We drive the 2025 Mahindra Thar which gets more kit now!

Battleship Grey. That’s the first striking change you’ll notice on the updated Mahindra Thar. Colour is always the first handshake a car gives you, and this one feels firm, confident, and frankly rather gorgeous. But paint alone doesn’t make an update. The Thar now comes with more kit, clever touches inside, and a cabin that actually feels like it was designed for people and not just camping gear. Of course, the core character hasn’t been tampered with – it’s still a proper off-roader and a surprisingly competent road car. To put it through its paces, we take it to Mahindra Adventure’s Off-Road Training Academy in Igatpuri, the Thar’s spiritual playground.

2025 Mahindra Thar exterior

As I said, the Battleship Grey makes an impression, but there’s also a new Tango Red. It’s a brighter, fresher red that suits the Thar far better than the slightly angry Red Rage of the older car. Move past the paint and you’ll spot some subtle changes on the nose. The halogen headlamps, dual-tone bumper, and LED DRLs with fog lamps remain, but the grille has been tweaked. The vertical 7-slat grille gets body-coloured instead of the plasticky black it was available in earlier. The exterior apart from this remains the same, except for these small but worthy updates. Look at the fuel lid, and you will notice that there’s no keyhole now. Why? Well if the answer isn’t obvious already, you’ll find it when I move to talking about the interior bit. Other updates include a reverse camera with guidelines, and a very desperately required rear wiper. While these add-ons are a bonus, the real changes lie on the inside.

2025 Mahindra Thar interior

Step in, and that’s where the first bell strikes. Instead of trying to grip the ’wheel or dash while getting in, you’ll notice yourself using the grab handles on the A-pillar, and that makes getting in so much easier. Next up is the steering wheel. There’s a new, much lighter ’wheel now – it's the same one that’s there in the Thar Roxx, Scorpio N, and the XUV 700. Coming to the point about the fuel lid, there’s no keyhole anymore because there’s finally a button now. It’s placed on the panel next to the steering wheel and is easily accessible. The biggest change, though, is staring you in the face. The clunky old 7-inch infotainment unit has been binned in favour of a slick 10.25-inch touchscreen. Running Mahindra’s latest OS, it feels intuitive, modern, and – importantly – it works properly from day one. Wired Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are standard, and the system also houses version two of the Adventure Statistics app. This is the nerdy bit. You get an Off Road display that shows incline and decline angles, gradients, altimeter, compass, and more. The On Road display setting shows power and torque outputs, oil temperatures, engine temps, and more. There’s also a Racing display which is a laptimer, and can help you time your 0 to 100kmph runs or runs around obstacle courses. The Custom setting lets you customise the parameters you want on the screen. It’s genuinely useful, and will make aftermarket add-ons unnecessary going further.

The next noticeable update are the window switches. They’ve been relocated from the centre to the doors now, and there’s also a bottle holder on both doors now. Life hasn’t only become better for the front row passengers but also the rear. There’s a type C charging port and AC vents for the rear passengers, and this is also another change which was required as the folks behind generally become toast.

2025 Mahindra Thar engine

The powertrains are also the pillars of why the Thar sells so strongly. The engine options and its state of tune remains the same because it didn’t need to be changed. The 2-litre turbo petrol makes 164bhp and 320Nm, and the 2.2-litre diesel engine pushes out 130bhp and 300Nm. While the petrol is powerful, fast and more refined between both engine options, it is a gas-guzzling option. The wiser choice would be to go for the diesel engine, most likely mated to the Aisin sourced 6-speed automatic transmission. You also have the 6-speed MT, but it makes slightly less power than the automatics.

2025 Mahindra Thar off-road kit

But all this wouldn’t matter if the Thar didn’t still excel at what it was born to do – laugh in the face of rough terrain. The fundamentals remain unchanged: a second lever for switching between 2H, 4H and 4L, a 41.8-degree approach angle, 27-degree ramp-over, 36-degree departure, and 650mm water-wading depth. The interior and dashboard are IP54-rated, which means a bit of splashing won't hurt, and drain plugs in the floor let you hose it down after a muddy adventure. Mechanically, you still get an electronic driveline disconnect and a brake-locking differential, making off-road ability almost idiot-proof.

2025 Mahindra Thar driving impressions

Get behind the ’wheel of the Thar and it still drives very familiarly. Mahindra did not let us test this car on the road, but they also said that there is no change to the way it drives. I have some opinion on that too, but let me save that for later and talk about where we did drive the car. And that’s off-road. This was my first time at Mahindra Adventure’s Off-Road Training Academy and if you haven’t been here yet, let me tell you this experience is a must. The obstacles are extreme and are suited to the Thar, but in a wild forest like setting. The Thar went through deep water, heavy mud tracks that were extremely slippery, some steep hill climbs and descents too where we checked out the Hill Descent Control. It’s a tried and tested machine, and there are no two words about the Thar being a great off-roader. But most importantly, this is another update that I noticed while I was driving because my arm was laying on it. There’s a centre armrest now. Stationary for the passenger, and a sliding one for the driver. Much like in the Thar Roxx. While driving there’s also another update that came to light. And that is the dead pedal now! An incremental update but one that was necessary too, as earlier you would always struggle to find a spot to keep your left foot rested in the automatics.

I didn’t drive this on the road, but I have driven the pre-updated Thar on the road, and its good. Power is adequate, the gearbox shifts well, ground clearance is more than enough, and the car is small enough to get through city traffic too. But what was not good, and it probably still continues is the ride quality. The suspension is too stiff and always busy, the ride is unsettled and bouncy, and it crashes into potholes. It’s a pity, because Mahindra already has the fix in-house – their clever MTV-CL shocks and Frequency Dependent Damping, which transform ride comfort in other models. If those had been fitted here, the Thar would have been near faultless. This is one major concern that should have been addressed in this update. Still, as a daily driver it’s surprisingly usable. Compact dimensions help in city traffic, the engines provide enough poke for the highway, and with the new cabin tech, it feels more like a modern SUV than ever before. Unfortunately you don’t get to have the wind in your hair feel anymore, because the soft top version of the Thar was discontinued some time ago and it stays like that.

2025 Mahindra Thar price and verdict

The updated Thar, then, is still the same lovable bruiser, but it’s learnt a few manners. All these years in our previous reviews we have always called out the Thar because it didn’t have basic stuff like remote fuel lid release, dead pedal, grab handles, rear AC vents, and how bad the info screen was. Mahindra has finally listened to everyone’s concerns and updated the car with what it really required. It retains its mountain-goat ability, its street presence, and its cult charm, while finally offering the kind of usability that makes it more than just a weekend toy. It’s the rare off-roader that doubles up as a family car, the kind of SUV that feels at home both on a coffee run and on a trail where Google Maps gives up. Fifteen years ago, the idea of the Thar as your primary car would’ve sounded like a joke. Today, it isn’t just possible – it’s actually tempting. Especially when prices for this tamed Thar start from ₹9.99 lakh for the AXT RWD MT (base) variant powered by the 1.5-litre D117 CRDe diesel and go all the way to ₹16.99 lakh for the LXT 4WD AT (top) variant as driven by us, that is powered by the 2.2-litre mHawk diesel engine (all prices are ex-showroom).