Review : Mahindra TUV 3oo
Truth be told, as much as I tried not to, I ended up seeing the TV commercial before Mahindra sent me the vehicle. Yes, I had judged the vehicle already. But I was in for a surprise when I finally received the vehicle last week.
It has been a journey.
As a part of my job description I have kept for myself, I took the TUV 3oo to cramped city roads, hardcore shopping zones with tight parking spots, National Highways, Highways with bad roads and places with no roads in search of an answer for the most challenging question — “Is the TUV 3oo worth the money?”.
Read on as I find out.
The Looks
The TUV 3oo looks big, intimidating and boxy. It will remind you of a lot of cars — the Jeep’s front grille, Hummer’s rear, Evoque’s wrap headlamp and all that. Mahindra claims that the inspiration for such a design came from a battle tank. It quite syncs well in one way or the other.
But trust me about this — it looks way better in skin than in pictures. There’s something off with the TV ads and promotional pictures. It’s not because they look rendered, it’s similar to that feeling when you feel different when you head out without wearing a watch which you almost always have on.
On the outlook, the TUV’s design opinions are polarized. You either love it or hate it. But if you give it a chance, see it in flesh, take a drive, your opinions might change. It is a tall boy, certainly looks the biggest amongst all other sub 4m compact SUVs, wide and also heavy.
The front looks the most intimidating with the large Jeep grille accompanied by unusually large headlamps on the sides. The front bumper houses a horizontal air-dam and a pair of square fog lamps which do not fit into the theme the best. Wheels are pushed to both extremes to give it a long wheel base and very short front and rear over-hangs. It’s probably one of the first cars to have the A, B and C pillars inclined at almost the same angles. The large windows are typical Mahindra. The side profile also a sees a straight shoulder line and rectangular wheel arches. The rear reminds you of the Quanto on the first look thanks to the foot step and the mounted spare wheel.
There are some typical Mahindra issues though — fit and finish, panel gaps and flushness, etc. You can find the headlamp jutting out and not in line with the front bumper, panel gets between the doors and the structures, window beeding, etc.
But, above everything else. This is probably the first Mahindra that grows on you.
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Doors Open
The first thing you realize when you get in is the high floor just just like the XUV 5oo. If I have to sum up the TUV 3oo’s interiors in one word, it’d have to be ‘Refreshing’. The dashboard is very neatly spaced out and organized. There’s a beige and black dual tone design theme running around. The interiors can certainly spoof you into thinking that the TUV is actually a big vehicle, when it is not.
It borrows the steering wheel and instrument cluster from the XUV 5oo. Therefore, from a driver’s point of view alone, it’d seem like you are actually driving the superior SUV.
The centre console houses a 5 inch display with buttons around. Mahindra removes CD players from the list and this infotainment systems offers only radio, USB, AUX and Bluetooth connectivity — but that’s good enough for today’s requirements. The USB and AUX inputs are thoughtfully placed below the music system to avoid wires running through the length. On the downside, the steering mount controls do not let you make calls, but only receive or end them. The driver has to stretch to reach the telephone button and click the dials to make a call.
The SUV gets a lot of utility space around the vehicle — bottle holders on each door, cell phone and card holders next to the gear lever, some space on top of the dashboard to keep some lose change and what not.
In fact, the front seats are a great place to be as they are wide and offer good amount of thigh support. The seats also come with driver and co-driver arm rest to make the long drives comfortable. The rear seats are comfortable for young adults but not for someone taller than 6’ 2”.
Though there is a 3rd row, I would still consider the TUV a 5 seater as it does not get seat belts for the Jump seats. That being said, they are also not that comfortable with very low back rest and lack of knee room for two people sitting opposite each other. Two more reasons for it to be uncomfortable are because there are no rear AC vents and this row only gets butterfly windows which open to a max of 20 degrees.
On the down side, though Mahindra offers power windows, the switches are placed next to the Parking Brake (like the Verito) making it inconvenient. The fact that they do not come with an Auto-Up/Down even for the driver side is disappointing. Also, the telephone functions on the infotainment system are not within an arm’s reach for a driver.
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Living with the car
Turn the key and the 1.5L 3 cylinder diesel engine starts with the typical Mahindra rumble. The noise is quite on the loud side, but that again, be it intentional or not falls under the true-blue SUV’s ‘rugged’ reputation. However, the in-cabin vibration is surprisingly very low. In other Mahindras, one can feel the vibration almost everywhere — pedals, steering wheel, switches, gear knobs, etc. But here, I could predominantly feel the vibration only with the gear knob.
Slot it in 1st gear and give a throttle a push, you can feel this 2 tonne SUV darting forward. It’s something you have to get used to, but this is in fact great stuff. This engine gets a double turbo arrangement and it works in such a way that you get close to 180 Nm of the rated 230 Nm of torque (that’s 80%) at very low engine RPMs. You can feel the significant difference the best when you drive another small car.
To me, the TUV 3oo is a true blue SUV for 4 major reasons:
Rear Wheel Drive Configuration
Exactly 3 sub 4m compact SUVs have seen a RWD configuration — Mahindra’s Quanto, Premier Rio and now the TUV. All other compact SUVs — the EcoSport, Duster, Terrano and the Creta are Front Wheel Driven
Body on Frame Chassis
Unlike other Monocoques like it’s competition, the TUV has a body on frame chassis. This improves it’s bad road handling capabilities pretty well. But increases weight.
Hydraulic Steering
Makes the steering heavier but improves steering and driving feedback significantly.
It’s a Mahindra
Mahindra has been in the SUV business for decades. We are talking about a company that sells the Bolero — India’s most sold SUV. They surely know a thing or two about making one.
But, beyond all the toughness, it is actually surprising how city friendly the SUV is. You can make it fit between gaps without touching the ORVMs of cars coming from the opposite lane. It’s pretty amazing how the car masks itself as a big SUV when it’s actually just a compact SUV doing it’s job. What makes driving this car significantly easier is the light clutch that engages easily and a gearbox that snugs into gears quick. If you opt in for the AMT, that would change a lot of things here.
The hydraulic steering offers very good road feedback and works pretty well for the driver. It is on the heavier side and requires a bit more effort to make those U-turns. I should also mention the good suspension set up the TUV comes with. It’s got the right balance between soft and firm. It eats up speed bumps like it munches popcorn but at the same time, remains fairly stable at triple digit speeds. Surprisingly, I couldn’t hear the suspension squeaks that you can find in all Mahindras including the XUV 5oo. But, I guess it would have to be time-tested.
For the 2 tonnes it weighs, the TUV does a decent job of braking only if you give the pedal some brute force with your right leg. It’s certainly an area of improvement for this vehicle apart from a couple of others.
Mahindra also offers an ECO driving mode which remaps the engine with a focus on fuel economy only. This completely limits the torque burst and the acceleration thereby killing the enthusiasm it regularly offers. My suggestion would be to switch this on when you are doing consistent stable speeds only.
The car does come with some very annoying issues. You can’t operate the gear knob easily with the driver armrest down and the reverse sensor sound cuts off the music system and gives out a very loud and annoying pattern of sound (like a bomb detector inching towards the bomb) to indicate the distance between the car and the obstacle. Agreed, you can say it’s all about safety, but there are other cars that manage to do so without switching off the music.
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The Verdict
The TUV is a fresh take on the whole compact SUV scene in India. In a way, it strips all its competitors from the SUV tag. But, is it the car for you? It’s quite a package and is the only compact ‘SUV’ to offer an AMT box.
But, I feel the TUV takes a very niche space in the already segmented compact SUV market. It is THE perfect car for a person who understands what ‘SUV’ means, is all in for what the vehicle offers as there are more comfortable and more city friendly cars like the EcoSport and Duster and above everything, loves the way it looks.
Weirdly, I liked driving it more than I liked the EcoSport or the Duster. If I’m hunting for a compact SUV, it ticks all my boxes — comfort, high ride, torque, features and 3rd row seats. I have grown to like the way it looks too.
On a rational decision alone, there’s no reason for me to not buy it. CarMatch can help me with the best cars too. But on an emotional decision, I would have to ask myself if I want to buy a Mahindra.
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- Images by Arvind Ramanathan
