The Mahindra Armada was a

sports utility vehicle A sport utility vehicle (SUV) is a car classification that combines elements of road-going passenger cars with features from off-road vehicles, such as raised ground clearance and four-wheel drive. There is no commonly agreed-upon definition ...

(SUV) and multiutility vehicle (MUV) based on the

Jeep Jeep is an American automobile marque, now owned by multi-national corporation Stellantis. Jeep has been part of Chrysler since 1987, when Chrysler acquired the Jeep brand, along with remaining assets, from its previous owner American Moto ...

. It was produced in India from 1993 until 2001. As of 1998 it was complemented by the more luxurious "Armada Grand"; both were replaced by the

Mahindra Maxx The Mahindra Maxx (or MaXX) is an offroad SUV which was launched in 2001 in nine- or ten-seat station wagon form. It replaced the earlier Armada Station Wagon. Mahindra & Mahindra Mahindra & Mahindra Limited (M&M) is an Indian multinational ...

in 2001. The Armada, the Grand, and the Bolero were all intended for urban market segments where Mahindra had hitherto been underrepresented.

Origin

The design of the Armada began with the Jeep. In the mid-1950s,

American Motors Corporation American Motors Corporation (AMC; commonly referred to as American Motors) was an American automobile manufacturing company formed by the merger of Nash-Kelvinator Corporation and Hudson Motor Car Company on May 1, 1954. At the time, it was the ...

made the "CJ-5" Jeep. From this vehicle, the MM540 Jeep was developed. The automotive firm, "Mahindra & Mahindra", developed the MM775 and Marshal series of steel-bodied estates with a long wheel base and three or five doors. The first one, the MM775, arrived in 1992 although a long-wheelbase five-door "Metal Wagonette" of the MM540 had been available in limited numbers since 1987. This, however, was a custom job with handbuilt bodies of low quality and was not cost effective. The later Armada was the 'upscale' version of these cars, a

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model aimed at a more urban market than Mahindra's usual clientele.

Design

The Mahindra Armada had smaller wheels and lower-profile tires than other Mahindra Jeeps, giving it a lower stance and center of gravity. Thus, it was suited more to on road driving. Later models have

disc brake A disc brake is a type of brake that uses the calipers to squeeze pairs of pads against a disc or a "rotor" to create friction. This action slows the rotation of a shaft, such as a vehicle axle, either to reduce its rotational speed or to hol ...

s. It was originally fitted with

Peugeot Peugeot (, , ) is a French brand of automobiles owned by Stellantis. The family business that preceded the current Peugeot companies was founded in 1810, with a steel foundry that soon started making hand tools and kitchen equipment, and the ...

's 2.1-liter XDP 4.90 diesel engine with and was available in either a two- or a four-wheel drive version. A later 2.5 L

XD3P diesel engine gave the Armada a maximum speed of 100 km/h.

External

External design features included the flatter Bolero-style roofline; rectangular headlamps; body graphics; tacked-on plastic or

fiberglass Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass (Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass cloth ...

pieces in the

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area and on the wheel arches and bumpers. All this to indicate the car's upscale nature and to set it apart from its more workmanlike cousins.

Internal

The Armada internal features included air conditioning; molded plastic dashboards with an effectively placed instrument cluster; and an 8-passenger seating arrangement with the option of fold-down front and rear seats. The Armada likely represents the first attempt by any Indian firm to offer to the public what later became known as an MUV / SUV - an incrementally more upscale, comfortable, and road-oriented version of what had been a spartan, rugged, dirt-track utility vehicle.

Armada Grand

The Armada was joined by the more luxurious Armada Grand, which was first shown in 1996. It went on sale in 1998. It has power windows and power steering; revised interior features and plastic grille; and an electro-mechanical 4x4 selector. At the 2000 motor show in New Delhi the Armada Grand LX was shown; it had a completely new design in front-end bodywork, independent front suspension (on two-wheel drive models), a five-speed gearbox and much improved sound insulation. It was considered more upscale even though it was missing simple features such as a windscreen defogger. When it went on sale in August 2000, it received the name Mahindra Bolero.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mahindra and Mahindra Armada Sport utility vehicles Cars of India Cars introduced in 1993