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I can’t believe its been 5 years since the launch of the new Thar! Since then, it has single handedly resurrected a whole segment to itself and brought about a massive change in the way people look at the Mahindra brand — more modern, more contemporary and most certainly not a tractor or rudimentary vehicle manufacturer anymore!
The facelift 3-door Thar brings about some changes but lets start with the bad news first — the soft top option is gone. Sadly, a cumulative 5 per cent sales in the last 5 years just did not justify making them anymore and in any case, to be brutally honest, it was quite a tedious process to put it up or down anyways.
Now to the actual changes though. One expected Mahindra to add a bunch of stuff to the 3-door Thar especially considering how feature loaded the Roxx is. The new look grille, a sun roof maybe, the new dashboard with the digital cluster, the updated interior with the new seats, ADAS, the list goes on! What Mahindra has done instead is - for the first time in a long long time - not enough.
The front end still has the same look, albeit now the black part of the grille gets a painted surround and painted vertical slats. The headlights are still halogen units and not the LED ones from the Roxx. The wheels stay the same too. In fact, at first glance, unless one is a proper car nerd, almost everything appears to be business as usual. Of course there are a couple of new colours - the popular battleship grey makes its presence felt and the red is now more of what my mom would call ‘Tomato Red’. But again, unless you are a proper car nerd.....
There are some thoughtful changes though that DO matter and that a lot of owners have had to either do aftermarket themselves, or type essays about on the internet. The fuel door for instance now gets a remote release across the board, a great change that will deter car thieves from stealing your barrel, making a spare key and then taking off with your pride and joy a day after. You also get a rear view camera - a much much needed factory add-on, and a well integrated one at that.
On the inside is where the changes seem more obvious - especially those thought out ones that we just talked about. There is now a grab handle on the A-pillar, a feature that all your family members will be ever grateful for, there is a centre arm rest that is adjustable, so no more aftermarket jugaad from Karol Bagh needed, a new (and much nicer) infotainment screen that we hope works better than the last one and a new steering wheel. But the dashboard stays the same. Why? The mounting points and the mould between the Roxx and the 3-door Thar are completely different! Shocking, but true.
Mechanically there are no changes either, two diesel engines, a petrol engine, manual and automatic gearbox options and of course, a four-wheel-drive or rear-wheel-drive layout still give buyers plenty of options to choose from while still sticking true to the Thar’s iconic imagery. No mechanical changes also mean the suspension stays the same, and frankly, that has been a pain point for many buyers too. To play devil’s advocate though, if Mahindra were to urbanise the 3-door to the level they have on the Roxx, a lot of the off-road capability could have been lost.
That is what has not changed - in fact, if anything, with the new ‘off-road date suite’ on the central screen, taking the Thar on the rough stuff is even more fun than ever before. It handles almost everything you could throw at it with ease and this, despite the existence of the Jimny, is still the best novice level off-roader in the country. And yet, in expert hands, this will keep up with some of the best off-roaders in the world.
Has Mahindra done enough to give the 3-door Thar a shot in the arm? No. And that is as honest as I can get. So if you have a 3-door Thar and are thinking of upgrading to this, then it makes no sense. But if you want a true lifestyle vehicle to live out a childhood or midlife fantasy, or to just be a cool dad, then this is still the only car in India at a sensible price point that does this.
This is where I would usually end this story, but I do have one final point to make. Recently, there has been a lot of talk about how the Thar is the reason behind a lot of idiots doing idiotic things on the road all over the country. While it is true that a lot of social media negativity has been directed towards the Thar due to this, let me remind our dear readers - it is not the car that is at fault, it is the ape behind the wheel that is to blame. Think about it!!
