Mahindra Bolero Neo Plus review: Honest to the core
This body-on-frame Mahindra has been around since 2024, and now that we’ve finally managed to get our hands on one, here’s everything you need to know about it.
A tough-as-nails, body-on-frame Mahindra SUV that can seat up to nine adults, uses the Scorpio’s diesel engine and has ‘Bolero’ in its name sounds like a recipe for sure-shot success. The vehicle in question is the Mahindra Bolero Neo Plus, originally known as TUV300 Plus (rebranded in 2024), priced between Rs 10.77 lakh and Rs 11.80 lakh. This places it above the sub-4-metre Bolero Neo (Rs 8.49 lakh-Rs 10.49 lakh) and below the Scorpio Classic (Rs 12.98 lakh-Rs 16.70 lakh). But should you be interested in one?
Bolero Neo+ Exterior Design and Engineering7
Front half is identical to the Bolero Neo, but the rear has been elongated to accommodate a pair of side-facing seats
The Bolero Neo Plus is unapologetically utilitarian, with none of those modern styling cues to make it ‘look’ like an SUV. This is a vehicle that wears functionality on its sleeve. The front half is identical to the sub-4-metre Bolero Neo, as is its 2,680mm wheelbase. So, it retains the imposing, unmistakable Bolero face, as well as the distinct black shoulder cladding that runs the length, fondly termed “cattle pushers” by some Bolero owners. Curiously, the Bolero Neo's looks were freshened in 2025, however the Neo Plus continues with the outgoing design.
Chunky high-profile tyres, ample ground clearance and a tailgate-mounted spare tyre complete its traditional SUV look.
Beyond the rear wheels, the Neo Plus has been elongated to liberate space to accommodate a pair of side-facing seats. Blacked-out B- and C-pillars, squared-off wheel arches housing chunky high-profile tyres with 16-inch alloys, a solid metallic side step, ample ground clearance and a tailgate-mounted spare tyre complete its traditional SUV look.
It carries forward a utilitarian approach, but colour scheme with silver accents adds a touch of visual relief.
The solid metallic side steps come in handy due to the Bolero’s high ride height. Like on the outside, it carries forward a utilitarian approach, with a functional design and an abundance of hard plastics and switchgear, which, although rudimentary in their touch and feel, seem built to last. That said, the beige-and-black colour scheme with matte silver accents adds a touch of visual relief.
The driving position is suitably commanding with a good view out. However, the front seats are flat, lack side bolstering and offer limited support. The long seat squab suits taller occupants better, though the individual armrests improve user comfort on longer journeys.
Headroom and foot room are ample, and the seat can easily accommodate three adults abreast.
Thanks to its boxy shape and slim door pads, the Bolero Neo Plus is more accommodating for three passengers in the middle row. Headroom and legroom are adequate, and the seating position is chair-like. A centre armrest and adjustable headrests for the outer passengers are welcome, but comfort is compromised by an upright backrest, the absence of rear AC vents or a blower and no headrest for the middle occupant.
Adults have to sit offset and stagger their feet to find knee and foot room, and shoulder room is tight.
Access to the side-facing rear seats is via the tailgate. Space here is limited; adults have to sit offset and stagger their feet to find knee and foot room, and shoulder room is tight. This area is best suited to children or smaller adults. More importantly, there are no seatbelts, making it an unsafe place to be in the event of a collision. Butterfly windows do help with ventilation. In the absence of passengers, folding these seats liberates a healthy 696 litres of boot space.
Bolero Neo+ Features and Safety5
It is among the few models to get 2 airbags instead of 6
Centrally-mounted power window switches, although rear window switches are on the doors.
The top-spec P10 variant of the Neo Plus packs in kit like 16-inch alloys, fog lamps, remote-key entry, 9-inch touchscreen with four speakers, electric mirror adjustment, rear centre armrest, and a rear wiper/washer, among basics like power steering, four power windows (centrally mounted) and air-con/heater, which are also available in the lower P4 variant.
Standard safety kit includes dual front airbags, ABS with EBD, parking sensors, central locking and speed-sensing door locks.
Bolero Neo+ Performance and Refinement8
2.2-litre diesel engine is torquey, and there's strong pulling power from idle and in-gear
Exceptionally tractable 2.2 diesel is something owners will appreciate.
Powering the Bolero Neo Plus is Mahindra’s familiar 2.2-litre mHawk diesel, paired with a 6-speed manual gearbox and rear-wheel drive – much like the Scorpio Classic. In this application, the engine is detuned to 120hp and 280Nm, but torque delivery is its biggest strength. Peak torque arrives between 1,800-2,800rpm, and there’s a strong pull right from idle.
This makes the Neo Plus extremely easy to drive. You can upshift as early as 1,500rpm, rarely need to rev past 3,000rpm, and most overtakes don’t require a downshift. It’s exceptionally tractable and forgiving, qualities that will appeal strongly to its target audience. To put its performance into perspective, it accelerates to 100kph from a standstill in a respectable 13.74 seconds. Impressively, its 20-80kph rolling acceleration time in third gear of 8.07 seconds is comparable to a 203hp turbo-petrol Scorpio N!
Acceleration (kph)
Time (s)
0-20
1.08
0-40
2.95
0-60
5.70
0-80
9.15
0-100
13.74
20-80 (in 3rd gear)
8.07
40-100 (in 4th gear)
11.56
On the flipside, sound insulation is poor, and you hear an audible diesel clatter at all times, getting progressively louder at higher revs. Curiously, while the Scorpio’s engine note is more pleasing, in the Neo Plus, it sounds crude and coarse.
6-speed manual doesn't feel as smooth or effortless as the Scorpio N's unit.
The six-speed manual gearbox has well-defined gates, although the shift quality isn’t as smooth or slick as the Scorpio N’s, let alone any modern monocoque diesel SUV.
Bolero Neo+ Mileage / Range and Efficiency9
It gets an auto engine start-stop that helps save fuel in the city
Rolling acceleration times are comparable to a 200hp turbo-petrol Scorpio N!
Mahindra hasn’t released an official fuel-efficiency figure, but during our drive, the MID indicated 16.5kpl, which is impressive for a large ladder-frame SUV. The sixth gear aids relaxed highway cruising, while the automatic engine stop-start system helps curb fuel consumption in traffic.
Bolero Neo+ Ride Comfort and Handling6
It feels tough and ready to take on bad roads
Feels far more capable of tackling broken roads than any similarly priced monocoque SUV.
The suspension setup is serious hardware – double wishbones with coil springs up front, and a multi-link rear with coil springs and a stabiliser bar. This Mahindra feels tough, and it seems engineered to take a beating. It simply smothers through the worst of road conditions without batting an eyelid, and it feels much tougher than any similarly priced monocoque SUV.
That said, the ride quality isn’t sophisticated. The body never quite settles, even at moderate speeds, and small surface changes can induce noticeable vertical movement. The tall centre of gravity results in body roll during quick direction changes, and the steering feels vague, offering limited confidence at triple-digit speeds.
Bolero Neo+ Value for Money7
It is for buyers looking for a capable and reliable people mover
With Bolero in its name, it will strike a chord with brand loyalists.
The Mahindra Bolero Neo Plus is priced between Rs 10.77 lakh and Rs 11.80 lakh, a price band that’s populated with far more sophisticated and modern offerings across different body styles. None, however, exude the same toughness, capability, or even the ability to seat 9 adults as the Bolero Neo Plus. Sure, its utilitarian approach will limit its appeal, but for buyers purely looking for a capable and reliable people mover, neither its lack of refinement nor its missing features will be a deterrent. The Bolero Neo Plus’ diesel engine is exceptionally drivable, its suspension is engineered to take a beating, and with Bolero in its name, it will strike a chord with brand loyalists.
In summary, the Mahindra Bolero Neo+ is an honest, no-nonsense SUV that does what it’s designed for, which is to simply transport people while tackling everything our roads throw at it.
You can choose how your personal data is used. Vendors want your permission to do the following:
TCF vendors
Store and/or access information on a device
Cookies, device or similar online identifiers (e.g. login-based identifiers, randomly assigned identifiers, network based identifiers) together with other information (e.g. browser type and information, language, screen size, supported technologies etc.) can be stored or read on your device to recognise it each time it connects to an app or to a website, for one or several of the purposes presented here.
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times an ad is presented to you).
Information about your activity on this service (such as forms you submit, content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (for example, information from your previous activity on this service and other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (that might include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present advertising that appears more relevant based on your possible interests by this and other entities.
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on your advertising profiles, which can reflect your activity on this service or other websites or apps (like the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects.
Information about your activity on this service (for instance, forms you submit, non-advertising content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (such as your previous activity on this service or other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (which might for example include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present content that appears more relevant based on your possible interests, such as by adapting the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find content that matches your interests.
Content presented to you on this service can be based on your content personalisation profiles, which can reflect your activity on this or other services (for instance, the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects. This can for example be used to adapt the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find (non-advertising) content that matches your interests.
Information regarding which advertising is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine how well an advert has worked for you or other users and whether the goals of the advertising were reached. For instance, whether you saw an ad, whether you clicked on it, whether it led you to buy a product or visit a website, etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of advertising campaigns.
Information regarding which content is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine whether the (non-advertising) content e.g. reached its intended audience and matched your interests. For instance, whether you read an article, watch a video, listen to a podcast or look at a product description, how long you spent on this service and the web pages you visit etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of (non-advertising) content that is shown to you.
Understand audiences through statistics or combinations of data from different sources
Reports can be generated based on the combination of data sets (like user profiles, statistics, market research, analytics data) regarding your interactions and those of other users with advertising or (non-advertising) content to identify common characteristics (for instance, to determine which target audiences are more receptive to an ad campaign or to certain contents).
Information about your activity on this service, such as your interaction with ads or content, can be very helpful to improve products and services and to build new products and services based on user interactions, the type of audience, etc. This specific purpose does not include the development or improvement of user profiles and identifiers.
Content presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type, or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times a video or an article is presented to you).
Ensure security, prevent and detect fraud, and fix errors
Your data can be used to monitor for and prevent unusual and possibly fraudulent activity (for example, regarding advertising, ad clicks by bots), and ensure systems and processes work properly and securely. It can also be used to correct any problems you, the publisher or the advertiser may encounter in the delivery of content and ads and in your interaction with them.
Certain information (like an IP address or device capabilities) is used to ensure the technical compatibility of the content or advertising, and to facilitate the transmission of the content or ad to your device.
The choices you make regarding the purposes and entities listed in this notice are saved and made available to those entities in the form of digital signals (such as a string of characters). This is necessary in order to enable both this service and those entities to respect such choices.
Information about your activity on this service may be matched and combined with other information relating to you and originating from various sources (for instance your activity on a separate online service, your use of a loyalty card in-store, or your answers to a survey), in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
In support of the purposes explained in this notice, your device might be considered as likely linked to other devices that belong to you or your household (for instance because you are logged in to the same service on both your phone and your computer, or because you may use the same Internet connection on both devices).
Identify devices based on information transmitted automatically
Your device might be distinguished from other devices based on information it automatically sends when accessing the Internet (for instance, the IP address of your Internet connection or the type of browser you are using) in support of the purposes exposed in this notice.
The choices you make with this CMP regarding the purposes and entities will affect how personalized advertising is presented to you. We need to store these choices to respect them on future visits, and they are stored differently based on the type of site or app you're using:
For sites, your choices are saved in a cookie named “FCCDCF” for a maximum duration of 390 days.
For apps, your choices are saved in device storage prefixed by “IABTCF_”. Your choices will be invalidated after 390 days and overwritten once you make new privacy choices on this app.
For accelerated mobile page (AMP) sites, your choices are saved in local storage prefixed by “amp-store”. Your choices will be invalidated after 390 days and overwritten once you make new privacy choices on this site.
Vendor preferences
Confirm our vendors
Vendors can use your data to provide services. Declining a vendor can stop them from using the data you shared.
TCF vendors
Exponential Interactive, Inc d/b/a VDX.tv
Cookie duration: 90 (days).
Data collected and processed: IP addresses, Device identifiers, Probabilistic identifiers, Browsing and interaction data, Non-precise location data, Users’ profiles, Privacy choices
Data collected and processed: IP addresses, Device characteristics, Probabilistic identifiers, Browsing and interaction data, Non-precise location data, Privacy choices
Data collected and processed: IP addresses, Device characteristics, Device identifiers, Browsing and interaction data, Non-precise location data, Privacy choices
Data collected and processed: IP addresses, Device characteristics, Device identifiers, Probabilistic identifiers, Browsing and interaction data, Non-precise location data
Data collected and processed: IP addresses, Device characteristics, Probabilistic identifiers, Browsing and interaction data, Non-precise location data, Privacy choices
Data collected and processed: IP addresses, Device characteristics, Device identifiers, Authentication-derived identifiers, Browsing and interaction data, Privacy choices
Data collected and processed: IP addresses, Device characteristics, Device identifiers, Browsing and interaction data, Non-precise location data, Privacy choices
Data collected and processed: IP addresses, Device characteristics, Device identifiers, Browsing and interaction data, Non-precise location data, Privacy choices
Data collected and processed: IP addresses, Device characteristics, Authentication-derived identifiers, Browsing and interaction data, Non-precise location data, Privacy choices
Data collected and processed: IP addresses, Device characteristics, Device identifiers, Browsing and interaction data, User-provided data, Non-precise location data, Precise location data
Data collected and processed: IP addresses, Device characteristics, Device identifiers, Authentication-derived identifiers, Browsing and interaction data, Privacy choices
Data collected and processed: IP addresses, Device characteristics, Device identifiers, Browsing and interaction data, Users’ profiles, Privacy choices
Data collected and processed: IP addresses, Device characteristics, Device identifiers, Browsing and interaction data, Non-precise location data, Privacy choices
Data collected and processed: IP addresses, Device characteristics, Device identifiers, Browsing and interaction data, User-provided data, Privacy choices
Data collected and processed: IP addresses, Device characteristics, Device identifiers, Browsing and interaction data, Users’ profiles, Privacy choices
Data collected and processed: IP addresses, Device characteristics, Device identifiers, Browsing and interaction data, Non-precise location data, Privacy choices
Data collected and processed: IP addresses, Device characteristics, Device identifiers, Browsing and interaction data, Non-precise location data, Privacy choices
Data collected and processed: IP addresses, Device characteristics, Device identifiers, Browsing and interaction data, Non-precise location data, Privacy choices
Data collected and processed: IP addresses, Device identifiers, Probabilistic identifiers, Browsing and interaction data, Non-precise location data, Privacy choices
Sergius Barretto
Lenny D'sa
Nikhil Bhatia
Soham Thakur
