How's the Thar?
My Usage pattern till now:
20% offroad (mountains, forest, deserts, local OTR)
50% highways
30% Commute
A short wheelbase, Rear Wheel Drive equipped with a short ratio gearbox and a decently powered engine is a perfect recipe to make you smile every time you floor it; you just have to be cautious that you are not in a sports car but a two-tonne jeep. Sharing my experience on the small components.
Only if Mahindra strengthens the Logan Chassis put the 200bhp Stallion and make an RWD (If Dodge Charger can share its engine with a truck why not Mahindra Sedan can do the same)
Engine and Gearbox
The short-shifting gearbox is a hoot to drive and is properly mated. I sometimes feel issues engaging 2nd gear but this has not been cured yet.
While this something gets irritating in city traffic the gear ratios are perfect for offroad and hills.
The 6th gear could be more spaced out (automatic has a different 6th ratio than manual ) for a better highway cruise. If you don't give any throttle input the vehicle has enough low-end grunt to keep the vehicle rolling. In each gear, the vehicle will crawl easily by speed 10x of the gear you are in, for example in 3rd gear vehicle will easily move at 30kmph without any input and without lugging the engine. This makes it easily manageable in traffic.
Suspension
Suspensions are an afterthought. The ride quality is the same on hard-pack trails and on smooth highways (which is both good and bad). Especially on cemented roads, the ride quality is significantly worse than on tarmac roads. The ride quality makes you fatigue faster than other BOF SUVs also the shorter wheelbase doesn't help either. If you are looking to munch miles look somewhere else, I have done approx 1000kms a day multiple times but were tiring ones. The good thing about them is they are cheap. If aftermarket can bring good suspension in a matter of months of the launch vehicle, Mahindra should have provided a better setup nothing fancy but better. Each strut costs you around 2000 and you get what you pay for.
Luggage and Boot
With rear seats up there is not much luggage carrying capacity. I still can't think why Mahindra has decided to make Thar a sub-4 meter car when there is no tax advantage because of the engine size. Extra 6 Inches would have helped a lot. Also, there is no factory-provided point for roof-mounted luggage. Even for the rooftop tent listed on M2All, they rely on us to get custom fabrication to install the tent.
Brakes and Saftey
The omission of disc brakes on the rear wheels is simply a very bad decision. While Mahindra preaches safety they don't mind cutting corners on basics(check the Scorpio N Z2 and Z4 variants). I cannot retrofit the rear discs from other vehicles because I don't know how ESC gonna respond to this. Still, while hard breaking if you are under reasonable speeds it will stop at a decent distance. Also, the rollbar dont extend to A-Pillars. In case of a topple there is not much to save you. I am planning to put on a roll cage someday which will also act as a luggage rack.
Ergonomics and Seats
Just setting up context I am 6ft 1inch tall. Under-thigh support is non-existent in the seats. Also, the seat structure is not very confidence-inspiring. The recliner mechanism has started missing once on my car which was replaced under warranty, It has started to slip again. Also when the driver seat is set up in the lowest position it shakes vertically on almost every bump it gets worse as the springs get softer over time.
The centre console on the dash takes up a lot of space which in turn left less space for footwells. My left leg scrapes on the centre console and my right leg rubs against the driver's gate. There is not much space left for my right leg for the Accelerator pedal as well, as a workaround, I rely a lot on cruise control. Rear seats are best not occupied. Even if the ladies volunteer to sit on the rear seats you gonna receive a ton of complaints in later days. The lumbar support was the only good thing about the seat, but they have decided to remove it.
Infotainment
The adventure statistics are good. On wishful thinking, if we could have gotten the coolant temperature in degrees it would have been very good. I had a wish that on the navigation if I could load GPX files in future updates. But Mahindra has removed the navigation system itself from the newer models/. The integrated Navigation system is a very big thing which new owners gonna miss. It has brought me back from the jungle a few times. Even if you are in some place where it doesn't have routes you can start navigating to any random place and it will draw a trail on the map, which you can reuse to backtrack if you are lost.
I love the roof-mounted speakers. While the audio quality is average the speakers do masks a lot of road noise because of their proximity to the driver. If you plan to upgrade your speakers please install a DSP unit with your amp if you want the best result. I also wish there was an option for installing the front camera, which would have been a boon for off-road situations.
NVH
NVH are decent for a hard top nothing problematic I have ever faced. I have got the underbody coating and underbody protection installed which further cuts the road noise.
Visibility
The drive position is commanding and you clearly see the road ahead of you. The A-Pillars are thick and B pillars are wide which all affect your visibility. It is almost impossible to see what is happening next to the front left quarter panel. If someone is on a co-driver seat you might have to ask them to adjust their position to see from the left ORVM. The IVRM is small and doesn't offer much visibility.
Build Quality
The Thar felt like it is built to last, especially on the mechanical bits. If you accidentally hit a pothole at high speed, you don't feel like the car will get destroyed.
Mileage
I drive on highways between 80-100 with ac on 1st and I get approximately 13-14KMPL. If you drive sedately you can extract even 15-16kmpl. Also, point to note the 6th gear on automatic is spaced out as compared to manual Thars which results in better fuel efficiency on automatic Thars. In the city, I get around 11-13. The MID is overoptimistic while displaying the mileage.
DPF & DEF
I have never faced any issues with DPF getting clogged. Once in a blue moon, there is a warning for a second for DPF clogged. Just drive a little less sedately and you'll be okay. There is no DEF Gauge but there is a warning sign which starts about when there is DEF left for 1000kms. Unless you are in a truly remote area you'll easily find DEF on any petrol pump or dhabas. I do carry a 2-litre DEF bottle with me always for just-in-case scenarios.
Service Experience
I have personally experienced a lot of quality improvement in the service quality of Mahindra. Might be after I lost my temper once and they start treating me better. Service Centers are better in Tier 1-2 cities as compared to tier 3 cities. It's nowhere near the standards of Toyota but they have improved a lot. I guess as the volume of passenger cars will take over the bolero market it should get improved as well. The service cost is about .5p per KM and it will go to 1rs per km after the free services. The Mahindra app also shows you the expected cost of each service.
The job card is uploaded on the app too where you have to approve it, so if you are a little careful the service guys can't cut corners.
Body
The diesel I have I equipped with 130 horses,
Well 130castratedhorses. While the engine is refined it gets unnecessarily strained because of the poor aerodynamics. The same poor aero also results in compromised handling. I knew what I was getting into when buying, but it still bothers me on long-haul trips. If you want to drive it fast you must know how to use
Left Foot braking. If you don't know it, drive it in a defensive matter.
I don't have any problem with that copying the design of the wrangler, the problem is
Nakal Bina Akal. Wrangler is more aerodynamic than Thar and if they have copied it properly Thar would have been a better aero package.
You can see this in the image below.
![Why the Thar? More than one year with the new Mahindra Thar-untitled3.jpg](https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/attachments/test-drives-initial-ownership-reports/2367215d1687007997t-why-thar-more-than-one-year-new-mahindra-thar-untitled3.jpg)