Previously I’ve rabbited on about how my next vehicle might be made in China. The only caveat is that what I might be truly interested in is not yet available.
And now I’ve come across something that is made in India and it does have the features I’m interested in. And it is available for me to buy right now. And then there is the price.
OK so what am I looking for? A 4x4 dual cab chassis that can be fitted with a two metre (6'3") long tray (minimum) and can fit four real people.
None of the dual cab 4x4 utes available in Oz come with the capacity to fit a 2 metre tray. Not the Hilux, Triton, Ranger, Colorado, Izuzu...none of them. They can all be modified in the aftermarket to fit a long tray by fitting chassis extensions but this work costs about $5000 on top of the purchase price and it doesn’t include the cost of the new tray.
But now I’ve come across the Mahindra Genio. Torch came across it ages ago in its previous iteration.
It’s a dual cab chassis that comes in 4x2 and 4x4 variants. Independent coils up front, leaves out back. Payload is just over a 1,000 kg even in the 4x4 version (which I suspect is more AWD than 4WD despite the transfer case) but the towing weight is relatively low at just 1,800 kg braked. Tray length is a smidge over 2 metres. The interior is spartan in a way that a base model 80 series Land Cruiser would appreciate. The 2.2 L TDI engine puts out 88 kW and 280 Nm which doesn’t sound like much but it’s still more than my VW T4 2.5L 5 cyl TDi engine put out when it was new in 2001 and it’s much heavier than this thing too.
Curiously this engine does service in other Mahindra models as well and the outputs are much higher (103 kW/330 Nm) so there’s clearly some potential there.
The fascination factor comes with the price. I can get this little beastie for AU$27,490 including all on road costs. That’s pretty much half the price of a new VW Transporter dual cab 4motion...or most any other 4x4 dual cab chassis on the Australian market.
It’s also what I’d probably have to spend to restore my current ride to its former glory. Given the current resale value of the Transporter this would be mostly money immediately poured down the drain from an economic perspective. Yes the resale value of a Mahindra is likely to drop like a stone but say it loses $20K value in five years...but some quick and dirty research suggests that so will most other base model 4x4 dual cabs on the market.
There are a couple of caveats at this point.
One is the engine is only Euro 4 compliant and all new vehicles in Oz must be Euro 5 compliant. So there’s not many Genio’s around at the moment but the new Euro 5 compliant version is apparently going to be launched in July.
The other is safety. It isn’t crash tested by ANCAP as yet though Mahindra Oz claimed somewhere that it should be 4 stars (we all know how that worked out for the Great Wall Steed - they claimed four and got two). It does have front air bags, ABS and some form of stability control but that’s about it. By way of comparison, my current VW Transporter has one airbag and a healthy reliance on German engineering, Polish quality control and a gentle life in Australia.
Finally, will it overland? That is a damn fine question.