2022 Maruti Nexa XL6 Interior Review – Features & Usability

Front Seat Ingress Egress

The XL6’s floor is at an ideal height and most people will find it comfortable to get in and out of the front seats of the car. The doors open wide enough to comfortably get in and out of the car. You won’t need any additional support to get into the cabin as the height is ideal to walk into the car.

Front Seats Review

Once you are in the front seats, you will find that they are comfortable for short as well as long drives. The driver seat is height adjustable while the steering wheel has tilt and telescopic adjustment. Hence, you will not have problems finding your ideal driving position.

Add to it the high seating position of the XL6 and you will find your driving position to be confidence-inspiring. The XL6 also offers an unobstructed view of the front and side.

The interior of the XL6 retains the all-black theme of the older model. It features a few silver trim and a marble-like finish on the dashboard. There is a continuous vent-like pattern on the dashboard with AC vents inside them. The dashboard is made up of hard plastics. For a car which costs over Rs. 16 lakh (on-road), we would have liked at least the top-spec variant to get some rich, soft-touch materials on the dashboard.

Speaking of the quality of the cabin, we found the fit and finish of the centre console and dashboard to be satisfactory. The glovebox is big enough to store 2 to 3 1.0L bottles. Do note that the glovebox doesn’t get a cooling feature. Coming to other storage spaces in the cabin, both the front doors get bottle holders. There is a sunglass holder along with the front cabin lamps as well. As the new XL6 gets a front armrest, there is a small storage space under it too.

Other than that, there are cooled cupholders in front of the gear lever in the centre console along with adequate space for a mobile phone. The centre console also houses a USB charger and a 12V socket. We found the need for another USB charging port in the cabin.

Between these sockets are the switches for the front seat ventilation system. There are 3 levels of seat ventilation on offer and they can be adjusted through these switches. The new XL6 has a rather unusual way of seat ventilation. Rather than blowing cool air from the car’s AC to your body, it sucks the air out. This dries off body sweat to make you feel cool. We found this system to be effective.

Above these switches, you will find dials for adjusting the auto-AC. Though these dials have acceptable quality, we think a white backlight would have been better than the outdated orange backlight.

At the top of the dashboard, you will find a new 7.0-inch Smartplay Pro+ touchscreen infotainment system. This is the same infotainment system that made its debut in the new Baleno. Unfortunately, the more affordable Baleno gets a bigger, 9.0-inch iteration of this screen, which we found to be more responsive. Maruti Suzuki told us that they could not fit the bigger screen as it would have blocked the AC vents on either side of the screen.

The screen gets features like Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. You can also see the display of the 360-degree parking camera along with tyre-pressure monitoring on this screen. The quality of 360-degree camera feed is acceptable. The screen can be controlled using the switches on the steering wheel. The steering wheel also houses controls for cruise control and telephony. The instrument cluster feels a bit outdated by today’s standards as you still have to rely on physical pins to access information such as the trip meter.

In the new XL6, the driver gets features like tilt and telescopic steering adjustment, paddle shifters with automatic transmission, height-adjustable driver’s seat, electrically-adjustable and foldable ORVMs with auto fold, manual day/night IRVM and auto start/stop. The switch panel on the right side of the steering wheel houses shortcuts for the 360-degree camera, traction control on/off and the auto start/stop system.

Considering its price, we would have appreciated the presence of an auto-dimming IRVM. Besides these features, the new XL6 gets yellow footwell lighting, puddle lamps and front side airbags. In total, the new XL6 gets 4 airbags. A new feature added in the new XL6 is telematics, which lets you monitor and control the car remotely via a mobile app. You can monitor the speed, track your driving data, lock/unlock the car and even remotely turn the AC on in automatic variants with this feature.

Rear Seats Ingress Egress - Second Row

Getting in and out of the second row of the XL6 is extremely comfortable and you can literally walk into the car. Besides the marginally increased ground clearance, the seat base height is appropriate for most passengers. This makes entry and exit from the car even more comfortable.

Rear Seat Review

As the XL6 is a 6-seater car, it gets 2 captain seats in the middle row. Both passengers get adjustable headrests and individual armrests. There is also enough space between both the seats, so you are not too close to the other passenger. The seat itself is comfortable for short and long drives. You can recline and slide the seats forward or backwards depending on the space you need.

The seats have good support and cushioning. 2nd row passengers also get adequate headroom and under-thigh support. The window area is large, giving the cabin an airy vibe. As there is an empty space between the seats, you could fit a laptop bag there and one behind the front armrest.

Besides roof-mounted AC vents with adjustable fan speed, passengers in the middle row get features like a 12V socket and a little cubby hole for phone storage. As the XL6 is a comfortable car for rear passengers and one of the most affordable cars with captain seats, we found that it needed some added rear-seat focussed features, such as window curtains, multiple rear USB chargers and phone holders.

Rear Seats Ingress Egress - Third Row

The middle row captain seats of the XL6 do not tumble. To get into the third row of the car, you need to pull a lever behind the 2nd-row seat. Pulling the lever reclines and slides the seat forward, opening up space to get into the third row of seats. Like the second row, getting into the third row is easy because the cabin is not too high off the ground. But while exiting, leg space is quite limited and egress is not very comfortable.

Rear Seat Review- Third Row

The 3rd-row of seats can be split 50:50 and recline at multiple angles. The base and back of the seats have good cushioning. As you don’t sit too close to the floor, it is possible to sit here comfortably for long durations of time. We found the 3rd row of seats to have adequate headroom. The headrests are adjustable for additional neck support.

The seats have enough shoulder room for 2 passengers with just enough legroom and knee room for a comfortable experience. As there is some empty space between the 2nd-row seats, passengers in the 3rd row can use it accordingly to sit in comfort. Passengers in the 3rd-row also get individual cupholders with non-padded armrests. There is a 12V socket on the left for chagrin devices. However, a USB port would have been a welcome addition.

Missing features in the third row of the new XL6 include USB chargers, phone holders and AC vents. We think that the third row of seats can be used by adults even for long drives. Our review was from the perspective of a 5’8” passenger behind a driver of similar height.

Verdict - 2022 Maruti Nexa XL6 Interior Review

Overall, considering XL6’s price, we would have liked a little more upmarket vibe in the cabin. It could do well with a few more features for the convenience of passengers in the front as well as rear seats. That said, the new Maruti Nexa XL6 is still a very comfortable and practical car that can carry 6 passengers comfortably.

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