Do you need a 4x4 for a Himalayan snow drive? What checkposts ask for

Short answer: if you want to drive Himachal's snowbound districts in winter, four-wheel drive is the one item on the spec sheet that decides whether you get waved through a barrier or turned back. Everything else, from heated seats to a 360 degree camera, is comfort. The drivetrain is access.

What the orders actually say

After heavy snow on 23 and 24 January blocked the Atal Tunnel for nearly four days, the Manali administration reopened tourist movement beyond Solang Nala up to the tunnel and on into Lahaul, strictly for 4x4 vehicles only, as The Tribune reported in February. The pattern repeats every winter. In an earlier Tribune report, Lahaul and Spiti Deputy Commissioner Rahul Kumar said the Kelong to Udaipur-Tindi road had reopened for 4x4 vehicles only, and advised snow chains on the icy stretches.

Read those orders carefully and you will notice what they do not do. They say "4x4". They do not list approved models or define whether a monocoque all-wheel-drive SUV qualifies. In practice the man at the barrier decides. A Grand Vitara AllGrip on good tyres can out-grip a badly shod ladder-frame 4x4 on packed snow, but it has no low range and it does not read as a 4x4 to a policeman clearing a queue of stuck cars behind you. If winter Lahaul is the reason you are buying, buy the thing that is obviously a 4x4.

What that costs, and the trade-off

The Thar OG runs from ₹10.32 lakh ex-showroom for the base AXT 1.5 diesel manual, which is rear-wheel drive, to ₹18.99 lakh for the top ZXT 2.2 diesel automatic 4WD, per Autocar India. The 1.5 diesel does not come with 4WD at all, so four-wheel drive means stepping up to the 2.0 petrol or the 2.2 diesel. The Jimny starts at ₹12.59 lakh ex-showroom on Maruti's own Nexa site and has a low-range 4L transfer setting, which makes it the cheapest honest low-range 4x4 you can walk into a showroom and buy.

The trade-off is the rest of the year. A short three-door 4x4 is a tiring family car on a 14 hour run to the hills, and boot space is a joke with chains, recovery gear and four people's winter bags aboard. If the snow trip is two weeks out of twelve months, a five-door 4x4 such as the Thar Roxx or a Scorpio-N 4x4 makes more sense than the smallest, most capable option.

Tyres, chains and the fuel in the tank

On ice, rubber beats drivetrain. The M+S marking is self-certified by the tyre maker with no formal test behind it. The three-peak mountain snowflake mark, 3PMSF, is independently tested for snow traction and braking and holds more consistent performance below 7 degrees Celsius. Almost nothing sold with Indian SUVs carries 3PMSF, so budget a set of chains in your stock tyre size, and fit them once in your driveway before you need them in a whiteout.

Fuel is the part buyers forget. Indian Oil's winter-grade diesel has a pour point of minus 33 degrees Celsius and is trucked to the Leh depot for the high-altitude sectors including Ladakh, Kargil, Kaza and Keylong, with expected sales of about 4 lakh litres from December to March, CarWale reported at its launch. Fill ordinary plains diesel and park out overnight at minus 20 degrees Celsius and you are trusting luck.

One last thing no 4x4 fixes. Ladakh Tourism's advisory asks every visitor arriving in Leh to take at least 48 hours of complete rest, then gain no more than 500 m a day. A closed pass stays closed, and no amount of low range entitles you to drive off the cleared road onto a snowfield.

Sources

• Atal Tunnel reopens, tourists head for Lahaul's frozen charm, The Tribune
• Snow-clearance operations on key roads in Lahaul-Spiti dist intensified, The Tribune
• Mahindra Thar OG price and variants, Autocar India
• Maruti Suzuki Jimny price, Nexa
• Indian Oil Corporation launches winter grade diesel for Ladakh region, CarWale
• Travel Advisory, Ladakh Tourism
• What does 3PMSF mean on tyres, 4x4 Tyres