Mahindra Quanto review, test drive

With the Quanto, Mahindra & Mahindra wanted to extend the excise duty benefits of the sub-four-metre length and sub-1.5-litre engine capacity category to the compact SUV segment. M&M has taken the low-cost route of essentially snipping the tail off the Xylo to bring it below the four-metre mark. It’s not a new idea. M&M, however, is the first to start this practise in this segment with the Quanto (remember that the Premier Rio that pioneered this segment was always less than four metres long), and going by the market response, there seem to be a lot of takers for it.

However, squishing the humongous Xylo into a small footprint wasn’t going to be easy. So does the Quanto really work as a compact SUV, or are there too many compromises?