[prasanverma]

Dear All,

I had been silently following this forum for last many years, I remember even before the launch. I thought of buying in 2011, but for some reasons including non-AC, I didn't buy. Here comes 2014 and I bought the Thar CRDE Rocky Beige.

I previously owned Ford Fusion and later had to sell due to an onsite assignment. Back to Thar, I drove it to Agra on Saturday.
What I like:

Power - Can't ask for more
Style - Retro, head turner
4x4 -ITt was a must in my requirement list
Finish - I liked the interior and finish, very apt, in my opinion considering the vehicle. So far, I didn't have any issues.
Handling - Excellent, love to drive on Gurgaon Toll (less) road

What I didn't like
Handbrake - Useless
Brakes - Could be better (my Fusion had great brakes with ABS)
Softtop - Too noisy on Highways

Hoping to visit places less traveled.

Cheers
Prasan

[swami69]

Dear All, One more person went with what the heart Said

I have been glued for 3 weeks to T-BHP and read through most of the threads relating to Thar and after lots of thoughts, lost to the heart. I am not from a family who ever owned any Jeep, for that matter, my father only owned a Rajdoot motor cycle in his young days. My four wheel drives started only in 1999 and then slowly shifted from an Indica - Santro Zip Plus - Corsa - now a Ford Fiesta 1.6 Petrol. I do not know, somehow, automobiles always fascinated me, in particular the Jeeps, but absolutely have no clue technically.

I have been thinking for few years that I should try a Jeep at some point in time and after 4.5 years of owning a fiesta, I was slowly getting dragged into a change in vehicle and I could not come out of that and eventually gave up to my desire to own one.

Now, most people suggest that Thar can only be considered as a 2nd or a 3rd vehicle - but unfortunately, I can only have one vehicle, I would say I would need only one vehicle as the 2nd vehicle parked would be an absolute waste. My wife and my daughters slowly started liking the Thar and they are prepared that we have Thar as our only vehicle and make it as comfortable as possible slowly step by step. The green light was given recently and I booked a Toreador Red Thar.

Now, I would go ahead and put up my Wonderful Fiesta for sale (very sad though !)

The dealer had R.Biege (the most preferred color in the forum, I guess), Silver and a White ready - But, my family preferred a Red and I have to give it to them for what they gave me for buying a Jeep after all those compromise after their fantastic rides on a great Fiesta. So, Red it is. To me, I could visualise all the colours of Thar to be great with some little aesthetic mods like combination of bumpers, steps, endless list of little things we can do to make it look much more beautiful and every colour had its own merit. Another big point for Red is my Enfield TBTS is also of a similar colour - So, a big and small bull - will look great in my parking lot

I will have some accessories free from the Dealer and I have a 50% NCB which can be transferred and eventually I guess my On Road would be Rs. 8.3 L.

I heard from my dealer that the vehicle is invoiced today from their Nashik plant and expected to arrive Chennai in the next 10 days or so. I would expect, I will have my dream by August 25th. They gave me the VIN # and it is a hot hot August 2014 vehicle

No big purchase mods planned and I am going to drive as stock as possible expect for re-designing/buying the front bumper. I am looking for a pure RED/BLACK combination - Black side steps, Bumper change, black stock rims and nothing else. I do not want to stretch too much financially at this point on tyre/alloys and other stuff.

I will pull out my Focal amp and JL Audio Components from Fiesta and fit it neatly somewhere in the Thar and just add a descent HU.

note, I am buying the Thar for 90% on road as my daily drive and a 10% off road which is absolutely new to me, but willing to indulge in.

I will write a detailed ownership review once I get my dream with some nice photo shoot, till then I will continue to be busy updating my knowledge from the forum.

Wish me good luck to get a trouble free vehicle.

Swami

[desertfox]

IN a nutshell a Thar is fun to drive as your second car, purely recreational wth loads of trouble for you during warranty and after the one year warranty every month.

To enjoy a Thar you must live with a lot of pain as well.

[a_nan]

Dear swami69...
If its your only vehicle, i would suggest budgeting for at least a front facing rear seat.. Bench seats are very uncomfortable.
Rogeotech is quite good, am happy with it.

[desertfox]

I sat on the rear benchseat one day. Offroad when two senior people were in the front. Its not bad at all. I rested my arm on the front seat and legs on the opposite bench seat. Seems to be fine.

[swami69]

All, I am currently using this thread to ask few questions around Thar as I am awaiting delivery. This is a Modification question and I could not find a related thread for Thar. Hope it is ok.

Has anyone tried a DIY overhead soundbar for Thar ? If so, kindly provide me the link.

After reading quite a bit, I find the Thar door depth is not sufficient to comfortably mount speakers and if we mount, there are issues like windows, seats hitting the speakers etc., Few members have done the speakers below the rear seats/driver/passenger seats etc., I am not sure about the quality of sound from those awkward positions for speakers. Rather I would think a overhead speaker would be much better and Sound bar could be an option probably fixed to the Targa band. (not sure how to fix it though at this point and hopefully should be able to clamp it)

Can someone tell me how strong is the Targa band and can it hold the weight of a Sound bar (I would expect atleast 5-6 kgs) or do we need to do some reinforcements to fix the same. I think placing the bar on the band would not hinder anything as it is just in between the front and back of the jeep. Minimum height of the bar will be 3.5 inches. As the volume of the sound bar may not be sufficient to produce low freq, a sub shall be ideally placed in the rear.

Thinking like this -
use a 6mm marine ply
place 2 x component speakers
place 2 x Tweeters + the respective cross overs
Add a reading light sort of stuff
nicely cover it with Vinyl of the same colour as the interior

Any thoughts or comments ?

swami

[DHABHAR.BEHRAM]

Originally Posted by swami69

All, I am currently using this thread to ask few questions around Thar as I am awaiting delivery. This is a Modification question and I could not find a related thread for Thar. Hope it is ok.

Has anyone tried a DIY overhead soundbar for Thar ? If so, kindly provide me the link.

After reading quite a bit, I find the Thar door depth is not sufficient to comfortably mount speakers and if we mount, there are issues like windows, seats hitting the speakers etc., Few members have done the speakers below the rear seats/driver/passenger seats etc., I am not sure about the quality of sound from those awkward positions for speakers. Rather I would think a overhead speaker would be much better and Sound bar could be an option probably fixed to the Targa band. (not sure how to fix it though at this point and hopefully should be able to clamp it)

Can someone tell me how strong is the Targa band and can it hold the weight of a Sound bar (I would expect atleast 5-6 kgs) or do we need to do some reinforcements to fix the same. I think placing the bar on the band would not hinder anything as it is just in between the front and back of the jeep. Minimum height of the bar will be 3.5 inches. As the volume of the sound bar may not be sufficient to produce low freq, a sub shall be ideally placed in the rear.

Thinking like this -
use a 6mm marine ply
place 2 x component speakers
place 2 x Tweeters + the respective cross overs
Add a reading light sort of stuff
nicely cover it with Vinyl of the same colour as the interior

Any thoughts or comments ?

swami

Dear swami69 - don't do all this nonsense, you will end up spoiling the vehicle and you will lose money.

Best regards,

Behram dhabhar

[himadrimondal]

There are actually a wide range of fantastic bluetooth/aux speakers available in the market which will give you almost the same or may be even better output. The Bose Soundlink or the Boombox are the best in line and may be a bit larger in size than a pocket dictionary. Fix it up on the dash and enjoy a few old classics.

[maheepgupta]

Originally Posted by nitin_80

Regarding the drain holes, there should be many more below and around the driver and passenger seats. They would be covered with a gooey like sticker which you could take off for draining the water out. There would be more near the rear seats too.

Thanks Buddy. Found those and opened quite a few. I think I would need to do some DIY to create a cap to close them when there is no off-roading and when its not raining. Hopefully on coming long weekend.

Originally Posted by shivshanker

when I look at the over all experience, it appears to me that WE the customers are buying the THAR and that Mahindra is not selling any. After paying the money and getting the unit, not as per design (surely meets CMVR guidelines) the fact that everything has to work or will work is purely based on one's luck and not as per the corporate's policy.

Happy motoring to me!

Welcome to club. I have exact same sentiments and if you read my initial experience and how I still ended up buying this thing.. you will not feel that bad about yourself

Originally Posted by carizma

Congrats on your handsome acquisition! Even I am passing through the exact same turmoil where the heart says THAR!!! but the head says NEVER YAAR!!
Wish me luck

So how did it go. Are you buying one?

Originally Posted by himadrimondal

There is no doubt the topless version is far more appealing. The rims are looking awesome. But you will have a hard time cleaning the sides of the car after running on wet, muddy roads due to the negative offset the wheels have now developed. Solution is to extend the width of the stock fibre fenders or buy after-market ones which is again going to take you back by 10-15k rupees.

Yeah, it is a royal pain but I guess I was quite prepared for all these things when I bought it. Otherwise life was pretty cool and clean with my Kizashi

Originally Posted by swami69

Dear All, One more person went with what the heart Said
......
But, my family preferred a Red and I have to give it to them for what they gave me for buying a Jeep after all those compromise after their fantastic rides on a great Fiesta. So, Red it is.

Swami

Good luck Swami. Red was my second preference after black. I think the red which they have for Adventure edition looks better than what they offer in regular version but still handsome.

Originally Posted by desertfox

To enjoy a Thar you must live with a lot of pain as well.

summed up very nicely!

Originally Posted by swami69

Has anyone tried a DIY overhead soundbar for Thar ? If so, kindly provide me the link.


swami

Hi Swami

I have installed a sound bar in my Thar under the dashboard in passenger side. I would say it is still experimental and I am yet to refine the placement and the final sound bar I will be opting. For now I have used

http://www.amazon.in/Portronics-Pure...inhydr18418-21

This has FM built in, a battery with almost 8 hours play back (though I am not using it and have connected it to mobile charger point (again something you will need to install as they dont give it in stock vehicle), USB, SD Card port and all that stuff which makes it a good place holder music system.

Considerations I have/had

1) I plan to keep my Thar open (with probably a folding half canopy) so I couldn't go with a standard ICE as it would have gone missing next day in Indian Parking scenarios.

2) As I plan to keep it open, I had to install it in a hidden place where it is not visible and at the same time, not in direct range of water.

3) As it is an experiment as of now, I wanted to opt for a cheap solution and if it works well, I would go for a better sound bar.

4) BT, FM and USB was required. Though I primarily use it with my phone.

A nice place to mount it was above driver sun visor (with proper mounts so that it doesn't fall on my head at some point) and the sound quality was decent in that placement. However, I couldn't do it given point # 2 above. So I ended up installing it behind the glove box space under the dashboard. The sound quality is not really very good as of now but I am still keeping it on for next few days to see how it behaves in rain, open sun and all. I connected it with the mobile charger point and thus battery is not being used. On this sunday I am planning to pull its infrared sensor and place it on dashboard so that remote can work without hassles. As of now, I have to open glove box and then remote works fine (I know a very crude arrangement but like I said, it is an experiment as of now).

Having this arrangement had another unexpected advantage. Thar has absolutely no storage space to keep your phone or other stuff so I cut off the front plate of stereo slot and created a box with in that space. Now I can keep the phone or ear piece or any other such stuff in there. Comes very handy at times.

Cheers

Maheep

[ToyotaFan]

I own a Jeep restored from the old army jeeps bought in 1976. Its still with me and was my forst car when i entered college. Am looking to get a Mahindra Thar as it would provide me good performance, gearbox and air conditioner. Am not into hard core off roading. I wanted to ask the owners how good is the air conditioner and is the soft top able to keep out water when it rains effectively.
I love driving my jeep with the windscreen down. Looks like that's not possible in the thar. But i would like to know how easy is it to install and uninstall the Soft top for those pleasant days when one wants a wind in the hair experience.

[desertfox]

Takes 20 minutes to take it off and 70 minutes to put it back.

[TheARUN]

Originally Posted by swami69

Wish me good luck to get a trouble free vehicle.
Swami

Luck!

Wishing you lots of luck. You are living what most of us dream of. Some of us have the money but still don't want to take the plunge, some of us are stopped by circumstances from taking the plunge

Good vision you have for your Thar, wanting to keep it stock. Its going to serve you well and will definitely turn more eyeballs than you can imagine

There is no limit to modifying a Thar and it is so easy to find parts to modify it, in a way, every Thar, though born at the same factory, is unique on the road Every Owner gives his/her Thar their own touch

Let me tell you a secret, one of the reasons I love going to Church nowadays is because our Parish Priest ditched his Bolero Camper for a beige Thar, and yes, his is bone stock, looks resplendent

[ToyotaFan]

Originally Posted by desertfox

Takes 20 minutes to take it off and 70 minutes to put it back.

Thanks. My local dealer is not being able to arrange a test drive. I wanted to ask how heavy is the clutch in the thar. Is it comparable to innova or fortuner or maybe duster? I still be buying thar mainly as a city runabout and occasional mud plugging hence the question.

[navpreet318]

Originally Posted by prasanverma

Dear All,

I had been silently ........................

..............
Hoping to visit places less traveled.

Cheers
Prasan

Prasan that looks great! Congrats!

Could you post a few more pics and give more info on the Alloys and the plastic fenders?

Where did you source the fenders from? They look good quality wise as well as shape.

[KMT]

Desert fox, I took the canopy off for a few months as I have a half cabin top.
When I tried to put it back I found it had shrunk a lot.
I had to have a few parts extended and the rest just yanked by 4 people to stretch it over the frame.
Now the hood leaks like hell due to being stretched back to its original size.

Prasanverma those fenders are really nice. Where did you get them.