BHPian ravishankr89 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

I got my Thar P MT HT Grey 10 days ago. It's my only car and I plan to keep it like that. Will try my best to give you guys an honest review as there is very little info on the manual petrol version of the Thar online. I have done only 1000 kms so far and just got my complimentary service done today.

I got some OEM accessories fitted:

I drove straight to an after-market accessories shop in Goa. Got the below accessories fitted:

A day after I got the fittings done, I drove Goa to Bombay. It was a 600km (approx) drive. I was doing about 80-100 kmph on the speedo. It took me about 9.5hrs with two stops.

This is Thar's strong point. It's a head-turner. Everybody looks in admiration. Most vehicles on the road just let you go looking at the sheer size of the vehicle. I am going for a more rugged kind of look for my Thar and have many mods planned in the near future. The grille is a bit of a let down so plan to change it soon. I love the look with the roof carrier on it. Adds to its raw nature.

I got the MRF Wanderer tyres on my vehicle which look much better than the Ceat ones in my opinion. The ugly blue soap coating on the white writing is hard to remove and takes a bit of work. It took me about 4-5hrs to get it off. Once it comes off, the white writing looks very sporty. Personally, I wish the blue covering would come off easily. Mine is a 2022 August model so my bumpers are fully black unlike the older one with the grey garnish.

The petrol engine is deadly. The power is superb. The car reacts the way you expect it to. It moves when you want it to thanks to the turbo. 150 bhp with 300 Nm of torque makes this car quite agile and powerful. It never lets you down. Gear shifting is easy though a bit on the harder side. The clutch is super soft and feels like a clutch of a hatchback. On idling the engine is so so quiet, you can barely tell if the car is on. The engine is that refined. In the cabin, the engine noise is negligible.

On the FE aspect, I tested it on the 600kms drive from Goa to Bombay. On the highway, the AFE showed 10.2. I used cruise control on 90kmph a lot and was mostly between 80-100kmph. The first 250 off kms were a lot of ghats and bad roads so my mileage then was around 9.7 and then on the highway it rose to 10.2. Currently, I am driving it in Bombay traffic and it's dropped to 9.5. I will be the happiest if my mileage in the city touches 10. Since my usage is limited, I didn't go for the diesel. My car will be parked more than used so petrol made sense and FE won't matter that much in the long run.

I love the power on the petrol manual Thar and I have always preferred a manual gearbox as it feels more in control for me. It's a lot more fun to drive a manual and somehow the manual feels right for an SUV like Thar which is a proper driver's car. It's all heart and that should be enjoyed through a manual gearbox.

All-black interiors are my favorite. Especially on a car like the Thar. The plastic quality isn't bad. The overall cabin does look modern yet simplistic. I decided to get Tan and black seat covers to make it look sportier. Noticed a few things that I haven't read about during my Thar research which I thought deserved a mention.

The infotainment system has a lot of features. People complain about the car not having many features but I have moved from a Swift to the Thar so I feel the feature list is long and more than sufficient for me. Like they say, what you don't know about cannot hurt you. True for me.

What I dislike is the fact that the infotainment always starts on the radio mode and sometimes the volume is at zero too. It's a bit irritating and the volume level is inconsistent. Wish I could decide the mode in which it should start. The other issue is that the Bluetooth doesn't always connect. Sometimes it doesn't connect until the key is removed and put back in. I noticed that it's happening a lot lesser than it did initially. I also would have liked to rearrange the icons on the home menu to my preference. Navigation should have been on the first page itself but you have to scroll to get it.

This is where I feel Mahindra could have done better. Body roll is noticeable. Keeping in mind that it is an off-roader, I feel the on-road manners could have been better and not so bouncy. Turning at higher speeds doesn't give me confidence from a stability point of view. Speed-wise, I felt quite comfortable till 110kmph. Honestly, I haven't pushed it beyond 110 yet or done any heavy braking as such to judge better. Normal highway braking, I didn't find anything off. Wish the suspension was better tuned to give the driver that confidence on the highway because the reality is that even to get to the off-roading places, one has to do quite a bit of highway driving usually.

Overall, so far I am enjoying this beast of a machine and look forward to creating many wonderful memories with it. If you guys have any advice for me with regard to the Thar maintenance, please do let me know.

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.

Keep yourself tuned in to the Indian automotive scene via Twitter, Youtube or RSS feeds.