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30-day dream road trip in my Mahindra Scorpio N: Sand, snow and sea

24th December 2024, 13:38 by Utkarsh Chaudhary

I met so many curious faces amused by my travels, but almost always wishing me luck with a smile and kindness in their eyes. I fell in love with our country and its people.

BHPian sarvatron recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

One man, one machine, one question and one epic road trip across 9654KM, 11 states, 1 month and 1 answer.

The Man - 34 years old (then, 35 now!), based in Bangalore and having spent almost 13 years in the same company (since graduation!) and having owned and driven the same car for 8 years (Skoda Laura 1.8 TSi), led me yearning for new experiences, a new machine, and new answers!
The Machine - Scorpio N Z8L Diesel AT 4Explor, Napoli Black bought new from Sireesh Auto, Bangalore.
The Question - Do I want to continue with my job or take a career break for the rest of the year?

As a motoring enthusiast, there is only one place I know to find answers to all of life's questions, big or small - at the bottom of my car’s fuel tank. So with my excel sheet prepared, diesel topped up, running in done, I packed my bags and headed off on a 30 day solo trip on a drive through sand, snow and sea!

The Man, the machine and the mountains;

Background:

With the ongoing layoffs in tech, career slowdowns and a general sense of doom, I had actively started thinking of what I wanted to do next with my career. Being single and having no dependents, I thought of exploring a career break. But that’s a big decision, with a lot of factors, most importantly, what will I do during this break? I’d worked up a comfortable cushion financially so I knew I could sustain a few months to a year comfortably but having been working nonstop for 13 years, it was going to be hard to sit still.

So I did what any smart corporate employee would do, I dropped my entire leave balance at the beginning of the year, explained my burnout and thoughts to my bosses and got a 2 month sabbatical approved. April and May 2024 - an adult summer vacation!

The plan:

First 30 days solo across India exploring states and cities, sights, sounds, smells and experiences that were brand new to me! Followed by a 2-week family vacation with my parents, sister, brother-in-law and their 2 kids in Europe, before I head back to the office (hopefully) with clarity on how I want to play the rest of the year out.

Back to the road trip. I’d bought the Scorpio N with one goal in mind, long distance touring that is not limited by ground clearance or road conditions - a challenge I often faced with my Laura previously. And so I started building my triple S plan (sand, snow and sea!). The trip was planned to begin at the end of March and through April 2024. Sand and Sea are available throughout the year. But where does one find snow (and snowfall!) in April?! Thus began the research on where I can drive to safely solo and find snow in the country.

So the planning started, Sand = desert. That’s easy - The Thar Desert. Jaisalmer! Starting from Bangalore, I decided on the route to Jaisalmer as Bangalore > Mumbai > Jaisalmer for the first leg of the trip. Spend a couple of days in Jaisalmer and around, visit the border, do a desert safari (turned out to be a pretty crazy experience), and hopefully test the Scorpio N’s Sand Mode (I have ZERO offroading experience, btw) and then start on leg 2.

Leg 2 would lead me to cut across the country, Jaisalmer to Siliguri, via Uttar Pradesh. And so it looked something like: Jaisalmer > Agra > Lucknow > Siliguri.

This leg was mostly through expressways and highways and I really got to test the comfort levels of the Scorpio N as a long-distance tourer (sure much of it was tested during the first leg as well, but that was mostly on adrenaline and excitement, I’d have been as comfortable in a V1 Indica for the first couple of days TBH!).

A couple of days in Siliguri and around (Jaldapara, a safari and a drive around some beautiful roads in that region) would then lead me to leg 3.

Leg 3 was something that has eluded me since I was a little boy - SNOW! I’d been to the hills and to many countries and cities around the world that experienced snowfall but somehow, never managed to catch it or experience it first-hand. And here I was hoping to catch snowfall in April!

Smart? Probably not. Hopeful? Most definitely.

And as you might have guessed, leg 3 led me to Sikkim! A phone call with a friend (let’s call her V) who was driving from Chikmagalur to Bangalore at the time - led me to convince her to join me for this leg of the trip. Checked flights to Bagdogra and it worked for her! 24 hours later, I wasn’t on a solo trip anymore and I am deeply indebted to V for not only humouring me and joining me on this trip last minute but also for being a solid support and navigator through some of the most challenging roads I have ever driven on!

Spoiler alert: Not only did we see snow capped peaks, drove around in snow, but at Yumthang Valley - we experienced snowfall!!

Sikkim was absolutely stunning. From the South to the North and everything in between, it was one of the most beautiful experiences of my life! Due to road closures and permit challenges, much of our Sikkim itinerary didn’t go to plan and towards the end, V had to take a cab over to Darjeeling and then Bagdogra on her own while I stayed back for an appointment (I got a tattoo to memorialise the trip!).

Leg 4 then started solo again. Making my way back south - on my final desire for this trip - Sea! On the east coast, I chose Puri! And so I started from Gangtok, spent a couple of days in Kalimpong, drove down and spent a night in Kolkata before heading to Bhubaneshwar > Raghurajpur > Puri. A night in Puri with a quick visit to the Jagannath Temple. Drove down to Visakhapatnam, attended a friend's baby shower in Hyderabad before finally making my way back home to Bangalore for a bit before heading off to Wayanad to close out the road trip.

Here is the original plan I had built:

Detailed posts on each of these legs will follow - including a detailed experience of the car, moving from a Skoda sedan to BoF SUV, food and cultural experiences, and my final decision on how to carry on through the rest of the year with regards to my job! Stay tuned!

The purchase decision and experience:

To be brutally honest, I wasn’t in the market for a new vehicle. I wasn’t even keen on an SUV, let alone a body on frame 4x4. I’d been dreaming of a used 330i GT or maybe an X3 in a few years.

The Laura’s interiors had been refurbished 2 years ago, clutch and flywheel changed just 10 months ago and the AC had been overhauled about 6 months ago. With a Stage 1 tune from Code 6 and the availability of my parent's AT hatchbacks, I had really no reason to upgrade. And as I said above, I’d been thinking of saving for a big German.

The Laura after a detail and ceramic coating in 2019/20.

In early December 2023, on an evening walk in my building, I chanced upon a neighbour's black Scorpio N, and I was intrigued! A little snooping around and I was shocked to learn that the car had been released more than a year ago and I had NO idea that there was a new Scorpio, let alone one that was so good looking! Slowly, it almost became a ritual to ogle at the car every evening and then one evening when the car was missing during my walk, my curiosity got the better of me and I ended up on YouTube watching almost all the reviews I could find.

I was pleasantly surprised to hear all the praise and positivity surrounding the car and decided I’d have to check for myself if these reviews were genuine and honest. And so I called the nearest dealer for a test drive of the AT Petrol.

Why the petrol? I have limited running, since I work from home and since Covid my road trips have reduced significantly too. Moreover, I’ve never owned a diesel and I’d like to continue enjoying the turbo petrol thrust if I am actually going to bite the bullet and get rid of the Laura, I thought.

The test vehicle promptly arrived at the promised time and off we went on a test drive. I’d booked the test drive at my office on Old Madras Road and it being a Tuesday afternoon, traffic was light (whatever version of light traffic you can find in Bangalore!) and I was really able to enjoy the power from the mStallion petrol engine. That, coupled with the respect the Scorpio demands on the road due to its size was quickly addicting!

The next day, my dad and I went over to the showroom to pay the booking amount and the salesperson assured me of a one week delivery! They had a Napoli Black, Petrol AT Z8L 7 seater in stock as another customer cancelled their booking. Great! I thought and was ready to pay the booking amount of INR 25,000. As soon as I mentioned that I would purchase insurance from an external vendor, the salesperson excuses himself to check with his boss, comes back, hands me my credit card back and says sorry the car has been allotted to another customer.

Quite a weird experience, but knowing what they are upto, I get up and leave. Next I check with another dealer, they assure me a delivery of the Z8L Petrol AT 7 seater within the month. I go ahead and book it.

In the coming days, a friend of mine (4x4 enthusiast who has owned many Mahindras in the past), sits me down and convinces me to change my booking to a Diesel Z8L 4x4. It’s out of my budget, well, everything is out of my budget! I never planned to get a new car anyway!

Parallely, I put the Laura up for sale and got a few offers (not the best, I was the second owner, car was over 13 years old and had a DL registration), took the best one I got and moved on. Farewell Laura! PS: I bought the car used in 2015 for 4.75L, and sold it in 2023 for 1.55L not a bad deal given I bought it at 61k kms on the clock and sold it at almost 1.2xL kms. I had a great time with the car and do sometimes miss it!

Anyway, back to the buying experience; to hell with it, you’re only young once, I thought and so I go ahead and change my booking. The salesperson assures me of the first lot of 2024 delivery.

In the last week of January 2024, I got a call asking me to come for a PDI at their Mysore Road stockyard. The stockyard is only open on the weekdays I’m informed and therefore I am forced to take half a day off work, no worries, I think, I am contemplating quitting anyway, what’s a half day off, I thought. I took the whole day off.

I’m told to be ready to be picked up at 8AM. At 8:30AM the salesperson calls me and says that there has been some issue and we would leave at noon. I’d taken the whole day off so no worries. At noon, I call, no answer. I finally get a call back around 2PM saying sorry we cannot go today, let’s try and go tomorrow. This is unacceptable to me and so I give him a piece of my mind and threaten to cancel my book. “Please send an email sir, no problem.” And so that’s what I did.

I then reached out to another dealer. The salesperson there told me they had a Z8L 4x4 Diesel Auto in stock and could have it delivered within a week. I call my bank, to the change process for the loan etc and have the payment ready to be transferred once I do a PDI.

PDI done, amount transferred and the car is ready to be delivered to me on the 16th of February 2024. The delivery experience wasn’t the most pleasant experience either but whatever, I’ve got the car now and to the credit of the Sireesh team, they did go out of the way to rectify and stayed back well past their working hours to give me a pleasant experience at the end of the day.

Phew! That’s a hard way to spend over INR 30L of your own money!

Delivery time!

Parked up beside my Dad's Sonet. The size difference is immense!

First order of business, new tires. I swap out the stock Apollo Apterras for the same sized Geolandars. I’d done my research on TBHP and YouTube beforehand and had spoken to Tyre Centre to keep them ready for me. Got a good deal on the swap and then headed to Carmed in Kannuru for the PPF and chrome delete.

Options presented to me - I of course chose the Geolandars.

Work getting done at Tyre Centre!

I love a clean, shiny black car as much as I love not holding back on a narrow, bushy path and so I didn’t think twice about the PPF. Carmed did a great job maintaining my Laura and so I didn’t really shop around handed it over to them for this job. 17,500KM across the country later, I am very happy with the PPF, it’s saved me from many minor scratches on narrow, bushy roads, scratches from other vehicles in Bangalore traffic and of course the dreaded swirl marks (even though I only have my car washed at washing centers, once or maybe twice a month at best!).

PPFd and Dechromed!

And with that, I headed off on my running in trip - Coorg and Chikmagalur, drove a decent 650Km, getting to know the car, meeting friends, drinking some good coffee and eating some amazing food. Came back home very happy with my decision and ready for the road trip that I'd been planning.