Scorpio woes

Unlike most city people who buy a SUV for the impression it creates, I have a very mundane reason for buying one – I need it for my work. I travel all over India on wildlife and conservation related documentary film projects, and the cheapest and most flexible way of getting around with equipment and crew is a SUV.

A month ago, I reluctantly said goodbye to my trusty, six-year old Toyota Qualis and, on the recommendation of a knowledgeable friend, bought a Mahindra Scorpio 4 WD. I was both excited and apprehensive about this purchase. Excited because I was once again going to have 4 WD at my command, to go anywhere that I fancied; apprehensive because, after owning a Toyota, I had serious doubts about whether a Mahindra would stack up.

Unlike the typical SUV owner who cares a lot about how a vehicle looks, I actually don’t give a damn about appearance. The two things that matter most to me are reliability and comfort. I don’t want to have a breakdown in some remote location and I need to be comfortable traveling all day, everyday for weeks at a time.

My woes began at the time of booking the vehicle. My colour preference was green, but I was told that this colour had been discontinued. I was offered a choice of Silver (too conspicuous in the forest), Ivory Grey (a dark gray that would be ok in the forest) and Black. As it turned out, only black was really available, unless I was prepared to wait for weeks for the other colours. Like Henry Ford is said to have famously remarked to his marketing manager, Mahindra’s philosophy for 4WD customers seems to be, “you can have any colour you like, so long as it is black!”. Incidentally, two of my wildlifer friends, who bought Scorpio 4 WD vehicles before me, would also have preferred green, but had to settle for black.

I took delivery of my vehicle at 6 ‘O clock on a rainy evening. The people at the dealership were fastidious about doing the customary puja and tying a ribbon and balloons on the vehicle (which I politely declined) and, with a whole lot of other vehicles in the queue behind me waiting for delivery, I decided to make a quick exit. This was a mistake! Because soon after I turned onto busy Mount Road, I noticed that a warning lamp on the dashboard was blinking. I was on a one-way system and, what with heavy traffic and the rain, there was no question of doing a circular detour to get back to the showroom. So I drove on home, all the while wondering what could be wrong. On reading the manual, I discovered that the light that was flashing was an ‘Engine Malfunction Light’. “Never drive the car if this light is flashing” says the manual ominously. I called up the Mahindra helpline first thing the next morning, and the technicians were at my doorstep quite promptly. After fiddling under the hood for a while, they decided that the problem was water in the diesel filter (!). So the diesel filter was cleaned and put back, and my problem was declared solved. Indeed, the light did not flash anymore; not then. A few hours later, the blinking light was back. So, off I drove to the garage the next day. This time, they checked the electricals with their hand-held computer and discovered that an important relay was malfunctioning. This was replaced immediately and the problem hasn’t recurred since. But as I was soon to discover, there was worse to come (to be continued).