Mahindra Thar Roxx : The Mahindra Thar has always been a personal favourite of mine. There’s just something inherently likeable about its directness when it comes to off-roading and its utter brutality.
But face it — the old one (what M&M now calls the traditional Thar) made its driver compromise a lot on comfort, refinement and daily usability. And that’s what makes the new Thar Roxx so significant.
After three days with it last week on highways and some punishing trails outside Lonavala, I am convinced Mahindra has changed the definition of what an Indian off-roader should be.
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Mahindra Thar Roxx The Evolution of an Icon
Yes, the Thar Roxx is unmistakably based on the original Thar’s DNA, but it’s grown up in all the right places.
We have the new Compass parked next to its predecessor, at the Mahindra Adventure Off-road Academy and a family resemblance is apparent, but the differences are stark.
The Roxx is taller, wider and certainly, way, way more premium-looking but also has the same purposeful, boxy stance that is now inextricably linked to the Thar identity.
“We didn’t want to do a more comfortable Thar,” said Rajesh Kumar, a senior engineer at Mahindra who showed me around the vehicle.
“The brief was create something that could conquer the Ladakh terrain on weekends, but it could also take you a to a business meeting on Monday and not look out of place.”
That philosophy is evident at once in the design. The legendary seven slot grille remains as the trapezoidal wheel arches, a key element for the Wrangler are being emphasized.
A more luxurious appearance however still a rugged one with more detailed painted and chrome grille treatments, wheels and now available body coloured tops.
The round headlights are now high-tech LED shapes that no doubt make for better lighting and look more expensive to boot.
What really drew my eye however were the 18-inch alloy wheels on top trim model — stylish enough to turn heads downtown but rugged enough for some serious off-roading.
Mahindra Thar Roxx Genuine Off-Road Capability
Despite all the newfound luxury, a Thar Roxx is still a serious off-roader. I got a chance to run it through a purpose-built obstacle course that would have stumped most SUVs twice the price.
The mechanical headlines do much of the explaining: a real low-range transfer case, locking rear differential, 226mm of clearance, and better approach, ramp breakover and departure angles (41.2°, 23.8°, and 36.4° respectively if you’re playing at home). But numbers tell only part of the story.
What really got me was how the electronics have been tuned for Indian off-road conditions.
The hill descent control, for example, held a constant 4 km/h crawl down a worryingly steep stretch of treacherous loose rock with my foot completely off the brake.
The traction control was almost intuitive, and detected wheel slippage and shifted power before I’d even notice the loss of traction.
“We put these systems through an extensive test regimen over desert sand in Rajasthan, in the high altitude trails of Ladakh, across the rivers in the rainy jungles of Sakleshpur,“ said Vikram Singh, one of Mahindra’s testing team members.
“Every different environment meant a different calibrations and we wanted to have something that worked seamlessly nuances of India’s landscape.
I was able to maintain momentum without drama during a demanding articulation test, with the Roxx balanced on diagonally opposing wheels almost a foot off the ground.
Corner-to-corner chassis rigidity is tremendous, something I noticed when the doors still thud shut with precision despite the body being torqued in ways that would leave weaker cars permanently cross-eyed.
Mahindra Thar Roxx Premium Without Pretension
Open the surprisingly light doors (which is commendable and surprising in the presence of the vehicle’s overall heft) and the interior is where you see the departure from the traditional Thar philosophy the most.
Out are the bare-bones plastics and generic switchgear, replaced with a level of cabin design that wouldn’t feel out of place in vehicles further up the market.
The dash is trimmed in soft-touch materials, complete with contrast stitching, and the seating position provides a commanding view, yet without that sense of “sitting on top” that some trucks and off-roaders provoke.
On my 200 km highway drive from Mumbai to the off-road site, the ventilated leather seats were still comfortable even after hours behind the wheel.
I was also especially impressed with the tech with a purpose. The 10.25-inch touchscreen infotainment system is canted a bit toward the driver, and it comes with a unique interface that includes dedicated off-road menu displays that show live data for wheel articulation, incline angle, and transfer case positioning.
The interface was responsive and worked just fine, even when my fingers were covered in trail dust.
“We needed tech to augment the off-road experience, not take away from it,” said Priya Sharma, the head of the infotainment development team.
The same ethos applies to the digital instrument cluster, which can be changed to display off-road data priority information as required or switched to something more conventional when you’re cruising down the highway.
But for all these premium touches, there is a refreshing honesty to the interior. Grab handles are solid chunks of metal that are intended to hold weight, not just for show.
The floor materials are obviously meant to be hosed down after a mud-soaked adventure. It’s premium, without preciosity — luxury that does not mind being made dirty.
Mahindra Thar Roxx On the Road Refinement: The Most Pleasant Surprise
The biggest gain may be made in terms of on-road manners. The first-generation Thar, while adorable, was always a compromise on highways –drony, a bit wayward in crosswinds and generally tiring on longer rides.
The Roxx totally flips that equation on its head. But then you hit the highway and 100km/h cruising is a breeze, thanks to significantly improved NVH (noise, vibration and harshness).
Wind noise, although still audible because of the car’s boxy shape, is effectively suppressed. The tall-riding and well-seeing driving position feels secure in traffic.
The 2.0-litre mStallion turbo-petrol engine under the hood of my test vehicle churns out 175 HP and 380 Nm and that’s ample for highway overtaking as well as low-speed rock crawling.
The six-speed automatic was especially noteworthy, changing up higher when asked to perform aggressively, but offering smart, smooth upshifts in everyday driving.
And on the way back, when suddenly caught in a cloudburst, the traction control and electronic stability systems proved their worth, keeping everything in check on slippery roads which had other vehicles pulled to the side of the road to wait out the rain.
Four wheel disc brakes deliver steady stopping power and offer high pedal feel for easy modulation of brake force – important skidding on the highway or when traveling off-road.
Mahindra Thar Roxx Practical and Without Compromise in Everyday Life
What could well make the Thar Roxx a game changer in the segment is the way in which it eliminates the practical compromises that have so far held back the appeal of hardcore off-roaders in India.
Rear seat access is genuinely practical due to its five-door layout, rather than Thar’s three-door which needs an acrobat to enter the rear seat.
The back seat is now suitable for adults, with enough headroom despite the Roxx\\’s hallmark boxy roof line. Boot space is not cavernous, but you can fit enough weekend luggage for four of you with a bit of thought.
Urban usability also gets help from a surprisingly tight turning circle as well as a well-calibrated reversing camera with dynamic guidelines and parking sensors that don’t falsely bleep and blare at every speed bump.
They’re small details, but they ripple through your day, changing what can be an endurance test into a genuine pleasure.
Mahindra Thar Roxx Conclusion: Retoilettage of the Category
Having a price tag of Rs 16-22 lakh expected (ex-showroom), Thar Roxx does not sit in between being a budget offering and being a luxury indulgence.
Instead, it sits in a sweet spot that’s likely to draw in buyers who want real capability without daily sacrifices in comfort.
What struck me most after my time with the car was not any individual feature but the thoughtfulness of the overarching vision.
This thing feels like a truck that was made by people who know what off-roading is, instead of marketing execs who believe off-road capability is driving over a gravel driveway once in a while.
With the Thar Roxx, Mahindra has not only transformed the Thar into a more polished product, they may just have rewritten the rules of the game of what Indian buyers can now demand from an Indian SUV.
It’s a machine that revels in its heritage, and yet refuses to be held back by it, marrying genuine off-road ability with the level of polish required by modern customers.
That’s a difficult juggling act to pull off, but in my experience, Mahindra has done so impressively.
