Replaced my 13-yr-old Maruti SX4 with Mahindra Thar petrol AT 4x4

As much as I miss my old car, I am super thrilled with the new driving possibilities that this new SUV will offer.

BHPian Dr.AD recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

13 years, 137,000km, and Sold!

Feels like the end of an era for me.

I finally sold this car after using it for close to 13 years (July 2010 to May 2023), and after driving more than 137,000km.

I hadn't updated this thread for a while. The reason was that there was nothing much to update in an "old faithful" Maruti. The car continued to serve me well, with minimal maintenance and no serious issues, even for such an old car.

Although I used this car primarily as a beater car, I still did (and thoroughly enjoyed) a few long drives in this car in 2022 and also in 2023. It came in handy when the conditions were tough. When last year in the monsoon, I did a long road trip across the ghats of Maharashtra, where the monsoon scenery is breathtaking but the road surfaces are terrible, the car that handled it all for me was Dusty, my old SX4!

Dusty got her name in a similar monsoon drive back in 2016. And then even in 2022, she faithfully supported me in another such drive.

Before wrapping this thread up, please allow me to share a few parting photos of Dusty in this Maharashtra drive in the monsoons of 2022.

Somewhere on the rural roads of Maharashtra:

Dusty loved such monsoon drives:

At Mulshi lake, under pouring rain:

Mild off-roading to manage the overflowing parking lots at Kaas:

She enjoyed such small rural roads, no matter what road surface looked like:

A parting shot from that drive:

Overall, the car served me well. In 2022, even in her final full year with me, the car required nothing much apart from routine service. Oh yes, I changed the tyres in 2022. I bought her brand new Michelin Primacy 4 ST in the stock size (205/60/R16) in September 2022. And when the car was finally sold in May 2023, the tyres were still quite new with just around 5000km run on them.

In 2023, just a couple of months before selling the car, I did my last complete service on the car. And this time, apart from the usual oil and other fluids change, I got the front brake pads and brake discs replaced. The engine mounts were also replaced this time.

When the car was sold, she was still in very good mechanical condition with recent service done, reasonably new Michelin Primacy 4 ST tyres, new brake pads and discs at the front, new engine mounts, and generally in good health.

The final odometer at the time of selling:

I have always felt, from my own experience, that the bond between the driver and his car becomes much stronger during solo drives. If you do plenty of solo drives, especially through not very easy conditions, and spend days with your car alone on the road, the car talks to you. She becomes your family.

I did plenty of solo drives with Dusty, and she indeed used to talk to me. We have had long and philosophical conversations for hours and days, out on the open road, in rural areas as well as on the highways, with sometimes rain and sometimes sun for company. Those are all the wonderful memories I will cherish.

Of course, although Dusty was not my primary car for the last 4 to 5 years now (that role was taken by another very talkative car, my Red 320d), it was a very emotional moment for me to say goodbye to Dusty.

What next?

Although Dusty is gone, the spirit of Dusty still lives in me, and thankfully for me, that spirit has reincarnated itself in a new avatar. My new Dusty is 4x4, has 150hp of turbopetrol engine instead of the 103hp, NA engine of the old Dusty. If the old Dusty could tackle bad roads on the hills, the new Dusty can tackle the hills without any roads. Instead of the 5-speed manual transmission in the old Dusty, the new one comes with a smooth 6-speed automatic transmission. The only things that remain the same are the color and the spirit to go on drives through tough conditions. In fact, I am hoping that the driving spirit reaches new heights with this new replacement of Dusty.

Please allow me to introduce the replacement of Dusty (please pardon me for sharing a photo from the delivery time and not from a road trip - that is yet to happen), my 2023 Mahindra Thar Petrol AT 4x4:

As much as I miss the old Dusty, I am super thrilled with the new driving possibilities that this new Dusty will offer. The moment I get free from my current work schedules, I will start road-tripping with the new avatar of Dusty. Of course, toad tripping with the 320d will continue too. These two cars are so different from each other, and they have such minimal or no overlap, that they both offer unique driving experiences and road trip opportunities, and I plan to use them both to the fullest.

I will, at the right time, create a new thread and share new stories with this new avatar there. That may take a month or two.

But it is time to wrap up this old thread. 13 years is the longest I have owned any one car, and full credit to Dusty's reliability and utility value for that record.

With that, let me call this "The End" of this Dusty story. Thank you very much for reading this, and for being with me throughout this decade-long story!

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