u/meanderer1390

I never really thought much about the Thar Roxx before driving it. In fact, before I drove it, I was thinking I would probably be more of a Jimny guy.

I haven’t driven the Jimny yet, but I thought that for the purpose of off-roading, the Jimny is narrow and you can take it through trails without any tension. The Thar is so fucking wide that I thought it was going to be an unwieldy mess to drive.

But when I finally drove the Roxx, I was floored.

I have only driven monocoques so far. I have a Ford Freestyle 1.5 TDCi, and I have travelled across India in that car twice, from Bangalore to Assam. It is a perfectly adequate car—in fact, it is a great car. You can cruise at 110–120 on the highway, it rides well, handles well and gives you good driver involvement. If it wasn’t great, I probably wouldn’t have taken it across India twice, right?

My first proper long drive in the Thar Roxx was around 370–400 kilometres, from Sivasagar to Guwahati. And the experience was completely different from the Freestyle.

The Roxx is not as flat-riding as a monocoque. There is always some jiggly motion, and the chassis does not feel as tight in the handling sense as my Freestyle. You can feel the body moving and leaning. But the way in which it rolls and then controls itself is so good.

It is soft, but it is a controlled soft.

You know the body will lean, but it is not unnerving. It is almost like the car is telling you, “Hey, this is me. This is my nature. But I am here, don’t worry.”

That still gives you confidence. It doesn’t egg you on to push faster or attack corners. The driving feel itself is more easygoing. But everything is so well judged and controlled that you feel connected to the machine.

The way the car softens all the sharp edges is something I did not expect. Big potholes and broken sections that would make you slow down or brace yourself in another car are all rounded off. The tyres are so massive that many potholes don’t even register in the same way they would in a smaller vehicle.

There is also no worrying sound from the suspension while it is doing its job. No loud thud or crash that makes you wonder whether something has broken underneath. The suspension doesn’t feel like it is bottoming out. It just does its work quietly. Nothing makes you feel worried.

The steering does have kickback when you go through bigger potholes, and I actually like that body-on-frame character. But even the kickback is soft. Everything is soft. You feel what is happening, so you are still connected, but the car mutes the sharpness for you. You experience the character without experiencing the harshness.

It feels composed, sophisticated and like you are in something premium.

It is not comfortable on every kind of surface, though. When the road has continuous ripples or is constantly going up and down, there is a jiggling motion that can get uncomfortable. I think the driver will enjoy the car more than the passengers on those sections.

But considering that this is part of the character of the vehicle itself, I don’t really mind it. This is not supposed to feel like a low-slung monocoque highway car.

Then the 2.2-litre mHawk diesel engine.

The way it delivers torque from around 1,000 rpm, sometimes even slightly below that, means you really don’t have to make too many gear changes. I have driven it only a little inside smaller cities, and around 95% of my driving has been on highways. But even in the slower sections, you can pick third or fourth gear and almost drive it like an automatic.

I am driving the manual, and even on very steep slopes, the way the clutch engages and the power comes through makes it very effortless. You don’t have to constantly adjust the accelerator, worry about slipping the clutch or carefully manage both of them just to climb.

I am experienced, so I know how to do these things. But still, I could not stop noticing how easy Mahindra has made it. Even somebody with much less experience could do these things without feeling scared.

The whole car is very inviting in that sense.

From outside, it looks intimidating. It is big, wide and has so much presence. But once you are inside, it doesn’t make you feel scared at all. It feels like this thing is there for you. It is not trying to intimidate you; it is just there to show you a good time. That is all it wants.

As a result, you are not constantly thinking about its size. You can just drive. The intimidation is only outside; from inside, it is very easy.

The NVH is also so much better than I expected. Yes, wind noise starts coming in above 100 km/h, but overall, I was not expecting the Roxx to be this refined. You can have conversations with your family inside the car without raising your voice. From inside, it genuinely feels like a very premium product.

Mine is the MX5 version, which is basically around ₹19 lakh on-road, but it feels like a lot more than it costs. The interior looks premium, everything feels well-built, and you get all the features you actually need. Some of the switches and plastic quality could have been better, and the software is glitchy. But mechanically, what a solid piece of machine.

The under-thigh support could also have been better, and the footwell area is quite cramped. These are probably my biggest practical complaints.

But apart from these things, you don’t feel like you are making some huge compromise to drive a proper SUV. That is what surprised me. It still has the character and capability of a thoroughbred off-roader, but Mahindra has rounded off its qualities so well that it can appeal to almost anybody.

Before living with it, it was very easy for me to judge the Roxx by looking at it from outside. Once you spend some time with it, you understand why the appeal is so strong.

On Indian highways, the Roxx gives you this feeling that you don’t really have to think about what the roads will be like. Other cars may overtake you when the highway is perfectly smooth. I am happy cruising at 90–110. But once the roads become bad, those cars have to slow down while the Roxx can continue at more or less the same comfortable pace.

You may not be doing 130–140, but you can just go through the roads without a care in the world. It is that total carefree feeling, along with the visibility, high seating position and those big mirrors. I feel like I am driving a truck.

And that too, what a fantastic truck.

Every time I walk up to it, and even when I park it and walk away, it feels like I have been driving something substantial. Every drive feels like an experience. It makes you feel good and more alive. It makes you want to go somewhere.

With my Freestyle, even though it is a great car and I know it can do long journeys, if it is eight o’clock at night and I suddenly think of doing a 200–400 km round trip, I will still think: Is it required? How are the roads? Do I really want to drive for six or seven hours now?

I can do it, of course. But the Roxx removes that thought completely.

With the Roxx, it is simply: let’s go. Whenever, wherever.

I would still have a use for my Freestyle. It is a small pocket rocket, has fantastic fuel efficiency and is always there when I want to attack a few corners. For regular runabouts also, it makes complete sense.

But when I just want to explore and let the road guide me, it will always be the Roxx.

Maybe to round off the garage, I would need something like a 7XO as the pure highway cruiser, the Roxx for exploration and the Freestyle for regular runabouts. Maybe that is the dream garage I am slowly building towards.

This may sound dramatic, but I genuinely think people should experience cars like this. Sometimes these machines can give you a jolt or a wave of motivation. Maybe they can help you sort out some issues in your life and put you on a path to getting things right.

Because it has surely done that for me.

Now I keep thinking that I need to sort my life out, work towards that 7XO or whatever comes next, travel more and have more experiences like this. This one machine has made me fall in love with driving again. In some way, it has made me fall in love with my life again.

What a fantastic product by Mahindra.

I'm in love.

These days, I feel like we don’t really see blue skies anymore in Guwahati.

Most days, the sky is just grey, or some shade of grey-blue. Even when there is blue, it feels mixed with heavy haze. The whole environment feels duller somehow, like the colours are muted.

Around 10 years ago, especially in October, and I distinctly remember picking up my camera in the evenings to go for photo walks because the sunsets were so brilliant. Assam, in my memory, was green, vibrant, and full of charm. I don’t get that feeling anymore, at least not in Guwahati.

And I know this matters to me because blue skies and vibrant colours genuinely make me feel alive. Even during low phases, when my mood is down, a clear blue sky and bright natural colours can energize me almost instantly. That used to happen much more often here. But now, I don’t feel that same lift as frequently.

The sky itself feels different now. Sunsets don’t seem as dramatic. You don’t really see the sun going all the way down to the horizon. Instead, there is often this thick, dark grey band above the horizon, and the sun just disappears into it. The colours don’t explode the way they used to. I remember sunsets with dramatic shades, fiery clouds, and that golden-orange glow spreading across the sky, slowly giving way to pinks, purples, and then the deep blue of night. Of course, good sunsets still happen occasionally, but they feel rare now. But most days, the majority of days really, it’s just dull, like there’s a grey wash over everything. It feels like looking through a dusty, clouded window.

Even the clouds feel different. Those sharp distinct clouds, and clear deep blue skies seem to show up only around August or September now, at least from what I’ve noticed. October, which I used to associate with beautiful sunsets, doesn’t feel the same anymore. Then the winter gloom takes over, and we all know winter is bad AQI-wise and is very dull. But even now, in May and June, long after winter is gone, the haze still seems to stay.

It almost feels like the old glory of Assam, the way I remember it, is not as visible anymore. I dont feel as alive as before. Or maybe this is just limited to Guwahati. Maybe in places far away from guwahati, things are different?

I strongly feel this is not just nostalgia. But I also know that we sometimes paint a prettier picture of the past than it really was. So I keep wondering: has Guwahati actually changed this much, or am I comparing today to a slightly romanticized memory?

Is this something only I’m noticing? What do you guys think?

TL;DR: Guwahati just feels a lot duller and hazier to me now than it did 10 years ago. I remember clearer blue skies, more vibrant sunsets, and colours that made the place feel alive. These days that feeling seems much rarer. Is anyone else noticing this, or am I just remembering the past too fondly?

Assam countrysides feels like a dream!

I thought I was a Jimny guy. Then I drove the Thar Roxx.

Do you see deep blue skies anymore?

Awesome Assam

Ran out of zoom

One day, Guwahati will grow into the beauty it was born with

Sunset - shot with galaxy s23 20x zoom