M&M Dealers Stock Up On Replica Jeep Grille for New Mahindra Thar

The new-gen Mahindra Thar was unveiled earlier this month, on 15th August, and ever since, It is getting praised for its classic 'Jeep' design theme. In this iteration, Mahindra Thar has an uncanny resemblance to the Jeep Wrangler. It should be the case since Mahindra once had the license to build and sell Jeep CJ3b in India and the design direction hasn't changed much in all these years. Of course, no panels of the all-new Thar are identical to the Wrangler, and we're sure it'll be quick to establish its own unique identity. However, there’s a big gripe that almost everyone has with new-gen Thar’s look – its rather quiky radiator grille. It looks like an ugly window of an old house and does miss out on the character that its predecessor had. To address this issue, Mahindra dealers are stocking up on replacement radiator grilles which look a lot like that of the Jeep Wrangler.

In fact, a close look at the spy images of the new-gen Thar reveals that the test units which were seen clocking miles on our roads featured a similar grille. Hence, it's clear that these replacement grilles aren't an afterthought and a part of the company's strategy to steer clear of any sort of legal troble. Mahindra could not design a proper thoroughbred 7-slat grille this time as the Indian brand has faced litigation from Jeep in America for the uncanny resemblance Roxor has with certain Jeep products. To evade the chances of legal trouble back home, Mahindra has opted for a not-so-interesting design for the stock radiator grille. Also, it can be seen in the pictures that the aftermarket grilles will be available in pretty much all the colour options that will be available on the new-gen Thar.

Our dealership sources reveal that the replacement grille will be made available to the interested as soon as the new-gen Thar is launched on October 2. This way, the enthusiasts will not have to head down the aftermarket route for giving their new Thars a true-blue Jeep look. That said, the price of this replacement grille is yet to be revealed. However, since they are made of FRP, we can safely expect them to be pretty affordable.

Talking of the mechanical specifications, the new-gen Thar comes with 2 engine options – 2.0L petrol and 2.2L diesel. The former is a 4-cylinder turbocharged motor and develops 150 Bhp of peak power and 320 Nm of peak torque. The latter, on the other hand, is a 2.2L oil burner that produces a rated output of 130 Bhp and 300 Nm. The gearbox options on both of these engines include a 6-speed AT and 6-speed MT. Also, it gets a low-range transfer case as standard. In the low-ratio, it multiplies the torque by 2.48 times while providing a crawl ratio of 42:1 on both petrol and diesel trims.