It’s a space that has grown over the past 2 years and has seen manufacturers make alterations in their plans to actually get into this segment. The rise of the compact SUVs has been a significant one and no one can ignore that the developments have been pushed by the booming demand for the cars by customers.
With quite a few cars in the segment already, and more coming our way and the latest in this segment is from the Mahindra stable and it’s called the TUV 300 and we try and figure out how it stacks up against its rivals.
To begin with, the Mahindra TUV300 is the shortest of the lot and closely contested only by the Ford EcoSport as these two are the only vehicles that are sub-4 metre. The Hyundai Creta comes in third place by the Renault Duster.
The TUV 300 score high in the department of the wheelbase too as it has the longest 2860mm followed by the Duster, Creta and finally the EcoSport. It is because of this wheelbase that Mahindra has been able to put in 7 seats in the TUV300, while the rest of the compact SUVs seat only 5.
Having won two of the battles in this comparison, when it comes to design it is the Creta that wins hands down. The Fluidic Language 2.0 works wonders and the Creta is clearly the benchmark in this department. The EcoSport is a strong contender for the second place. The TUV300 does impress with its Jeep-inspired styling but which brings out its butch look but it’s still boxy when compared to the others in this segment.
Moving on to the engines on offer and we are looking at only the diesel here. The Creta comes with two diesel engines - the 1.4 and the 1.6-litre diesel and both are available with the 5-speed manual. The Creta is powerful engine of the lot developing 126bhp. The Duster is the next in line with 109bhp followed by the EcoSport (90bhp) and finally the TUV300 with 84bhp.
Both the Duster and the Ecosport come with manual transmissions but it’s the TUV300 which comes equipped with a 5-speed Automated Manual Transmission and this is a first in segment offering. The company claims that they’ve tweaked it for better drivability and this will clearly help in city driving conditions.
When it comes to the pricing of these cars well, it’s a closely contested one as the TUV300 is the most affordable of the lot. However, these are introductory prices and we do not know how soon they will be revised. It will be interesting to see how the consumers take to the new car on offer by Mahindra. Hyundai is already burdened with a whole bunch of orders of the Creta and are trying their best to punch them out. Only time will tell, how well the TUV300 performs in terms of sales when compared to its rivals.
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