Mahindra Thar

 The 1st-gen Thar was rather controversial. Those used to old Jeeps & Gypsys appreciated the fact that it was more liveable, but there is no doubt that it was a crude hack-job full of many jugaads. The only real competition it had was the vintage Maruti Gypsy, which didn't offer a diesel engine, power steering or decent ride quality, so the 1st-gen Thar did okay. Mahindra realised the potential of a Jeep like the Thar and has gone all out with this 2nd-gen machine. It is significantly more modern, better equipped, well-finished and even comes with Automatics to expand its appeal!

The Thar is available in 2 trim levels - AX (Adventure Series) and LX (Lifestyle Series) with 4 variants - AX Standard, AX, AX (Opt) and LX. You can choose from three different types of roofs – a fixed soft-top, an innovative convertible soft-top and a hard-top. It is also available in 4 and 6-seater configurations. The Thar is still not at par with similarly priced cars and crossovers in many departments. Who then will be impressed with the Thar? Anyone who compares it to the earlier Thar, or old Jeep & Gypsy owners. Who will be disappointed with the Thar? Anyone who cross-shops it with same-price C2 segment sedans like the City / Verna or crossovers like the Creta / Seltos.

That said, there isn't a doubt that this 2020 Thar is a lot easier to live with than the earlier car. It will greatly expand the Thar's appeal & market. The Jeep is not for everyone though. PLEASE test-drive it for a long duration before cutting a cheque. PLEASE test-drive multiple times, with your family too. You don't want to end up like so many Harley-Davidson owners who are selling their bikes within 1 - 3 years at big depreciation losses.

Design & Styling

Full marks here - the Thar is an absolute head-turner that screams style. It retains the classic, heritage styling of Jeeps of the past and is, in fact, a xerox copy of the Jeep Wrangler! Despite its sub-4 meter length, the Thar oozes character and grabs the attention of other road users easily. Cab drivers, bike riders, pedestrians, old, young – it does not matter, this is one car that makes everybody smile. Other cars don't mess with you at junctions, and give way when they see the Thar approaching in their mirrors. Interesting colours (e.g. red), a well-designed hard-top, 18" rims and goodies such as LED DRLs / tail-lamps make it even more attractive. The sole complaint we have is with the design of that radiator grille. Thankfully, it can be swapped for a 7-slot Jeep-style unit in the after-market easily. We appreciate how chrome is minimal on the Thar.

Build Quality, Fit & Finish

The Thar has a sturdy body-on-frame construction and is built on Mahindra's Gen3 platform that also underpins the Scorpio. Its build quality is tough & can withstand offroading abuse. When you're driving it in the city, you sure feel like you're driving a “tank”! The bonnet, doors & tail-gate have a good deal of weight to them, and there’s not much flex in the body panels. The doors shut with a good, solid sound (especially when compared to the 1st-gen Thar), but need to be pushed firmly to close. While the paint quality is acceptable, panel gaps & the likes cannot be compared to same-price cars like the Creta. Still, overall fit & finish are very acceptable and lightyears ahead of the outgoing Thar. Mahindra hasn't shared the kerb weight; companies usually don't do that when the vehicle is excessively heavy!

Wheels & Tyres

The LX variant gets smart 18” gun-metal alloy wheels with 255/65 Ceat tyres which look big & fat! On the other hand, the AX Standard, AX and AX (Opt) variants come with 16” rims and 245/75 section rubber. Some offroaders prefer their rides to have smaller wheels and taller tyres like this Thar. This kind of a swap will also improve the ride quality due to the 30 mm taller sidewall height.

Ground Clearance

The Thar LX has an unladen ground clearance rating of 226 mm, while the AX gets 219 mm GC. Forget on-road bumps & speed-breakers, the Thar will climb mountains. And I mean that literally.

Standard & Extended Warranty

The Thar comes with a standard warranty of 3 years / 1 lakh km. Extended warranty is available upto the 5th year. We strongly recommend this warranty extension as brand-new Mahindra cars are known to suffer niggles & issues. We faced 2 in our test cars, while this post points to many more.

Maintenance

The 1st service is at 1,000 km (basically a checkup). Post that, the service interval is 10,000 km.

Safety

The Thar is equipped with safety features such as 3-point seatbelts even for rear occupants, a very solid roll cage, airbags (but just 2), ESP with rollover mitigation (pat on the back to Mahindra ), ABS, hill-hold, hill descent control, ISOFIX child seat mounts, TPMS (very useful on-road & offroad) and rear parking sensors. Sadly, because the rearward visibility is pathetic, a reversing camera is sorely missed (available as an official accessory though). The AX variants further gets 'snow chain provision' for tyres! While there is no NCAP rating for now, Mahindra claims that the Thar meets global crash test safety norms. We'll believe it when we see its GNCAP rating.

Cabin Design & Quality

You will be pleasantly surprised once you "climb" into this Jeep. We like the cabin’s design; it’s far more modern and SUV-like compared to the old Thar's rural-taxi nature. Nothing flashy or curvy in here, but the interior is very functional & likeable. The all-black theme does make things a little "dark", as does the limited greenhouse, but the black interior will conceal any signs of soiling way better than a lighter theme (offroaders will love this). There are some stylish elements too, like the aircraft style switches & indicators on the center fascia. There are hard plastics used everywhere, yet part quality is acceptable & the cabin does feel very durable. There are a few rough edges, but they are not too prominent or visible (unlike the old Thar which was a disaster…this new one is lightyears ahead). In the hardtop, you will find many exposed bolts which are used to attach the top to the body. Some folk will dislike this, but GTO thought it added character.

Space & Comfort

The Thar's floor is a long way off the ground and one needs to properly climb into the cabin. It's not senior-citizen friendly. There is enough space in the front. Cabin width is healthy and headroom is abundant. The driver’s seat is good overall & slides back sufficiently even for 6+ footers to feel comfortable. We used the lumbar adjustment and found back support to be perfect, as is the lateral support. While short to average-height drivers will be fine with the under-thigh support, taller occupants (even me @ 5’10”) will find it to be less. I felt that the seatbase doesn’t extend out long enough to support my thigh. The passenger seat too gets lumbar adjustment - your spouse will be pleased. The fabric upholstery is of average quality & the seats are firm enough to be supportive over longer drives. I wish Mahindra had given armrests bolted onto the front seats, like in the Scorpio. Would be super useful in the ATs. On the right side, the top of the doorpad is thick enough to be an armrest. You can easily rest your right arm there while driving.

The 2-door Problem

The fact that the Thar has 2-doors and ingress to the rear seat is impossible for the elderly makes it an impractical choice. Rear seat comfort is compromised (bumpy ride quality too) & the boot is tiny. This 2-door Thar will appeal to a small market, after the initial euphoria dies down. While enthusiasts will love the 2-door style, the regular Anand won't. In hardly any Indian home will the Thar be the primary car; in most cases, it will be the 2nd or 3rd ride of the house. We have a confirmation that the 4-door Thar is coming, but it might be a long wait.

Driving Position & Ergonomics

Ergonomically, we found the Thar to be user-friendly. The steering has thumb contours and is good to hold. The hornpad is a stretch for your thumbs, but it isn't hard to press. The horn itself is a nice, dual-tone unit. On the flip side, it is way too loud on the inside!! The steering wheel is adjustable for height, but it doesn't get reach adjustment. The instrument cluster is clear and easy to read - we'd still like it a size bigger. Coming to frontal visibility, you sit tall and have a lovely, commanding view of the road ahead (you can even see the bonnet). Short drivers will feel that the dash is on the higher side. Rearward visibility is absolutely pathetic. Even the side-rear view (area above the rear wheels) has major blind spots. The useless IRVM is too small, although the ORVMs are okay. They are tall & very Jeep-like (again a Wrangler copy). Another complaint we have is that the driver footwell is narrow, a dead pedal is missing and there is a prominent protrusion from the center fascia. This plastic bit protrudes into the footwell and will rub against your left shin area / knee. Not much of an issue in the AT as you can adjust the resting spot of your left leg, but it might be bothersome in the MT. Because the footwell is too narrow, in the MT, you'll have no proper place to rest your left foot on long journeys.

Cabin Storage

The Thar does alright in terms of cabin storage. There is a spot to park your smartphone at the base of the center fascia & practical cupholders on the center console for holding your coffee mug (a must for highway runs IMHO). The door pockets can hold a 1L bottle and other small items. On the flipside, the lockable glovebox is laughably small. It doesn't have a cooling vent or illumination either. Coming to the rear, both front seats have seatback pockets and there is a foldable bag hook on the left seatback. Additionally, there is some space underneath the rear seats where one can keep slim items, such as a laptop bag.

Air-Conditioning

The Thar gets an old-school HVAC unit (no climate control). The air-conditioner will chill you to the bone! The air-con’s power is more than enough for this limited-length cabin. Blower level 1 itself is powerful (more powerful than it ought to be IMHO). We didn’t find the need to engage blower level 2 at all, not even when it was hot & sunny outside. Besides, at level 2 and above, the blower gets noisy. No rear air vents for the two on the backseat.

Features

Unique & Noteworthy Features

The new Thar comes with most of the necessary features (including a touchscreen head-unit with Android Auto), but nothing over the top like wireless charging. Some features that stand out are the convertible soft-top (truly unique), washable floor with drain plugs, removable front doors, cruise control, drizzle-proof ICE & some controls, altimeter, compass, roll & pitch meter and Blue Sense App. You can also receive notifications about Mahindra Adventure events!

Audio System & Sound Quality

The LX variant gets a 7" touchscreen head-unit with 6 speakers, navigation, voice commands, Bluetooth and Android Auto / Apple CarPlay. The size of the touchscreen is adequate and the interface is user-friendly. Visibility is good even under direct sunlight. Two speakers and tweeters are mounted on the roof, while two more are on the lower corners of the dashboard. Sound quality gets a 6 / 10 rating. SQ is quite basic, yet I have to say, it is remarkable what Mahindra has achieved with the unconventional speaker placements above the driver (under the roll bar). It sure takes some getting used to, receiving sound from above your head, and the driver’s left ear is filled with a lot more sound than the right ear. A complaint we have is that the audio system always starts on zero volume + the radio. When you restart the car, you have to crank the volume up and switch back to your preferred input (Bluetooth in my case). This bug needs to be fixed. An Aux-in, 2 USB posts and a 12V power outlet have been provided. The system also displays adventure statistics, power and torque meters etc.

Rear Seat Comfort & Space

As mentioned earlier, ingress & egress into the rear are only for the fit & healthy. It is impossible for senior citizens. Besides, you have to climb in and keep your back bent to prevent your head from hitting the roof. The seat is well-sized for 2 (not 3, mind you) and there is enough head + knee room. It has a comfortable backrest angle that's adjustable & the headrests are adjustable too. Rear passengers will sit close to each other, while taller ones might find the under-thigh support to be less. There is enough space under the front seats to slide your feet into, but the rear seats aren't located exactly behind the front ones. This means one of your feet can be slid under the front seat, and the other one will be toward the center, making things awkward. There are no rear windows in the hard-top, just fixed glasses on the sides. On the convertible though, the side windows can be easily removed, in case you want to enjoy the fresh air.

Note that the AX variant gets side-facing bench seats.

How much reliable is Mahindra Thar's Hard Top?

MAHINDRA THAR enjoys a good fan following in India. The new generation Thar 2020 is improved version compared to old generation. On an average, Mahindra manages to sell at least 2500 units per month. The recent sales figure of Jan 2022, company sold 4646 units. It is offered with soft and hard top. Today we bring you the reality check of Mahindra Thar’s Hard top. How reliable it is and should company improve its quality of hard top. 

MAHINDRA THAR an SUV which you buy to go off road to enjoy beautiful mountains be it in rainy season or any himalayan adventure. A famous youtuber VIKASH DAYAL recently took his Thar to Himalayan adventure. To get a quick car wash, the youtuber took his SUV under natural waterfall. The SUV got clean however it also unearthed new set of problems. Apparently, the hard top got leak and droplets were seen across the roof from the inside.

As shown in the pictures, it is quite unfortunate that a vehicle which is not even a year old suffered from this problem. The hard top clearly needs to be enhanced to prevent such leaks. Compared to Force Gurkha where users get metal hardtop, Mahindra Thar owners need to be careful when taking it to such places. As the SUV ages, the problem will reoccur since the hard top glued and there is no full proof solution. There are numerous videos on youtube reported by owners about the leakage. Clearly company needs to address this problem in their upcoming 5 door Thar.

Mahindra Thar is currently available in petrol and diesel variant. The price starts from 13.17 lakh ex showroom and goes up to 15.53 lakh for the top model. It is available in both soft and hard top options.