Indian surprise package

The Mahindra Xylo is an excellent value-for-money family bus.
With eight seats – and that’s eight seats for adults, not the fold-out kiddies-only versions you get in some rivals – it makes a great game-drive vehicle or just a wonderful people-carrier for people with large families.
Of course, you get what you pay for and the Xylo is not a BMW X5 or a Mercedes Vito or a VW Caravelle. That said, it has some surprisingly subtle features. The doors lock as you drive off; the car beeps at you if you exceed 130km/h; it also beeps if you leave the lights on or leave the key in the ignition after switching it off. And there is a courtesy lights-stay-on feature, useful to light your way if you have parked in a dark spot and are walking away from your car – say, from the driveway to the front door. It is the sort of thing that prestige cars such as Volvo were boasting about as new and useful, not long ago.
The seats are comfortable enough and covered with the sort of plastic material that is hard-wearing and easy enough to clean. They are simple to fold down to get access to the rearmost row, and that rearmost row itself can be folded up so that, as a five-seater, the Xylo gives generous luggage space.
With all eight seats in use there is room in the “boot” for a blanket or two to spread at the picnic site. A towbar and trailer would be an excellent add-on for the Xylo and the 2.5-litre diesel motor would have no trouble at all in towing it, even when it is filled with all the luggage that could not find a place in the vehicle itself. No, put everything in the trailer.
To my mind this bus is never going to win anything in the styling stakes. From the outside it looks high and narrow and a little bit likely to tip over. Inside, there’s no doubt that the Xylo is wide enough to seat three adults alongside each other.
While quality is not exactly of VW standards it is much better than one expects. I would say this is the best Mahindra I have driven and it probably reflects the steady improvement being made by the Indian manufacturer.

In some ways it’s like the Toyota Condor, which was also a high vehicle with a lot of interior passenger space. But the Xylo feels as if it has more power than the Condor, The big Toyota is no longer sold in South Africa. But looking back through my files I found a 2003 review of a 3-litre Diesel Condor (no turbo, but admittedly with 4×4) and even in those days it was priced at R236 000, a lot more than a 2009 Mahindra Xylo.
Some things about the Xylo raise a wry smile. For instance, it has a rev counter, something one might not expect. But the red line is around 6 000rpm, clearly not designed for this diesel engine, which gets nowhere near that. So Mahindra must be fitting a “universal” instrument panel and using a rev counter from one of their petrol models. Also, some of the styling looks like what I would call the Asian school of design. No disrespect, but some parts of the Xylo are distinctly – what can one say – pagoda-like. The centrally mounted clock comes to mind in this regard. Having said that, it is clear and easy to read, like the other dials and instruments.
The Xylo E2, the model I drove, is priced at R164 900, an absolute bargain. The only obvious drawback would be the perceived long-term quality but at the price many buyers are going to be tempted to take a flutter.
Other figures: the 2.5-litre 4-cylinder motor puts out 84kW and a healthy 235Nm. You will probably get around 10litres/100km. There are also more expensive models that cost just under R200 000 and add such useful items as ABS brakes.