Fans of the Mahindra Scorpio SUV were given an even bigger reason to join the ownership ranks here with a recent up-grade that offers more power and more luxury. The 7-seater Scorpio is extremely well-priced, and although it is not sophisticated, it offers an honest SUV experience to people on a budget.
In February this year the Scorpio was up-graded with the more modern common-rail turbo-diesel engine, known as the mHawk, that has for the past year or so been fitted to the Mahindra Pik Up range. In the case of the Scorpio S11, this means that power has risen from a previous 88 kW to 103 kW. Toque is now rated at 320 Nm.
The range
The Mahindra Scorpio S11 is available in just two models. The first of these is the Mahindra Scorpio 2.2 CRDe S11, a rear wheel-drive model, at R334 999. The Mahindra Scorpio 2.2 CRDe 4X4 S11 is priced at R354 999.
Both of these models are fitted with a 6-speed manual gearbox. No performance figures are quoted by Mahindra, but fuel consumption is listed at 7,3 litres/100 km for the rear-wheel-drive Scorpio . The same figure is touted for the 4X4 model, but this figure is likely to be heavier with the extra drag and weight of the 4X4 system.
Interior up-graded with a touch-screen and navigation
The other big up-grade has been the fitment of a 7-inch touch-screen that also features imbedded navigation. The system is also Bluetooth-compatible, offering lots of infotainment possibilities. The Mahindra Scorpio has a specification that attends to the basic needs of SUV customers, which enables it to hold its very modern price, while offering all the gear that is really useful.
This equipment level includes electric windows all round, air conditioning, remote central locking, cruise control and a reverse park sensors. Electric wing mirrors are also fitted .
Old-school SUV specification
The basic Scorpio’s specification sees it use a traditional separate chassis frame, with the body affixed to this rugged structure. Many hard-core off-roaders actually prefer this to the unitary construction applied by many SUV manufacturers these days. Interestingly, the country’s most popular SUV, the Toyota Fortuner, also uses a body-on-separate chassis configuration.
Which Mahindra Scorpio model depreciates fastest?
Apart from a super-competitive price, the Mahindra Scorpio also comes with a 4-year 120 000 km warranty and a 5-year-90 000 km service plan, which helps to keep re-sale values high, should the need arise to trade-in the Scorpio after a year or two.
However, it should be noted that in the new-vehicle market there is substantially more demand for the rear-wheel-drive Scorpio S11 SUV than there is for the 4X4 S11 SUV model. For this reason, we advise that if re-sale value is one of your major concerns, you should opt for the 4X2 Scorpio model. Not only is it some R20 000 cheaper, but it should have better value retention, as model demands in the used-car field follow those of the new-car arena. So it follows that demand for a used rear-wheel-drive Scorpio will be higher than that for the 4X4 model. However, given that there is not much price difference between the two models, there shouldn’t be a big difference in value retention factors.
AutoTrader currently lists 22 examples of New and Used Mahindra Scorpio models for sale.
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