The Mahindra KUV is a well-intentioned foray into small cars by the manufacturer. Intentions and results however, are quite different things
When the Mahindra KUV was launched, the executives of the company were quite excited and believed that the car would be a huge success and the first few months, it did make a slight dent in sales. Mahindra’s intention was quite clear — There is a demand for raised “sports utility vehicle” looking small cars and their experience in utility vehicles was going to hold them in good stead.
There is one simple problem though, this is not an SUV. Yes, it is a raised and aggressive-looking small car which ticks all the boxes of being a “faux” SUV but it is a small car on stilts. While I am not a particular fan of SUVs — not just because the only “utility” they possess is to sit high off the ground — your high school physics and understanding of the basic concept of the “centre of gravity” will tell you that SUVs are often quite horrible to drive. If you must have an SUV for reasons other than portraying an inflated sense of self, make sure it is because you like to get dirty in the mud and slush.
But large SUVs are protected by their mass
and longer wheelbase when you take them into a
corner. The KUV’s odd stance, however, leads to almost no confidence when you take this car into a corner. But handling is not the worst thing about the KUV, nope the mHawk 75 engine that came equipped in the car, is possibly the thing I hated the most.
let me start like this, most cars have optimistic speedometers. Those of us who grew up driving an old Maruti 800 at one point of time noticed the speedo went up to 160. If you could get a Maruti up to 110 after a stupendously long run-up, you would consider yourself lucky, any faster and the body felt like it would want to come apart. I think 90 km per hour is the national speed limit because that is how fast a Maruti 800 could safely go. But the KUV has an optimistic rev-counter. Which goes past 4000. If you can make the car much higher than 3500, it would be an achievement. And hitting the maximum was like banging into a wall, there is the frustration of wanting more from this car.
One fellow automotive journalist told me that the car was “a good first attempt.” I had to disagree with him because we do not live in the 1980s and 1990s anymore. Because even inside, the car does not make it up to scratch. The sound system speakers are mediocre and the seat fabrics and plastics seem a bit on the lower-end of the scale. And because the KUV is designed as a car to seat six, the handbrake is located on the centre console as is the gear lever. It is really not ergonomic or really comfortable to drive as a result.
Of course, people then talk of the price. The KUV gives a good deal at a cheap price. But does itIJ The top-end K8 version that we were driving has an ex-showroom price of Rs 7.05 lakh. The Suzuki Baleno Delta model, which compares favourably with this spec, costs three thousand rupees less. Make no mistakes, this car has a market at the lower-end of the demand chain, it is just that one doesn’t know how long the market will be there.