For years the choice of a proper five-door off-roader in India was no choice at all. Now there are two serious contenders — the hugely popular Mahindra Thar Roxx and the uncompromising Force Gurkha 5-Door — and they represent genuinely different ideas of what tough should mean.
Both will embarrass a soft SUV the moment the tarmac ends. The question is what you want the other ninety percent of the time.
The Thar Roxx: usable tough
The Roxx is the more rounded machine, with a comfier road ride, a plusher cabin and enough on-road manners that you could genuinely daily it without gritting your teeth.
The Gurkha answers with hardware. Its portal-inspired ruggedness, standard diff locks and go-anywhere gearing make it the more serious tool the instant the going turns truly ugly.
Buy the Roxx to live with. Buy the Gurkha to escape with.
— Our buying-desk summary
The verdict
If most of your driving is city with occasional adventure, the Roxx is the smarter, easier ownership proposition. If your weekends genuinely involve river crossings, the Gurkha earns its compromises.
Neither is wrong. Be honest about how hardcore your driving actually is, and the right answer picks itself.