Mahindra Thar 5-door To Get C-pillar-mounted Rear Door Handles, New Spy Shots Reveal

• Long-wheelbase Mahindra Thar to get rear doors with C-pillar-mounted handles. 

• The rear doors are smaller than the front doors, but still get a quarter glass and roll-down windows. 

• The five-door Thar will offer similar amenities and a few more creature comforts than the three-door model. 

• Launch expected sometime in 2024, will be priced at a premium over the three-door model. 

The Mahindra Thar will get a long-wheelbase, five-door variant soon, and a new set of spy shots and videos has revealed one of its design cues that had eluded us until now. Thinly-camouflaged test mules caught on camera show that the upcoming Thar’s rear doors will have handles placed at the C-pillar behind the rear window, instead of their usual place near the base of the window. 

Longer Thar’s rear door design

Cutouts for the wheel arches make the five-door Thar’s rear doors a bit smaller than the front doors. Nevertheless, the rear occupants still get a proper roll-down window with a wide rear quarter glass. The door handle is mounted at the C-pillar, but thankfully, the handle assembly doesn’t make the C-pillar too thick, and the large, square window should still be adequate to make the cabin feel airy. 

Mahindra Thar 5-door specs and features 

The longer Thar is likely to get the same 2-litre turbo-petrol and 2.2-litre diesel engines shared between the existing Thar, XUV700 and Scorpio N. In the three-door model, the power outputs are 150PS from the petrol engine and 130PS from the diesel unit, but these figures could be different for the longer, heavier five-door model. 

Both engines should get six-speed manual and automatic options, but since the three-door Thar no longer gets 4x4 as standard, we don’t expect the five-door model to be off-road-ready right from the base model, either. The smaller Thar also gets the option of a 1.5-litre diesel engine, but it remains to be seen if this unit will be offered in the longer-wheelbase version. 

In terms of features, expect a similar equipment list as the existing three-door model with features such as power windows, electrically adjustable ORVMs, cruise control, Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, an MID, multiple airbags, stability control and rear parking sensors. 

The five-door Thar could get the bigger eight-inch infotainment screen from the Scorpio N. It’ll also get more creature comforts such as a roof liner, front-centre armrest with storage and a roof-mounted sunglass holder. 

• Mahindra Thar 5-door Interior Seen For The First Time, Still Can Seat Only 4 People

• CONFIRMED: Mahindra Thar 5-door Will Not Get The Watts Link Suspension From Scorpio N

The five-door Mahindra Thar is a promising, practical SUV that’ll go up against the upcoming Maruti Jimny–also a five-door model–as well as the Force Gurkha that’s about to get longer-wheelbase variants with more doors and seats. We expect Mahindra to launch the SUV by early 2024, priced at a premium over the three-door Thar that retails between Rs 9.99 lakh and Rs 16.49 lakh (ex-showroom). 

Image credits: @Shivay21 (IG)