Mahindra XUV700 - The Rough Rider

We put the newly launched Mahindra SUV through a 1,000 km road test, and it more than excelled in every department

- Afzal Rawuther

In the six months since its launch, the Mahindra XUV700 has established itself as an incredibly good SUV in the Rs 12-25 lakh price range. Reviews have been fulsome, and customers are queuing up. The waiting period for the XUV700 now stretches beyond a year. Despite the long wait, orders are still pouring in. Mahindra has received more than 1,00,000 bookings, and has only been able to deliver around 14,000 units so far. The waiting time for the range topping AX7 is an outlandish 84 weeks at the time of writing this article.

So what is so great about the XUV 700? I recently took a 1,000km road trip from Pune to Goa and back in the top-of-the line AX7 diesel with the luxury pack to find the answer. The length of the drive gave us a better understanding of what makes Mahindra's latest SUV so special.

When images of the XUV700 first leaked, auto enthusiasts were not too pleased with its looks. Much of the talk was around its 'disproportionate' body shape. But it turned out to be a false alarm. When everyone got a chance to see the vehicle, they realised that the leaked images were taken from bad angles.

At first glance, the SUV has the feel of a refined and updated version of the XUV500. Some of the latter's features like the oddly shaped door handles, the creases around the wheel arches, and the contours on the bodywork have disappeared in favour of a streamlined, muscular shape and pop-out door handles. The butch grille with vertical bars is integrated well with the headlamps and the DRLS.

Looks-wise, the XUV700 might not match with some of its more expensive rivals, but it is a design aesthete that most people would appreciate for the price they are paying. Moreover, history tells us that a vehicle that is as big and imposing usually does well with Indian consumers.