Mahindra Marazzo Test Drive Review – Best Mahindra Yet?

Mahindra Marazzo Review

Car Tested: Mahindra Marazzo; Road Test No. 985

Price OTR Mumbai: Rs. 11.83 – 16.67 lakhs

The Mahindra Marazzo is a robust and comfortable people’s carrier

Mahindra has long enjoyed dominance in the UV space, largely thanks to little competition. That’s the reason sub-par cars like the Xylo continue to be in the market but with more players jumping into the UV space, Mahindra’s dominance has been threatened and how! To get back its market share, Mahindra has now launched an all new vehicle, the Marazzo and it really is all new in a slew of ways. But does launching an MPV in a shrinking market for such a vehicle type make any sense?

Motor Quest: The Marazzo has been designed and developed by Mahindra North America which means the people who made this car are all new as well. Teased time and again on social media, Mahindra has indeed created a lot of hype.

Exteriors – Mahindra says the Marazzo has been inspired from a Shark and other than the marketing talk, I fail to see how and why, this car’s antenna isn’t even a shark fin! That aside, it does look well designed with certain elements making you feel Pininfarina’s contribution. But for the most part, it either looks like a Honda Jazz on steroids or a mix of Renault Lodgy and Toyota Innova. That said, it doesn’t look like a Mahindra save for the grille which might remind you of the Xylo, get rid of that grille already, Mahindra.

The headlight is a bit small while the tail-light is a bit too big and on the sides, the rising shoulder line with the chrome belt makes the area above the rear wheels and near the C-pillar look a bit too bulky. The 17-inch wheels do look good on this car though and I must appreciate the hub caps to hide the bolts. Whoever designed this car knows chrome sells in India so they threw yet another chrome strip, this time at the rear, sigh!

Interiors – The Mahindra Marazzo feels fresh as soon as you step inside and see the massive dashboard, courtesy the cab forward design. Fit-finish and quality is the best we have seen in any Mahindra vehicle yet and the piano black touch also looks cool but the white accents on the left side of the dash look outright gaudy. Marazzo engineers have dived deep in the Mahindra’s parts bin, so the AC switches come from the XUV meanwhile the steering buttons come from the Tivoli.

Interior quality is good but the MPV gets some quirky bits which aren’t needed

The Mahindra Marazzo is a practical car with a ton of storage bins, like the door pockets which are large enough on all doors but not easy to access on the rear doors. Ergonomic oversight isn’t restricted just to the doors as the Control + C and Control + V handbrake job from MINI (you can call it aircraft style) is just unnecessary because not only does it occupy more space, it’s difficult to operate too, specially for an MPV owner whose idea of excitement in life is usually going to the grocery store. The ports next to the handbrake to charge the phone are again not easily accessible, so is the space right behind due to the arm rests for front passengers, although you do get twin cupholders over there. The storage on top of the dash is deep, deep enough for you to put small items and never see them again, it’s like Mumbai’s potholes, you don’t know the depth unless you put your hand through.

However, the seats are superb on the Mahindra Marazzo, they are big and supportive, offering good underthigh support and headroom on all rows with good legroom and kneeroom for second and third row passengers, yes, this is a proper 7-seater with the unique roof mounted AC vents working wonders to cool the cabin, oh wait, the air-conditioner on our test car wasn’t working, it was just throwing out hot air, Mahindra still needs to sort out niggles with better QC.

You can flip forward the last two rows of seats to haul luggage and the last row needs to be shut, it’s a must, if you must carry some sizeable luggage because with all rows of seats up, the boot is miniscule. The features list is plenty, LED DRLs, projector headlights, an instrument cluster which swipes its needles for reasons best known to him/her (with a multi-information display right in between), dual airbags, ABS, ISOFIX child seat mounts and a 7-inch touchscreen infotainment system with reverse parking camera that shows guidelines and also helps you in parking with audio visual guidance. The said system also has Navigation and there is Android Auto too but unfortunately iPhone users aren’t the MPV type so Mahindra has skipped on Apple CarPlay.

Shockingly, the Marazzo misses out on features which cars half its price carry, keyless entry, push button start, auto-dimming inside rearview mirror but there is a conversation mirror to make up for all that and a picture viewer too. Other small bits like the Mahindra Blue Sense app, voice assist, follow me home headlamps, sunglass holder near the IRVM, cooled glovebox, purple illumination of the cluster (really?) and fake leather are also part of kit but I believe this is the fifth para of interiors, so those reading might have already skipped to the next section of this review which happens to be…

Performance– The Mahindra Marazzo debuts an all new engine, all new if you aren’t aware that the D12 oil burner from the KUV100 got an extra cylinder to power this MPV, increasing displacement to 1.5-litres and thus got badged D15 in the process. Crank the engine (and you don’t need effort as it works like the contact less starter on bikes) and the motor comes to life with little to no noise, such is the level of refinement and once you get going too, the engine purrs along in silence, impressive.

The NVH levels on the Marazzo are pretty impressive, especially for a Mahindra

This Mahindra Marazzo outputs a decent 121 BHP and 300 Nm and as long as you don’t check the car’s weight, which happens to be a sizeable 1600 kgs, you might expect a lot of grunt. Power delivery is linear for the most part, turbo lag is well contained and the mid-range is strong but there is no top-end and redline comes in early at just 4300 RPM. On part throttle, the motor works brilliantly well but get the pedal to the floor and it simply leaves you wanting for more, more so when you want a quick overtake on the highway. Our VBOX tells us this car takes 15.29 seconds to do the 0-100 km/hr sprint, that’s not shabby by any means.

Mahindra has given the Marazzo a 6-speed manual gearbox, one which shifts smoothly but has long throws, aided by a clutch that is light. But we are in 2018 and everyone and their dog wants an automatic, so just bring in the AT, people don’t care about mileage this much these days, just kidding, fuel prices are at their peak so you should know ARAI gave the Marazzo a 17.3, yeah, that’s right, 17.3 km/l, real world looks more like 11 km/l if you ask me. And there is an ECO mode too (with an Eco Sense display in the infotainment system to kill time when you wait for your wife and kids at the grocery store). More than how much mileage it improves, it dulls performance as power output drops to 100 BHP, in essence, that ECO mode is the reverse of Sport mode.

Driving Dynamics – Mahindra thinks differently, their SUV uses a monocoque chassis, their MPV uses a ladder frame, bizarre. But the company believes the ruggedness and long term reliability of a ladder frame is unbeatable but this car is front wheel drive, bizzare once again. What Mahindra likes to boast off is, the Marazzo uses a hybrid chassis, that of a body on frame front wheel drive architecture and boy they have filed a patent for the same. In essence, front-wheel drive means ‘car-like’ handling (I am not saying this, Mahindra’s press release states this) and the Marazzo handles like everything but a car with all that roll.

Still, I will give it to Mahindra for the Marazzo has the best ride and handling balance of any Mahindra car yet (I know the benchmark is low but still). The steering is light at low speeds, a breeze to use when parking the car while it does weigh up decently well at higher speeds, I was shocked when giving the beans, it would remain communicative and maintain its line. But in spite of being an all new car with patented underpinnings and an all new development team, the Marazzo does exhibit typical Mahindra characteristics, that of body roll and a bouncy rear (the highest suspension travel of 245 mm in the segment line in the press release actually turned out to be a con, who would have thought that).

That said, I do love the ride at low speeds, it is just phenomenal, taking the worst of roads with such ease, it’s quite unbelievable to not having to drop pace on Mumbai roads when you encounter all the craters from the moon, that’s how good it rides and with a full load, the bounciness at the rear should be taken care off. Equipped with all wheel discs and of course ABS, stopping power is plenty but the sogginess from the brake pedal reminds me as to why I shouldn’t use words like brake feel in an MPV review.

Safety and After Sales Service – I will update this section once NCAP tests the Mahindra Marazzo, for now, it has dual airbags, should have had at least 6 in 2018, at least as an option. Mahindra has a good spread of service centres in our country and the company is also quick with its warranty replacements and services too.

Verdict – If you want a silent, comfortable, efficiency, spacious, drivable MPV, then the Mahindra Marazzo is your kind. It’s not proven yet, small niggles still need to be sorted, and it could do with more equipment. But who are you kidding, the only reason why the Marazzo interest you is because you can’t afford the better MPV, the Toyota Innova and that’s where Mahindra has played the masterstroke, the price, it fits right between the Ertiga and Innova and if you want an MPV in this price bracket, the Marazzo is just unbeatable.

What’s Cool

– Cabin has oodles of space
– The ride quality is way better than other Mahindras
– Pricing is value for money

What’s Not So Cool

– Handling isn’t great and there’s lots of body roll
– Misses out on some features
– Engine feels strained at high speeds

Mahindra Marazzo Specifications

* Engine: 1497cc, 4-cylinder, Diesel
* Power: 123 PS @ 3500 RPM
* Torque: 300 Nm @ 1750-2000 RPM
* Transmission: 6-speed Manual Transmission
* 0-100 km/hr: 15.29 Seconds
* Suspension: Double Wishbone (Front), Twist Beam (Rear)
* Tyre Size: 215/60/17 (Front & Rear)
* Brakes: Discs (Front & Rear), ABS
* Safety: Dual Airbags, ABS, ISOFIX Mounts

Mahindra Marazzo Dimensions

* Overall length x width x height: 4585 mm X 1866 mm X 1774 mm
* Wheelbase: 2760 mm
* Turning Radius: 5.25-metres
* Fuel Tank Capacity: 45-litres

Testers’ Note:

Further Reading:
Mahindra Marazzo Video Review

[wp-review id=”220360″]