The factory fitted and optional alloy wheels offered for the XUV500 has major flaws in areas unknown and is a major safety concern.
The XUV500 has made Mahindra become very optimistic in its future plans because of its instant success. The XUV500 was the first global model conceived and developed from scratch by the Nashik based manufacturer. When launched, it had more features and better technology than all of its previous models put together. With its masculine and over the top stylish design, the SUV hit the right chord in Indian consumers mind and once even had a waiting period of 6 months. Considering the fact that Mahindra had previously never witnessed so much success in a vehicle priced so high, the XUV500 has to be their best model offered till date.
Though there haven’t been much problems associated with the XUV500, other than the recall of a few of them for rectifying a defective vacuum pump in the engine. A few problems regarding the alloy wheel design of the SUV has come to light, and mind you, its very serious. One XUV500 owner from Chennai posted pictures on his Facebook page showing how the alloy wheel of his vehicle had completely broken with the wheel being detached as a result. The owner mentions that his XUV500 is just two and half months old and he has driven it for only 7200 kms. His alloy wheel broke while he was driving at the speed of only 30 km/hr without hitting any heavy bump and without an accident history.
In another incident, a XUV500 owner posted pictures of how a part of his car’s alloy wheel had simply chipped off from one side, but Mahindra fortunately replaced the wheel for the owner. Similarly, one owner complained that after hitting a bump on a highway, one of his XUV500’s tyre simply exploded and the alloy got bent too. Now, these incidents are not just pure coincidences but the XUV500’s alloy wheel does seems to have a major problem. Alloy wheels are not expected to crack and are rather more durable and light as compared to normal steel rims. This could be a case of cracking under the stress of corrosion in certain parts of our country or the alloy is simply not able to sustain the weight of the big SUV, but no reason can be made certain at this point of time.
Minute defects such as these can play an instrumental role between life and death for XUV500 owners. Imagine if the the alloy of the first owner broke when he was driving at over 100 km/hr, which is normal for this vehicle. If this is indeed the case, then this very example shows how minute design factors matter in a car design. We hope Mahindra comes up with a suitable explanation and identifies the problem for these mishaps. Meanwhile, we urge all Mahindra XUV500 owners to carry out regular inspections of their alloy wheels for their and also other’s safety.
Source – Team-BHP.com
