[newbie_thar]

Guys I have traveled 20km solo all over India, in one year.

And the most annoying issue of Android auto made me almost buy an iphone, had done many trips with friends Apple Carplay works fine.

I had given up on android auto, was using mobile while driving for google maps. Had tried with multiple cables and Android same issue, frequent disconnections like every 5 seconds.

Bought a GoPro for filming my adventures and just to try it out used the cable and viola android auto is working very very stable. Last trip was from Banglore to delhi, and AA never disconnected even once.

Solution: Use the cable that comes with GoPro.(it's a very small cable)

[ak10]

My P MT 4x4 Thar stands at 1800km after around four weeks of ownership. Today while driving suddenly a tone started playing from the instrument cluster. It was a rhythmic beep that lasted for few seconds. There was no warning or anything that i could notice. It went away automatically but reappeared after few kms. I was playing with the cruise control a bit during this time. Have anyone else got any tones from instrument cluster? I could not find any documentation on warning tones

[shankar.balan]

I have a 2021 Feb manufactured Thar P AT 4x4 HT. I found right from the beginning that the hydraulic power steering was excellent, heavy when needed with very good response and feedback.

And I also found the suspension tune not so good because it used to sway a lot over bumps and nose dive and pitch headlong while braking. So I upgraded to AVO and have not looked back since.

Yesterday, I drove my friend Bibendum’s Feb 2023 manufactured Thar D AT HT 4x4 ( he is a fellow member here).

I was immediately struck by the fact that the power steering is extremely heavy as compared to mine. Maybe 30% heavier. This might argue greater control, stability and assure one of a sort of non-floaty behaviour at higher speeds on highways, (not to say that my Thar floats about on highways), but I worry a lot that one will need very strong arms at parking speeds and in city. I also felt the new vehicle’s suspension tuneup to be significantly stiffer and different from my vehicle insofar as the fact that this vehicle honestly wasn’t swaying as much over bumps. However, the nose diving and headlong pitching behaviour is still there under braking.

So I wonder, are others also seeing these differences?

Can this be a part of their continuous improvement program in on going product development? If yes, then it is great to see Mahindra’s processes and tangible progress.

Here are the two Birds of War parked together last night.

[Bibendum90949]

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

Yesterday, I drove my friend Bibendum’s Febrauary 2023 manufactured Thar D AT HT 4x4 ( he is a fellow member here).

I was immediately struck by the fact that the power steering is extremely heavy as compared to mine. Maybe 30% heavier. Thus argues greater stability and non floaty behaviour at higher speeds on highways, but I worry that one will need strong arms at parking speeds and in city.

Yes we discussed it last week too. Incidentally I happened to drive bhpian Pho3nix's D AT CT Thar. Few days back we met on the highway and swapped our cars. He was driving to Hyderabad from Coimbatore and me from Kochi to Bangalore. I drove his car for around 130+ kms. His is a 2020 Thar, most likely from the first month of production. The serial number is 1798.

Though i've driven few other Thars over last two years including Shankar's P AT Thar, the steering of 2020 Thar felt very floaty and dead on highway speeds. It lacked any sort of feel or feedback. It also had the AVO suspension. While the suspension was making a significant difference to the composure of the car at speeds and on flyover joints and highway undulations, the steering wasn't complementing it. It was living in a different world of it's own. It had similar behaviour and vibe of a poorly tuned EPS - first gen Creta comes to mind or the first gen Scorpio.

Compared to that, in Shankar's 2021 Thar, steering is slightly more heavier than the 2020 Thar. I vividly remember driving it in the twisties of Coorg with confidence, back in Feb 2021. Coming to my 23 Thar, there's massive difference with the 2020 Thar and significant difference with 2021 Thar. In my Thar, as Shankar mentioned, it's pretty heavy with nice, good feel and feedback. You'll get the feel it's a HPS unlike the 2020 Thar. And I find it quite good for my liking on highways and even in slow speed city driving. The confidence you get is quite good for a heavy and tall ladder frame vehicle that the Thar is. My highway speeds are in the range of 90-100 and occassional 110. This set up may tire your arms out if one goes for multi week trips and long distance journeys.

Coming to the suspension, I'm not sure if it's going to ease out and settle a bit since the car is only 45 days old and has done around 4k kms. Need to see how it fares after it hits 10-15k.

Overall, it's pretty evident that Mahindra has been constantly improvising the Thar. It's quite reassuring for the new buyers.

cheers,
bibendum.

[Urorobo]

Originally Posted by SaiChaithanya

I’m posting a query on behalf of my friend.

He’s looking for upgrading stock headlights of his Thar. Can someone help me with any links, contacts, dealers? Location in order of pref. Hyderabad, Bangalore.

Sorry if I have missed any related posts in previous pages or other threads, help here is highly appreciated!

I looked at LED lights at Bimbra 4x4 and the one that was most impressive as far as output was DHC among the lot - King Kong , “Dragon”, Minus and DHC. Dragon was the most beautiful.

Thankfully my set up of Phillips 130/100 halogen and relay gives far better output and works well in rain. I feel these cheap LEDs only blind the oncoming traffic and don’t add much to visibility. Yes the good looking factor with ring or minus DRLs during day driving can’t be matched. DHC and Stedi would offer you both looks and function. Stedi being 40 k in India and DHC 25 k with added advantage of easier replacement under warranty while Stedi would have to be shipped to Australia.

[Bibendum90949]

I took delivery of my D AT HT Thar on 16 Feb'23. It's clocked ~ 4000 kms so far. I've gone easy with it for the first 1k kms trying to do a "run-in" of sorts. And i've made a conscious decision of not taking it to tough off roading till I get acquainted with the car. That call has been a tough one after having waited for the car for long. Still, i've given it some mild exercise by doing very easy and moderate stuffs like climbing few inclines and few trails and slush driving etc but nothing remotely challenging to test it's capability.

I've a Gypsy too which over last few years have taken it to multiple off roading events and other recreational off roading. I'm quite confident with Gypsy now, it's shortcomings, strengths and very well adept at the angles etc. But with Thar, i've never test driven it in off road conditions. All the test drives on my friends' Thars and dealers' car etc were primarily on tarmacs, li'l slush and bad roads and nothing at all to call it off the roads. Hence I wanted to take it slow and understand the behaviour, weight, dynamics etc of the car in off road obstacles before I really conduct it's off road baptism.

In this context, I learned about M&M conducting off road Adventure Experience in their Mahindra SUV Proving Track(MSPT)facility near Chennai. I immediately signed up for that including the MSPT experience package besides the 4*4 course.

More details about the event was shared in detail by bhpian livetodrive on this thread.

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/4x4-e...ing-track.html (Experiencing Mahindra Xtreme Adventure | With a Thar on Mahindra's SUV Proving Track)

The package included a tour of their testing facilities, driving on the high speed track(ours were the second batch to be allowed driving on that), and driving on 4*4 track that had different obstacles to test the Thar's capability. This was exactly what I was looking for.This batch was conducted as a day night event, which started off at 2:30 pm and went on till 10 pm and dinner afterwards.

So I drove to Chennai and reached on the day before the event. From the thread, I had a clear idea on what to expect, thanks to livetodrive. Since it's been elaborated very well by him, I would not go into such details. Instead I would share my experience.

Excerpts from ACI on MSPT from one of their articles.

The 454-acre MSPT, apart from the 4X4 centre, also has 20 purpose-built tracks. These include zero percent slope, high speed test with a 43.7-degree parabolic banking setup for higher neutral speed testing. Vehicles on this track can reach over 200kph on the straight high-speed road.

Additionally, an arrow straight 2 km, 11m wide road with zero percent longitudinal slope is built for performance and coast down measurements.

The circular dynamic platform that spans 250 metres in diametre is meant for vehicle dynamics development and evaluation.

A Braking pad with 6 different surfaces, and, dry and wet tracks is built to test braking, ABS, ESP and TCS.

A General Highway Durability track and a Simulated City track are built for simulating public road durability.

An Accelerated test track which has all imaginable bad road surfaces including potholes, undulations, Belgian pavement, cobble stone, rumblers and various kinds of wash board and speed breakers are factored into it.

The MSPT can simulate rain, water wading and water splash. Also, it can simulate dust storms in a chamber.
MSPT also houses a full vehicle corrosion test facility with humidity chamber.

The 4X4 experience centre consists of the 4X4 Adventure track that has over 25 obstacles to test 4X4 and AWD vehicles.

Exclusive prototype workshops, a health centre and an administration tower that can house over 200 engineers completes the MSPT facility. And yes, MSPT has its own fuel station.

The first striking thing is it's truly a world class facility. It was mind boggling to watch the series of vehicle testing that was going on in their curated tracks. The effort they put behind the product testing is unbelievable.

ESP testing, wet and dry braking, high speed braking, slalom runs, traction test, humps, highways, fly over joints, axle twisters, ice surface simulation (on paved smooth tiles), water fording, splash test, dust tunnel, city roads, rocks and boulders and even forest trails. The list goes on and on.

This must be a standard practice in the industry. But after seeing it all up close and the efforts put in by their development and testing team made my confidence in Mahindra products grow by leaps and bounds. Thar is my first Mahindra buy. They've come a long way in the last few years and it's showing in the products too. Be it Thar, XUV 700 or the Scorpio N. They're superbly built cars and excellent offerings. All the aforementioned cars were born in this SUV proving track facility. It's indeed great to see an Indian manufacturer upping the ante and aspires to be a world class SUV maker. Many of you must have read about them benchmarking these cars with the best in segment(Kodiaq, Endeavour and Fortuner) during their product planning and development.

We also had the opportunity to interact with Dr. Veluswamy - Chief of global product development at M&M. He surely doesn't need any introduction at least on this forum. He spent a good 40 mins with us. We were shown few concepts and proto types that are in the pipeline. One was an off roader EV. He also listened to our thought processes while choosing a Mahindra. Some of them owns other cars like Kushaq, Fortuner etc and are in line to buy a Mahindra. There was one participant who brought his spouse for the events to convince her on buying Thar. That's surely something Mahindra team wouldn't have envisaged while designing this programme.

During the interactive session, I asked questions on E20 compatibility on their m Stallion engines. The word from the horse's mouth is that they're already testing them with E20 fuel and I also learned from other members in the team that they're using the E15 in the present m Stallions without any issues. There were concerns aired by participants on issues at service centres and the need for more stringent training for their personnel. India Garage of Whitefield, Bangalore came in for scathing criticism from few of them.

During the tour of the track, we spotted many other OEM s vehicles being tested by Mahindra. BYD, Ioniq5, a VW ev, Tata Intra were few of them.

Driving on high speed track and on the banking.

We were allowed to drive two laps on the high speed track that includes the banking section also. The cars available were XUV 700, Alturas and Scorpio N. Each car had one of their trained driver instructors who sat beside while each participant drove. Two participants sat at the rear on each car waiting for their turn while others drove. I wasn't too comfortable with this for the simple reason it was a high speed drive besides it includes a banking which many were experiencing it first time. I had no idea on their driving skills or their experience. Hence I chose to get down from the car and wait for my turn.

I chose to ride shotgun with one person whom I trust with his brilliant driving skills. He's our D Bhpian dhanushs. As many of you may know, he's a pro off roader and a seasoned guy at the wheels and now incidentally a lead engineer in M&M in their 4*4 special projects team. He hails from Wayanad and I call the place my third home. Also he's the ex owner of my off road spec Gypsy. We've always been in touch since then and I had gathered details about this event earlier and wanted to do it after taking delivery of my car. He was there throughout the programme and was leading us for the track experience and the 4*4 legs too.

I sat with him while he drove the Alturas. What I realised during those few laps was that it wasn't as easy as one thinks to drive on those banking at speeds of 170-180, especially for first timers. It appeared business as usual for him. As shared by him, the steering response and feel would be different. In the third track on banking, one doesn't need to steer the car while at 140-145 kmph. I also watched his super extreme focus while on the max banking which is the right most lane at 44.5°. He hit 180-190 comfortably and was a smooth entry and exit. It was a thrilling experience.


When my turn came, I chose the safest of the lot - XUV 700 and being the monocoque. Took it easy at 120-130 on the first lap on the banking. With li'l more confidence, on the second lap and on the third track of banking, I upped the pace and did 150 or so. It wasn't easy at all for me as the car starts to approach the banking at speed and when the corner starts, one's instincts of easing off the throttle comes into play. I was also little disoriented with the helmets on as i've never driven a car by wearing one. Few valuable tips by Dhanush helped. While it's appreciable that Mahindra allowed non pros like us to drive on those tracks, I see a risk in the exercise.

1. They have absolutely no clue on people's driving experience or skills.

2 It would be better if they judge a person's driving skills and then allot tracks with appropriate speed. This may be impractical owing to time constraints.

3. Only one participant(the one driving) and the instructor to be allowed in one car. The others shouldn't be travelling in the car on the high speed runs.

4. I wish the tyres in some of those cars were in better shape. Not to say it was alarming but there's definitely scope to improve on that aspect.



The 4*4 track and driving.

It had all the typical 4*4 obstacles that one would find in such a course. None of them were really a challenge for the Thar. It did not even test 50% of it's abilities. But then, it's for an experience the event was designed. We did water wading of around 2 feet. That was quite reassuring though I would prefer a snorkel always.

I could get first hand experience of Thar's behaviour in various obstacles. It was the sole reason for me in choosing this event. The vulnerable angles, the ground clearance, the level of suspension travel when in tricky spots were all experienced. I could also get a sense of wheel articulation it's capable of while doing the chicken holes. The crawling speed on rocks and steep inclines was amazing. You don't need A,B,C pedals at all. Just steer the car and enjoy the show while the electronics take care of your worries.

In Gypsy, it's exactly the opposite and you're on your own, no electronic or mechanical aid whatsoever. It's the single biggest difference I guess with Thar and Gypsy.

Overall, a very fruitful and enriching experience. The high speed drive on the banking was a surreal experience. The icing on the cake was able to interact up close with the Chief. Man himself was seen test driving a 5 door Thar. An unassuming and affable person at the helm surely helps the organisation.

I would strongly recommend this programme to our petrol head friends here, even if you're the sedan guy the whole life. I've been driving since 25 years and been a sedan person all through till five years ago. I accidentally explored this side of motoring fun( off road) when my friend dropped his Gypsy at my farm in Wayanad for few days, back in 2018. I've not looked back since then and making up for the lost time. Today i've two Gypsies at my disposal and now the Thar. Needless to say, how much i've been bitten by this off roading bug. I repent of not discovering this fun when I was at my younger age. So I urge all of you high speed corner carvers and speed junkies to try your hand at off roading. It opens a new world to you - in motoring and in life, just what i've found out in last few years.

And I take this opportunity to thank M&M for providing this great experience. They had a bunch of team that whole- heartedly organised this impeccably. Kudos to each of them especially Dhanush, Saravanan, Suhail and Srinivas. May your shadow never grow less and wishing M&M all the very best in your upcoming projects. You've truly won in me a Mahindra loyalist for life.

cheers,
bibendum

Few pictures from the event. Photography was strictly prohibited on high speed track. One of it's pics here was taken from the web.

[vivek_god9]

Hello all,

I was travelling back from Chandigarh yesterday and got a flat tyre. It almost felt like tyre burst and within seconds it went down completely. Upon checking, I found a big bolt completely submerged into the tyre and damaging it completely. Sharing a picture of the same. My question is it repairable ?

I asked Mahindra as well if they can replace the tyre under warranty and awaiting a response from them. Let me know what you guys think of it.

Thanks,
Vivek-

Originally Posted by ak10

My P MT 4x4 Thar stands at 1800km after around four weeks of ownership. Today while driving suddenly a tone started playing from the instrument cluster. It was a rhythmic beep that lasted for few seconds. There was no warning or anything that i could notice. It went away automatically but reappeared after few kms. I was playing with the cruise control a bit during this time. Have anyone else got any tones from instrument cluster? I could not find any documentation on warning tones

Yeah, I have also experienced the same multiple times. A tone pops up together with an icon on the MID but but before I realize anything, it just goes away. It's just there for a second or so. Also, I always get it while driving, so trying to relate it with ESC / ABS alert. By the way, I have a Diesel thar.

[Jaggu]

Originally Posted by vivek_god9

Let me know what you guys think of it.

Thanks,
Vivek-

You may be able to get it repaired using Mushroom puncture repair from inside. The bolt maybe large for normal plugging from outside. Check with a good tyre shop who has mushroom repair facility.

[vivek_god9]

Originally Posted by Jaggu

You may be able to get it repaired using Mushroom puncture repair from inside. The bolt maybe large for normal plugging from outside. Check with a good tyre shop who has mushroom repair facility.

Appreciate your response sir. Will check with a tyre shop to get this fixed. One question I have though is - will the tyre have same level of strength as before ? Once repaired, can i take it freely for off-roading ? Thanks in advance.

[Jaggu]

Originally Posted by vivek_god9

Appreciate your response sir. Will check with a tyre shop to get this fixed. One question I have though is - will the tyre have same level of strength as before ? Once repaired, can i take it freely for off-roading ? Thanks in advance.

This is just like any normal puncture repair, so that should not be an issue. Only thing I would worry is how big is the damage, if the tyre shop is confident it is just another puncture repair, you are good to use it as normal.

[sammyboy]

Originally Posted by ak10

. Have anyone else got any tones from instrument cluster? I could not find any documentation on warning tones

Next time notice the instrument cluster, it's usually accompanied by all the lights going off and coming back on i have seen it multiple times in my 20.5k kms. Petrol HT Auto from Oct 21.
Have no clue why it happens but it does for a very quick second or so.

[MithunSathianat]

Have read a lot of good experiences about AVO suspension. But, did not find any genuine reviews on Ironman suspension. Can somebody here share the experience with Ironman?

[Prabhu]

Originally Posted by GTO

I am eagerly waiting for reviews of these, but the single biggest problem with ARC & Ironman suspensions is the lack of reviews from BHPians. It seems no one has bought them yet. My main reason for going for AVO was feedback from BHPians and I must say, the suspension is absolutely top-class .

ARC has a poor review from a Senior BHPian - link to thread (Pathetic experience with ARC shock absorbers / dampers).

I hope to see more reviews of the other Thar suspension upgrades .

Dear GTO, Where did you order the AVO suspension from? Can you please share the contact details?

[ph03n!x]

Originally Posted by Bibendum90949

...Incidentally I happened to drive bhpian Ph03n!x's D AT CT Thar. Few days back we met on the highway and swapped our cars.
...

Originally Posted by Bibendum90949

...I learned about M&M conducting off road Adventure Experience in their Mahindra SUV Proving Track(MSPT)facility near Chennai. I immediately signed up for that including the MSPT experience package besides the 4*4 course.
...

The package included a tour of their testing facilities, driving on the high speed track(ours were the second batch to be allowed driving on that), and driving on 4*4 track that had different obstacles to test the Thar's capability. This was exactly what I was looking for.This batch was conducted as a day night event, which started off at 2:30 pm and went on till 10 pm and dinner afterwards.

So I drove to Chennai and reached on the day before the event. ...
..

We also had the opportunity to interact with Dr. Veluswamy - Chief of global product development at M&M.
...

Great that you enjoyed the agenda of the drive, I'd have loved to join had it not for work taking precedence

There is definitely a stark difference in the way the steering feels in your Thar and mine. Mine's 50k run, 2.5 years old - and the tires will need a change soon. But I don't think that alone contributes to how heavy your feels vs. floaty mine does. M&M might have tuned the newer Thar's steering better. It'd be great to see if such a tune can be made in the earlier batches too - maybe not as heavy as yours, a notch lower.

All said and done, I've been comfortable and have gotten accustomed to my Thar's steering feel over 50k KM across beautiful 6-lane highways, good roads, no roads, off the road, hills, and what not - so it's not really a deal breaker for me anymore!

Will see how the feel is after the tyre change and explore options.

Originally Posted by Bibendum90949

...
There was one participant who brought his spouse for the events to convince her on buying Thar. That's surely something Mahindra team wouldn't have envisaged while designing this programme.

...

That would have been brilliant had this been available when they unveiled the Thar in Aug 2020 - I almost risked my marriage while booking it in Oct '20

Originally Posted by Prabhu

Dear GTO, Where did you order the AVO suspension from? Can you please share the contact details?

When the Thar was launched, Mr. Leela Krishnan (the man behind the AVO suspension for the Thar) visited Xenex in Kavuri Hills (Jubliee Hills) with his Thar fitted with the suspension as a road show/ product demo. I think Xenex would be a dealer - I see your location is Hyderabad, why not check with them?

[techfreak]

Originally Posted by Prabhu

Dear GTO, Where did you order the AVO suspension from? Can you please share the contact details?

I am running AVO suspension since last 2 months approximately & super happy.

I had ordered it from ARKA MOTOR SPORTS. Google it and you get the contact details.