This might sound a bit strange to you guys since I am writing about them, but to tell you the truth I don’t really get the point of SUVs. I mean, I know they were built to win the war and stuff but hey, if I ever went into battle I would arm myself with an SU-30. If I wanted to climb mountains, I would hop on to a KTM. If SUVs were to go around corners, they would drop off the road and don’t even get me started with the ‘not well-endowed’ image that they are associated with. The only use that I see for them is for a bit of evening showboating – for which you need something like one of these Mahindras.
Now, we’ve been wanting to drive them since we saw them at the Auto Expo and once these cars were back in Mumbai, the entire BSM gang came along for the story. So while Josh promptly plonked himself in the Inspira, Shumi opted for the Passion while I went Commando. Er... I mean, I drove the Commando, sorry about that.
Anyway, the Commando is a shorter Bolero with a rather cool mini loading bay instead of the last row of seats. Now, the Commando costs Rs 2.5 lakh in addition to the cost of the Bolero and includes all the extras that you can see in the pictures and some that you can’t, like the chromed suspension bits. My favourite detail, however, was the row of parking lamps above the windscreen. And since they are below the roof line, they are perfectly legal. Nice loophole, Mahindra.
The Passion, on the other hand, is the Scorpio to get if you want to paint the town red. Okay, so it couldn’t really be more obvious. The Passion costs a couple of lakhs more over the normal Scorpio and gets colour coded interiors to boot.
If Goa were to have an official vehicle, the Inspira would be it. In fact, if it hadn’t been for issue closing deadlines, we would’ve continued to drive there instead. Spoilt journos, I tell you. I think Karwar is way better. Anyway, the Inspira is a Bolero Invader without a roof, but even after all that chopping it’s pretty solid, thanks to the humongous roll cage. The Inspira too comes with colour coded suspension bits and interiors. The cost? Rs 2 lakh over the price of an Invader.
So how do you get one of these? Well, Mahindra isn’t putting in a new production line for these cars just yet. So what you will have to do is buy one of these vehicles and then get in touch with Mahindra’s customisation department. Also, if there are any bits that you’d prefer any other way (say a different colour etc) you can specify those too. The good thing is that since the jobs are done by the company itself, they are completely legal and don’t void your warranty. Brilliant! So do we get one for the next Great Escape?BSM
