Curious case of Mahindra Scorpio and its strong sales numbers

I keep wondering how Mahindra manages to clock in decent monthly sales figures for the ageing Scorpio month after month. The base variant of the Scorpio retails OTR 14 lakh plus and goes all the way north of Rs 20 lakh for the fully-loaded S11 variant.

BHPian Silver Knight recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

I keep wondering how Mahindra manages to clock in decent monthly sales figures for the ageing Scorpio month after month. The base variant of the Scorpio retails OTR 14 lakh plus and goes all the way north of Rs 20 lakh for the fully-loaded S11 variant.

Scorpio manages to do 3500+ numbers every month whereas its stablemate XUV500 does 1/5th of that. Of course, I do agree XUV is almost 3 lakh pricier than the Scorpio when compared variant to variant. Despite the hype, Mahindra sells more Scorpios than Thars every month.

I have a Scorpio in my family, and I rate it as an ergonomic disaster. However, my brother vouches for the Scorpio and it is his favourite drive. No doubt, the engine is a gem, and it towers over most of the cars in India.

Here's what BHPian CEF_Beasts had to say on the matter:

It's one of the oldest selling UVs in India. The company has localised the parts well which means the parts are quite reasonably priced and easily available.

Built-to-last and reliable engine, a lot of owners keep Scorpio for several years without an issue. It's a highly reliable product.

North India absolutely loves Scorpios and is also used a lot by taxi operators up north where it snows. Also car thieves still love it.

Features-wise, the car is pretty decently loaded as well! Apple CarPlay/Android Auto, Climate control, TPMS, to name a few. Base/Mid variants are bought the most and then modified.

Safety is not its forte and the handling is all over the place but other than that, it can also run for lakhs of kilometres without much fuss.

Here's what BHPian raj_5004 had to say on the matter:

We had 3 Scorpios - the first one bought in 2003 and the last one sold in 2011 (non-CRDe, then CRDe and finally 120 bhp mHawk).

Even though we have not had a Scorpio in the last 10 years, there has been no major changes in the Scorpio except the dash design and other cosmetic upgrades.

I am a Scorpio fan, but now even I feel that it is too dated, unsafe and needs an upgrade ASAP. Thankfully, we all know that's coming. I just hope the new Scorpio manages to take lineage forward.

The Scorpio has a tight cabin, unsetting ride and poor handling. But there are many things which works in it's favor:

• The amazing mHawk engine - Owners just love the low end grunt and refinement of this engine. In spite of the many shortcomings, the Scorpio is fun to drive.
• Reliability - Not a Toyota. But over the years, Mahindra has perfected the Scorpio to be a reliable workhorse.
• Ruggedness - Unlike the delicate Innova, you can throw around the abuse friendly Scorpio without worrying about any major issues or expenses.
• Cost of ownership - The spares are cheap, available in every nook and corner of the country and general maintenance costs are cheaper than competition.
• The brand - Scorpio is a brand within Mahindra today. As others mentioned, it has a cult status. People feel proud to own a Scorpio, something which the XUV500 could not manage.

It is not possible to justify the high sales of the Scorpio using pure logic or analysis. For some, the Scorpio is just an emotion, maybe a dream come true.

Here's what BHPian hserus had to say on the matter:

I own the previous generation one - a 2015 model. It is a quite comfortable ride for me due to its erect position and my family loves the rocking motion due to the long suspension travel - they say it feels like a train and they get good sleep if they take a night ride in it.

It is comfortable even if I cruise at 110-120 for 10+ hours. I used to get badly tired even after 6 hours in my previous Fiesta, but then, that would do much higher speeds and still feel like it was doing 110-120, very planted.

For the record I’m not macho etc - middle aged and overweight software guy.

Here's what GTO had to say on the matter:

- I see the Scorpio as the poor man's Fortuner. Especially in white colour and with all the goodies the new models get. Both of them have one more thing in common = ride quality that I'd never be able to live with.

- The "Scorpio" nameplate is now a powerful brand with crazy goodwill.

- It's the only body-on-frame SUV with 3 seat rows in a sea of 5-seater monocoques. Body-on-frames are tough and abuse-friendly.

- Excellent track record of reliability.

- Style & presence.

- Other contributors such as the 'proper SUV' driving position and feel, beautiful diesel motor, strong resale etc.

Manson loved the Scorpio so much that he got two of them! IIRC, with well over 1 lakh km.

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