Mahindra XUV500 bookings to reopen on January 2012

Mahindra has officially announced that bookings for the XUV500 will reopen in January 2012. There are expectations that the company may increase the price of the XUV500 slightly.

In October 2011, Mahindra stopped the booking for the XUV500 as it had a huge backlog of 8,000 vehicles to be delivered already due to the unprecedented demand the XUV roped in just a week after its launch. This is a phenomenal response considering the XUV500 is a SUV priced in the range Rs. 10 – 13 lakh.

Mahindra delivered 3,355 units of XUV500 during the September 2011 – November 2011 period. The company is taking measures to ramp up their production capacity to speed up deliveries. So what makes the XUV500 such an attractive buy? Let’s find out.

Exciting features

The XUV500 packs in loads of features at an attractive price and is hence more ‘value for money’ than its competitors like the Toyota Innova and Tata Aria. Many features available in the XUV500 are not even offered in premium SUVs such as the Toyota Fortuner and Ford Endeavour.

The XUV500 W8 variant has safety features such as six airbags, electronic stability program (ESP), hill-hold control and hill-descent control. The XUV500 offers a long list of convenience and comfort features. The base variant has quite a bit to offer as well, such as an integrated CD system with USB and Bluetooth connectivity and steering audio controls, cruise control and voice command for stereo.

LED parking lamps and static bending lights (that are activated to see around corners) are not offered by any of its rivals. Rain-sensing wipers, light-sensing automatic headlamps and follow-me home headlamps are some of the other features unique to the XUV500.

Aggressive pricing

The XUV500 was expected to be priced in the Rs. 14 lakh – 16 lakh bracket, but to everyone’s delight, Mahindra had announced that the XUV500 would be available in the Rs. 10 – 13 lakh range which was well below the expected price. Even the fully loaded W8 AWD variant is priced at Rs. 12.88 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi). The Tata Aria 4×4 Pride offers some of these features at Rs. 15.84 lakh, at least Rs. 3 lakh more than the most expensive XUV500.