When my friend asked me to try out his (then brand-new) Scorpio on the narrow, blighted roads of Koramangala in Bangalore, I must admit I made all the right kind of polite noises. But, in my heart, I was a trifle disappointed: of course, with a 109 bhp DIESEL pulling what must be a 2 ton hunk of steel, I didn’t expect it to get off the ground like Zola Budd without her shoes...and, yet, I got the feeling that it was a bit underpowered. This was more than a year ago.
Well, a coupla weeks ago, same friend, Dileep, and his family and yours truly at the wheel set off in the same car 400 km toward the Karnataka coast to Mangalore. I was determined to put the car (or jeep, if you must!) through the paces, albeit with a pinch of caution given that we had a cargo of kids!
The wild outbacks with mostly ’bullet’ tankers for company (and you must take care they don’t graze you!) are no comparison with the narrow, crammed and bumpy streets of Bangalore. The road is mostly fine, except for the fact that it’s a 2-way job that makes overtaking - particularly in a Scorpio - a bit of a tricky manoeuvre.
For starters, the interiors aren’t too bad and the front visibility is terrific. Can’t say the same for the rear - particularly while backing. So you need to figure out how far you can push the envelope behind before you get in the car.
Even after a year and a half and over 12000 km on the clock, the car doesn’t rattle or creak - which means M&M must’ve done a reasonably solid engineering and assembly job. Also speaks for the quality of the fittings and parts.
The power steering is pretty spot-on and a delight to spin (but I’ve heard complaints from others), although I did wish there was more grunt to go with wheels underneath.
While the harshness of the diesel makes itself felt (very slightly on higher revs and lower gears), the noise and vibration levels are near zero inside the cabin. We speak of the turbo-charged diesel, not the CRDe that M&M have introduced recently.
The gear-shift is quite well-mannered and all the cogs fall into the right place at the right time without protest. Dileep was a bit shocked at my overtaking in the 5th gear at 50 and 60 kmph - even on the treacherous ghat sections - but I was taking all care and no risks. He realised that and then slept peacefullly most of the way next to me!
The 3rd gear is the best going from 20 kmph all the way to 80 with some breath left in it. My guess is it would’ve crossed the 100-mark --- but remember the kids in the back? The next best is the 5th gear that goes from 45-50 right up to 120 --- ok, ok I didn’t cross that for reasons just mentioned. I guess it could go up to 150 or even a bit more, but the boat-like stability of the vehicle and unpredictability of Indian traffic were factors that may help sanity prevail on us all.
We drove with the AC on all the time and it returned a highway mileage of just over 12 kmpl. Dileep says he gets around 10kmpl in the city.
The Scorpio feels a bit like a boat on a calm sea (if the roads are ok), which I guess must be due to its soft suspension. At high speeds - it really zips in 4th and 5th after you cross the 70kph mark and 2500 revs - of over 120 you might find your confidence shaking along with the car. Handling becomes a bit dicey as does braking - it’s a heavy car and takes some distance to stop even with the nice power brakes.
Overall I would say it’s a decent car if they can work on the handling and power (I guess they’ve done that with the CRDe) and improve the mileage a bit. Also a bit more perkiness in the initial gears instead of just the last ones would make it easier to drive in city traffic. The sheer size (although it’s no patch on the Hum-Vee) is a disadvantage in a city like Bangalore. On the other hand, the size affords a roomy cabin and lots of boot space.
The moral of the story is that M&M need to learn some more by benchmarking against truly global SUVs, and the rest of us need to learn to keep making those trade-offs between price, size, comfort, economy, etc, etc!