Mahindra G12 TGDi (1.2 mStallion)

The turbocharged direct-injection 1.2 three-cylinder petrol in the XUV300 and the XUV 3XO — the strongest member of Mahindra's G12 family, rated 130 hp at 5,000 and 23 kg-m from 1,500 to 1,750 on the maker's own datasheet. Chakan-built, 1,197 cc, designed in-house from 2016 and shared with SsangYong.

⚑ The car beside it on the same forecourt has the G12 TCMPFi, which is the same block turbocharged and port-injected at 110 hp. Both are badged mStallion, and so is the entirely separate 2.0 four-cylinder in the Thar, XUV700, Scorpio-N and Thar Roxx. The badge is not a designation; establish which of the three you have before reading anything about the others.

Direct injection is what makes this one age differently. Fuel goes straight into the cylinder, so nothing washes the back of the intake valves and carbon accumulates there with mileage — a gradual loss of breathing that reads as a fuelling fault and is not one. The port-injected sibling does not do this, which is exactly why the two must not be treated as one engine.

Three cylinders, so a misfire is a third of the engine, and there is no opposite bank to compare a sensor or a trim value against.

The naturally aspirated 3G12, badged mFalcon G80, is the same 1,197 cc without a turbocharger and has its own page at 80 hp. Displacement will not separate the three members of this family; aspiration and injection system will.