2026 Mahindra XUV3XO Reviews

It’s our last chapter with the XUV 3XO - Mahindra’s super-affordable small SUV. We’ve covered three months and a couple of thousand kays in this diminutive thing, and it’s largely served its purpose as my daily runabout, with a few freeway kilometres thrown in for good measure. I’ve had friends and family ride along, I’ve packed the boot to its absolute capacity and I’ve fueled it up regularly. I’ve found annoyances and things I love about it along the way. Now, having handed the keys to my affordable little Mahindra SUV long-termer back, would I recommend it to someone looking for an affordable entry-level car? Read on to find out. Overwhelmingly the thing I’ve liked about this little car is how simple and straightforward it is. Unlike many of its rivals which are full of convoluted software, annoying over-thought features, and sometimes deal-breakingly intrusive driver aids, the XUV 3XO is the kind of car you can just hop in and go without thinking about it. It has a physical start switch, a simple shifter, familiar and logically-placed switchgear and sensible ergonomics. These things shouldn’t be a flex in 2026, but because so many rivals from China seem insistent on touchscreen dependency, cost-cutting disguised as minimalism, and tech for tech’s sake, the Mahindra is refreshing to use. In some ways I think of it as the successor to once-affordable small cars from Japan which were like this. The primary cost you’ll pay is that it isn’t as fancy or up-to-date as some rivals. It’s a shame there’s no hybrid powertrain option for example, and the screens feel small compared to rivals. For someone just looking for zero learning curve, though, this could be the small car antidote you need, especially at this one’s keen $26,990, drive-away price. Still, it has all the basic kit you really need, with some luxuries like a wireless phone charger and wireless phone connectivity. Small, traditional spec details ignored by a lot of cars at this cheap end of the spectrum have been thought of, too. For example, the 3X0 doesn’t get a cheap or no-name tyre package, featuring a nice set of Goodyears which soak up bumps pretty well and provide an appropriate amount of traction, even when the little turbo engine is pushed. I said in my last chapter I think the Mahindra XUV 3XO is sharply-styled and certainly Mahindra’s best looking product. Some folks I took for a ride-along disagreed, with opinions ranging from ‘weird’ to ‘ugly’. I really like that it comes in fun colours, but apparently you all want to stick to monochrome because I was told the ‘Citrine Yellow’ my car came in was "too much like mustard". Then again, I also think the concept of ‘resale’ is the most boring one to curse a lot of modern cars. Annoyingly, if you want the Citrine Yellow, Dune Beige, or Nebula Blue colours you have to splash for this top-spec AX7L version, as the base AX5L comes in the usual palette. Apparently people care about this ‘resale’ concept less these days, too, because they seem willing to take a chance on a new Chinese brand over brands which traditionally perform well in this department like Honda, Mitsubishi and Toyota. If you’re considering the Mahindra get the fun colours, this brand is hardly known for its great residuals. One thing universally praised by friends and family is the impressive amount of room on the inside of this little Mahindra despite its modest footprint. At 182cm tall I am easily able to find a comfortable driving position, but I also fit behind my own driving position with a small amount of airspace for my knees. Plus, the back of the front seat is clad in soft finishes, so even if you were taller than me, at least your knees will be pressing against something soft. Headroom is great in the front and acceptable in the rear, with the sunroof eating a little into headspace. I had enough room for my head still, however. The rear seat is also impressively wide, and there’s no rise in the floor for a driveshaft, as there’s no all-wheel drive 3XO, so there’s even room for a middle passenger to put their feet. Cabin storage is decent, with big cupholders in the front and rear doors, which it needs because the two in the front console and rear drop-down armrest are quite shallow for taller vessels. As mentioned in the last chapter, it also has an array of glorious buttons, even a dedicated climate panel, reducing the dependence on the touchscreen. On the flipside, there are limited additional storage options in the cabin, with only a tiny armrest box, and no big pass-under tray like many rivals with more luxurious bridge-style consoles get. For me, this meant a lot of objects ending up on the passenger side floor or on the back seat. The boot is the real party trick, though. Looking at this car in its side-profile, and you’d be forgiven for thinking it barely has one. There’s almost no distance between the rear window and the back of the car itself, and yet through brilliance of design the boot is good for a vehicle in this class. It’s deep, offering 364 litres of space (better than the 200-300 offered by many rivals) and is able to take two of the three CarsGuide luggage cases at a time. It even has a space-saver spare under the floor. I found some interesting, albeit minor, quality issues with my car. Stuff that you almost never see on Japanese, Korean, or even Chinese cars these days. The most egregious example was the rear LED strip which seemed like it was slightly loosely secured to the boot lid. This resulted in an irritating plastic squeaking noise, both when you shut or opened the boot lid, but you could also hear it over bumps and corrugations on the road. The boot seemed to creak and groan in the corners, perhaps flexing. It is made of a very light and thin metal. The floor mat across the rear also didn’t fit precisely and moved around when you put your feet on it as though it was an aftermarket accessory which didn’t quite get the floor measurements right. The 3XO is also pretty noisy at freeway speed, but this is to be expected for a small and light car in this class. Remember to check out part one of this review on why this car is actually pretty good to drive. Last chapter I singled out fuel consumption as a major downside, with this little SUV throwing back a less than impressive 7.4L/100km, but in the time since it has managed to redeem itself. Fuel consumption overall dropped to just 6.4L/100km, which is less than the official figure of 6.5L/100km. This is probably due to introducing a lot more more freeway kilometres, but it speaks to the difference between urban, mixed and high-speed fuel consumption on a car like this with a traditional six-speed automatic transmission. The fuel tank is also a bit small. At 42 litres I was re-filling more often than I would have liked. While the 3XO is largely free of the array of deal-breakingly annoying safety tech which plagues a lot of its rivals from China, it also hasn’t been ANCAP tested, and if it were, I fear it wouldn’t fare well. On paper it ticks a few boxes, with six airbags and things like auto emergency braking and lane keeping aids, but it rides on an older platform and misses out on blind spot monitoring, instead using a blind spot camera system.

Affordable cars from China have overrun the Australian market, forcing once favourites from Japan out of the top-10, and putting pressure on the rest hailing from South Korea to Europe. Yet amongst this, one Indian manufacturer is hoping to ride the affordable Chinese wave as an alternative. Mahindra has had a resurgence in Australia, releasing an array of surprisingly competitive new products as part of a renewed global push toward a wider audience. The car we’ve nabbed for this long-term test, the oddly-named XUV 3X0 is the brand’s latest. It’s a crossover SUV which represents the entry-point to the Mahindra line-up, starting from a very keen $23,990, drive-away. As rival Chinese brand Chery might know, though, just being affordable isn’t enough. The cars have to be good, too. Does the XUV 3X0 have what it takes or will you be wishing you spent a little more? Read on to see what I found in my first month. Okay, let’s set the scene before we get into impressions. You can have one of these from the aforementioned starting price, but the one we have is top of the two-variant range, the AX7L, which is priced at $26,990, drive-away. For exactly the same money, you could get into the best selling Chery Tiggo 4, also in top-spec Ultimate form, with the larger MG ZS Turbo (basic Vibe form, $25,990, drive-away), and Haval Jolion (basic Premium form, $26,990, drive-away) also options. If you’re looking for something from a longer established brand, your options include the ageing Hyundai Venue (auto - $25,750, before on-roads) or the Suzuki Fronx ($28,990, before on-roads), both of which are more size-appropriate in this city crossover space. So your choices are a larger, better equipped car from China, an older car from Korea, or a more expensive car from Japan. Some food for thought is the equipment list, which stays just on the right side of good, with a few omissions. The 3X0 ticks all the key boxes - 17-inch alloys, LED headlights, synthetic leather interior trim, dual 10.25-inch screens for the digital dash and the multimedia touchscreen, wireless phone connectivity and charging, as well as a panoramic sunroof, 360-degree parking camera, and Harman Kardon premium audio on this top-spec one. It might not have a few luxuries such as heated and power adjusting seats like a high-spec Tiggo 4 for example, but for a small basic car it feels the part. Looking at the 3X0 from the outside, I’m pretty impressed with its sharp design. From a brand once known for its particularly hideous takes on the standard SUV archetypes, the 3X0 is maybe its best looking car yet, featuring sharp contemporary headlight designs, a cohesive design front to rear (the larger Scorpio is yet to feel so tidy), angular design motifs with some nice highlight detailing and trendy touches like the two-tone roof and diamond-cut alloys. You could hardly tell from the outside that the 3X0 is an older Korean car underneath. Yep, that’s right, the 3X0 can trace its underpinnings back to the SsangYong Tivoli thanks to the South Korean automaker’s time being owned by Mahindra. It’s much more obvious inside, where some switchgear is identical to the SsangYong, while other bits, like the lower portion of the centre console also share a familiarity. The digital dash and multimedia touchscreen, however, feel much more modern, giving the cabin an up-to-date touch courtesy of Mahindra’s latest software, which is easy to use. Aesthetically, the screens are pretty much the only thing keeping the 3X0’s interior in this decade, with old-school plastics and too much of the much-maligned piano black cladding the dash, but there’s something refreshing about the simplicity of it all. Those paying attention would have noticed the glorious abundance of buttons and dials making everything in this car easy to control and proving you can still build an affordable car without hiding all the climate functions in touchscreen sub-menus. My initial impression continues behind the wheel where the 3X0 feels like a car from 10 years ago but somehow in a good way. Let me explain. Too many compact SUVs in this class are dynamically a mess and dull to steer thanks to their continuously variable transmissions (CVTs), or are otherwise unintuitive in daily traffic thanks to fuel-saving dual-clutch automatics. Generally, you have to splash for something more expensive or to a hybrid to make many options in this class nice to drive. Not so in the 3X0. Don’t get me wrong, this car isn’t particularly special in what it offers, but it’s the refreshingly straightforward combination of a gruff little 1.2-litre turbocharged three-cylinder engine (82kW/200Nm) and a real old-school six-speed automatic transmission which makes it a surprising pleasure to steer. Its relative light weight and firm suspension keep it tidy in the corners, while little boosts of turbo surge are enough to put a smile on your face without getting out of sorts. Even the steering is a straightforward power assisted set-up without an annoying amount of artificial software weighting as in some of its Chinese rivals. I even found myself not needing to scroll through a bunch of sub-menus to turn off the usual array of poorly-calibrated safety systems. The 3X0 either doesn’t have them, or they’re not annoying enough to warrant turning off. In a way, this is a brand new car for someone who wants an old car. Tired of the annoyances of many modern vehicles, the 3X0 is a fun, basic little car to hop into as a palette cleanser. Our little crossover isn’t doing so great on the fuel consumption front. According to my calculations (which I had to do because the computer only shows the consumption in km/L rather than L/100km), the 3X0 is drinking around 7.4L/100km which is too high for such a compact unit. Perhaps it's the fact I drive it a little more aggressively than I would otherwise, as I try to push the turbo surge and resulting fun out of the meagre 82kW on offer, but it’s still a number I’d expect to see out of an older non-turbo model. One cost of having a six-speed auto, it seems, is driving style will weigh more heavily on how much fuel you use. It’s also a bit of bill shock having to refuel this car sooner than expected and during a fuel crisis. The roughly 450km travelled on my first tank of fuel cost me a whopping $61.33 at the pump, three times what it might cost me to travel the same distance in a larger EV. Next month we’ll talk about practicality, some quirks I’ve found and see if we can drill down on that fuel consumption a little more. Acquired: June 2026 Distance travelled this month: 446km Odometer: 6880km Average fuel consumption this month: 7.4L/100km

Mahindra has snatched the title of Australia's cheapest SUV with its new XUV 3XO. Priced from $23,490 drive-away, is there more to like than just an appealing price tag?

The Mahindra XUV 3X0 is the Indian brand's first small SUV in Australia, taking on the Chery Tiggo 4 and co. Though modern and well equipped, with a punchy 1.2-litre turbo, the front-drive crossover boasts chunky styling and high ground clearance to make it stand out. There's plenty for buyers to like, as our first drive in India reveals, but the pricing also needs to be right for it to succeed.