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-   -   New Scorpio LX—Bliss of contentment (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-drives-initial-ownership-reports/65453-new-scorpio-lx-bliss-contentment.html)

Contentment is natural wealth, Luxury is artificial poverty
—Socrates

Emmanuel Kant in one of his essays talks of the difference between the feeling of sublime and the beautiful and shows how the northern and southern Europe is conditioned by these different sensibilities and how it is reflected in their distinct lifestyles and their sense of design. In many ways, our decisions and our choices in every aspect of life rest upon a sum total of needs and inclinations derived from a very complex set of attributes. The car we buy and the amount of satisfaction we derive from it is, similarly, affected by these complex parameters—different for different individuals.

Life in today’s world is difficult—not because we do not have choices, or that we do not know what we need. Nor, even, that we do not get what we want. Today’s life is tough because of the overwhelmingly large number of choices, the bombardment of information (enough to confuse a supercomputer) and, worst of all, a complex and forceful media dominated by large corporations and powerful cultures who condition our thinking in their particular ways and force us to spend our hard earned money our trust in the direction of their intent. This cartel makes us believe that Swiss watches, even though heavy and fragile, are to be bought at insane prices while other (Indian or Japanese), even though more accurate, tough, reliable and packed with features are to be detested by connoisseurs, treated as poor man’s accessory. This conditioning has made us believe that a Merc or a Hum-V is an object of desire, if rated low in objective quality analysis while products from India with higher quality standards should be abhorred and be wary of. I admit to be a victim of such vandal propaganda—and having worked with the media—responsible partly for propagating this nonsense.

I have learned the way to bliss, at least in my automobile ownership, the hard way. Ever since my early youth I, like most young boys, was enamored by foreign cars—especially the macho Land Rovers. I read books about them and dreamed of owning one someday. Since last 15 years I have been driving and I remember that each moment with my Marutis and the likes was a time that I reminded myself of the goal of owning my ultimate Land Rover or Land Cruiser that I will drive. It was a time, that I now understand, full of illicit lies and misconceptions filled up in the head—a child’s mind brainwashed into believing something the sinister wanted believed.

After many second hands and third-hands, immense amount of precious time spent on fixing, maintenance, break-downs and frustrations, I bought my first brand new car—a Toyota Qualis—in circa 2000. This car, contrary to what everyone said in the beginning (some auto magazines declared it ‘Asinine’ in its looks), was great and was one of the best ownership experiences so far. After driving it for 8 years and almost 1.6 lakh kms I decided to sell it and upgrade to the better Innova that everyone, including the media said was much better. In the meanwhile, I was also able to lay my hands on a decent Range Rover V8 Petrol automatic in a pretty decent condition. Anyone would imagine that I would have only drive the RR from then on. Well, no. The RR spent most of its usable time getting itself fixed for all the nasty little problems—break leakages, oil leakages, fuel leakages, rattles, rusting (yes, most of the frame has iron components), whines, electrical problems, steering issues, suspension problems—the list is endless. While the Innova was predictably smooth and refined but failed to excite in its ownership. Circa 2009 and we, after seeing another nasty scratch on its one of the hitherto untouched parts, decide to get rid of both of them out of sheer frustration. Both these cars hadn’t given us anything but unexcited experience. Once was a comfortable commute van while the other a hogging pachyderm—macho only in its artificial image. They both failed to do what they promised: to provide a fulfilling driving experience. We realized that we hadn’t spent any fun time with both of these vehicles. So, since we are not getting much except assurance of daily commute and a lot of frustration and lightness in the wallet, we decided, without any repentance, to do without them.

But go for what? For a change, we decided to go for what our heart says. Yes, I left the choice to my wife with whom I test-drove almost all available vehicles in the market. And she chose a Scorpio and wanted it without the claddings. For FYI, my wife is a Graphic Artist and she has a pretty good sense of sensible design.

So, we bought a Scorpio. Predictably, our friends sneered at us. A poor man’s SUV they said. A pretender they proclaimed. Horror stories of their toppling and killing its occupants were dictated. It’s a ‘Dudhiya’s’ vehicle was told to us. We were also not very sure of our decision initially—conditioned as we were by the media proclaimed superiority of the European and the Japanese. But, to our surprise, we loved the Scorpio from the first moment. It delighted us with its eagerness to please. It seemed to have a life and character that so much lacked the Innova (that is a perfect mass produced product—every one looking like the other) and the RR—that was a snob and pretence in every plausible way.

It has been only two weeks since we have owned the Scorpio mHawk and we seem to have developed a bond with it—stronger than the bond we had with the Qualis. The quality is in its creation, the engineering is honest. It seems that the minds at work creating and improving the Scorpio are alive and excited, not dead and inflated who are creating mass-produced vehicles that no longer inspire and are forever being recalled for some stupid design flaws. In Scorpio we feel that an evolution and a genuine artistic effort is underway. Each Scorpio is different and the vehicle responds to the owner’s love and care. I have felt the car become more used to my style of driving in just two weeks. True, there are some small irritants and minor issues but the underlying soul is what has hooked us to it. We are truly enjoying the bliss of contentment and now, having risen above it all, see the hollowness in the quest for pointless luxury.

See the photos of our recent trip to Jaipur this weekend. I am sure, you can see the Scorpio smiling as much as we did.

Bravo Bravo. *CLAP CLAP CLAP*

Heres to standing up for what you thought made the right decision. Heres to wishing you all the best on your future drives and a lovely ownership experience. From what I have read and researched , the SUV wont let you down in any way.

Please be careful with the security aspect, the Indian thieves seem to have found out the true value of this machine and are equally eager to lay their grubby paws on your ride.

<edit> almost forgot - mate with this lovely writeup if you dont include any pictures, its akin to a coke without its black color or a paan without gulkand ; please post pictures! </edit>

Excellent writeup, its a surprise to see someone agreeing that the Innova is a boring car. I am sure the Scorp will give you the sting that was missing in your earlier vehicles. Enjoy the drives with your new beast....

Brilliant writeup. I thought you might be a Professor at some college :)

Hope you new buy , the Scorpio mHawk refreshes your love for cars that even the RR and Innova couldnt give you. Do post some pix and details of mod/accessories (if) you done to your Scorpio.

Many Congratulations on choosing an excellent automobile, and wish you a million miles of safe and happy driving! :thumbs up

Cheers,
Vikram

P.S: Looking forward to the photos :-)

Here are the photos I promised.

Nice Writeup Hoopoe.
Congrats for owning a Beast.
Enjoy and Drive Safe :)

Here are some basic figures of my weekend journey to Jaipur:
Total kms travelled: 540
Total mileage of the car so far: 1600+km
Date purchased: 25th August '09
Fuel efficiency on Jaipur trip: 16+ kmpl
Any problems encountered: none
Speeds: I drove in the range of 1500-2200 rpm. Cruising speeds on highway 80-100kmph

I felt that the gearbox gave a slight higher whine when we neared home. Could be due to heating or my tired ears. AC was used at low setting and cooled the car sufficiently at the lowest setting. I discovered only later that my wife hadn't even opened one of the vents on her side. The AC performance is definitely awesome. On my Innova the driver's vents were hopeless and I had resorted to being chauffeured just to get to the comparatively better cooling by the ceiling vents at the back.

hoopoe, congratulations on your MHawk ownership.Excellent write upclap: to explain your bond with your new machine.Keep updating and enjoy your ride.

Nice write up. Contentment elaborated in a contemporary way :) Good luck with you new ride.

P.S: Recommended TBHP stickers on the number plate :)

Thank you everyone. I will put the sticker once I have a number (still have the temporary). Next I will find some time to update the thread over the weekend with a few observations.

very nice write up. 16+ is something worth noting. I have not heard Scorpio giving such good mileage.... have fun dude...

Very classic write up and good choice of vehicle , to quote you "engineering is honest" and Mahindra is doing great efforts like TATA to evolve .

Nice writeup. Contentment to buy an Indian automobile is indeed a great bliss.

OT: Mahindras and Tatas indeed have very good potential to offer great build quality & better engineering in their cars at still better prices . If only they learn to scale the typical india compalacence syndrome at 70% achievement.

16+ highway FE is quite encouraging. What is the city FE? What was the OTR price? Any discounts you got? Any accessories added / in pipeline?

Wishes on your new buy. Enjoy your new ride.

Thanks for your wishes. I agree that there are vast opportunities for both Mahindra and TATA to take the wold by storm. They just need to rise above the UV mentality. But, good thing is that they are waking up—perhaps due to the stress laid by demanding customers.

I have not measured the in-city efficiency properly yet but it is surely better than Innova and Qualis. I might not be able to disclose the OTR price and freebies. But I did not get a great discount, I can assure you.