Review : Renault Kwid
One thing I respect a lot about Renault is that they did not follow the portfolio text book. Renault never followed suit to enter a segment with ‘yet another’ product. It has always been the segment disruptor. 5 of its 7 products (Except the Pulse and Scala) in India are a mix and match of 2 segments.
And Renault has it’s own simple strategy of making this disruption — pricing and product offering. A good chunk of credit goes to studying the Indian customer and some smartly focused PR, marketing and mind-space capturing. The emphasis on ‘value’ struck out much higher than the emphasis on ‘cheap car’ (Which is where I think Tata failed at raising some good PR for the Nano).
The Kwid on paper carries the specifications of a regular hatchback, but visually it uses design cues to have a SUV appeal. Renault also backs this decision up with data suggesting that global compact hatchback sales trends have started to see a decline and compact SUVs have risen. Why not create a merged segment?
Renault’s well published goal of achieving 5% market share is pretty solid. One gate-pass to achieve that is by entering the entry level hatchback market and going head on with the dominators — Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai. The key here is to match pricing and create a disruption. Pricing can be matched only by improving the extent of component localization. Renault nailed it with 98%.
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Outside.
Even in the compact hatchback sub 4-lakh segment, exterior looks can make or break a deal given that most of the car buyers are first timers. So, pride of ownership finds a new high.
The Kwid comes with very distinctive styling. Renault has made sure that the Kwid meets the eye with some positive vibrance. It grabs quite a lot of attention and road presence thanks to the raised stance, design cues and dimensions.
Dimension-wise, the Kwid is a great offering given that it is way more ‘car’ than a Maruti Suzuki Alto k10, Hyundai Eon or even a Datsun Go.
The front follows Renault’s design philosophy of having an imposing front grille and large headlamps. The front grille is uniquely styled with large funky grooves going through. One can find the same set up at the bottom air-dam as well. Renault’s logo placed in the centre cuts into the hood space giving it a premium edge. The fog lamps are generously big and have a cool housing assembly too. Also, the exposed tow hook isn’t an easy miss.
There are signs of cost cutting though; a single double arm wiper that does duty for the entire front windshield and only one washer spray. The wheels come only with just 3 lug nuts. No OEM alloys on any variants.
Walk around and you’d realize that Renault has played it safe when it comes to the side profile. Tap on the doors and you’d be impressed with the thickness of metal used for a sub 4-lakh car. The Kwid brings back the old school leaf-life flappy door handles from the Hyundai Santro era. No complaints there though.
The large wheel arches have black cladding running around. The turn indicator lamps are also cleverly integrated with the cladding to add some styling points. But the tiny 13 inch wheels around those large wheel arches can disappoint a few. Price-wise, I feel there is some justification.
The Kwid also plays well with your eyes. The black side ‘cladding’ that you see on the sides are actually vinyl stickers on the doors and not plastic!
Moving to the rear, it’s easy to notice that the Kwid doesn’t have a significant bumper just like the Alto 800. The bumper that it has is also plastic to a large extent. The rear windshield though pretty wide, doesn’t offer too much view-ability. Do I miss the rear wipers? Not really.
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Inside
The RxT and RxT (o) variants add some convenience and offer keyless entry. Once inside, the Kwid impresses a lot. But there are a couple of short comings.
Stepping in, the front seats feel comfortable. They are actually contoured like higher budget cars and not flat like the ones you find in the Alto siblings. They are marginally wider than the other segment regulars but the cushioning is on the stiffer side. That works well with some who are looking for a good upright driving position. For those looking for a slackened down position, this may be uncomfortable.
The dash is well planned out. Two glove boxes (both top and bottom) offer very good utility. Though it is possible that the top box is very temporary and Renault would close that with an additionally planned passenger air-bag variant in the near future.
The centre is occupied by a first in segment 7 inch touch display that offers Sat-Nav, Bluetooth telephony and media, FM & AM radio. This unit is similar to the ones available in the Duster. The AC vents sit high above the unit with some decent cool air throw. Buttons and knobs for the AC occupy space below the entertainment unit. The switches for the front power windows and central locking occupy the row below the buttons.
The steering wheel is wide and chunky. The all-digital Instrument Panel works out to be a good charmer as it gives a very futuristic outlook. The instrument panel narrates a lot of information like Gear shift indicator, Distance to Empty, Average Fuel economy, Instantaneous fuel economy, Average speed and driving duration — very impressive for a sub 4-lakh but misses out on displaying the tachometer or the rev count which might get people a little excited.
What the Kwid seriously lacks are the internally adjustable ORVMs in all it’s variants. Adjusting the Front-Left mirror might be quite a task.
Coming to the driving position, the Kwid makes sure you feel at home instantly. For an adult of my height (5’ 11”), all I had to do was sit inside, start the engine and drive out. One downer here is that the IRVM (Internal Rear View Mirror) is a bit small in size.
Getting to the rear, the kwid can take in 3 people with ease thanks to its width. Tunnel protrusion in the rear is also low. With the back rests of the front seats scooped towards the inside, it opens up some considerable knee-room for the rear side passengers. Fairly large windows helping in allowing a generous amount of light inside. The air circulation from the front AC vents is commendable too. What one would miss is the adjustable head rests.
The boot is a large 300 L unit that can house a couple of trolley suitcases at the max but comes with a considerably high loading lip.
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The Drive
With ignition, the 3 cylinder 800cc pot starts with some unbalanced rattle similar in behavior to other 3 cylinder 800cc units. At idle, there is some un-easiness that the engine faces but improves as you start moving.
What is great about the Renault’s drive is that the gear box is very well matched to the engine’s torque curves. This combined with some perfect shifts can ensure that the speedometer only keeps climbing without any lag/catch up from the engine. This 55 HP pot could make the 80 to 100 kmph climb easily.
Kwid makes perfect use of it’s light weight construction and the reasonably powered engine in the segment it falls. The ARAI fuel efficiency figure of 25 kmpl is very impressive.
The suspensions have a firm feel to them and this gives a lot of highway driving confidence as regular cars with lighter suspensions start showing instability. Doing a 110 kmph on the Noida expressway, the car feels planted even on going over unavoidable road undulations.
But this is only valid as long as you are on a straight line. The moment you turn to change lanes, the instability begins to haunt as the tyres are running on very low grip. With no rear seat occupancy, the Kwid might require some careful steering as the rear tyres can give up on grip easily even on patches of roads with melted tar as area of contact is pretty low with the tyres having a short camber angle. A tyre upgrade is recommended if you are considering frequent high-way runs / mountain climbs.
The electric steering wheel feels purely electric and does not offer any feedback. It cuts off abruptly at a certain figure above 100 kmph and that’s when you start to feel the weight of the steering wheel.
The engine noise entering the cabin while running at regular cruise speeds is predominantly low. But when you push the engine to a guesstimated revv count of 3500 +, the engine starts to complain.
With a light clutch, the Kwid makes driving around easy. But the gearbox might need some getting used to. For one, it is a long throw box which would mean that you are required to push the lever 2 steps instead of the regular one. Secondly, the reverse gear is not below the 5th gear but to the left of the 1st gear.
I should mention that the Kwid, for it’s price, does a great job at ambient sound insulation on the inside. Very little engine noise finds its way inside the cabin and the tyre, suspension and wind noise are actually well masked.
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The Verdict
It’s not easy to make a valuable product for the value focused market. Everybody wants something more or the other. But Renault has certainly come close to it. But another aspect to be considered is the after-sales support and maintenance.
Renault has sold the idea of the Kwid to potential car buyers. Over 1,00,000 bookings in just 4 months is not an easy thing to achieve. But, one influential bad experience at the service centres could change things. Remember, Renault has you only sold on the product and not on the service network/after-sales support yet.
But at the same price point, you get alternatives that have a well established presence in the Indian auto scene. Hyundai has cars starting from the sub 4 Lakh Eon to North 30 Lakh SantaFe. Maruti Suzuki sells 12 models with most falling with-in the 10 Lakh budget range. Renault is relatively new; just 6 years old in India with sustainable, non-over ambitious growth. But would you take that risk and buy that Kwid?
I guess I just might.
Pros:
1. Great engine, transmission pairing
2. Features!
3. Lots of space
4. Straight-line stability
5. Distinctive looks, killer road presence.
Cons:
1. Low grip tyres — upgrade mandatory.
2. Small IRVM and low rear view
3. No internally adjustable ORVMs
4. Electric power steering is too light
5. Long throw gear box can get annoying
Images : Arvind Ramanathan
