The second car must be able to offer a driving experience which the BMW would never offer
BHPian Dr.AD recently shared this with other enthusiasts.
Meet my new “Dusty” – 2023 Mahindra Thar Petrol LX HT AT 4×4 (BS6.2) in Napoli Black (which is indeed an awfully long name for a car variant, but then that is how usually it is with a Mahindra):
Contrary to the common practice on this forum, I do not name my cars. Except for one car, I did not name any other car I owned. And most certainly I would not name a brand new car. The one car of mine which earned a name earned it after 6 years and more than 75,000km of driving. Thus, calling this brand new Mahindra Thar by a proper noun is certainly unusual for me. However, this is the least of the unusual things in this unlikely story.
To begin with, I never thought I would ever buy a Thar.
I was (and still am) always a sedan guy. I love the sharp handling and good high-speed ride of a nicely tuned, low-slung sedan chassis. I always thought that was “my type” of a car. My other car, a BMW 320d fits that description perfectly. And if I ever thought of an SUV on a rare occasion, I thought I would get a monocoque SUV. A body-on-frame SUV was not even remotely in my mind. Till three months ago, if someone had told me I would get a Mahindra Thar, I would have laughed.
But yet, strange things happened, all in less than three months of time. In less than three months of not even having Thar on my mind, I was happily taking delivery of a brand new Thar.
My primary car is a Red BMW 320d, which I love driving. I use it often for long interstate drives. While that car is perfect for my highway drives, and to a good extent can tackle bad roads too, as evident from some of my travelogues on this forum with that car, it can never be a one-car solution to all my driving requirements. Just the regular bad roads are easy to manage in the 320d. But many times, either I by myself in a solo drive, or we (I and my wife) like to drive to remote resorts, hilly areas with sometimes almost non-existent roads, some far away locations where the driving conditions could pose a serious challenge to the 320d. For all that, I always wanted another car that is capable in a very different sense than the 320d. Not just these remote exotic locations, but sometimes, just driving through the city can pose equally serious challenges. The frequent water logging in the monsoon on city roads is one such challenge, just as an example of city driving challenges.
My “Beater car”, that came very handy in all such situations, from time to time, over the last several years, was my 2010 Maruti SX4 ZXi. You can read the story of that car here. That car was the first and the only car in the past that I gave a name to. And that was my Original Dusty, the name she earned in one memorable solo drive of 2000km in tough monsoon conditions back in 2016.
Although Dusty was serving me well as a beater car, and an occasional highway cruiser too, it was getting too old. It was mechanically and electrically in a very good shape and was very reliable till the end. But unfortunately, I just got bored of driving it. This was one car that outlasted my interest in driving the same car for that long. I had driven that car for 13 years and more than 137,000km in the end when I sold it.
Along with the boredom of driving that car, I started to feel the need for something more capable than the old SX4. As a replacement of the old Dusty, I started thinking of having something that would be a great companion for my 320d. Something totally different, something that would be poles apart from the 320d. That way, the two cars would have minimum overlap in their use cases and would complement each other well. The second car must be able to offer a driving experience which the BMW would never offer, and take me to places well beyond the reach of a BMW!
That thought, and a budget of about ₹20L led me to only one choice – Mahindra Thar 4×4!
Thus, from no thoughts of buying a Thar at the beginning of April, to having it in my parking lot in May, things moved very fast and very dramatically. Like a T20 innings. And that is how Dusty was reborn in a 4×4 avatar!
The new Dusty is 4×4 and has a 150hp of turbo-petrol engine instead of the 103hp naturally aspirated 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 colour and the spirit to go on drives through tough conditions. I am hoping that the driving spirit reaches new heights with this reborn avatar of Dusty.
As of the time of writing this review, I have already done a couple of weekend road trips, and also some mild off-roading (and one hill climb) to get started. I have driven the car for about 1600km so far at the time of writing this. I will elaborate more on the road trips and the driving experiences in subsequent posts.
My Two-Car Garage:
My garage now consists of a BMW 320d and a Thar Petrol 4×4. I am quite happy with this garage for now. BMW 320d is a lovely car for highway drives and corner-carving fun, and Thar will complement that with its off-roading abilities and abilities to reach anywhere. I plan to use both cars to the fullest. I love solo driving, and Thar is a perfect car for solo driving. I am hoping to share many solo drive stories with the Thar soon in this thread.
Why do I call her Dusty?:
Now that it is plenty clear that SX4 was my original “Dusty” and I am going to continue to use the same name for my Thar, let me explain why I chose this name. Back in 2016, during my monsoon solo in SX4, when she was literally covered in mud and dust, the name naturally occurred to me. But going beyond that, I named her Dusty after my favourite character, Dusty Crophopper from the movie “Planes”. Dusty is a simple, unassuming, honest, friendly character who has limited capabilities. He is just a single-prop plane that is basically a utilitarian crop duster. But he is brave and dreams of soaring alongside his high-flying heroes in an international race. The story of Dusty is a story of chasing those big dreams even with limited capabilities. My Thar symbolizes the exact same spirit. It is a small, simple, basic, inexpensive car with many weaknesses and limitations. But she dreams big, and will continue chasing her dreams in whichever small ways possible. That is my Dusty!
Organization of this Thread:
With that introductory story out of the way, let me jump to the actual review and the ownership thread, with the following topics in subsequent posts:
- Post #2: More on the Decision-Making and Buying Process
- Post #3: Review of Thar (Likes/Dislikes etc) and Initial Experiences/Observations
- Post #4: Initial Accessories/Modifications and 1st Service Experience
- Post #5: First Road Trip with Dusty (and some mild off-roading too)
- Post #6: Second Road Trip to a Forest Estate in Coorg
- Post #7: Summary and Looking Forward…
Decision-Making and the Buying Process
Why Mahindra Thar?
As I explained in my introductory post above, I wanted something different from the 320d, something that would be poles apart, and something that would have minimum overlap in the use cases and driving experience with the 320d. Those thoughts led me to consider 4×4 SUVs as the second car to accompany my 320d in my garage.
I was not interested in a 2WD SUV (4×4 is a must for SUV, I believe), or any urban crossover. Nothing wrong with those crossovers. I like some of those modern crossovers which are quite fast and very well designed. But an urban crossover would not bring me much novelty over the 320d. It will not add any serious new capability in my garage. Instead of driving a crossover, I might as well just enjoy the 320d.
With the primary requirement of a 4×4 SUV and a budget of around ₹20L, there are just no options other than the Thar. I did not consider the upcoming Jimny because it has a naturally aspirated 1.5L petrol engine that is almost similar to (and in fact has a slightly poorer performance than) the 1.6L engine in my 13 year old SX4, and frankly, that engine felt underpowered to me. There was no way I was going to buy another car with almost the same engine when I was already frustrated with the underpowered engine of my old car.
Thus, Thar emerged as more or less the only option that I even considered. Thar’s capability to take us to faraway locations and the potential for some adventurous drives in the future were the added bonuses. Owning a Thar certainly opens up new destinations and new road trip experiences, and that made the choice of Thar even more convincing.
Lure of the 2-door, 2-seater car:
We are a 2-person family, at least for most of the time. Only on occasion, I drive together with my parents, and for that occasion, the BMW is perfect. Rest of the year, it is usually just I and my wife travelling together. Therefore, just for the two of us, I always desired to own a 2-door car that is just the right size for a 2-person family, without a care or a worry about the rear seat space. Of course, when I say I desired a 2-door car, in my dreams it was always some nice sports car that I could never afford. But ironically, the relatively inexpensive and affordable Thar completed that 2-door car dream. It is no sports car, but it does offer the “cheap thrills” of a 2-door machine just for me and my wife, and I am loving that so far. I might actually soon remove the rear seat altogether to make it a true 2-seater car.
The biggest negative of Thar that is mentioned by most owners and reviewers is the lack of a proper rear seat and rear doors. In my case, that actually became the desired property of Thar, and made the Thar an even more appealing choice!
Alternatives Considered:
None actually. I did not consciously search for a car nor did I do any pros and cons analysis. Just like the last time when I bought a BMW 3-series, this time too, the choice naturally emerged through following many cars, seeing them driven and hearing about their real-world driving experiences, various reviews and ownership threads, and the evolution of my own driving requirements. BMW 3-series was the only car I considered the last time, and it was only Thar 4×4 that I considered this time.
Maybe subconsciously, during this unorganized decision-making process, the only other car that I really imagined myself owning was a Jeep Compass 4×4, or even better, the Trailhawk variant. That is a great car and I really like that. Jeep Compass 4×4/Trailhawk would have been a great companion to the 320d too, and at times I did consider buying that. But a Trailhawk is now priced close to ₹40L. A Jeep Compass would be far superior to Thar on road and in driving dynamics. But given that I already have another other car for that part, and wanted an off-roader only for travelling to really bad terrain and reaching some far away mountain destinations, a Thar 4×4 at half the price of Jeep Compass Trailhawk made more sense to me.
Why Petrol Thar?
I am a petrolhead, and the 320d is the only exception to my otherwise petrol-only ownership history. While I am quite happy with the 2.0 diesel engine from BMW, that would be my first and last diesel car. I am back to petrol for good, before someday maybe having to surrender to EVs. Moreover, especially in the BS6 era, the DEF and regeneration-related problems in diesel cars that I read about in so many ownership threads on this forum are not very confidence inspiring.
By the way, this petrol-only requirement also worked against Jeep Compass as my other option. Compass has no petrol 4×4 variant on sale in India.
Choosing the Color:
I always loved the Mystic Copper shade that the Thar had. I used to jokingly tell my friends that if I ever buy a Thar, that would be my choice. But unfortunately for me, that color got discontinued already. I usually like red cars, but I did not want a red Thar only because I already have a red BMW and I did not want to own two red cars at the same time. So just to get a different look from my other red car, I decided to choose Napoli Black for Thar. But to be honest, this was never my first choice of color for Thar. That first choice of color was always Mystic Copper.
Test Drives, Booking and Delivery
Dealership Experience: The entire process of Test Drives (TD), Booking and then Buying was done at Sireesh Auto, near Silk Board, Hosur Road, in Bangalore. I must say I am very impressed with my experiences with them. Right from TD to booking, they were very professional, courteous, polite, and helpful. They answered all our questions well, provided all the necessary information accurately and honestly. The booking process, discounts etc were explained well. After booking, they got me a car well inside the timeline they had promised. And then the PDI and delivery experiences were smooth and pleasant as well. Frankly, this was my first experience dealing with Mahindra, and based on opinions shared on this forum, I was unsure what to expect. But thankfully, the actual experience surpassed all my expectations, and I had a fantastic experience in the entire process. I would give the dealership 10 out of 10 in the entire process of test driving till the actual delivery of the car!
It all started with a casual test drive sometime in early April. I was nowhere close to serious about buying a Thar then. Just a casual test drive, as I do for so many cars from time to time. Anyways, after my own test drive, I decided to have one more test drive with my wife. I have heard from so many of my friends and even read online that for many guys who want to own a Thar, their families are usually against it (due to bad rides, lack of practicality, difficult ingress/egress, and so many other factors). I was curious to see what my wife thinks. Contrary to the above trend, she often used to say, albeit jokingly, that she likes Thar and would love to travel around in an old-school SUV like a Thar. I decided to test her seriousness.
Test Drive with My Better Half: To my surprise, when I asked my wife to join me for a Thar test drive, she loved the idea, and she seemed all excited and serious about her claims that she likes a Thar. She happily came for a test drive. She loved the vehicle in the showroom. She sat in the car and thoroughly checked out the details of the car. Her enthusiasm and and appreciation of the vehicle was very evident. Now I knew that she was not joking at all. She was serious all the time when she used to tell me we should buy a Thar.
After checking the car in the showroom, we went for a test drive, and in spite of the bumpy ride and the evident body roll, my wife loved it! There is something about Thar that appeals to women. My wife loves the Thar more than I do. She was very happy in the test drive and she is happy every time she sits in the Thar.
Anyways, after the Test Drive, both I and my wife realized that Thar was true “something very different from the BMW” that we were searching for. Both of us enjoyed the peace of mind that a Thar drive brings, knowing that you could drive on any road condition and drive anywhere you feel like. Multiple reasons for liking the Thar, but in summary, both of us liked it and we decided to book it.
My Thar is April 2023 manufactured, BS6.2 certified vehicle. The car had 29km on the odo during the PDI, and 43km when I took the delivery two days later (they sent the car back to stockyard and got it back to dealership for delivery after 2 days, adding this 14 km).
A couple of customary photos of my brand new Thar at the time of delivery:
On-Road Price and Accessories:
The ex-showroom price of my Thar (Petrol LX HT AT 4×4 variant) was ₹16.10L. At that time, there was a discount of ₹40k that I got. With that discount, and with all taxes, insurance and other charges (FastTag, extended warranty etc.) included, the on-road price was ₹19.87L. This includes the 4th and 5th year extended warranty which was priced at about ₹34k.
The only accessories I got installed at the dealership, right at the time of delivery, were: 1. Reverse Camera (this is a must for a Thar) 2. Radiator Guard 3. Floor Mats and 4. Rear window magnetic sunshades. These accessories added to another ₹16.5k or so. Thus, with all accessories added, the final price went just above ₹20L.
The accessories I got later installed outside include a 70mai dual-channel dashcam that also serves as a live rear view camera/mirror and a dead pedal. More on these and a few other simple mods in the next section, along with my driving experiences.
Continue reading BHPian Dr.AD’s ownership review for more insights and information.
Keyword: Mahindra Thar 4x4: Purchase & ownership review by a BMW 320d owner