Mahindra Scorpio Automatic (AT) – Pictorial Review

Posted at October 11th, 2008 under Auto Pictorial Review, SUVs |  Print This Post

Test drive report on Mahindra Scorpio Automatic

SUV’s may give the owners an unique feel of prideness over others. You can sit high, look around things easily and even initimidate a bus driver but at the end of the day a bicycle rider will reach home before you. The reach of SUV’s is strictly limited to politicians and others who travel between cities. The only way to make the SUV appealing for a IT professsional is to make it tractable in the city. As paddle shifts are making headlines, home grown auto maker Mahindra and Mahindra has come out with an automatic (AT) variant of Scorpio.

By the way, the spurt in love for stress free automatic transmission among Indian customers is a good sign for global auto makers as they can sync Indian models with their global ones.

Mahindra and Mahindra which is all set to roll out the scorpio in United States is constantly tuning the scorpio to make the product a global one. Only last year Mahindra came out with an advanced 2.2L CRDe (m_hawk) engine, now, it has launch scorpio automatic. Soon, Mahindra sales guys may soon call you for test driving the scorpio hybrid. Rather than bringing newer models every year, Mahindra bets on technology and its the Indian customers are gifted to feel this Innovations first.

1) Mahindra Scorpio Automatic (AT): Even if you have four or five cars in your garage, any buyer who buys a new vehicle loves exclusivity and wish to boast that he has bought a new car. But i wonder why manufacturers fails to understand this. Except for chrome badge at the rear door there is nothing to differentiate this from a regular one.

2) Mahindra Scorpio Automatic (AT): Under the hood of the scropio Automatic is the same fun to drive 2.2L m_Hawk engine which gives power at all speeds. Mated with this engine is an autobox sourced from Drivetrain International Systems in Australia. Though the gearbox is sourced, Mahindra engineers has burnt midnight oil for mating this to the mHawk engine. This gearbox is not made with Indian driving conditions in mind but Mahindra picked this autobox for its number of ratios and its easy mating to the mHawk engine.

3) Mahindra Scorpio Automatic (AT): Two modes to drive forward the scorpio AT are — ‘D’ and ‘M’. There is also a toggle switch to switch between normal and winter conditions. Keep toggle switch always in the ‘N’ mode unless you go for serious off roading where you need grip.

Once you slot the lever in the ‘M’ or ‘D’ mode you can sit back and relax. I will advise you to slot it in ‘M’ if you are switching from a manual tranmission. The mode lets you to hold gears till redline and retains the feel. But once you start used to this autobox and your left leg comfortable settles in the dead pedal slot the lever into the ‘D’ mode.

The first four ratios are closely spaced and are intended to maximise fuel efficiency. Result, the ECU always tends to select a higher gear and toggle between gears. This makes you nervous espescially around corners. But the transmission setup still retains the relaxed highway cruising of manual variant. The good news is mileage too still in the region of 9-11kmpl.

4) Mahindra Scorpio Automatic (AT): Though this gearbox lacks manual selection of gears like Mercedes tiptronic but can be made available. Mahindra engineers will work on that before the scorpio lands in US.

Overheat protection, anti roll-back in ‘Drive’  mode, reverse lockout and BTSI (brake transmission shift interlock) are some of the safety features equipped in the SUV. As the transmission is permanently sealed and does not require an oil change throughout its life, which will help reduce maintenance costs

5) Mahindra Scorpio Automatic (AT): comes only in the top end VLX variant. The cruise control, rear parking sensor,tyre tronics and rain sensor are notable features. Scorpio automatic comes at a premium of Rs86,668 over the manual variant. On the road, the scorpio automatic costs Rs12,35,835(Chennai).