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12.5 lacs and it would have been terrific! Twin Diff Locks, proper hardtop, quite goodlooking, good on space for passengers as well as luggage.

Force may have missed a trick here even though i had expected and would have accepted 12.99 lacs ex showroom to be honest.

At 13.6 lacs ex showroom means about 14 lacs with all accessories except tyres and wheels ex showroom. Then factor in about 65,000 for tyres and wheels plus Registration, Road Tax, this and that Cess, plus Insurance and we are at 17 lacs approx onroad in Delhi.

Now im wondering.. is it really worth it?

At the end of the day for 17 lacs onroad one has many options.

But then of course there is only one Gurkha.

The price has likely shot up because the front end extension and modifying the slope of the front windscreen made the New Gurkha longer than 4 metres in length.
It jumped into the next tax bracket. :unhappy

Although, I am convinced the 5-door will do much better in comparison to the 5-door Thar in the pricing department.

Few interesting observations in the FAQ section on the Gurkha Website.







1. 12kmpL is in line with the BS6 Cruiser Trax. I have a feeling it will be better than specified.

So there's going to be 4 Models:

3+D 3 Door 4x2 - TBA (Cheaper than 4x4 3 Door)
3+D 3 Door 4x4 - Launched (at 13.59L ex.)
6+D 5 Door 4x2 - TBA (Cheaper than 4x4 5 Door)
6+D 5 Door 4x4 - TBA (Around 15L ex.)

Here's a Render I made of the 5-Door Gurkha using the TRAX BS6 5 door's rear passenger doors as a reference:



https://www.instagram.com/p/CUNxt2KrlNh/

Pricing is as I expected. Force cannot become a volume player as it simply doesn't have the expertise or distribution strength. If it's going to be a niche player anyway, why not price at a premium & make profits? I don't remember its sales figures, but the Gurkha might barely be making it in the triple digits. It cannot match the cost efficiencies that the Thar gets from its sheer volumes.

60k - 1 lakh won't make much of a difference to someone who has already decided on the Gurkha. It is overpriced, yes, but the company is targeting those who are already fans of the Gurkha, not cross-shopping with the Thar.

Well said :thumbs up. At this price though, I would pick the Thar eyes shut.

Have a look at the price of this Thar variant.




Isn't better service and dealer network a big plus too? Besides, Mahindra being an established player can give the buyer much more peace of mind.

Having said that, I really liked the looks of Gurkha, with it's boxy and well proportioned dimensions. Gurkha would appeal to buyers who solely intend to use it for off road, else Thar is a no brainer.

So we have two options for those who can't afford a Wrangler or a G Wagon :)

I expected the starting price to be around 10-11 lakhs. Maybe I was too optimistic.

To the members who are siting Gurkha's >4m length for the high price due to increased taxation, I believe that assumption is a bit mistaken. If I remember correctly, for any car to fit the criteria of lower tax rate, the car has to be <4m in length & have a diesel engine <1500 cc capacity. With the 2.6 litre engine, Gurkha would've never fitted into the lower tax bracket.

What I believe pushed the price is the restructuring of the front end and slope of the windshield + expected very low sales. So the development cost now has to be shared by a smaller group of people.

On the other hand, I believe it has some positive effects as well. Now, the Gurkha would certainly not be seen as a "cheaper alternative" to the Thar, negating any perception whatsoever that might have arisen due to the lower price tag. I'm not saying that such a perception existed, but now there's no possibility of it ever arising.

:thumbs up. To add:

Way more power!
A petrol engine option
Automatics
4-star GNCAP safety rating
Better quality inside out
Far bigger, more competent service network
Way more equipment including ESP, cruise control etc.

There is a reason why the Thar is a runaway success, while the Gurkha will remain an extremely niche product. I respect both :thumbs up

Trojan, as an owner of a Force Gurkha, what is your take on the current after sales service and support, being offered by the company? One thing that hangs over the latest Gurkha is the worry of poor service and incapable technicians etc. From your own experience and what you hear from other Force owners, is the company taking any steps to seriously ramp up its service and support?

By that token, MG should never be launching cars at all given the myriad choices. Mahindra's overall reach and utility market leadership is always going to be a lopsided factor. But purely from a choice of an off road utility/adventure vehicle (more of the latter) , there seems to be at least a credible alternative, with the right hardware and some reputation in niche circles.
The main thing is Force Motors need to now cater to an customer segment , which may not exactly experienced in using this type of a vehicle, but claims all kinds of information around its capabilities. Handling expectations from such a lot can be tricky at best.

I’ve been keenly following this thread as an ardent Gurkha fan. However, in past as well as now, whenever I almost finalised buying Gurkha, I had to change my mind. I think, Force has consistently failed to create a viable proposition for Gurkha, that is who really is the ideal customer of this vehicle? Let’s analyse:

1. The Hardcore OTR: Although Gurkha in its current and previous iterations, would have ticked many of the boxes for being a hardcore OTR, still it would not make it to the ideal one. One big miss would be the low GC/IFS in the current iteration. The previous Xtreme SWB version was the closest to an all in all OTR vehicle, but then it was priced way too high than the closest contender; the previous generation Thar and not to mention the myriad other options such as Gypsy and previous generation MM Jeeps. For most, OTR is not a full-time activity (unless one owns a farm in the Himalayas or Western Ghats), so a second vehicle (preferably pre-owned and modified to one’s need) at much lesser cost would be more sensible and practical alternative than Gurkha

2. The All-terrain Vehicle Aspirants: Many would like to have a vehicle that can take them to any terrain; tar roads and no-roads alike. However, for such people, some decent luxury and comfort would be an essential priority, if they would like the vehicle to be their primary carrier. Now there is a huge vacuum in this niche, especially below 20L price bracket. Above 20 lakhs there are options ranging from Jeep Compass, ISUZU MUX, Ford Endeavour, Fortuner till Defender and Wranglers. These vehicles offer unmatched off-road ability combined with luxury and comfort.

Now those who cannot afford these top end cars, still aspire to have a vehicle which can offer at least some of the capabilities of these legendary luxury off-roaders with some creature comfort. Currently the only option available is the new Thar-which fits well in both the capability and comfort aspects. If Gurkha has to be an alternative, it has to offer something better than Thar.

Now if we look at the new Gurkha’s spec, only two things that it offers better than Thar is 1) an all-metal and bigger bodyshell and 2) mechanical differential locks for front and rear axles. However, at the same time it misses out on the, power, fuel options, cabin quality and reliability parts. Out of these 2 advantages, diff lock, although sounds nice, is rarely something an average person would ever use. Plus, in many tough off-road situations, although the diff-lock will be handy, the low GC and IFS can potentially become a dangerous chink in the armour.

So only thing left is whether one would spend about a lakh of rupees extra for an all-metal bigger bodyshell, leaving aside a more powerful engine, petrol and diesel options, better service network and manufacturer’s reliability. I think the choice is obvious. Only way Gurkha can become viable, if it is priced lower than (or at best at par with) the base model of Thar, so that at least there would be some rational compulsion for considering Gurkha.

Force Motors have I believe priced the car based on what they could build the car for profitably rather than undercutting Thar. The car will be more appealing for me when these cars start hitting the used market in 2-3 years.

I doubt if 40 odd BHP is just a bit more. Thar's 130 BHP and Gurkha's 90 BHP engines do have a considerable difference in terms of the numbers alone.

As far as practicality is concerned, yes the Gurkha does have better seats and a better roof but in my view, it is the Mahindra that will be easier to take care of while owning due to the large number of dealer and service touchpoints throughout the country.

IMHO This can be a marketing strategy also (like s-cross)

Initial launch at expensive price, then give heavy discounts (something in the range of 2lacs+) and you will have non-buyers or discount seekers also seeing the vfm factor then.

Let the initial launch hype die down. Right now auto market is on fire, so cant blame them trying to cash on the hefty prices and delivery periods of other makers.

Once this subsides I think by 6 months or year end, we might see this being offered with great exchange bonuses, loyalty discounts, year end offers, dealer discounts and what not.

At price close to 11+ it will surely pull many more people later than now.

By no stretch of imagination is the Thar a practical car with its cramped rear space! Spending upwards of 12lacs for a vehicle that cannot carry vacation luggage of the family is a pitiable choice. The Gurkha on the other hand is a more practical car. Unless you want to compare the dashboard quality of high-end sedans to what is meant to be a rugged maintainable and washable off-roader and overlander and nit-pick on not finding those Kingly comforts.

I dont see any VFM in the Thar when the Gurkha can do everything the Thar can do both on and off-road, and does even better with luggage space and comes with factory fitted utility accessories. People are spending another 1-2 lacs on the Thar after buying it to make look like an overlander in any case - where is the VFM in that? For a fair comparison - one should add the cost of pimping the Thar/car to make it look like a expedition vehicle (while remaining a pretender).

Hopefully with a lower gross laden weight being a 4-seater, the new 90hp BS6 wont be a drag - that is the only major bone of contention.

I see a lot of jealous Thar fanboys dissing this lovely new-kid-on-the-block with green eyes, but it is to be expected.

I know for the fact that Force can extract very good performance out of its engines as seen in Traveler and particularly Traveler 26 - those things can keep up good pace in the right hands.

But that was not the case with their Gurkha, it wasn't a very enthusiastic performer in comparison to Thar CRDe. Now with mHawk \ mStallion under the hood, forget it.