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-   -   Mahindra Thar Roxx is the official name of the 5-door Thar (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian-car-scene/282915-mahindra-thar-roxx-official-name-5-door-thar-23.html)

The Scorpio-N 4x4 would seem lost once the 5 Door Thar goes on sale next year, not sure how M&M goes ahead with product placement.

When the Scorpio-N 4x4 went on sale I'm sure XUV700 AWD takers would have shifted their bookings to the Scorpio, same applies to the Scorpio when the Thar is launched.

Mahindra already has 3 hot products in the 20 lakhs OTR space, one more just seems a little too cluttered for me.

Great question!

As they say in popular Marketing lingo, when product placement is too close to each other, cannibalization will occur but I see that as a good thing because a brand would rather have that cannibalization occur within their own portfolio rather than losing that potential sale to a rival manufacturer.

The way I look at it, Mahindra is being fairly clever and kudos to them:

XUV7OO: For folks who want the ultimate cossetted driving/chauffeur-driven experience every day and a polished product, a couch on the wheels that can take them to Spiti/Leh and indulge in some rough stuff (I would refrain from calling it the oft-abused term “Off Roading”) if need be.

Scorpio-N: For folks who want to make a statement that bigger is better, need to ply their large 7-seater SUV on urban/rural roads/occasional farmhouse trip and do not mind the rough & tumble that comes along with a body on frame platform. My guess is that a large chunk of Scorpio-N sales come from Tier 2/3 cities rather than metros. A large chunk of these buyers have owned the older generation Scorpio and want to upgrade to the latest iteration. Still, another section were eyeing a pre-owned Fortuner and are impressed with the looks/capabilities of this burly SUV.

Thar 5 door: For the so-called hardcore “Off-Roader” (I have my own reservations in using this term as less than 1% of the end users would take it off the pavement; it’s quite altogether a different thing that some of the urban roads in tier 2/3 cities present enough “Off Roading” experience right there in the cities with large sized potholes etc.). This in most cases is the only family car so 5 seats and easy ingress/egress is important. My guess is that the 5-door Thar will have a better ride quality than the 3-door one (I hope folks at Mahindra have learnt important lessons from the frequent user complaint of a jarring ride of the 3-door version). A large number of the prospective buyers of 5-door Thar dream of buying a Wrangler but cannot afford one (no offence to anyone, even I cannot afford a Wrangler in India given its stratospheric pricing) and therefore the next best option would suffice. A sizable chunk of sales could potentially come from the existing 3-door Thar owners and so you could see a large number of the 3-door variants up for grabs in the pre-owned market once the 5-door Thar goes on sale. A subset of potential 5-door Thar owners wants to be seen in a vehicle that portrays their outdoorsy lifestyle (whether that is a reality or not is immaterial; believe it or not this is one of the drivers for Wrangler sales in North America. I have driven almost all the Wrangler variants and It is quite a challenge to convince your family for one as it is not what a stereotypical SUV is; more than 98% of Wranglers never leave pavements, and most of these are more of a mall crawler, a very large majority of Wrangler owners buy into the "Jeep" heritage and then there is the "Jeep" community that almost has a cult status) so there are a large number of factors at play here. There is a possibility that the 5-door Thar could steal some sales away from the Scorpio-N but we’ll see. There will also be a section of buyers who will come from other brands given its potential appeal as an all-in-one product that is both capable and family-friendly.

I have never owned a Mahindra vehicle personally although I learnt to drive on a petrol Mahindra CJ-3B (My dad's official vehicle) back in the late 80s so I have a soft corner for the brand. Back in 1998, I came very close to buying an MM540 but could not muster enough financial resources and so that did not happen. I sincerely hope Mahindra is able to give future Thar 5-door buyers a great product and thereby great ownership experiences something that eludes a number of existing Mahindra vehicle owners.

In all fairness Mahindra has come a long way as a vehicle manufacturer since the grand old days of the spartan MM540 however I feel that their vehicles are still not polished enough to inspire confidence in a small subset of buyers on account of numerous reports of some issue or the other and they end up buying a Korean or a Japanese product. I feel Mahindra is almost there and hopefully, the 5-door Thar will have a sorted ride/suspension/steering/electronics and will be an example of Mahindra’s engineering prowess that has come into its own.

Isn’t the ‘sunroof aperture’ mounted a bit behind? Or is it that the occupants of front row and the middle row get a sort of half benefit of the sunroof?
Ideally oughtn't it to be above the front row?

Whatever it is, I wish they come up with a removable section of the roof which can be retro fitted to the 3 door Thar. And they should offer it as a paid upgrade to existing owners. This will be the best of both worlds.

I fear, but hope it is not a result of market research telling them that customers would like the sunroof to be positioned so that kids can easily stick out instead of having to stand on the front seats/centre console.
:Frustrati

Thar 5-door is a much anticipated product indeed. Seeing that spy shots show only hard top version is a bit of a bummer. But still, the product makes absolute sense. This also will cater to the growing demand for image building cars among the urban and semi-urban populace. Few, if any, will take the car off-road and most Thars are destined to remain on highways and city roads.

All car manufacturers are seeing backlogs in delivery bookings. The issue here is not having adequate production capacity to cater to the growing demands of the market. Stifling the launch of new products to meet existing demand is a no-win situation.

Mahindra and all other manufacturers have to invest in ramping up manufacturing capacity to meet market demand. That way, they can deliver vehicles within a reasonable time frame to customers. What is the point of making customers to wait for over three months to get a car!?

For Mahindra cars especially some variants have a waiting period of more than a year to 18 months right now . If Mahindra launches the 5 door Thar without increasing the production capacity , expect the new model to have a backlog which could extend to more than two years considering its family focused appeal . Ever since i have told my wife about the five door Thar , its been hot on our list for our household as a lifestyle car after the 3 door got vetoed .

I suspect this "scoop" is a deliberate reveal from Mahindra, to entice prospective Jimny buyers - "Guys, don't go for the Jimny just yet, we have a sunroof coming up for you, which you won't get with the Jimny" :D

Postponement of Thar 4 door launch means another round of price hike for Scorpio. Thar 4 door top end might cost around 23-25 lakhs. This might be deliberate strategy by Mahindra to delay the launch to increase prices of Scorpio and afterthought to provide sun roof etc. and thus increasing price of Thar.

Why is the Thar 5-door's sunroof so rear set? Looks quite odd to me.

The SA at Ramani Mahindra, Coimbatore told me that the Thar 5-door will be launched in November.
The sunroof of the 5-door Thar must be a bit front set.
It looks awkward right in the center of the roof

Because at the front there are roof mounted speaker and instead of relocating Mahindra simply shifted back the sunroof. That’s the only plausible explanation if it makes into production as it is.

Yes, it's a bit rearward but not so rearward as to grant easy access to kids seated in rear seats. They may still have to crane their necks.

All said and done, MAHINDRA should somehow focus on bringing down the ridiculous waiting on their vehicles to something like within a month, across all models and trims.

Isn't the whole roof different from current? current one has an FRP roof v/s would this be metal now?

Why?

They are in such a nice position.

They can indirectly choose who the customer is.

You pay for the top model, you get it fast. In that process the dealer also makes money because the segment of buyers who aren't as sensitive to the price will also purchase plenty of accessories, won't even think of asking for a discount, the will buy extended warranty, they will also service the vehicle at the ASC, may sign up for other Mahindra services including club memberships, off road events - it's a nice model.

Except that it all starts with having a good car to sell.

The lone small car they have - XUV3OO has a ridiculous variant mix, if you are looking at a W6, you will buy a Nexon or some other more popular vehicle instead. But while you are in the showroom you'd be wondering when is that shiny red Thar coming home.