The XUV Factor

With the XUV700, Mahindra set out to make a killer SUV at a great price. Has it succeeded?

- Pablo Chaterji

“Appa! Don’t go fast, this is not a plane and you’re not on a flight!’ When a small child’s voice yelled this at me, preceded by a loud warning chime, I am not exaggerating when I say I jumped out of my seat; only the seat belt prevented me from making further progress towards the roof. I knew that Mahindra, in the lead up to the XUV700’s launch, had teased a bunch of its new SUV’s features, and that a speed-limit warning in a loved one’s voice was one of the options. I was, however, completely unprepared for an irate preschooler to be admonishing me once I hit 120 kph, and I daresay that I would have preferred a good old repetitive beep, however annoying. Still, I can see this feature being effective – imagine recording a friend swearing at you to slow down – just as long as you know what’s coming once that needle goes north of 120.

And trust me, the needle will go north of 120 very easily (and often) if you’re at the wheel of the petrol-powered XUV700. The 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo-petrol puts out a thrilling 197 bhp at 5000 rpm and 38.75 kgm at 1750-3000 rpm, and it is an absolute firecracker of a power plant. As soon as I started the XUV up and peeled into the convoy heading to Mahindra’s newly-built proving grounds outside of Chennai, I knew it was going to be a fun drive – the engine felt eager straight out of the blocks, and was asking for its legs to be stretched, even as it was happy to glide along at 60 kph and below. It’s difficult to flog a car when you’re in a convoy (an enormous one, to boot), and some crowded sections on the roads leading to the facility meant that I was able to see how the XUV behaved when not on the boil.