Our Mahindra Marshal is still with us. My nine-year-old says that when he turns 18, he wants to upgrade it and drive it.
BHPian ringoism recently shared this with other enthusiasts.
A local BHPian up here sent me a link for the online listing for this one about a month ago. It was a local-registered car, but the asking price was frankly exorbitant. There are only a few of these around locally -one has a commercial registration and another is from out-of-state, only one I know of is a local white plate, and that’s new enough that it probably won’t be for sale for a while. I had been driving past this listed one four times daily taking my kids to and from school, so figured I’d test-drive it anyway.
Behind the wheel, I can say it really did feel “comfortable” – in the sense of feeling familiar and natural to sit in and drive, like something I wouldn’t have to adjust myself too much to – so yes, “worthy successor” did come to mind. The seller claimed that other people were looking at it, that someone was coming from Shimla the next day for it, etc, etc – asked how much I could give then and there. The figure I had in mind wasn’t acceptable to him, his reduced one was likewise not palatable to me, so left it there and kept entertaining the thought of finding a nice 9-year-old NCR Duster or Terrano for 2-2.5L.
Looked at a couple of those up here, too – drove 2015 models of each – first a one-owner Terrano that rattled a bit upon startup and had a “heater/coil” warning lamp glowing and a bad clutch and plenty of scrapes and small dents to go with its 1L km’s. The other one I really liked, seemed almost new mechanically and in terms of driving – a base non-ABS model Duster – but when I checked at the local Renault ASC, found out it apparently had 1L km’s more than the odometer indicated…
…means an astonishing 170k+. So didn’t move forward with that. A few people have told me that the K9K 1.5DCi is great till it starts going bad (that could be a long time, of course) and that after that, it doesn’t respond well to repairs/rebuilds. Also saw in the threads and heard from mechanics that parts supply can (surprisingly) be an issue.
If it had ultimately seemed reasonable to try and live out my dreams I’d have probably opted for the combination of a somewhat modded/updated old Mahindra Utiliti 4×4 crewcab (for the classic CJ-esque appeal and rugged simplicity and of course for carrying manure and bricks and saplings and stuff) – AND a 4×4 Yeti for everything else!
But finding and modding a Utiliti to our tastes was going to take time if it could ever happen at all. And the Yeti – thrilling, capable, balanced and supremely pleasurable to drive as I found it to be (and while it’s becoming eminently affordable besides) – is just too electronic-laden and complex in its systems to be picking up as a ten-year-old, especially when contemplating long tours in remote places, and particularly if & when we end up based in the Northeast, where Skoda basically doesn’t exist. End of the day, I’m at a stage where I’m trying to simplify in life, and owning (/parking /insuring /maintaining) two cars, including a rebuilder and/or anything exotic, was just not going to simplify anything.
I wanted something that gave better mileage than the Marshal but started considering/calculating, and finding that in light of the relatively modest distance we cover in a typical year, the better FE of an additional car was very unlikely to translate into net savings, against the added expense(s). Granted, we take a once-in-five-years long tour somewhere in the mainland and, well, driving the Getaway is going to cost twice as much to run that distance as an Ertiga – and that is NOT an insignificant figure over the course of 5,000 km – but hey, such trips are rare and can be considered luxuries in themselves. These are things we plan and save for, things we want to make the most of and remember fondly: And to us, making the most of them and keeping things memorable means reducing limitations – so exploring little forest trails and lakefronts and beaches and etc… where no sedan is going to cut it, and even some AWD’s (for lack of ground clearance) might struggle.
We like the Marshal so much that it had seemed better to supplement it rather than replace it – but I got a feeling as though a Storme or Scorp would be redundant. And if we got another, more efficient vehicle like a Duster with simply a luggage area, then between the two, we still wouldn’t have anything that we could easily throw six bicycles (I rent them out) or a wood stove (used to make/sell them) or dirty stuff (firewood seasonally, farm work forthcoming) or other big loads in…
Kept wondering what compromise we could most easily live with – the difficulties in parking and securing luggage that a crewcab pickup is going to involve, or the lack of ability to carry such loads that any other vehicle would present (though I do remember one reviewer abroad commenting that he regularly loaded a half-ton of firewood in the back of his Yeti, which handled it well).
Anyway…
Had borrowed a friend’s slightly modded Bolero Camper here about a year ago and people said it suited me (image-wise, I suppose?), even the wife drove it and felt it was ok. But somehow it seemed too rough and rude – no A/C, fair amount of gear whine from that WWII design T-18 transfer case (Marshal better in that way with the Borg-Warner fitted), and enough vibes from the Turbo DI (that also being worse than the Marshal’s NA DI) that along with the noise, the owner himself complained and ultimately sold it. He himself was interested in finding a Getaway.
So all vehicles represent compromises, but in the past week or so had finally come back to the somewhat idealistic “one-car solution” I’d looked for earlier. And these crewcab pickups seemed about the only real all-rounders. In the metros, people might consider them highly impractical, but out here about every family that can afford one has a Camper – or V-Cross. If Camper was out for crudeness and the Isuzu for budget, then there was only the Getaway and Xenon, the latter of which I’ve heard a number of unfavourable comments (owner and non-owner) about. A couple of people recently told me the Getaways are getting hard to find and commanding higher prices lately. I kept seeing them turn up in Rajasthan for sale, but goodness, Udaipur is a fifty-hour’ drive from here, and then there are the formalities/costs/risks of buying out of state.
Long story short, over the course of a month, the other prospective buyers never picked up this local Getaway, and I kept driving past wondering if the seller was more or less indifferent and had just listed it figuring he’d sell only if he could get an unreasonably high price.
Then, a few days ago the same Bhpian who had tipped me off to this one a month ago had gone ahead (without intimating me) and for my sake offered the seller about a third less than his price. The seller countered with a number much lower than the lowest he said he’d take a month ago. A friend told me, I drove past it another day or two, then called him. It sounded like he’d just that very day sold it (unbelievable!), but he said he’d have to confirm and get back to me. Heard nothing. So I texted him saying I’d pay cash for it that very day if it didn’t work out with the other buyer. He said again that he’d confirm.
And by afternoon called and told me I could come to look at it again. By this time the car was sitting outside a local mechanic’s shop awaiting a few repairs.
I drove it again, with the wife along this time, and finally offered 50k less than what I had a month earlier. He countered, saying he was going to have to spend money on these repairs… My offer was right around book value actually, so I said, “Take the car, go home and relax, and I’ll give you the amount I offered in full tomorrow morning, will take the car as-is and let the repairs be my responsibility”.
And it was done.
I guess this may demand a new thread, then.
Marshal is still with us, and we still like it. More than like, maybe. My nine-year-old says that when he turns 18, he wants to upgrade it and drive it. Lots of good memories in this one and gonna be hard to let go of, and I’m not sure we have to – it’s all paid for, runs great, and doesn’t require much to keep it going. But who needs two large 4x4s? Definitely a lot of redundancy there. Thinking all this through.
Marshal trumps the newcomer in terms of the closed luggage space, turning radius, ease of maintenance (even roadside), and I guess articulation and breakover/departure angles – and right, the classic Jeep appeal…
…but that said, the Scorpio is an obvious upgrade in every other way, much more power for effortless climbing/cruising for a change, and actually very comfy and I daresay “luxurious” to our minds. Ride quality is surprisingly soft, the cabin is quiet and rigid (we can speak to one another between first/second rows in a normal tone of voice now!), and we’ve got a lot of firsts here as the new family car: keyless entry, four shoulder belts, tilt steering, power windows, steering (obviously), mirrors, headlamp trim, rear defogger, A/C, etc – and to top it off, a Pioneer touchscreen Bluetooth head unit, and even some auxiliary lighting.
End of the day I would have been hard-pressed to find a closed-body Scorpio 4WD of the same age with 1L km done, for the price I got this one. The CRDe power delivery is absolutely good – as noted in the quote above it’ll idle away in gear from starts with no throttle input, yet once in it, you can feel some thrust coming on as low as 1500rpm in the lower gears, and at around 1700-1800 it gets properly strong. The pickup final-drive ratio might be a little lower than the SUV version, as well – it feels pretty responsive and can idle along in a high range at 10kmph.
Very satisfied with the purchase, almost had to keep pinching myself, thinking I might sadly awake from a dream… it is in truth a real answer to prayer and something we waited patiently a long time for.
Took possession yesterday afternoon, and already started work on it – the axle seal being a top priority. Sad to say, some hack had earlier beat the hell out of the axle shaft right in the seal area… so I’ll need to visit a lathe shop… and these seals/bearings are not as easy to remove as the Marshal’s full-floaters are…
It was turning much sharper to the right side than to the left (inept alignment technicians I’m sure – the kind who take the steering wheel off to re-set it straight, instead of getting the tie-rods adjusted right with steering on-centre).
Aftermarket rims are offset way too far to the outside, so need to do something about that. Tyres are quite bald, and these came with a kind of oddball 245-75-16 size (currently 265-70-16, which is wider than is necessary / generally helpful).
Ah, well – here we go…
Well, there’s quite a lot of water under the bridge here.
Both in this thread and in various posts over the past year or two in our Marshal 4×4 thread.
There’s been a lot of hand-wringing, but in my defence: How does one really go about a replacement/upgrade or even identify a workable supplement to the 2001, old-school Mahindra 4×4 that has really proved such a capable Himalayan trekker, taken us so many places (even the metros), helped create such wonderful memories, and truly (despite its lack of a given name) become part of the family? There are bound to be conflicting thoughts and considerations along the way.
I’ve owned only this one car for the past ten years, but perhaps a couple of dozen others earlier in my life, moreover have driven probably a couple of hundred others since I bought that first one around forty (!!!???) years ago – So have long understood that each one represents compromises – that very few if any are “perfect” even for a particular owner.
The purchase of the Marshal had involved its own degree of hand-wringing, but not nearly so much back then in 2012 when many of our current pre-owned options were new entries in the market and in no way within reach financially. It was simply the cheapest spacious, and most reliable 4×4 available then when even XD3P Bolero 4x4s were commanding 3-4 Lakhs secondhand and Scorp/ Safari would have been much more.
On one level my/our requirements have always been quite modest (Marshal “Deluxe” model had distinguished itself merely by boasting reclining seats, intermittent wipers, and radial tyres!) – and not only with respect to cars. Luxury, status, and raw power have never really been in our sights at all as a family – I had all that in my former life with other cars, but they’re not what any of us aspires to now.
For that matter, we are not highly concerned about safety equipment and ratings, partly because in the hills we drive at low speeds most of the time, and also because I am cognizant of the reality that safety paraphernalia at a price point (i.e., when mandated across the board), may often prove deficient/ ineffective against the best of claims and intentions; And I have experienced this personally.
To digress slightly: On the other hand, official safety ratings often omit/overlook very important elements of design that lend themselves to the prevention /causation of accidents… Have commented on occasion elsewhere in the threads, but anyway: While there are fewer stats and data available out there on such lines, I am absolutely sure that things like good forward / corner visibility, superior quality tyres, a high level of maintenance vigilance and close connectedness with one’s vehicle, and even things like turning radius (because a tight radius won’t leave you delayed at a U-turn or intersection, trying to reverse in front of traffic, etc) can all go a LONG way towards creating a general environment of safety for driver and passengers, pedestrians and everyone else out there on the roads. I’m into prevention more than mitigation, but even on those lines, how many accidents (statistically) are averted via ESC every year in India, vs. those caused by poor visibility (whether a line of vision is being blocked by thick, “safe” A-pillars or blurred by a dirty/scratched windshield, or half-blinded by oncoming high-beams)??? How many wrecks are caused by the reflection on the windscreen of the sun on an immense dashboard of unideal surface texture? Probably very many. But until we have such data at our fingertips, all is really just opinion/hearsay, and there’s a LOT of it flying around in the threads (like all the assertions & attendant complaints about rear wipers not being standard equipment on all-new Indian cars, etc, etc) that I cannot rationally buy into. We seem to have often missed the forest for the trees, and having lived/moved/survived all these years on a few rather diverse continents, I don’t feel a need to be hand-held by (sometimes nitwit) regulators and/or the whims & whiney demands of a largely reactionary, uninformed public for the rest of my life. And for goodness’ sake, I can’t bring myself to care one whit whether the headlight trim thumbwheel is 10mm lower or higher than someone is sure it should be, or if the gearshift vibrates a tad at idle! Many of us are far too bored, it will end up (as in my homeland) in a culture of neuroses.
(Okay, I’ve amply vented now).
So everyone now knows what we did NOT feel a need for in our next vehicle. But what did we want?
Simply (?) put, all we really wanted was a good, solid, versatile, reliable, easy/inexpensive to repair, somewhat spacious (both passenger and luggage), affordable (<4L) pre-owned car that has A/C and P/S and can travel at reasonable speeds in reasonable comfort on the highway, but which still has some grunt for the hills. Oh, and if it's to replace the old Marshal 4×4, it really ought to have all four wheels driven in one way or the other, and have decent ground clearance.
Hehehe, maybe a tall order after all! And we are not the only ones voicing a similar desire/dilemma.
All said, it’s been a somewhat confusing journey full of twists and turns, having had all sorts of vehicles come into consideration, from Aria to S4+, Verito to Duster, Safari Dicor (3.0) & Storme to vintage M&M Utiliti, Mobilio to Yeti to Ertiga to Captiva to Tucson to Fortuner to Xenon and more – all showing their inevitable respective merits/demerits/compromises, all roughly within budget as 9+-year-old NCR disposals.
As of a week ago, I was seriously feeling about ready to give up and spend a month and some tens of thousands installing A/C, P/S, a turbo and a 5-speed in the Marshal, get the interior redone and be finished with it, then just hold onto the thing tenaciously (the NGT be damned), and drive it till someone pries the steering wheel from my cold, dead hands… 🙂
Had pretty well settled on the 85ps Duster/Terrano, despite that niggling feeling that we would end up missing the 4wd (AWD version’s 110ps commonly had injector problems), and one local person’s assertion that they weren’t good in the snow, and a few others’ testimonies that the K9K 1.5DCi, while good and generally robust, doesn’t respond well at all to major repairs/rebuilding, whenever the time would come for that; And as the cars we’ve seen coming up from the plains lately almost all were victims of odometer tampering fraud, it seemed it would be hard to know how far or close one was from such “major repairs”.
Was planning to just go down to Delhi and spend a week going around the dealers till I found a good example… we want to drive to the Northeast from H.P. for the first time this winter, and we needed to get a good car ASAP – my wife wasn’t at all keen on taking the Marshal (even when I told her I’d swap out the tractor silencer for a proper one!), and while I myself felt willing to do it one way, driving it there and back seemed beyond the scope of what I’d call fully pleasurable unless we really had a LOT of time on our hands and could stick to the secondary roads.
Long story short, at the end of it all (and in brief moments in the midst of the vacillations and general fuzziness of mind), there came this clear vision and an answer, in truth the answer to our many prayers:
(note the Umling-La sticker on the tailgate – the former owner really had taken it there a few weeks ago – one claim to fame, anyway!).
The custom front bumper will have to go, at least temporarily, since outside the hill areas it’s likely to draw negative attention from certain representatives of the (honourable) law-enforcement community…
In retrospect, it should have seemed clearer much earlier – but I suppose it didn’t need to be till the right vehicle came up for sale here locally, a great blessing as we didn’t have to invest all the time and expense and assume various risks re: buying from some other far-flung region (seen lots in Rajasthan). So this one had been listed online and I’d test-driven it, then had been driving past it daily for a month or more till the seller finally came down to a reasonable price – once he had, the deal was completed within a couple of hours. No complaints there. There are actually hardly any Getaways (Gateways as one often sees in listings or even written on RCs!), so it is really something like a miracle that it should have turned up just when we really needed to have it, just prior to what will likely turn into a 6,000-7,000km trip. I’ve got about six weeks to get everything sorted & ready, which should be enough.
Will probably put a transverse “toolbox” (as commonly utilized abroad as secure storage in pickups) in the forward part of the cargo bed… that should suffice for local shopping trips and stowage of day-packs and valuables while travelling, probably having as many litres of space as a small hatch – while the rest of the cargo area, when not covered with whichever collapsible cover I can also work out, will provide easy loading and space aplenty for bicycles, apple crates, the occasional motorcycle, firewood, gravel, bricks, manure, and whatever else we may need for upcoming projects. Anyone who perused the thread on Gul Panag’s rig (of identical colour) back in 2012 would have seen a very nice Overlanding setup; I especially liked the tent arrangement, which we too could do one day if desired. Interesting to note, looking back to that thread from twelve years ago, that my wife and I had one day witnessed what must have been Gul herself driving her “Milo” down from Rohtang Pass in front of us – we had followed that then-new truck for a while, admiring it, and I’d noted that my wife quite liked the vehicle. Now she (my own heroine!) will be driving one herself!
On that note, will mention that (unlike the Bolero Camper 4x4s everyone has up here), this truck is actually very well-appointed and comfortable to sit in and operate. Mentioned all that in another post in the Marshal thread, so won’t elaborate – but suffice it to say it’s as smooth, comfy, convenient and quiet as an average (diesel) sedan while being able to carry a LOT more stuff of various types. The Turbo mill isn’t very laggy, torque builds quickly from as low as 1500rpm, and there’s plenty of power just a bit higher for climbing and overtaking.
On the downside, parking, of course, is NOT going to be as easy as in a sedan/hatch, but thankfully isn’t an issue at all for us here or in the Northeast as we have plenty of it available. And as we don’t typically put that many km on our vehicle in a year, hopefully, the fuel costs will not prove highly prohibitive (my only real concern going into this). Maybe I can manage bio-diesel someday???
Overall, we expect the Getaway to be able to do basically everything the Marshal has been doing, and to open the door (as a “Gateway?!”) to a whole lot more besides.
This particular example runs well and the 4×4 system is functional and the paint and interior should cleaned and polished up nice, no glaring problems or anything major to be done, but that said, it does have issues needing attention, which I’m already into the thick of (it’s sitting with an axle out at the moment), hopefully, can be updating those interested over the next couple weeks.
Stay tuned.
Keyword: Bought a used Mahindra Getaway 4x4: Ownership, repair & 1st impressions