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AFTER taking the Mahindra XUV500 for an extensive spin around the island, it’s easy to see why motorists in India go crazy for the marque and why the sub-continent’s natives in the kingdom have been champing at the bit for it to arrive on sale here.
The Indian carmaker has finally started to export its vehicles to the kingdom, as highlighted last week in GulfWeekly, after striking an exclusive partnership with dealers Mohammed Jalal & Sons following more than 20 years of negotiations.
And, as one of the first journalists in the kingdom to take the new Mahindra XUV500 out, it proved to be a fine piece of engineering, with a sleek chassis that has both family friendly curves and sporty edges for the favoured faster look.
There are no shortcomings here, with high quality materials the order of the day.
This translates to the interior too, and no more so than the finely-stitched leather seats. Having sustained a severe hip injury the night before during a football match, a comfortable chair to settle into was exactly what I needed.
Aside from this, panelling on the doors and sturdy dashboard buttons create a feeling of luxury, although the ‘old style’ gear stick could perhaps have been afforded a modern update and been less fiddly.
Although it doesn’t look like the biggest SUV you’ve ever seen from the outside, once you’re sat in the car there is an abundance of room for passengers in the back, and the car has the capacity for seven seats with fold-out seats in the boot.
On the road, its size does make you feel considerably safe should something untoward happen.
Despite looking like it would handle like a whale, the XUV500 is surprisingly smooth. It has a small turning circle, perfect for the tight streets of Hoora around the GulfWeekly offices, and has good traction around corners.
The steering has some give in it, which I always prefer to those loose vehicles which you can drive with your little finger. The engine doesn’t pull up any trees, but it’s enough to get the beast purring and moving along.
The six-speed transmission runs smoothly, too, and I particularly liked the design interface behind the steering wheel which showed you speed and gear information prominently within a glass bubble.
Driving the car is only half of the event these days with the amount of infotainment features available in the modern vehicle, and the XUV500 is no different. I must have spent a good half-an-hour in the Khamis showroom’s car park having a fiddle with the various options, which included plotting a course to the office with the navigation system, plugging my iPod into the music system with my USB, then adjusting the wide variety of sound options to get the best out of the beefy speakers.
Using the touch screen, which also features Bluetooth, AUX, AM/FM radio and in-car call networking, I was able to bring some life to the roads with some bass-fuelled beats.
Overall, the Mahindra XUV500 is a fine SUV indeed, and should go a long way to satiating the appetite of the Indian community who have been hungry for one of their favourite marques to arrive for a while. It’s certainly impressed me, having never sampled Indian engineering before. Two thumbs up!
The Mahindra XUV500 starts at BD7,200. For more information or to arrange a test drive, call 17730802 or 17252606, or visit the Mohammed Jalal & Sons showroom in Khamis.
