3-Door Mahindra Thar Has These 5 Advantages Over The 5-door Thar Roxx

Mahindra has finally launched the 5-door Thar Roxx in India, which is now available alongside the standard 3-door model. The elongated off-road SUV gets a bunch of new additions, including styling details, dual-tone themes, features and even uprated powertrains; details for all of which can be found here. But despite the updates, there are a few areas where the 3-door Thar has an advantage over its bigger brother. That’s exactly what we are going to take a look at in this story:

Petrol 4x4 option

You can have the 3-door Thar in both rear- and four-wheel drivetrains, with both the petrol and diesel engines. In the 5-door Thar Roxx, however, the four-wheel drivetrain is limited to the diesel engine only, which might be a bummer for people who want the petrol engine with the four-wheel drive option. 

4x4 option in lower variants

Not only does the 3-door Thar offer 4x4 with both its engine options, it also offers it in the lower variants, starting right from its base AX (O) variant. In the Thar Roxx, the 4x4 drivetrain is available from the mid-spec MX5 variant with the diesel-manual gearbox and if you want the same with diesel-automatic, you would have to move up the variant lineup.

Open top

Unlike the standard Thar, the Thar Roxx only gets a fixed hard top roof and there is a panoramic sunroof as well. But you don’t have the same level of versatility as the 3-door Thar, which comes with a convertible top variant for some proper wind-in-the-hair feels.

On-paper Off-road stats

With the increase in size, the Thar Roxx isn’t as capable as a 3-door Thar, at least on paper. Here’s a table for reference.

The numbers don’t lie, and the increased wheelbase does eat up into the Thar Roxx’s rampover angle. However, there’s only a minor difference in the approach and departure angles, which have actually gotten better in the Thar Roxx’s case. 

But rampover angle is a critical factor while off-roading, as it determines how steep of an obstacle the car can go over. But this is on-paper only, and we are yet to see how the two will compare in the real world.

Easier to maintain interior

Mahindra has made the Thar Roxx’s cabin more accommodating for the family by adding soft touch materials and a dual tone theme, which makes use of light colours. While the new theme is a welcome addition, it won’t be as easy to maintain as the stress-free all-black cabin of the 3-door Thar. For an off-roader, hassle free cabin cleaning is important, so that you don’t have to worry about getting some grouse on it.

While these were the advantages of the 3-door Thar over the Thar Roxx, we’ve also made a list of features that the latter packs over its standard avatar. You can read about those feature additions here. Prices for the Thar Roxx’s rear-wheel drive trims range between Rs 12.99 lakh and Rs 20.49 lakh (ex-showroom). The 3-door Thar retails between Rs 11.34 lakh and Rs 17.60 lakh (ex-showroom).