I cannot but help think that the Thar RoXX looks somewhat pedestrian. The discipline that Mahindra exhibited, to stick 99% to the original, while doing the copy-paste job from the Jeep Wrangler, while making the Thar 3 door, is somehow lost when doing the copy paste for the 5 door. The typical Mahindra weirdness has crept in unfortunately!
If you compare with the Jeep Wrangler, the main aspect the drags down the look of the Thar RoXX is the stepped up roof. In the interest of creating more head room for the rear passengers and giving a nod to the historical Mahindra Major and Commander (which also had such stepped up roofs, to accomodate upto 6 rear passengers sat longitudinally on benches facing each other on top of the high rear axle), Mahindra has made the mistake of creating too obvious a step-up in the roof. This suddenly makes the car look very similar to those old Jeeps. It also makes the design too cluttered as the roof element is very clearly disticnt from the rest of the car and looks like an aftert-hought that has been plastered on. Coupled with the strong straight lines of the A-pollar and the sharp angulation of the C-pillar, makes it look very busy and Bolero-like.
If you look at the Wrangler's design, the main difference is the absolute flat roof that the Wrangler has. Although of a different color, there is better integration in the design of the roof to the rest of the car. Also the second row appears at the same level as the first row, as evidenced by the equal height placement of the door handles. Both of these things give the Wrangler a very squat and planted look. I wonder why M&M went for a higher placement of the second row compared to the first row in the Thar RoXX, as that is another quirk that takes away from the seamlessness of the design and makes the car look more like an utility oriented goods transporter. The hight difference is obvious from the relative placement of the door hinges, which are not in line with each other and totally disrupts the homogeniety and balance of the design.
Although I was eagerly looking forward to the five door Thar, with a potential plan to replace my 3 door with it, I am herewith passing all such thoughts after seeing the initial spy shots of this vehicle. I do hope the actual car, when revealed in August 15 would look better than in the spy shots, but my hopes are dim, knowing the amount of misguided energy that Mahindra typically demonstrates in design of their recenr cars, one example being the ugly Walrus-tooth shaped headlines on the XUV 700.
The angular trapeziodial C- pillar is one key deviation from the clean Wrangler design. This is necessitated because the Thar RoXX had to fit a smaller footprint, with a length of about 4.3 meters versus the 4.87 meters of the Wrangler. This means it has to have a very narrow rear door, you can see it is barely wide enought to squeeze oneself through. Such a narrow door cannot accomodate a grab handle similar to that on the front door. M&M therefore could not provide a grab handle for the rear door and the handle had to be placed higher up as a notch type handle. To accomodate such a handle, the designers needed to bring in a metallic body element in that part of the upper rear body, which can accomodate the locks etc.
This metallic element then had to be tapered off and cut down as it goes to the rear, creating the strange trapezoidal look around the rear window due to the slanting c-pillar. What makes it even weirder is the second inverted trpezoid that is then forced into the shape of the rear quarter glass. This is an ugly example of
function over form - how a functional requirement to provide a notch handle totally upsets the aesthetics of the car. At M&M, the engineers would have easily silenced the designers, considering the strong engineering culture of the company and the fact that, what made M&M successful all these decades is the utilitarian value of thier products transporting men, animals, produce and ammunition over thr hills and valleys of our vast country since independance.