I’ve always admired the Mahindra Scorpio-N because it is a well-engineered SUV that is very capable and also quite nice to drive. We had the diesel manual 2WD variant for a couple of months with us and I clocked a little over 3000 kms on it and that included a mix of office commutes in traffic, some leisurely drives on the highway and some family outings too.
The Mahindra Scorpio-N is a big SUV, but every time I drive it I’m reminded of how easy it is to drive. The steering is light enough for you to turn it using one hand and the outward visibility is excellent by segment standards. You sit high and get a nice view of the bonnet and the driving position is really good.
My commute to work is 15 kms one way but there’s a good amount of traffic on most days. The clutch pedal on the Scorpio-N has a long travel and the release point is a little sharp. One can get used to the release point pretty quickly but the long travel can get tiring at times especially when you spend close to an hour or sometimes even more in bumper to bumper traffic.
The less said about the condition of Mumbai’s roads, the better, and here’s where the Scorpio-N really shone. The suspension handled all these potholes and bumps with ease and never did the SUV feel unsettled. In fact, I was really happy with the ride quality and comfort which is a massive improvement over the Scorpio Classic.
If Mahindra would’ve given us the Scorpio-N petrol for this long term test, my running costs would have doubled but this diesel engine is really efficient. The lowest fuel efficiency number I got was 12.4 km/l and the highest was almost 18 km/l. The mHawk engine is tuned really well and is a great combo of performance and economy.
The Scorpio-N is always eager to pull and it comes with a very strong mid-range. The engine feels torquey and even the difference between Zip, Zap, Zoom modes is felt. While the engine does have audible clatter, it is still a very smooth unit. This being the RWD variant, I didn’t do any off-roading with it as such but the Scorpio-N definitely accompanied me to a lot of places with poor roads.
Mahindra has equipped this SUV with every feature you’d need. The dual zone AC works flawlessly and even the Sony sound system is awesome. The touchscreen is okay and it showed a few glitches every now and then. Sometimes wireless Apple CarPlay would disconnect on its own, sometimes the screen would randomly restart and sometimes it would just hang. Hopefully the next software update shall fix this.
3000 kms on the odo and time to say goodbye to the Scorpio-N. The feel of driving a diesel manual SUV with a ladder-frame construction is hard to beat and I’m going to dearly miss our 0430 test car. Had some great drives with it in this short span that it was with us and not just me but everyone in the team who drove it praised it. Until next time then!
