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-   -   Mahindra Savari: The humble work horse of the Darjeeling Hills. (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/commercial-vehicles/108149-mahindra-savari-humble-work-horse-darjeeling-hills.html)

Hi guys, I had an opportunity to click a few pictures of this Savari that was being modified for use as a taxi in the hills of Darjeeling. So sharing them with you.

This particular Savari is a 2004 model with a DI non-turbo engine. I think the Cubic capacity is 2500.

At present, if one buys a Savari then only the turbo version is available. The owner of the vehicle was telling me that Non Turbo Savari's were more sought after because of them having more reliable gearboxes and crown tails ( in his opinion).

The OTR price of a stock Mahindra Savari in W.B is 5.3 lakhs Approx. With that you get the following:

1) Two rows of front facing seats.
2) Two 3 seater jump seats in the back.
3) A soft top but without much support for it.
4) Official carrying capacity is 9 adults.

After purchasing a savari, the owner takes it straight to the workshop and makes the following changes:

1) Add 4 rows of front facing seats.
2) Remove the jump seats altogether.
3) Strengthen the soft top.
4) Add a heavy duty roof carrier.
5) Increase the carrying capacity to 15 including the driver.

Some Info about this particular savari:

Purchase: Used.
Route: Kurseong to Daarjeeling (35 kms one-way)
Fare: Rs.50 (Rs.40 for office going regulars)
travel time: Approx 1 hour.
No of trips:
Off season (Dec-Feb, June-Sep) 1 trip Kurseong-Darjeeling-Kurseong.
On Season (Feb-May, Sep-Dec) 2 trips Kurseong-Darjeeling-Kurseong.

I will let the pictures do the talking now.


The interiors all taken out, and the floor boards all repaired. Every rust spot taken care of.


A close up of the interior work done. You can see the original factory paint on the doors, the rest of the entire area has been worked upon. Darjeeling being a very wet and damp place, rust is a very common problem.


The unmistakable Mahindra hood. Note the strengthening done to the roof to accommodate a heavy duty roof carrier. I guess this strengthening will also help strengthen the entire Savari body and minimise body roll to a certain extent.


The external body also all patched up and then primer-ed up. Now ready for the colour. Due to budget constraints, the paint was done out in the open, no paint booths here.


And now the finished product. The Mahindra Savari Taxi. Though it was painted without a paint booth, I was quite impressed with the quality of paint work. Not bad at all (relatively speaking).


There are only 2 doors on this side and it looks like a normal Savari form this angle.


From this angle you can see the cut out of the 4 doors.


Ladies and gentlemen may I present to you the 15 seater mahindra Savari (Darjeeling edition) :D with 4 rows of front facing seats. Plus with a small boot as well.


The End

Thanks a lot man. It reminded me of my school days in Siliguri when we used to visit the hills often :)

And yes, neat paint job I must say. Just paint the wheel arches black instead of the stripes please: I suppose it will look much better.

look at the rear tyres !

You are most welcome. And its not mine to decide what colour to paint fortunately/unfortunately :D. I pass this workshop quite regularly so just decided to click some pictures of the work done. The stripes on the back wheel arches are made out of iron and placed there to protect the fiber/plastic wheel arches.

@Arpan, what's the good / bad /ugly about that one ?

Well I guess what arpandiv wants to point out is not the looks of the rear wheels but the condition, they have no grip left on them. Really dangerous especially since its going to be a people carrier.

yup, look at the thread on the rear tyre, they are "slicks" :)

@Arpan, nothing out of the ordinary in everyday lifeof a commercial vehicle. If you look around, most commercial vehicles in that group have tyres like that. Often, far worse. A second, cheap Re-tread also if possible.

Also, when posting, pls make your posts clear. A one-liner like that is liable to be treated as spamming. Thanks !

Nothing unique in the rear tyres from 2 angles.

1) When you leave a vehicle in a paint shop, you normally take back the good tyres (if there are any) and snap on a ol' one to last the 1-2 months of abuse in such a place

2) OR - as ^ said, this is THE running condition of everyday taxis' is many places in India...

Never knew something on these lines was being shipped out from the M&M stables. Are they sold for the taxi segment or even as personal use vehicles ? Love the looks of the end product. The last two doors fitment looks top notch :thumbs up

I think its a good idea to keep that piece of fabricated metal along the fenders. Since it serves the taxi segment am sure people would care less and wouldn't mind stepping on the fenders when getting in/out from the 3rd row.Doesnt look whacky though, just needs a shade of black on it.

All jeeps are common site at any hill stations. These are workhorse really and with little or no maintenance. I am sure owner will bring his jeep next time to this garage after 2 - 3 years.

I feel pity for passenger who get seat in second last row. There is very small ingress/egress area for them and all passenger have to literally jump out during egress.

Not to mention, when there is no luggage for roof carrier they fill it with more passengers. So, all in all it can move 30 - 40 passengers. :eek:

I too believe the above could be true. Notice that spare wheel is not mounted. It has probably been removed along with good tyres.

Also, notice that there are no grab rails in the 3rd and 4th row. Regarding 3rd rowoccupants even though climbing into that door is cumbersome the people in hills are usually more nimble than the ones in the plains and should be able to manage.

BTW does'nt this vehicle require a FC or something? How do they manage?

From the pic it seems the rear tyre is already a re-threaded one. The paint job seems quite good for a roadside garage standard.

PS- I would like to share an experience. I have happened to have traveled in such a taxi,it was a Hindustan Trekker. It wasn't modified at all,only a roof carrier was added. It had the normal 2 front facing seats and 2 side facing jump seats. The number of people seated in it were- 30:Shockked:(including the driver). Not all were seated,some were hanging on all 3 sides and another was sitting on the roof rack,holding several large sacks of rice(50 kg each). I remember noticing that one of its front tires was torn on the side wall and the tube exposed:Frustrati.

It was my ONLY experience in such a taxi,13 years ago and i haven't been able to forget it till date. I just couldn't help thinking about the guts of the driver. BTW, the fare was Rs.5 each for a 12 km journey on a canal bank full of huge 'craters' and non-existent road.

I've seen Kerala registered TEMPO TRAX Jeeps also being modified to have all front facing seats. They are called 'Cruiser' and they seat upto 10 people with their luggage. They usually are hired out for trips and are known to meet up with huge accidents that you read about in the papers