Looks, Design and Interiors:

Designed completely inhouse by Mahindra, Scorpio is good looking beast. The 16 inch alloy wheels, the tough, aggressive butch front, the tough hunky looking body cladding make it looks like a man with a body armour, ready to take on the wild. There are subtle rather interesting touches too like the tapering down air dams which take care of water splashing, a scoop on the bonnet which isnt just cosmetic( cools the intercooler), the integrated simple round fog lamps, all combine together to enhance not just the performance but also the looks of this beast. The footsteps are now neatly integrated with the body for extra strength and durability.

The roof has ski-racks that flow with the curves of the roof and the 2.2 VLX also features two tone exterior. The design is not without weakness though. The rear is especially boxy and upright but that could have been take care off by Mahindra to some extent by putting the spare wheel on it… opportunity missed? The rain gutter channels don’t belong on a car sold in the 2008. The rear most windows are now flush fitting. Although the panel gaps are quite wide the surface finish is spot on and doors close with a reassuring thud that feels very solid. The strong build has penalised the weighing scales with the scorpio weighing in at 1900 kgs. Also we are not fond of the new-age metallic graphics which is an acquired taste and unfortunately default choice for the car.

The interiors though a nice place to be are still below par for a car costing more than 10 lakh rupees. There is no leather anywhere. The seats are full fabric with fabric inserts in the door pads which looks quite nice but leaves you feeling shortchanged. The gearlever placement leaves a lot to be desired, it comes at an odd angle towards the driver since its not placed ‘usually’ which mars the overall shift experience which otherwise is really good. The front seats also feature arm rests but using it makes gear shifting, if not impossible, extremely inconvenient. They are useless and it has a lot to do with the placement of the gear lever which we cribbed about earlier. The good news is they have replaced the dashboard middle AC vents to normal fins type which do an infinitely better job of directing the cold air wherever you want. The middle row has captain seats with integrated armrests which are supremely comfortable and slide back and forth and give that extra bit of legroom, a long time Scorpio bugbear. The third row seat is cramped and tall passengers may also find the lack of headroom. What is good though is the upright seating posture which is comfortable for longish drives.

The steering wheel is tilt adjustable and feels nice and solid to grip. The Scorpio also features Anti-Pinch power window on the driver’s side which stops the glass from going up if any obstruction is detected. The music system is standard, Kenwood and plays CD/MP3 and also compatible with SD cards and USB drives with steering mounted controls for volume +/-, mode and FM Tuner. The power window controls are not located on the door but on the central console b/w the front seats from where movement of all the windows can be controlled. The control on the door pads would have been nicer since they look very spartan with nothing but the door opening closing lever. The central console also has four bottle holders and some utility spaces to take care of your knick knacks. The rear seats also have a separate row of AC vents placed b/w the middle of the front seats but they are sorely in-adequate for uniform cooling. Absence of roof mounted AC for the rear passenger along with electrically adjustable outside rear view mirrors is simply unforgivable at this price, Safari has it and even the recently launched and much cheaper Sumo Grand has it! Mahindra has missed the trick here. The interiors have some nice touches like the illuminated key hole, theatre style interiors light that fade in and fade out slowly and movable reading lights which can be moved through 180 degrees. Mahindra have also incorporated some high tech features like Parking assist which is standard and works well too(intellipark in Mahindra’s speak) with ultrasonic sensors mounted in the rear bumper which judge the distance and show the readings on the rear view mirror with sound warnings, welcome in any SUV, tyre pressure monitor in the instrument console which along with the air pressure in each tyre also gives temperature alert, leakage alert and low pressure alert, rain sensing wipers (which operated once on their own during the course of the test drive) and light sensing headlights, engine immobilizer and even the cruise control (We couldn’t test it given our road conditions)!!! The car also talks irritatingly as ever and informs you that it is a powerful vehicle and requests you to wear a seatbelt and while Mahindra may call it high tech, it becomes a nuisance after a while. The car also comes with ABS as standard which helps braking immensely.

Engine, Performance and Gearbox:

The most talked about feature of the new Scorpio VLX is the all new 2.2 litre engine developed in collaboration with AVL Austria christened the mHawk. The motor displaces 2179cc and features a 16 valve head, common rail direct injection system, turbocharger with a top mounted intercooler fed through the scoop on the bonnet. The engine makes a healthy 120 bhp @ 4000 rpm and 29 kgm of torque b/w 1800-2800 rpm (Safari Dicor 2.2 owners need not worry on the number front). Turn the engine on and you will start appreciating the V series even more. Even at idle you can easily make out that this a more refined powerplant compared to the earlier and still available 2.6

This engine could have easily come from a European maker given the refinement and how muted and relatively vibration free the engine is at idle. The engine uses second generation Bosch common rail technology with pressure in excess of 1300 bars, to feed the requisite amount of fuel to each of the 4 cylinders. The engine is mated to a new five-speed gearbox which does a good job of spreading the power all through the rev-range. The shift action although long throw is pretty slick, its positive and precise (a tad notchy when shifting from 2nd to 3rd) but the overall impression is marred a little by the oddly positioned gear lever… what a shame!

The performance is impressive too. The engine feels live and alive with in the city. The first gear is relatively short which makes the engine feel enthusiastic to start with and the story continues in second gear too. The acceleration is linear and there is a step up in power and torque (very addictive) as soon as engine revs to 2000 rpm or thereabouts. The car lunges forward and you are pinned to your seat and we are talking about a vehicle weighing in close to 2 tonnes!!! The engine feels a little sluggish below 1500 rpm but that is taken care off by the short first and second gears.

Mahindra must be complemented on choosing the right ratios to harness the power of the new engine. Keep the engine above 2000 rpm and scorpio will keep ahead of most of the traffic with ease and before you realize it would have moved into 3 digit speeds. The performance is very satisfying for a big car like scorpio and at times makes you grin wide. The gain in outright performance numbers compared to the earlier 2.6 engine are not much, but the engine refinement and lack of noise is in a different league altogether. Also the power delivery is a lot more linear – the earlier 2.6 used to hesitate and pitch excessively as you changed gears. This new engine is at its best in the mid-range with impressive overtaking ability. Also the engine is a tad noisy over 3000 rpm but its not unbearable and Mahindra & Mahindra engineers have suppressed the noise nicely.

The mHawk is also equipped with ABS which is a first for any vehicle produced by mahindra and the car behaved impeccably when anchors were thrown at >100 kph to stand still with no skidding what-so-ever and the rear never ever threatening to step out of the line. Brake fade is not an issue anymore too with the car showing little or no fatigue inspite of repeated hard braking. The steering feels more accurate and positive too which can be attributed to lighter engine upfront on the downside though its overtly light which is a boon in the city, makes it hairy at highway speeds. Also it lacks any sort of feel so you are never aware of the surface you are traversing and what the front wheels are going through.

The ride quality on low and medium speeds on bad roads is impressive too but it crashes through bigger potholes. The Scorpio remains less sorted out on good tarmac, it pitches backward and forth continuously with road undulations and the overtly light steering doesn’t help matter here. The behavior improves considerably with more passengers and their luggage on-board and it feels more planted than before. The handling and general feel is a lot improved too and with the lighter engine up front the Scorpio exhibits little of the front heavy handling it used to exhibit before.
Overall the Scorpio is an excellent mile muncher unfazed by bad roads with silent engine, good ride and a responsive engine.

Overall:

The Scorpio 2.2 is a very good effort from M&M. It has always been an honest and hardworking automobile with strong build and great cruising ability. With the newer lighter and more powerful engine upfront, things are a lot better at the handling front too. It also features some high tech features like rain sensing wipers, ambient light sensing headlights, parking assist and even a cruise control but lack of absolute essentials like roof mounted A/C for rear passengers, electrically operated outside rear view mirrors is telling. The 4X4 isnt even an option. While it is nice to position it as an alternative to cars, this also raises the expectations levels of the prospective buyers to new high and at 9.3 lakhs + Ex-Showroom Delhi, it sadly falls a little short. We hope the new engine, ABS and steering mouted control trickle down to more accessible, cheaper variants.
And if Scorpio 2.2 is anything to go by, better watch out for the new Ingenio. We can’t wait to lay our hand on it…. till then happy motoring.

S P E C I F I C A T I O N S

ENGINE
Type: Top mounted intercooler, Intercooled, Turbocharged, Common rail  mHawk CRDe, DI  Engine

Cubic Capacity: 2179CC

Max. Power: 120 bhp (86.7 Kw) @ 4000 rpm

Max. Torque: 290 Nm @ 1800-2800 rpm

GEARBOX 
Gearbox: 5 Speed Manual

TYRES
Tyres: P 235/70 R16, Radial Tubeless

SUSPENSION
Front: 2 WD Independent, Coil Spring, Anti-Roll Bar

Rear: Independent, Torsion Bar, Multilink Coil Spring

BRAKES
Brakes: Ventilated Front Disc, Rear Drum