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Old 28th March 2022, 22:45   #706
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Re: Force Gurkha Review

Hello,

I'm a new owner of the Force Gurkha BS6, delivered on 22/2/22. I have been following this thread since the launch of the new Gurkha and I must say that this thread and the words of praise from fellow owners played a big part in my purchase decision.

I have driven this vehicle for 3500 kms already and am thoroughly impressed with its performance. For context, my regular drive is a 2019 Creta and my family owns other SUVs as well.

I am also a veteran of the Indian armed forces and have had the privilege of operating the Light Strike Vehicle (Gurkha's brawnier cousin) in some very difficult situations.

I had a query about this vehicle and was hoping fellow owners and team-bhpians might be able to shed some light on it. I noticed today that there seemed to be a difference in offset for the front driver and passenger wheels. I have attached pictures for reference below (apologies for the poor quality)

Force Gurkha Review-front-passenger-side.jpeg

Force Gurkha Review-front-driver-side.jpeg
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Old 31st March 2022, 18:44   #707
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Re: Force Gurkha Review

Quote:
Originally Posted by Vector View Post

I had a query about this vehicle and was hoping fellow owners and team-bhpians might be able to shed some light on it. I noticed today that there seemed to be a difference in offset for the front driver and passenger wheels. I have attached pictures for reference below (apologies for the poor quality)
Congratulation on your new Gurkha, get wheel alignment checked, specifically camber. You can also verify this by comparing if upper and lower control arm angle are symmetric on both side.
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Old 31st March 2022, 19:49   #708
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Re: Force Gurkha Review

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Originally Posted by PhantomLord View Post
Congratulation on your new Gurkha, get wheel alignment checked, specifically camber.
Thank you for the help, much appreciated. I'll get the checks done as suggested.
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Old 2nd April 2022, 07:58   #709
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Re: Force Gurkha Review

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Originally Posted by Trojan View Post
Insurance approval is based on claim which is linked to an accident, the amount of claim approved is dependent upon the nature and extent of damage in comparison to the IDV of the vehicle.
The customer purchases insurance to exactly cover themselves of such unforeseen incidents.

Am not sure what actions do Insurance companies take for suspect manufacturing defects, I would assume that unless there is volumetric data for similar episodes, they would not consider it to be so.

I'm not sure how many people have experienced power steering failure (hydraulic steering, not electric) and my own experience in our Tata Sierra ('96 to '04) was enlightening to say the least. The hose layout/securing was such that a loose clip allowed the hose to scrape against the tyre and in no time oil loss was near-total, since the belt driven hyd. oil pump will continue working whether oil is there or not. And this happened on the highway (during one of our regular bi-annual trips Mumbai-Lucknow-Naukuchiatal-Lucknow-Mumbai) and the effect of the oil loss was sudden extreme heaviness of the steering - not steering failure mind you. This is standard "full follow-up"design and provides fail-safe manual back-up in case of hydraulic failure. I won't get into the nitty-gritty of "full follow-up" steering - interested folks can pursue the matter on the net. For us the result was that we continued with the truck-like manual steering for a while (this happened on the ouskirts of Indore) and turned into the first garage we came across. The hose was replacecd & securing was re-inforced, steering oil was replenished and after thorough air-purging of the hydraulic system, we continued on to Lucknow. On asking a specific question, the mechanic told me that I was lucky that the hyd. pump did not run long enough in a dry condition, otherwise the pump could have seized and the drive belt burnt off - a far more serious business. If a new hyd. pump was not available immediately off the shelf, the prospect of driving on to Lucknow (a distance of 800 odd kms via AH-47 or old NH2 as it was then called) with that super heavy steering was daunting.

I'm not sure what the failure was in the case of the Gurkha, but steering failure would seem to imply that the front wheels were not responding to steering-wheel input.

Last edited by shashanka : 2nd April 2022 at 08:03.
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Old 2nd April 2022, 09:47   #710
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Re: Force Gurkha Review

Quote:
Originally Posted by Vector View Post
I noticed today that there seemed to be a difference in offset for the front driver and passenger wheels. I have attached pictures for reference below (apologies for the poor quality)
Pictures are not always the right way to check or show an issue - especially where measurements can give a far better picture. Pics have many factors that come in to play which an cause optical illusions. I am seeing such an illusion in your pics, at least to some extent.

Get the alignment checked. If you are not convinced, go to any shop that does manual alignment. You can see the readings there, on the dials of the alignment setup.
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Old 4th April 2022, 08:09   #711
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Re: Force Gurkha Review

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Originally Posted by condor View Post
Anyone - any idea why the 5 door version has the headlamps from the Cruiser and not the round ones that the SWB Gurkha has ? Even if not the ones with LED's, IMO it would have looked better with the round headlamps.
So legally manufacturers are required to have a different look to vehicles which share the design but have different body style.
The logic is, if there's some crime done in the vehicle, the witnesses should be able to identify it distinctively. Personally I find this rule borderline bogus.

So that's the reason the Vento and the Polo parted ways visually, same with the swift and the desire. Also the brio-amaze-mobilio. These have distinctively different looks on the front despite globally they're the same.
The tigor has chrome on the bumper which is absent on the Tiago. There's many examples like this. I think this was introduced around 2013-2014. The first gen of these vehicles had the exact same look.

Yes, modularity exists. You can always swap out the looks of either or, the parts from spares should be compatible. But as long as the rule stays, the 5 door will have a different front.

It can also be a possibility that the 5 door test mules have the crusier headlight as a placeholder, while the grille seems more compatible with the 3 door. Who knows maybe they can get away with body colored grille for the 5 door and black moustache on the 3 door
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Old 4th April 2022, 23:58   #712
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Re: Force Gurkha Review

Quote:
Originally Posted by shashanka View Post
I'm not sure how many people have experienced power steering failure (hydraulic steering, not electric) and my own experience in our Tata Sierra ('96 to '04) was enlightening to say the least. ..

I'm not sure what the failure was in the case of the Gurkha, but steering failure would seem to imply that the front wheels were not responding to steering-wheel input.
I had the same experience in my 2021 Gurkha as you did as elucidated in my own Gurkha review as well.
The symptoms and fix were exactly as you described. The steering became progressively heavy over a few minutes but continued to work.
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Old 8th April 2022, 03:49   #713
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Re: Force Gurkha Review

Was it one of our Gurkhas that paid a visit to Vagator beach on Wednesday? I was in the sea, and had brought my Thar in later - but would have been awesome to have a meet and great at the beach
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Old 8th April 2022, 12:05   #714
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Re: Force Gurkha Review

Quote:
Originally Posted by shashanka View Post
I'm not sure how many people have experienced power steering failure (hydraulic steering, not electric) and my own experience in our Tata Sierra ('96 to '04) was enlightening to say the least.

I'm not sure what the failure was in the case of the Gurkha, but steering failure would seem to imply that the front wheels were not responding to steering-wheel input.
Hello Shashanka,

I too have had the unfortunate experience with my Tata Aria so I am well aware of the behavior, and that is where I was coming from with respect to the incident.
Anyways FM had responded with their findings - no leakage, no steering issue.

It left a lot to be explained, but lets just leave it at that as long as both parties are ok with the outcome.
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Old 11th April 2022, 14:33   #715
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Re: Force Gurkha Review

It seems like Force has silently increased the prices of Gurkha by ₹40,000. Earlier it was around ₹14,10,000 if I remember correctly. Was just randomly surfing through their website and found this!

Now it is even more expensive than Thar Hard Top Diesel Manual which is currently priced at ₹14,09,000 ex-showroom.
Attached Thumbnails
Force Gurkha Review-9aedd3ca3a0b4449badb37dc27df3f51.png  

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Old 11th April 2022, 18:40   #716
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Re: Force Gurkha Review

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Originally Posted by Rambo-RS View Post
It seems like Force has silently increased the prices of Gurkha by ₹40,000. Earlier it was around ₹14,10,000 if I remember correctly. Was just randomly surfing through their website and found this!

Now it is even more expensive than Thar Hard Top Diesel Manual which is currently priced at ₹14,09,000 ex-showroom.
Believe Gurkha is now getting traction and doing good numbers. Force should be feeling confident now and going for this price increase. Hope they launch the 5 door soon and an automatic variant which should be real game changer
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Old 11th April 2022, 21:15   #717
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Re: Force Gurkha Review

STEADY PRICE REVISION TRENDS

Many manufacturers resort to quick price revisions round the turn of the year or with a facelift or even a small refresh. Post budget April is another opportunity to move the beans north. Most of these are 'silent' unless dealer driven ads blare out in advance to clear stocks prior price increase.

The situation is dire if you consider cars with long wait times, when you book swooning at the launch prices, and then you're car is invoiced many months later, and one is politely reminded that "prices at time of delivery" would be applicable.

Its a sellers' market now with the pent up pandemic demand augmented by shortfall of supply and chip shortage. There's a boom bubble and car makers are floating up as long as it doesn't pop.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Rambo-RS View Post
It seems like Force has silently increased the prices of Gurkha by ₹40,000. Earlier it was around ₹14,10,000 if I remember correctly. Was just randomly surfing through their website and found this!

Now it is even more expensive than Thar Hard Top Diesel Manual which is currently priced at ₹14,09,000 ex-showroom.
The segment is the low volume 'niche' offroad SUV segment (at least it was, until the Thar set the niche tag on fire along with the sales chart). The demand gives the maker time and opportunity to steadily move up the price ladder.
It might not stare you in the eye if you suddenly look at prices this month, but here's my tracker to put things in perspective.

Thar Price Tracker.
Oct 20 : 09.80 - 13.75
Jan 21 : 12.10 - 14.15
Jul 21 : 12.78 - 15.08
Jan 22 : 13.18 - 15.54

Gurkha Price Tracker.
Sep 21 : 13.59
Jan 22 : 14.10
Apr 22 : 14.49

Gurkha didn't ever try and I don't think is here to play the shock price game. In fact, Force seems to take pride in positioning their sole variant at par or notch higher than the equivalent Thar (top end diesel hardtop manual 4x4 version).

Low volume, high profit is the mantra. As I wrote in the Island Gurkha review, these niche offerings, once you have the buyer convinced, 50k is not going to make him cross deck over to the competition. That's what the makers' are counting on. Moreover both the jeeps seem to move up hand in hand, push-pull. So the only one, playing catch-up, is the buyer.

Quote:
Originally Posted by msk_kapoor View Post
. Force should be feeling confident now and going for this price increase.
If my hunch is right, this is not the end of it.

Last edited by vigneshkumar31 : 11th April 2022 at 21:17.
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Old 14th April 2022, 01:42   #718
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Re: Force Gurkha Review

The Gurkha was spotted with 18-inch Ceat Czar AT tyres a few days back, by AutoSpy, on the streets of Pune.

Force Gurkha Review-image6.jpeg

Force Gurkha Review-image7.jpeg

Force Gurkha Review-image5.jpeg

Force Gurkha Review-image4.jpeg

Last edited by vb-saan : 14th April 2022 at 08:25. Reason: As requested
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Old 14th April 2022, 11:16   #719
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Re: Force Gurkha Review

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Originally Posted by RavenAvi View Post
The Gurkha was spotted with 18-inch Ceat Czar AT tyres a few days back, by AutoSpy, on the streets of Pune.
Is this a update to the existing model with upgraded tyres to increase the GC and a sliding window in back seats?
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Old 14th April 2022, 11:45   #720
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Re: Force Gurkha Review

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Originally Posted by RavenAvi View Post
The Gurkha was spotted with 18-inch Ceat Czar AT tyres a few days back, by AutoSpy, on the streets of Pune.
Looks similar to the current model without the LED lights and more cost cutting with no fixing point for rear step ladder etc.

Quote:
Originally Posted by msk_kapoor View Post
Is this a update to the existing model with upgraded tyres to increase the GC and a sliding window in back seats?
Could very well be a new base model to bring the entry price down and bring in more numbers. Notice the missing LED Lights, different bumpers etc and sliding windows. The bigger AT tyres might definitely bring the effective ground clearance higher and end the scraping issue some owners were facing while off roading due to the bash plate design.

I guess this will be a cheaper entry model, and maybe have even a 4x2 variant at about 10 Lakhs to surprise everyone!
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