Oct 28, 2010 05:08 PM
16835 Views
You can trust Mahindra & Mahindra to keep a secret for too long, to keep its competition guessing, to put to slog over 500 Engineers, to build several prototypes & to invest 4 years & Rs. 500 Crores on a project that Mahindra & Mahindra wanted to take a fair share from what the Hard-working Japanese were enjoying. Yes indeed it is the Mahindra Xylo. The Indian Auto scenario is like an African National Park. Predators are the Automobile manufacturers, Scavengers are its dealers and guess who the prey is?., No marks for guessing - It is we the Consumers(or) Customers:- the most gullible ones. Yes very often too, we fall prey to that superb advertisements(or) commercials that creative ad agencies churn out. It is our Indian mentality to keep making queries at petrol pumps, signals etc. mostly about fuel efficiency. It is ironical that most of us would shell out close to 10 lakhs merely on somebody's recommendation of the product than actually having tried it. Enough of my boring piece of criticism. Now to the subject straight away.
I had somehow coughed up some money to buy a second Bolero( I already own a 2007 DI Bolero). The purpose of me eying a second MUV was the first Bolero was put to constant use by my staff & whenever I needed the MUV, it was busy at work. Last October 2009 I walked into India Garage on St. Marks Road - Bangalore, and as usual was greeted by some charming young women & was offered an aromatic cup of coffee. I was prejudistic with my choice of color & model of the Bolero I was about to book & I politely refused a test drive offer.
One charming girl with a pretty voice sprung up to me & insisted that I test drive the recently launched Xylo. She convinced me that a couple of lakhs more is all I need to invest & she even optimistically told me that I would not regret the decision to change over to a Xylo. Initially the Xylos oddball looks did not attract me to it. The sales girl then forced me to sit inside & feel it. I was dumbstuck by the large interior & taken aback by the broad, comfortable seats and suprising tit-bits like foldable flight trays, theatrical style lighting, awesome third row seating & clever driver ergonomics. I literally had to climb over through the side step aluminium ladder to fit myself into the seats. That very moment was convincing enough and I decided to not look at the Bolero on display through the Volvo bus like huge glass of the Xylo.
The Xylo is feature packed( E8) version and came in a lot of colors both striking & sober. The array of innovative features on the offing would put a top end Toyota Innova to shame. Some very interesting tit-bits were:- The Middle Information Display(MID) which digitally showed Speed, Clock, Fuel to empty, Relativ Humidity, Inside temp & outside temp, Gear indicator, Malfunction warning, setbelt warning, engine overspeed warning, average fuel consumed, average distance covered and blah.blah.blah.
Something I never expected out of a M&M product. For the first time in history M&M got its instrument cluster back lighting to look neat & I switched on the parking light to find an array of orange lights glowing all over the dash board & I almost felt like I was inside the Cockpit of an Airbus 320. The dashboard is actually cheap but has a very rich feel. All the seats folded down neatly and the passenger side seats turn into an awesome flat bed. The flat bed is a boon on long journeys. The cabin is voluminous & the transmission shaft does not intrude into the passenger bay, resulting in a fully flat foor, a very comfortable place to rest your otherwise tired feet. The space inside is bigger than in that of a landcruiser. It is almost like a single bedroom house once inside.
Phew, I am beginning to get thirsty & will reach out of that cold can of beer. I will be back after that beer and continue. till then cheers!
