With Mahindra’s Pik Up utility making waves, the distributor thought it a good idea to remind us about the Pik Up’s more civilised cousin – the seven-seat XUV500 SUV.
It just so happened that an XUV needed to come up from one of Mahindra’s most enthusiastic dealerships – Morrison Cars in Christchurch – to a rendezvous at Cambridge, before Mahindra’s big relaunch at the end of March.
After an hour and a half flight and a 20-minute magical Mahindra tour, I was given the keys to a silver XUV500 W6 model, instructions on how to leave town and bid a bonny farewell.
The long straights out of town gave me a good opportunity to check out the XUV’s finer points.
Sophisticated electronic aids such as a tyre pressure monitoring system, easy-to-link Bluetoothery, voice command, one touch cruise control, hill descent control and a pleasantly operable centre stack with aircon controls tucked in under the audio controllers, are all part of the in-cockpit package.
These are in turn, below an inset display screen. It lacks pretty colours, but it tells you what you need to know, without glare. There’s also a chilled centre box, which I should have paid more attention to.
I found a remarkable amount of space in the back of the Mahindra. Good leg and headroom, plenty of seat support and unlike many so-called full-size SUVs, big rear windows to minimise ‘technicolour yawns’ brought on by too much fizz and not enough view.
Since the XUV is a family getaway weekend vehicle, the Kaikoura Coast road seemed an appropriate route north, and by around mid-morning, the Mahindra’s aircon was going full out to keep me from being a molten puddle on the cloth trim.
The engine – a 2.2-litre mHawk petrol with 103kW and 320Nm of torque to play with – wasn’t even breathing hard, let alone sweating.
I was mindful of the front wheel drive’s skittish nature on broken road surfaces. The consistent lack of body roll from the monocoque chassis though, outweighs momentary traction flutters.
The six-speed automatic is brilliantly matched to the engine, and I made better time than I thought to the Interislander, which was OK as the docksiders were curious as to what the Mahindra was.
At Otaki and on the wrong side of midnight, I decided to refuel the SUV and recharge the driver.
The Mahindra’s fuel computer reads in km per litre, not the other way around and recomputed, I was getting a solid 9.8 litres per 100km, better than I can get out of a diesel double cab ute and I can carry more in the Mahindra.
Otaki’s not known for its late-night accommodations, so I improvised, parking the Mahindra up in a side street for the night.
The true test of an SUV’s comfort? A sleepover! I dropped the seats, cracked open a window and was good for about six hours of shuteye, waking up as fresh as a daisy – a daisy needing a shower and shave admittedly, but otherwise good to go.
On home turf now, I was comfortable cruising my way up and made it to my changeover just on midday and a half – 22 hours drive time from Christchurch to Cambridge.
So ended my mile munching Mahindra run and to say I’m impressed with the vehicle is an understatement. In value for money stakes, its hard to go past the amount of SUV you get for $30k and if this is the quality we can expect as a baseline indicator, Mahindra has a very bright feature in New Zealand.
