Mahindra Marazzo (U321) 7, 8-Seater MPV Launch By September 2018

The Mahindra Marazzo will be available with a diesel engine only at launch

Mahindra has announced that its upcoming MPV, codenamed U321, will be called the Marazzo. The carmaker has stuck to its practice of ending the names of its models with the letter ‘O’. The Marazzo is expected to be a more premium offering than the Mahindra TUV300 Plus, which was launched in May this year. While the TUV300 Plus rides on the same platform as its sub-4m sibling, the TUV300, the Marazzo is based on an entirely new one.

The new platform has allowed the Marazzo to have the largest footprint (wheelbase x front track) of any Mahindra vehicle to date, which should allow for a spacious cabin. The 7-seat version of the MPV will be available with captain seats in the second row, while the 8-seat variant will have a bench. On the features front, the Marazzo, at least in its top variant, will get projector headlamps, a touchscreen infotainment system, leatherette seat covers and a large roof-mounted air conditioning system for the second- and third-row passengers.

The dashboard layout of the Marazzo doesn’t appear to be out-of-the-box from the images that have been shared by Mahindra. Instead, it has a simple design and we’ve already seen similar layouts before. Mahindra says that the new MPV will have a purple-and-blue backlit illumination on the instrument cluster, which features a twin dial setup split by a large coloured multi-info display (MID). The carmaker has chosen to keep the infotainment system below the central AC vents and not over the dashboard, which is the current trend. Having the infotainment screen on the dashboard helps in keeping it right in the driver’s field of view. Expect the Marazzo to feature the XUV500’s 7-inch touchscreen unit that gets Google Android Auto and an app suite as standard.

Mahindra also added that the Marazzo will get a ‘virtually new’ engine. While the carmaker has not disclosed more details about the powertrain, it has confirmed that the MPV will only get a diesel engine at launch. However, a petrol engine is said to be under development. Since it is going to be a premium offering, we expect Mahindra to offer it with both manual and automatic transmission options.

While Mahindra has not confirmed how it will price the Marazzo, it appears that it will be positioned between the Maruti Suzuki Ertiga and the Toyota Innova Crysta. The top-spec diesel variant of the soon-to-be-replaced Ertiga costs Rs 10.69 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi). The Toyota Innova Crysta, on the other hand, is priced at Rs 15.46 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi) for the base variant with the diesel engine. So, we expect Mahindra to price the Marazzo between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 15 lakh.

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