BBC Top Gear India – July 2019

(singke) #1

July I 2019


Mahindra XUV300 AMT


10 lakh (estimated)


WE SAY: AUTOMATED
CONVENIENCE FOR THE
SMALL SUV

Samarpan Bhomik

W


who drives in a city would love the
convenience of not having to change
gears every two seconds. But remember,
this ’box too, has the inherent ‘head-nod’.
It’s something that is apparent from
the moment you set off. We tried two
different approaches – gentle cruising and
urgent sprint. To be fair, it’s only apparent
when you’re in the lower gears, from
one-two, two-three and three-four. The
transition from fourth to fifth and fifth to
sixth is quite imperceptible. A small price
to pay for having your left foot free.
The AMT ’box works quite well. It
shifts up early enough to ensure the
fuel bills don’t go through the roof and
when you do need some urgent power
for overtaking moves and the like, in
kickdown, the AMT will drop down a
couple of gears and make sure you get
enough grunt for a burst of acceleration.
There’s just one grouse about the
functionality here. While the AMT lever
design with no gates is interesting, we
ended up glancing at the instruments
every time we needed to engage reverse or
neutral, just to be sure.
Everything else is par for the course.
The ride is absorbent albeit a little on the
softer side, not entirely unwelcome on
our broken roads, although it does feel
ever so slightly floaty on the highway at
three-digit speeds. But the handling is
pretty decent, especially compared to
some of the larger Mahindras.
We also went off the road, onto some
uneven territory for the sake of a Texas-
like backdrop and the XUV 300 managed

fine. There were especially some concerns
about the hill-hold function which we
made a point to check and are happy to
report that it works absolutely fine.
The space is ample and it’s
comfortable in the neatly designed
and well-equipped cabin. Noteworthy
mention is how well Apple CarPlay works,
especially given that we’ve been in a fair
number of segment rivals where it isn’t
exactly smooth.
Mahindra knows it needs to keep
things fresh in this hotly contested
segment. While the AMT is a good card up
its sleeve, the ace would be in the pricing.

PHOTOGRAPHY


: PARAG PARELKAR


CarPlay functionality on
the XUV300 is spot on

e’ve driven the manual
transmission XUV 300 before
and now, with rivals such
as Hyundai also entering
the compact SUV fray, Mahindra has
launched the AMT version. It’s an attempt
to add convenience to what is a decent
product from the Indian manufacturer’s
stables, and for the most part, works.
While the manual XUV 300 ’s drive
didn’t involve too much open highway
action, this time, the carmaker had
organised the drive in Nashik with easy
access to a national highway and well
paved backways with some gorgeous
landscape around.
Let’s get straight to the point. The
AMT gearbox. Of course, anybody

Pretty good functionality
from the AMT ’box here

VERDICT: Added
convenience for the
competitive compact
SUV should work well.

Four-cyl, 1.5-litre turbo-diesel, 115bhp,
300Nm, 6-speed Automated Manual
LxWxH: 3999x1820x1620mm,
Ground clearance: 185mm
Tyre size: 215/55 R17 (alloys)

SPECIFICATION


7
10

L-W-H

014 JULY 2019 → TOPGEAR.COM

Free download pdf