Mahindra TUV300 review, road test

It’s a high step into the cabin, but once you climb in, you immediately get a great sense of space. The front seats are wide and supportive. However, they are lacking in lumbar support, which doesn’t help on long drives. The driver’s armrest doesn’t foul with the handbrake or the gear lever and that’s a good thing. Visibility out the front is also quite good, with the tall seating position and large windows giving a commanding view of the surroundings. However, the thick A-pillar does create a bit of a blind spot, and rear visibility isn’t too great because of the spare wheel and the small glass area. The parking sensors do help, but it’s better to check your surroundings beforehand.

The second row seat is surprisingly spacious for a sub-4-metre car with more than enough legroom, headroom and shoulder room. The rear bench is wide enough to seat three passengers with ease but the cushioning is quite flat and though thigh support is good enough for most, very tall passengers might find it a little short. As with the Quanto, Mahindra has decided to squeeze a pair of side-facing jump seats in the boot of this compact car, and surprisingly, they offer a bit more space all-round than that car, but even two average sized adults will have to interlock their knees to sit there. Not only is it uncomfortable to sit in the third row, it’s unsafe too (there are no seatbelts). So, for all practical purposes, the TUV300 is a five seater.

The big surprise is the step-up in cabin quality which is right up there with more expensive Mahindras like the XUV500. Fit and finish is now quite up there with international standards and there are some rough edges but some of the plastics look pretty upmarket. The central console uses a good blend of colours, from textured black plastic to dull silver and bright chrome, to glossy black surfaces as well. The overall layout of the dashboard is quite clean and nice – a pleasant departure from the over-styled dashes of some Mahindra SUVs. The instrument binnacle with the twin circular pods look nice, and the trip computer in the instrument cluster shows the range, optimal gear at any RPM, and lots of other useful information. However, the small infotainment screen, with its old-fashioned fonts and colours, looks seriously outdated.

The sound system on this top-spec version isn’t good either and easily distorts even when you gently crank up the volume. There’s no CD player, but USB, aux-in and Bluetooth telephony – now regular fare – are standard on the top-spec T8 model. Safety wise, the T8 gets two airbags and ABS, but the best part is that Mahindra offers airbags as an option on the two lower variants – T4 and T6 – as well. Apart from the base T4, all variants get ABS as standard as well.

Mahindra also seems to have got the steering wheel position right this time – it no longer slopes away from you like in a truck. Pity they haven’t quite sorted out the gear lever then – it is a bit too tall and is quite notchy in action with very long throws. And though the pedals are well sited, the lack of a dead pedal will be an annoyance on long drives. On the topic of ergonomic flaws, Mahindra did relocate the power window switches to the door pads in the Scorpio, but in the TUV, they continue to be placed oddly in the centre-console. Speaking of which, storage space in the centre console could have been much better executed, given the amount of space there is here. The cavities aren’t deep enough, giving them minimal utility.