10 Months On-road Review

Exterior

 Got delivery of the vehicle in April-2016 and drove it around 6000 kms. The major plus for this kiddy is its look considering its entry level cost. It looks great from front and sides, looks bit jaded from behind; overall a fresh design for an entry level car. Most people who look attracted by its design so easily and even think it’s an above 6 lacks car after considering the hatchback in-build futures.

 

The curves on the front and side give distinctive looks. Adding some specialized chrome inserts will make your car looks more premium. The quality of bumpers are so cheap that even with your hand you can bent it. In contrast the rear looks bit rigid.

Interior (Features, Space & Comfort)

 You are pleasantly surprised to see the premium hatch back interiors on an entry level car (Those who have used expensive Swift/i20 etc will agree to it). It starts with 7” touch screen navigation along with music player; you can connect your music through USB/Bluetooth and even make and receive calls from your phone. A tiny receiver speaker grill positioned at near to the driver seat will be used for hands free calling during driving (though it’s not recommended speaking in your phone while driving, atleast you can inform the caller that you are driving now).

 

There are plenty of space within the vehicle; a upper glove box, a lower glove box and a middle compartment. Formidable space for water bottles in the front doors; a hidden space below the front seats can also be utilized to the fuller extend. The upper glove box latch is having a design flaw, as per Renault service, and also one of the parts which is not indigenous. Hope Renault will rectify this in the coming months as this flaw makes the upper glow box nearly un-usable.

 

Interior has duel done and looks neat even though it’s not looks so premium. The chrome cover on the music player looks neat.

Other important attraction is its digital tacometer along with lot of useful indications. Bringing this high quality premium segment future to this small car makes it distinctive from its peers.

It has ofeering driver side air bag only for the top model whereas driver co-passenger air bag might have added advantage.

The top notch is its big boot size (300 liters) which will beat all its rivals even certain higher grades (Like the swift/i20 etc). It will easily accommodate your big family belonging very easily.

Engine Performance, Fuel Economy and Gearbox

 Mine is a 0.8 lts engine and 3 cylinder arrangements, the performance you can expect with those limitations. The start will be sneezy and even with jerky till 2nd gear in the initial periods till the call up for fuel system modification Renault carried out 2 months back. The ICS got upgraded based on consumer feedback and now its works well within those space too(Probably I have used to the vehicle and it’s an usual phenomena). The engine noise is persists at low revs and very well disappers at high speeds. Thanks to the decent insulations, you here less external noise when your windows are fully closed.

 

The performance of the gear box is not so smooth and intimes you can hear the gear shifts during the vehicle in idle condition. The gear ratio is very small and you feel the pinch during your overtaking. With out any speed reduction, overtaking is so smooth and no problems at all; when you reduce speed during your overtake, the engine doesn’t respond to your quick calls for rev up, you need to drop down your gear shift and move forward.

You won’t expect a theoretical fuel efficiency of 25 km/lt, but a decent 20 km/lt for my highway ride when driving in the speed range of 75-100 km/hr. When I tempted to overtake my highway peers at 110-130 km/hr, I noticed fuel efficiency drops down to 16.5 km/lt. So use the engine to its optimal potential for a better millage (Hope majority of the kwid customers bought it for its value for money case). A neet city ride with less acceleration meets the fuel efficiency in the range of 14-17 km/lt based on individual driving skills.

Ride Quality & Handling

 With the chunky power steering, driving through the city is like a breeze, even though it has a long turning radius as compared to its peers. Running through highway is tricky and needs constant steering adjustment to keep the vehicle in spot.

 

The breaking system is one of the show stopper and it behave off late in many occasions. Nothing to worry about as I have experienced the similar setup in my friends vehicles (Eon/Alto/Cellerio/Indigo/Swift). Just bit be cautious and know about the breaking distance for your speed and maintain it. Rightly you can’t expect a Innova/i20 efficiencies at Kwid cost. Every vehicle has its own limitations, aware about it fully and use it legitimately. 

Final Words

The good point is Renault works on customer feedback and rectified the fuel system deficiencies by the vehicle call-back. I am happy Renault did that openly wheras the other leading Indian players hides it till the vehicle comes for next service.

 

You can expect the value for your hard earned money for what you have got. Eventhough some essential lacking like ABS, absence of co-passenger air bag etc are the expectations in future, you can very well satisfied with the current offerings for the present cost.

People who expects high end futures may please check the price what you are paying for those models from the rivals. Do a full R&D before making your hard earned money to work. For my case, its working flawlessly and am a happy customer of Renault.

 

Areas of improvement  

 Gear box optimizations, Upper glove box lock design revision, front bumpber strenthening

 

Exterior looks, Value for moneyNot so superior performance