![]() But keep it below those speeds and you'll find yourself enjoying a calm and relaxed drive. On the highway for instance, you can't go over 80-90kmph and feel very confident since the entire car bounces quite a bit over the light undulations. Now that works to its advantage and against it. The result is a vehicle which feels like it's floating on a cloud. But it was only when I saw a regular sedan go through one these holes did I realise how big they were because the Gurkha simply gobbled up everything without so much as a light thud! The new Gurkha's got a C-in-C chassis whereas the old one has a tubular structure and also a new suspension setup with coil springs at the rear instead of the previous leaf springs. Pretty soon though, we took an exit and got on to some rural roads littered with ruts and holes. In the old Gurkha, I literally had to have an arm wrestling match with the gear stick to slot it into any gear.īut when I was thinking these thoughts, I was still driving the Gurkha Xplorer on the highway. That said, when compared to the gearbox in the previous Gurkha, this one feels buttery smooth. It's the same issue with the gear lever controlling the 4x4 transfer case. It's not the easiest of gearboxes to use in terms of modern car standards since it doesn't smoothly fall into gear every time - you have to use a fair amount of force to shift. The Gurkha gets a new 5-speed manual gearbox which is now cable operated. The 85PS/230Nm engine does feel a bit under powered though and you really have to work the gearbox to keep some pace on the highway. The throttle is very sensitive and the engine isn't slow revving either with good low-end torque. There is the usual amount of sound you'd expect from a diesel engine creeping in though. But no, it was surprisingly smooth with barely any vibrations creeping into the cabin. When I first fired up the engine, I expected a loud clattery sound typical of previous generation diesel engines. It is now BS 4 compliant and a whole lot more refined. Moving on to a more important subject, the engine, the new Force Gurkha gets an updated version of the 2.6-litre turbo-diesel engine. It had a very utilitarian feel that was far from being appealing. The driving position was quite awkward, thanks a slightly upward facing steering which didn't allow me to push my seat back far enough from the pedals. You do get the bare minimum necessities like pretensioned front seat belts, heating and air-conditioning, and a 12V port to charge your devices, but that's about it. It had a few more storage spaces around the gear lever and between the seats, but there's still a lot of empty space which could have been put to good use. ![]() ![]() The dashboard, which hasn't really changed from before, is just a big pile of poorly made, flimsy plastic. The interior on the other hand, is a big no-no straight away. Overall, Force Motors has made the Gurkha look a little less sophisticated and more rugged, which is good thing considering the old car was stuck somewhere in the middle of trying to be both. And while the optional 16inch wheels looked a little small, they didn't look shabby and their simple design suits the rest of the simple boxy theme. I especially like the steel bumpers which look like a neat aftermarket fitment. It looks a bit awkward from certain angles, like from the side because of two-door setup (in the short wheelbase version), but from the front and rear it has this old school, rugged design that I'm personally a very big fan of. I really wasn't sure whether I liked it or not, and hoped that seeing it in the flesh would help me make up my mind. And this was the case even when I first saw images of the vehicle when it was launched. ![]() Driving the new Force Gurkha Xplorer has stirred up quite a few emotions - some good, some bad. ![]()
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