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After much effort I found one, yes just one, 2015 Thar which I considered "reasonable". Almost all other 2014-2018 Thars in Pune area are in the range of 8.5l or more :Shockked:

Armorall protectant is good and available on Amazon India. On my Subaru Outback's black cladding and a top box made of similar material I used 303 Aerospace protectant to extremely good results in incessant rains of the area I lived in. 303 is unavailable here but Armorall is next best IMO.
We have extreme sun so parking under covers is recommended even after 303 treatment but considering my friend's first gen Thar's custom hard top still looks quite good after 5 years, I have a feeling that OEM HT from MM will be much better quality and thus last longer before starting to fade.
He has used numerous plastic protectant products including aforementioned Armorall on that top and it has held well. It does look faded after every 3-4 months and he reapplies the protectant. I think its the cost we have to pay for having HT but its not a lot. Its still better than faded and saggy ST.

Environment Tax - Never heard of this - please debate
Essential Accessories - Should not be there - please debate
Insurance - way too steep - Please debate with the dealer or get yourself one from outside- This will be tricky as they will say it is not allowed.
Incidental Charges - never ever heard of this.

It seems this dealer is trying to make more hay in the sunshine than permitted.

PS - I have just messaged my dealer in Agra to send me the quotation and shall share it - should let you know the exact accurate figures.

Please be aware all showrooms and states are having there own terms etc it seems.

Agree to both the points :thumbs up
The Thar was always a style statement and cool quotient.

Took a Test Drive and came back mighty impressed. For city use this is a proper 4 seater as the Rear Seat with reclining seats is a place of comfort, provided the back benchers are athletic enough to squeeze in. The glass area from B pillar to the C pillar is huge.



Can this be a replacement car for any family car? No

What is Thar? It's a Big Boy Toy, period. The grin on your face won't stop while you are behind the steering and touring across any possible terrain. It's the throne that you would never give up!

How does it fair against the old Thar? Well for the very reason, I had my friend Tejesh drive it while I was seated in the rear and a small video about how things have changed, for the better.

https://youtu.be/vFIv_L2xh9g

There are tons of gizmos to play with but this one caught my attention.

https://youtu.be/34dMg1LDq9g

The clutch is super light, Gear Shifts are precise and the torque and power delivered out of this all Aluminum Engine Block is more than adequate.

Overall verdict: This is a vehicle which has the potential to be the New Classic Range of what it did to the Royal Enfield as a brand.

That's sad. Do you have a pic? A workaround could be; properly securing it to the sides using 3M heavy-duty velcro

Here you go, lying there:




Good idea! There is some space around the rear corners.

And this is that wire thing: Need to be careful, if you pull that off by mistake, I guess it will strip off the whole defogger lining. (not sure)

It would have been good if the Thar had an outside temperature guage.

Most vehicles in the Thar's price range have it these days and its very handy to know the temperature. It would be good to have this in the Thar's Dashboard console.

Great insights and Thanks for covering initial look and feel of the car.

I am somebody who do not have the fear of confined spaces but, looking at the interior space i already feel claustrophobic. Definitely not liking the new Thar.

Keeping aside my presumption, Exterior quality seem to have improved a great deal with this new Thar, so is the instrument cluster. Looks to be a very promising product for Mahindra. Kudos to M&M.

No one? I see that most comments are about will the men like the new Thar. Terms such a big boy's toy validates this. Are we getting biased in our analysis by ignoring women?

My wife is head over heels for the new Thar. She currently drives a Grand i10 on Bangalore roads and feels that with the new Thar she would feel more safe. No more getting side swiped by BMTC , cabs and autos. Plus with the additional seat height, she will be much more confident while driving.

Won't this be a good alternative for women drivers, atleast in metros. Agreed that they may not be using the Thar for what it is meant for, but then that's the case with any SUV.

Lambydude -

My wife will have this as her primary vehicle.
Of course, i will use it for those one off trips for an off-road here and there. My wife loves this a lot more and is beginning to count the days for delivery more than i do. Its a new type of emotion that i have noticed in her for the past 2 plus decades. That's how much she wants it !. Maybe she was cross with me when we didn't get a Thar home back in 2010.

And the 'Practical Use' of cars is quite debatable for any car honestly. But, i am not wading into it now. :)

I know what you mean, but trust me, the interiors are fine. Youre sitting so high up that interior space doesnt matter. Infact, even the rear which isn't great from feet positioning point of view (trick is to slide one under the front seat and other flat on the floor), it desnt feel claustrophobic due to large glass window on both sides.

Although, I am not sure how it is to ride sitting on the rear with another person on a slightly not so perfect road.

Being an ex Thar owner, I was eagerly watching the launch and was all excited about the pricing, almost had the itch to call the dealer and place a booking (my upper limit was 15 Lakh OTR for Petrol AT LX). Then realised I missed out on the additional amount for automatics lol. Anyhow after a long drawn thought, it is ambundatly clear that at 17+ Lakh for the petrol AT, it is better to wait. Yes the new one is improved (alot), the company fitted hard top took care of the sole gripe I had with the Thar I had (ok brakes still seem iffy). The new Thar was clearly messing around in my head.

Idea was to replace the Grand Vitara 2.4 AT (GV) and wife's Ignis AMT and get this for wife, and I can use it for the occasional drives. I have almost completely moved on to the bikes and GV just gets a mandatory outing on Sunday to keep the battery juices up and occasional highway trips or one-off offroad drives, thanks to Covid 19. So idea of consolidating 2 vehicles to 1 was strong motivation. Then I took the GV for it's usual weekend drive yesterday and was wondering what is wrong with me?! No matter how crazy my itch is, Thar cannot match the comfort, convenience and the versatility that GV offers. Similarly however excited wife maybe, Thar will not be a carefree car for her to drive and park in the spots she visits.

GV has done about 60k kms and another 4 years for the 15 year fitness renewal. Best is to wait for couple of years and look at a mint preowned Thar that comes, and upgrade the Ignis with a small EV for the wife. Maybe the Covid 19 has killed some of the spending recklessness that I am used to I guess.

Attachment 2063514

That exposed metal is definitely ugly on other wise a well built jeep like this. However a simple DIY can sort this thing out. Using a Polyolefin Heat Shrink Tube you can easily conceal that exposed part including the entire wire. You can find this in amazon. https://www.amazon.in/KTC-CONS-Labs-...905401&sr=8-11

Is it the black color all around that's causing the feeling? It can be easily remedied at moderate costs by using lighter colored seat covers. Later on if you feel adventurous enough, re-upholstering the insides of HT with similar lighter liners would help even further.
I say that because the interiors are really not that tight, not even in the rear. Just don't turn around and look into luggage space. The front seats are expectedly even better. Great tall point of view all around, large greenhouse, excellent legroom.
Its a 2D car but not exactly small in conventional sense. Sitting area is proper sized at the expense of bootspace. You should be good IMO.

I don't dispute that this sentiment would apply to many out there, but by no means can it be attributed to everyone. For some of us, it reeks of practicality. In my case, apart from the occasional city drives, on every drive into the wilderness and rural countrysides for my photography and conservation purposes, the Thar has moved my world with me. A 70 lt. backpack, two 40 lt. camera bags, tripod bag, sleeping bag, assorted other equipment like umbrella, camping tripod, trekking boots, tarpaulin etc. On longer stays, I have even lugged along my dehumidifier cabinet, 21-inch iMac and UPS :D

Besides, far from being a 2-seater, I have many a time, packed in 7-8 village folk looking to hitch a ride. And, of course, its unmatched competence on broken rural roads, dirt tracks and even trackless forest stretches. And once all that is done, doing comfortable 100 kmph runs on the highway for hours at a stretch.

I'm sure the 2020 Thar too, in some variant, can accomplish the same. I simply cannot think of any other vehicle with this level of versatility that can help me with what I do. And if that isn't practical, I would love to know what is.

But yes, it still would be an expensive toy for the image-conscious urbanite doing the occasional weekend trips.