Mahindra Thar OG

This isn't the car you buy to replace your family SUV. If your household already runs on something practical with five doors, a bigger boot, room for everyone, the Thar was never meant to replace that. It was always meant to sit alongside it. And with this update, Mahindra has leaned into that idea harder than ever, because what's changed under the skin of the 3-door Thar goes well beyond what you' would expect from a mid-cycle refresh.

Mahindra is calling it the Thar OG, and that naming isn't just cosmetic branding. There are five genuinely significant mechanical changes here, all sitting on a new platform borrowed straight from the Roxx. None of this changes what the Thar fundamentally is. It's still a car built for people who want to go find trails, not just look tough doing the school run but it does change how it goes about doing that job.

Visually, Mahindra hasn't touched the recipe much, and that's by design. The silhouette, the stance, the general boxiness that makes a Thar instantly recognisable, all of that carries over untouched. What has changed sits at the details level: new LED headlamps and tail lamps, a reworked grille, restyled bumpers, front parking sensors, and larger alloy wheels that suit the car's proportions without looking like an afterthought.

Two new colours join the palette as well, Jeans Blue and Artemis Silver though both sit close enough in tone to the existing Battleship Grey and Galaxy Grey that they read more as added variety than a dramatic new option. The overall effect is a Thar that still looks unmistakably like a Thar, just with a slightly more contemporary edge to it.

Step inside and the story is similar. Evolution, not revolution. The cabin gets dual-tone, fully leatherette seat upholstery this time, along with cup and phone holders plus USB ports added to the second row, which is a genuinely useful addition for anyone carrying passengers regularly.

Beyond that, though, the convenience features stop rising. There's no cooled front seats, no fully digital instrument cluster, no powered driver's seat, all things that are becoming fairly standard at this price point elsewhere. That's a deliberate call from Mahindra rather than an oversight; stacking in more creature comforts on top of all the mechanical work that's gone into this update would have pushed pricing uncomfortably close to the Roxx's own territory. If those features genuinely matter to you, the mid-spec Roxx variants remain the more sensible pick.

On the variant front, Mahindra hasn't complicated the decision much. Alongside the existing LXT and AXT trims, there's now a new range-topping ZXT, adding roughly 10-12 features over the LXT for a premium of Rs 1-1.5 lakh, depending on powertrain and drivetrain choice. The LXT, priced from Rs 14.77 lakh, gets 18-inch alloys on all-terrain rubber, LED headlamps and fabric seats, but misses front fog lamps. Step up to the ZXT, from Rs 16.09 lakh, and you add 19-inch alloys, LED fog lamps with cornering function, a leather-wrapped steering wheel, leatherette seats, a wireless charger, tyre pressure monitoring, front parking sensors, a reversing camera, six airbags, rear disc brakes, and the fuller DaVinci damping setup with frequency-dependent damping.

If suspension refinement and the longer features list matter to you, the ZXT is the only trim that delivers both. If not, the LXT still gets the core DaVinci setup, minus the frequency-dependent part.

Both the petrol and diesel engines get a genuine power bump this time round. The diesel we drove picks up 20bhp over the outgoing unit, along with a bit more torque, and the difference shows in how the power builds. There's enough here to comfortably sit above 100kmph without the engine feeling stressed, and the delivery through the rev range feels noticeably more linear than before. The diesel was never short on refinement to begin with, so this reads as a genuine step up rather than a fix for something that was broken.

Our automatic test car's six-speed gearbox also comes with a manual override mode via the gear stick, which is handy for dropping gears quickly ahead of an overtake, though paddle shifters would have been a welcome addition and are noticeably absent. Braking gets an upgrade too, with rear disc brakes replacing the older drums. In practice, that translates to shorter stopping distances, noticeably less nose dive under hard braking, and a pedal that doesn't need much travel before you feel it bite.

This is where the bulk of the real change lives, and it starts with the platform itself. The Thar OG now sits on the same platform that underpins the Roxx. Mahindra says it's both stronger and lighter than what it replaces, and it's this foundation that ties together every other mechanical update on this car.

The switch to electric power steering is probably the single most noticeable change for everyday driving. The old hydraulic setup was heavy at low speeds and tiring over a long drive, this new unit returns to center on its own, feels light while parking or manoeuvring through traffic, and stays well contained even when you're crossing sharp potholes or rumble strips, very little of that harshness makes it back up to your hands.

Off-road, the old mechanical locking differential has given way to a button-operated Electronic Locking Differential. Where the old MLD would only engage after a wheel had already started spinning, often with a sudden, jerky lock-up, the new ELD lets you engage the rear axle lock before you even hit the tricky section. We tried this on the Rajasthan dunes, and the difference is immediately apparent. A smooth 50/50 power split from the outset rather than reactive engagement, which takes a genuine amount of unpredictability out of the experience for anyone still building their off-roading skills.

On the ride quality front, the new DaVinci damping with frequency-dependent damping first seen on the XUV 7XO does a lot of heavy lifting. It's a purely mechanical system that stiffens or softens based on what the road surface is doing, with no electronics involved. Over broken city roads, the dampers soften almost immediately to absorb harshness; pick up speed on the highway, and they firm up to keep the SUV planted through corners. The net effect is a genuinely friendlier ride than the old Thar offered, one that doesn't punish your back the way the older suspension setup tended to.

Rounding off the changes is a new Pentalink rear suspension with a Watts Linkage, aimed squarely at the lateral body sway that's long been a three-door SUV trait. In practice, that sway is noticeably reduced, though it isn't entirely eliminated how much you notice it still depends on your speed and how loaded the car is at the time. But for the majority of everyday driving, the improvement is real and easy to feel.

So, who is this Thar OG actually for? If you are an enthusiast, someone who genuinely wants to explore trails and go off-roading, rather than needing the five-door practicality of the Roxx, Mahindra has rightly kept this one alive and true to that purpose. It isn't trying to win over your family. It's trying to put a smile on your face by taking you places, and this update does exactly that, more effortlessly and comfortably than before, without asking much extra of you in return. It's gotten smarter, more evolved, and genuinely easier to live with day to day.

It still isn't without its shortcomings, though. The second row remains a tighter, less comfortable place to spend a long journey, and boot space is still minimal at best. There are also a handful of features here that might make you glance twice at the Roxx, or even at some monocoque SUVs in this price bracket. But if the Thar OG is already on your radar, this is very much a heart-over-head decision, one that might pinch your wallet a little, but is unlikely to leave you regretting the choice.