Thread: New Mahindra Scorpio

When it was launched the Scorpio was a bit bare, but look at it now. Ever so often, M&M's stepped back from the canvas, squinted, leaned in for a drastic repaint (the new mHawk engine), or the odd extra brush-stroke (parking sensors). And now it's taken another dab by maring the mHawk engine with a six-speed automatic gearbox.

And it works. It adds a touch of luxury by letting your left foot off the hook. The Scorpio still feels like it'll eat hillocks for brekkie, but now without stressing your left foor. In D (standard drive mode) the car shifts cleanly, going from loud roar to slightly muted roar on the upshifts with none of the jolts and shudders that the cynic in me expected. Kudos on keeping turbo-lag down, too.

There's also an M mode, but I have to shoot your excitement dead, because sadly, M doesn't stand for manual. It's Mahindra's version of 'Sport', where the engine revs to a higher count before shifting up. This makes darting out for an overtaking manoeuvre much easier (though that isn't really a problem in D mode), and it makes you eligible for disabled parking spaces, because the noise at higher revs blows your eardrums our.



There's a lot to like, really. Like the switch that toggles between normal driving mode and winter driving mode. Or the steering controls that handle audio options as well as cruise control. Actually, let me. reph rase; there's a lot to like about the thought behind these things. What needs work is the quality of execution. The ptoblem is that the actual, physical buttons and controls that work that equipment feel a lot less luxurious than they sound. Like the coarse edges of the steering controls. Why think luxury and deliver cheap. And then there's the actual gear shifter. For starters, you don't need to push a button on the stalk to activate shifting, which just felt wrong.

When I drive an automatic and go ftom say P to D, I love the reassuring click the shifter makes when it locks into place, which the Scorpio doesn't do. The car has a stepped gate, so you could argue that it isn't needed, but I think it is. Might sound trivial, but you'd be surprised at the effect it has. There's no finality to the shift, and it annoyed me. Overall though, I like this new automatic option, available only on the top-end VLx model. It's a step in the right direction, and signals clear intent from Mahindra to offer luxury at a lower price. Think of this car as a blueprint for a more polished future Scorpio. It'll take work to get there, but this car assures me that piece by piece, somebody's getting it done.