[akash_v12]

A New Thar, It's finally here ! Great to see Mahindra's design team not deviating too much from the already successful formula for the design of the Thar, it holds great resemblance to the older-gen Jeeps till date. Also, I now feel that this is what the Thar should've been all along - decent number of creature comforts and hardcore off-road capability (albeit with some A/Ts and a new bumper).

Mahindra seems to have listened to the audience by giving it an Automatic, Petrol as well as forward-facing rear seats along with all the different new features (AC, Touchscreen, ABS/EBD + 2 Airbags w/ seat-belt pretensioners for both rear seats, TPMS, ESP & even connected car tech).

Kudos to Mahindra for ensuring that the Thar is not only good off the road but also on the road with a softer suspension and much more planted ride.
My only grudge is the Jeep-style 7 slat grille which can be fixed by spending a few thousand rupees.

All-in-All, great job by Mahindra. Now, it suddenly seems as if the 3-year wait was actually worth it .

[KPR]

I'm fully convinced with the design but,

1. This is a Mahindra. So I will wait for 1-2 years for sorting out niggles.
2. Meanwhile I will try to sell the idea of such a car as family vehicle to my spouse.
3. Wait for 2021 if Jimny is coming. Then I will go to Arena or Nexa only.

[rakesh_r]

Kudos to Mahindra for bringing in the new and revamped Thar. It will be too early to say on the success part which again will depend on the pricing. Now waiting on the updated Force Gurkha to debut. On the Suzuki Jimny, will Maruti be just sitting over the fence or reveal the vehicle in the coming months, difficult to say since if the pricing is right and if one needs a Petrol 4x4, the Thar I guess will make more sense.

[amitayu]

If the Autocar review video is anything to go by, climbing into the rear seats will be a trekking adventure by itself!
Moreover, the rear seats sit right on the rear wheel arches. The kind of tumbling any passenger will face will be akin to bronc riding!
Saw the pathetic grab hooks in the rear, this car needs proper 3 point seatbelts and helmets for the passengers!

[Venku2015]

Must say, a great overall package with a few shortcomings etc, but hey if we compare to the barebones previous gen Thar, this is a HUGE step up and I will be proud to own a ''made in India with pride'' SUV!
My only apprehensions are the ride and handling, most importantly the highway manners.
I believe this will be a good daily car for a couple with one/two kids, for those thinking of carrying their parents will have to wait for the 5 door Jimny (If Maruti-Suzuki wakes up)
Hope the new engines will prove to be reliable and will outlast its owners, I am sure they will!
Now looking at the boot space, which is just good enough for one suitcase and a small handbag at the max, Mahindra should provide an option for roof carrier, cycle carrier , roof top tent for adventure souls like us.

Overall I am super excited and looking forward to test drive both the diesel and petrol automatic variants. Oh yeah M&M, please price this beast aggressively for us Indians and make your extra profits from exports

[balenoed_]

Originally Posted by extreme_torque

Just noticed the the sheer number of Thar branding on well, the Thar. A total of 10, unless i have missed some, of which 6 are just on the outside!

Originally Posted by Dry Ice

1 each on the alloys - 5 more including the spare.

To ensure not to be mistaken with Wrangler

[1.2TSI7DSG]

Originally Posted by bkunnithan

I took only 3 mins for what Mahindra took 3 yrs >> copy+paste+edit

Ouch!

Been on the side of developing vehicles. Try doing it for less than a third of the cost with the same performance expectations. Styling is just one part of the design. Getting stuff adopted to our expectations is a task. With our unique requirements ranging from performance in the Himalayas to dune bashing in Rajasthan to water wading in Kerala, to rainforest challenge in Goa, keeping it mod friendly for people like us who slap on biggest available tyres it is tough task!

[GTO]

Whoa! This thread is on fire. 26 pages in 2 days . Mahindra has done with a niche 2-door vehicle what they had last managed with the family-oriented XUV500.

It is very, very hard to build this kind of buzz. Kudos where it is due. Have seen this level of interest only for a few cars like the EcoSport, Harrier, Seltos etc.

The ball is in Mahindra's court. They had better not goof things up.

[MohammedEza]

Wow! Thats product Evolution from Mahindra with a capital E.
With the 2020 Gurkha no match for 2020 Mahindra thar, Mahindra now have its own segment of luxury offroaders under 20L (hopefully). The only competition i can hope for is from 2021 Jimny (if it ever launches in India).
Anyhow, I'm eager to test out the offroad capabilities of the new Thar with that of my 2019 Gurkha Xtreme. Will be diving in to the showroom immediately once the test drives begins.

[DicKy]

Originally Posted by Malhi

Oh, come on. The the license from Willy's was for the CJ and similar models only and not a free pass to ride piggyback on the Jeep Chrysler R&D team's hardwork even after 70 years.

Sure, many manufacturers acquired to produce the "Jeep" but it isn't true that all of them ended making wranglers 70 years later. Other than Mahindra, Mitsubishi and AMC were major licensees of the Willy's jeep. AMC went bankrupt in the 80's but Mitsubishi is still a renewed name among the SUV manufacturers.

Below is a 3 door Mitsubishi Shogun. Can anybody confuse it with a jeep wrangler or a renegade? I seriously doubt it.

Companies like Ford and Toyota have also successfully produced their versions of a Jeep without infringing on each other's design. The Ford GPW was so similar to the Willy's but the latest Bronco is galaxies different from the wrangler.

Originally Posted by DicKy

Sorry

1. In that case, every single offroader/ legacy SUV model. Name it. Started their model run either inspired, copied or licensed from jeep. Though over the years they built their own individuality, thanks to our license raj Mahindra couldn't/needn't upgrade the jeep model, for which they already had the license.

Had already said the above (in bold).
In fact, by Mahindra's own admission. If it wasn't for the know-how from the Ford JV, they wouldn't be able to make full steel bodied vehicles. This was in the late 90s.
Not just Mitsubishi and Mahindra, there are more than a dozen licensees, and FYI AMC owned Jeep, not licensed it for production.
And Ford GPW is not just similar, it IS the Willys MB, with subtle differences contracted out to Ford since neither Willys nor the original Bantam had the scale to meet army demands.

Originally Posted by Malhi

I am sorry to say but it is indeed the case of Mahindra getting up one fine day and deciding to make a wrangler replica........
.......It is simply a cheap hand played by Mahindra, a kind of a 'desi-jugaad", something which Mahindra was initially known for.

Originally Posted by DicKy

So Mahindra do have the legacy for jeeps. Afterall, they have made it for 70+ years. And to be frank, there is only much you can modernise a jeep design without looking like a Wrangler.

Let us zoom out a bit. All the other SUVs/ off-roaders had almost half a century for various generations and iterations to shake out the jeep clone past and markets to sell them. In India, less said the better about our lost years thanks to license raj.
In fact, it was only with the Indica, that we seriously started making our own stuff.

IMHO, if the new Thar is a great success and becomes a mainstream purchase, (jeepers don't flame me) by the time the 3rd gen Thar comes out, am sure it would have an individual styling and image. First step in that direction is the plethora of Thar badges, names all over the vehicle. They want the Thar brand to build, not the jeep shape.

Right now, Mahindra wants it to connect with their old jeeps, hence a modernised take on jeep styling. Now there isn't much leeway in modernising a jeep design, without it looking like a Wrangler. Evolutionary design.

If they had simply made a crossover copied directly from something like the Compass, I would call BS.

[fjcruiser08]

Originally Posted by sharc_biker

Maxxis Bighorns, Cooper STT Pro, Hankook, Accelera etc. Several brands are there. The LX version gets 255/65/18 which is equivalent to a 31.1" tyre. I am guessing 32" and 33" tyres can fit depending on the body wheel well clearance, Suspension, UCAs, body mounts, anti roll bars & CV angle. Also, it needs to be seen if 15" wheels will fit and clear the brake rotors. If not, 16" negative offset wheels with 265/75/16 (~32") or 285/75/16 (~33") will probably become the standard upgrade sizes.

Thanks for the feedback. Yes, I am eying the LX trim and was wondering whether the stock 18" rims, with the available well clearance, could accommodate slightly larger tires without needing anything else, like a lift etc.

My last ride was running stock 265/75/16 that afforded 243mm ground clearance, but needed a 3" lift kit to accommodate anything larger than 33"-34", which I was against, the lift that is. Upsizing tires on stock rims itself affects the overall vehicle dynamics somewhat (which I can live with), but not as much as lift kits and other fancy mods to the suspension system.

Hence, I was wondering if upsizing to 33" on the LX's stock 18 incher rims, without any other additions/mods, was possible, I would take the slightly compromised handling by making the switch so as to gain about ~25mm on the ground clearance, to bring it to the same level as my last ride (I dread sitting any closer to the ground).

Thanks for the feedback though and I look forward to hearing from the experts here after they have had a chance to get their hands on the new Thar.

Oh, and another related question to piggyback: Assuming the above-outlined swap to 33" is possible, do car dealerships here accommodate such requests and adjust pricing accordingly, before delivery? TIA

[TorqueIndia]

Liked the new Thar very much , any chance or rumours on a 5 door version ? Had such wishes on the last gen too , but then understood that it will only make another Bolero . But now with this more sophisticated updated I really wish they will consider making a Thar Unlimited, let's replace TUV300 plus with that ,place it below Scorpio !

SRK Render from Rushlane

[sandeepmdas]

"Sandeep, don't you think the Thar is a total copy of Jeep Wrangler?"

"I haven't seen the Wrangler on roads yet. "

"Me neither. But it is a copy."

"Without seeing it how can you say that?"

"No need. You search."

"You do."

"OK" My friend sighs and searches. wrangler india. Ends up in Wrangler India. Lots of denim jeans everywhere.

All these, literally overnight and without spending a single rupee on adverts. The Jeep Wrangler. Incredibly lucky for a car that has sold less than 50 in numbers so far.

But a certain apparel brand is even luckier.

[₹itzylove]

Kudos to Mahindra for making such a lovely looking car especially at the time when Suzuki is evaluating Jimny for India finally. It's time for MSIL to start scratching their heads now on how they can match upto Thar. If they don't offer a powerful engine and price it aggressively it would be dead on arrival.

It was great to hear from Mahindra team on the day of launch that they took inputs from all the experts, current owners and THAR community people before finalizing this. Yes, it's very well put together now. I had seen a very similar looking THAR (of course modified) exactly an year back with KL registration here in Coimbatore, that's when me and my wife have started talking about buying a THAR for us. We even visited the nearest Mahindra showroom which is 3 blocks away from my wife's office, but after the test drive she was completely disappointed with the way the car was built especially the interiors.
Exactly after a year now my wife is pushing me to book for a test drive as soon as it's available, we may end up adding it in our garage soon. She's ready to sell off her Hatchback (which she doesn't use at all) to replace with THAR. She's more than happy to see AT version. Forget about Petrolheads, it's even making women turn their heads!

Now it's upto Mahindra on the pricing aspect, if they price it more close to the previous model it will get alot of takers for sure, a few of them are RIGHT HERE in this thread.

[KPR]

Originally Posted by TorqueIndia

SRK Render from Rushlane

Looks like Force Toofan. Better to leave Thar as it is.