[raj_5004]

Originally Posted by sridhga

Yea, We are listening. Jus... hold on a minute please!

(In the backgound) hey, shyam call the LR guy Eddie in Warwickshire and tell him to look into his parts bin and check if he can spare some cheap ATs.

Yes saar it can be arranged. When do you want a test drive?

well if its TATA, this wont suprise me!

[hondadude]

Originally Posted by GTO

I have said this before and will say this again : Indian driving conditions are most suitable to automatics.

I agree GTO. With traffic reduced to a crawl in Bangalore, I desperately crave for an AT and my next car will be an AT for sure.

The point of an AT is ease of driving. If you want to extract the max FE out of our car, an AT is obviously not for you. So its not our driving conditions, but the FE mindset (partially) that has made us averse to ATs.

Yup. I personally believe road rage will come down as more and more people use ATs. Driving an AT in high traffic situation is lot more relaxed than constantly changing gears all the time.

[prasadee]

Originally Posted by ramkya1

From the outside its almost same as the present one except for the badge Automatic on the rear door and the smaller hubcaps. There's a dead pedal, the gearbox is programmed to upshift soon as possible, but lacks the Josh start of the MT from a dead stop.

So, it still has a clutch pedal that does not work?? That should make it easy for those switching from manual trans.

[ramkya1]

Originally Posted by prasadee

So, it still has a clutch pedal that does not work?? That should make it easy for those switching from manual trans.

The dead pedal would be nice on the long runs, the one on Santro (MT)was very useful on highway driving.

I have been following the Scorpio US launch stats pretty closely through a diesel-head cousin of mine there, knowling its a matter of time when all these features will become standard / optional in India. Get a load of this.......

The US one would be a diesel / diesel-electric hybrid, the power trains will be same. The adds on the engine are stunning, 2.2, 1800 injection pressure, variable-geometry turbodiesel, 180 HP, 300 pound-feet torque, will comply to the T2B5 (tier 2 bin 5) emission norms, one of the most stringient in the world. The AT will be on the torque-convetoor tech and not the variable transmission used by most others like Ford and GM. 4 year / 60,000 miles warranty is standard.

Safety will be, 4 channel ABS, air bags, electronic stability system and a GPS. The 5 door trimmed down version will be priced around $ 20,000/- and the one with all bells and whistles around 25,000/-, this is very competitive, other fully loaded SUV's retail for $ 40,000 - 50,000 !!!!!

One interesting historical fact about the US market from the Jap SUV story is that price alone will not woo customers, quality is everythig. So, if M&M takes quality for granted, if they even have quality nigglies, US Scorpio dreams wold be history, customers there are very quality consvious, India is more cost-conscious.

What does it mean to us, Indian customers? When M &M rolls so much into a brand, we would get the rub-off benefits or the full product itself some time down the line. Let's hope this US pitch works.

--Ramky

[S_budhiraj]

M&M quality isn't too bad against competition!

(Or rather I would say we Indians are happy with average quality, for the same reason the Germans sells their cars in India at premium, dancing on their quality themes)

As per Autocar, if tweaked better for 30-40 Kmph speeds, this car would be a hoot to drive in city as well as highway

[GTO]

Originally Posted by bigman

Wait till the niggling faults start coming up with this AT, the mechanics struggle with simple ECU's. These AT are going to be a nightmare for them.

Originally Posted by ramkya1

If we track back the history, the CRDE had lots of nigglies and people were very upset, M&M has slowly but surely sorted out all these; the leaf suspension is a case in point.

Agreed. When the Scorpio came out, local Mahindra guys were recommending the Bolero for rough use. Ditto at the time of the CRDe launch....the same techs were rooting for the regular DI Scorpio. Mahindra & Tata definitely take their time in sorting out initial niggles and its best to buy their cars a year or two post-launch. Heck, I'd recommend the same for the complicated Germans too!

[ramkya1]

Originally Posted by GTO

Agreed. When the Scorpio came out, local Mahindra guys were recommending the Bolero for rough use. Ditto at the time of the CRDe launch....the same techs were rooting for the regular DI Scorpio. Mahindra & Tata definitely take their time in sorting out initial niggles and its best to buy their cars a year or two post-launch. Heck, I'd recommend the same for the complicated Germans too!

IMO the response time has improved, the A/C vent, waterfall effect and introduction of the front fender with the air-dam (still not solved fully, but improved); suspension took longer, but the lotus system has made a sea change in the bounce and control. All happened VERY slowly, but it did.

In this background of response time, the US launch is pivotal. They have to design, test, implement, evaluate and improve systems on response-time there, in one press release they admitted as much. The Japs learned it the hard way, they had huge quality problems on their SUV's, but they turned-around fast and gained market shares after a bloody battle.

What does this mean to me? M&M willl learn an expensive or profitable lesson there and it would surely rub-off here too; survival of the fittest. There are worthy adversories sniffing hard at the SUV market here, the growth rates here are pretty tempting.

--Ramky

========

[PAVAN KADAM]

Bumped into this thread too late.

, whats wrong with M&M, they have gone bonkers introducing a diesel AT.

What kind of torque would the gearbox have, i feel now all scorpio owners need to add a clutch plate change every now and then in their quarterly budget.

I still cant stop laughing, just when the scorpio seems to be doing well in its segment, they've done this..and what price .(LOL)

(I miss the third Smiley)

[raj_5004]

Originally Posted by PAVAN KADAM

Bumped into this thread too late.

, whats wrong with M&M, they have gone bonkers introducing a diesel AT.

What kind of torque would the gearbox have, i feel now all scorpio owners need to add a clutch plate change every now and then in their quarterly budget.

I still cant stop laughing, just when the scorpio seems to be doing well in its segment, they've done this..and what price .(LOL)

(I miss the third Smiley)

read the issue of autocar. they have stated the vehicle is very sprightly in its performance and is slower by only 1 sec in the 0-100 kph compared to the manual. so whats wrong with a diesel AT? isnt merc C & E class, laura, octavia, BMW 3 & 5 series, passat and many other offered with AT in diesel variants? mahindra has done it in a relatively cheaper segment. so kudos to them for achieving this.
i hope there is no problems with the clutch plates either. i trust mahindra with that. inside news is that the AT was tested for 6 months before lauching.
about the price, the same was said when the VLX was launched! but look at its sales figures. moreover, i dont thnk mahindra is planning to achieve any good numbers with its AT scorpio. even they may be aware that this class of indian buyers dont prefer an AT SUV! its just about the various choices they are giving to the customer: 3 different engines, MT & AT along with different variants, of course the 4WD!

[ramkya1]

Originally Posted by PAVAN KADAM

Bumped into this thread too late.

, whats wrong with M&M, they have gone bonkers introducing a diesel AT.

What kind of torque would the gearbox have, i feel now all scorpio owners need to add a clutch plate change every now and then in their quarterly budget.

I still cant stop laughing, just when the scorpio seems to be doing well in its segment, they've done this..and what price .(LOL)

(I miss the third Smiley)

Hai Pavan,

You must have made that statement just to bait the scorpio lovers Love that barb.........

If that was not in a jokular vein..... then you must have some logic / data / reasoning / hypothesis / insider-information to back up that statement?

--Ramky

-------------

[PAVAN KADAM]

Originally Posted by ramkya1

Hai Pavan,

You must have made that statement just to bait the scorpio lovers Love that barb.........

If that was not in a jokular vein..... then you must have some logic / data / reasoning / hypothesis / insider-information to back up that statement?

--Ramky

-------------

Ramky ,

i see lot of brain activity going on with scorpio owners.

Guys re-read my posts, its never derogatory.

Due respects to M&M for the scorp.

About the AT version, only time will tell, i'll keep quiet till then.

[theMAG]

Well, atleast you got to give them credit for launching the 1st Indian autobox SUV in India !

[ramkya1]

Originally Posted by PAVAN KADAM

Ramky ,

i see lot of brain activity going on with scorpio owners.

Guys re-read my posts, its never derogatory.

Due respects to M&M for the scorp.

About the AT version, only time will tell, i'll keep quiet till then.

Hai Bro., no hard feelings, I read all your posts, PEACE & cheers: and let's just enjoy our rides !!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, you're dot-on about the AT, you never know which way the sales will swing.

Please keep posting, what I feel or you feel are minor issues compared to the larger objective of TBHP of sharing views, learning from each other so we can make informed decisions.

Happy Driving,

--Ramky

===========

[muneemmk]

Hey is there a clutch plate in an A/T ? all it has is a set of gears suspended in some kinda fluid. And except for the brake pads nothing else is going to be any problem, A/T are less problematic in my opinion.

[bigman]

Originally Posted by theMAG

Well, atleast you got to give them credit for launching the 1st Indian autobox SUV in India !

Only if it proves to be a decent box over time.