Mahindra Scorpio-N – the best off-road bang for your buck

Mahindra’s 2024 SA Car of the Year finalist – the Scorpio-N – is making waves in South Africa and abroad.

The brand’s new SUV is fast becoming the one of the best-selling all-terrain SUVs in its segment. It offers seven-seat convenience with a go-anywhere ladder frame and 4×4 system at a price unmatched in the industry.

To best appreciate the value on offer by the Mahindra Scorpio-N, one should start with its engineering.

The All-New Scorpio-N was designed and engineered to global standards. It has no carryover components from the legacy Scorpio, and it offers new levels of performance, off-road capability, ride comfort, low levels of noise, vibration and harshness (NVH) and road holding for the nameplate.

The vehicle design starts with the new Mahindra Twin Peaks logo and offers a muscular silhouette, with signature wheel arches with diamond cut alloy wheels and chrome detailing that ends in a scorpion-tail design element on the rearmost passenger window.

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Inside the Scorpio-N the modern design and value for money features continue with a large touch screen infotainment system and several standard features, including climate control, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto and, depending on the specification level a coffee-brown leatherette interior with an immersive 3D sound system by SONY.

There are six airbags in the cabin and all models offer disc brakes on all four wheels, hydraulic brake assistance, ISOFIX child seat anchors and a unique drowsiness detection system that monitors driver inputs and alertness and warns him or her to rest when necessary.

When it comes to driving the Scorpio-N, the vehicle truly has no equals in its segment. A new penta-link rear suspension with a watts link mechanism absorbs bumps and irregularities on the road while also ensuring the greatest possible wheel travel when driving off road.

Add to this a first-in-segment Frequency Dependent Damping system for additional ride comfort and Mahindra’s well-known Mahindra Locking Differential, which mechanically locks the rear differential without any intervention.

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Lastly, the entire system is managed – on 4×4 models – by Mahindra’s proprietary 4XPLOR system. This system adapts the vehicle performance and safety systems depending on the road conditions and it can be controlled from a large electronic selector in the cabin. So, whether there is sand, slippery mud, off-road ruts, rocks or tar roads, the Scorpio-N will always be at its best.

Mahindra has put this to the test in their nationwide road trip that set out to conquer some of the most challenging off road tracks in the country. They recorded this here.

The Mahindra Scorpio-N is a finalist in the 2024 Old Mutual SA Guild of Mobility Journalists’ Car of the Year competition. It is available from Mahindra dealers countrywide at a starting price of only R477 199.