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1 month with a Mahindra Scorpio-N Petrol MT: Likes, dislikes & niggles

1st December 2022, 13:08 by Ananth Iyer

The petrol engine managed to deliver around 9-10 kml mileage in the city and 14-15 kml on the highway.

BHPian Shrey1230 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Mahindra Scorpio-N 6 Seater Review (Petrol)

After going through the forum and following this thread since its inception, I found that very less coverage was available for the 6 seater variant and even lesser for the petrol version. Since I happen to own the unicorn i.e. the 6 Seater Petrol version, I felt it is for the best that I put in my 2 cents about this amazing vehicle.

The car has done about 1400 KMs and with one service done at the time of writing this. I feel I have garnered enough information/quirks about this car for me to pass it on to all future/current owners.

Things I love:

Amazing road presence, you feel like you’re riding the chariot of the gods, everything and everyone will give way.

Although looks are subjective but IMO the SUV looks like an evolution to all the previous generations of the Scorpio Monicker and the front view and the front 3/4 view are the prettiest angles.

Unbelievably silent and refined power-plant. The 2.0 M-Stallion has truly evolved so much in the two years since it was mated with the Thar, not just in pure numbers but also in terms of refinement. You will seldom find even the slightest of engine noise penetrating the firewall into the cabin. Which for a 200 BHP/2 Tonne SUV is astonishing.

Keeping onto the engine part, I’m extremely impressed with the fuel economy that it has been delivering, in purely city driving 9-10 KMpL when driven without the intension of churning out good fuel economy. And on mild-highway runs it delivered a solid 14-15 KMpL, which again is impressive given the size and power figures.

The fit and finish and the materials used have been upgraded by leaps and bounds compared to the previous generations of Scorpio.

The comfort of the seats and the way they hold is quite well engineered, and the powered driver seat adds onto the ease of use, although I feel the omission of the memory function was a quite weird and illogical miss.

The MID cluster is quite neat with crisp resolution and very well placed/designed menus from ergonomical POV.

The massive hood and the thin dashboard provides a really good viewing range and to add that over the commanding seating position this vehicle surely gives a lot of confidence while being driven; be it in narrow city streets or wide highways.

The throw of the headlights is quite good, I am coming from a 2020 MSIL XL6, hence I was familiar with the pros and cons of a LED setup so, keeping that in mind, the lights do their work well.

The body roll has been greatly minimised due to the shorter roll arm height of 463mm, wider wheel track of 1580mm and not to forget how well the FDD works to deliver a pleasant and controlled drive every single time.

All in all this is a great vehicle to buy and drive especially given the price point and it surely is the kind of car which wants to make you go out for a spin at every opportunity you get.

Things that could have been better

The rear boot space is the Achilles’ heel of this SUV, it is simply very ill-designed and is a lot of wasted and mismanaged space especially in a vehicle which will be used as a highway tourer by majority of its owners.

Features are spread out in odd ways throughout all the variants, for ex. only the Z8L 4WD AT version gets wireless charging, and the ~20 Lakh OTR Z8 MT gets steel rims and wheel caps.

Advertising features that are not present at the time of delivery for ex. Apple CarPlay and the fact that they made XUV700 owners wait 10 months for it was unacceptable, I hope we get CarPlay sooner.

Although it offers a very planted drive for a robust BOF SUV, the rear tends to fishtail when taken over rumble strips/strips of speedbumps at an angle. Maybe that is due to the Watt’s Pentalink. Although the vehicle stays in control throughout but still one needs to be cautious.

Things I hate and niggles found

Quality control needs to be more stringent at the Chakan plant as I had a warranty claim on my car even before it rolled out of the showroom for the LH rear captain seat not tumbling, had to get the whole unit replaced, and now checking the 40P of the seat for faulty locks is an official RO for all the Scorpio N’s rolling in for service.

Major flaw in the engineering and R&D of the vehicle is the hood support rod; which is too sharp and is creating a pinch/bulge on the skin of the hood due to the weight of the hood. I mentioned this earlier on this thread and shared with the GM Service who was proactive and made sure to make videos and reported it back to Chakan.

During my first service I noticed a weird issue present in all the models (at least all the models present at the service station and the demo vehicles in my case) where during the day when the headlights are turned off, when you press the brake, the rear license plate lights also light up along with the HMSL and brake lights, and when the headlights are on they all work fine. Checked this issue in all the vehicles it was present in all.

The rear look of the vehicle is truly an acquired taste and takes time grow on you. It looks good in Napoli Black and Deep Forest Green but in all the other shades the black appliqué just below the rear glass pops out like an eyesore IMO.

An age old issue of Mahindra vehicles producing a lot of brake dust is present in the Scorpio N too, it makes the rims extremely dirty and difficult to clean.

The rear door cladding near the wheel well, just like the previous generations, works as a splash guard too, which makes it more prone to spoiling the rear passengers’ clothings during ingress and egress.

The head unit has frozen on me once and had to turn off-on the vehicle to make it work again. The bluetooth connectivity is also finicky.

The AdrenoX app is also buggy and randomly glitches for ex. it shows my door/tailgate is open when it is not

Booking experience:

Much like most of us on this thread I also booked mine on 30th July, although I was already given a heads up by the dealer to put in a booking from my end as they were already expecting a lot of bookings and chances of mine getting price protection was more if I did it myself and I’m so glad they were right as from the ~200 bookings they made from their end none got price protection. Whereas initially I too did not get in the introductory batch but was soon shifted to one after the reshuffling of bookings on the 2nd of August.

Driving experience:

After test driving all the variants and all the gearboxes, I zeroed in on the petrol version because of my limited run and the refinement and ease of use (no DEF issues) of BS6 petrol engines compared to its diesel counterparts. The M-Stallion has truly been delivering amazing performance with solid economy to make me happy about my decision everytime I step up into the vehicle. The low end torque is quite well managed but the sweet spot is between 1700-2000 RPM and after about 2200 RPM it gives you the brute power you’ll enjoy and even after being a petrol mill one has to drive it like a diesel, as the gearing ratios and redlines are quite short. Which makes driving more intuitive or tedious depending on one’s liking as they will find themselves shifting gears a lot. But in my case I prefer that over the autobox. I personally feel like the block offered has the potential to easily churn 250+ BHP figures in its future iterations and knowing M&M they just might do it in the coming years.

Service and maintenance:

Although this was my first Mahindra vehicle, I was quite familiar with M&M’s workshop ethics way back from the humble Bolero days as I grew up & around visiting a Mahindra Auth. Service Station which is owned by a close family friend for more than the past 20 years. And even the workshop owned by the dealer from where I bought the car from has shown impeccable support and friendliness towards me during any case be it my seat replacement or any niggles or issues that I pointed out to them. The mechanics are also very well trained and were always helpful enough to explain any query asked to them. All in all really good experience so far with the service.

Impressions After One Month of Usage

Ride quality, Ergonomics & NVH:

The vehicle offers amazing comfort over bad patches and due to the FDD and robust suspension setup it glides over broken roads. And contrary to common opinion, I actually prefer the R17’s more than the R18’s as they offer a much superior ride quality compared to the latter. The ergonomics are also quite well, with everything placed where it should and due to the new damping material used on the front doors and the over all excellent insulation, the NVH is quite controlled, so full marks on that too.

AC Performance:

Mahindra has always been known for its robust HVAC units and the AC unit in the Scorpio N is no exception, it cools down the cabin after sitting in direct sun during 33°C temperatures within 2 minutes and that too in a black car which is quite impressive.

Seat comfort:

The seats are quite well designed and hold you in quite well, the rear captain chairs also offer really good comfort and is wide enough to accommodate people of all sizes and heights, although slide function in the middle row would’ve been appreciated but, I knew what I was getting into before buying so it’s all well.

Infotainment & Sound:

Although Mahindra claims that it is the same unit from the 700, I still feel like it lacks behind it, maybe that is due to the extra cabin space compared to the 700. But still when seen as a stand-alone setup it sounds really well, specially the 3D Sound setup. Although I’m eagerly waiting for Apple CarPlay to arrive as going back to Bluetooth from CarPlay is quite infuriating.

I hope this review would help ease any confusion or second thoughts anyone might be having especially who are waiting for their petrol Scorpio N or planning to book one. It’s an amazing piece of machinery, and as they say no vehicle is perfect, but I assure every time you climb into this SUV and drive it, it’ll put a wide bright smile on your face.

Signing off with a couple of pictures of my Scorpio N.