Part 1/3 My First Car as Mahindra 3xO 2024

Requirements

• Should have a good safety rating and record
• Should have automatic transmission to face Bangalore traffic as well as traffic in ghats for road trips
• Should have headroom space for 6’1 height in all seats
• Should have a cabin insulation and lower NVH levels
• High-speed stability and ground clearance to drive around the Tier1 Pothole City
• On-road price should not cross 15 Lakh INR for on Road in Bangalore no hard limit though if tempted ( excluding accessories )

MG and VW

I liked the road presence and looks of Astor but the fuel efficiency and the service availability across India ruled it out , same for Virtus fuel efficiency and seeing the roads and traffic in bangalore would not justify what the car is made for

Toyota

• No options fitting the criteria , evaluated Fronx instead of Taisor

Tata

Have friends that own nexon and the unique problems it get into is an example of its kind every time , plus the A pillar was too big of blind spot and bucket seats for driver didn’t felt comfortable for long drives

Maruti Suzuki

• XL6 Good option but brother declared it as Taxi class vehicle

• Grand Vitara checked all the boxes but surprisingly the boot space was more then required but leg room space for middle passenger in back and middle bump was too big that couldn’t even move leg across from one side to another

• Brezza Automatic in Bangalore had way too much tax not making for it pros
• Fronx was one of options i test drove again before going to final booking for mahindra but same height restriction in the back seat for tall people and interior felt too light after getting the taste of 3xo

Getting a Test Drive of Punch EV LR

I tried booking through their site , does not work page just refresh and never confirms

• Tried calling 5 days prior for booking followed up every day, on the day of appointment being told 1 hour before not possible I tried using there in website bot , does not work at all was not even able to login

Tweet : https://x.com/Tataev/status/1806966481994776797

• Social media worked , one mail chain and got a test drive for Punch EV LR

Pros

• The Ride comfort in front seats , armrest on both the sides for driver
• Performance in the Sports mode , drove 0-120 was just awesome
• Camera Integreation and views avaialble and soft touch buttons for essential feature on console is huge advantage
• Build quality and visibility compared to nexon
• Ground Clearance and cabin NVH levels

Cons

• Leg space available in back seat for tall person , not the right fit for me
• Sunroof motor placement in roof has big bump in the roof for rear passenger if 3 people are sitting

• Feedback and intutiveness of the gear selector dial is poor
• Frunk Installation is add-on
• Plastic near wireless charger can be improved
• Horn volume and sensitivty is dead at corners and need to pressed in middle
• Tata service and dealership experience right from first contact of pricing and test drive was not good and hearing about incidents from colleagues

Honda

• Honda amaze was my choice checked all the boxes but interior in 2022 model looked outdated rest the engine refinment and everything is simply amazing engine

  

• Honda City , Honda amaze driver seat felt more comfortable
• Elevate , Big car but interior did not felt spacy for the price but good option AMT version did exceed budget considering the tax differerne in Karntaka

Hyundai

• Venue , back seat passenger leg room space was less rest car is a good option
• Creta Automatic crossed the spend threshold

Kia

Kia Sonnet was in competition with 3xo in terms of pricing headspace , legroom and feature offering but the NVH levels of engine made the vechile feel sporty with a character but at same time the noise levels was something i wanted as minimal as possible to make daily commute and traffic jams more bearable and the lack of safety rating ruled it out

Winner : Mahindra

Getting a Test Drive on Xuv 3xo

Tried booking through there website , worked flawlessly , got a person assigned on the day of booking being told to postpone for a day but got the test drive on time , and car slowly started checking all my boxes with 100s of YouTube videos reviews , my own experience previous generation 300 reviews and 3xo engineering presentation at launch presentation was something i as person appreciated more when buying a product rather then showing marketing keywords with no numbers in a launch Took 3 drives at Different showrooms across bangalore all automatic and all MX3 pro or AX5 variants

Note to Mahindra on Test Drives

Know your audience in the test drive and what they are looking for , the car has personality for both smooth silent and comfortable city rides which can handles all the bumps and potholes with ease at same time it has the SUV characters in its DNA to jump on places where there are no proper roads and high speed fun, so the person giving demo should consider this while giving demo rides and accordingly set the zip,zap,zoom mode so the rides are what the person is looking for as in one of my test rides the ride was so bumpy and with hard braking and start pushes the drive didn’t feel comfortable as the demo was set in zoom mood and when i got the car which almost made me doubt the comfort factor of the car

Dealership Experience

Dealership experience was good at all 3 Showrooms be it follow ups and test drive availability for cars and the sales representative knowledge of the vehicle ( better than Nexa and Kia and Honda )

Finally booked my Car on 28 July 2024 at Anant Cars Mahindra Bangalore

..Continued in part 2/3