Mahindra XUV300 Automatic Review (FIRST DRIVE)

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Mahindra XUV300 Automatic Review: Mahindra has made its mark in the subcompact SUV segment in India with the XUV300. We say that because it ticks all the right boxes and the fact that it has been selling more than 4000 units a month ever since its launch and received over 26,000 bookings. It was also the second best-selling subcompact SUV in April 2019. The interesting part here is that the top-end W8 variant commands a lot of demand, nearly 70 percent out of the rest of the variants. But while Mahindra followed all the trends – of making a feature rich subcompact SUV with a competitive price – to make the XUV300 a hit, there was something missing. For those of you who have caught on.

Mahindra, after a few misses, has finally found its footing in this space with the XUV300. It launched this SUV with a pretty neat pair of petrol and diesel engines at the beginning of the year. Now the carmaker is set to complete its line-up with this, the automatic version. The Mahindra XUV300 Automatic uses a new six-speed AMT gearbox sourced from Marelli. In our short spin around Nasik, we came away impressed by how refined and versatile this unit was. A big departure from the five-speed unit from the TUV300.

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Mahindra XUV300 Automatic Review

We drove the Mahindra XUV300 AMT paired with its 1.5 four-cylinder turbocharged diesel unit. The firm hasn’t made any changes to the motor and it continues with its 117PS at 3,750 rpm and 300 Nm between 1,500 rpm to 2,500 rpm. If anything, the throttle response seemed a bit keener than what we remember.

At low city speeds, the gearbox chooses gears intelligently, always keeping the engine in the meat of its powerband. The built-in creep function holds a steady 9-10 kmph which then works as a hill-descent feature on slopes. But we’d suggest not relying on this entirely, given that on lesser inclines, the engine overcomes this resistance and starts moving the SUV forward.

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