Cool Jeeps You Can't Have - Mahindra of India

[billiebob]

Since you didn't tell anyone what that is, I will... it's Humayan's Tomb in Delhi, built in the 1500s. Humayan was a Mughal emperor of India, Mughals being Muslims who invaded India and ruled the northern half of India until they were displaced by the British. There are many examples of Mughal architecture across India, the most famous being the Taj Mahal in Agra (about 200km south of Delhi).

a great photo Jeff.
beautiful smiles.
the scale of architecture in India is incredible.
Look at how tiny the people in the background are.
And the way the people in between look like stepping stones.

This was just after sunrise, magical

 

[jscherb]

Recycling was mentioned last night - this PikUp has a slightly more reasonable load than the others I posted, and in this case the bags are filled with recycling.

We were on a road trip just leaving of Pushkar in Rajasthan and we passed this PikUp along the way. We stopped along the road after passing them and started making our lunch out of the back of our vehicle (a Toyota Innova on this trip as I recall) and when they caught up with us they pulled over and stopped behind us. They were eating their lunch while driving and they stopped to offer us some of their lunch. Such is the hospitality of rural India.

 

[jscherb]

In the U.S. we'd call this a "garbage truck". This PikUp is in trash collection service in the town of Simla in the Himalayan foothills. A larger vehicle for this service wouldn't be able to negotiate the twists and turns in the town, which clings to the slopes of the mountains and has many narrow, switchbacked roads.

I don't think you can make it out in the photo, but the trash body tilts to dump the trash out of the door on the back, so I suppose that technically makes it a dump truck.

Warning: background info in India coming up...

Some background on Simla: Simla was once the summer capital of the British Raj; the Brits, finding Delhi too hot in the summer, moved their capital to Simla for the hot months. Initially the move was done my oxcart, but starting in 1898 they built a narrow gauge railway from the plains at Kalka to Simla.

I did a magazine article on the Kalka-Simla Railway in 2018, here are a few photos from the article...

The town of Simla is at an elevation of 7,467' and the railway station there is perched on the side of the mountain:

The railway winds around the ghaattii (gulches or valleys) up to Simla and required 107 tunnels and 869 bridges to reach Simla. Labor being relatively inexpensive in India and stone being available, most of the bridges are hand-built stone arch bridges. This is a typical bridge:

Today the trains are powered by diesel locomotives, but special trains are sometimes powered by steam; this 1905-built steam tank engine was steaming up at the Simla station one day when I was there:

Maybe even more interesting are the rail motor cars that still run on the route. BTW the more common spelling of the town name is Simla, but Shimla as seen on the sign at the station, is also used.

This is an earlier rail motor now at the National Railway Museum in New Delhi.

For anyone interested in trains and railway history, the museum in Delhi is well worth a half day if you're in town.

A drawing of the early rail motor car that I did for a different magazine article:

 

[al_burpe]

Jscherb, thank you for starting this thread and sharing the information about Mahindra and India in general. It has become one of the threads I look forward to seeing updates on the most. I have not been to India, but I have traveled in Bangladesh and Nepal. Bangladesh seemed to have good mix of vehicles from all over the world. I surprised in Nepal to discover that is one of the few countries where I have been in where Toyota is scarce. While in Nepal, we traveled in Mahindra Scorpios that were hired with drivers. I am not sure if they count as a jeep, but here are a few pictures of the ones we rode in.

 

[jscherb]

Jscherb, thank you for starting this thread and sharing the information about Mahindra and India in general. It has become one of the threads I look forward to seeing updates on the most. I have not been to India, but I have traveled in Bangladesh and Nepal. Bangladesh seemed to have good mix of vehicles from all over the world. I surprised in Nepal to discover that is one of the few countries where I have been in where Toyota is scarce. While in Nepal, we traveled in Mahindra Scorpios that were hired with drivers. I am not sure if they count as a jeep, but here are a few pictures of the ones we rode in.

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You're very welcome, it's my pleasure to share this stuff.

We've done road trips in Scorpios with hired drivers in India and we've also rented Scorpios without drivers for road trips. There's really not much difference in price and given the traffic and road conditions in these countries it really makes sense to get a driver.

In India, a rental is a commercial vehicle and as such incurs road taxes in different states so you have to stop at the state borders to pay the tax unless arrangements have been made prior to the trip; a car with a driver will almost always come with an All India tax pass (or at least tax receipts for the states you plan to visit) so there's no worry about that. Most hotels in India have accommodations for drivers so on a multi-day trip you don't have to worry about accommodations for the driver either. And if you want to explore or hike (or ride a train to somewhere), the driver can drop you and pick you up somewhere else (we've done that many times).

Driving in India isn't really fun so hiring a car with a driver really improves a road trip.

We drive our own car locally in New Delhi, but more than half the time we opt for an Ola ride instead. Ola is an Indian equivalent of Uber and it's very inexpensive. I don't know how they actually make money, a trip from, say, Connaught Place in the center of New Delhi out to the suburbs might cost you the equivalent of $3.00. Ola has a very nice app to call for a ride and there are so many Ola drivers in the cities that it rarely takes more than a few minutes for a ride to arrive.

 

[jscherb]

This PikUp is in the service of the Indian Railway Police, I took these photos at the main railway station in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh. Gwalior is an interesting station, the country-wide wide-gauge main lines cross there and it's the terminus of the 2-foot gauge Gwalior Light Railway.

Tomorrow I'll start on a different model. Some of the models left to cover... Utiliti, Bolero Camper, Armada, Savari, FC (Forward Control), Panel trucks and delivery trucks, Military models (Rakshak, CJs), the new Thar, NC pickup, a few more police models, the many aftermarket hardtops available in India (way more to choose from than in the U.S.), custom conversions... Lots more to come but if I'm boring you I can stop .

 

[jgaz]

Not boring at all. Please continue.

 

[billiebob]

Lots more to come but if I'm boring you I can stop .

no no no, keep it coming !!

 

[jscherb]

ok. I've been going through my photos and brochures and I think I'll start on the double-cab pickups tomorrow.

 

[cj-10]

Man I am really excited about that! In your opinion are most of the 25 year and older models very used and beat or do you think there are a lot of good options to consider importing? I would love to get my hand on a double cab.

 

[jscherb]

Man I am really excited about that! In your opinion are most of the 25 year and older models very used and beat or do you think there are a lot of good options to consider importing? I would love to get my hand on a double cab.

Definitely depends on the type of life they've led. As you can see from some of the pickup photos of the past week, many lead hard lives. The good news is that rust is pretty rare in many places in India, for example Rajasthan is mostly desert so you rarely see rust there. But jeeps in Rajasthan generally work pretty hard. In the Punjab it looks to me like some are worked a little easier and many Punjabis are enthusiasts so they take better care of them. But those are generalizations, like any other used vehicle, condition varies a lot. I've seen very bad ones in Punjab and nice ones in Rajasthan, so it really varies.

 

[jscherb]

Another Mahindra pickup that predates the Gladiator and Brute DoubleCab by at least 30 years is the Utiliti/Bolero Camper. The earlier of the two models was the Utiliti, it's a double cab with a CJ-style front clip.

Utiliti brochures from 1999/2000.

There's a 7-slot steel grille behind the 5-slot plastic grille overlay.

 

[jscherb]

I found this Utiliti on an online auto classified site in India last year, it was listed for 2.5 lakh rupees (about $3500)

Other than the tailgate being bashed in a bit, the bodywork seems to be in pretty good shape. No real signs of hard work in the bed.

 

[Chorky]

Jeff your really making me want to get a LJ and turn it into a truck - it is really a shame that the US market doesnt really have any simple small trucks anymore. Like the old Ranger.

 

[billiebob]

Jeff your really making me want to get a LJ and turn it into a truck - it is really a shame that the US market doesnt really have any simple small trucks anymore. Like the old Ranger.

yep, supersize me