[//M]

I went to see the Kwid at the Renault showroom in Pashan, Pune last saturday. A Maruti-Suzuki dealership lies just next to the Renault showroom. The Renault showroom was flooded with people, waiting for their turn to sit in the Kwid, clicking pictures, checking out each body part !

The Maruti dealership in comparison was spartan, absolutely zero prospective customers inside. A big surprise as I thought no matter how good the Kwid is, it will be really difficult to take away customers from MSIL.

Now coming to the car. No test drives yet but the first impressions:

+ Interior plastics are great for the price, the A-pillar, the center console all feel great.
+ The wiper and indicator stalks are straight out of a bigger car, great quality.
+ The speedo, though small, looks bright and easy to read.
+ Good boot space.
+ For my 6-foot-100-kg frame, the driver's seat was more roomy than an Alto or Eon.

- With four people on board, the rear suspension bottomed out.
- Headroom limited for rear passengers.
- 3 passengers in the rear bench will be a squeeze.
- Build quality felt a little flimsy, but no serious panel gaps.
- Thin tyres, a fatter rubber would have looked much better.

Overall for the price, Renault has done a brilliant job. The Kwid looks and feels great for small families. The 25000 bookings shows that the stellar effort that went behind the Kwid was all worth it.

Good Job Renault !

[racingmachine]

Did a small test drive of Kwid today(300-400m).

Some observations:

1. Inside the cabin, engine felt noisy in idle as well as while accelerating.
2. Engine jerked considerably while switching on and switching off.
3. Air-conditioning seemed to work well.
4. Car absorbed road undulations well.
5. Engine felt underpowered for my liking, but should be ok for in-city driving.
6. Music system sound is very basic. Touch NAV system is of excellent quality.
7. Door handles felt they could fall off any moment.
8. Boot space is excellent.
9. Rear view mirrors (outside & inside) were too small. Felt uncomfortable manoeuvring around in traffic.
10. Tyres of 2 makes- JK Amazer Neo & MRF.

Came out with mixed feelings. Guys in Delhi can head over to Renault Delhi West showroom to test drive the vehicle.

[sam003]

So the booking crossed 25K.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/...w/49244647.cms

[vinit.merchant]

Originally Posted by aviat18

This is an awesome news. MS' dominance will be shaken where it'll hurt the most.

Originally Posted by hybridpetrol

If Renault can tap that, then it can really reduce the Alto's sales into half or less.
Imagine Alto coming down to four digit figure. It would be a major dent to Maruti.
We can also see all A segment cars offering huge discounts now. Today I saw an advertisement with Eon running up to 65K in discounts and offers!
Next few months sales would be interesting to watch!

Originally Posted by GeneralJazz

So they've started to panic eh! Cant wait to see the Wagon R Desperation Edition!

Hold your horses gentlemen. It is still too early in the day and these are just 25k bookings before launch. Alto sells 22k+ MoM. I do not see Kwid doing even 10k MoM, once the initial hoopla settles, lets say 6 months from now.

Me feels, Alto may not be impacted much, but there should be alarm bells ringing in Hyundai & Tata. Kwid will mostly eat into the Eon (maybe i10 too?) & Nano sales. Expect special editions, finance schemes and other freebies in addition to discounts thrown in for Eon, i10 & Nano.

[mukul32]

And here come the limited editions!! Maruti Suzuki has launched the new Alto K10 'Urbano Edition' today. Many of us BHPians had already predicted that other companies would feel the heat, and these special editions would come in, and MS is the first to follow suit.


Now, excuse the name, but the outside of the car gets new chrome garnishes and a couple of rather weird looking decals. On the inside, there are new seat covers, floor mats, parking sensors, a hands-free bluetooth kit, door sills, etc.
The 'Urbano' costs 17k more than the standard K10, and is available across all variants.
In other words, a typical Maruti Suzuki limited edition model.

What it is supposed to do, is counter the threat of the Kwid. But methinks the Urbano is just a little bonus to people looking for an Alto in the first place. It won't do anything to turn Kwid customers' attention towards the Alto.

Nonetheless, we at least know that Maruti isn't in a mood to merely sit and watch the Kwid show.

[@GeneralJazz, your "Maruti Suzuki Desperation Edition" is really here!!]

[SandyX]

While i was at the dealership, overheard the sales guy mention better ride & power compared to alto/eon from his experience, with what seems to be a friend. That wasn't a typical SA-buyer convo.

Another recent TD experience says this.


Also none of the sales people seem to read much online material like our forum. They just know what they are told by the next higher office, which is not much.

[rsm97]

Informed that demo Kwid has arrived in the showroom so dropped in there this afternoon. My interest was to check if it can be a worthy replacement of my ten years old (and very dear) Santro.

Received with enthusiasm by SA. A number of persons were checking the car and were being well attended to. My two bits based on twenty minutes spent there -

• As everyone mentioned, looks are the strong points. The car comes out equally nice looking from all around. Fine job here by Renault.
• Found view from driver’s seat okayish. Perhaps am spoilt by wide front observation from both my cars, Santro and Fiesta.
• Steering is good to hold. Could not check the odometer since ignition was not permitted on.
• Console looks neat and buttons have good feeling.
• Bonnet was heavy, but the sheer size seemed to contribute here.
• Doors are light and do not inspire confidence. The shell seems thin. Fuel tank lid was a give away here. Unusually large, the cover appears quite flimsy.
• Both front and rear seats are reasonable sized and firm. The fabric however seems somewhat lacking in quality. Legroom at rear seems sufficient to me but will be tight for tall people.
• ABC pedals are spaced ok, but no dead pedal or enough space on the left of clutch pedal to keep one’s foot.
• Bonnet is spacious. No one will complain. And parcel tray is wide too.
• Three storied glove-space is unique for this car size. Useful indeed.
• Tail lights are large and beautiful. Blinkers were switched on for a while and effect enhanced.
• Tyres seem par for the course in size. SA informed that alloys would be offered as standard accessory.
• Front door opens wide but not so with the rear one.
• Single viper looks inadequate, though SA claimed that its mechanism ensures a wide coverage.
• Not sure if it actually means anything, but gearshift in engine-off situation accompanied with an unusual sound at least in the demo car.

Departed with a mixed feeling overall. Kwid comes out better in looks, space & accessories when compared with Santro. Same time, Santro beats it in built quality. I have an uncomfortable feeling that on driving comfort and engine performance, my Santro will come out better despite being aged. Holding my horses till test drive.

[PrideRed]

Trident Renault in Bangalore have started Test Drives. Got a chance to drive for about 5KM.
For 800cc car pulls pretty good. 2nd gear in particular is pretty punchy. This is with AC switched on. The engine sounds quite rough though.
The interior quality is on par with segment.
AC is decent and GC is awesome and gives a lot of confidence on bad patches.
Driving position is quite good as well. Gearbox and clutch duo is decent, gear though rough, is easy to slot. The light clutch is helpful.
Ugly bits- exposed metal in boot, exposed tow hook,puny tires.
The tires can be upgraded to 165 section in the showroom itself,good move Renault.
Accessories include funky alloys, and silver accents to grille.
At 4.5 lacs its a VFM product and any day better than flimsy alto and sluggish Eon.
I am mostly going ahead with booking tomorrow.

[vinit.merchant]

Originally Posted by rsm97

• Bonnet is spacious. No one will complain. And parcel tray is wide too.

Why would anyone complain on the bonnet space irrespective of the space there. I believe you meant the boot.

Originally Posted by rsm97

• Tyres seem par for the course in size. SA informed that alloys would be offered as standard accessory.

I have an uncomfortable feeling that on driving comfort and engine performance, my Santro will come out better despite being aged. Holding my horses till test drive.

Heard for the first time that Alloys are standard. Probably missed the point in the feature list I checked. Will re-visit it.

Re: your Santro, well it has a gem of an engine. A Kwid with 800 cc 3 pot will not be any match to the torque'y 1.1 litre 4 cylinder engine. It is a boon in the city.

[rsm97]

Originally Posted by vinit.merchant

Why would anyone complain on the bonnet space irrespective of the space there. I believe you meant the boot

My regret and thanks for pointing out. I meant boot but typed bo....

[PrideRed]

Originally Posted by vinit.merchant

Why would anyone complain on the bonnet space irrespective of the space there. I believe you meant the boot.



Heard for the first time that Alloys are standard. Probably missed the point in the feature list I checked. Will re-visit it.

Re: your Santro, well it has a gem of an engine. A Kwid with 800 cc 3 pot will not be any match to the torque'y 1.1 litre 4 cylinder engine. It is a boon in the city.

Well I was under similar impression until I test drove the Kwid. With just 660 KG and power to weight ratio that can match Polo TSI, Kwid can match those 1.0 to 1.2 4 cylinder hatchbacks out there.

The Alloy wheels are not offered on any variant as standard. You can buy as an accessory.

[rsm97]

Originally Posted by PrideRed

Well I was under similar impression until I test drove the Kwid. With just 660 KG and power to weight ratio that can match Polo TSI, Kwid can match those 1.0 to 1.2 4 cylinder hatchbacks out there.

The Alloy wheels are not offered on any variant as standard. You can buy as an accessory.

Agree about power/weight ratio. However, what seems very attractive for kerb weight situation may not remain so for laden weight. Intend actually to check that.

Regarding alloys, yes they come as accessory. Renault apparently call certain items as standard accessory if bought from showroom. No doubt term seems an oxymoron.

[sprue12]

As soon as i got the news that kwid has arrived at the showroom, i rushed to the showroom and was there at about 7.30 this evEning thinking that showroom might have closed but to my amazement there were still about 25-30 people checking out the kwid. I remember last time i saw so many people with me around when i flunked my 10th and my dad was spanking me and neighbors came to my rescue. Anyways, my initial impressions are:

Looks are good !!
Tires are very small and wheel well looks odd.
Plastic cladding in exterior especially around rear tires and rear bumper was very filmsy and appeared breakabLe
3 can seat in rear as comfortably as in k10 or 800
Overall body structure is quite weak
When 3 people sat at rear, the rear wheel almost kissed the rear bumper
TD was not allowed
Rear bench is not as comfortable as front
Have a doubt with coverage of single wiper especially because it is not even placed in the middle of the bonnet

[sourav9385]

It’s a very tough job keeping an open mind when test driving a new car, considering I’m not used to test driving cars all the time. That being said, I accompanied my good friend from work for a long-ish test drive of the Renault Kwid. My friend has been looking to buy a small practical hatch to use around town, and has never been more confused about what to buy! Can I blame him? I mean, just look at the number of options for crying out loud! Right from the Nano all the way to the Polo GT TSI, the customer is just downright spoilt for choice as of today!

Nevertheless, my friend is among the first few to have booked the Renault Kwid using the app. He has been waiting with baited breath to go and drive the car he so wants to buy! So when news came that the car was available in the showroom for a test drive, he didn’t need much cajoling to cut work and step out for a few hours. Being his friend, it was only logical that I accompany him and come up with a quick mini-review. So, we popped out of the office just after lunch and headed to Renault OMR. Even at 1:45 PM, at lunch time, the showroom was bustling with people! And yes, each and every one of them was looking at the Kwid. The showroom had 2 cars on display. Both were the RXT variant, one was Fiery Red, the other – Outback Bronze. I loved the Bronze shade. It just looked cool, the red was a typical red. We looked at the car from all angles before jumping into it.

The Exterior:
From the outside, the car looks cool. No second thoughts about that. The black grill up front with the Renault badge looks quite impressive, and the really tall front bumper only adds to the bold & imposing stance. The headlights look very nice, and the fog lamps are housed in the black cladding. Only one washer spray nozzle on the hood. There is a massive gap between the windscreen and the upper part of the hood. It looks a tad weird. There is only one wiper arm, not two. The ORVMs aren’t of the best quality, and there is no internal adjustment available. Not even a mechanical prong. The B pillar is blackened, and the variant info is stuck on the rear right window on a black piece of plastic. The fuel filler cap looks big & ungainly. Plastic cladding is present on front and back doors. The additional cladding on the front and rear wheels add to the bulk of the car. There is no choice of alloys, not even on the top end RXT-O variant. 3 lug nuts on each wheel means finding the correct alloy could be challenging. Wheel caps are decent. I must add that we found the boot lid to be particularly tinny. The 13” tires do look a bit small IMO, but they aren’t much of an eyesore. The door handles do look quite terrible. They’re made of hard plastic, and don’t sit flush with the doors. The tail lamps look great, and the rear bumper appears to be made out of plastic, completely. Overall I’d rate the exteriors a solid 8/10











The Interior:
The interior is where we spend most of our time with the car. So, obviously, the impetus on any car is to deliver a usable, functional & feel-good interior. It’s something that some manufacturers struggle with, and some manufacturers excel at. With the Kwid, Renault appears to have a winner on their hands, IMO. The 3 spoke steering feels great to hold, with horn pads on the top two spokes. The speedo readout is digital & centrally located, but there is no rev counter. Fuel gauge is on the right, warning lights on the left. You have a trip meter, with the usual DTE & real time FE readouts. The plastics are of excellent quality for the price & bracket. The central AC vents feel flimsy, but the ones on the side are fairly decent. The dashboard readout is fairly bright, I should add. I couldn’t find any panel gaps as such. The wiper and indicator stalks are of good quality, and should withstand the test of time. Sadly, the power window buttons, hazard indicator & the central lock/unlock button are placed at the lowest point of the center console. The center console is dominated by the touchscreen AVN unit. There’s Radio, Media, Phone, Maps & Navigation on the unit. It also houses the power button to turn on/off the unit, USB slot & an Aux-in port. There’s even Bluetooth audio streaming, but for whatever reason we could not pair our phones. The touch response was pretty good, considering the price of the car. Though, keying in the address using the Maps app was a bit slow. The HVAC knobs are in the middle of the console, and I felt that they were the best bits in the cabin. The knobs are chunky, and have a nice silver finish on them. The slider for fresh air/recirculate continues to be the same eyesore it was since a million years ago. There’s even a charger port! Twin glove boxes with lids and one cubby hole in the middle gives ample storage for the passenger. The Bluetooth mic is just beside the driver side sun curtain.
While using the AVN system, we did observe some lag while entering and searching for an address. The navigation unit is a bit slow to respond, when we deliberately turned around from the displayed route. The unit did not respond for quite some time while we continued going the other way. Maybe it was a onetime thing, but I’m not totally sold on the navigation unit. Nothing beats an el-cheapo Android tablet with 3G/4G & Google Maps, IMHO. Although, the system was able to reroute us when we turned around and headed towards the showroom, which was in the opposite direction to our set destination. It took a lot of time, though. The stereo did have decent clarity, but we didn’t play around much with the settings.











The Drive:
We drove the car for about 20 minutes over good roads with smooth tarmac, and really bad broken roads with no tarmac. Here are our observations from the long-ish test drive across good & bad roads:
• Fairly peppy engine. But seems a bit unrefined.
• Clutch is light, gearshifts are OK. Not very notchy.
• Car shakes during start up and shut down, almost like a diesel.
• Well sorted ride & handling. Definitely not a hot hatch though.
• Air conditioning has a prominent effect on power delivery.
• NVH is not the best for a petrol engine.
• Steering is quick, though gives decent enough feedback.
• Thin tires don’t help dynamics at all. I’d recommend an up-size, though it might cause FE to dip.
• Lack of a rev counter is quite irritating. Gear change indicator is very rudimentary.











Overall, it's an impressive package. The strength of the Kwid lies in its looks, its VFM pricing, decent ride & handling, cleverly packaged interiors with the feel-good touch screen AVN unit. The refinement isn't the best, and Renault's service is a very big question mark that remains to be evaluated if they start selling Kwids like hot cakes. That being said, they've got a sales star in the Kwid. I have no doubt that most of the bookings will end up being converted into actual sales. In short, it has pretty much everything an average car buyer wants within 4.5 lakhs, as long as it's not a Maruti of a Hyundai.

Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed a mini review.

[sprue12]

Anyone who has driven Kwid, can you please tell how did it perform with 4 on board on inclines? How would you rate the performance as compared to Alto 800 or K10? I wish there were two engine options, one economy based and one performance based.