Anand Mahindra announced that he will be gifting the Mahindra Thar to 6 young cricket players for their stellar performance. The Thar was gifted to Washington Sundar, T Natarajan, Shubman Gill, Navdeep Saini, Shradhul Thakur and Mohammad Siraj. Cricketer Navdeep Saini has shared a post on his Instagram in which we can see him driving the Thar on rough roads.
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He has used the caption “Yeah, I’m chilling on a dirt road” on Instagram. We can see in the video that he is going through barren dirt ground, climbing a steep incline, crossing a water-filled ditch, driving on rough roads and a river. In the end, we can see him washing his Thar which got dirty because of this off-roading. It looks like Navdeep has been using the Thar for off-roading and other stuff.
Navdeep received the Thar last month. His Thar is finished in Black. He shared the photo while his family took the delivery of the SUV. He wrote, “Heartfelt gratitude for respected @anandmahindra ji. Thank you for encouraging us throughout and for celebrating our success with such extraordinary gifts. I am sure this will push lots to do even better in the future.” Navdeep is currently playing for Royal Challengers Banglore in the Indian Premier League which has been put on hold because of the increasing number of coronavirus cases.
Heartfelt gratitude for respected @anandmahindra ji. Thank you for encouraging us throughout and for celebrating our success with such extraordinary gifts. I am sure this will push lots to do even better in the future.@Mahindra_Thar pic.twitter.com/cX6HMu3rLX
— Navdeep Saini (@navdeepsaini96) April 7, 2021
Needless to say that Thar has been one of the most successful product for Mahindra. The demand of the Thar exceeded the expectations of the manufacturer due to which there were long waiting periods.
The reason why Thar has been so successful is its strong road appearance and the improved daily driveability. Mahindra has worked extensively to improve that so that a person can live with it on day to day basis.
They reworked the ladder frame chassis and suspension setup. So, the Thar handles better and the ride quality of the SUV has also been improved so that it can be driven daily.
They increased the dimensions of the SUV. So, now there are proper front-facing rear seats in which occupants can seat comfortably over long journeys. However, the Thar is still a three-door vehicle so the rear occupants would have to climb to the rear seats.
The manufacturer also now offers Thar with a 2.0-litre turbocharged, direct-injection petrol engine and a 2.2-litre mHawk diesel engine. The petrol engine produces 150 PS of max power and 300 Nm of peak torque. The diesel engine produces 130 PS of max power and 320 Nm of peak torque. Both the engines are offered with a 6-speed manual gearbox or a 6-speed torque converter automatic gearbox. All the variants come with 4×4 system as standard. The Thar starts at Rs. 11.90 lakhs ex-showroom and the top-end variant costs Rs. 13.75 lakhs ex-showroom.
There are rumours that Mahindra is also working on an entry-level variant of the Thar. It will be powered by a 1.5-litre, three-cylinder diesel engine that we have seen on the TUV300. It will also not come with a 4×4 system. A lighter engine and no 4×4 system means that the weight of the affordable Thar can reduce by 100 kgs.