The comfort in the Mahindra Scorpio N was commendable, and it was also a hoot to drive.
BHPian Pure_ Rhythm recently shared this with other enthusiasts:
Did a one-day trip from Pune to Shirdi and back on the 15th of August, 2025. The car gave us just more reasons to fall in love and adore it with our whole hearts.
The plan making
My sister, currently residing in Mathura for her education, was to come home to Pune for Raksha Bandhan (just an excuse) and stay the entire week. She came on the day of the occasion, i.e. on Sunday. Mom had already planned an outing, and all that was remaining to be finalized were the dates of travel.
We couldn’t do it during the week as I had my college throughout, and thus, we needed a duration of holidays in order to execute the trip. That happened to be on the 15th of August as it was a Friday on that day and a holiday, followed by the weekend.
Perfect!
The Itinerary
The plan was simple. Spend a day (or two) traveling to the designated locations and come back. Although the insistence had always been on doing a one-day trip and returning back home the same day, none of us were opposed to the idea of staying the night at some place and continuing the next day if it got too late.
The locations were:
- Pune – Shirdi (around 185 KMs)
- Shirdi – Vadangli (around 50 KMs)
- Vadangli – Pune (around 220 KMs)
The Route
We put our faith into Google Maps and gave it the liberty to choose the fastest route for us. Happened to be on and via NH60.
The track was:
- Sinhagad Road to Hinjewadi (via Chandni Chowk)
- Hinjewadi to Chakan (via Alandi Phata)
- Chakan to Sangamner (via NH60)
- Sangamner to Shirdi Sai Baba Temple (Shirdi)
- Shirdi Sai Baba Temple to Vadangli
- Vadangli to Chakan (via NH60)
- Chakan to Sinhagad Road (Home)
A total of 487 KMs were covered, according to the Odo.
Departure
The Departure time was decided to be 6:00 AM. And of course, as a typical Indian family going on a leisure trip, we absolutely won’t be leaving on time.
We got late leaving and put our foot out by around 7:20 AM, post which we were to go through Chakan and exit Pune towards NH60, i.e. Pune – Nashik highway, leading to Shirdi.
The Journey
The road from Sinhagad Road to Chakan was pretty twisted. Although initially it was only the highway up until Hinjewadi, afterwards, it turned every now and then. Finally reaching Chakan, we realized the biggest mistake we made… entering Chakan during peak traffic hours.
[Pro Tip: NEVER enter the Chakan area at around 7-10 AM]
Honestly, our presumption was that due to 15th August, the area wouldn’t be as densely trafficked as it usually is… and boy, were we wrong. As soon as we entered, we were welcomed by a Traffic Jam which took us around 35 minutes to get by, followed by another one which took more than 40 minutes. We encountered a total of 3 congestions, taking a total of about 1.5 hours out of our ETA. Exiting Chakan finally gave us a breath of relief, and we finally encountered open highways.
As none of us had any breakfast, we were called for the basic fundamental survival need… Eat Food.
A little over 15 KMs on the highway, we spotted a nice restaurant, Hotel Moksh Pure Veg. Good, spacious and covered parking spots, clean premises and a family-oriented environment was pretty welcoming. Had some great breakfast there, spending around 50 minutes in.
As the basic need was met, there was nothing that we’d have to stop for now… and we departed from there.
Joined back on the highway (NH60).
The “highway” from Chakan to Narayangaon was nothing great. In fact, it was fairly broken at times, with minor but consecutive potholes for long distances. But again, the beast accompanying us was nothing less than a True Blue SUV… and thus, we had a pretty decent experience. The average real-world speed was around 70 KMPH, with some portions of the track also seeing as much as 100 KMPH at times.
At this point, the tank was halfway empty, and so, we decided to refuel it and not have to worry about it further ahead. It had also started to drizzle quite a bit at this point. The Odo stood at 2899 KMs, making us have covered 93 KMs till now.
In around 3 hours, we reached the Shirdi Sai Baba Temple at Shirdi after taking the exit from NH60 near Sangamner. It cost us some 15 minutes extra at Sangamner, as we’d halted to meet a friend of my sister’s, who resided in Sangamner.
Experience at Shirdi
Initial
As we entered the area around the Temple (guided by Google Maps), we encountered a man riding a motorcycle trying to stop and talk to us about something. Alerted, I lowered the window a bit and asked him what it was. He then proceeded to let us know that he’s from a ‘parking area’ group, and that they have an entire parking space for vehicles. He also told us that he shall give us a tour of the entire Shirdi Temple for free, and the only thing that’d cost us was the parking ticket.
(A small piece of advice: Whenever someone/something seems too good to happen, realise that there’s something fishy going on for sure.)
I asked mom whether we should park at his spot, and she agreed.
We followed him for some distance before reaching the parking spot. Good and spacious parking with easy in-&-out. After getting out and paying the ticket, we followed him to the Shirdi Temple while he told us about the history of the Temple(s) and the activities as such. Reaching the temple which was merely a 6-7 minute walk from the parking, we were greeted with the twist.
Reaching the Temple’s entrance, he got us in front of a shop and asked us to buy a “dakshina thali” for Sai Baba, to be given inside the temple. We were like “sure” as we’d already gotten an idea of where it was leading to. Splaining to us what all is there in this “thali”, he gave us around 8-10 items and a cost of Rs.1200. Now, it wouldn’t have been this much a problem had he notified us from the start itself that he’s gonna charge us such kind of an amount as we’d have prepared ourselves beforehand… it was the lying and saying that “I’ll charge you nothing except the parking charges” that set the tone wrong.
Anyways, after bargaining a little and getting the amount down to Rs.500 (for which, he deducted some contents from the ‘thali’, no problem), we went inside the temple.
Entry & the Sai Baba Temple
The entry process, at least for us, was anything but simple.
First, we had to find our way to the “VIP” line, as everyone who’s ever visited Sai Baba Temple had told us that engaging oneself in the regular line would mean several hours of waiting in line (around 4-5 hours average).
For the VIP line, we had to enter through Gate No. 6 which was all the way towards the other side of the Temple, to the side where we entered from. Had to walk there barefoot as we had already kept our footwear at that guy’s shop.
Walking for almost 15 minutes, we came near Gate 6.
Now, for the VIP ticket, there were two ways. Either the ticket booths right at the start of Gate No. 6, which ONLY accept UPI payments, or walk inside the temple and go to the counters for paying with physical money.
As we didn’t have our phones (submitted them at the guy’s shop as aren’t allowed inside the temple), we had to opt for the physical payment option. Took us another 15 minutes at the counter just to get 3 tickets. From there, we would then, finally enter the temple.
It was still a queue though…nothing “VIP” really.
Waited in this queue for some 10-15 minutes before they let us inside a sitting hall, where we all had to do was to sit and wait for another set of gates to open. The gates finally opened, and we got into another queue. This one was the final line that would at last lead us to the Sai Baba’s murti.
This line happened to be THE MOST cumbersome, tiring and time-consuming of them all… taking up almost 45-50 minutes to the main Sai Baba Temple where Sai Baba’s murti is kept. (Do not have any pictures of Sai Baba’s murti as phones aren’t allowed inside.)
Getting out of there, we finally had a sense of accomplishment settle in along with a relief that the most important part of our journey was finally over, and that we need not have to rush anymore, and could take it fairly easy here onwards.
The journey continues
The next most important thing to get done with was food. As we didn’t know that it’d take THIS long for us to just get inside the temple and see the Sai Baba murti, we had skipped our lunch and it was already almost 5 in the evening. Stomachs growling, tiredness grieving and moods whining, we desperately started looking for a food place first thing after getting out and on the road.
Found this nice restaurant just 2-3 KMs from the temple exit, Hotel Kalpdeep. Clean premises, good parking space and a tad bit of crowd were the pulling factors for us. Filled our empty stomachs and left at around 5:30 PM.
Now, we had two options… either head back home right away so we don’t get late (my family doesn’t really put up with traveling at night), or travel to Vadangli, and head back home from there (could get home the same day, just a lil late). We assessed the viable options and finally decided that the distance wasn’t frightening enough, and that we could return home the same day, just in the late hours.
So, without wasting any more time, set the location in the maps, put the gear in and took off.
The distance was shown to be around 50 KMs, and a travel duration of around an hour. The road was actually decent, just a bit narrow. Was also broken and water-clogged in certain patches.
Reached Vadangli by 6:30 PM.
At Vadangli, we wanted to go to this temple there, which was specific to my people’s beliefs, to have a look around. The premises was fairly clean, simple and well-maintained. After a few minutes of going around the place, we finally decided to head home. The total distance on the maps was around 215 KMs, taking up almost 5.5 hours. Left the place by 6:40 PM.
Back to Home
The initial road was good enough. Narrow, but fine. We took this route for 21 KMs before finally reaching the Highway, NH60. After going on for about 2.2 hours, we decided to have dinner at a nice restaurant on the way. My dad had traveled on this route a while back and recommended to us this restaurant that he’d once stopped at. Hearing his praises about the restaurant, we were certain that this was definitely gonna be our pick for dinner. And after driving a little ahead, we finally spotted it.
Hotel Jeevan Veg near Kalamb, Manchar on Pune-Nashik Highway, NH60. This was definitely a surprise for all of us as to how good and well-maintained it was. Loads of space for parking, separately built and well-maintained washrooms and really posh premises inside. Went in and had dinner (light, as we’ve had lunch just a few hours ago). Food was nice. Clicked a few pictures of our Scorpio-N, also while standing beside a Roxx (Beauties… Mahindra’s killing it with their designs out there).
Continued at around 10:15 PM on the NH60. The road was, as before, just fine. Potholes every now and then, but drivable. Maintained an average speed of about 70 KMPH.
Also got the chance to properly test out the headlights of the Scorpio-N, and for stock headlights, they were definitely on par with my expectations. Wide with a fairly long throw, just need a bit more brightness and intensity, and would be excellent (for stock light standards). Nonetheless, good enough headlights.
Reached home by about 12:00 AM (a few minutes early in fact, but one and the same).
Parked in, got all the stuff back home and got the Odo readings.
The SUV
We covered a total of 487 KMs during this one-day trip. The SUV was nothing but excellent. Maybe it’s the new car emotions speaking, I don’t know, but what I do know is that the Scorpio-N was an absolute brilliance to be in, drive and experience over these KMs.
The suspension NEVER made me feel that I gave them “too much to handle”. NO pothole seems “big enough” for this SUV, and it proved every ounce of that statement.
The handling, for an SUV this tall and brute, was fairly complementing. Never made me feel like I was losing control over it. Combine that with those amazing brakes and hyper-energetic engine pushing over 200 horses, it was a hoot to drive.
The comfort in this thing was commendable. Even after being a B-O-F and really above the ground, the Scorpio-N was really good in terms of comfort and ride quality. Guess it’s the FSD at work providing on-par ride and handling at the same time.
Overall, if I had to rate this SUV, would give it a solid 8.5/10 (maybe a 9 even). Of course, no car’s perfect, and so isn’t this… but regardless, it’s extremely well put-together.
And with that, this would be it.
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