[Dr.AD]

Originally Posted by Vicks79

Just curious if you have had a chance to TD the Jimny AT version. A lot has been said about the superior ride quality of the Jimny vs the Thar. Since you have put in some many Kms in the Thar you should in a good place to test the same.

No, I have not done any TD of Jimny yet. However, a couple of friends of mine who own Thar and have driven Thar a lot, have taken TD of Jimny. And from what they say (and I trust their opinion so I would trust this too), Jimny rides much better than Thar. Ride quality of Jimny is leagues ahead of Thar, according to them.

From what I understand, there are three areas where Jimny will be much better than Thar: ride quality, fuel economy and space & practicality.

And of course, it is inferior to Thar on engine and gearbox front.

This all only from hearsay so far. I am still awaiting my turn to take a TD of Jimny to confirm what I have heard.

Since having owned the XL6, another NA engine with a four speed AT in the Jimny just doesn't inspire confidence. The XL6 ticks all Utility goals with flying colors, but the ride is sedate.

What little TDs done on the Thar, the turbo petrol does have its kicks.

Since you own XL6, I would suggest against getting a Jimny. Jimny engine will be almost the same as your XL6 engine and the gearbox in Jimny will be inferior to XL6 gearbox. I do not see any point owning two vehicles with almost the same engine. Jimny will feel quite slow and boring to you once you get over the initial euphoria of owning a new Jimny.

I firmly believe in owning cars which are very different from each other. From that point of view, I feel Thar petrol is the right choice for you to go alongside your XL6 AT. That way the Thar will be sufficiently different from your XL6 and you will enjoy both vehicles in their own ways.

[Dr.AD]

Tamil Nadu Drive (Yercaud and Thanjavur), and crossed 5000km!

A few days ago, we (I and my better half) did a 4-day drive across Tamil Nadu, visiting the hill station of Yercaud first and then the historic town of Thanjavur.

"Unfortunately" this was all good roads (funny how Thar makes you think about roads) and Thar was not the right choice here. My original plan was to take my BMW 320d for this drive. The driving circuit was chosen with the BMW in mind.

However, BMW's much talked about Condition Based Servicing (CBS) has a funny way of throwing in service requests just when you are looking forward to another long drive.

After my previous drive to JLR King's Sanctuary and Chikmagalur in the 320d, the engine oil change requirement dropped down to 800km. The CBS showed following message at the end of the previous drive:


Although I had time till November 2023 (one year since last oil change), by driving distance, oil change was required in just 800km more. And this planned drive would be somewhere between 800km to 900km, depending on which exact shortcuts I take and which places I visit. Thus, there was almost a certainty that if I take the BMW, I would exceed the oil change requirement by about 100km.

Now technically, for a modern car in top condition and on top quality synthetic oil, a 100km excess is not a big deal. But after a bit of thinking, I decided not to take this chance, and not to spoil the otherwise perfect service record where I have taken care of every single service requirement without even a slightest of delay or a miss.

Further, with Thar, we could explore some new places too. The original plan was just a drive to Thanjavur and back. But at the last minute, we threw in Yercaud in the plan. And we decided to try out a new place of stay in Yercaud and drive around the hills there. Thar became a natural choice now because I was not sure about the road condition to this new resort.

Anyways, due to these reasons, the original plan of BMW drive got changed to a Thar drive, and I ended up doing a proper tarmac drive in Thar with absolutely zero off-roading anywhere. Although Thar was not the best choice here, we enjoyed the drive anyways. We did not do any off-roading, but we did end up driving on some small bad patches and Thar was great to have there.

An Evening in Yercaud:

We first visited Yercaud, and immediately after climbing the Yercaud ghats and reaching the town, we visited our favorite chili bhajji shop near Yercaud lake.

Fresh hot chili bhajjis near the lake is my favorite thing about Yercaud:



We devoured a plate of various types of bhajjis, which was perfect for the weather and the location:


After enjoying the hot bhajji and a couple of teas, we explored some small roads and some view points around Yercaud-Kuappanur road.

From these view points, I got opportunities to do some landscape photography under the typical monsoon clouds.

Layers of hills visible from a view point:



Hills and clouds:



Mesmerizing monsoon clouds in the sky and yet some bright patch on the horizon:



A small temple on the backdrop of the monsoon sky:



The only photo of Thar in this report (parked near one view point):


For stay, we wanted to try some new place in Yercaud this time. And since I was driving Thar, I could afford to check out any random new place without worrying about roads and accessibility. So literally at the last minute, we booked a random new place with very good ratings on MakeMyTrip. Our usual place of stay in Yercaud is GRT Great Trails, and then recently we discovered Shambala Resort which quickly became our favorite place there. Both these places are awesome, but with Thar in hand, we were in mood to just try out something new.

This time, the new place we chose was "Story Resort and Spa" in Yercaud. It turned out to be a nice little boutique resort. The decor, the theme and the ambiance was top notch. The resort is very artistically designed, and there are art themes and art pieces everywhere. This is not a luxury resort by any stretch of imagination. This is a simple and mid-range place. But it turned out to be very nice and we enjoyed our time there. The rooms and the resort setting was absolutely fantastic.

The "Story Resort" that we tried out just for the sake of checking out a new place:

Thanjavur:

Next morning we drove to Thanjavur, and checked into a fabulous boutique hotel called "Svatma". As usual, thanks to our friend @KarthikK for discovering this hotel and telling us about this. In fact, @KarthikK has written a fantastic travelogue about Thanjavur and Svatma hotel in his thread, complete with great photographs. There is nothing more for me to add, but still, please allow me to show a few of my photos from Thanjavur and this lovely hotel called Svatma.

The front of Svatma Hotel, Thanjavur:



The living room of our spacious "Millennium Suite" at Svatma:



And the well decorated, spacious, and comfortable bedroom:



The hotel was very artistically decorated and had nice lights in the night too:



The swimming pool, where again the artistic theme continues:



A close-up of the swimming pool decor:


In Thanjavur, we explored the local shops that are famous of arts, handicrafts, and most famously, Thanjavur Dancing Dolls.

The Dancing Dolls in local shops:






Next morning at sharp 6am, we visited the famous Brihadishvara Temple (also known as the "Big Temple") in Thanjavur, which is a 1000 year old temple. The temple is a masterpiece of ancient architecture, design and culture. Early morning was the best time to visit this temple, and we absolutely enjoyed our time there at that fresh morning hour.

The entrance to the temple:



A closer look at the entrance structure:



Looking up, the moon was still visible in the sky at 6am:



A view of the main temple:



A closer look at the gopuram:



The entrance structure as seen from the inside:



Another view just after sunrise, under the golden rays of the rising sun:


While walking around the temple premises at that lovely hour, we saw the sun rise over the majestic ancient structure, and I could not resist clicking some sunrise pictures at the temple.

Sunrise over the 1000 year old temple:



A couple of more sunrise shots:







As a parting shot, my attempt at Black and White photography at that majestic temple and at that lovely hour of the day:


Other than visiting this temple, we visited the other well known sites in Thanjavur including the Maratha Palace and the Thanjavur Museum. However, it was way too hot there just after 8am, and the rest of the day, I barely managed to walk around and did not bother to shoot any pictures.

Coming back to Thar, it completed 5000km mark when we reached Thanjavur:


I will write more about Thar and my "updated review" after driving it for 5000km a bit later when I get time. But for now, just wanted to share this trip report.

That is all for now. Thank you very much for reading!

[karthikd21]

Originally Posted by Dr.AD

Thar became a natural choice now because I was not sure about the road condition to this new resort.

Nice Report Doc!

Having a Thar is a mind blowing problem on every plan we make:

Me: We can explore around if we go in Thar
Wife: This trip is all about highways, why do you want to go exploring, you do that almost every weekend
Me: Ummm, not sure about the road conditions, lets take the Thar anyways just incase
Wife: Ughhh

[Dr.AD]

Originally Posted by karthikd21

Nice Report Doc!

Thanks!

Me: We can explore around if we go in Thar
Wife: This trip is all about highways, why do you want to go exploring, you do that almost every weekend
Me: Ummm, not sure about the road conditions, lets take the Thar anyways just incase
Wife: Ughhh

For us it is the opposite. My wife loves traveling in Thar and she would be more than happy if I take Thar everywhere. She also likes to explore some remote roads in Thar and she is fine with all that. Even for this trip, she was more than happy taking Thar instead of the BMW.

I was the one who wanted to drive the BMW on these roads, and was looking forward to a BMW drive. And I was the one who was missing the BMW much more on this drive. She was all fine in Thar too.

[Ashwin Morey]

I often used to wonder about trying to bookmark good travelogues so that I could visit all places where ones before me have gone and penned down their experience. However after reading your travelogues at least that part is sorted, I now know that whenever I decide to retrace steps taken by a fellow BHPian then I would like to start with one of your travelogues. You somehow are gifted in capturing the essence and the soul of places you visit with precise words coupled with beautiful pics. Keep them travelogues coming and hopefully someday I will post a simple 'Been There Done That' reply on one of your travelogues

[Dr.AD]

Originally Posted by Ashwin Morey

You somehow are gifted in capturing the essence and the soul of places you visit with precise words coupled with beautiful pics. Keep them travelogues coming and hopefully someday I will post a simple 'Been There Done That' reply on one of your travelogues

Thank you very much for your kind words! I am very happy to read that my travelogues are helpful, and would be super happy if anyone repeats these travels and posts "been there done that" reply :-) Thanks again and all the best for your own travel plans!

[Dr.AD]

Drive to Lonavala, and 7500km Up!

I did another road trip to Pune and Lonavala last week. It was a combination of work trip in Pune, and on the weekend in-between my work events, we had a family vacation in Lonavala.

I could have driven my BMW 320d there, but given that there are some nice hills and trails near Lonavala, I thought I should drive the Thar and see if I could explore some hilly areas there.

It was a solo drive for me from Bangalore to Pune and back. My wife flew in to Pune to join us, and my family from Pune and Mumbai came together to meet in Lonavala.

The challenge was that I had to take my parents with me from Pune to Lonavala, and that would mean we would be four people in Thar for that distance. However, since that was just a short drive, I decided to give it a try, and thankfully, it all worked great! My parents are old but thankfully fit enough to climb into the backseat of Thar (they did that with no issues at all), and once in the seat, they found the back seat to be spacious enough for the two of them. So overall we had a fun drive.

Regarding the luggage space, we had decided that each of us will carry one small or medium duffel bag each. And it turned out that 4 duffel bags can fit in easily with all four seats up! This was a big relief, and this means that a family of four can actually do a short weekend trip in Thar with 4 duffel bags. Any extra small bags (like purses of the ladies) were carried on the seats. Overall it worked out perfectly fine and we had a great drive.

Four duffel bags fit perfectly:

Appeal of the Thar

When we met in Lonavala with our family (my sisters and my nephews and nieces), it turned out Thar was a huge attraction. Somehow Thar received much more affection and interest from my family than my BMW 320d.

Everyone wanted to ride in the Thar and they wanted me to take them out and do some off-roading. Unfortunately only 4 people can sit in in one trip, so I literally had to do multiple short drives to give people a ride in Thar. It is amazing to see the appeal of the Thar in the young kids as well as older parents generation. From 80 years age group to 15 years age group, everyone loved Thar and they wanted to ride in it.

Now it is given that the ride quality is horrible in Thar. But that does not seem to deter anyone! Somehow everyone who rides in Thar just loves it and they want to join in again and again. Talking about myself and my wife, both of us love Thar drives in spite of the horrible ride quality. There is surely some magic here than makes one look past the things like ride quality and comfort. Maybe it is all in the mind in the end.

Short Drives around Lonavala

I did a couple of short drives around Lonavala (with my family members who wanted to get a taste of some mild off-roading), and we explored some hills and some small trails nearby. It was a wonderful experience. Everyone enjoyed it and we had a great family time.

Parking the Thar in some hilly area where only a Thar could reach, and then getting out to enjoy the fresh air and the surroundings, was a wonderful experience, especially with the family. The kids in the family loved it the most!

Somewhere in the hills near Lonavala:



It was just a short and mild off-road drive to reach such locations, but it was still a lot of fun (and there are countless such locations around Lonavala):



We could even reach such places right on the edge of a lake:



Thar in its elements here (I am glad I did not drive the 320d to Lonavala; we would have missed out on all this fun):



A perfect spot to spend some quality time with family in the open air:



View from the bonnet:

Quick Thoughts after Completing 7500km:

After this drive, the odometer is at around 7600km. A lot of this driving (I would say about 5000km) was solo drives. Around 2200km was with I and my wife in the Thar, and about 300km was with four people in the Thar.

Based on this experience, I would like to update some of the opinions I expressed in my initial review. Here are some quick updates:

1. No plans of removal of rear seats now. Earlier, I had mentioned I would remove the rear seats and make the Thar purely a 2-seater. However, after experiencing that most people (including my parents) can actually go in and out of the backseat, and it is not a deal-breaker I had thought it to be, I have decided to keep the rear seats. On many occasions, the rear seat is OK enough for short distance trip. And once someone gets in, there is actually decent space to sit comfortably on the rear seats. Of course, Thar can never be comfortable enough for rear passengers for long drives, but it is perfectly fine (with four people and four duffel bags) for short drives like Pune-Lonavala (about 75km).

Further, luggage space is fine even with the rear seats in place, for driving with just 2 people (I and my wife). For our 2-people drives, all the luggage we need easily fits in in the Thar, and thus, I have no need to do the modifications to make the rear seats fold and tumble. In short, we have learned to live with the seats as they are and we are OK with that now.

2. Engine Power and Acceleration: It is better than I thought at first. Initially, maybe I was too gentle on the A pedal. But now after having learned to push the A pedal hard, I find the Thar responds very well, and I am quite happy with both the engine power and acceleration. Thar reaches the handling and dynamics limit way before reaching the engine power limit, and any more power will be a total waste. Overall, now I have learned to extract max performance out of this engine, and loving it now. Even while climbing steep ghats and hairpin bends, the Thar does it easily with a steady input on the A pedal, and never felt short on power even when climbing really steep slopes.

3. Ride Quality remains bad, no two-ways about it. Ride-quality is bad for sure, but as I said, it is all in the mind. All of us have accepted the bad ride quality and do not even expect anything better. But having accepted this, we all love to travel in Thar and the bad ride has not even been an issue anymore.

4. Braking is better than I thought. On highways, the braking is certainly better than what I had initially expected. The brakes lack the initial bite, but beyond that, braking is quite acceptable and the Thar stops well without too much drama for such heavy body-on-frame vehicle. I did not find much nose-drive on braking that many people talk about. Maybe it is due to the improved suspensions in 2023.

5. Thar can handle cruising at decent speeds on highways easily. Now after having done many long highway drives (couple of Pune-Bangalore drives), I find the highway drives not to be as bad as I had expected. I used Cruise Control plenty of times (and it was quite useful), and Thar is quite stable and comfortable if we cruise at decent speeds. Yes, it does take noticeably more time to cover long highway distances compared to my 320d, but once I accept that, the highway drives are peaceful and comfortable.

6. Mileage: I get somewhere between 9km/l to 10km/l on pure highway drives, and somewhere around 6km/l in the pure city drives. On mixed city and highway drives, I get around 8km/l.

7. Niggles and issues: Thankfully, nothing major so far. The only one issue I have is that sometimes I hear "kat kat" sound when taking sharp turns in the Thar at very slow speeds in the parking lots. When I move the Thar sharply in and out of parking positions, at crawling speeds, sometimes I hear this "kat kat" sound. I plan to get to get this checked during the 10,000km service which should be soon. But other than the parking lot maneuvers, I have never heard this sound on actual road.

Well, that is all for now. Thank you for reading!

[Dr.AD]

Off-Roading and Hill Climb to Achalu Betta

Recently, I got an opportunity to do proper hard-core off-roading with close friends. We were a group of four vehicles: Two Thars and Two Jimnys, and we climbed the hill to Achalu Betta. The group of 4 included @robimahanta in his Thar Petrol 4x4 AT, @megazoid in his brand new White Jimny AT, @jkrishnakj in his brand new Nexa Blue Jimny AT, and myself in my Thar Petrol 4x4 AT.

I have written a detailed report on that in the 4x4 Excursions section, here (Two Thars and Two Jimnys on a Hill Climb!).

Please allow me to share a few photos and a short note here on how the vehicle handled it.

All four vehicles lined up at the start of the trail:



Waiting eagerly to get going, not knowing what to expect from the challenging trail ahead:



White Jimny leading us on the trail:



The trail quickly becomes challenging:



My Thar somewhere on the trail:



Another look at my Thar there at that corner:



Robi's Thar managing a challenging section of the trail, and @megazoid spotting for Robi:



Another look at Robi's Thar there on the rocks:



My Thar following @megazoid's Jimny on a tricky section of the trail, full of rocks and ruts:



@megazoids's Jimny maneuvering out of a tricky obstacle:



@jkrishnakj's Jimny enjoying the hill climb:



A couple of shots of my Thar on that treacherous terrain, as shot by @robimahanta:



Our convoy crossing another challenging stretch, full of rocks, boulders, and loose soil:



Crossing a very narrow and slippery section of the trail:



Another photo of the convoy, as shot by @jkrishnakj:



We made it to the top:



Another view of our convoy parked at the very top of the hill:



Parked together at the bottom, after successfully completing this challenging trail:



A parting shot of all four cars:


This trail was an amazing experience, and all four of us enjoyed it thoroughly! Personally for me, this was the first time I was doing such proper hard-core off-roading in my own Thar. I got opportunities to use all the gear I have, including 4H and 4L, BLD, Manual mode in the gearbox, Hill Descent Control etc. As you can see in the pictures (and read in the detailed report), the trail was quite challenging in many sections, and we got a great opportunity to experience how well our cars handled such tricky sections. It was a great learning experience for me.

Coming to the Thar, it managed this trail really well. The Thar handled all difficult sections with aplomb, and I really fell in love with this car all over again after experience for myself what the Thar is capable of. Absolutely at no point in this trail I felt insecure or unstable, or as if the Thar would not be able to manage it. The confidence that Thar instills in the driver is something that is hard to describe in words.

Now that I have at least one proper hard-core off-roading experience under my belt, looking forward to many more such trails and experience in future, and I hope to keep this thread updated with more such experiences.

Many thanks to @robimahanta for planning this trail for us, and for all my buddies who joined this trail. It was an amazing group of friends. It was not only a great company, but a very knowledgeable and helpful company, and I learned a lot from everyone that day.

That is it for now. Thank you for reading!

[ph03n!x]

Originally Posted by Dr.AD

...
As you can see in the pictures (and read in the detailed report), the trail was quite challenging in many sections, and we got a great opportunity to experience how well our cars handled such tricky sections. It was a great learning experience for me.
..

Awesome write up and pics, Doc!

Did you and the others lower your tyres' air pressure for this trail? The rocks look edgy, and a ~10 PSI drop would help protect tyres from damage as well as improve grip.

I carry a portable tyre inflator just for these trails

[Dr.AD]

Originally Posted by ph03n!x

Awesome write up and pics, Doc!

Thank you very much!

Did you and the others lower your tyres' air pressure for this trail? The rocks look edgy, and a ~10 PSI drop would help protect tyres from damage as well as improve grip.

We were running a reduced tyre pressure of about 28psi. We did not reduce it as much as by 10psi, but kept it about 28psi. Maybe next time I go on such trails, I will try reducing the pressure by 10psi (that would mean to about 22psi) and experience the difference. But here, 28psi worked quite well and I do not think we needed to go lower than that.

I carry a portable tyre inflator just for these trails

Yes, I have a portable tyre inflator too in each of my cars. That is an essential accessory that one must carry no matter what the vehicle is.

Thanks for your comments and tips!

[ph03n!x]

I/ friends usually go with 22 - 24 PSI for rocks and 15 - 18 PSI for sand.

But then the current Thar is a different beast compared to Gypsy or Mahindra jeeps from decades back, so I guess as long as we complete the circuit, all is well

[Dr.AD]

Since my last off-road trail described a couple of posts earlier, I did not get a chance to drive my Thar that much. In-between, I did a week long Ladakh Trip, but we took a flight to Leh and hired a local vehicle there. Thar was mostly just parked when I was busy with these other travels.

I used it for social meets within city (maybe less than 5km away) on a couple of occasions. But that was it in last 4 weeks or so.

And then when I took it out yesterday for a short drive, noticed this "7777 km" number on odometer!



Just thought of sharing this nice number :-)

There is no real update this time. But please stay tuned for more updated soon. Thanks for reading!

[Dr.AD]

Weekend Drive to RiverMist Resorts!

After our somewhat hectic and a week-long Ladakh trip, we thought of balancing that out with a different kind of trip - a simple weekend drive to a beautiful resort in thick forests of Western Ghats, and relaxing there enjoying the views and the authentic South Indian cuisine.

One resort that was on our to-do list for a long time was ideal for this: RiverMist Resort (https://rivermistresorts.com/) near Mudigere, Karnataka, located in the middle of the Western Ghats, in thick forest.

I decided to drive my Thar there (instead of the BMW 320d) because the resort offers lovely small trails nearby which I could enjoy in Thar. Moreover, last 3km or so to the resort is a nice off-road (mud track full of stones and potholes) and even requires crossing a small river (Netravathi River, which is a small stream here very close to its origin point). This is easily doable in Thar or any other equivalent vehicle. But if you drive a sedan, they will request you to park at another place of theirs a bit away, and from there they will pick you up in their own Bolero 4x4.

Anyways, so I took my Thar there and had a great time playing in that river crossing and also exploring the small local trail within the estate of the resort. These local trails were mostly easy, but at some points it did require me to engage 4L as there was steep muddy decent with very little traction.

Please allow me to share my experiences in this weekend drive through the pictures below.

A coffee break at the "Growers Coffee House" on the way, a lovely place with good coffee and facilities, and good views too:



Coffee while watching the parked Thar:



The last 3km to resort is such off-road trail, which was easy-peasy for Thar:



Another view from this road:



At some section the trail goes through thick trees:



Views of the mountains in the side view river:



Lovely scenic trail this was, with mountains hidden in the clouds on the side:



Stream crossing just before reaching the resort (this is Netravathi River very close to its origin point):


Crossing this steam was quite simple and easy in Thar, and in fact, we did that a few times later just for fun and played around at this river.

Reached the main house in the resort, where my Thar got a premium parking :



A view of the beautiful cottages in the resort, with great view of the mountains:



Another view of the lovely cottages and paths in the resort:



Our cottage, which was big and spacious, and had a large balcony with awesome mountain views:



Views from our balcony (the mountains remain covered in the clouds all afternoon and evening, and the clouds clear up in the morning, and the cycle repeats):



View of other cottages from our balcony:



Nice swimming pool with good views:


We went for a walk in the property. There is a river that flows which also has a nice small waterfall right inside the property. And there is also an off-roading track that runs on the side of the river, and then goes up and down the hills.

The river that flows in the property, and you can also see the off-road track that runs in the property:



A small waterfall on this river, which is one of the attractions within the property:


We spent some time driving on the trails in the property. The trails require a proper 4x4 vehicle. For Thar 4x4, it was mostly easy. But at a couple of points we did have to use 4L as it was slippery and muddy, and there was also a sharp down slope on the muddy tracks at one point. Overall it was fun.

After the trail, we went back to the river crossing for some fun there.

River crossing that was a nice simple fun:



My wife took a couple of photos while I was having fun driving the Thar here:







A lovely sunrise view from our balcony greeted us the next morning:



Another view of the cottages in the morning light:



A parting shot of main house in the resort (this also hosts a restaurant and the reception area), nestled among thick trees:



Just a quick break at a Cafe Coffee Day on the way back, and we had an uneventful drive back home:


We loved this simple weekend drive. We had fun playing around with Thar in that property. The place was just awesome. The location, the rooms, the hospitality, the service, and the food, all were top class. We got fresh home style South India food for all meals in the resort, and absolutely loved the food and the restaurant there. Overall a memorable weekend for sure.

Well, that is all for now. Thank you very much for reading!

[Dr.AD]

10,000km and Other Updates!

It has been a while since I updated this thread. In that time, I did one offroading trail with a few fellow TeamBHP members, did a couple of road trips, and also reached 10,000km mark on the odometer.

Off-roading with BHPians:

I have written a detailed post on this off-roading session with fellow BHPians and their 4x4 machines. Just sharing a couple of pictures here for summary:

Dusty with other BHPIan friends at this 4x4 drive:



The off-roading convoy on the 4x4 trail:



A solo shot:



Another solo shot on the trail:



Finally, a short night trail experience in the return leg:



Drive to Bandipur Tiger Reserve:

Another drive we did in Thar was to Bandipur Tiger Reserve. We also took a jungle safari there and got to see a leopard sleeping on a tree!

On the way to Bandipur, we took a short detour to some locations near KRS dam backwaters.

Somewhere near KRS backwaters:






In the jungle safari, we got some decent sightings.

A sloth bear that we saw from close distance:




Leopard sleeping on a tree:



Jungle Mynas at Sunset:


As I mentioned a few times in my other travelogues, I am primarily a landscape photographer, and even in jungle safaris, I love shooting landscapes. In Bandipur too, while the safari was good and we did see a few animals, I was thrilled to see the sunset from top of a hill in that thick forest, when our safari path happened to go via that hill.

Lovely sunset in the forest:



Another view of the sunset over the rolling hills:



Apart from the Bandipur drive, we also did a couple of other drives in Thar. But those were routine drives for some work or social meetings, and there is nothing to write about those. For example, recently we drove to Chennai to meet our family friends there and to just chill with them in Chennai city. We took Thar for that drive. In the Bangalore-Chennai drive, the last 100km or so before Chennai is now under road work, and the roads there are so bad that Thar was the right vehicle to manage those diversions and horrible roads. It felt funny that a hardcore 4x4 SUV which is meant for off-road trails turned out to be absolutely the right vehicle for this urban drive connecting the two big metros in India. The last 100km felt like an off-road drive anyways, and I enjoyed driving Thar there.


10,000km Service Update:

And then, after these drives, I hit 10,000km on the odo, and it was time for the "Second Free Service", as Mahindra calls it. It was essentially a complete service including engine oil change, all filters change, coolant top off, and other routine checks and inspections.

At the service center for the 10,000km service:


The service experience at Sireesh Auto was great! Just like in the 1,000km inspection, this time too I had a great experience that I would rate 10/10. So far I am pleasantly surprised by how good the Mahindra service has been. The service advisors are polite, friendly, knowledgeable and very approachable. The work was done well, on time, and always with a smile. Yes the service centers are crowded. But that has been the case with BMW service too. So nothing unusual about that. What was impressive so far is that in spite of such a crowd, the service advisors are polite and friendly, and they got the work done on time.

Although Mahindra calls this 10,000km service as "Second Free Service", in reality only the labour charges are covered by this "free" tag. I had to pay for the oil and other consumables. But that is again a standard practice in most brands. The bill for these consumables came to about Rs. 5,600 which is quite fair and reasonable.

Overall a very nice service experience with Mahindra so far.

Unfortunately I missed taking the customary photo of 10,000km mark on the odometer (I was driving through a busy section of a highway that time and there was no opportunity for safely stopping for a photo), but here is the odometer photo now as of today's reading:


It has been a fun time owning and driving Thar so far. Thankfully, no major niggles so far and the regular scheduled service experience has been great too. These 10,000km were fun times. Let us see what this new year of 2024 has in store for my drives with Dusty, and let us see where we end up driving through 2024. But I am certainly looking forward to some more fun times with Dusty in 2024.

Well, that is all for now. Wish you all a very happy new year, and thank you very much for reading this!

[Dr.AD]

After completing the 10,000km service, pretty much immediately took the Thar out on a 1000km weekend drive to "Old Magazine House (OMH)", near Dandeli, Karnataka.

I have written a separate travelogue (New Year Drive to "Old Magazine House") on that trip. Please check that out for more details as well as for bird photos, which is the main activity at OMH. I was lucky to see many birds there and got to photograph them too.

Sharing a few photos of Dusty from that trip here, and also a couple of comments about the car after 10,000km service completed.

With an early morning start, a breakfast stop by sunrise time:



On the lovely forest roads near Dandeli:






On the last mile road to OMH, which was a pure dirt track:









Parked in the parking space of Old Magazine House, where she blended well in the forest ambiance:


This weekend drive was a great fun, and you can read more about it in the travelogue I shared.

Coming to Thar, it was not the obvious choice for me for this drive, since about 400km of the 520km drive each way was a six-lane highway, and I was tempted to take my 320d on this drive. But considering the road conditions beyond the highways, I took Thar.

Even on the six-lane highways, Thar was not too bad. Thar can manage cruising at good highway speeds (but not too fast, like a sedan can do) all day, and I am learning to live with this car on the highways too. Of course, Thar is nowhere as stable or comfortable as my 320d is on the highways, but I have got used to Thar ride too by now. The 2023 Thar's suspension is not that bad, and again, as long as I do not do very high speeds, Thar is OK on the highways too.

The biggest pain points on such long highway drives with Thar are the wind noise and pathetic range on a tank of petrol. Wind noise gets excessive and can be very annoying. And the pathetic range means even on nice smooth six-lane highways with no traffic, where one could enjoy long uninterrupted drive for hours, you have to take annoyingly frequent breaks for fuel. The car guzzles petrol at a crazy rate.

While the fuel economy does remain poor in general, compared to my earlier experiences, I somehow got better FE in this particular drive. I am not sure if it is because of the 10,000km service and the car is more efficient now somehow, or whether because I have now learnt to drive it better, or whether it was just a pure coincidence. But whatever the reason, this time I got better FE than I ever got in previous 10,000km of driving.

For example, the best ever FE in my previous 10,000km of driving, as measured by tankful to tankful method, was 10.0km/l, that too only once. Other than that, my highway FE hovered around 9.0km/l. I always measure tankful to tankful, since MID numbers are overoptimistic by about 1.0km/l.

In contrast, in my onward journey from Bangalore to Hubli, I got 10.3km/l this time, which is my new record for FE on Thar now. The MID was showing something around 11.2km/l but the tankful method showed 10.3km/l.

And in my return journey, I see this on MID, which probably means about 10.4km/l by tankful method when I fill up the tank next:


The other annoyance (and this can be a big pain) that both I and my wife noticed in last few drives is that the AC is too powerful even at the lowest fan speed. This has been mentioned before by everyone and we also mentioned it in our earlier drives. But the severity of this is felt now in the winter mornings.

We start our drives around 5am, and in these winter months, from 5am till about 9am, the AC even with the lowest fan speeds makes the cabin so painfully cold, that both I and my wife are really hating that. I have to keep fiddling with the AC button to keep switching it ON and OFF, and keep fiddling with the temperature knob just to make it bearable till about 9am. It is all fine after 9am, when the sun is shining and the outside air is warm enough.

Apart from this, there are no other issues so far (touch wood), and our Thar drives have been fun in more ways than one.