[parrys]

Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. have unveiled their much-scooped sub 4 meter compact car, the Verito Vibe. The car will be available only in a diesel avatar, running the tried and tested 1.5L Renault K9K engine.

In a nutshell, the Verito sedan has visited the butcher's shop.

The Verito Vibe has been priced at Rs. 5.63 - 6.49 lakhs. (Ex-showroom Mumbai without octroi)



High Points:

• The current car market is down by 8% for passenger cars, down 12% for SUVs and up by only 5% for UVs. Yet, M&M is bullish of growth in the coming months and also expects the Vibe to kick in some good numbers.
• Mahindra has tapped into new segments lately; the premium SUV segment with the Rexton, compact SUV/MUV with the Quanto, electric cars with the e2o, and now the Verito Vibe.
• The platform used for the Vibe still belongs to Renault, although M&M did have the option of buying it out from Renault when they acquired the Logan brand. There will be 1 more launch on this platform sometime next year. There are still a couple of years left before this synergy between Renault & M&M ends.
• There has been a total investment of INR 60 crores for the Verito Vibe.
• M&M has a total capacity of 35,000 units annually for the Verito and Vibe combined.
• It's still unclear as to whether M&M will market this as a hatchback or a notchback sedan. However, unlike hatchbacks, this car has been designed with a three-box body style in which the boot is entirely segregated from the passenger compartment.
• All other compact sedans like the Dzire, Amaze, etc. are derivatives of their hatchback siblings; however, the Verito Vibe is a derivative of the sedan version. Thus keeping its USP intact - a wide accommodating interior.
• Only 1 fuel option available, the 1.5 Renault dCi engine.
• 3 year / 100,000 km warranty which includes 24x7 free roadside assistance.
• Available in 7 colours: Diamond White, Fiery Black, Toreador Red, Java Brown, Mist Silver, Dolphin Grey and Aqua Rush.
• 64 BHP of power & 160 Nm of torque. ARAI certified fuel economy of 20.8 kpl.
• The Vibe has a boot space of 330 liters.
  

A very unusual way of unveiling a product, for a fact - Mahindra did this to emphasize the new rear design on the Verito Vibe.


M&M officials with the Vibe.

[parrys]

Exteriors:

Vibe shares it's face with the Verito sedan, however, the black / grey grille is a differentiator here. The sedan gets chrome:


A closer look at the black / grey grille. Notice the deep-set slats:


Parking bulbs on the side are unique for the segment:




The long wheelbase at 2630 mm adds to M&M's bigger than the rest definition:






The rear hatch has a flat top:


Only the boot-lid opens up (like a sedan) rather than the glass portion rising up too (like a hatchback).


The hatch lid is not wafer thin like the Dzire, typical of Mahindra - it does feel solid.


A look at the 330 liter boot space.


While closing the boot-lid, the brackets move above the wheel section; hence will not damage your luggage.


Flat cut on the edge of the rear door.


LED tail lamps:




Nomenclature on the rear:




ORVMs are average sized:


14" Champagne alloy wheels:


The exhaust tip is just visible at the rear:


The 1.5 dCi:


NVH Cladding:


Washer fluid refill box right at the top of the bonnet:

[parrys]

Interiors:

Light beige with dark grey interior theme. Dashboard is, well, fairly planar.


Steering wheel is very basic too. Devoid of audio controls even on the top spec.


Clean MID. Glad that there is no chrome here.


Carbon-fibre like center console panel. Unique, rather than the standard gloss black / silver accents used by other manufacturers.


Dual-DIN Nippon head unit with USB, SD card, Aux-in, FM, CD player.


Lock-unlock buttons & electric ORVM controls under the right hand side AC vent...


... and below that, very un-ergonomically placed is the headlamp level adjustment.


Boot & fuel release levers:


Stalks feel durable:


Only 2 wiper speed adjustments! Do note that the Vibe does not get a rear wiper-washer.


Large vents on the dashboard.


The dual tone interiors are actually separate layers.


Storage space above the glovebox, again with chrome & carbon-fibre like accents.


A deep running glove box.


The OBD2 port is hidden in here too.


Passenger side gets a vanity mirror.


Storage space around the handbrake area.


Gear lever is rather tall, resembling what you'd find on M&M's UVs.


Cup holders in front of the gear lever.


3 bulb illumination in the front.


Seats are basic:


Door pads are relatively flat and do not intrude into the cabin much. Not sure if you will be able to fit in your bottles in those flat storage sections.


Rear window goes down only 70%.


The roomy Verito / Vibe characteristic:


Flat bench can accommodate 3 adults:


The grey section seen on both doors is fabric:


Small parcel tray, recessed to store oddities:


Rear defogger cut-out. Too small to be an eye-sore, but it's visible:


Plastic used on the key is average, though it is much better than the Quanto.


Tyre inflation info.

[parrys]

Brochure:

[Rehaan]

Thread Moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[girishglg]

Another contraption out of the Verito platform. Have to say it is directly targetted at the taxi market as the pricing and the features on offer would not excite many individual buyers.

Even with the taxi buyers, it would be interesting to see if they would bite the bullet by buying a 'hatch' at these price points when some very competent 'taxi' competitors in the name of Vista and Liva are on offer at similar or lower.

The other thing about hatch taxis are that they necessarily do not carry 3 passengers abreast in the rear most of the times since they are hired by single or mostly 3 passengers with limited luggage. Anything more than that would employ a proper sedan like Etios etc. So is there really a wide rear bench USP?

The bright spot in this package are-

1. K9K motor from Renault, tried, tested, proven and frugal
2. Rear bench can seat 3 comfortably

Top negatives which are clearly evident-

1. Small sized opening of the hatch limiting loading space
2. Pricing of course, not VFM when you compare it with other hatches of similar size

Seems to be just another jab at making the cash register ringing by squeezing out an old and available platform

[djpeesh]

After the XUV, it looks like Mahindra's R&D team decided to take a break and so Mahindra hired a roadside carpenter and plumber to do their jobs in the interim. First they chopped a Xylo and produced the Quanto abomination. Then this. What were they thinking???

[Auto freak]

What is this?
Someone at M&M thought, "everyone has a hatch n so even we want one! Let's take the only car we have n cut it's boot away!"

There is absolutely no sense of aesthetics, flair or life in this design. Its all down to the unreal image that's built around 'practicality' these days. Companies take for granted that a spacious car can look ugly n it would still sell.

Off late all the new Mahindras sparing the Thar have a little quirkiness in design. The Xylo's front end, the XUV's whiskers, the disproportionate Quanto n now this, taking it to a whole new level! But this thing would still sell, for its space.

Wish Honda had a Jazz diesel. That's how a spacious hatch can be! Contemporary n spacious at the same time.

Wish Indian companies grow out of this cut n paste job of cars. Cars are to be designed with passion n soul.

[man_and_machine]

Etios Liva, and the Vista should be the guys really worried. The Swift is in a different league. The Punto has a different fan following. The Polo customer are not oriented towards M&M. If you are on a tight budget and looking for a spacious car and do not want a "foreign" tag for your choice, you have a really good option.
If the taxi segment gets a stripped (Indi cab like), this is surely be the option for the commercial segment.

[vaisakhr]

IMO, very poor attempt by mahindra. What were they thinking while they designing this? The glass doesn't come with the lid even so they couldn't hide that defogger supply neatly? As girishglg said, suitable for taxi.

Parrys, I like the phone stand.

[drsingh]

Mahindra and Mahindra have a characteristic strategy which has brought them substantial success.

I have followed their strategy from the days they put together a team of 50 youngsters under 5-6 senior engineers to work on the scorpio project.they copied from several Suvs for the first design.

The bolero was a side product of this team.sort of applying jeep/cherokee design language to the armada.it worked and strengthened the brand.

The scorpio cost 500 crores.much less than 1700 crores spent by tata on indica.

This emabled Them to undercut the safari by a lakh and it worked.

They are very agile and very good at execution.

They dont have too much money to spare right now nor the experience to create a hatch/sedan platform.

The quanto and verito/verito vibe are hedges against their predominantly SUV business.

Theyre selling enough without any major investment.widening the mahindra brand to all segments of vehicles.gaining valuable feedback/experience to build their own platform later, like they came up with the xuv.

This is a major difference between Tata and M and M.

Tata has grand visions,poor execution.

Mahindra is continously working with what they have.learning and building brand equity along the way. Gatecrashing new segments and getting their foot in the door.

Anand Mahindra is also building a huge R and D centre, one of its kind in India.
Slowly Mahindra and Mahindra is working towards building all kinds of vehicles, two wheelers,autoricks,agricultural vehicles and machines,lcv, heavy commercial vehicles, buses, electric vehicles,power backup engines,, industrial engines., hatches,sedans,compact suv,muv,suv, luxury suv.

I admire what they have achieved and i admire their courage for being quick to respond to market needs and being a very efficient business.

[Geo_Ipe]

Interiors - Average
Feature list - Poor
Safety - Airbags +, Not sure about ABS, No rear wash-wipe
Engine - Tried and tested 1.5 K9K
Space - Huge!
Ride - Can safely assume its good/very good
Brand Mahindra - Desirability quotient is subjective

Would I buy it as my personal diesel hatch? No.
There are too many better alternatives to choose from.

Cab fleet owners must be excited!
Realistically, I feel the Vista is the only hatch that should feel challenged by the Vibe. Will follow the sales chart quite keenly for the coming few months.

[deetjohn]

What an ugly tailgate! There is no aesthetic sense to this design.

And the price looks very ambitious. The Verito D starts at 6.1 right? So, 50 K more and you can get a very spacious practical sedan. And resale will be better too.

Will be interesting to see how many takers are there for this. No hard feelings, but I really hope this tanks.

[FrozeninTime]

The only thing I liked was the rear design of vibe especially the tail light design which to me gives vibe design a premium look to rear end.
Now coming to what I disliked:
1. side profile gives it 80s boxy looks
2.Its too expensive for what it offers
3.Mahindra should have added more features like climate control , steering mounted control etc.
4. dashboard and overall plastic quality is quite poor.

Slightly Off topic here - This type of rear tailgate design was first seen in Morris 1100 of early 1960s and was quite popular with manufacturers and was also seen cars like Alfa sud of early 1970s.But this design was mostly seen in British Leyland cars as it gave an impression of owning a booted sedan.Also Vibe name was used by General motors for a compact hatchback built by Pontiac in USA. It seems either history is repeating itself or has Mahindra ran out of ideas!

[ramzsys]

The Ford Figo appears to be more VFM than before.