Team-BHP (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/)

-   Official New Car Reviews (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/official-new-car-reviews/)

-   -   Mahindra Thar Roxx Review (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/official-new-car-reviews/283993-mahindra-thar-roxx-review-66.html)

Exactly my thought. Is mocha brown available for 4x2?

How does the ride quality and comfort of Thar Roxx compare to Innova Crysta on the highways? Has anyone done a comparison of this?

You will need to change all 5 alloys to 18 inches as well. It not going to be a simple and cheap affair.

ROXX is a great car to flaunt although the height and the 19" wheels do not make it a very practical car. Ingress/Egress will be a major problem especially for elders.

You can't beat the ease of use, overall quality, comfort and peace of mind of a Creta.

Net Net you need to take a hard look as to what you want. Go for a Creta for a practical, reliable vehicle that checks all the boxes.

Go for Thar if you want to follow your heart.

Mocha Brown interiors are exclusively for 4x4 variants. So it's available on MX5 MT, AX5L AT and AX7L AT/MT 4x4 only.

This is as of now condition, but I think that we can expect Mocha Brown interiors in all variants after a few months or maybe a year when Mahindra is done selling the stock of Ivory seats and body panels.

I received an e-mail from 'Mahindra & Mahinda Ltd' this morning congratulating me again on the booking. This is exactly the same e-mail that all of us would have received immediately after a successful online booking, except that it contains a PDF Booking Docket - the docket contains the Booking Commitment form and T&C. The body of the e-mail still maintains the waiting period will be communicated by 25th Oct. Anybody else who received a similar e-mail?

I don't think there is anything much to make of this e-mail except that they are doing their best to keep things 'warm' whilst customers are eagerly waiting.

Ya same here. Docket has certain additional information like the assigned sales agent's name.

Accessories look good and are priced nicely but is the luggage cover seriously for 14k? :uncontrol

I got a chance to drive the Thar 5 door (I am not calling it Roxx) and the XUV 700 back to back. This was done at the Mahindra showroom at Indira Nagar. Though the showroom was a bit crowded, the staff were courteous and trying their best to explain the fine points of each car. The Thar 5 door I drove was a 4WD automatic diesel while the 700 was a petrol with a manual. Both of them were top variants.

Thar 5 door- What's great

• Visibility is excellent. The view of the road is like watching an Imax movie. The side view mirrors are big and functional.
• I was easily able to find a good driving position in less than a couple of minutes after getting into the Thar. I could be wrong, but I think the pedals seem to be shifted a little much more to the right than usual.
• Whatever said and done, the Thar 5 door has a commanding road presence. This thing parts the traffic like Moses parting the Red Sea. From unruly autorickshaws to gentlemen in Mercs- they all make way.
• Abuse friendly. From the tough exterior build to the way the suspension manages speed breakers and potholes, there is a distinct impression that the Thar can take a lot of abuse in its stride and not break a sweat.
• For someone like me driving an almost decade old hatch, this is feature rich. The 360 degree camera system, blind spot monitoring, etc were all good additions to a vehicle like this. The screens seemed to work well without a lot of lag.
• Interior quality is acceptable. It is not luxurious like a 700 and neither is it utilitarian like a Jimny. The panoramic sunroof adds to the ambience. The interiors didn't seem like a deal breaker to me.
• The Thar's light steering and the automatic transmission is a boon inside the city. They make it very novice friendly.
• The size also seems to be right. Not too big or not too small. It can feel wide in some cases, though.
• The 6 speed TC auto appears to be well tuned for this vehicle. The shifts were smooth and unobtrusive.
• While I did not feel that the engine is an outright performer, it is tractable and suits the character of the vehicle. The diesel mill seems to be efficient for long hauls.

Thar 5 door- What's not

• While the suspension is capable of handling bad to no roads, the flip side is that the ride quality is never fully settled. While it would be eons better than the 3 door variant of the Thar, for a sedan/hatch guy like me, it was easy to notice the small vertical movements that were present all the time throughout the drive. I am guessing that this could either be due to the body on frame nature of this vehicle or the high tire pressures which were north of 32 psi on all when I checked. If there is a family member/friend who has car/motion sickness, they should really experience the car at length before deciding to purchase this vehicle.
• There is noticeable nose dive under hard braking.
• The 9 speaker Harman sound system is a solid meh for me. It might be great for casual listeners, but the truth is that this is not a system for audio enthusiasts.
• Not a fan of the Adrenox subscription system. I hate the subscription system model in cars in general- no one should be paying subscription fees after putting down more than 25 large for a car.
• While the body on frame design has its advantages, the drawbacks manifest themselves in the form of body roll, high ingress and egress points and unsettled ride quality.
• Mahindra's skewed variant spread. The white upholstery is impractical and apparently, the mocha brown interiors can be ordered only on the 4WD variants.
• Probability of niggles and bugs are high since this is a newly launched vehicle. The armrest in the one that I drove kept sliding forwards and would not lock in place.
• My skepticism of Mahindra's aftersales service still stands. It can be a hit or miss.
• Expensive for what it is. The diesel AX7L 2WD automatic and the 4WD variants cost INR 26.2 lacs and 28.7 lacs respectively OTR in Bangalore. The petrol seems to be available only in 2WD guise and the AX7L 2WD automatic is INR 25.39 lacs OTR in Bangalore.

I feel that the Thar 5 door is a perfect candidate for long trips to places where the going might be rough. It can be a good 4x4 work truck as well, but the mocha brown interior shade should have been optional in the base trims. However, as sachin_cs rightly said earlier, the XUV 700 is the more practical and well rounded car, especially when there is a family or a gang of friends involved.

XUV 700- Where it makes sense

• Much better interiors in terms of design, materials and feel. I had mentioned that the Thar 5 door's interiors would not be deal breaker. In case of the 700, its interiors can seal the deal. One really feels that their money is well spent when they step inside the 700.
• Better seats in terms of cushioning, support and ergonomics.
• The one piece instrument cluster and center screen looks well done (except for the hood on top of them, while functional, looks like an afterthought).
• More spacious on the inside. The 7th row can be useful at times.
• The Sony audio system in the 700 might be marginally better than that of the Thar. I cannot comment more on this since I did not do an extended listen of this unit.
• Ride, handling and composure is much better on the 700. It handles the speed breakers and potholes well. Though the Thar demolishes the irregularities on the road, one is constantly aware of them. Those vibrations do not filter into the 700's cabin as much. The 700 is easily better on the road, can handle broken roads well and can be a comfortable highway cruiser. This was even with the test car's tires grossly overinflated. Just for another perspective on comfort, I had travelled with my relative's family to Nagasandra in his 700 last weekend and that was even more comfortable with the correct tire pressures.
• Though a touch grabby, braking is better on the 700 and the car holds its line better under hard braking.
• The top variants of the 700 isn't that far off the Thar 5 door in terms of pricing. If one can compromise on all-wheel drive, the AX7L 2WD diesel automatic is around INR 30.7 lacs OTR in Bangalore. The AX7 2WD diesel automatic is even more VFM at INR 27.7 lacs OTR in Bangalore. Adding AWD to the package bumps it up to around INR 32 lacs for the AX7L and INR 29 OTR in Bangalore. The petrol variants of AX7L and AX7 seems to be around INR 30 lac and INR 26.7 lacs respectively.

Both cars do share a common set of flaws:

• Neither of the engines tug at the heartstrings of folks like myself or sachin_cs who are currently driving remapped diesels. For me, only the Slavia/Virtus's 1.5 came close as an acceptable substitute. Moving on, both the petrol and diesel powerplants shared by the 700 and the Thar have their share of flaws. Sure, the diesel would be more efficient, but the DPF issues are a concern. The first 700 that I was supposed to drive was a diesel automatic and it wouldn't start due to either a clogged DPF or an empty AdBlue tank or maybe both. Neither I or the sales rep knew what to do and we moved on to a petrol manual vehicle. The petrol engine has long legs and good passing power due to its big displacement, but it doesn't seem to rev very high and it is not efficient. If not for the BS6 emission norms, that diesel would have been a no-brainer. Anyways, prospective buyers have to make peace with these compromises no matter which engine they choose.
  
• Mahindra has also messed up the interior colors in both vehicles. The 700 has the option of all black interiors, but seems to be available only with an edition having a hideous matte red exterior shade. The Thar 5 door seems to offer the brown interiors only in the higher end 4x4 variants. Maybe all of this is Mahindra trying to push its customers to go for higher variants.

I admit that I am not in the target audience for both of these vehicles, but post the test drive, I understood that the Thar 5 door does have a sense of character that is lacking in a sea of nearly homogenous crossovers in the Indian market. The Jimny is similar to it in that regard and it is appealing to a certain segment of buyers just because it is so honest about what it is. Echoing what another member had said before in this forum, the Thar 5 door is well executed and would find a lot takers among the urban cowboys and those who want a vehicle capable of venturing out to anywhere in relative comfort.

I have never received any email from them :(. No whatapp, no email, only website confirmation.

The booking is with the dealership, so I don't really see an issue, but yes its non-functional tech :(.

Yes, the retracting mechanism would need a few iterations to become smooth; I think aftermarket parcel tray would also be lucrative market.

But accessories seemed practical and quality was nice.

I made the booking online on 3rd-October. I got a follow up from SA who helped me with test drive before bookings opened. The SA followed up with me 1-2 days after 3rd October and I informed him of my online booking along with booking details. The SA did not seem happy about my online booking and has not been responsive since then.

I received booking docket as PDF attachment in email from Mahindra today morning.
Page number 3 in the booking docket PDF has salesperson name.
Page number 10 has SA name, phone number along with manager's name and phone number. The SA name is different than the one I interacted with for test drive. I hope this does not cause any conflicts when I visit showroom for follow up.

I was checking my email and couldn't find any, so was getting a bit worried. Eventually checked my spam and strangely found it in there. So good to check your junk/spam folder too.
On another note, I had changed my email ID on the Mahindra site post initial booking, but from what it looks like, all communication would only route to the email ID used for the original booking.

Mahindra being Mahindra. I received a confirmation about my booking today. My booking id is like 96000. This should be a sequence number if my assumption is right. I did the booking at 12:13pm on 3rd October. If this is so how come they have got 1.76 lakhs in one hour? Very fishy.

There are at least 3 series, 101, 100, 999, so still quite possible.