Upgraded to the Scorpio-N AWD from a Safari Storme: My detailed review

The car has returned around 14 km/L mileage over 6,800 km of driving.

BHPian rajneeesh recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Its been almost 6 months since "Gabbar" my Scorpio-N Z8 L Diesel 4 WD Manual Transmission came home.

My garage had a 2015 Safari Storme and a Figo Diesel. A few years ago the National Green Tribunal restricted the life of diesel vehicles to 10 years in Delhi NCR to deal with the pollution. What difference this decision made to the air quality can be debated till cows come home but it did cause a lot of heart burn to Diesel Car owners who faced the prospect of having to let go their lovingly maintained rides which were in perfect condition.

However, much I may have disliked the thought of having to let my Safari Storme go, there was not much I could do about it. So in around end 2022 I started thinking of a possible replacement.

If your criterion is a Box On Frame SUV with 4 WD, you lave very limited choice. The vehicles in the fray were the Toyota Fortuner, Mahindra Thar and the Scorpio.

Since my Storme was 2015 model, I had quiet a bit of time in my hands. I just loved the Thar. It has a an ageless Classical design and the new Thar was much improved over its predecessor. The only limiting factor was the size . This vehicle is not for long road-trips with 4 people and their luggage. This is something we regularly do so despite the Thar pulling at the heart strings, the head prevailed.

Next in line was the Fortuner. This vehicle has huge road presence and is mechanically very capable. Added to it is the legendry Toyota reliability and fantastic resale value. On the negative side, it costs a bomb. Investing almost Rs 5 million in a vehicle, which I would not be able to use for more than 8-9 years in Delhi NCR didn't make any sense.

Around this time Mahindra confirmed that they were planning to launch a 5 door version of the Thar. It was news to my ears and I eagerly started waiting for the 5 door Thar.

In August 2022, Mahindra launched the Scorpio N and it was an instant hit with the waiting period extending to over 1 year. Sometime later in the year, they announced the price for 4 WD variants.

On one March 2023 Sunday morning, I accompanied by my Son visited the Mahindra Concept Motors Showroom in Noida and checked out the Scorpio N S4 , 4 WD manual and joined the long list of people who had booked it. The wait period was over a year. The idea was that I will join the booking queue and wait for the Thar 5 door launch in August 23 . If I liked the new 5 door Thar, i would cancel the Scorpio N booking and book the Thar, else I would wait for the Scorpio N delivery.

A couple of weeks later I took my wife to have a look at the Scorpio N. While my wife liked the vehicle, she was not ok with the variant which to her was too basic. She reasoned since we planned to keep the vehicle for 8-9 years, it will be a better idea to book a higher variant. I concurred and changed my booking to Scorpio N S8 4 WD Manual.

Mahindra had a huge order book of the SUV 700, Thar and the Scorpio N and decided to focus on fulfilling the demand for these 3 products rather than launching a new vehicle. This was not what I wanted as it meant that I would have to wait longer for the 5 door Thar.

Come October 2023, the air pollution started to go up again and the CAQM mandarins like the year before, banned BS IV Diesels from the roads. Since both my vehicles were BS IV Diesels, I was was in a quandary. I commute from Noida to Delhi Airport every day and the prospect of using a cab or metro was not at all appealing.

I called my service advisor and checked the delivery wait time for the Scorpio N. He told me that Mahindra was producing a large number of the S8 L variants and I could take the delivery of the vehicle in 1-2 weeks if I was open to changing my booking to S8 L variant and was ok to change the color from Deep Forest to Silver.

Earlier in September, Mahindra had rejigged the pricing of the variants. They had increased the price of the S8 and reduced the same for S8 L. The additional kit like alloy wheels in S8 L manual 4 WD made the proposition attractive. the immediate delivery also meant that I would not have to worry about any future price increase. I bit the bullet, and on October 24, 2023 on the auspicious Dussehra day, I took delivery of Scorpio N S8 L Manual 4 WD Diesel which was christened as "Gabbar" by my elder son.

The pros and cons.

Pros:

• A good engine and gear box combination.
• Space for 4-5 people + luggage. ( though the interior space is significantly lesser than the Storme.
• Feature rich and good safety kit . 5 Star safety rating , 6 airbags, ESP, Hill-hold make it reassuringly safe. The reversing and forward cameras are useful especially in cramped parking lots
• Good NVH .
• Good ICE by Sony
• Lots of modern day creature comforts like Car play, Alexa, Sun-roof, TPMS
• Mahindra after Sales network is better than Tata
• Front facing 3rd row seats with seat- belts are more practical than Storme's jump-seats in normal city conditions

The cons:

• The seating position is good but is inferior to the Storme's commanding driver's seating position
• Smaller door pockets
• A very small glove box.
• Space for the 2nd row is lower than that provided in the Storme. I cannot place an Ice box on the floor in front of the 2nd row centre seat as I could do in the Storme. This was a big plus on long road trips.
• limited luggage seat even when the third row is folded. The folded seat takes considerable boot space. Will have to explore removing the 3rd row seats on really long road trips to liberate more boot space.
• I find the absence of ventilated seats a big miss. These are especially useful NCR.

Living with Gabbar:

Unlike, the Automatic and the 2 WD variants which come with 18 inch alloy wheels, the S8 L Manual 4 WD comes with 17 inch alloy wheels. (the S 8 has steel wheels). The OEM tyres were Bridgestone 245 HT's. I had been using Continental Cross Contact AT's on the Storme and was pretty happy with them. The first stop that Gabbar made out of the Koncept Noida Showroom was at Tyre Shoppe Noida. Here I switched to Continental Cross Contact AT Tyres after trading in the stock tyres. These tyres don't come in 245 mm and I had to upgrade to 265 mm. I am pretty satisfied with these tyres. They have proven to be pretty silent and offer good grip. Other than the tyres, I went in for PPF treatment. Since I didn't want to spend too much, I got the front and rear bumpers, and the hood covered with PPF. ( 6 panels in all). Car Spa Noida, which is a sister concern of Tyre Shoppe Noida did the PPF work. Scruff plates and door mats were the only other accessories purchased by me ( Sector 16 Notor Market Noida).

I have spent a little less than 6 months with the vehicle. It is now my daily runner and does duties in the urban jungle with bumper to bumper to bumper traffic compared to the highways and the uncharted lands where i would like to spend more time. I have clocked a shade over 6800 Km in this period.

In the city, the SUV is a breeze. The electric power steering makes it easy to maneuver in traffic while the cameras help during parking. This is especially useful as my new office has basement parking with narrow ramps, and the stacked parking system barely leaves a couple of inches clearance on both sides. The visibility from the driver's seat is good though not in the same league as the Storme which has a lower dashboard and a higher seat. The vehicle SUV has great road presence and the two wheelers and the auto rickshaws give way and maintain a respectable distance.

The gear box is pretty slick with relatively short throws. The Dog eared reverse gear took a little bit of getting used to. The Scorpio N makes a decent amount of torque at relatively low rpm. As a result, the initial acceleration is good and the vehicle is able to run at higher gears than my Figo or the Storme especially in the city. You can move into 4th gear at 4o KPH and the 6th gear can be employed at 6o KPH.

The trip meter shows an average speed of 22 KPH in the city. On bad days or should I say evenings, it drops to below 20 KPH. I have done a few highway trips in the last 2 months. The longer one was to Amritsar and shorter one to Dehradun. Due to the road closures, on Amritsar route, I had to take detours from internal village roads. this added significantly to the travel time. I have touched 120 KPH although i generally don't exceed 100 KPH even on the highways. Gabbar has returned over 14 KPL over 6800 Km of driving. The DEF gauge shows the DEF levels at 42 %. This is a pretty decent fuel efficiency for a vehicle of this size and weight. It may fall a bit in summers with greater usage of the AC but I am very satisfied with the fuel average.

The ICE is pretty advanced ( in comparison with the Storme). The Car Play works well but I have had a few instances of it not latching on or disconnecting in the last 2 weeks. These instances were few for the first 5 months but have gone up in the last 2 weeks. Turning the vehicle off and restating it after some time cures this issue. Another issue that has started irritating me in the last few weeks is the push button start. I have to crank the vehicle a couple of times to start the engine. I have been driving a Ford Figo which also has a push button start for the last four and a half years and have not faced any such issues. The engine can also stall if you are not careful at low speeds. I would request other Scorpio N user's to share if they have faced any such issues. I do plan to visit the service Centre over the week end to have the vehicle checked.

Other than these small irritants, I have enjoyed driving Gabbar. I aim to do a lot more Highway driving and take the vehicle to hills and deserts where I can put the 4 WD to use. It is probable the last of a dying breed as more and more manufacturers abandon the body on frame architecture in favour of monocoque bodies and move to petrol/ electric power trains.

I have limited photography skills so please excuse the absence of any photographs. I intend to keep updating this thread from time to time . So siggning off till the next update.

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