India's Mahindra Scorpio SUV the future of Budget Offroading?

India's Mahindra Corporation has announced plans to import two of its models into the United States starting next year. First is a pretty basic pickup truck costing in the $17-$19,000 range and second is a traditional Body on Frame SUV called the Scorpio costing in the low $20,000 range. It may sound like it is competing with some heavy hitting cute-utes from Toyota and Honda, but this truck is more the size of a Land Cruiser and features a high torque diesel engine under hood that gets gas mileage in the 30mpg range. Or so the theory goes. The other question mark, of course, hangs over how advanced is the quality of a truck manufactured in India. If you want to have a look at this new rig, go to this site...

http://www.mahindrascorpio.com/  

I think it is going to be hard for them to sell cars....They arent a common name in the US and people are not going to want to buy them.  Its kinda like how Daewoo came and is now gone  

Mahindra is a very long time and well established manufacturer in India.  This is their attempt to capture upscale desire for SUV's in the Pacific Rim market as well as into the USA.    I have seen some of their farm equipment and it is well built and hell for stout.

The engine itself is from Mercedes under license and is the latest common rail design for economy and performance.   Doing 0-60 in under 6 seconds in a over two ton automobile, using diesel is very good.

The claims of 30mpg seem reasonable for the same engine in a mercedes vehicle of over two tons is well established.

I love the room and plan on buying one for myself  

well it is the future and thus with the quailty suv as this car is ther are few available at this price range as the scorpio  

Just to let y'all know, they are working out of a US office not far from where I live, here in Georgia.  They have a white Scorpion they're driving around to events here.

I got to spend a little time around/in it, and here are some first impressions.

Fit and finish were first rate, no orange peel paint, body gaps were all even, everything was great.  Doors shut solidly, and the body panels (some seem to be composite were very solid.  Kids were bouncing soccer balls off the thing all night, and it came through fine.

Leather quality (yep leather) was good.  Cockpit seems a bit basic, with no gee-whiz screens, but was functional, with all the other bells/whistles.  Seating seemed a bit narrow, but I'm 6'3" and weigh about 300, so that's just my opinion.  most users won't find the seat width objectionable.  The seats were firm, and felt like they would hold up.

I did not get in the second or third row seats, but leg room seems to be minimal-no room to stretch out, that's for sure.  The third row seats are VERY close to the tailgate, with only a few inches of room back there for storage.  I don't need them, so I'd probably leave my third row (it looks removable) seat in the garage.    Also, the tailgate swings to the side (all one big huge piece of it, window and glass both open at once) not up and down. It's easy to swing, but I'd be careful in strong winds, if that thing swung shut on you, it would HURT!


Headroom is one thing that is not lacking, I could've worn a cowboy hat and still not hit the roofline.  No craning my neck to see stop lights in front of me either, this thing has a high wind screen.  

All in all, when I buy (in about 10 months, it's on my short list.

http://picasaweb.google.com/forsythnewstips/Scorpio?feat=directlink