car that makes me feel better in control. The ride quality is good, however some time there is rush of power even if I am not pressing the accelerator not sure why, but a little strange, the steering feels feather light and the bulge on the steering make is convenient to hold it.
So far I have not checked the mileage “ kitna dati hai “ will see how it goes. But I love the drive. I will come back with a review when I am done 1000 Km.By the way the transaction at the dealer VVC motors Hyderabad was good, so far the sales guys were very responsive. When I do the first service I will let you know how they did the same.
Over all I believe Mahendra has made a great effort to fix a few problem it has with its initial launch. The good thing is that no one in the Mahendra dealership was hiding the fact that the initial few models of the vehicle has issues, (I appreciate the honesty and the courage to speak the truth) however I believe they have fixed them in the latest release. I am from the s/w industry so understand that any product/solution takes time to stabilize. Hence I hope I have the stabilized version of the product?