Mahindra XUV 3XO 2026 review: AX7L long-term | Part 1 | Chery Tiggo 4 rival tested

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.

Read More About Mahindra XUV3XO

• Mahindra XUV 3XO 2026 review
• Next new car powerhouse ready to break out
• New ultra-affordable EV isn’t from China

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.

What are the rivals to the 2027 Mahindra XUV 3X0?

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.

First impressions of the 2027 Mahindra XUV 3X0

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.

Is the 2027 Mahindra XUV 3X0 any good to drive?

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.

How much fuel does the Mahindra XUV 3X0 use?

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