Mahindra Thar review: stop reviewing the commute; this is a hobby that has a day job

Every Thar review eventually has the same argument with itself, so let us have it once and be done: on conventional car metrics — ride, economy, steering feel, crash stars, city manners — the Thar scores like the truck-based machine it is, and this catalogue’s 3.9 overall reflects that without cruelty. But you do not buy a Thar on those metrics. You buy it because it is the only new vehicle under ₹17 lakh in India with a ladder frame, solid axles at both ends, a low-range transfer case and panels that come off, and because you want that list stapled to something you can drive to work. The only fair review measures the machine against the plan, so we ran a month of Delhi around the AXS+ diesel automatic, and then two days of Aravalli dirt in the HT(O) 4WD to check whether the hardware is real or decorative.

The hardware is real, which is the entire point

The HT(O) at the ₹16.50 lakh top of this listing carries part-time four-wheel drive with a low range, and everything else follows from it: approach angles you can use, 226 mm of ground clearance that turns a rutted farm track into a scenic route, and axles that keep the wheels planted when the diagonal pair are in the air. The windshield frame sits forward of the tyres so you can see the corner you are climbing into. The side panels come off. The top comes off. None of this is nostalgia for its own sake; it is a tool with a shape, and the shape is the function.

The 2.0-litre diesel — 150 bhp at 3,500 rpm, 320 Nm from 1,500 to 2,500 — is the right engine for the job, and the low-range gearing means the torque number matters more than the power one. In sand and rock crawl, the plateau does what a turbo-petrol’s peak cannot: it just pulls, endlessly, without a downshift negotiation. The conventional automatic on the top two diesel trims is torque-converter calm, which is exactly the correct coupling for a vehicle whose throttle inputs on dirt are inherently sloppy.

On road: an art form, not a commute

Driving a Thar in Delhi is a decision you make with your forearms. The steering wanders with the specific loose-toothed feel of a steering box built to survive a rock banner, and you stop noticing the constant small corrections after about two weeks — I am telling you this as the person who noticed them for one. The body floats on broken expressways in a way that asks for braking 20 metres earlier than a crossover would, and the frame clunks audibly over expansion joints like an old friend clearing its throat. The 2,080 kg kerb weight means the diesel works for its 165 km/h indicated ceiling, and the drum rear brakes have an opinion about hard stops from speed.

The Thar is not a bad on-road car. It is a superb off-road car that agrees to be an on-road compromise, and the entire purchase question is which half of that sentence you actually live.

Around town it settles into itself. The upright seats and forward window frame give a view over traffic that no SUV at this money matches, the high seat makes entry easy for old knees and young children, and the short 2,595 mm wheelbase in its boxy footprint parks better than its width suggests — 1,818 mm is the figure you negotiate in flat columns. The 570-litre boot rides behind the axle line, which is why the rear overhang sticks out in a lift, and why it fits a fortnight of camping without folding anything.

Inside: a friendly office, not a lounge

The AXS+ cabin gets the touchscreen, the digital cluster on top trims, leatherette seats and rear vents with their own blower — honest equipment, honestly packaged, with switchgear that feels built to be operated with muddy hands because it will be. Fit and finish are improved beyond the Thar of old folklore, but nothing here matches the screen-first sophistication of the XUV 3XO, which shares a price point and a completely different value system. Wind and tyre noise above 100 km/h are a fact of the removable-top physics. The seats are the upright kind that keep you comfortable on a six-hour day precisely because they will not let you recline into torpor.

The economy ledger

Claimed 14 kmpl; our city month averaged 10.4, with an expressway best of 12.8 at a legal, Thar-appropriate pace. The petrol MS and AS variants below ₹11.49 lakh narrow the city deficit slightly and widen the altitude and load deficit. None of this matters to the actual buyer, who has already decided that the weekend is the point — but it should matter to the person being talked into a Thar as a sensible family car by an enthusiast. That person deserves this paragraph.

The safety conversation, held honestly

Three-star Global NCAP, dual airbags, ABS with EBD and stability control: this is the segment’s ceiling for a body-on-frame machine at this money, not a failing unique to Mahindra, and the physics of a tall, rigid vehicle in a pedestrian-heavy city is its own asterisk. The Thar protects its occupants with mass and height better than the star score implies and protects everyone else with neither. Buy the HT(O) for the roll-overs you will never take; do not buy it for a crash-test trophy, because the five-star families on this list have that argument and will win it.

Verdict

Thar ownership is a trade: you accept mediocre road manners, mediocre economy and an average crash score in exchange for capability that has no substitute at the money and a personality no marketing department could price. The AXS+ automatic diesel at ₹14.49 lakh is the road-lifestyle buy; the HT(O) 4WD at ₹16.50 lakh is the vehicle. If the weekend plan involves a track and the weekday plan involves patience, nothing else in this catalogue will make you happier.

Who should buy it

Owners with a second car or a tolerance for the wander; campers, photographers, beach-access people and the simply smitten, who understand they are buying a hobby with number plates. Who should not: one-car households with a pregnancy, an infant seat or an elderly parent in the loop — the safety and access compromises are real — and anyone who learned about it from Instagram rather than from an axle.