5.0 Exterior | 4.0 Comfort | 3.0 Performance |
3.0 Fuel Economy | 1.0 Value for Money |
Exterior The exterior of the car is really nice. It looks good and certainly feels like it is costs a lot more than it's price. The only remotely negative thing that can be said about exterior looks is that the tyres could have had a thicker profile and look a little skinny.
However quality of parts is suspect. An auto driver hit the front of the car and the entire bumper broke. It is quite brittle.
Interior (Features, Space & Comfort) This is a disappointment on several counts. Firstly, the passenger seat is cramped. This is because of a combination of the seat design and glove box design, so the knee hits if you are tall.
They have stuck a large looking touch screen. It is cheap and tacky to say the least. For example, there is no way to turn off the radio. How do you do it? You reduce volume to zero if you want to use any other feature. Yes really. The system has navigation but no information to explain how the maps can be updated. Overally really tacky.
There is no internal side mirror adjust. Not even a manual plasticky stick that exists in cars from 15 years ago. I did not even think if asking whether this feature existed and so when I found out it didn't, it was a big surprise. Now the side mirror is also very flimsy. So within a month it broke while trying to adjust it physically. This is a major pain if the car is going to be driven by more than one person. I offered to pay whatever money it takes if they could fit an aftermarket adjustable mirror.. but no luck and no options.
The seats hoowever are pretty good and comfortable. They also offer adequate thigh support.
The boot space is a nice surrpise and actually quite massive considering the dimensions of the car.
Engine Performance, Fuel Economy and Gearbox One major thing that isn't advertised is that the fuel tank is less than 20 liters capacity. In fact till date the service center / sales team have not confirmed to me the exact stated capacity. So the range in city conditions is less than 300 kms. I got good mielage initially on the highway ~ 20 km/liter. Than Renault did a 'runing' of the AMT without asking me when I sent for routine service. I find this attitude amazing. The net result is that my mielage dropped tremendously. After pitching a fit, it was tuned back and is now hovering at around 16 kmpl in city conditions.
The car isn't peppy, so don't expect quick overtaking etc. However, the automatic is really convenient to drive. The car doesn't have a crawl function. So especially in cities where the roads aren't flat, you need to keep your leg on the brake at traffic lights.
Ride Quality & Handling The handling is quite good and the high chassis ensures that you don't feel too much of bumps etc. For a car in this segment, the NVH levels are also quite acceptable.
However, again quite a few tacky parts come to the fore. For example, the accelerator lever keeps squeaking and this has not been fixed even after service.
Final Words If you are in the market for a low cost, convenient car that is going to mainly be driven by one person, then the AMT is a good choice. Be prepared to spend about 10 K and slap on a parking sensor / camera. It is well worth it.
Areas of improvement Internally adjustable side mirrors. Better quality touch console. Atleast parts that have more wear and tear or could be damaged, should be of better quality.
Looks, Ground Clearance, Easy to manoeuvreNo internal OVRM adjust, cheap parts that break easily