[Neil Roy]

Mahindra gives me a Demo Thar for my weekend holiday trip

.

Yup. You read that right. Mahindra gave me a 4WD petrol automatic for two days so that I could make it to my estate for the pooja holidays with my family.

It all started when my 2019 model Thar went for preventive checkup on 27th September prior to my trip to Nagercoil. With the pooja holidays approaching and the kids having compulsory holidays ( Thank you Govt. of Tamil Nadu) We decided to go to our estate which is surrounded on all four sides by reserve forests. The closest that we have to other humans is a good two kilometres away and hence I wanted to have a thorough checkup as the last thing I wanted was to be stranded in the middle of nowhere with wild animals and no mobile signal. It was a good thing I did that because the radiator water level was low and Mr. Harry, the service manager from Automotive Mahindra Pvt Ltd, Chennai insisted that I dont travel anywhere in that condition, leave alone a trip into the jungles and that he will definitely try to help me out. I honestly didn't expect much to come out of it. I was very frustrated as I didn't make any other travel and boarding arrangements.
What happened next was the stuff of dreams, for my kids and me at least.
One Mr. Alex of Mahindra called me and informed me that He has spoken to Derik Mahindra, Nagerrcoil and that he has arranged for a 4WD petrol automatic demo car to be available at my disposal for two days. The only condition was that I have to fill my own fuel and that I have to make my travel arrangements from Chennai to Nagercoil. It was indeed a blessing as riding a Thar for 700 kms is back breaking, to say the least. The trip was definitely back on track and wife, relatives, kids and me loaded up our trusty 2021 Safari ( Yup, you read that right too. I own a TATA and a Mahindra). Reached nagercoil on the 2nd of October to find this waiting for us

Iam not much of a Photo person and so I have put together some drone shots of the trip which I hope you might enjoy. If you see the video and the terrain, you'll understand how much this gesture of Mahindra means to me. And yes, Robert Frost seems appropriate given the location

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7ca3IPysv8

I think the Indian automotive manufacturers are upping the ante by providing customer centric services which was unheard of before. Both TATA and Mahindra are vying with each other to provide safer, reliable cars and being more customer friendly and that is very important, to me at least.

[swami69]

Wonderful gesture by Automotive Mahindra and your drone video and the music/commentary is awesome. Lovely location for a family holiday in a 4x4.

Swami

[Heart_Revs]

That was an awesome gesture from Mahindra. Mahindra seems resolved to address thier weakest point - customer service.
May I suggest a change of title for this thread. Reading just the title makes me interpret it as "Mahindra cheated me by selling a demo Thar".
May I suggest something on the lines of " Kudos to Mahindra for promptly providing a loaner Thar !!" .
Imagine the plight of Mahindra - they may be getting flak instead of hats off!! Plz have some mercy on those good chaps

[sachin_cs]

Wow, this seems like a thing to me now. Because, I recently did a 1000km trip in my Rapid and initially we were 7 people on the plan & as my dad was in touch with the Mahindra dealer, he offered us his demo Petrol Thar MT for the trip. However, 2 people could not make it so we were 4 adults and a kid, so taking two cars didn’t make sense and 4 adults plus a kid on the thar with a lot of luggage was also a no no. One day definitely I would love to take the thar on a road trip to understand the vehicle better and if it suits me or not because I’m a sedan lover.

[susheel_kainat]

Thats very good gesture by Mahindra and very glad to see Indian Automotive Companies giving importance to Customer relationships and for sure they are investing a lot into the same. The mindset of those members working in the SVC should also change accordingly because they are the face of the companies or else it will be like GOI brings up lot of good schemes but it never reaches the needy in the ground, partly due to those members who work in the Panchayat level.

Now coming to main part, I too feel the heading in the Hot Threads section ("Mahindra gives me a demo car") is giving a very wrong impression even though when you open the title, it seems fine and self-explanatory. If its not intentional (to create more hits because people think Mahindra sold a demo car to the owner), please change it since Team-BHP has a global reach.

With great power comes great responsibility!!

[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by Neil Roy

Mahindra gives me a Demo Thar for my weekend holiday trip

.

I think the Indian automotive manufacturers are upping the ante by providing customer centric services which was unheard of before. Both TATA and Mahindra are vying with each other to provide safer, reliable cars and being more customer friendly and that is very important, to me at least.

Lovely to read about this gesture. Yes you are absolutely right that all our Indian manufacturers are upping their game considerably. Mahindra, Tata and even Maruti, going by the other thread on MSIL RSA.
I’m also very keen on continuing to support our Indian manufacturers by buying their offerings.

[jinojohnt]

Good gesture my Mahindra. Next step is to make extended test drives available (some thing like loan the test drive car for a weekend, if the customer is willing to pay for it).

[Car-riedAway]

That's a very good gesture. I remember asking Force to provide me with a loner vehicle for a day or two to experience it with my family who are my co-travellers. I didn't want to end up buying something that my family is not comfortable with. Unfortunately , didn't get a response and a single TD of half an hour resulted in us rejecting the vehicle. But, something like what Mahindra dealer did was commendable.

[thanixravindran]

Great gesture!!! Unfortunately my experience with the same Chennai dealer was not good and some one who wanted to buy a Mahindra XUV 300 ended up rejecting them. Hope it's a one odd experience.

If you don't mind, will you please provide details about the place you went and further if it is not too much to ask, a travelogue? The place seems lovely and should not be missed.

[Cresterk]

This is extremely good customer service from Mahindra. I have never been given a courtesy car from Hyundai even when I had to leave my i20 at their service center multiple times for repair or warranty issues. This is despite me requesting literally anything that runs just so I could get to work. Any car can have issues but its the way the dealerships deal with them that makes or breaks the ownership experience.

[aravindhunt]

Originally Posted by thanixravindran

If you don't mind, will you please provide details about the place you went and further if it is not too much to ask, a travelogue? The place seems lovely and should not be missed.

+1. Since i was also from Nagercoil i could make a one day weekend trip to that place.

By the way, i had a small test drive in the same Thar. I bought my City, from Southern Honda (from the same Derik group) next to their showroom. When i was there for my first service (on a Sunday), i casually asked them for a test drive to kill time and they let me have it. This is even after informing them clearly that I recently purchased a City and not going to purchase any other car atleast for the next 7 years.

[Neil Roy]

Originally Posted by Heart_Revs

May I suggest a change of title for this thread. Reading just the title makes me interpret it as "Mahindra cheated me by selling a demo Thar"...
Imagine the plight of Mahindra - they may be getting flak instead of hats off!! Plz have some mercy on those good chaps

Originally Posted by susheel_kainat

Now coming to main part, I too feel the heading in the Hot Threads section ("Mahindra gives me a demo car") is giving a very wrong impression even though when you open the title, it seems fine and self-explanatory.

I honestly didn't mean that, but the truncated title does sound harsh. I really dont know how to edit the title. Maybe next time, I'll try a preview

Originally Posted by thanixravindran

If you don't mind, will you please provide details about the place you went and further if it is not too much to ask, a travelogue? The place seems lovely and should not be missed.

Originally Posted by aravindhunt

+1. Since i was also from Nagercoil i could make a one day weekend trip to that place.
By the way, i had a small test drive in the same Thar. .... This is even after informing them clearly that I recently purchased a City and not going to purchase any other car atleast for the next 7 years.

Petrol Thar 4WD was a revelation. I thought that it will be a rev happy engine and the crawl which is needed for steep inclines might be compromised. But, boy was I wrong. It zips through the highways and crawls like a crab through rocks. The only downside is that it is a guzzler in 4WD low mode. Really glad that you too had the opportunity to drive the same Thar.
The place is situated bang in the middle of Asambu reserve forest. It is actually my own property, a clove estate. I have attached a google photo and hope it helps.



Regarding the travelogue, I'm not much of a writer or a photographer. In fact these videos were actually taken by my 13 year old son and compiled. Someday, I'll dedicate myself to doing a proper travelogue compiling the various photos and videos in store. Till then, ill leave you with some of these photos.


Till date, the Gurkha is the only non Mahindra 4WD to have climbed these inclines. Even for that, the narrow roads made it very difficult to maneuver and I ended up losing a tyre to the hard and jagged rocks.

[krishnakumar]

Welp. I clicked on this story from the Hot Threads thinking "Oh No!" and immediately went to an "Oh WOW".

A nice gesture indeed. I believe the idea is, folks on the fence about a Thar will instantly become a convert after a road trip. Especially when pushed to places beyond where the road ends.

I recently did a trip to Chikmagalur and there is a homestay that I prefer to stay. It is way up on the hills and proper offroad (part of the reason why I love that place). This August when I went there, it was full of slush on a very steep slope with deep ruts in between. All I had was my humble XUV300. My family had to get down because I had no confidence on going up (especially because a Gypsy that was going downhill said I can't make it on the XUV). I pushed through and with some clever footwork managed to reach the top but my family had to take the brunt and walk through the slush. That day I wished I had a Thar with me.

If on one of those trips I was loaned a Thar, I'm sure my family would have said "Yes" to it.

[Kosfactor]

Originally Posted by Neil Roy

The place is situated bang in the middle of Asambu reserve forest. It is actually my own property, a clove estate.

The famous Kanyakumari Clove, good deal.

Is this near Black Rock?

Terrain is difficult, lots of wear and tear on vehicles, Mahindra is at its element here and everything else will go home (or not) with injuries.

[SoumenD]

Loved the drone video and specially the background narration. Excellent work

The terrain looks tailor-made for a Thar. Guess even a bigger Fortuner would struggle a bit looking at the narrow roads and tight turns. Kudos to mahindra for the wonderful gesture.

Originally Posted by Neil Roy

... I really dont know how to edit the title. Maybe next time, I'll try a preview

You can simply write to the mods and they will change the title. Or you can report your opening post and mention about thread title change, mods will do it. Agreed with others, the thread title is misleading. I too came in expecting a goof-up by Mahindra.