I admit, I'm coming into this review biased because this little van took me to India before I even sat in it. I'm happy to say that after driving it, I wasn't disappointed. The Mahindra Maxximo is a machine perfectly suited to its environment, and I respect that. It's also the second-slowest car I've reviewed.

For the second time on my trip to India, I find myself entering a building and having a chain of flowers draped over my neck as a woman paints a mark on my forehead, and then showers me in flower petals. I never really know what to do in these situations, afraid that as soon as I open my mouth they'll realize the…

I knew I wanted to drive a Thar long before I had any idea I'd ever get to India. I was interested because it's one of the best automotive examples of evolution to an environment. Think of it this way: both the Thar and the Jeep we Americans know and love started with the same source: the WWII-era Willys Jeep. This…

Generally, the American motoring press doesn't think much about India. Sure, when there's big news  like a $2500 new car or someone remembering that, holy crap, they still build the Ambassador, we'll write about it, but for the most part we've done a pretty good job ignoring the sixth largest car market in the world.…

Last week, I wrote about my admiration for the small, ingenious little vans currently being built in India, and, like many of my posts about strange cars we never see in the US, I included a sad little plea for someone to help me find a way to drive one of these things.

I know that's a bold statement to make in that headline there, but I mean it. I should clarify though— "interesting" does not mean "best" in any sense of the word. It's not the fastest, most advanced, most comfortable, or really any superlative (other than maybe "cheapest"). But some of the cars that are currently being…

We love sturdy compact pickups and we mourn that CAFE has largely killed any hope of their return. But we still want them anyway, and we still long for Mahindra.

The long-delayed Mahindra diesel pickup got U.S. fuel-economy ratings today: 19 city/21 highway. U.S. dealers had hyped 30 mpg; given their legal fights with Mahindra, the EPA probably had to run the tests with a pickup bed full of lawyers.