Which Mahindra Scorpio trim holds its value better?
With its.... unusual appearance and single trim level, the Mahindra Scorpio is a fringe player in our SUV-crazy market. But, gauging by the depreciation that applies to these cars, their few owners are in for a treat when the time comes to sell. We explore the surprising world of Mahindra Scorpio SUV, with a focus on resale values.
Affordable and in demand?
You wouldn’t think that a relative newcomer to our SUV market could have established such a loyal following among their owners in such a short time, but that’s exactly what the Mahindra Scorpio managed to do. The internet’s forums offer plenty of evidence, with nary a negative comment passed about this rather old-school SUV to be found anywhere. This brand loyalty clearly extends to the used-car market as well, because the Mahindra Scorpio shows an amazing level of value retention – especially for something with such niche appeal.
Seeing as the Scorpio range was rationalised to a single trim level back in 2016, we can only evaluate the depreciation of that trim level over the timespan since its launch. The results were quite surprising – and good news for current owners, too!
Related: Get more information about the 2016 Mahindra Scorpio S10 here.
To compile this report, we found average resale values for any 2016-model Scorpios listed on AutoTrader, and compared these values to the list prices of these vehicles at launch. Unfortunately, 2016 model year Scorpios aren’t exactly in over supply in the second-hand market, so we’ll have to assume that the ones in our listings are representative of the range. Value retention is expressed as a percentage of the list price when new.
2016 Mahindra Scorpio 2.2CRDe S10 4x2
New Price: R 283 995
Average Used Price: R 204 948
Percentage of value retained: 72.17%
Analysis
That’s not a bad showing for a budget-focused, almost-4-year old SUV in a market that values a car’s perceived status very highly. Their resale values are however closely related to their mileage, with lower odometer readings leading to substantially higher resale values. At an industry-average 15-to-20 000 km per year, that would leave these cars in the 60-to-80 000 km range, where they still command up to R 225 000, or 79.2% of its list price when new.
Even more impressively, the Scorpio 4x2 (in even higher-trim S11 form) currently retails for R 309 999 — only R 26 004 more expensive than the S10 4x2 was at launch. This, in a market where prices are spiralling ever upward, is a remarkably small increase, totalling less than 10% over almost 4 years. A round of applause for Mahindra’s pricing strategy, if you please?
Older Scorpios (the model name first appeared in 2005 on a similar-looking but mechanically significantly different vehicle) have considerably lower resale values. If you want a basic, very cheap 4x2 or 4x4 SUV, these would probably be ones to consider. From early days as an unknown quantity, the Scorpio has morphed into something with notable brand value. Their owners clearly value them highly, and that confidence leads to better value retention.
Recommended Next:
Shop for new&used current-generation Mahindra Scorpio cars for sale here.
Shop for new&used first-generation Mahindra Scorpio cars for sale here.