Scorpio woes - The Verdict

So, a month on, what do I feel about the Scorpio? Well, teething problems and initial hiccups apart, my main grouse with Mahindra is that it appears as though most of the design effort has gone into how everything looks rather than on functionality, durability or reliability. Take the steering wheel for instance. It is very thick! In fact, it’s the thickest steering wheel of any vehicle I have ever driven, and I have driven quite a few, including Pajeros, Land Cruisers and Nissans. Even worse, the material with which the wheel is made is incredibly slippery. When you have the air conditioner going and your palms are dry, the extra thickness of the steering wheel, combined with its slippery surface, makes an unsafe combination. It’s downright irritating when negotiating city back streets and, I suspect, it could be deadly on a narrow and winding ghat road. Why did Mahindra make a steering wheel that goes against the norm? My guess is that they decided that a chunky looking vehicle should have a chunky looking steering wheel!

My other grouses are, in random order, as follows:

If you bend down and look under the vehicle from the front, you will see a guard similar to that seen in many other SUVs. Now, this is supposed to protect the front part of your under-chassis from boulders and bumps during off road driving. Only, in the Scorpio, this guard is not made out of strong metal, but of the most flimsy plastic. It’s laughable. I don’t expect it to last long where I’m going to be driving.

If you’re slightly on the heavier side, don’t stand on the rear bumper/footrest; it’s likely to break away – again flimsy plastic. So, if you want to clean the top of your vehicle, you will have to carry around a small stepladder or stool!

While you’re at the back, bend down and look underneath the rear-wheel arch. You will find a gap in the cladding. When you go through slush (or worse), the stuff that is thrown up by the wheels encrusts itself in your door and makes a sorry (and sometimes smelly) mess. The designers probably didn’t expect anyone to look too closely at their handiwork, but then you don’t really need x-ray vision to spot this.

The speaker ports in the cabin are a joke. They don’t accommodate any decent, standard size speakers. So learn to enjoy tinny music from small speakers.

The rubber through which the handbrake juts out is crude and already fraying.

The doors! Yes, make sure you tell everyone who climbs in and out of your car to treat them like they are made of glass. For God’s sake, don’t let anyone slam the doors! They are really lightweight. In fact, they feel far more delicate than those on a Maruti 800.

And of course there’s a substantial gap in the doors where they meet the body. Don’t look for a Qualis or Innova like seal.

The Air Con vents are ridiculous and I haven’t been able to adjust them to my satisfaction. Either the cold air is blowing right on you (very uncomfortable) or you have to turn the vent away from you (and on to the glass, which will fog up, or towards another passenger, who is hopefully wearing a fleece jacket). There is very little up and down movement possible. You have to live with side-to-side adjustments and hope for the best. Again, M&M have gone in for fancy looks rather than functionality.

The gearshift is a far cry from the one in the Qualis, but hey, that would be asking for too much.

There are all kinds of creaks and crackles emanating from within the cabin, which can serve to divert your attention from any (possibly serious) creaks and crackles that may emanate from outside the vehicle.

Now, this is not really an exhaustive list and not really a final verdict. I’ve only had the vehicle for a month, during most of which I have been preoccupied with major problems. I’ll be sure to post more comments when I’ve done my first road trip.

Do I have anything good to say at all? Well, the Scorpio does have some things going for it. The engine is quite refined and responsive. There is enough leg space (one of the few drawbacks with the Qualis), and the seats (at least the ones in front that I’ve tried) are comfortable, especially with some extra padding added by the seat covers. But is this going to be a reliable car that can take the rough with the smooth, or is this strictly a city slicker’s SUV, not meant for even semi-serious off-roading? I shall find out soon enough, I expect. I do miss my Qualis though. During the six years that I had it, I put it through some rough terrain that it wasn’t even meant for. Yet it did not break down even once. The car performed just as beautifully the day I sold it as on the day when I first turned on the ignition switch. Now, that’s what I call a great car. Mahindra engineers should take one apart and study it closely.