Mahindra Scorpio Automatic only available on order

As we reported recently, the Mahindra Scorpio is due for a major facelift soon and is still the most popular SUV in India, regularly outselling its more modern contemporaries like the Ford Ecosport and the Renault Duster. While the Scorpio as a model in general is doing exceedingly well in terms of sales with 50,900 units sold last financial year, some models barely have any sales. The Scorpio automatic, available in both two-wheel-drive and four-wheel-drive variants is one of those variants.

The Scorpio automatic, available in only fully loaded VLX spec with both 2WD and 4WD models, is the most expensive Scorpio sold. At Rs 11.6 lakh for the rear wheel drive and Rs 12.21 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi) for the four-wheel-drive, it is precariously close to the likes of the larger and more modern XUV500, even though the latter is not available with an automatic transmission. Even though the Scorpio automatic is the cheapest automatic SUV available in India today, its high price and older looks have resulted in almost negligible sales. Mahindra therefore has decided to stop a regular production run of the automatic Scorpio, producing one only when ordered by a customer.

Most dealers informed us on how the Scorpio automoatic was unavailable due to poor sales and unavailability of stock. That said, a prominent South Mumbai dealer did give us more details, like how there was a minimum two-month waiting period on the two-wheel-drive version and even longer waiting periods on the four-wheel-drive one due to the large demand of the normal manual versions recently. The Scorpio automatic can be booked for a token amount of Rs 50,000 and as per our sources at Mahindra, will be built only on order.