I
n this post below - there is no new information on the Thar, its just summing my experience of owing the Thar, so might as well skip reading it.
It’s 7 years since I have owned the Thar. I had waited for 5 months after making the booking and another full month after full payment. I was hooked on the official review of Khan Sultan, and made many friends on TBHP and have met few of them in real life. I am quite sure, there will no car in the future that I would buy that with passion and enthusiasm.
In the last 7 years, I have driven over 90K kms including several long distance trips, Bangalore- Goa (several times), Bangalore - Coorg, Wayanad (several times), Bangalore - Thekkady, Munnar, Guruvayur, Coimbatore and quite a few other place in south India. All memorable trips and All in the Thar.
When I bought the Thar, my son was 6 and my wife was 8 and half months pregnant - Thar wasn’t the most practical car, I had an i10 and a Scorpio so Thar was not the only car so it was ok. 90% of the time I was the only one in the Thar. Thanks to my wife and kids that I could buy the Thar, well I did it inspite of their protests
While on longer drives, the rear bench seats served as camp cots for my kids and they would sleep there and our longer drives were fun.
Now my son is now 13 and a half and my daughter is 6 and in the more recent trip to Chennai - summer around March end, I realised that perhaps it was time for change.
1. The AC, while effective for the front seats, doesn’t really do a great job in keeping the back part cool enough, I mean it quite ok for Bangalore but Chennai in the afternoon and during the peak summer - No
2. My son no longer can fit in the rear bench seat to sleep, and now he is now taller and a teenager and wants to see outside
I always kept my speeds under 100 - knowing there are NO safety features in Thar apart from the seat belts for the front passengers.
Now that my work will demand more time on the highway and might have to do several trips outside Bangalore frequently, I will buy something that will serve my purpose better.
Its hard to sell something that is so much part of your memories that you keep postponing it but then when its time , it is time to take the decision. I don’t have space to park another car, my wife needs the hatchback so time to sell the Thar. I know I miss my Thar sorely.
I wanted to record my sentiments on TBHP, not for anyone to read but for myself as I do revisit this page once in a while.
If you have reached till here - Thank you for reading.
If you have any questions on Thar do reach out, I am no expert but I can try to give answers. I got a lot from this forum so many people. Spike Arrestor, Behram (RIP), Samurai and many others had taken time to respond to my queries.
I still say, Thar can be your daily drive - as long as there are only 2 people it can be used for highways - but you ought to be careful - No Safety Features at all.
Anyway, I might be Jeep-less for a while but hopefully not for long, Once the Jeep bug bites you, I am quite sure you end up owning another one soon.
As for what will I buy - I wanted to buy the Fortuner, but its 10 Lacs too expensive and I won’t be using the 4WD in that so no point buying that.
It will be Innova Crysta - more practical decision and Primarily for its Safety Features.
And with the spare 10 Lacs - who knows, maybe the Gurkha
at some point. We will see.
Some Memories