which 4x4?

[vinod_nookala]

Hi
Iam from chennai and hard core off road enthusiast. Iam planning to take a 4x4 and need your help & review of products between 5.5 to 7.5 lakhs on road price.
I have shortlisted mahindra 4x4 bolero as it is more of a family vehicle & A/c, power steering and good ride quality is my priority. It comes with 68 bhp IDI peugeot engine & a torque of 14 kgm. Mahindra personnel says DI turbo engine with 20 KGm of torque is not as suitable as IDI engine hence only SLX 4x4 version is provided with IDI engine.
Bolero 4x4 users can eloberate on their experience with the vehicle. Also can u suggest some good second hand MM540 4x4 in chennai??? i had a MM540 4x4 a 1989 model but had lot of problems.Still I love MM540. Gypsy is Ok but iam planning to do 1000 kms highway run once in six months and have a daily commute of 30 kms to work. GUrkha SWB is priced at 7.24 lakhs for hard top 3 door version ex show room chennai which is a little out of my budget.

please suggest n help


vinod
Chennai

[Samurai]

Well, you are in the right city. Chennai has the most hard-core off-roading guys, many of them are in the forum. You will get the best advice.

GUrkha SWB is priced at 7.24 lakhs for hard top 3 door version ex show room chennai which is a little out of my budget.

Where did you get that number? I thought it was 7.2L OTR. I have heard that it will be out this month end, but then they have been saying that every month, seeing is believing.

[Desert fox]

Originally Posted by Samurai

Where did you get that number? I thought it was 7.2L OTR. I have heard that it will be out this month end, but then they have been saying that every month, seeing is believing.

Forget the number,can i get the car if i pay the number!! I have been through enough people and places to get that product named Gurkha.

[vinod_nookala]

hi,
i got the quote from the dealer transforce. The vehicle is available only in black colour and 3 doors. A/c is in options list which costs extra. I think for a fraction of that extra cost i can get a LSD for bolero, tough not as good as a diff lock would serve most purposes

vinod

Originally Posted by Samurai

Well, you are in the right city. Chennai has the most hard-core off-roading guys, many of them are in the forum. You will get the best advice.

Where did you get that number? I thought it was 7.2L OTR. I have heard that it will be out this month end, but then they have been saying that every month, seeing is believing.

[Ketan]

Is this vehicle still available with transforce! what are the specs and how much is the quote.. still availability remains a big issue with this. As samurai said it right,, seeing is beleiving..

[S@~+#0$#]

Originally Posted by Desert fox

Forget the number,can i get the car if i pay the number!! I have been through enough people and places to get that product named Gurkha.

Does the Gurkha have a snorkel(factory-fitted)? If yes, I think I saw the Gurkha at the Force Motors show room on Richmond Road(Corner next to Madhu Tyres).

[reddy6980]

Yes it has a snorkel(factory-fitted),i think the review was posted on it with very good pictures here is the link http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-d...-road-too.html

[IronWolf]

Originally Posted by S@~+#0$#

Does the Gurkha have a snorkel(factory-fitted)? If yes, I think I saw the Gurkha at the Force Motors show room on Richmond Road(Corner next to Madhu Tyres).

Yes it does come with the Snorkel exhaust.>>
Read Samurai's Review of the Gurkha here

I think the Gurkha is a good buy. Ignore the looks !

[maddy42]

Well in second hand why dont you try to get a mm540 with the Xd3p engine. Is a pretty good one and will get it cheap so you can spend some amount on the winch.

[Ketan]

Originally Posted by IronWolf

Yes it does come with the Snorkel exhaust.>>

Thats not an exhaust,,, its high mount air-intake..read that review and you will know more details..

[Spitfire]

Originally Posted by vinod_nookala

Hi
Iam from chennai and hard core off road enthusiast. Iam planning to take a 4x4 and need your help & review of products between 5.5 to 7.5 lakhs on road price.
I have shortlisted mahindra 4x4 bolero as it is more of a family vehicle & A/c, power steering and good ride quality is my priority. It comes with 68 bhp IDI peugeot engine & a torque of 14 kgm. Mahindra personnel says DI turbo engine with 20 KGm of torque is not as suitable as IDI engine hence only SLX 4x4 version is provided with IDI engine.
Bolero 4x4 users can eloberate on their experience with the vehicle. Also can u suggest some good second hand MM540 4x4 in chennai??? i had a MM540 4x4 a 1989 model but had lot of problems.Still I love MM540. Gypsy is Ok but iam planning to do 1000 kms highway run once in six months and have a daily commute of 30 kms to work. GUrkha SWB is priced at 7.24 lakhs for hard top 3 door version ex show room chennai which is a little out of my budget.

please suggest n help


vinod
Chennai

I am sorry but this begs a question - What sort of offroading? The usual drive through broken road, climb a few hills, some not too serious mud plugging or you will be doing the extreme stuff(and i mean by Indian 4x4 standards).

Why this question because other then the Mahindra Classic and to an extent the MM540 XDP i didnt find any vehicle suitable for offroading in India available at a decent price. I have not driven a Gurkha yet.

The Bolero 4x4 is not a good offroading vehicle, primarily because of its weight and long wheelbase also the wheel travel. The suspension is little too hard for normal highway runs. Not bad but not good enough too, ride is a compromise. Also the IDI Engine is much quiter then the DI.
From your posts it looks like you will be using the vehicle on-road more often then off-road. I had a similiar problem as i wanted a vehicle which would do both fairly well. But did not find a good enough 4x4 sold in India for the same budget that you have. So thought of buying 2:
Got one used 99 Mahindra Classic - a good offroad vehicle at that price and
Got one Bolero 2WD GLX(fully loaded - power everything and nice AC) model with independent suspension at the front and enough space to carry the family.
I dont take the Bolero offroad and the Classic has not seen much of highways.
PS: From the posts i have seen here the Gurkha sounds a good alternative for you, but i am not too sure of the cost and the waiting period involved. Also the creature comforts dont match up to say the Bolero.

[gbpscars]

vinod, if you can find a family vehicle with creature comforts, true-blue 4x4 abilities at that budget, please let me know.

if "off-roading" for you is just going over the shoulder of a well-paved road to satisfy an ego, or driving a bit faster than you would on a sedan on a potholed road, then you are wrong.

in all the months of search for a vehicle that has all those capabilities and still meet that budget constraint, i have failed miserably.

gurkha, mm540, gypsy - quite capable, no decent family looks
landcruiser, pajero - can get very old ones in 5-6 lacs but will be too old on the odo and a pain in maintenance
new landcruisers - even half of the interest on the loan will not be equal to this budget

if you want to drive on highways and bad to very bad roads (i mean roads that were there but got potholed or broken), then a scorpio / safari is more than enough. you dont need a 4x4.

better still,... find a used, but well maintained Scorpio CRDe and keep adding your personal goodies. in your search if you come across a 4x4, count your blessings.

what i meant in this post is NEVER combine family comfort with true-blue 4x4 capabilities, NEVER mix up the comfort required for frequent long highway drives with real mud-plugging abilities,....

....,unless until you can afford some SUVs from the Toyota, BMW, Mercedes stables.

all the best, and keep me posted as my hunt for a good vehicle for bad roads is still on.


P.S.: am from chennai too. is ther any relationship to the place and a crave for large 4x4s??? Redone... r u reading this?

[Torqy]

Originally Posted by Samurai

Well, you are in the right city. Chennai has the most hard-core off-roading guys.

Well, that's not quite right. BANGALORE has the most off-roading guys. Here we rarely go ON-ROAD.

Come, see us off-road every day to office. Thanks to the Bangalore govt. though for this opportunity.

[gbpscars]

Originally Posted by Torqy

Well, that's not quite right. BANGALORE has the most off-roading guys. Here we rarely go ON-ROAD.

Come, see us off-road every day to office. Thanks to the Bangalore govt. though for this opportunity.

LOL. I can imagine your office trip is worse than mine as I had been to bangalore sometime back.

But again they are only "bad roads" as opposed to a terrain that is needed to be classified as "off-roader's terrain"

[Spitfire]

@ vinod_nookala - So what did you get?