[sriku]

I've been a grateful recepient of all the Team-Bhp TD's, reviews and ownership reports until now, and am proud to be able to add one of my own to this extensive database. I have TD'ed, purchased and driven the Mahindra Bolero SLX for the past two months over 4500 kms. I'd like to post my ownership experience here, and do appreciate the forum's extensive support in my struggles till date.

1. Decision between Gypsy and Bolero.

I'd earlier discussed my obsession with the MG413W, and my attempts to own one. I still ache for one, but certain factors like Power steering, A/C, comfort, fuel economy made me choose the Bolero over the Gypsy as a primary vehicle for my family. I'll still get a Gypsy soft top for myself as a second car, but after a year or so. Gypsy enthusiasts are a breed apart from the regular junta, and I hope to join them in their adventures soon. The Gypsy thread is here.

2. Bolero discussions with Kesri and HVKumar

HVK and Kesri, both road warriors, both superbly aware of Indian vehicles, terrain requirements, maintenance issues and everything else to do with cars in India, were instrumental in my education. They evaluated the options available and the factors needed to be considered along with the ownership/running costs and helped me justify the Bolero over other vehicles. HVK has been the wikipedia of Mahindra related information, and his life experiences on the roads are simply unbelievable, extensive and fantastic. After realising that the DI engine has certain maintenance benefits over the more advanced engines in the Mahindra stable, and the cost factor of owning a 6.5 lakh Bolero over a nearly 11 lakh Scorpio, I was able to finalise the Bolero and could begin hunting in earnest for information on TBHP, Mahindra showrooms, other owners etc.

3. Bolero hunting, TD at Global Gallarie, Strike at the Mahindra plant, discounts and sales experience

Towards the end of April 09, I'd read, discussed and learnt as much as possible about the Bolero and had also driven the Armada, from which it has evolved. I'd been able to TD a Bolero GLX, courtesy a family friend, and was impressed with the clean driveability on broken roads around Thane and Alibaug. I was however aching to land a TD of the new Bolero SLX, as I'd heard the features were a step above the GLX, and added up to make it easier to own and drive in the city, while retaining the toughness required for broken roads and longer road trips. The Mahindra showroom in Thane, Global Gallarie, is situated on Ghodbunder road, which is a 10 minute drive from my house. I hopped onto my standard 350, and rode down, hoping to get a TD of the SLX. This was not to be however, as they did not have the demo car available. It had been sent to Nerul for some repairs(this scared me), and the salesperson, Ms.Prajakta, asked me to leave my number so she could contact me and send the car home for a Test Drive. I had to wait 2 weekends before this TD could happen, due to work pressures and other priorities, but finally, one Saturday morning, the Bolero SLX demo car arrived at my house with an eager and informed sales person to give me a feature preview. As I drove the SLX around Thane, my dad and the sales person were in the car too, and I took it through some broken patches, traffic, up/downhill roads and the Ghodbunder highway, and was immediately aware of the following:

a. Loads of torque at low rpm's in 2nd and 3rd gear made city driving easy. I did not need to downshift from 3rd gear at all for most of the <40kph running in mildly congested inner city streets.
b. Acceptable NVH levels when the windows were up and A/C turned on.
c. My dad commented on the bouncy ride in the midrow, but I could not feel any of it in the driver's seat.
d. The clean acceleration and non-sticky gear shifts were totally unexpected and welcome.
e. The road presence ensured two-wheelers and auto's stayed well behaved most of the time.
f. The view of the road ahead was spectacular due to the huge windshield, and blind spots were non-existent. This pleased me to no end, and I could negotiate city traffic with no fear of side-swiping anybody on my left.

After this 35 minute TD, I took the car to Kesri's place, and called him to TD it as well. A second opinion never hurt anyone, and I knew Kesri's opinion counted more than mine anyday. He put the car through its paces and as we live on Yeoor Hills, he went through minor up/downhills and the regular traffic. Once the proper TD got done, I got my Mom to sit in the rear as well, and took her around for a short ride. As this was meant to be the family ride, I thought it important to find out what she thought of the car. Both my folks were satisfied with the TD, and they were car-aware enough to point out the bouncy ride and slightly cramped midrow as compared to a bigger (read more expensive) Scorpio/Innova. I'd already TD'ed the Scorpio, the Xylo and the Innova, and though they offered more refined and powerful drives, I simply could not feel any passion for them, and definitely could not afford the cost difference. I'd like to reiterate that the cost was not the only factor in my decision for the Bolero, I genuinely dig the jeep inspired looks, no-frills interiors and the modest but tough nature of this piece of machinery.

A week after the TD, after I'd thought long and hard about the financing and other requirements for the purchase, I spoke with Ms.Prajakta at the showroom, and she informed me about the strike at the Mahindra plant, which would delay my delivery into the first week of June. I was a bit apprehensive and made some calls to the Mahindra factory to get info on the situation. I was informed that the strike was in its ending stages and that production of the Xylo was impacted to a greater extent than the Bolero. They sounded confident and it rubbed off on me as well. Before the TD, I had been apprised of a 45,200 INR company discount on the Bolero SLX, and this was a major incentive to book the car. When I confirmed my interest however, as the strike was on, Prajakta told me that the discount was temporarily rescinded, and that I may have to pay the undiscounted price for it. I did not like what I heard, and made sure they realised that I would not book the car without the company discount and some dealer discounts as well. After a few days, I got a call from Prajakta at 9:30 pm to inform me that the strike had ended, and the discount was back in force. I did not waste any time, and headed over to the showroom to finalise the deal. Here, I was offered three financing options. The SBI deal was 10.75% reducing interest and looked to be the best, while the Mahindra finance and the Axis bank deals were slightly more expensive at 11.5 and 11.75%. The SBI loan was on the On-road price as well, so I put in all the required documents and began the wait for the bank to approve the loan. After a week's wait, and no progress, I spoke to SBI and they told me that it will take 17 more days to process. Being the impatient guy that I am, I asked them to send back my documents and forget about the loan. At this point, Prajakta from the showroom got me hooked up with the Axis bank agents who prcessed my loan in a record 2 days, matched the SBI rates, and made the entire process so pain-free that I just could not believe it. I'd like to state for the record that the showroom staff were always courteous, very informed and very effecient. I was impressed and totally recommend Global Gallarie.

More to come...

[sriku]

4. Delivery, pooja, brought home

After the loan got disbursed on June 1st, I was informed that the dealership will complete PDI and registration with octroi passing in 2 days, after which I could take delivery. This was perfect, as my parents were due to return on June 3rd from their trip down South, and as per the "good day" calendar, mom asked me to take delivery on the 5th of June, a Friday. Of course, again being the impatient nut that I am, I made multiple visits to the yard and showroom to check out my Bolero and do my own PDI. I affectionately named the Bolero "Moby", being that it's big, white and whale-like. References to Moby Dick and Captain Ahab were bound to happen, though on the advice of my brother, I decided to drop the second part of the name, and kept just the "Moby" There, I've used one smiley already. So bright and early on Friday morning, we rushed to the showroom in my brother's Ikon 1.6 Petrol, and proceeded to take delivery. I had to reach my temple for the vehicle puja before 10:45 AM, as per muhurat, and had to rush the puja at the dealership. At the showroom, Prajakta ensured a proper puja and gave me a 10ltr coupon for fuel at the nearest pump. As soon as the photoshoot was done, I was also given a box of sweets and a framed pic of me taking the keys from Prajakta in a snazzy picture frame. We then went to our temple about 4 kms away, and got the official puja done for Moby. This was fun as well, and I felt much better after Ganesha blessed my car twice in two hours. The drive back home was fun too, as this is the first car that I have purchased, and the first that my family has ever owned. The air of satisfaction and hope of good times ahead was heavy and I just loved it. The folks were already making plans to visit all the temples in the city starting from the Ayappa temple in Thane to Siddhi Vinayak and Mahalaxmi. I, however had other plans in my head, HVK's September Ladakh trip and my imminent Mumbai-Bangalore-Chennai-Bangalore-Mumbai trip foremost amongst them!

5. Almost stolen next day:

So Friday I bring Moby home, and as my building has no parking space within for me, I park right outside on the road. Leave Moby parked and sleep soundly after a long time. At around 3:35 in the morning, a panic intercom call comes through and our watchman tells my dad that the cops are downstairs, and want the owners of the bolero to come down asap. My dad fears the worst, and tells me to get the car papers along. We reach the building gate, and see a police bolero with the bike patrol cops waiting near Moby. The society watchman and the shopping center watchman also stand near the car. The cops ask me directly why the doors are unlocked! I lose it and tell them I'd locked the car properly and it cannot be otherwise. Then my dormant engineer within awakes, and I look around Moby to see that the fuel lid lock is missing, and the lid is ajar. In the meanwhile, the shopping center guard explains that he saw 4 men in a black Indica par alongside Moby at 3 am, and they were trying to open the doors. These guys managed to make a duplicate key and get into the drivers seat. Unfortunately for them, I had installed the gear lock before delivery itself(courtesy HVK, he got one before his sunrise to sunset road trip which passed through Bihar). The had disengaged the handbrake, and were making ready to drive off when the gear lock upset their plans. More on the near theft, my countermeasures etc are posted here.

Some more to come...

[sriku]

6. Road trip to Chennai via Bangalore and back to Mumbai

After the near theft, my struggles with the Mahindra service guys, the showroom accessories guys etc, I had pretty much had it with everything and needed a break from life. This came in the form of my cousin bro, gsferrari, who managed to buy the Yamaha MT-01. This superbike was purchased in Bangalore, and needed to be registered in the Chennai RTO, as he hails from there. He needed someone to drive down to Bangalore, then Chennai and back to Mumbai via Bangy as the range of this bike is only 225 kms on a full tank of premium 97 octane fuel. The plan was to carry two 40 ltr cans of premium petrol in Moby while we rode the MT to Chennai from Bangalore, then rode back to Mumbai via Bangalore. At this time, Moby had run just 1500 kms, and I was hesitant to embark on a NH4 run, as I know those roads will require constant high speeds, which may not be ideal for an engine which wasn't fully run-in yet. I tried to run-in Moby as much as I could on all speeds, revs and prayed it would perform well on the trip. We left on the afternoon of 3rd July, and proceeded to drive a full 7 hrs to reach Hubli where we halted for the night at Hotel Hans. This is a surprisingly good place to halt, and the amenities were fantastic for 2k per night. The drive on the express highway and then the NH4 upto Hubli was fantastic, beautiful and completely mesmerizing. There was light rain throughout, and we drove windows down all the way on one tank of fuel! The next morning, Saturday, the 4th of July, we left Hubli for Bangalore and reached around 1pm. The scenic roads between Hubli and Bangalore via Dhavangere, Chitradurga, Ranebennur and Tumkur are simply too beautiful. Apart from the frequent diversions made necessary by the construction of the elevated roads closer to Bangalore, the roads were again superb. Traffic was light, but intensified as we neared Bangalore. We were met at Nelamangala, near the Himalaya factory by a friend Akhil who had taken delivery of the MT-01 and actually rode to meet us on it. Navigating through Electronic city and the Bangalore roads towards Vijaynagar were however, awful to say the least. Bad roads, horrid traffic and insane motorists combined to make the last 30 kms of the drive the worst of them all. I know Bangy people will hate me for this, but as beautiful as the city and the weather may be, the traffic rates the worst amongst chennai and mumbai. The mumbai autos and bikers seem a well behaved lot when compared to their Bangy counterparts. I had a tough time driving there as indicated turns are ignored, horns totally ignored, signals make loud beeps when they turn red, roundabouts are your worst nightmare and pedestrians seem to be completely fearless! I'd shift base to Bangy for good just for the beautiful weather and the extra curricular opportunities, but the traffic remains the biggest deal breaker. The drive back from Chennai to Bangalore was uneventful, but pleasant. The drive from Bangalore to Mumbai was spectacular. We had to halt at Kolhapur for the night, as riding in the constant rain was tough, and rest was really needed. At Kolhapur the city roads are being relayed. The construction has been impacted by the very heavy rains that have been a constant feature for the last week and a half there. Some roads are closed, others are mini OTR's and yet others are brand new. The Kolhapur-Mumbai leg began at 11:30 am on a lazy Sunday, and we managed to get home after a 9 day R&R with no negative incidents along the entire trip. For the 2800 kms round trip, Moby performed like a star, never causing any worries and always ready to hit the roads. Worryingly though, the coolant level had dropped from High at the start to Low by the time we finished the trip. I spoke to HVK and Mahindra Service advisor, they think there is some leak in either the coolant tank or the pipes to and from the tank. I am going to take care of this when I take Moby for the first service this weekend.


7. Issues encountered:

There is nothing like a 1200km drive in varying weather and road conditions to get to know a new car, its niggles, and its plus points. I learnt a lot about Moby in this trip. Some of the areas that need improvement are as below:

a. The rear windshield does not come with a wiper. This is very annoying in the rain/slush, as nothing can be seen at all when dirty water settles on it. I had to purchase a sprayer and a small mop. The kinds that the Club HP guys use to clean the windshields. Every rest stop we took involved me spraying and wiping clean the rear screen. In twilight/heavy rain, this lack of visibility through the rear screen is downright scary. This oversight by Mahindra really annoys me, and I cannot imagine how they could neglect such a vital feature in a car they have apparently revamped recently.

b. Seat padding for the driver and co-driver is soft and lacks proper thigh support for longer drives. I need to get this fixed at the upholsterers asap.

c. Midrow seat legroom is inadequate if two big guys sit upfront and push the seats back fully. For short drives, they are fine, but for long drives, it will be inadequate. As I am still single and intend to spend all my time in the drivers seat, I'm not really bothered about the midrow.

d. In the first 1000 kms, downshifting from 2nd to 1st was a pain, and wasn't smooth at all. After 1500kms or so, this problem has gone away. I guess its part of the "new-car" syndrome.

e. The gear ratios are weird. Simply weird. First gear is just to overcome standstill inertia. Second is very short, and third takes you upto 60kmph at 2100 rpm. 4th gear is the tallest one, and I need to stay in 4th until I reach 80+kmph at 2100rpm before I can shift into 5th without hearing that irritating engine knock. Fifth gear has absolutely no torque delivery, and is only useful to maintain speed at near flat roads. I have gotten used to these ratios, but am sure they could have been better. Second and third gear should have been closer in range instead of third being so tall. This same tall third gear however keeps me happy in the city, where downshifting is rarely necessary.

f. Power steering on Moby is vague and not speed sensitive at all. In the city at low speeds, its as comfortable as any small car. But on the highway at speeds exceeding 60kph, the slightest change in the wheel is registered immediately. I haven't had any near misses because of this, but I'm sure it shouldn't be this sensitive at speed. Can't do anything about it though, so will have to live with it. It isn't a deal breaker by any means, but something to remember when driving around at higher speeds.

g. Moby needs a key to open the fuel lid. This is very annoying at every fuel stop, and I intend to mate the Scorpio remote cable release fuel lid system to Moby as soon as possible.


8. Things I liked: I am a big guy. I need a lot of real estate. Moby's driver seat is big, loads of head and side room and comfy seats. I love the sofa-esque driver ergonomics, and was as comfy as a guy watching TV at home on his couch for the entire drive to Chennai. The amount of torque delivered at low rpm's and gears is a boon for city driving. I'm possibly the laziest TBHPian, and driving Moby around simply complements my laziness. Moby has loads of road presence, and smaller cars, autos and bikers think twice before darting into my lane in traffic. This is so relaxing that I have begun to enjoy it immensely. Too bad the Ikon doesn't get this treatment. As we say in Hindi, "Koi bhaav hi nahi deta isko". The A/C system is super cool all the time, and I have to constantly turn it off to thaw my innards!

I'll upload some pics of Moby soon. Thanks for getting this far. Appreciate it.

Cheers

[sriku]

[balajird]

Excellent write up buddy, Please do post about your experience with ICE and what was the OTR ? if possible, split for the OTR please?

[sriku]

Originally Posted by balajird

Excellent write up buddy, Please do post about your experience with ICE and what was the OTR ? if possible, split for the OTR please?

Thanks Sir, The OEM ICE was surprisingly good! The Nippon HU came with USB and SD Card inputs and I promptly plonked 2 2GB cards into it with all my tunes. There are four speakers, two where the driver and co-driver's feet go under the dash and two in the rear side walls behind the midrow seats. Sound quality is acceptable, but in no means is it spectacular. I had budgeted some 35K for ICE, and am happy I didn't need to spend it!

The final price I paid was 6,54,000 INR after discounts and registration/sales tax/insurance/octroi etc. I will post a breakdown soon as I get the accurate figures at home.

Cheers,

[Avenger]

Congrats on your purchase.

OT: That thing in the first photo.. what is that? where did you get it from? can it be installed in any car?

Avenger

[sriku]

Originally Posted by Avenger

Congrats on your purchase.

OT: That thing in the first photo.. what is that? where did you get it from? can it be installed in any car?

Avenger

It's a plain old GPS Sir. I borrowed it from gsferrari, who borrowed it from his friend. We haven't yet loaded india maps on it, and are using it only for true speed readings and trip timings. And yes, any car can have it, no need to install. At the most you need a 12 V DC point in the car to keep it juiced.

Another pic of the GPS with map view:

[jkdas]

Congrats. Lovely VFM vehicle. Wider tyres and alloys are a must for Bolero
I remember seeing a model with alloys at the showroom.

Whats the difference between SLX and other models?

And nice write up.

[MileCruncher]

Originally Posted by sriku

Thanks Sir, The OEM ICE was surprisingly good! The Nippon HU came with USB and SD Card inputs and I promptly plonked 2 2GB cards into it with all my tunes.

Sriku, could you please post a pic of your HU as mine, even though its a VLX came with an appalling HU which I had to get changed. No aux or USB.

@jkdas: SLX is the highest variant with power steering, power windows on the DI Turbo version.

[anjan_c2007]

Congratulations sriku on your new buy- rather late in congratulating you. Hope that has come with the 2498 cc BS III XD 3P Peugeot engine.Do keep us posted.

[sriku]

As I live in Thane, I need to pay octroi passing for any vehicles purchased, hence with octroi, the on-road cost of the vehicle came to 7,07,358
We have to pay 5.5% of the showroom price as octroi to the government, which is plain robbery. This is why many people register their cars against a Navi Mumbai address and save the octroi amount.

I got a discount of 45200 from the company, and I could save 1200 on the sales tax, as it was revised and reduced a day after I applied for the loan. The Axis bank agent made sure I got the benefit even though I did not know about the revised rate. So totally I paid 6,62,158 for the car, and spent an additional 12k on accessories like mats, hard underbody coat, film, gear lock and other stuff.

@MileCruncher: Sir, pics of the HU will happen latest by 11:30 am today itself. More interior pics too. The model number of the system is NDC-MP6009UC SD/USB/MP3/CD Player with Tuner. Made for Mahindra by Nippon Audiotronix Ltd.

@anjan_c2007: Sir, the Peugeot engine is no longer an option for Bolero's. They have been accused of being less fuel effecient than the DI engines, and have been phased out. The SLX has a 2523 DI Turbo plant which is also BSIII.

Cheers,

[sriku]

MileCruncher Sir, here's the HU. The right most corner houses the SD card slot, and the USB is right below it. A blue SD card is in the slot already.


The Driver's POV. You can see the gear lock and steering lock in place.


A closer look at the locks.


Scuff pads engraved with the Bolero label on all entries, to avoid paint being scuffed during entry/exit.


Cheers,

[balajird]

Nice Pics Sriku, do post the pics after you install the remote fuel lid lock and other safety accessories (only if you feel it is safe to post the pics )

[sriku]

Thanks Balaji R.D, I'll put up pics over the weekend when I get the service done.

Cheers,