Homegrown Auto major Mahindra’s biggest claim to fame always has been to make rugged SUVs that can take on the tough challenges thrown at them by the punishing Indian roads. The Bolero has been acing this task for decades and has consistently been the company’s largest selling car for years. Adding to the Bolero’s portfolio is the Bolero Neo, a new sub-4-metre SUV from the company which essentially is the refreshed version of the TUV300. Clearly, Mahindra believes the Bolero name will give the car greater success than what it has been able to achieve till now.
LOOKS
The silhouette of the 7-seater SUV pretty much reminds me of the TUV300 but take a closer look and there’s a lot that differentiates the two. The vertical slat grille gets a generous amount of chrome and truly stands out. The bumpers get more curves and lesser edges which makes for a slightly more premium look. The imposing stance is helped further with static bending headlamps that also come with DRLs. What catches your attention first is the body cladding that runs across the door handles from the front to the rear. Square wheel arches with cladding and a side-step also add to the SUV character while the 15-inch alloy wheels add a bit of premiumness. A sporty spoiler and the spare wheel mounted on the door make up for an otherwise ordinary-looking rear. In all, there are seven colours to choose from — rocky beige, majestic silver, highway red, pearl white, diamond white, napoli black, and royal gold.
INTERIORS
The cabin is designed by the Italian giant Pininfarina which is now owned by Mahindra. And it is definitely more likeable than before. Premium fabric seats are also better than earlier while the driver’s seat can be adjusted for height. The front two rows get a centre armrest while the twin-pod instrument cluster is mostly analogue but gets a small display at the centre that gives some useful information. The familiar seven-inch touchscreen infotainment system, seen on many other cars from the brand, is here too and responds well to your needs. Mahindra’s Blue sense mobile app also helps you in accessing the system and control some of its functions. What’s missing here is a rear parking camera and the car just gets reverse parking sensors. The third row gets side facing seats that shockingly come without seat belts. With a lack of proper space, it will be better to use the third row more for luggage storage. The car gets a boot space of 384 litres.
ENGINE
The Bolero Neo is built on third generation chassis shared with Scorpio and Thar and it comes with the all too familiar Mahindra mHawk engine. The 1.5-litre engine makes around 100 bhp and 260 Nm of torque that is an improvement of around 20 Nm when compared to the BS4 engine. It is mated to a five-speed manual gearbox and for the time being, Mahindra is only offering the Neo with this option and there is no automatic model. The car certainly has a go-anywhere set-up, thanks to the body on frame construction, rear-wheel drive and multi-terrain technology. This mechanical locking differential gives the wheels more traction and is engaged when one wheel loses traction and the difference between the two wheels is around 100 rpm. This doesn’t make the car an all-wheel-drive vehicle but will bail you out from tricky situations. For enhanced fuel efficiency, there’s a micro hybrid setup with a start-stop function along with an eco mode.
SAFETY & PRICE
The Bolero Neo gets safety technology such as standard dual airbags, an anti-lock braking system (ABS) with electronic brake distribution (EBD), and cornering brake control (CBC). The SUV also gets an ISOfix child seat mount but it is not a standard feature. There are three variants of offer: N4, N8, and N10 while N10 optional comes with multi-terrain technology. Prices start at Rs 8.48 lakh and go up to Rs 9.99 lakh (ex-showroom) for the N10. The price of N10(O) has still not been revealed. Mahindra says, with the launch of Neo, the Bolero SUV portfolio would now have the existing Bolero and the new SUV. So, both the urban and rural can take their pick can pick their choice of wheels.
The writer is Senior Editor at carandbike.com