Cruise control, rain sensing wipers, automatic headlamps, tyre pressure warning system, parking assist…if you happen to come across the above list without context, you will get a picture of a swish luxury sedan in mind, right? Bingo. That was exactly the idea.
It is not a secret that Mahindra is developing a monospace vehicle in the mould of Toyota Innova. We have seen some ‘scoop’ images and we think, like the Scorpio, the Ingenio (that is the rumoured name; one can only hope that it gets a better name) will be an extreme value for money vehicle that will be adored by the people-mover set. But challenging a Toyota product is not an easy job – every nut and bolt of a Toyota vehicle reflects the quality philosophy of the new world number one and it reflects in the way new vehicles are designed, developed, evaluated, sourced, built, sold and serviced. And if anyone knows that, it is Mahindra. Sure they’ve had a good run with the Scorpio – we Indians lapped it up and the segment-buster campaign was a masterpiece. I personally know many prospective car buyers who succumbed to the SUV temptation and bought the Scorpio. The product was reliable, comparatively refined, reasonably economical and even good looking in its own way.
Not content to rest on their laurels, Mahindra introduced the common-rail diesel engine version soon and played around with trim, paint and a bit of electronics. The flashy yellow Sportz job was er…too flashy, though. What was never really sorted out was the handling. They sent a team to Lotus in UK to fine-tune the suspension setup and find the optimum tyre technology. In the meanwhile, an all-new, smaller yet more powerful engine was being developed. One that would eventually power the Innova-baiter sooner rather than later. But before it starts powering the Ingenio, the engine needed to be fine-tuned and what better application than the Scorpio to do that. My good friends at Mahindra may not agree with the above theory – yet, ladies and gentlemen, welcome the mHawk powered Scorpio V-series. At Rs 9.33 lakh ex-showroom New-Mumbai, this is no value for money proposition. For VFM seekers the 2.6 CRDe powered Scorpio will co-exist with the V-series for some more time. Instead Mahindra want the Octavia/Optra Magnum/Corolla buyers to take a serious look at the Scorpio as an alternative. Hence the feature list that is almost endless. And yes, the limited numbers will ensure that the service stations get familiar with the new engine.In short, what we are getting to premiere here is not just the mHawk-engined Scorpio but this is also a sneak preview into the next model from Mahindra. On with the road test, then.
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