By The Straits Times | Created at 2026-08-05 22:11:43 | Updated at 2026-08-05 23:43:09
1 hour ago
NEW DELHI – India is a country where traffic rules often take a backseat. In such a scenario where the rule of law gives way to the rule of might, a domineering on-road presence is helpful. After all, nothing screams “Don’t mess with me” more effectively than a menacing hulk of a sport utility vehicle (SUV).
In India, one SUV particularly – Mahindra Thar – has come to serve that purpose, so much so that it is feared and even loathed by many at the receiving end.
Its drivers often turn out to be those who use their Thars to throw their weight around and bully their way through crowded streets. They even transform packed Indian roads, which demand dexterity and patience, into arenas for reckless stunts with little regard for public safety.
Social media timelines are a scroll of shame for the vehicle with umpteen videos featuring antics and crashes involving Thars.
There’s one where a black Thar mows through several parked two-wheelers as its driver hurtles the wrong way on a busy city street. In another, a Thar driver chases pedestrians more than once, braking just in time to let them escape.
Then there are the more lethal ones – a woman pedestrian being flung in the air by a Thar that races onward instead of stopping to help her. In another, an elderly man is knocked off his two-wheeler by a speeding Thar that shockingly even reverses to hit him again.
Posting this video in July 2025, an X user, @KumaonJagran, tagged its Indian maker Mahindra Automotive and said: “Start mandatory psych tests before selling a Thar. You can’t keep handing weapons to maniacs.”
So maligned is the vehicle’s image that the timeless and eponymous Thar desert would sue the maker for defamation if it could.
Before I proceed further, I must state that I have nothing against drivers who use their Thar responsibly – they perhaps even comprise the majority of Thar owners – or, for that matter, the vehicle’s genuine repute as a capable off-roader.
It is no surprise that the Thar, first introduced in 2010, has become one of Mahindra’s best-selling vehicles.
Admired for its rugged Jeep-like design and genuine off-road capabilities, the vehicle crossed the 300,000 sales milestone in September 2025, five years after the launch of its second-generation model in October 2020. It is even exported to some countries such as Ireland in small numbers by third-party automobile enthusiasts.
In fact, its affordability has turned out to be a double-edged sword for the brand. An entry-level two-wheel drive Thar retails for around one million rupees (S$13,470), far cheaper than other SUVs in India. This makes it the go-to choice for many who want to purchase their first SUV, including those who may not even have the skill to handle a powerful vehicle like the Thar.
“The Thar seems to attract a certain kind of audience – almost always the young man, who has newly come into some money and is looking for a particularly macho car to reinforce their male personality,” said Kushan Mitra, a senior automotive journalist.
“The public at large,” he added, “seems to have condemned the Thar owner to this particular stereotype of a dumb gym bro.”
And because it is a “highly visible” SUV – given its striking design and numbers on the road – the negativity around bad Thar drivers gets more noticed than others, he noted. “This negativity becomes self-reinforcing and keeps getting worse and worse.”
I had long held off writing about Thar but I decided to go ahead when even the state government of Goa felt there is a problem with the vehicle and its drivers. In July 2026, it said it was planning to stop issuing new licences for rental Thar vehicles in the coastal western state because it was involved in several crashes and stunts.
It has even riled up the authorities in Haryana, a northern state. In November 2025 the top cop in the state, O.P. Singh, singled out Thar and Royal Enfield Bullet, a bulky motorcycle, as vehicles “preferred by thugs”.
“Your vehicle choice shows your mindset… Whosoever has a Thar, he is not all there,” he added in his remarks at a press conference.
This understandably left many Thar owners furious. Among them was Sarvo Miter, a 47-year-old resident of Gurugram in Haryana. He even sent a legal notice to Singh, demanding that he retract his comments and issue an apology.
“It is wrong to paint everybody with the same brush,” Miter told me. “Not everybody is a thug or a rogue,” he added, praising the vehicle’s capability to ride across rough terrain, including pothole-ridden roads in Indian cities.
But so pervasive is the image of Thar as an accessory to rowdy drivers that even some Thar owners have grown wary of being seen around them. Among them is my friend Sanket Upadhyay, also a journalist, who owned a Thar but eventually sold it because he grew increasingly uncomfortable with its loutish brand image.
Drawn by the vehicle’s touted all-terrain prowess, he had bought a ‘Tango Red’ Thar in January 2015 when it was still more of a “barebones off-roader”. He enjoyed it while the good times lasted, driving it out of town for extended breaks.
“There were so few of them on the road ten years ago that owning a Thar made you an object of love and desire,” Upadhyay told me. That romance did not last long as the vehicle became more accessible and fell more into the wrong hands – people, he added, with no love for the machine and those who only bought it to “look butch and bully on the road”.
“It was at that point I thought to myself that I don’t want to be a part of this tribe.”
Upadhyay finally sold his red-coloured Thar in 2022, and three years later bought another off-roader – Force Gurkha – that comes with similar power but none of the negative stereotypes associated with his earlier vehicle.
“I have nothing against Mahindra or its machine... I just do not want to be associated with that name (Thar) any more,” he said.
While the company did not respond to a request for a comment, sources say in private that even Mahindra Automotive officials acknowledge that their vehicle suffers from an image problem.
In 2024, it launched the five-door and family-friendly Mahindra Thar ROXX, an upgrade to the three-door Thar, adding more space and upgraded technology. The firm has even roped in Abhay Deol, a Bollywood actor whose polished suave image is far from that of a brute or a thug, as its ambassador.
Meanwhile, responsible Thar drivers are also trying to reclaim the brand’s image with online campaigns that portray the softer side of Thar owners with hashtags such as #IDriveAThar.
But a course correction still seems far away. My intuitive reaction when I see a Thar on the road – while seated in my relatively diminutive hatchback – still remains one of caution and fear.
