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-   -   My 2023 Mahindra Thar Petrol AT 4x4 | Ownership Review | “Dusty” Reborn in 4x4 (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-drives-initial-ownership-reports/266800-my-2023-mahindra-thar-petrol-4x4-ownership-review-dusty-reborn-4x4-2.html)

Congratulations once again Dr. AD and what a beautiful writeup to sum-up the experience. No one could have ended this review with a spider plot and what a picture it paints. The "Shayari" is so apt in your case.

As Aristotle coined, "whole is greater than the sum of its parts". Your garage as a "whole" is so complete on the parameters that you value and both cars contrasting in experiences.

I have been lucky to have been part of one of your first excursions of your "Dusty", and I wish you many more. Thar is surely not just a car, it's an emotion. Happy mile crunching.

Deb

Congratulations AD - an amazingly detailed and yet to the point review! While everyone says I love my car and my car is best car, I like your clear position (clearer than the always live rear view from dusty’s Dashcam) - this is not a perfect car but heck, it fills the void you were looking for!

And it is even more exciting that Dusty is reborn in the different avatar! I am sure This monsoon is going to be super fun with dusty and many more happy (s)miles to come! Thar as I see it is a great off-roader with bearable on-road dynamics. A lot of folks use the car as style statement and just the mall crawling utility while I am super confident that you will put Dusty to use where it feels like home! And by the way, Black is my second favourite colour - goes well with fast sedans as well badass SUVs!

Looking forward to the more drives and your adventures - dare I say - AD and Dusty’s Chronicles! So when are we framing a Black and Red cousins together?

Hi Dr AD Sir,

Firstly congratulations on your New Thar purchase.
I have always been an ardent and eager reader of your travelogue writing which is very humble and unbiased and straight from the heart.

Since I have got the T-bhp membership recently, it gives me privilege to reply to yours and everyone's letters with enthusiasm and acknowledge all the beautiful travel experiences about the places you visit and more importantly the way you are in love and describe the experience with automobiles in general and your 320d in particular.

Wish you all the best and hope to meet you somewhere on Bangalore roads

Happy driving and many adventures with your Thar.

Regards
Fiatfan

Great Review and Writeup - and the pics from your second trip to Old Kent Estate and Spa in Coorg were simply amazing!

Really liked the way you have plotted the capabilities of the two vehicles to show their diametrically opposite capabilities (very nicely done :) )

i have been driving Mahindra SUVs since 2005 when i bought my first Scorpio and i always have this thing that if you know how they behave and modulate your driving accordingly, you can appreciate their handling and their braking. You just need to anticipate the upcoming situations and act accordingly - which is different from what you (probably) do in sedans - sedans can handle (to a good degree) last minute stuff - but the tall SUVs will let you feel it ;)

so - anticipating and acting a little bit in advance and with time - helps a lot when driving the tall SUVs.

I have not driven the new Thar, other than for a couple of test drives - but given that i have driven Scorpio (starting from the 2005 model) and now drive XUV - i was quite happy with the on-road behaviour.

That is my view - dont know how many here concur to it - would love hear other view points

Hello Doc,

First up many many congratulations on getting your Thar. Truly a beautiful write up from the heart just as one buys the Thar from the heart and not the head. Your perspectives and points were a joy to read and give a real time low down on Thar ownership. Thank you for taking the time out to do this.

I have already decided long back that my next car will be a Thar, a petrol AT 4x4 Hardtop at that. Looking to bite the bullet soon hopefully and join the gang of Thar owners.

Did you take the extended warranty? How much did it cost?

Looking forward to reading more on your ownership in he time to come.

Happy driving..

Hi Dr AD. Hearty congrats on the new Thar. The review is just epic! Loved the photography in the article and the places you visited and stayed. Out of curiosity, did you even consider the Jimny before buying the Thar?
Cheers

Brilliant review Dr. AD. You’ve got two extreme purpose built machines now - a brilliant and diverse garage if there was one. I can relate to what both you and GTO wrote. While my Meridian has nowhere close to the character of a Thar, somehow, my running on the BMW has plummeted since the Meridian came home. Partly because I prefer giving it to the driver as the beater but also because I love driving it myself too within the city or on the highway. Its just more comfortable, the driving position more commanding, etc. They both offer vastly different driving pleasure / convenience in their own right.

I can’t remember where I said it elsewhere but the thought of having a combo garage comprising a Thar and a performance / luxury sedan has certainly crossed my mind as well on the odd occasion. Specially for cities like ours where you never know when water wading abilities can be called into action.

Wish you a ton of miles with the best memories with this beast!

First of all congratulations for your Thar. Great commentary and very nice pics as always.

Quick question on the dashcam. Did you replace your rear camera you got fitted from Mahindra with the one that came with Dashcam?

Thank you very much, justwheels for your kind words.

It was great traveling with you in that trip. Looking forward to meeting you guys again in some future trip soon.

Thank you very much Avinash!
Thank you very much again! Your drives in your Red Sparkle are always an inspiration. If I could do even half the number of drives you do with Red Sparkle, I would be happy!

That may take some planning since taking both the car together to some nice location is a logistical challenge. Will see if and when that happens.

However, I would love to have a photo of Duty with your Red Sparkle. Let us plan that one of these weekends.

Thank you very mich, Fiatfan for your words and your appreciation. Really glad that you like my reports and thanks again!

Thank you very much for your kind words! Yes, I agree with you and anticipation and precaution in advance is the key in driving SUVs.

Thank you very much for your kind words, Dippy!

Great! Congratulations in advance! Luckily now Petrol AT 4x4 is available without too much of a waiting period.

Yes, I took the extended warranty for 4th and 5th year. The cost of this extended warranty was about ₹34k.

Thank you very much for your kind words!

Of course, Jimny was not launched when I booked my Thar and was not available for a TD too (even now I have still not got a chance to do TD of a Jimny). Jimny is indeed a nice vehicle and has its own appeal. However, it is not for me. I was not interested in Jimny because of at least two reasons: 1. I am done with small displacement naturally aspirated engines. I had almost the same engine (1.6L NA) in my SX4 and honestly, that was extremely boring to drive. There is no way I would buy another car with even smaller NA engine. 2. The 5-door version does not appeal to me. We were looking for a predominantly 2-person car, and a 3-door Jimny would have been much more tempting if that was available. A 5-door Jimny (or even a 5-door Thar, when that launches in future) is not something for me.

But again, keeping aside my personal reservations, Jimny is a very nice vehicle and can be a great alternative to Thar!

Thank you very much for your kind words, Axe77!

You have got a great garage with tour Meridian and 3GT. In fact, that is even next level better than say a Thar and a sedan. Meridian is a great car which can offer great highway dynamics, space and off-road capability, and 3GT is legendary in its capabilities both as a fast car and a lifestyle vehicle with plenty of space. I always admire your drive reports and your cars. Wish you all the best too in your drives and looking forward to reading more driving reports from you.

Thank you very much!

No, I still have that now. I have two rear view cameras now. The one fitted by Mahindra is integrated into the infotainment screen, and it gets activated only when I switch to reverse gear. It is not useful as a rear view mirror because of the obvious reasons. The 70mai dashcam in fitted on top of the rear view mirror, and it always shows the rear feed regardless of which gear I am, exactly as your rear view mirror should show. Thus, this acts as a digital rear view mirror, if we can call that.

When I switch to reverse gear, then that time I have two camera feeds now. The Mahindra rear view camera on the main infotainment screen and this 70mai dashcam on the rear view mirror. I look at both the get a better idea of what is behind, and so far, I am very happy with this setup. Works great for me.

Hope you got the answer you were looking for.

What a fantastic review of the beast Dr.AD! Your post on the likes, neutral and dislikes gives that completely impartial review of the car which will be a ready reference for future prospective Thar owners. Thanks a lot for sharing this awesome review.

Wishing you tens of thousands of miles and smiles and looking forward to some great travelogues with tons of pictures of the Thar.

Amazing thread !! Congratulations Dr AD. How is the rearview camera at night? I have seen some negative feedback on the rear camera quality at night, hence asking. I'm planning for the same setup. Please share your experience.

Fantastically written review. Beautiful 2 car garage - enjoy!

Would you mind providing a few more details about this setup?

1. Does the video feed come from the Mahindra official reverse camera or a separate camera? If so, where and how is this mounted? (Inside the car or outside?)

2. How is the glare of high beams at night when they shine directly at the camera? Can you still see whats happening behind or do you just get an over exposed image on the screen?

3. Normally the IRVM is slightly angled towards the driver so as to provide a clear reflection of the rear windscreen. If the IRVM is angled, does the camera on the new IRVM point off centre towards the front of the car or can it be adjusted to point centre? Or do you just put the IRVM parallel to the front of the car as it is now a screen and not a mirror?

4. How is the quality of the recorded video, for both front and back? Is it easy to download off the device?

Many thanks!

Refreshing, authentic and a very very written review! Loved it! And you have the perfect garage if you ask me with the whole spectrum of one's needs covered by the two vehicles.

Wishing the very best of ownership and many more updates on Dusty :thumbs up

Thank you very much for your kind words, graaja! Your travel stories and photoshoots in your 3GT are always an inspiration too. Hopefully we can take some pictures together in one of the future drives!

Thank you!

Well, one can not expect a lot of fancy thing from a simple camera at night. I am quite OK with the rear camera quality at night. No, it is not great. But it is still better than what I see in the actual rear view mirror in the night. So that is how I look at it. Yes the night image quality is flawed, but better than nothing. Also see below for more details.

Thank you very much.


This is a completely independent and separate setup from the Mahindra accessory. I have got both reverse cameras now. I use the Mahindra one as a real "reverse camera", which works only when I put the car in reverse gear. And I use this separate dashcam as a "live rear view mirror" which works all the time regardless of which gear I am. So both have different use cases.

This separate camera is mounted just above the rear number plate.

When there is direct high beam on the camera, I just see an overexposed image of the high beams. No, I can not see anything else in that overexposed image, as expected. But, the point is this: Even in the usual rear view mirror, if a vehicle stands behind you hitting you with high beams, you do not see anything else anyways. All you see is those glaring bright headlights which blind you. So compared to that, this rear view camera is still better than the default mirror. It at least does not blind you with the glare. The overexposed image is of poor quality, but the screen brightness is still much lower than how the high beam looks in a mirror. This is much easier on the eyes.

This is just a screen, and no matter whichever you you move it, the image in it is exactly the same. Therefore, I keep it parallel to the front of the car. You can easily flip between front and rear camera feed on the go (there is a direct flip button on the front), and you can easily move it around till you get the front image you like. And leave it there. The rear camera is fixed and the rear image never changes no matter how you move this screen.

Frankly, I have not checked that yet. I have been using this more as a live mirror, and haven't bothered to check the recorded video yet. Now that you mention, I will go and check it when I get some time soon.


Thank you very much Jaggu for your kind words. I am new to the world of off-roading, and I am reading so many of posts by stalwarts like you to learn more about this. Very happy to see your comment here, and thanks again!

Either @s4ch has not phrased his query clearly or @Dr.AD has misunderstood the query. Anyway...

To answer your question, @s3ch, the front camera attached to the IRVM is on a swivel, so, irrespective of the angle of the IRVM itself, the camera's lens can be swiveled to be properly straight.

i hope this is what you wanted to know?

Cheers