Now a few things I have to be clear about before you dwell deeper into this review. First, the car I will be talking about here is going to be the 1.5-litre diesel because Mahindra made us experience that particular vehicle only. The second, any review is not complete without the price and us telling you the cars price and if you should consider buying the car or not. The price of the XUV300 has not been announced yet and the Mahindra has said that it will be priced similarly to its competition. Phew! Now we are ready to start.
The XUV300! The name is bang on (hope the price is too). I’ll get to the design in a minute, but let’s just talk about the name and what the car means. For the past few years, we have been seeing and experiencing the Mahindra XUV500 and the image of that car is now very clear in my mind. We think of space, the cheetah-inspired front and a feature loaded cabin when we think of the XUV500. So on paper now that is all true about the XUV300 too. It is an SUV(which for Indians translates to more space than a hatchback), it’s got the similar and cool XUV500 fascia and a barrage of segment first features which I will explain in depth further. So does this combination come together and make a car that can go and do battle with the Maruti Vitara Brezza, Ford EcoSport, Tata Nexon and the Honda WRV? Let’s talk about specifications.
The Mahindra XUV300 comes with two engine options, both of which are only available with a 6-speed manual gearbox. There is a 1.2-litre, 4-cylinder petrol engine that makes 110bhp and 200Nm of torque and the 1.5-litre, 4-cylinder diesel that makes 115bhp and 300Nm of torque. Now there is no automatic on offer and Mahindra said that getting an automatic gearbox soon will be a priority. The monocoque suspension setup includes a McPherson Strut with Anti-roll bars at the front and a Twist beam with coil springs at the rear. The tyre size is 215/55 R17 with Alloy wheels and a full-size spare wheel with a steel rim. Now the base variants will not get the big wheels.
