Mahindra Light Duty Diesel Pickup

I have a 1998 Ford Ranger, 4 cylinder 5speed, 2wd, and I usually get 24 to 26mpg, and I can get 28 to 30 on the highway, at 65 mph, with a moderate load, such as a garden tractor in the bed. A friend has a similar truck and gets a bit better, but he is an older fellow. I'm in western Wisconsin, and have lots of hills in my driving area.

This Mahindra sounded interesting, until I read only auto tranny, and only 30mpg. I want 45 to 55mpg, like the old VW Rabbit diesel pickups.

John Perez, President of the Company that wants to import these trucks, ran a similar scam back in the 90's

Remember the Aro?

"In 1998 an American businessman, John Perez, offered franchise agreements to US auto dealers. Some 200 dealers paid $75,000 each for franchise rights, for a total of $15 million dollars. These rights were offered by a company called East European Imports. The ARO was offered as a Warsaw pact surplus military vehicle. After the franchises were sold, dealers were pressured to send cashiers checks or wire transfers to start receiving vehicles that were allegedly being held in a port in Florida. Dealers refused and insisted to pay upon delivery which eventually led to East European Imports closing its doors."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARO

But unlike ARO Mahindra actually sells other products here in the US currently. I think the big hurdles for them are the super strict safety standards and emissions standards of the US.

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I would dearly love to have a choice of small diesel pickups here in the U.S. and maybe this will be a start, but I don't understand how the numbers work.

It's been a very long day here and maybe I'm just not thinking clearly, heck, maybe it's me who can't do math. Somebody tell me how these numbers make any sense at all?

- 16-26K purchase price. Lets be honest here, you will likely have to pay 20k if you want doors on the thing by the time it is all said and done.

- 'somewhere around 30 mpg highway'. "Somewhere around"? Translated that probably means they would be lucky to get 30 mpg.

So you want to sell the public a 20K small pickup that gets 30mpg only on the highway? A truck that appears to be less refined, possibly less comfortable (not sure I could get my 6' 4" frame in that thing), net new and unproven, and with what kind of dealer support? And what of the differential between the cost of diesel fuel and gas when the going gets rough. A year or so ago when gas costs were so high, diesel fuel tracked .30 per gallon higher around here. It has since gone down of course but there is very little differentiation between the cost of a gallon of diesel fuel and gallon of gas around here over the long run.

Then you have established brands of full-sized diesels from the big three that return ~18-20 mpg day in and day out, sometimes even under load. Heck even the newer fullsized gas 1/2 ton trucks get pretty good highway mileage these days and of course some of the small gas trucks get ~25 mpg.

I don't know, I guess I just don't understand how these numbers work. If somebody wants a small diesel pickup because they like the attributes of such then I think that is great, but from a purely financial/economics point of view with pay-back analysis and such I just don't see how it works very well (unless your inputs are different than average, such as you drive many more miles than average or your cost per gallon of diesel fuel is much lower than average).

I find it almost insulting that they bring a vehicle that only gets 30mpg highway, seems to me said vehicle should get an honest 50mpg highway at least.

An issue I'd have would be the new clean burning diesel engine... I've heard that you can't use home brew biodiesel, cooking oil, or off road diesel in them, without risking damaging the engines.

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Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival. W. Edwards Deming

Funny thing is,in other countries you can buy dozens of different makes of small diesel trucks and cars.

To add insult to injury,you can buy US vehicles in Australia that are diesel powered but aren't available here.

As to the Mahindra,it's styling is a little odd and it doesn't seem to do much well.

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Their tractors sure aren't top of the line so I doubt the truck will be much better . I say no thanks .

Their tractors aren't John Deere...unless you're looking at an Indian-built John Deere. Then I'd say they're close to the same. But don't look for the refinement of tractors costing half again what a Mahindra does.

We've got a few of them in the community (35-50ish HP)..most people like what they get for the money.

As for the truck...diesel = torque. It's not horsepower that makes a good truck, it's how much oomph gets to the ground. I've got a 97 Ford F-150 with a v6...sucker makes over 200hp, will run over 100mph, and won't pull the hat off of your head because the engine makes its ponies way up the rpm scale.

Bring back the "rabbit" truck from VW.

I get 30+ MPG in my '00 Tacoma 2WD 5Spd Extracab.

Dan

Low end torque is whats important to work truck. Like the old Ford 300 or Chevy 292 or even Dodge 225. Even the Mitsubishi 2.6L was long stroke and nice engine for a little pickup if you eliminated the balance shafts and found one with 8 valve head. Unfortunately nobody has made a long stroke gas engine for some time. They keep advertising a gazillion horsepower but in reality its all beautiful sunshine, assumes you drive around at 5000rpm all the time, and has little to do with reality. But then most pickup buyers anymore that want to do actual work with their pickup get one with a big diesel. The rest just want to brag on the hp numbers.

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"Well, then ignore what I have to say and go with what works for you." -Eliot Coleman

Not to worry, I couldnt find one to save me back when I was looking for one. All V6. They discontinued offering Ranger with a 4cyl with 4wd in very early 90s and very few made before then. And no, automagic tranny not what you want with a 4cyl in 2wd or 4wd pickup.

However that friends '91 2wd 4cyl would rev quite freely and easily, so you could downshift even into 2nd on a long steep hiway hill and not get annoyed with it being super buzzy like I did with that little V6 that was in my Ranger. I think a 4cyl 4wd Ranger properly geared with like 4.5:1 axle ratio or even 5:1 ratio would be fine to drive. No you arent going to drive it 90mph but fine for say 60mph using overdrive.

I thought about putting a 4cyl in my Ranger when I became totally disgusted with the V6, but it was going to be high dollar to change the axle gearing front and rear. Custom gears available to give axle ratio I would need, but never offered by Ford so none in junkyards. Axle ratio from factory is around 3.5 to 1 and with the big six and no overdrive anymore, its too low for best gas mileage . Need about 3:1 ratio for the big six without overdrive to maximize gas mileage. Course then the 3spd transmission is going to be a pain starting in first, so you need a four speed with a low synchronized first gear like a T19.

As to small 4wd 4cyl pickup maybe one of best was the Ram50/Arrow/Mitsubishi with the 2.6L. That was a long stroke engine that also could rev. No, with 4wd it still didnt probably get much over 20mpg at its best, but it was very nice to drive if gearing was thought out. I even thought about one of those in my Ranger. It might just have handled the 3.5 axle ratio cause it had lot low end torque unlike 2.8L V6. But first its hard to find a good cheap 2.6L and second it would have been a custom job to get it to mount to Ford tranny. About have had to used an old divorced transfer case.

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"What would you do with a brain if you had one?" -Dorothy

"Well, then ignore what I have to say and go with what works for you." -Eliot Coleman

I had a 2003 Ranger, extended cab, 3.0 v6 five speed manual trans for two years, or so. Paid $8K for it off a three year lease. Looked and ran new. Got 21-22 MPG rural road driving and a bit over 27 on the highway. in 50K miles it took gas, oil and tires, never an issue, never a repair. Piece of junk? hardly. If I bought the same thing in a Toyota it would of been nearly twice the price and in the middle of a recall to replace the rotted frame. As for the Mahindra, a late model chevy 1/2 ton with a v6 will be far cheaper from the day you buy it till the day you bury it. 1/2 the initial outlay. Cheaper to run, repair and any mechanic in north America can fix it, in the dark, with a nasty hangover. Good luck in the middle of nowhere when the indian tractor decides to sputter to a stop........

You are correct, but selling cheap tractors, in the U.S. is completely different, than selling vehicles for use on the highways. The hurdles for passing emmission tests (in all states) are huge, lest we not forget crash testing, which could run 10's of millions of dollars. etc.

Also who would want to buy a vehicles that has not had extensive testing in the USA? Just because they do all right in the slums of India, how will they do in -50 degress tempratures in Minnesota, the salty roads of New York, or the high altitude Mountains of Colorado? At least when the 76' Honda Accord body rotted like wet cardboard, from road salt, there was a real car company to back it up. All car comapnies spend millions $$$$ on U.S. road endurance testing, for all of their models.


If this is such a great vehicle, then why wouldn't Mahrinda, which is a very large Indian corporation "export" the trucks themselves, into the U.S.?

This is a scam.

It's ARO 2010

http://rumors.automobilemag.com/6627...010/index.html

I get 34-38mpg in my 1983 Isuzu diesel p'up.