T-King T3 Mars

Compared to the exterior design, the interior design of the T-King T3 Mars looks more eye-pleasing with its more modern layout. The dual-tone black and grey theme is well-accentuated with chrome highlights around the centre console and AC vents on the corners of the dashboard.

The driver’s cockpit of the T-King T3 Mars looks fairly simple with a four-spoke steering wheel and a full-analogue instrument console behind it. The centre console looks good for a commercial vehicle, with horizontal AC vents in its upper half, a 1-DIN audio system with radio in the middle and manual dials for AC in the lower half. The door panels come armed with curved grab handles, which look very large.

The T-King T3 Mars is heavily based on the entry-level T1 and seeks its complete inspiration from the latter when it comes to design. Except for the absence of the name badges on the door panels, there is nothing that differentiates it from the smaller T1.

From the front itself, the T-King T3 Mars puts up an impression of being a conventional-looking truck with a squared stance when viewed head-on. The front profile of the T-King T3 Mars is majorly divided into two halves – while the upper half of the front is covered by the windscreen, the lower half gets grille and headlamp units.

The windscreen is huge, with upper rounded corners and lower tapered corners accentuating its large size even more. The lower corners of the front windscreen are assisted with small cylindrical mounts, on which the rearview mirrors with their curved stalks are mounted.

The lower half of the T-King T3 Mars gets a two-slat grille, which has a rounded QSJ group logo in the middle of the slats and wide T-King lettering on the space between the grille and the front windscreen. There are vertically-stacked trapezoidal headlamps placed adjacent to the front grille, which also comes integrated with slanted turn indicators on their upper edges. The front bumper looks simple with its flat design and trapezoidal turn indicators integrated into its side edges.

Like the front profile, the side profile of the T-King T3 Mars too is split into two halves, with a large side window panel with a slanted window waistline in the upper half. The lower half of the door panel gets T3. While the lower-left corner of the door panel comes fitted with an amber turn indicator, the lower right corner has a blacked-out door handle positioned on it.

While the T-King T3 Mars is a 6-wheeled truck like the smaller T1, the 14-feet truck is longer than the 12-feet T1. This means that the T3 Mars has an additional load carrying capacity, which is very well-matched with the more powerful 3.2-litre engine. While it has a suspension setup of steel leaf springs with shock absorbers at both ends, the braking duties are taken care of by hydraulic vacuum brakes at both ends.

While the overall design of the T-King T3 Mars is based on the smaller T1 in and out, the engine and transmission combination is entirely different from that of the latter. The T-King T3 Mars gets a 3.2-litre four-cylinder diesel engine with a turbocharger and intercooler. The engine is coupled to a 5-speed manual gearbox and enables the T-King T3 Mars to reach a top speed of 105 kmph. However, the power and torque figures of the T-King T3 Mars are undisclosed by the QSJ Group.

There are no modern safety features present in the T-King T3 Mars, but it gets the bare essentials in the form of a lockable passenger cabin and seat belts for both driver and co-driver.

With a slightly longer deck and a more powerful engine, the T-King T3 Mars is a worthy upgrade over the smaller T1 and a more value-for-money and practical option to consider in the entry-level light-duty truck segment.