[thalavoy]

Me too agree with above comment. But isn't this just a matter of getting accustomed to rather than a safety hazard? After driving my Duster for some time, I unknowingly tried to put my wife's car into reverse. When all I wanted was to engage the 6th gear. So is having 6 gears a safety hazard? Just trying to understand how having indicators on another side is a hazard. Annoyance surely. But safety hazard?

[vharihar]

Originally Posted by swiftdiesel

Actually, they do, at least in the UK. Except Japanese cars, every European manufacturer in the UK sells cars with controls on the left. People have learnt to adapt to it. Some years back Renault and BMW sold cars with wipers with wrong orientation in the UK. The current crop of cars have correct orientation for right hand drive.

Ok, perhaps I was wrong is stating that. I've driven many cars for more than a decade in the US, and have never come across such a situation. But I take your word for it.

Nevertheless, we can be a leader in this aspect and can introduce a regulation for this (maybe other countries will follow us, for a change :-)). I dont see why drivers should have to "get used to it", when it is a simple matter for the manufacturer to localize the control stalks. The use-case I stated should be compelling enough (about sudden rain/hailstorm starting)

Originally Posted by thalavoy

Me too agree with above comment. But isn't this just a matter of getting accustomed to rather than a safety hazard? After driving my Duster for some time, I unknowingly tried to put my wife's car into reverse. When all I wanted was to engage the 6th gear. So is having 6 gears a safety hazard? Just trying to understand how having indicators on another side is a hazard. Annoyance surely. But safety hazard?

There is a difference. Controls that require sudden operation without a second of delay shouldnt need one to get "used to" it. They should follow standards. Based on the use-case I stated (sudden rain/hail), wiper controls fall in such a category.

Position of power window controls, radio knobs dont fall in this category, and we dont need to regulate that.

Accidentally slotting the reverse gear also isnt much of an issue, bcoz cars generally have mechanics to prevent accidental slotting.

Control stalks on the lever is a low hanging fruit. I dont see why manufacturers should resist a regulation on standardizing its left versus right position.

I hope ARAI has the sense to present it in this manner, when debating the need for this regulation.

[simplyself]

Why should people adopt to wrong placement. Let the manufacturer do the adaptation, and ARAI should look it into it.

[hserus]

I wish manufacturers would stop using that horrendous dogleg gear - where you have to pull up a lever and then slot it into first gear for reverse, like in the verna and polo.

It does get amusing when you watch a guy unaccustomed to it frantically trying to engage reverse and back his car out of a parking position - but far less funny when you are the guy, frantically googling up "hyundai verna how to reverse" on your phone

[swiftdiesel]

A query and some initial observations on my Lodgy:

Anyone using the Duster/Lodgy know how to reduce the brightness of the MID and instrument cluster? I'm struggling to find it on my own and it's not on the manual either.

Having spoken at length about the best bits of the Lodgy, here are the "not so good" bits of this vehicle. Lodgy haters are gonna love this! (That was tongue-in-cheek BTW!)

1) The owner's manual has numerous grammatical mistakes! A shame really for an European company to pass this off as print worthy. I'll add screenshots later in the review to substantiate my point. Further, most of the text and pictures refer to left hand drive Euro spec model with features not even available here. Pages and pictures wasted on printing stuff that's useless for the Indian market. In my opinion, the person behind this should be fired before he/she ruins Renault's efforts to gain traction.

2) During night, the backlighting for the AC knobs are next to useless. Although the marker on the knob is transparent, it doesn't glow enough to appear clear. In my Ertiga, the knob for the fan and cooling control had a bright orange marker. In the Lodgy, I have to take my eyes off the road to see where the marker is pointed because it isn't backlit properly. Careless design IMHO.

3) Since the cabin is so well insulated, the rear AC on speed 2 and above makes quite a loud blower sound that gets annoying.

4) Hate the fiddly archaic switch for AC fresh air/recirculation. How hard is it to design a simple button?

5) The seat height adjust feature is a joke, really! It has no telescopic height adjust; rather it tilts forward and backward to give the illusion of sitting high. I wish it was a proper height adjuster.

6) Love the phone/audio controls behind the steering wheel. So intuitive. But why aren't they backlit? Neither are the cruise control buttons on the steering backlit.

7) The right most AC vent is so low that it cannot blow on my face. Chest focus is how far it would go. Guess the vertical dashboard design is the one to blame. That said, the dashboard being vertical seems to give us more moveable space than say, a waterfall dashboard design like the Ertiga that's angled towards us.

8) The spare wheel is a steel wheel. I hate cost cutting on this but yeah that's how it is.

9) I have spoken enough about the last row. Just worth mentioning here that it's extremely low and needs extra cushioning.

10) Not really a complaint but it's a bit confusing in tight parking spaces to push the gear lever the same way for reverse and first gear. I'm sure with time this will be second nature.

Although it seems like a lot of negatives, the overall driving experience is very satisfactory and very happy with the purchase. The pros far outweigh the cons for me and so I can live with them. Love the tail lights BTW!

Again, to remind, I wish someone could enlighten me on how to change the settings on the MID like adjust brightness, displaying more information etc. Thanks!

[nerd1200]

Originally Posted by hserus

I wish manufacturers would stop using that horrendous dogleg gear - where you have to pull up a lever and then slot it into first gear for reverse, like in the verna and polo.

That is the case for all cars with 6th gear (at least all I have driven so far). That's there to ensure customers do not engage reverse gear accidentally while trying to engage 1st.

[swiftdiesel]

Found a pdf user manual for the MediaNav system for the Lodgy and Duster from Renault Norway website. Click on the link to download.

MediaNav User Manual

[Tamarind]

Originally Posted by vharihar

It is a big a safety hazard, for example, if it suddenly starts raining or a hail storm suddenly starts while driving. If the driver tries to immediately start the wiper, he will end up accidentally turning on the turn indicators, thereby wasting precious time and losing visibility in the process bcoz the windscreen would likely have been splattered with more rain/hail in the intervening seconds lost! A serious hazard for himself as well as others he may dash into, due to the reduced visibility.
>>

I too agree that having the controls on the wrong side is a safety hazard. In addition to the scenario explained above, there is another simple often faced case.

When driving in highways during rainy seasons, even if there is just drizzling after a heavy rain, where you can put the wipers in occasionally to clear off the spots on your windshield left by the drizzle and the tyres of vehicles in-front of you - there exists a scenario some lorry at its left or right side over takes you and ends up splashing the stagnant water on the road completely on your windshield..

For a moment there, you will surprised and will have no visibility and immediately need to turn your wipers on full speed to get visibility

This kind of situations where you have very less time to react, you cannot keep thinking where the wipers are placed in this car !

This situation happens to me several times when i travel on the bypass on my Santro. My immediate response to those will be take the foot of the accelerator and gently place it on the brakes to reduce speed slowly and parallely hit the wipers at full speed

Note that i am a righty (and predominant of the population is) and always have it on the steering wheel for maneuvering even in such situations as the left takes care of wipers. If the wipers were on the other side, i had to keep my left on the steering with which i am not that agile in case of any emergency maneuvering and end up using the all powerful right to merely twist the wiper knob !

[hserus]

Originally Posted by nerd1200

That is the case for all cars with 6th gear (at least all I have driven so far). That's there to ensure customers do not engage reverse gear accidentally while trying to engage 1st.

Ha. Not all cars. There are some (like a few Nissan models) where the reverse is "pull up the lever and engage 6th gear"

Here are a couple of photos I pulled off a quick image search. The first on a VW and the second on a Nissan.

[swiftdiesel]

Originally Posted by swiftdiesel

A query and some initial observations on my Lodgy:

Anyone using the Duster/Lodgy know how to reduce the brightness of the MID and instrument cluster? I'm struggling to find it on my own and it's not on the manual either.

Quoting my own post again. Does anyone know how to alter brightness and adjust what appears on the MID in the new console? I've been searching online with little success. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.

[Sheel]

Originally Posted by swiftdiesel

....

Quoting you as need to know how good/bad the GC is. Choice is between Lodgy/Xylo & Mobilio, though Mobilio is almost ruled out.

Xylo is looking VFM at 10L ex-showroom for H8. If, Lodgy, will prefer the 85PS top-end as it will be sedately driven, though will see highways, or should it be upgraded to 6 speed one? I have no experience with the 1.5 dCi apart from the Logan.

It is for my brother's B-I-L (wife's brother)

[swiftdiesel]

Originally Posted by Sheel

Quoting you as need to know how good/bad the GC is. Choice is between Lodgy/Xylo & Mobilio, though Mobilio is almost ruled out.

Xylo is looking VFM at 10L ex-showroom for H8. If, Lodgy, will prefer the 85PS top-end as it will be sedately driven, though will see highways, or should it be upgraded to 6 speed one? I have no experience with the 1.5 dCi apart from the Logan.

It is for my brother's B-I-L (wife's brother)

Hi Sheel,

I've travelled with 4 people max and have not had any issue with GC yet. Perfectly crosses speed breakers - the smooth kind and the tall hard ones. Today, in fact, I suddenly saw a manhole cover that was cemented and a few inches higher than the road. Didn't have room to swerve and thought the body was gonna hit but it didn't! Also, checked out some steep ramps and steep ramp parking spots - again didn't have any issues. Not sure how would it be with 7 or 8 on board but yeah, so far so good.

With regard to 85 or 110, I would recommend the 110 for the perfect gear ratios. Haven't driven the 85, so cannot comment. Took it on a 100 km drive and found that the 6th gear is perfectly matched for relaxed cruising and even if a need to overtake arises, a slight dab on the pedal gets the vehicle racing even in 6th. I always prioritise highway drives over city and hence chose the 110. There's mild turbo lag in the city in crawling speeds in 2nd gear. Since I'm used to heavy turbo lag during my Multijet days, this doesn't bother me. If your BIL is used to instant power, he may find the mild lag annoying. I'm sure the 85PS will shine in city drivability. Engine refinement is excellent on the K9K and I would go as far as to say it's a notch better than the Multijet in higher revs. Surprisingly, even with front and back AC on, the K9K engine doesn't display a drop in power while driving. In my old Ertiga, the AC will make a huge drop in power and the turbo lag worsens further. The Lodgy's engine doesn't seem to "care" about the AC as much and the power delivery is smooth and quick.

Not sure how it compares with Xylo, since I haven't driven one. But if I can compare it with Innova, I find the K9K really eager to reach 3 digit speeds without breaking a sweat and sustain such speeds without much fuss. The K9K behaves like an engine bigger than 1.5 in terms of throttle response. Clutch is a bit hard though, in fact harder than Innova's. Finally, the 6th gear makes the Lodgy tick at a low 2000 RPM for 100 kmh which translates to better fuel economy. Feel free to ask any other queries and hope your BIL enjoys his decision!

[vharihar]

Originally Posted by Tamarind

I too agree that having the controls on the wrong side is a safety hazard. In addition to the scenario explained above, there is another simple often faced case.
...
and ends up splashing the stagnant water on the road completely on your windshield..

For a moment there, you will surprised and will have no visibility and immediately need to turn your wipers on full speed to get visibility
...

Absolutely spot on!

Unfortunately, most people in India (regulatory law makers like ARAI, as well as the common man, including many on this esteemed grp), don't give enough importance to safety. The general thinking in India (quite involuntary, borne out of experiencing decades of poor governance and living life by chance) is more of wishful thinking, as in "if its got a low chance of happening, lets play the odds that it will never happen".

Cant blame them. I too would have thought like them if I hadn't experienced nearly 2 decades of living in the developed western world, where life is so highly valued that all odds are covered, nothing is left to chance.

For these reasons alone, I honestly don't have much expectations of ARAI in this regard.

[B103]

Yet to spot many Lodgy's on the road. What is the initial response?

As an aside, I hired a Renault Logan from Bangalore airport yesterday only to notice that the car had run close to 4 lakh kilometers by now

I spoke to the driver to realize that the engine is yet to have any major overhaul as such. Logan engines of yore were not turbo diesels though. This kind of quality and reliability will put even Japanese manufacturers to shame.

I made a click with his consent and here you go:

[hserus]

It is a tough car with a very capable engine. Not the best of drives for a personal ride, and rather ugly looks (though as a 6 footer I strongly considered it due to the high roof) and that is what seems to have relegated it to the taxi market.