From dream ride to street menace: Is the Mahindra Thar losing its way?

Once the symbol of rugged adventure and mountain dreams, the Mahindra Thar is now making headlines for all the wrong reasons.

Transcript

00:00Three cities, three Thars, three crashes. The Mahindra Thar was once the poster child for

00:08mountain drives and rugged road trips. Launched in 2010, redesigned in 2020 and inspired by the

00:14Willys Jeeps of World War II. It was built for rocks, rivers and raw adventures but now it's

00:18fast becoming the bad boy SUV of Indian streets. Big, bold and boxy with a two-meter turbo engine

00:23and over 1.8 tons of metal. The Thar screams presence but is that presence now turning

00:28hostile from influencers flexing it on reels to rowdies using it to settle fights. This isn't

00:33the PR Mahindra had in mind. Even the Thar's rugged ad campaign made for real off-roaders now seem to

00:38echo something darker. Dominance, defiance and sometimes danger. What's heartbreaking though is

00:43what the Thar meant for so many. For years the Thar wasn't just a car, it was a dream. The kind of

00:49dream that boys pinned on their walls, that made you imagine bonfires and spiti and solo drives to

00:53Ladakh. It stood for something raw and real, something aspirational. So, the question is,

00:59has the Thar become too cool for its own good or are reckless drivers just turning a great machine

01:03into a public threat? Tell us what you think in the comments below.