Rhino08 said:
My 2 cents on this...
The tempo Trax SUV's are really people transporters, very basic and hardy.. The Gurkha however is a bit of an exception in that it is made to order and was really designed for the indian army.. it is truly amazing offroad, however a very difficult daily drive to live with and hence is only seen in the hands of true offroaders...
The Mahindra Bolero, The Tata Safari are two other indian offroader are better daily drives and still are very capable offroaders...
Can't compare them in any way........Trax SUV's are utilitarian and their low cost of entry meant people with low budget could well afford it. Its MB power train and G460 based design coupled with super strong suspension and tubular chassis meant it was the most reliable vehicle on Indian roads. The legendary OM616 coupled to MB G1-18 tranny and 407d diff rated for 3 tons meant average life of 400,000+ miles with moderate maintenance and severe abuse even when loaded beyond its design. Its common to see the Trax carrying 30 people at once. The Tata Safari or Mahindra doesn't have the basic credentials to be off roaders in any sense. Weak diffs, poor engine which starts drinking oil by 50,000 miles, horrid suspension which breaks down when taken off road on regular basis means they are occasional off roaders at best. The Gurkha with IFS is a dream on or off road but till now only few of them were given to the Indian public as most were meant for Germany, South Africa and other places including Israel. Thats the reason you don't see them on road but you will see them in Europe if you look carefully as they are hard to discern from older G460s. Btw have you driven a Gurkha to pass this judgement on it? OTOH, I have kept both Safari 4x4 and Mahindra Grand Armada 4x4 and few of my relatives own the nightmare called Scorpio, the 4x4 is a veritable joke needing coupling fix after few off road jaunts. Neither the Safari nor the Mahindra has any pedigree from the likes of Mercedes or any other reputed brand, the Safari DICOR was based on their nasty 407 turbo truck engine and before that, the hopelessly unreliable Peugot XUD engine, same goes for Scorpio which started its life with a modified Perkins engine courtsey M/S AVL.
FYI, Gurkha was and never will be designed for the pauper Indian army, their budget is a meagre Rs. 280,000 per vehicle plus kickbacks, Gurkha with imported German made components cross the Rs.500,000 scale and therefore even though it was demoed to Indian army, it was made for export to Germany and rest of Europe as a true 4WD utility vehicle which was marketed for farmers who needed a true off roader minus frills. It was the brainchild of Dr. Bacher who was on board of Bajaj Tempo via Tempo Mercedes Benz. In 87 it was and still remains the only Indian made vehicle to meet and get tough German TUV. Best of all German off road mag tested it and gave it the title of Haarter Im Buschtaxi and called it a toughest off roader ever to be tested. The Safari and Mahindra vehicles all have clearance of less than 200mm compared to Gurkha's whopping 238mm which makes even the TLC look small makes it the only contender for off roading along the likes of TLC FJ, Nissan Patrol LR Defender, JEEP Rubicon and G Wagen.
For further reading take a look at this site.
http://www.force4x4.com/vehicle_main.html
