Sold my XUV 500 & bought the Mahindra Scorpio-N: Initial impressions

The practicality & interior space offered by the XUV 500 is more than the Scorpio-N.

BHPian Rahkehs recently shared this about his Mahindra Scorpio-N 4WD AT.

One evening out of the blue, I with my family simply stopped at the Mahindra Showroom to check, how the new Scorpio-N, announced just a few days back looked. At that time we were not planning to purchase a new vehicle since our old XUV500 was running fine. However, just a few minutes later my young daughter as well as me was so smitten by the Scorpio-N that it was decided that we will try to go for the introductory booking and if it goes through, we will purchase it immediately otherwise will wait for 2 years.

Tried booking on day One, but got stuck on the payment page and hopes dashed. However, got a call from Mahindra Customer Care that we have got lucky and have to pay Rs. 21000, if booking has to be retained. Another surprise was waiting; we got the date of delivery on 26th September, 2022!! But, due to shortage of trailers, the vehicle could not reach the dealer at Vadodara on time for first day delivery and so it was decided that we will take delivery on Dussehra.

PDI

Since, I was not in the city, my brother did the PDI. Vehicle was flawless and all electronics which could be checked were found working fine. My brother informed me that the vehicle has not run a single KM and when he asked the Service Advisor, he was informed that the vehicle has landed directly from factory to the Stockyard and hence the meter reading is ‘Zero’. I got worried whether it is normal, and sent a query to Team-BHP too in this regard.

Delivery

Took delivery on Dussehra, the overall experience with Caravel Motors, Vadodara was fabulous and they made us feel special. But, in midst of all the excitement they forgot to fill DEF, thankfully, my brother remembered at the last moment and arrangements were made to fill DEF causing a little delay in delivery. However, this caused a message “E22 DEF Dosing Malfunction” to appear on the display. Since, it was Dussehra and Service Centre was closed, the General Manager who was personally looking after the delivery told us not to worry and the error would be resolved next day at the Service Centre.
One and half Day at the Service Centre.

The vehicle was at the Service Centre for a day and half. I was informed that Mahindra has sent their engineers to dealerships to support the service staff and he was thoroughly checking the vehicle for any other issue and hence it took so much time. Further, he has flagged AC Compressor needs to be replaced since the amount of AC water draining is more. I am not a very knowledgeable automobile person, but I felt that it was unnecessary since the AC was working fine. May be Mahindra Engineers are being over-cautious!

My vehicle was delivered and I was told that since compressor is not available readily, it will be changed after few days. Same evening, the Service Manager along with Mahindra Engineer visited my home and updated the software. After the update, I feel the Bass of Speaker System has improved, also Alexa began to work. Further, I informed the Service Manager that I am going back to Dehradun and will not be able to send the vehicle for compressor change; he assured me that everything will be arranged in Dehradun. He asked me not to worry that he will co-ordinate everything.

1250 Kms Journey from Vadodara to Dehradun and Comparison with XUV500

Mahindra has made an amazing vehicle, although it is not perfect but nothing in this world can be called perfect! Scorpio-N is miles ahead in ride comfort and at par with XUV 500 in handling! Great Sounding Music System for me at least and has got all the required features which are needed in day to day usage. The AC worked fine during the whole trip and it’s a chiller, I am still wondering why Mahindra wants to change it! Although this 2 Ton SUV can achieve great speeds but it should be driven like a SUV only, keeping physics in mind. One more thing, my little daughter has the problem of motion sickness and we always have to give her syrup to prevent it, but she didn’t need it during this journey, though she needed the syrup even for small travels in the XUV500.

However, despite of the above points, I would still say XUV500 is much more practical car for highway trips in comparison, since the practicality and amount of space XUV500 offers is such that we had to struggle to find places to put our stuff in Scorpio-N, especially the little Glove Box makes it very difficult to put your little things.

Conclusion

My Scorpio-N is due for first service, since compressor is awaited. Though, I feel the Luxury Pack and Automatic could be cheaper by at least 1 Lakh, however, as far as the vehicle is concerned, in approx. 1700 Kms of running I am generally happy with the performance and comfort and also with the care being taken by Mahindra to resolve issues if any.

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