Mahindra Xuv 3Xo vs Jayco Hawk

What's the difference?

The fact this is Australia’s cheapest SUV is a massive feat for the Indian brand. It also has so much standard kit so this is even more surprising.

In many ways the XUV 3XO is better to drive than its rivals. The three-cylinder turbo engine has plenty of charm and moves this car along with ease, the car feels confident and composed out on the open road, and there aren’t any bings and bongs from intrusive safety systems.

However, things aren’t perfect. I wish the steering column offered reach adjustment, the steering feel wasn’t so inconsistent and the lane-keep assist wasn’t so hands-on.

If you can overlook these quibbles, this tiny Mahindra is an outstanding value buy if you’re considering a first new car.

Note: CarsGuide attended this event as a guest of the manufacturer, with meals provided.

The Jayco Hawk Outback is a solid, feature-packed camper-trailer without being flash about it. It looks good – checker plate is always a nice touch – and it is easy to tow and set up. Sure, it may not be as gung-ho an off-road unit as its name suggests, but it is more than capable of handling gravel or dirt tracks on the way to your campsite and will be a comfortable camper when you actually arrive there.

Given this SUV is tiny, I’m blown away at how much interior space it has.

Up front both the seats are manually adjustable, which is to be expected at this price point. Despite this, they’re still comfortable and offer an elevated driving position which is something SUV buyers seek.

In front of the driver is a leather-wrapped steering wheel which feels nice in the hand. While it offers tilt adjustment, it disappointingly doesn’t have reach adjustment. This is frustrating if you’ve got long legs and short arms, like myself.

The 10.25-inch digital instrument cluster has an overall dark and minimal look, but you can cycle through a range of informative views. There’s even one that allows you to display a full-width map.

Moving across, the 10.25-inch touchscreen multimedia system appears to be snappy enough. I’ve experienced fewer glitches in this car than in previous Mahindras I’ve driven.

I like the physical shortcut buttons underneath the touchscreen because it allows you to jump around to key sub-menus a lot easier.

As standard there’s both wired and wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity. With my iPhone 15 Pro Max the connection was flawless and only dropped out during known interference points.

This AX7L spec comes with a seven-speaker Harman Kardon sound system which gets this tiny car booming. The subwoofer in the boot is so powerful it almost feels like overkill.

In terms of storage up front there are two cupholders, big door pockets with two bottle holders, a centre armrest and a cooled glovebox. There’s also a USB-A port, 65W USB-C port and a wireless charger.

Moving to the second row there’s a decent amount of space for adults to sit behind adults. You could easily fit two adults along the rear bench, though pushing it to three would get a little too squishy.

Second-row amenities include rear air vents, a USB-C port with a phone slot, as well as a fold-down armrest with cupholders.

At the back there’s a manual tailgate, which is to be expected at this price point, but finding the trigger to open it is a little tricky. It’s a small button that’s hidden away.

Once the tailgate is open, the amount of boot space on offer is generous. Mahindra claims there’s 364 litres with the rear seats upright.

While the loading lip is high, the boot area is deep and wide. Unfortunately there’s no cargo cover available as standard, which means you’ll need to be careful what you boot back there.

Under the boot floor there’s a space-saver spare wheel, which is fantastic peace of mind if you travel long distances away from tyre repair shops.

Jayco camper-trailers have a nice touring-friendly floor-plan but where the Hawk Outback deviates from the line-up norm is that its kitchen is positioned to the left of the door as you step inside, rather than in front and to the right of you as you step inside on other models.

The interior height tops out at 2070mm high – pretty standard for these campers – and inside is roomy enough not to feel like a confined space, although it will get squeezy if all four adults and two kids are in here and milling about at the same time.

Looking from the door, to the left is the four-burner stove, then, as you look to the front, the extended lift-up bed and storage, and, swiveling to your right, the Dometic 95-litre fridge (Touring models get the 90-litre fridge), then stainless-steel sink, dinette seat, table, club lounge, double bed, then TV cabinet.

Drawers are all Ezi glide pull-out style. The pop-in/pop-out button on each handle – to lock it in place and unlock it – is generally a good system but can be prone to becoming fiddly, even sticking. This is a minor problem and can be found in many campers with a similar mechanism on their drawers.

Interior lighting includes overhead LEDs for the main area and reading lights for the beds. There’s a fan for the beds.

Behind the wheel, the Mahindra XUV 3XO feels refreshingly old-school.

The 1.2-litre turbocharged petrol engine does seem like it would be underpowered, but in practice it’s completely adequate. Peak torque comes on tap from 1500rpm so it doesn’t have to work too hard at all.

It’s fun hearing the noise the three-banger makes when under the boil. You don’t hear it much though because the revs are typically kept down low to minimise fuel consumption.

The key reason why this car feels old-school is the six-speed torque-converter automatic transmission. It’s nice to not drive an affordable everyday car that doesn’t have a continuously variable transmission (CVT) or dual-clutch automatic transmission as these can suck the life out of a car or be jerky.

The gear shifts in the Mahindra are sometimes docile, but are smooth and measured. It just operates like a regular car that doesn’t require you to rewire your brain to drive.

There are three drive modes to choose from. They’re hilariously called ‘Zip’, ‘Zap’ and ‘Zoom’. These correspond to Eco, Normal and Sport, respectively.

While I did eventually get used to driving in the ‘Zap’ mode, it felt a little snoozy at points, taking a beat or two to get the car accelerating with traffic. You can sidestep this with ‘Zoom’ which feels much more lively. If you activate cruise control or restart the car, though, it defaults back to ‘Zap’.

The XUV 3XO makes the most sense in the city where you’re able to use its tiny exterior dimensions to navigate tight urban carparks and narrow laneways with ease.

It almost became a challenge for myself to find the smallest parking spot I could slot this car into. As standard on this AX7L there are front and rear parking sensors, as well as a surround-view camera system.

Where this car is let down, however, is the steering feel. It’s incredibly light at low speeds and then as the speed builds it gets very heavy. So much so it feels like I’m getting an arm workout.

Unlike some of its rivals, there is still a semblance of feel through the steering wheel, but this drastic change from light to heavy steering weight is too stark. Somewhere in the middle would be nice please.

Something Mahindra is very good at is developing a comfortable suspension tune and this car is no different. It can tackle pimply urban road imperfections and speed bumps with no problems whatsoever.

Out on the open road this car surprised me. It feels like a much larger car than it actually is and doesn’t get blown around in the lane like small cars can.

The three-cylinder turbo-petrol engine remains confident at higher speeds, though if you frequently travel up hills the fuel consumption will skyrocket. There’s also a bit of road noise, which is to be expected when a car is this small.

For the most part the suspension does a fantastic job at rounding out road imperfections, but bigger bumps or potholes can unsettle the car. It’s not helped by the larger 17-inch alloy wheels.

Out in the twisties this tiny SUV is fairly agile. It’s not the sportiest thing out there by a vast degree, but it remains planted and solid even when pushed into harder corners.

Lastly, another point that makes this car feel old-school is the lack of obtrusive bings and bongs from the safety systems.

Sure the parking sensors can be a little over-the-top and the traffic sign recognition takes over the entire digital instrument cluster when it picks up a new speed limit, but having no driver attention monitor and intelligent speed limit assist is refreshing.

It’s not all perfect however as the lane-keep assist is too hands on for my liking. It activates from 60km/h and is quite overt in how it directs the car through bends.

Because of its compact size – especially relative to caravans which are, by their very nature, generally bigger and bulkier than camper-trailers – the Hawk Outback is a very easy thing tow as it sits low and stable on all surfaces and well within the confines of even narrower bush tracks.

The single-axle camper – 5060mm long (including drawbar), 1910mm high, 2240mm wide, and with a 1285kg tare weight – hardly registered behind our tow vehicle, a 2019 Ford Everest, with the new 2.0-litre four-cylinder bi-turbo-diesel engine (157kW/500Nm).

It always felt secure on the towball (with a 145kg download) during highway, gravel track and undulating dirt-road driving.

The Hawk Outback, like other Outbacks, has a hot dip galvanised Endurance chassis on Jayco’s JTech coil-spring suspension set-up. (Note: Jayco’s Outback models are designed and engineered for, at worst, dirt roads and gravel roads, not 4WD tracks. They are not built for hard-core off-roading.)

Another bonus: visibility is clear and open along both of its sides and even over the top – no need for towing mirrors here.