[TusharK]

Mahindra is celebrating a new production milestone as the 15,00,000th Bolero Pick Up rolled out of its production line at Kandivali in Mumbai.



The Bolero Pick Up has a cargo deck that measures 2,765 mm in length and has a payload capacity of 1,700 kg. It is powered by a 2.5-litre, 4-cylinder diesel engine that produces 70 BHP @ 3,200 rpm and 200 Nm @ 1,400-2,200 rpm. The engine is mated to a 5-speed manual gearbox.

The Bolero Pick Up Extralong is offered in four variants depending on payload capacity. The base variant has a payload capacity of 1.25 tonne. It is also available with a 1.3 tonne and 1.5 tonne capacity.

Link to Team-BHP News

[aravind.anand]

Wait what?? I had to carefully re-read the number several times before I could be sure that my eyes are actually working fine. I never thought 15 lakh of these Bolero Pick-up trucks have been sold, as I never really noticed so many of them on our roads. It should be one of the highest selling LCVs of all-time then, right?

[bigron]

Says a lot for the popularity of this utilitarian vehicle. For your farm duties and weekend rural trips to your country estate where the roads are scarce, this works well.
Where I stay , it is very popular because people buying it think they are getting something similar to a Pajero and are under the impression that it commands respect on the road. In reality, its a tractor with row of seats.

It is painful to sit in this and go from point A to B.I ve seen park benches with more comfort than the seats in this. And the noise and vibration that you feel in this is akin to a roller coaster ride at your city amusement park.

Let me stop by saying that 'a new and improved access to the gear lever ' is one of the convenience features of this vehicle listed on its website. I must thank Mahindra for providing prospective buyers with this feature as standard.

[aaggoswami]

Kudos to Mahindra for identifying the sweet spot in the market space; and then achieving success too. LCV segment is full of abused vehicles and surprisingly, this LCV has held its own. Wonder why Tata is not able to achieve similar success, IIRC, the 3.0 from 407 is known to be a torque monster capable of taking abuse too.

Originally Posted by bigron

Says ..standard.

Bolero pick-up is a regular sighting on GJ roads, these things move fast, much faster then one expects an ancient vehicle to do so. And it moves briskly even with load (or overload). Scary is best word to describe emotions when a fast, overloaded Bolero Pick up is in your lane trying to overtake a truck on a single lane highway. I face these situations frequently. Goes on to prove how well Mahindra as read the market and nailed it well. Mahindra has been ruling the rural segment which I guess helped in coming up with a product that slots in well between Tata Ace and Tata 407.


Edit : Shouldn't this thread be in Commercial Vehicle Section ?

[bigron]

I understand that a pick up variation of this doing well. Because you are looking at an abuse and repair friendly vehicle that is economical to run. Things like comfort, features and ease of driving take a back seat.

But as a personal vehicle there is little out there that is worse than this. I am talking more about the SUV version of this.

[GTO]

Am doing some back-of-the-envelope calculations and honestly, this 15 lakh number is a bit hard to believe. Is there some twisting of the truth here? E.g. 15 lakh pickups in total produced (including their smaller trucks) and this "Bolero" is the one that marked the milestone? Or that 15 lakh Boleros have been produced and this pickup is the 1.5 millionth one?

[anjan_c2007]

It's great news that a great survivor through the past two decades viz. the Bolero has achieved such a milestone. Survivor, because it has survived all the BS norms from I to V with engine upgrades starting with the Peugeot XD3P, 2498 cc, powerplant that had to be discarded in 2001 in favour of the DI and its upgrades later on.

The Bolero has it's vintage Mahindra DNA that takes through the rough and tough urban and countrysides in most parts of the country. It's best preferred role is that of a people's carrier and a goods hauler - both jobs it does, emerging with flying colours !

In the north east more and more Boleros are seen as replacement for older MUV's like the Tata Sumo and the Chevrolet Tavera that are losing ground of late.

The 15,00,000th Bolero rolling out at the times of a severe recession in the automobile sector is something that should show us light at the end of the tunnel.

[Spinnerr]

Not just in India, Bolero pickup is pretty popular in our neighboring Sri Lanka.

It was a lazy day, I was checking out some modified Boleros online and that is when I stumbled up on some really cool looking ones from Sri Lanka. It was interesting to note that majority of the ones in Sri Lanka are Bolero pickups and they also seem to be a popular people carrier in their modified avatar. Most of the safari rides are on Bolero pickups.

One thing lead to the other and I ended up spending quite some time researching about Boleros in Lanka.

There is primarily one dealer, IDEAL MOTORS and they have a vast network of dealerships all across Sri Lanka. Some reading into this monopoly and it turned out to be a Mahindra JV with Ideal Motors for 10years. 35:65 JV, with an assembly plant set up about 60kms from Colombo. This was around 2018/19, prior to that Ideal motors was just a Mahindra dealer.

They have Bolero pickup in 3 variants. (Interesting name 'Big' Bolero)


Maxi Truck has 4 trims


Specs: m2DiCR 2.5L BS-IV engine, power steering and ABS are standard

Bolero Maxi Truck Plus Maxi “Sport”, now this explained how I came across so many good looking Bolero pickups. There is Sport variant; people who buy it are investing in chunky off road tyres, wheels and auxiliary lights. But then, on closer inspection, I think people are modifying the regular trim.

Sport trim translates to Painted Front Grill/ Sport Decal/ Fog Lamps/ Reverse Camera/ Windscreen Decal/ USB Stereo/ 2 Tone Hood/ 2 Tone Painted Rim/ Stickered Cargo Deck/ Power shutters/ Mud Flaps/ Cabin LED Bulb/ Central Locking/ Door Visors



Few of the modified boleros in SL




One more interesting thing is the cabin that is built on the pickup bed to carry people. I found hints of landrover roofs in some of them, but the vast majority increased the seating capacity with comfortable seats.


Not sure about the registration part, how the RTOs in SL works, registered as a pickup, but used as a people carrier, haven’t researched on this. But I did find out they have a category called “Dual Purpose Vehicle”.








Most probably these pickups must be private vehicles, which should explain the comfy, wide seats on the back of these pickups.


Few are purpose built for wildlife safaris.


I wonder why Bolero Plus (the 9 seater one) didn’t really make a mark here. But then, it is eye sore compared to these modified ones.

Sources:
Used car sites
Riyasewana
iKMan

Dealer: Ideal motors

[condor]

From a 2014 video aired on 60 Minutes Australia: They are using the old Bolero Camper 4x4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gOh_M_gSdo

[Kosfactor]

They sell about 1.5L vehicles of this kind every year. It is a big market and Bolero has more or less monopoly in this segment.

There has been several competitors over the years, the strongest one is from another brand that has arguably even higher brand loyalty in the HCV segment - Ashok Leyland. Their Dost & Bada Dost are doing very well, they do have some issues when it comes to durability and reliability in comparison to Bolero, however the additional power and larger load space is an advantage.