2020 Mahindra Thar First Look Autocar India Review

The wait is
over! The all-new, second-gen Mahindra Thar has been revealed in full ahead of
its market launch on October 2, 2020.

I’m really excited about the car I’m going
to test drive today and I had to just drive out and bring it into its natural
habitat this is an iconic car it’s all about freedom all about lifestyle yes I’m
talking about the brand new car  seldom
do you find a car that becomes an icon and the Mahindra thar is exactly that
launched originally 10 years ago in a very bare bones form without creature
comforts like air conditioning the first generation MAHINDRA tar evolved from
the romance that was the open g a classic design packed with the latest and
best diesel powertrain

MAHINDRA TECHNOLOGY

 Technology of its time good old-fashioned
four-wheel drive and of course a soft top tested on some of the roughest
off-road courses across the country it wowed many before it even hit the
showroom floor eventually the thar evolved into something slightly more user
friendly and for many it was a childhood dream reimagined boy did it excite a
whole new audience of off-roaders and lifestyle vehicles for whom the thar was
the perfect second or third vehicle.

Timeless Silhouette. Redefined.

A
modern take on an iconic design, the All-New Thar, with its wide stance and
iconic lines, stands out wherever it goes.

now this time around it’s quite different
because MAHINDRA are looking to take the tower mainstream so they’ve made this
a car that will appeal to all kinds of people not just ones that want to go to
the outdoors but let’s take a look around the car before we delve into more of
the details well there’s no denying when you first look at this car it does
bear resemblance to the wrangler well they have tried to make it quite
different a lot of changes this front grille

 now
has these horizontal slats the bonnet kind of slopes down you’ve got the round
headlamps over here in front large chunky 
bumper that tells you this is tough this is butch it is an SUV the front
wheel arches curve down to the front where the fogs rest of course you’ve got
those bonnet ties again that bear resemblance

Power that takes your breath away

Choose
between the All-New mStallion150 petrol engine and mHawk130 diesel engine. With
6-speed automatic and manual transmission options.

  there is this wheel arch which is tough it’s quite wide extends out of
the width of the car giving the front a lot of width and under that wheel arch
that extends to the side you have the tire it’s an 18 inch large wheel with 255
65 so good amount of rubber there hopefully that will help the ride black
cladding that runs into the floorboard and around the rear there’s contouring
around the windows you see that both front and rear under the window line
squarish windows a leaned back a-pillar and of course it squares down to the
rear at the back as well interesting details on the side

 the
m hawk logo the antenna over here the thar name that’s emblazoned into the rear
view mirror on the side over here and of course this is an SUV so we have to
talk about the ground clearance which is 226 millimetres and they say that the
water weighting capacity is 650 millimetres

So basically you can go through anything in
this one you see the external hinges as well here on the doors a lot of these
details tell you that this is also an outdoorsy vehicle let’s take a look
around the back shall we so at the rear it’s like a big slab what breaks it is
this massive tail mounted spare wheel but otherwise it is very  square the top of it is literally like a
right angle no tumble home which we’re used to seeing at the top of the cars
which is literally

 when
the car leans in towards the roof area um tail lamps over here which have the
hexagonal feature that they’ve been talking about around this car but this is
the first of the areas I’ve really seen it and we can see that it’s a very
short overhang at the rear which you can notice around the side over here so
that means it will be a good departure angle something that’s necessary for a
tough SUV like this let’s take a look at the boot space well it opens in two
parts the bottom half of the tailgate opens up to just give you access to the
boot area and the window can be opened upwards as well

All Terrain, All Day

Legendary
capability? Check. Flawless on-road manners? Check.
With new 3rd-gen chassis & off-road mechanicals, the All-New Thar can tame
any terrain.

I like one of these cars for tracking for
my post because I think that would be ideal of course the seats split and
fold to allow you more luggage it is a bit of a step up into the cabin there’s
no real grab handle on the driver side of course but there is one on the
passenger side the other grab handle is right here on the dashboard on the
whole it’s more modern it’s far better than before materials used are much
richer there’s this really nice carbon fibre kind of texture that sits in the
middle of the two ac vents plastic the matte chrome plastic as well

 even
the upholstery on the whole a lot richer the vents are also circular  the movements for the vents a bit flimsy and
doesn’t really direct the air up or down too easily but that’s a small bit of nit-pickingI
do the dials as well a little basic and stand out amongst this otherwise richer
looking interior you do have steering mounted controls as well

 lots
of storage spaces one for the phone over here cup holders over here door pocket
spaces you have nice toggle like switches over here and of course controls for
the ac vent right here in the middle of the dash on the feature front you do
have the sub ports as well the 12 volt charging right up here in front and of
course there are some interesting details like this silver badging right here
which was something that the customers really wanted to feel like

they got a piece of history then of course
you do have the four-wheel drive gear lever which is right here very easy to
access and of course the main gear lever which I feel is a little bit long the
stalk it could have been a little shorter but on the whole I’d say a really
nice looking interior and much  better
than before it also has quite a few features let’s take a look it looks like a
reasonable amount of space in the rear seat

Retro Cool Meets New
Tech

  let’s get in there and see as I get out I noticed there’s star logo on
the door as well um while stepping out I have to point out and you can look
down there the floor is washable material but it tends to be a little slippery
when it’s wet while you’re getting in and out and let’s get into the rear move
the seat full forward flip it okay I really have to step in a bit of a tight
squeeze into the back and once I’m inside let’s get the seat back while I
access the second row from the driver’s side the passenger seat does flip
forward a little more so access is better but it is still tight you notice a
fair amount of room this front seat has been pushed all the way to the

 back
I’m 5’4 so a good amount of room over here taller person also has decent
legroom you can stretch your feet out but the wheel will intrude so this is
just a very small portion over here the base kind of comes into the leg area
the wheel well comes and intrudes into the seat area as well so you know where
there could have been space for three it’s now just good enough for two at the
back good amount of headroom you can see the exposed roll bar here because this
is the hard top version where the top can come off as well

  some rustic looking grab handles over here which are quite interesting
overall it’s a comfortable place to be in this back seat and even adults can
sit here comfortably for a long while 
since this is the thar I chose to begin my drive in the terrain that it
calls home  now though we didn’t do any
serious off-roading we did go through a fair amount of slush broken roads stony
surface with large rocks and we did wade through some water and the thar just
sailed through it all as if it were tarmac the thar begs you to keep going on
exploring and having fun unfettered by the terrain but it was time for me to
head back so I also got a chance to see how it fares out on the highway and in
traffic  you really feel like the king
well in my case the queen of the road it’s got this nice high up seating you
get great visibility 

High on Adrenaline.
High on Safety

 you
know the really wide  windscreen allows
you to see the full extent left to right I mean there’s no blind spots as such
and though they’re large rear view mirrors which really help you get a great
view at the back they don’t block anything so um yeah as far as visibility goes
it’s really great  you know though it’s
big it really doesn’t feel like that from behind the wheel I’m nipping in and
out of traffic gaps quite comfortably in fact I feel quite invincible

I think nobody wants to mess with me nobody
wants to get in my way and I like that feeling talking about performance MAHINDRA
has chosen the thar to debut two brand new engines a 152 hp 2 litter direct
injection turbo petrol and an all-new 2.2 litter diesel that produces 132 hp
both engines come with six speed manual and auto transmissions and I was
driving the diesel first up this engine really drivable I mean you know I’m in
traffic which shouldn’t be there on independence day on the highway but it is
and sometimes I really have to slow down to a crawl 1000 rpm third gear put my
foot down no hesitation just picks up moves on

  then
continues to breathe easy post 1200 rpm you can really feel the pace pick up
and it’s got a nice flat linear acceleration after that and power feels more
than adequate the diesel is fairly refined and it only gets audible when you
push hard and cross past the 3000 rpm mark and even then it’s really not
intrusive now this is a new ladder frame chassis and uh I have to say it has
made a big difference to the ride to the handling tunnelling around in the city

 this
rounds off the bumps and potholes really well so um you don’t feel much filter
through to the car it does get tossed around a little bit over the bigger bumps
and potholes but then that’s to be expected from something like this out on the
highway the tar fell stable and planted only getting tossed up over bad
sections now while I headed off to explore the open roads Hormoz took the
petrol auto into the place it was better suited the urban jungle

 so
while rebuke’s runoff in the diesel I’m here with the petrol automatic the two
liter petrol automatic driving it in town and this is really uh the environment
where a lot of people will use the new car don’t forget this car has been
designed not just for the outdoors but even for the urban jungle first
impressions of this engine are is how smooth it is and above all how responsive
it is just stab the throttle and it just just shoots forward and that’s what I
like about MAHINDRA and their calibration    

 they
don’t throttle the engine for that last kpl and fuel consumption they just
prioritize power and performance and that’s how it feels in this new car you
always feel that this got enough surge you tap it and it shoots forward and uh
quite frankly this two liter petrol super super impressive I think this is
gonna be the surprise because a lot of people who want the convenience of an
automatic

 who
want that little bit of refinement are going to want this variant so overall a
really refined vehicle in fact the refinement is one of the strengths and one of
the things that will really surprise traditional owners in fact the only thing
you can really hear is the canvas stop which after 80 starts flapping about a
fair bit the tar is easy to handle it has a very reassuring feel this white
track feels very stable really I mean this is a car that you can cruise on
highways also quite effortlessly

 there’s one thing I’d like improved it’s the
brakes they’re a bit grabby and they don’t have enough bite and before we ended
the day homers also gave an attempt to see how easy it was to take the roof off
it was a bit of work but it was well engineered and easy enough to master once
you got the hang of it let’s take a look at the two variants that the tar will
come in so this is the new thar pretty exciting it has evolved a lot whether we
talk about the looks whether we talk about the ride and handling whether

 we
talk about the interiors the quality of it all of it has improved on every
level now it may not be as plush and comfortable as other vehicles around it
may not be perfect but this is a car that appeals to your emotions it makes you
want to go out and drive get out into the outdoors like i am doing today and
you don’t have to worry about a thing the good part is that now more than ever
before it crosses the divide between being that outdoorsy vehicle and still
being comfortable enough to be your everyday city drive as well 

Explore The All-New Interiors

         👇👇

watch now Full Video