Mahindra Thar (Final report)

It’s been great fun in Mumbai as well, as many a rickshaw and taxi will testify. When the roads flooded, I’ve lent a helping hand to those hapless modes of public transport by pushing them out of deep water. The Thar’s snorkel even allowed me to wade through bonnet-deep water under flyovers and beat the chaos that was on them.

Our time with it is up though, and I have a few things to tell you. First, it is stronger than most of the old-school off-road community would lead you to believe. Second, it has a whole breadth of abilities — after carefully abusing it for 28,000km, I can vouch for this.

I’ve drowned it (before the snorkel was installed), hammered it over rocks, got it stuck axle-deep in mud, jumped it over crests, tackled impossible terrain, terrified rickshaw drivers and even spent three weeks driving it to the end of India and back.

Through the rigours of off-roading, I’ve broken the steering rack, knocked mirrors off on trees, pulled the exhaust pipe clear off its mounts and knocked the gearbox out of alignment a few times. A few days in the workshop for some inexpensive repairs was all it took to get the Thar back to fighting fit. In fact, most of the time, all I’ve had to do after an OTR session was budget Rs 1000 for a wash (inside and out) and Rs 650 for a new pair of horns. They keep drowning because of their silly placement behind the front bumper. Continued..