[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by Bit

Thanks for reaffirming!

A quick question: During this Nilgiri trip, especially when you’ve covered plains and hills as well, how many times did you have to engage 4x4 and did you feel an RWD too would cut equally?

Having lived in the Nilgiris and other hill areas all my childhood and teenage years and my Dad having always had a Jeep, the truth be told, 4x4 is engaged only in the line of duty when one went to steep estate trails or loose surfaces or slush.

For driving on normal firm surfaces including dirt and tarmac and all, 2WD is more than enough. The old Mahindra Jeeps themselves used to mostly be sold in 2WD guise with there being only a small percentage of people buying the 4WD.

This trip I purposely went to a known trail and I could have easily done it in 2WD itself, but I engaged 4H just to give it some ‘exercise’.

Simple truth is that for 90% of Jeep/ Thar users the 2WD version is more than sufficient but most of us (including myself) buy the 4x4 because it just makes us feel ‘tough’ and releases the inner ‘Indiana Jones’ in us.

Ive remarked on this before on multiple threads. A normal urban resident in Bangalore (like me) simply does not require a 4x4 unless he or she owns a farm which has rough trails OR if he or she enjoys Off Roading as a hobby and has the opportunity and places to indulge it.

Why do you think Mahindra made the Master Stroke of releasing the 2WD version? They have all the historical knowledge from their own sales over the decades, and know very well that people use these Jeepy things mostly as tough and indestructible people movers, which are cheap to run and maintain, in rural areas and most people are also much more enamoured of the Jeepy form factor above most other considerations.

Based on your stated needs, I think you can easily buy and live with the 2WD. It will do most of what the 4WD does. Except serious rock crawling and serious deep mud and slush.