First lot of Mahindra Scorpio SUV: Rare pictures

Mahindra Scorpio is an SUV that needs no introduction in Indian market. It was first launched back in 2002 and even after 2 decades, the popularity for the SUV does not seem to come down. We now have a brand new Scorpio N in the market which is premium and offers more features than the older version. As Scorpio is still a popular name among SUV buyers, Mahindra did not discontinue to the older version and is selling it as Scorpio Classic. Here we have some rare pictures that show the first lot of Mahindra Scorpios being manufactured at Mahindra’s production facility in Nashik.

The images have been shared by Siddharth on Instagram. Before Scorpio, Mahindra was known for making utilitarian vehicles like Bolero, Armada, Classic and so on. The brand was often associated with vehicles that can actually take abuse in rural areas or off-roading. Tata Safari was the modern SUV that was available in the market. At Rs 8.25 lakh, even the Safari was an expensive SUV. With the launch of Scorpio in the market, many things changed. Price for a brand new Mahindra Scorpio started at Rs 5.5 lakh and that was a very competitive price when you compare it with Safari or even the Toyota Qualis which was available in the market then.

Also read: Coming soon: Tata Safari Dark Edition

Mahindra Scorpio was available with three diesel and one petrol engine option. The diesel engine were 2179 cc, 2609 cc and 2523 cc while the Petrol engine is 2179 cc. The diesel engine produced 109 Bhp and 250 Nm of peak torque. The petrol engine generated 116 Bhp and 184Bhp. Both petrol and diesel engine options were available with manual gearbox option. It was available in both 2WD and 4WD versions. Petrol engine did not do pretty well in terms of sales as it was not fuel efficient when compared to diesel.

Scorpio was Mahindra’s first vehicles to be developed in-house. Assistance from AVL Austria and cosultants from Japan was taken for the project. A total of 23 expert engineers worked on developing Scorpio. The whole project, including the design and development, tooling at Nashik factory costed around Rs 500 crore. One of the major issues with the first generation Mahindra Scorpio were the brakes. At 2.5 tonnes, Scorpio was a heavy SUV and it used to come with disc brakes at the front and drum at the rear. Initially, the SUV used leaf spring suspension at the rear but, it was later changed to  multi-link coil overs which improved the ride quality significantly.

Mahindra Scorpio was not a perfect SUV. It had its flaws. The SUV used to make noises, the engine was not refined and was mechanical but, it was robust as it was a ladder on frame SUV and the leaf spring suspension set up. The rugged Mahindra DNA was visible on the SUV and we feel that is one of the reason why people liked it. Mahindra also offered a variety of accessories for the Scorpio. Mahindra also had Mahindra customizations that customised the interior and exterior of the SUV as per customer’s interest.

Also read: 10 DC Design cars & how they look in the REAL world: Maruti Swift to Mahindra XUV500