Today, the sales manager from india-garage in Bangalore called right at the appointed time, asking if he can come over and give me a test drive. He came to my office with a parrot green Xylo. Below is my cursory experience:
As soon as I entered and sat on the driver’s seat, I could see that the dash board and the door looked plastic. It seemed as though the vehicle came out of the manufacturer’s assembly line in a hurry. There was no refinement in the vehicle to make anyone think it is a standard product. The plastic edges seemed unpolished and tacky.
Once I turned around, the vehicle seemed spacious. It was an E8 model with pilot seats in the middle row (which means there are 2 bucket seats instead of the standard row seat for three persons). The sales rep said that the 3 seater in middle row was optional at no extra cost.
I powered on the engine and started to drive and I must say I was very impressed by the pickup of the vehicle. The test drive vehicle had clocked 26000 kilometers and still I felt it was brand new. The vehicle sprang up and for a moment I felt I was driving a petrol vehicle and not a diesel one. I had read the vehicle specifications and had learnt that the Xylo has a much higher power at a much lower rpm when compared to the Innova and I got the proof for it today :)
I was surprised at the number of features packed into this vehicle for the price tag offered. There was this intelligent display which showed the mileage as well as the distance that can be covered with the remaining fuel. Dual ACs were a must for me for the back seat passengers. They threw in a laptop charger point for the middle row, aux in for the CD player, electric adjustable rear view mirror, impact warning signal when taking a reverse etc etc.
The only only drawback of this great vehicle is its looks, particularly the read end. The rear end looks heavy, uninteresting and sluggish. I got a feel as though I was looking at a truck :(. But I applied a simple logic - if am sitting inside the vehicle to drive, I wont have to look at my own car :)
All in all, this vehicle was a charm. I made up my mind to go for it :)