New diesel, rear locker and keen pricing for the Indian ute.
Mahindra is returning to the Australian 4WD ute market, with an updated PikUp. A very measly $26,990 will speak to your inner pov-pack enthusiast, who still yearns for vinyl and rubber. I won’t waste time going through the options and inclusions here, because there frankly aren’t many. But that’s the beauty of it; and it’s too busy packing in value to worry about things like touchscreens and alloy wheels. In fact, I reckon the PikUp S6 could be the cheapest 4X4 dual-cab ute in Australia.
Go up the spec level, and you get a few more things – 16-inch alloys, 6-inch touchscreen with navigation and climate control being the big ones. On top of that, Mahindra is going to offer quite a few genuine accessories with the PikUp: Towbars, steel winch bars and snorkels are all listed. There’s even a genuine suspension lift available some time in 2018.
ENGINE AFFAIRS
The same 2.2-litre ‘Mhawk’ turbo-diesel engine is lurking underneath that revised panelwork, but it now makes a reasonable 103kW through a variable geometry turbocharger. More importantly, the peak torque (330Nm) is available from 1,600-2,800rpm. It’s not going to rip your eyeballs out, but it’s all available in a nice, fat band in the lower rev range where it’s needed.
DRIVELINE
There are six ratios in the manual gearboxes (up from five gears), which will also make a definite improvement in performance – both on-road and off-road. Want an automatic? Well, sorry. Not available at this stage. The drive type is your typical 2WD with shift-on-the-fly 4WD. The best bit is the Eaton Detroit auto-locker in the rear, which carries on from the previous model and enhances off-road capability.
PRICES
A single-cab can be had for as little as $26,990. Dual-cabs start at $29,490 or spend $29,990 for a tub on the rear. Spend an extra $2,000 and you’ll get the better-specced S10 ($31,990). We’ve got our names on the list to road test a PikUp soon… so keep your eyes peeled.
