Cool Jeeps You Can't Have - Mahindra of India

[jscherb]

I need to see how much one of these would cost to import. I'm also curious how much is interchangeable with Jeep. I like your idea though @jscherb, A body swap to something more modern underneath would prove much more bearable for daily driving. There are plenty of donor JKs that could serve well.

I prefer an LJ as a starting point; there are fewer differences between the LJ frame and the Savari body than there would be with a JKU frame, and there are less electronics to worry about, but I'm sure a JKU frame could be made to work. But I doubt all the stuff in the crowded JK engine compartment could be stuffed into the narrower CJ-style engine compartment (more on that below)

Virtually nothing is interchangeable with a U.S. Jeep. Back in the late 40's/early 50's when Mahindra got started making Jeeps (capital J), they imported CKD (completely knocked down) Jeeps and assembled them in India. This is a photo of the first "Mahindra" Jeep, it was manufactured in Toledo and assembled in India:



But over the years Mahindra began putting more and more locally made components into their vehicles and things have diverged so much that today nothing is interchangeable.

For example, Mahinda "CJ" style jeeps (lower case J now, because they're not Toledo Jeeps anymore), including the Savari, have completely different sheet metal than the U.S. CJ's. This next photo is a Mahindra Thar, probably a 2010 or so, and check out the grille and body sheet metal. The headlights don't intersect the grille slats like they do on a U.S. Jeep and the grille is wider. Also check the step out in the tub at the cowl - not a feature of U.S. Jeeps. The doors are completely different, etc.



The Mahindras have a shorter engine compartment because all they have are little four cylinder mills, the front clip similar in length to U.S. CJ's before the AMC-era inline 6 was introduced, so some care will be required when trying to fit a TJ/LJ 4.0 in the smaller engine compartment. Might be that a longer, late-CJ front clip will be required to provide enough engine compartment space, although the TJ engine compartment is even longer than the late-CJ clip. This photo shows a late-CJ hood next to a TJ-length "CJ" hood, and the Mahindra hood is even shorter than the late-CJ hood.



So for proper fit in the engine compartment, I might need to use my TJ-sized custom fiberglass CJ front clip and a factory CJ grille, and that may need modification to line up properly with the Savari cowl.

I have kept all of the molds necessary to make more TJ-length CJ front clip that I put on my LJ, but I might have to customize those parts even further to have them properly fit a Savari cowl/body.



The other benefit of using the fiberglass front clip parts is that the CJ-style/TJ-length front fenders have inner fenders to support all of the TJ engine compartment accessories, making the swap easier because I wouldn't have to figure out where to mount everything.



A new dash and gauges would be in order, I doubt the stuff from the diesel Savari would be adaptable to the Wrangler, but that should be fairly straightforward - a CJ-style flat dash could be done with a bezel to mount the TJ/LJ cluster.

Lots of details to figure out, but I'm sure everything is solvable.

 

[jscherb]

I case anyone is wondering how the Savari compares in size to a TJ and an LJ...

 

[jscherb]

There are many interesting expeditions one can do in/around India. Here's a story from the Indian Team BHP forum about driving a Thar from Bangalore to Tibet: https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travelogues/284761-7200km-drive-tibet-bangalore.html

 

[jscherb]

I posted about the release of the new 4-door Thar, which Mahindra has named "Roxx". Mahindra just posted this image, announcing that there were 176,218 orders for the new Roxx in the first 60 minutes after they opened sales for the new model. I wonder if struggling Jeep is jealous...

 

[jscherb]

Today's post is "Cool jeeps you can have" (assuming you might think these are cool), Mahindra had a presence at SEMA this year, mostly they were outside near the Overland Experience...


Strangely, they were also showing quite a few Mahindra tractors at the show. If you don't know this - Mahindra is the largest tractor manufacturer in the world by unit count, they make and sell more tractors than anyone. But why show them at SEMA?

Here are the Roxors they had on display...



It had leather seats and a leather "glove box".



Half cab and soft full doors on this one:



And on this one:





The "Coastal Cruiser" concept had lots of wood...







You could roll the dice on the back deck of the Coastal Cruiser to win a price, I rolled an 8 and got a really nice metal insulated travel mug with a Mahindra logo on the side.

 

[jscherb]

They also had a small space in the North Hall, showing one Roxor there:

 

[jscherb]

Did you have your Jeep blessed when you bought it?

I'm in India right now and I took this photo at a Hindu temple this afternoon:



It's a new Mahindra Thar. Notice the broken shell of a coconut on the ground under the Thar, the inscription on the hood and the flowers on the hood and the dash. Someone must have just bought this Mahindra, and they brought it to the temple to receive Lord Ganesh's blessings. Lord Ganesh, the diety with the head of an elephant, is responsible for good luck and transportation, among other things, and if the vehicle receives blessings from Ganesh, the vehicle will be protected from accidents. It is common for people to bring their new cars (even a used one they just bought) to a temple for a puja (prayer ceremony) to receive Lord Ganesh's blessings.

In two weeks I'll be taking possession of a new Ineos Grenadier (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ineos_Grenadier), which will become my primary expedition vehicle, retiring my LJ for that purpose. My wife says we need to take it to the temple nearby in Wilmington for a puja.

I'm in India mostly for personal reasons, but I did stop by OO'S production facility to help them with a few things. In this photo, a pile of one of their best-selling products (JK door pockets) awaits final sewing.



In other news - Auxbeam has introduced new switch panels in a slim in-line format. They emailed me the other day to tell me that they've shipped one of each model to me to test, review and post about so stay tuned for reviews of these new panels. I'm looking forward to getting them, the new slim format should be usable in more locations than the older rectangular style switch panels. I'll test them and post a writeup on them when they arrive.

 

[Zeep]

What's the translation of the script on the windshield?

 

[jscherb]

What's the translation of the script on the windshield?

India has about 20 major local languages and many minor ones; in Delhi and much of the north Hindi is the main language, and this Mahindra was at a temple in Delhi, but the script is in Punjabi. The Punjab is a state to the west of Delhi, it's one of the states bordering Pakistan. It's a state which is predominantly Sikh, and the home of the Golden Temple, which is the most holy place in the Sikh religion.



There's nobody in the house here who is fluent in Punjabi (least of all me!), but this appears to be a Sikh mantra or chant, which roughly means "Be always with God."

So probably the person who owns this Mahindra is a Sikh from Punjab living in Delhi (Delhi license plates on the Mahindra), and they are at a Hindu temple to get the Mahindra blessed. Now Sikh temples are called Gurudwaras, so why is he at a Hindu temple? The priests at Gurudwaras generally don't do vehicle blessings, and since religion is somewhat fungible in India, he's at a Hindu temple for this puja.

More than you wanted to know, but many things in India are complicated .

As long as I'm doing an India lesson...

The Punjab is one of the states where jeeps (lower case J) are very popular and many of them are highly accessorized and optioned in that state. The other "jeep state" is Rajasthan, a desert state also bordering Pakistan, and in that state there are lots and lots of very old jeeps still in regular service, all the way back to Willys MB's surplussed out of WWII.

One more thing - if you ever get to India and visit the Golden Temple (it's in Amritsar in the Punjab), go a few miles west and watch the India/Pakistan border closing ceremony - if you've ever been to a high school pep rally, this is one on a grand scale. There are "cheer leaders" on both sides, encouraging the folks on the Indian side to yell "Hin-du-stan" ("India") at the top of their lungs and the Pakis are yelling "Pak-i-stan". There's a very formal marching ritual to close the border, with the Indian and Pakistan army guards trying to outdo each other in marching precision.

The closing ritual:



The grandstands, looking from the India side. The India grandstand is much larger than the one in Pakistan, so the noise from the Indian crowd way overpowers the noise from the other side.



Even as only an American with an OCI card (the Indian equivalent of a US Green Card), I found the ceremony extremely inspiring.

Sorry for the very long India lesson, I'm sure it's way more than you ever wanted to know but I'm passionate about my semi-adopted country.

 

[oldnslow]

Sorry for the very long India lesson, I'm sure it's way more than you ever wanted to know but I'm passionate about my semi-adopted country.

No apology needed, I found it very interesting.

India society (and other Asian societies) are so different from American / western society that it is often difficult for us to understand why they do some of the things they do, and that can lead to closed minds. Most Americans, myself included, don't travel to other countries enough to understand and appreciate other societies.

 

[jscherb]

Took a quick flight from Delhi to Jodhpur this morning. Landed at the combined commercial airport/air force base in Jodhpur, this is the commercial terminal:



Notice the Mahindra jeep just to the left of center in the photo above. Here's a closer photo... it's a Thar belonging to the CISF - Central Industrial Security Force and it looks like he's got his finger on the trigger.



CISF or Police jeeps with machine guns are not uncommon at medium-sized airports in India.

On the way to our destination outside Jodhpur, we stopped at a Mahindra showroom so I could check out the new Thar Roxx (4-door).



I've driven rented 2-door Thars here and I like them a lot; I wasn't disapointed by the 4-door. If I lived here I'd be driving a Thar for sure.

Check the Easter Eggs in the rear quarter windows:



One reason I wanted to check out the Roxx was to see if they had made any changes to the interior that would require altering the designs I did for OO a while back. OO is getting ready to launch in India and it would be good to know if the Thar-specific designs I did for the 2-door also work in the 4-door. I wanted to check these three specifically - the door pockets, the tailgate panel, and the Grab Bar pockets, all shown here installed on a 2-door:







They all will work fine in the Roxx.

 

[jscherb]

I'm in Jaipur today, it's in the Indian state of Rajasthan. This Mahindra Thar was in the parking lot of my hotel. Apparently the owner is a member of one of the local Jeep clubs. I'm wondering if he's done much off-roading in the deserts of Rajasthan...

 

[jscherb]

I'm in India right now (and for medical reasons will be for at least the next five weeks but that's another sad story) and I saw a Thar with fold-up troop seats the other day. I know that's not a factory option so I did some searching and found these from Indian aftermarket company Bimbra: https://bimbra.in/products/thar-parallel-seats-covers/. The photo below is from their web site. I'll bet something like this for Wranglers would find a market in the US, the only problem is that the inner fenders on Wranglers are much higher than those on Mahindras so fitting folding troop seats in the Wrangler might be a challenge.

 

[Zeep]

Hope you're okay Jeff. I would prefer those to the factory fold and tumble. I've had the rear seat out of my LJR, since day two of ownership.

 

[jscherb]

I

Yes this is what I essentially was getting at without saying it. Many of the vehicles we have in the US are just not robust compared to other parts of the world. In terms of physical strength of frames and components, and also reliability of electrical components and highly computerized systems - however, a lot of that has to do with the fact our road systems are so darn nice and smooth compared to such rural areas - like Mongolia for example. And again, compared to most of these places, the US is also a modern 1st world country where long distance travel on unimproved roads doesn't even exist anymore.

I'm really interested to see the vehicles you cover here.... and hope you can get into some details where possible of engines, computer systems (if they even exist) frame differences, etc.... It's just surprising to me that in the US and Canada we have such relatively fragile vehicles, it really questions if modern convenience is even worth the risk - then again we, at least currently, have the infrastructure to support such fragile systems, due to very good quality roads compared to the rest of the world. And of course the desire for such high speed travel plays into that as well. Obviously going 80 on a nasty dirt road isn't really an option, yet in lesser developed countries, travel is significantly slower and more time consuming - dare I say that to be a good thing??

I haven't had the back seat in my LJ in years either. I did have folding jump seats in the back of my Scrambler years ago and they were very handy.

Hurt my foot 2 weeks before leaving for India, it was getting better by the time I got on the plane but in India it got worse and doctor here says I have torn ligaments and will need a cast and will have to stay off it for weeks. I see him again today or tomorrow and will find out then if I can travel back to US in a few days.