Goa needs to curb rental Thars: Why SUVs aren’t in a position to outrun reckless-driving notion
Goa will cease issuing new rental licences for Mahindra Thars, the state transport minister Mauvin Godinho stated on Monday, after a string of deadly crashes involving the SUVs turned the automobile right into a contentious road-safety image.
Godinho informed reporters {that a} proposal to limit permits for self-drive rental Thars could be introduced to the state transport authority (STA). Had the legislation allowed it, he stated, the federal government would have banned rental Thars outright as a result of they’d “an excessive amount of pace and no management”.
The choice got here after two accidents. In February, a rented Thar killed 65-year-old Bhopal vacationer Bhagat Ram Sharma at Assagao. In Might, a Thar pushed by a vacationer, believed to be inebriated, killed a 32-year-old man and critically injured a minor in North Goa.
It isn’t the primary time Thars have run into controversy.
In November 2025, then-Haryana director normal of police O.P. Singh stated Thar and Bullet motorbike house owners in Gurugram tended in direction of a reckless mindset, and that the SUV was “not a automotive”, however a “assertion”. A Gurugram resident who used a Thar had subsequently despatched Singh a authorized discover, demanding a public apology for the reputational hurt.
That picture isn’t unique to the Thar. Different SUVs – amongst them the Scorpio and Fortuner – have earned related reputations, usually related to drivers who defy site visitors guidelines and carry out stunts posted on social media.
Additionally learn: HT Auto
The psychology of larger, taller, harder
Analysis on client behaviour gives partial explanations for the recognition of SUVs and their repute.
A 2025 paper within the journal Human Settlements and Sustainability discovered that SUV patrons cite dominant highway presence and a way of safety among the many fundamental causes for the acquisition. The automobiles’ elevated seating positions and rugged exteriors create a way of safety, even when security trials and knowledge may present in any other case.
A 2022 survey of 100 respondents in Odisha’s Bhubaneswar, revealed within the Worldwide Journal of Analysis Publication and Evaluations, stated that SUV patrons ranked security, off-road skill, ruggedness, area and standing amongst their high causes for selecting the 4×4 automobiles. It additionally described SUV purchases as “aspirational”.
One other 2022 research within the journal Vitality Analysis & Social Science, primarily based on a survey of practically 1,000 Vancouver residents in Canada, stated SUV house owners regarded their automobiles as a standing image that signaled success.
Equally, a 2023 research within the journal European Chemical Bulletin, centered on patrons within the Delhi-NCR, referred to an identical drift.
Customers more and more describe utility automobiles, together with SUVs and compact SUVs, as economical, highly effective and trendy reasonably than merely utilitarian, with affordability, type and standing cited as the principle drivers of demand, alongside dimension, visibility and towing capability.
Social media has scaled up this id, a Might 2024 paper analysing on-line posts on the Thar famous. It stated digital platforms “amplify its rugged allure whereas silencing pragmatic considerations, making a suggestions loop of want”. Individually, on-line teams such because the ‘Gang of Thars’, which has an Instagram following of 16,200, have constructed a neighborhood across the automobile.
Additionally learn: Goa Thar accident: Delhi pupil booked, will get bail after Bhopal man dies
Driving-behaviour research
Analysis throughout international locations has pointed to a sample as soon as a driver is behind the wheel of an SUV.
A 2017 observational research, revealed within the journal Wiener klinische Wochenschrift and performed at three busy intersections in Austrian capital Vienna, recorded 43,168 peculiar automobiles and 5,653 SUVs. Of this, 13.8% of the drivers didn’t put on the seatbelt, 3.1% used a handheld telephone, and a pair of.5% ran pink lights.
The violations have been extra frequent amongst SUV drivers than different passenger automobiles, the research famous.
One other simulator research, revealed within the journal Visitors Damage Prevention in 2006, examined the impact of upper seat positioning. Drivers seated larger selected quicker speeds, sped up or slowed down extra usually, and saved a much less constant lane place than these seated decrease, regardless that the upper vantage level had no impact on following distance to a slower automobile forward, the research discovered.
Then, a 2006 research in TheBMJ analysed drivers at intersections in London and located that these in four-wheel-drive automobiles – or SUVs – have been 4 instances extra possible than different drivers to be seen utilizing a handheld telephone, and considerably extra prone to skip sporting a seatbelt.
Additionally learn: 5 held, six automobiles seized for stunt video on NH-919 in Nuh
‘Blame the driving force, not the automobile’
The research reinforce a part of a pushback that SUV drivers have been making – it’s not the automobiles as a lot as a social behavioural concern with some.
On fashionable Reddit discussion board CarsIndia, as an example, threads on a automobile’s public picture commonly set off spirited debates. Indian actor Rohit Roy, a Thar proprietor, had argued after the Haryana DGP’s feedback that the “automotive is not the issue, the individuals are”. He famous that he additionally owns six superbikes and has by no means used them to carry out stunts. Actor and automotive fanatic Gul Panag additionally spoke towards sweeping generalisations about house owners of SUVs.
Equally, Amarjit Singh of the ‘Gang of Thars’ on-line group had stated it was unfair to classify a complete possession base by the actions of a visual few.
HT reached out to Mahindra with requests for remark by way of e-mail. The report might be up to date if and when there’s a response.
Regardless of the reputational stress, the industrial one is firmly in favour of SUVs. Utility automobiles, the class that features SUVs and compact SUVs, captured a file 67% share of India’s passenger automobile market within the 2025-2026 monetary 12 months, Livemint reported.
