After driving a Ford Mondeo in England, I no longer wanted a small car.
Being a believer in ’Think BIG’, I thought abt Sumo, Scorpio, Qualis, Innova and the Tavera.
Tavera was ruled out in the first round itself because of it’s looks and question abt it’s performance as it was new in the market.
Innova looked like a municipality vehicle used for ferrying dead bodies(with all due respects). This was before Aamir Khan came into picture.
Qualis was almost phased out to make way for Innova.
This left me with Sumo, Scorpio and the mahindra POLICE jeep. The police jeep idea I had to shed as my wife said not to come back home if I bought it.
The Sumo vecta was a nice model with the rugged looks and good non-taxi features. But somehow was not convinced abt the looks even though it had good track record.
My initial impression on the SCORPIO was ’WOW amazing’. When I did the test drive, I felt like I was riding an elephant. But the drive on the ring road made me comfortable. I ended up buying the CRDe mid version(with black cladding) in Sep 05. Till now I have clocked 7K KMS with 2 free services. I am totally contended that I bought this vehicle instead of Hyundai Accent(diesel), ikon, Esteem or Baleno.
In Bangalore, I get around 11kms/litre without AC. The AC is pretty good with 5 people in the jeep.
I have been on long drives couple of times and have reached a comfortable 120 KMPH speed WITHOUT vibrations. Once while I was @ 85, I had to put the brakes to avoid a maniac on the B’lore-Mysore highway. My Jeep stopped with comfort.
After traveling for 12 hrs in a day, I didn’t feel exhausted. So was the opinion from my parents.
The drawbacks I think are -
The rear suspension has to improve as it gives a shaky feeling at the rear.
The interior quality has to improve. I still see nuts and paddings not in perfect place.
The rear door refuses to be smooth.
The BLAUPUNKT music system which came with the car (ofcourse I had to pay) is a lousy one. The quality is good but not worth more than 2K. We get better music systems made locally with the better features. M&M didnt give me a manual and a warranty card for this!!
if I hit a pothole from the front- non-driver side, I hear a metal THUD sound. On obs, I found a metal resting just above the tyre hits another metal portion. I am yet to get this checked out from M&M.
Still no good quality and useful front guards. The existing ones are prone to rust and do not serve as guards.