You are here : Mahindra Bolero Camper - Body Builder
Which brings us nicely to the stint of lovely off-road driving where the Camper delighted with its enthusiastic engine and an almost addictive alacrity to take on any terrain, even with 4WD not making it to the features list. We drove the Camper through mountain trails that had been unexplored for a while, over rocks, boulders and through small streams. Adventurous driving though waist-high vegetation (the Camper’s waist, that is) saw us mete out some really rough treatment to the 235/75 R15 Goodyear Wrangler radials. The tyres performed outstandingly, taking all our torture without a squeal; not even when we wanted them to squeal.
We had to resort to fervent attempts to get the tyres to wail because, sadly, for all its size, the Camper looks quite nondescript at first glance. Without any in-your-face macho chutzpah, the possibility of it being dismissed as yet another commercial utility vehicle on the road is very real. And scary, if you’re planning to alight from one at your first cousin’s wedding reception.
Err...if you really are, let me warn you well in advance about the Camper’s harsh ride, lest you reach the reception venue with aching bones. Commercial vehicle-spec suspension does duty in the Camper, and it spares no effort in ensuring that every undulation on the tarmac is transmitted into the cabin. Occupants bounce around inside as the Bolero’s rigid leafsprings mercilessly treat them to every pothole that the road has to offer. The scarcely cushioned seats seem to be hand in glove with the suspension in ensuring that the entire body is given a thorough workout. To its credit, though, the Bolero’s build quality is exemplary. It passes the examination laid out by its own suspension siblings, and does so with flying colours. Even after subjecting the Bolero to enthusiastic driving over terrain notorious for shattering cars, the fact that the panels that make up the Camper’s interior were not in constant ‘vibrator’ mode was nothing less than a pleasant surprise to all of us.
Or was it? The Camper’s interior is mostly made of one very large dash. And five poorly cushioned seats. The absence of any creature comforts, apart from the AC is striking.
The interiors are too honest – evidently, no effort was spent in concealing the fact that this is a cabin either from another decade, or from a commercial vehicle; both of which don’t bode very well for the Camper.
The Camper, then, strips motoring of all its glitzy add-ons and instantly takes you back in time to experience the primeval pleasure of unalloyed driving. There is something queer about this car that cannot be reflected in mere numbers. Something that can only be experienced to be believed.
At some point, one may feel that I am being harsh and unfair to the Camper. Amit, for one, believes that I should not lay so much stress on the fact that the Camper cannot be steered around without a Herculean effort. “After all, till just a few years back, practically no car on the Indian roads had power steering. Generation after generation of drivers has traditionally been brought up on huge Mahindra jeeps that needed great physical effort to manoeuvre around”, he reckons. I, sadly, do not buy that argument.
We are at a stage in the evolution of the Indian automobile industry where ‘forward’ is the only way we should look. Yes, till less than a decade back, everything from a Maruti 800 to an ‘executive’ Maruti Esteem came with no power steering (heck, we even had a few Mahindras – the Commander, the Armada, etc that sported archaic steering systems). But is that an argument at all? It is like wearing leopard skins to work because they were fashionable when Tarzan was swinging between banyan trees. Things have been moving at a feverish pace in the Indian automotive space for the past few years. Every manufacturer worth its salt has made rapid progress with contemporary new models that would feel as much at home in Pennsylvania as they would in Pune. Even Mahindra has gone on to give us the hugely successful Scorpio which continues to remain at the cutting-edge of technology. At a time like this, when things are moving forward at a blistering pace, is it not fair to be disappointed with a vehicle that instantly transports the driver to the medieval age of Indian motoring?
Fresh from testing the Bolero Camper in Pune, I strolled into the Mahindra pavilion at the Auto Expo, ready to be greeted by an austere Camper. I was greeted by a pleasant surprise, instead.
In one corner, parked not-so-inconspicuously, was a butch, hulk of a machine. A closer look revealed that it was the ‘Lifestyle’ pick-up. Further probing revealed that it was being readied exclusively for the overseas market. Aargh!
There then, Mahindra is not entirely incapable of building a pick-up on the Scorpio’s platform. Hell, they can do a pretty good job of it too. What with bling alloys, matt-black bull-bars, a triple-pipe roll-cage and an array of dazzling halogen lamps that would need a mini power sub-station to light up. But orange? Anyway...
The ‘Lifestyle’ is a neat (and rather queer) coincidence. It gives form to my thoughts in a manner that is incredibly close to what I had in mind. The Camper does not seem very well-equipped to woo the SUV buyer into its fold and create a revolution of sorts.
The ‘Lifestyle’, meanwhile, is all the pick-up needed to kick-up a non-existant segment into fervent action. Let’s have some fireworks, M&M. Even orange will do!
The fact that the pick-up segment is yet in its embryonic stage of development in India is not lost on me. In such a scenario, few manufacturers would like to invest truck-loads (even pick-up loads) of money into developing a pick-up, and then marketing and selling it innovatively so it can spawn a new segment. The investment is huge, and the returns are not guaranteed. But is this the way to go?
By giving the Indian market a product that staunchly refuses to disguise its utility-vehicle chromosomes, I strongly believe we are killing a potentially lucrative segment even before it has taken birth.
Is designing a pick-up on the Scorpio platform a bad idea? At the Auto Expo, Mahindra showcased the Lifestyle (see box) and put up a very good case for themselves. Strip off the show-car bits – massive bull-bars, big halogen lamps, leather interiors, the works – and you will find a car with immense promise. The Scorpio has a very contemporary diesel engine, and offers a fairly decent ride and handling package. Its interiors are quiet, practical and pleasant. It has a modern body construction that weaves in a number of passive safety features into the body-shell. It will almost certainly better the Camper’s 12.2 km/l fuel economy figure. In that case, how about developing and manufacturing a Scorpio-based pick-up – powered by the same engine, and sporting similar interiors – and then selling it at roughly the same price as a base model Scorpio – at around Rs 7.65 lakh, give or take a few thousand? To me, it seems to be a far better buy when compared to the Bolero Camper here, which retails for Rs 4.78 lakh, and offers very little in the bargain. That, I feel, is the light at the end of the tunnel.
Then again, as the cliché goes, the light at the end of the tunnel could either be daylight, or the headlamp of an oncoming train. The best way to find out is to let a dummy go all the way through the tunnel. Which brings us to the possibility of a pilot project to gauge market response. If it works, carry it forward. If it doesn’t, abandon it at the early stages. Very little to lose; quite a lot to gain. And if nothing else works, I would always recommend meditation and chanting, leading to the eventual super-consciousness of the being. Ahem!
“Aum Shanti, Shanti, Shanti!” Cheers to that, with goblets full of amrut, of course!
It is an interior from Star Wars. The Star Wars version that was made in the Paleolithic Age, that is (starring T-Rex and Triceratops). Notice the absolute lack of any creature comforts. An AC is all M&M will treat you to
Rear leg-room wasn’t designed keeping T-Rex in mind, for sure. Second row of seats is very cramped. Hurts the heart even more when you turn back and see an empty loading bay in which you could sleep in comfort
The Bolero Camper’s only real rival comes in the form of the Tata TL 4X4. While the TL is slightly less candid about its UV/CV underpinnings than the Camper, it loses the plot when it comes to powerplants. Its 2.0l indirect injection motor is so lifeless, it makes the Camper look like a neat trackday pick-up. The TL is more macho-looking - probably a direct consequence of the fact that it is exported to SA in substantial numbers. Ride quality in the TL is significantly better than in the Camper. Apart from that, there is very little to choose from between the TL and the Camper.
In the ever-important pricing stakes, meanwhile, the TL suffers an abject whitewash; so much so that a price correction is what the doc desperately ordered.
If you are in the market for a pick-up, well...we don’t blame you. Every Tom, Dick, Harry and their cousins driving SUVs calls for desperate measures if you want to stand out from the ‘manly’ crowd. But something as desperate as this, er...we’re not too sure, really!
At the end of the day, both the Camper and the TL 4X4 hold immense promise; but at the same time, both are let down by shoddy execution. Here’s praying for a change. A big change!
Source: Car India February 2006.
