[NFS]

The Vehicle:
Mahindra Scorpio VLX 4x4 with Airbags & ABS
No accessories yet! other than Floor matt + Scuff Plates + Rain Visors (Free)
Booking Date: 22-Dec-2011 (re-booked on 07-Jan-2011)
Delivery Date: 14-Feb-2011 (Valentine's Day gift!)
Report Date: 16-Mar-2011 (One month, 700 kms)
Extended Warranty: Paid on 12-Mar-2001 (Forms not available!)

Background: With our family having some history of Armed Forces, I always dreamt of owning a Jeep. Jeep was some energy to me, and I had a wonderful day when I spotted one. Then saw the new Scorpio, launched in early 2000. It has been a dream to own a Scorpio for quite a long time. Could be, it lot looks like a Jeep. Then it was my early days of career and Vitamin M did not permit me to own one. I drove a Suzuki Samurai bike. The next upgrade, to a car, was on to a Zen vxi.

Jeep Encounter: Year 2006/07, I had spotted the Jeep Enthusiast Group the "Jeep Thrills". Spoke to beloved UBS, Arka and many more Jeep Thrills friends. Jeep, the urge to buy one was growing in me. Wanted to do some off roading. Wanted to try the abilities. Loved the CJ3B or the Willys MB. Decided to search for one. Everyone in my office saw me always looking at Jeeps and admiring. Some one even thought I went mad. Long search landed me on a CJ3B from Bangalore with TN registration (will not get into the details) - I took advices - showed photos to UBS sir and Arka - Finances were all set - tickets to travel to bangalore were booked - Jeep Thrill friends offered to drive down to chennai - Arranged for a temporary shelter at Bangalore (for 3 weeks) - The evening of my Travel everything took a 360 deg turn. Family was repeatedly telling me NOT to get into this. Old vehicle, they already know I am too busy at the office, and cannot go off roading, and I will then not be available at home for anything etc etc. Killed my enthusiasm and decided to think over. Called the owner and said sorry, he was not happy. Later I spotted this same CJ3B on Team BHP and I follow his threads closely (confidential, ha ha).

Buying a new Car: The idea of buying a new car creeped up in the year 2009. I review most of it, before I buy. So to be clear my plans were to buy a new car in 2010, and wanted to review some of them before hand. The search started in 2009, when Xylo became popular, visited Mahindra dealership to try out a Xylo. The sales representative explained the vehicle features and while watching this MUV, my eyes were pulled towards the scorpio standing next to it. The sales rep spotted this and started explaining Scorpio too. We were offered a test drive of Xylo - I liked the drive - gave good feedback about the vehicle and the way how they handled this prospective customer. Two months later, we went again for a test drive of Xylo - We were evaluating Innova and other sedans till then - Xylo TD vehicle is not available - I asked for Scorpio - only automatic TD vehicle available - Took a TD and loved it overall.

Scorpio was totally out of my budget and wanted to wait to see my finances before committing to buy one. It took a while, but during this time the urge of Scorpio with 4wd grew bigger (may be the old Jeep bite is still alive). Family was not against this time. Booked the vehicle in last week of Dec 2010.

Selection Process: Was there one? I was fooling everyone I guess! I took TD of Maruti SX4, Dzire, Chevy Cruze, Toyota Innova, etc. Chevy Cruze had lot of turbolag. Toyota Innova, nice vehicle went out of my budget as the ABS+Airbags are offered only in high end version. Dzire, was not really convinced about being a sedan. SX4 was a good try, but both SX4 and Dezire had the rear visibility issue. These are not really a problem for me to choose one of them, but I was more looking at a 7 seater for city ride and 5 seater with decent luggage space for long journey. No sedans can do this, so it was only the SUV or MUV that will work. MUVs were taken out because of its Van like appearence.

See that takes me to Scorpio or Safari. Watched the sales figures for the last quarter (thanks to GTO) and found that Scorpio sells 3 times Safari (No offences meant here), friends I am already 99% sold to Scorpio and this was only 1% for consideration. Hope everyone agrees here. It is not the product, but it is just me (maien aisa kyum hu? maien aisa kyum hum?) English translation: Why am I, like this?

Booking: Walked in on Dec 22nd, 2010, 6PM gave a cheque of 50K and ordered for "Scorpio VLX Airbags 4x4" - Cheque value debited from my account the very next day morning at 10:10am (sms alert) - Email from M&M arrived on 5th Jan 2011 - was constantly behind the sales rep asking for status till then - Noticed on the status portal of M&M that Airbags is not mentioned - brought the same to the attention of the Sales Rep - checking the booking revealed that Dealer goofed up - Needs to cancel the booking and re-book again - No other way, I agreed to this - Jan 7th, 2011 - New booking date - No email from M&M about the new booking status, nor the old status login works - Worried, kept calling sales rep and received no emails - visited Zulaikha Motors and talked to Ms. Rekha (the Manager) - Arrogant dealing of customers with statements like "We are not sending any such emails sir, you need to contact Mahindra" - Tried to get the email for around 30 mins or so, but Madam would repeat the same answer over and over. Emailed M&M asking for a change of dealership and the Manager comes calling and apologizing. 25th Jan 2011, received SMS from M&M stating that the vehicle is on transit - Dealers commited to deliver by Feb 7th, the vehicle arrived at the dealer's yard on 7th morning, but the sales rep confirmed it to be still in transit - I waited for one more day - 8th Morning the Sales Rep still was not informed about the vehicle arrival - Finally I requested him to cross check - Told him that the vehicle has arrived 24hrs before - Apologizes in a return call says the vehicle can be checked at the Yard. Received the VIN & Engine Number as SMS. Read through the VIN Identification thread (thanks to @wildon and @SPIKE ARRESTOR), identified the vehicle manufacturing month and year (Jan 2011). Took PDI checklist of Team-BHP, made it into a Word Document (will share it here) took prints and requested a friend to accompany for PDI.

PDI: ODO reading 0.4 kms only, Surprised!, All good - approved the vehicle for registration

Pictures from our first meeting! Sarge is standing tall with pride!

[Guderian]

Originally Posted by NFS

The Vehicle:
Mahindra Scorpio VLX 4x4 with Airbags & ABS

Hi NFS,
Let me be the first ! Congratulations. That is one lovely looking Scorp 4X4. And I am sure you'll have loads of fun with it. As a past owner of a Scorp - let me tell you that you have picked up a vehicle with a lot of character ! And a 4X4 adds to it.
Have fun and miles and miles of great driving.
Drive safe.

[NFS]

Part II: The buying

Finance Options: http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian...d-fd-loan.html

Thanks for everyone who participated and gave me suggestion on the above thread, I went for OD on FD and the bank fellows screwed up big time. They took more than 3 days and still were not able to get OD on FD, I lost my patience and closed the FD in 3 mins, gave a check to Zulaikha Motors for the vehicle. Took the advice of building the FD back in 3 yrs with Mutual Fund investments (I am taking some risks here).

Payment to Dealer: Check will take 3 days to go for collection and registration. Surprised to hear this, I asked, my booking cheque was honoured on the very next day at 10:10am - The answer comes, the money will get deducted from your account on the same day, but the bank will only give credit to the dealer account after two days - Called the Bank manager, asked if Zulaikha had an account with them, positive answer gave me a big smile - Asked the manager, how much time for transferring funds from my accoun to the dealers "quick answer came 5 mins sir". I spoke to Zulaikha motors and requested them to send the cheque along with the Sales rep to the bank on the same day of my payment. I got it credited to the Dealers account within 10 mins, confirmed the transfer at the counter - Asked the sales rep to confirm receipt at the Finance desk - All set for registration! Thanks to Bank Manager and some courteous staff members there.

Valentine's day! Sarge goes for registration - arrives back at 2PM - Sales rep prepared for delivery - Family ready to welcome the new member, arrived at 4PM took delivery by 5:00PM pooja at the Dealership - gifted a big back pack for the sales rep (he serviced me for around 1.5 years) thanked him for his support and all help - sweets for everyone at the dealership - Sweets for customers at the lounge - We drove Sarge home!

Part III - The Experience

Discounts: 50% on insurance (31,000 / 2) got 15,500 went with my own Insurance person from B4j4j A11ianz - took the 100% coverage above the comprehensive insurance (total premium 34,000). Received some basic items free from the dealership (four door scuff plates, Rain visors, and transparent floor mat - detailed photos soon). I had asked for car cover, which I had not received till now.

Driving & Feel: The first floor driving is what amazes me all the time. You would agree the upgrade was from basement (Zen) to First Floor(Scorpio). IMO, Scorpio is best when driven nicely (no zipping through traffic). The character of the vehicle is like driving a 500cc bullet. You go dod, dod, dod, dod and not all around the road and not on 2500RPM all the time. Scorpio gains a lot of respect with its presence (I do not believe that white scorpios are given the politico image now, as there are plenty of them on the road) and as a responsible driver, I should not let that respect go away. Responsibility increases driving such big vehicles (read TBHP sticker coming soon on my car).

ORVM is huge but the message "Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear" is very significant when I compared the same object in the IRVM. I had not felt this in my ZEN (or any other car that I had driven before), may be we need to get used to. Big ORVMs provide a good view area, impressive. Knowing what is on your left side or rear is a challenge, (I guess it is a problem for huge vehicles).

Seemless Accelartion and Braking - Potholes are not an issue - but big ones really rock the SUV - Objects on seat may fall down and unstrapped children may too.

Fit and Finish are not upto the mark - I knew this even before opting for Scorpio - Space inside is good for me (5.7ft) and my family - upgrade from Zen is always spacious - We had squezzed in 7 adults + 3kids in a zen, with that ratio, I can load at least 15 people in the scorpio - City travel is not difficult though it had lot to get used to - IMO Petrol to Diesel was huge jump and so was the character of the engines

Somethings that we will not like:
- Look from different angles, you will see some alignment or panel gaps
- Door handle sometimes is too hard to operate
- Remote key fob at times becomes un-responsive
- Reverse camera shows stop sign all the time (reported to the dealer, will have a look at first service)
- Gear shift is too tight when clutch is not fully depressed (my mistake, I should depress the clutch fully, I am learning)
- Fuel guage at times show wrong info
- Reaching the roof to clean is little difficult (may be Jo pa su is the manthra)
- Jack lever position & wheel spanner position could be better (currently under the middle seat)
- Stepney position - had a nozzle hole to fill air earlier - discontinued now - checking the pressure is really hard now
- Horn pads are too tight (I got used to this a little bit now), but still at times by the time you honk the need would have been long gone. Zen was better.
- Spelling mistakes in User Manual - too bad
- Dashboard Glove box - you have to slam it to close - Not enough space inside - not lockable
- No other closed storage space other than Glove box
- No cig lighter - even though there are two provisions for 12v outlet (good gesture in a way, but my 2001 Zen had this) - Cost cutting?
- Rear door needs to be slammed, when all other doors are closed with windows raised.

The best part
- Welcome message is cool
- Seats are very comfortable - at least the driver seat
- White light from head light gives better visibility (though it would be better if upgraded, but I will wait)
- Interior theater like automatic light switch off is good
- 20Kms speed auto door lock
- Doors not closed voice mesg
- Wear seat belt Voice mesg
- Hand brakes engaged voice mesg
- Very responsive engine
- The turbo whistle sound is good to hear (I love the purrr of the idling too)
- In a way fully loaded, for an average person, there is no need for upgrades - rating it as a good package overall.
- Power window controls positioned between the driver and passenger seat permits all front passengers happy + second row passengers happy too. When someone want to control they can. Some of us may think they are a nuisance positioned there.
- AC could have been Climate Control (I would have paid another 20K for this). The present system cools the cabin in 2 to 3 minutes, but too noisy when the fan speed is beyond 2nd stage. Airflow direction control can be improved. They let only minimal adjustments. Closing of vents is a good feature to have.
- As a tourer (5 seater) I have a lot of luggage space with rear Side facing seats folded.
- Being Side facing seats, when you have some luggage, you could fold one seat and arrange them on one side - lets one person occupy the other seat. This makes the side facing seat configurable to 5 seater (both folded) / 6 seater (one seat folded) / 7 seater (no seats folded). I thought that was cool.
- Door lock is independent from the door handle now
- Rear door opening like a real door helps easy ingress for rear passengers, unlike a hatch.
- Speedo is in 70+ very quickly you never feel the strain (blame the engine, ha ha)
- No more under body scrapping or getting scared of going over a speed breaker or taking a rough patch of the road or driving on a non-existent road.

Some surprises: We were offered 10 Liters of free diesel and the Sales rep requested us to fill up before going any further. We did and later I topped up at my favourite bunk (My top up consumed only 40Liters). Subsequent filling after the message on VMS "Your scorpio is running on reserve fuel" too took only 40 Liters. Specifications say 60 litres fuel tank, is 20 liters considered as reserve (1/3 of the total capacity)? Not sure.

Till now, I filled 90 litres and 740kms with 50% fuel in the tank (as per the fuel guage). Not sure of the accuracy.

After sales: Yet to go in for the First Service, there were two phone calls asking about the service and vehicle after delivery. One was from Mahindra directly, they wanted me to use a rating system. I thought it would be just objective type questions, but when I rated certain items as satisfactory, lady asked for details. Second call was from the Dealer call center. When I talked about the problems, she expressed her sorrow (as if some one died), which was odd (or rather trained to do, felt awkward). This call was after 30 days, but no actions I found after the call, though I complained about the small niggles. Good service or Bad service? I am not sure.

Want of Dead pedal: Scorpio is not provided with a dead pedal, and for me, I never felt the need for one. It could be just me. Moreover, the foot well has little space to retrofit one.

[2500cc]

Awesome...Congrats on owning the class leader buddy. I wish this beast keeps you for a very long time to come. Am sure you are composing the driving experiences too.

Planning for any modifications ? (Alloys, change of tyres, upgrading the ICE, fogs, etc.,)

[NFS]

Originally Posted by Guderian

Hi NFS,
Let me be the first ! Congratulations. That is one lovely looking Scorp 4X4. And I am sure you'll have loads of fun with it. As a past owner of a Scorp - let me tell you that you have picked up a vehicle with a lot of character ! And a 4X4 adds to it.
Have fun and miles and miles of great driving.
Drive safe.

Thanks for the wishes and your comments!

Originally Posted by 2500cc

Awesome...Congrats on owning the class leader buddy. I wish this beast keeps you for a very long time to come. Am sure you are composing the driving experiences too.

Planning for any modifications ? (Alloys, change of tyres, upgrading the ICE, fogs, etc.,)

Yes, Driving experience coming soon. No modifications planned as of now! I did not like the ICE, but will hang on with this for some time.

Already on Alloys - No change of Tyres, as it is already Bridgestone dueller HTs - Fogs present, but may require some re-alignment or re-focusing

What is in the pipeline is: Art Leather Seat Covers (suggestions pls), Underbody coating, soft Nudge bar (no bull bar), full floor mats or what? thinking. Sun films vKool or 3M, searching the forum for information

[Red Liner]

Get vKool - they are worth every penny compared to 3M. You dont need the underbody wurth coating - its a nice way of just giving away money. Would have recommended Yoko Geo AT's since your's is a 4x4. Ah well, change over at about 75k because thats how long those hardy BS HT's will last.

[roy_libran]

Nice vehicle and a handsome looking house, I must say. Congrats on both fronts. By the way, can you write about some of your experiences with the 4WD System, as and when you experience the same? It would be a good read.

[NFS]

Originally Posted by Red Liner

Get vKool - they are worth every penny compared to 3M. You dont need the underbody wurth coating - its a nice way of just giving away money. Would have recommended Yoko Geo AT's since your's is a 4x4. Ah well, change over at about 75k because thats how long those hardy BS HT's will last.

Thanks RedLiner for your suggestions. vKool! I am not able to get it in Chennai. Any leads would be fantastic. The Chennai Directory of TeamBHP talks about 3M dealers, but not of vKool. Will look at shoe upgrade after some time, for now, Bridgestone is doing its job.

I thought underbody coating was good to do, as it gives a good covering to all exposed parts from rust. Also heard about reduction in sound and heat. Why are you saying it is wastage of money? is rust covered in extended warranty?

Originally Posted by roy_libran

Nice vehicle and a handsome looking house, I must say. Congrats on both fronts. By the way, can you write about some of your experiences with the 4WD System, as and when you experience the same? It would be a good read.

Thanks Roy_Libran: Thanks for the wishes! will write about the 4x4 as soon as I start using it. Right now waiting for the drivein period to get completed. I will do a small spin on 4wd sometime soon. Some extreme later.

[amitwlele]

Congrats NFS. Wishing you a very safe and happy ownership experience.

Red Balloons on a Scorp look odd. Dealership guys took valentines day too seriously or maybe this is your baby

[SPIKE ARRESTOR]

Originally Posted by NFS

Received the VIN & Engine Number as SMS. Read through the VIN Identification thread (thanks to @wildon and @SPIKE ARRESTOR), identified the vehicle manufacturing month and year (Jan 2011).

NFS, glad that I could be of some help, you could have sent me a PM, could have made things more simpler / clearer for you. Anyways, congrats on purchasing the beast.

Spike

[NFS]

Originally Posted by amitwlele

Congrats NFS. Wishing you a very safe and happy ownership experience.

Red Balloons on a Scorp look odd. Dealership guys took valentines day too seriously or maybe this is your baby

@Amitwlele: Yes, Red balloons were odd. It was the Dealership NOT me! ha ha. Anyways, the moment we drove out of the dealership, they flew away. I did not want to remove it in front of them and offend anyone. Thanks for the wishes.

Originally Posted by SPIKE ARRESTOR

NFS, glad that I could be of some help, you could have sent me a PM, could have made things more simpler / clearer for you. Anyways, congrats on purchasing the beast.

Spike

Hey Spike, I am privileged to have you all offering help. I will need your support, as always and would like to thank you in advance. These small niggles were not worth pinging you, as a mere show off or slight gesture of anger takes care of it. Overall, it was a smooth experience, though the Sales Manager Chennai would have had some tough time! I feel sorry, but also think it is part of the game.

Once again thanks for your wishes! will see you around!

[dr_anurag]

Congratulations on the great new addition to your garage. It is not recommended to upgrade/change the tyres because of the TPMS installed. It could damage the sensors. A couple of months back I bought the same car in 4X4 and in the same colour too. Instead of floor mats I have used thick small washable carpets. It adds to the luxurious feel. Do go through the manual on 4X4 driving before trying it out. Hope you have years of pleasant driving.

[vsun]

Hi NFS
Hearty congratulations on your purchase.
Nice pics! Your mighty diamond white beast looks great. The new family member enhanced the looks of the house. I am sure you enjoy each and every km of your ride on the beast!
I will be fallowing your further updates and experiences with the beast.
Drive safe.

[Jetblast101]

congrats on your scorpio, looks great in white. How is the ride quality and overall fit and finish of your vehicle? I also brought a scorpio recently, apart from the ride quality, I am happy with my vehicle. You can check my review on http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-d...s4-airbag.html, hope you have lakhs of happy trouble free miles

[TaureanBull]

Heartiest congratulations! Have a happy ride.

Would love to see the accessories and additional fitments as and when you plan them. Would love to know about your ICE, seat covers and sun film plans in specific.