I have been self-driving this (7-seater auto transmission, petrol, luxury version) beast for over a year, with 15000+ km on the odometer now. While the engine performance and comfort levels are unmatched compared to more luxurious brands, it lacks on a few fronts. Let's discuss the issues one by one.
1. The major turn down is the fuel economy. In busy city traffic if you let the engine on for a couple of minutes one can see the drive range dropping rapidly. I know it has an auto-stop-start feature to save fuel, but often it's a nuisance rather than a convenience, so I have to turn the feature off. The feature when turned on kicks in each time you apply the brake on slow-moving traffic - that's a nuisance to me. I don't understand how one can save fuel with so many stops and starts of the engine.
2(a). Noise levels keep rising with use. It has a powerful microphone for hands-free calls/ voice commands, but the in-cabin noise levels would easily annoy the person on the other end of a call. The door pads, the dashboard, the roof padding and everything else would constantly scream at you to send the vehicle to the workshop for a fix. But believe me, doing so would only worsen the issue (attempts to open and reinstall the paddings would only loosen the plastic clips and produce more noise subsequently).
2(b). Exterior noise - Often you would hear something banging against the body. The brake sometimes would produce sounds similar to a 10T goods carrier truck. (My friends would say; has Mahindra put their truck engine in the SUV? - on a lighter note of course ;)
For another type of noise, the servicemen spent two clueless days but couldn't identify the source of it. Later, I discovered, that on a semi-filled fuel tank, the fuel would roll and bang against the tank wall to produce a thud-like noise while braking. No fix for that yet :(
3. Air Conditioner - Cooling effect not so great. On a hot summer day, if you are on a short trip within the city, passengers in the middle row would curse you for suffocating them in your loved car, as it would take long to bring the cabin temperature down.
4. Hi-Beam - If you keep the headlight switch on Auto mode, strangely, it would auto switch to high-beam only if it detects some animal but not pedestrians or any parked/moving vehicle in the front. Some might argue it's animal friendly, but how about human friendliness?
5. Instrument controls - Many of the features available on cheaper cars are missing in the XUV700.
For example, the option to unlock, only the driver-side door from the inside is unavailable. At busy marketplaces, unlocking all the doors at once can be unsafe; especially for lady drivers or valuables in the rear seat.
The lane change indicator flashes for 3 times only and there's no way you can customise it. Before other drivers could notice, the flash would go off. I think that's quite a safety issue to address.
6. Patchy software - The infotainment system often dies on you with a blank screen saver. A few YouTube videos suggest switching off the engine for a few minutes to fix it, but that seldom works. The alternate method these videos suggest is to disconnect the battery briefly, but that's not feasible for many or each time.
The touchscreen response is too sluggish, which will test your patience every time.
7. Alexa - Often you would hear it saying "SORRY, SOMETHING WENT WRONG"
8. Connectivity - Mahindra has a tie-up with VI for 5G connectivity, but even in 5G-enabled city areas, Alexa wouldn't respond and whimsically prompt that "THE INTERNET ISN'T REACHABLE".
I have a long list to draw attention to, but it seems this review section has some word limits.