Mahindra launches its new MPV Marazzo at a starting price of INR 9.99 lacs

The latest from the Mahindra stable is the 7/8 seater premium MPV Marazzo. A joint product development between Mahindra Automotive North America (MANA) & Mahindra Research Valley (MRV), the Marazzo is engineered for a smooth ride and agile handling, has a quiet cabin, offers fast cooling and boasts of premium interiors. It is priced at INR 9.99 lacs (ex-showroom) for the M2 variant, and is poised to be a game changer of sorts for Mahindra in the utility vehicle segment.

The development of Marazzo embodies Mahindra’s new, increasingly global approach to product development, having been engineered in Detroit, designed by an in-house team in collaboration with Pininfarina, Italy, and the entire package coming together at their R&D centre near Chennai.

Marazzo boasts of a shark-inspired design with front grille inserts that resemble shark teeth, rear lamps inspired by a shark tail, and a shark-fin antenna. The sleek and streamlined silhouette is enhanced with projector headlamps, fog lamps with DRLs, elegant chrome finishes on exteriors and twin-spoke 17” machined alloy wheels.

The Body-on-Frame-Front-Wheel-Drive architecture is lighter than other vehicles in the segment, providing a nimble ‘car-like’ feel. The rear suspension has a lightweight ‘twist beam’ construction, which provides excellent ride and handling with the highest suspension travel of 245 mm in the segment. The chassis is anchored by a fully boxed frame and includes forged aluminium front suspension components, which increases the handling responsiveness. The electric power steering improves fuel economy, steering feel and manoeuvrability and the Marazzo delivers an excellent turning radius of 5.25m.

The Marazzo seats up to 8 people comfortably without increasing vehicle length, making it one of the most compact yet spacious vehicles in the category. 1st & 2nd row shoulder room is best in class, and there is adequate legroom for a 6 footer to travel in comfort. The step-in height of 465 mm makes it easy to ingress and egress conveniently without the use of a footboard.

Marazzo will be available in 7-seater and 8-seater options with the 7-seater offering captain seats in the 2nd row. The 2nd row (in 8-seater) & 3rd row come with a foldable 60:40 split for 1055 litres of luggage space when completely folded down.

The vehicle is powered by a 1.5L, 4-cylinder D15 Diesel engine designed for low noise, vibration and harshness, which makes for a quieter cabin. Noise measured at the driver’s ear is 43 decibels at low idle. The ‘Surround Cool Technology’ along with Fully Automatic Temperature Control cools the cabin faster (36meter/ sec airflow) than other vehicles in the segment.

Premium features include dual-toned interiors with pearl white, piano black and chrome finishes, contour-mapped leatherette seats with height-adjuster & lumber support for the driver, futuristic cluster with purple illumination and a unique aircraft-inspired parking brake, 2nd row LHS seat with one-touch tumble down lever for 3rd row passengers to enter/ exit, and sunshade for 2nd row passengers.

The equipment list inside includes a 7″ colour touch screen infotainment system with iPod connectivity, picture viewer, USB audio/ video and bluetooth audio. There is on-board navigation, Android Auto, Mahindra BLUE SENSE App with emergency call, voice activated controls for music system & voice assist features such as voice recognition for infotainment and SMS read out, steering-mounted audio and phone controls.

Convenience features include power-foldable ORVMs with side turn indicators and entry assist lamp, follow-me-home & lead-me-to-vehicle headlamps, service reminder, cooled glove box, sunglass holder, conversation mirror, cup-holders in every row, bottle-holders on all 4 doors, and multiple charging and media outlets.

The Marazzo’s 1.5L 4-cylinder in placed in a transverse (east-west) layout, opening up a lot of space for the cabin. The engine produces 90.2kW (121 BHP) power and 300 Nm torque and offers an ARAI-certified mileage of 17.3 km/l.

In terms of safety, Marazzo is equipped with dual front airbags, disc brakes on all 4 wheels, ISOFIX child seat mounts, high-strength steel structure supported by a fully-boxed frame, collapsible steering column, crumple zones, side-impact beams, impact-sensitive door locks and ABS as standard across all variants. The M6 and M8 variants include rear parking camera and sensors, first-in-class emergency call and cornering lamps.