[SandyX]

The Kwid Climber & Kwid Racer



- Climber, a car built for the ones who love adventure!
- Climber draws on the KWID DNA & develops its SUV capability to the extreme!

- Racer also features a digital rev counter leather steering wheel with an alloy frame designed for racing
- Racer displays telemetry data so the driver can track his performance in real time!

Kwid 1.0 Ltr & EASY-R AMT



AMT Dial on the Center console
It can be operated with an Innovative Shift Control Dial with three driving modes – Reverse, Neutral and Drive.




From twitteratti, TBHP, IAB

[SandyX]

More pics of Climber & Racer concepts are in.

http://www.topgear.com/india/car-new...hown/itemid-50

Also shown today are two new concepts based on the Kwid: the Climber (an off-roadier Kwid with a skidplate and chunky tyres) and the Racer (complete with 18-inch alloys, rear diffuser and a rollcage, so it obviously can't do the school runs). These are, of course, a flight of fantasy; Renault's ideas of what could be done with a Kwid.

With 18" wheels, roll cage & rear diffuser.











From Twitteratti

Mods: Kindly merge with previous post.

[KreativeGeek]

Must Admit that I cannot stop admiring these concept designs applied to Kwid, Renault really has got a golden goose on their hands this time and the overall appeal is surely going to increase amongst consumers for both the car and the brand

[jaaz]

AMT Version has got a Rotary Switch type function for operating Gears. Renault calls it Innovative Shift Control Dial with three driving modes – Reverse, Neutral and Drive.

With the above mechanicals, I guess Kwid may loose out on Manual override, just like Celerio AMT. Can anyone update more on the Gear operating system. Also, the Brake Pedal width should've been increased as a Safety feature.

[jetti]

Renault to increase production to 10000 units and start exporting the Kwid to Brazil according to this article:
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/auto/st.../1/592194.html

It also says they have already received 100000 bookings in the Brazilian domestic market!

Around one lakh bookings have already been received for Kwid in the Brazilian domestic market itself.

On the other hand, they have already crossed 100000 bookings in India as well:
http://www.business-standard.com/art...1000353_1.html

Sawhney claimed that the company has received bookings for one lakh Kwid vehicles, which has around 98% localisation.

[Contrapunto]

Originally Posted by jetti

Renault to increase production to 10000 units and start exporting the Kwid to Brazil according to this article:
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/auto/st.../1/592194.html

It also says they have already received 100000 bookings in the Brazilian domestic market!

On the other hand, they have already crossed 100000 bookings in India as well:
http://www.business-standard.com/art...1000353_1.html

200,000 bookings, and 10,000 cars per month production capacity (once ramped up). It does not take a genius to do the math. How could they have been so unplanned? Or have no strategy for extreme upsides (what-do-we-do-if-we-get-too-many-bookings), after all, that's exactly what customer clinics are for.

And incidentally, they are planning to start export right away from next month

http://indianautosblog.com/2016/02/e...t-march-217978

[beejay]

Greetings,

The Decision

The Decision to buy the Kwid was to replace a 2011 Alto Lxi which is driven by my father in town where we have non existent roads in some areas. We had upgraded the tyres to a higher profile keeping the sorry state of our town roads in mind. The car served us well from September 2011 without any major issues.

There were no other cars in mind except for the Wagon R Vxi. And then they launched the Kwid.
The price, the looks, the segment first features, a bigger car than the Alto were the factors pro car.
Only one dealer in Coimbatore, a new car with zero reviews and the puny engine to use in the hills were anti car.
Anyways, I booked on the 26th of September using the app. No test drive as yet. Attach screen shot.

The only one dealer in Coimbatore had a sales executive for our region, problem solved.
We bought the Xylo without even a test drive and had some bad experience. And the initial test drive reports here of the Kwid were even more confusing with some people mentioning that it was very under powered with 5 on board and air con on and mall ramps struggling and all. However the positive reviews overtook, and I wanted to TD the car.

The Test Drive

It was a Fiery Red RXT. This was the tope end RXt but did not have the driver airbag. The car looked dirty inside, blame it on the numerous test drives. The showroom had people waiting to TD. The upper glove box compartment clip was bust. They did not have the clip as yet to replace.

Filled the car with 5 on board and went scouting for some hills. Did not find any though and it did not feel right to keep the people waiting at the showroom. So some flat roads and rascal driving.
I was sold after the TD. It was very responsive to gear changes. I liked the light accelerator pedal. I liked the way it looked outside and inside and the bigger cabin room than the Alto.
I was able to digest the fact that the car was noisy in low gears. It got smoother and less nosier on the roll. This can be contributed to the timing belt tech too. I was not able to digest the fact that the car literally shook when I powered on the air on at idle speed. Switching the air con on when the car is moving also had a slight jerk. This is also there in the Alto too, so can live with that.
Initial Pro car facts were still strong and they promised delivery on the 4th of November. A moonlight silver RXT driver air bag.

The Dealer and Renault customer care.
Anamallis Motors the Renault dealer at Coimbatore. We had some issues at the beginning as they insisted on insurance from them. Their reasoning the car was available at a fantastic price to the customer with low dealer margins. The price difference for insurance was Rs. 9350 against 16228 quote by the dealer. I opted to insure outside of the dealer. After their strategies to delay delivery like blaming server and RTO issues and all I had the engine and chassis number for insurance. I wanted to take delivery during the morning hours.

During this time I wrote to Renault at customer at renault dot com. I am not cribbing here. I thought it was required for me to highlight this. This is a car targeted at first time car buyers and projects value with their pricing. So its obvious that people would be looking for insurance and finance options outside of the dealer. It was not right to force something down anybody's throat.
Renault responded back to my email in 3 hours through telephone. They promised to get things sorted and have delivery ready the next day. A kind gentleman from the dealership also called to understand the issue. The dealer is doing good volumes on this car currently and I think they are just trying to make hay when the sun shines. We live in very opportunistic times. Fingers crossed, hope the service team is better.

One thing was obvious from all this chaos, Renault and the dealer are very serious about the Kwid

The Delivery

Details and features of the car was well explained. Forms were explained and breakdown of invoice mentioned. The AGM sales was also present throughout the delivery time and cleared all the issues pre delivery. He seemed to be honest in explaining that the situations arose not because I chose insurance and finance options outside of the dealer, however due to some internal issues with the RTO. He also mentioned that Renault did not accept this much response for the Kwid and hence the abnormal waiting period. Production is all set to go full steam it seems. 38 cars delivered.

The Accessories
Apart from the mud flaps(black, no Kwid branding) and the rubber floor mats with Kwid branding I did not buy anything else. Price was 1500. They had a huge list of accessories. Speakers were not available though. Chrome lovers are in for a treat, every other thing is a chrome.
I upgraded the tyres to Michelin energy xm2, 175/70 R 13. The tyre shop also had 3 bolts Neo Allous for the Kwid. Three designs and price was 18500. The wheels will be available next week and he did not have stock. He also had options for 14 inches.

The Kwid up the hills
Drove it up to Coonoor from Coimbatore during the evening hours. I really want to meet the guy who Tded said his Activa was faster. Its not a fast car and I did not expect it too. The car felt comfortable doing speed. The brakes felt alright, wish they had ABS though. The speakers suck big time and definitely needs an upgrade. The single wiper cleans well. Climbed up the ghats in 3rd gear throughout and would have easily come up in 4th too.
You tend to get a lot of curious looks and questions from onlookers. Was aghast when a person told me that its a great car for 2.5L. The onroad on the car was 4.30L. The stigma attached to this car is 2.5L. IMHO, the top end RXT O is value and think I got a lot more car for the price.
Driven it 280kms as of now. Will post updates after the second service at 2000kms.

Things to not.
Dealer gets only 4886 against the 5000 booking amount through app.
Indicator has pass indicator option if you tap it once softly.
Leather insert on steering feels nice when you drive up the hills.
No mute option for audio.
Audio does not pause when you start the car and plays seamlessly.
Bluetooth is easy clear and audible.
Power window switches on center take time to get used too, however in the rains its a boon considering it does not get wet. The panels are also easy to clean after the rains as there is no fabric inserts.

On-road price & discounts
The On road price was 4.30L and there were no discounts.

Extended warranties & service packages
Extended warranty was 4650. First service at 2000kms and 10000km henceforth.

usage pattern
Bought the car to use in Coonoor town. Hit the highway twice already.

Overall build quality, fit & finish, paint quality and panel gaps
Build and paint quality is good for a car of this price. Panel gaps are consistent. White did not look good, maybe because it was non metallic and the black inserts were highlighted.

Driving position, ergonomics, controls & MID
I like the fact that I can see the bonnet whilst driving. Car feels planted. Throw it around the corners and its not very stable. MID and the digital console looks trippy. Visible in daylight conditions too,

Visibility & size of mirrors
The ORVMs suck and big time. Just scouting around for the right mirrors with iternal adjustment.

Air conditioner cooling & effectiveness
Air con does its job just well. Even the back row passengers felt comfy.

And now some pictures.

Some pictures. More updates after the first service.

[beejay]

The one thing that I like the most. Packed the Medium frame cycle and fits just right.

The Kwid has clocked 6890kms and still happy with it.

Finished the first service and there is nothing much to write about. Unfortunate they did not have the values to do the alignment. Need to do this soon.

No squeaks. The front passenger side door seems to be a bit tight. The rubber beading's sometime stick too tight. Not much grouses.

The ride quality has improved maybe due to the tyres settling down or i just got used to the car. Been my daily ride for a few months now.

Thanks for reading. And a picture taken today.

[PrideRed]

Originally Posted by beejay

Greetings,


The Accessories
Apart from the mud flaps(black, no Kwid branding) and the rubber floor mats with Kwid branding I did not buy anything else. Price was 1500. They had a huge list of accessories. Speakers were not available though. Chrome lovers are in for a treat, every other thing is a chrome.
I upgraded the tyres to Michelin energy xm2, 175/70 R 13. The tyre shop also had 3 bolts Neo Allous for the Kwid. Three designs and price was 18500. The wheels will be available next week and he did not have stock. He also had options for 14 inches.

How would you rate the performance of Kwid after tire upgrade? Is there a significant drop in Fuel Efficiency? What about warranty?
I am considering upgrading tires, but not at the cost of Fuel Efficiency and comfort.

[aneezan]

Is there any improvement in the waiting period for the Kwid? The latest i heard was that it is 4 to 5 months.

[Dr.Naren]

I had booked 5 months back through app online. I did not get any information about delivery even after shooting many emails. I had to send a very strongly worded email 2 days back. Today I got response from Renault Kannur finally. They are ready to deliver a white kwid top variant immediately. I had booked silver top model. Now I have asked to deliver Bronze color and dealer has agreed to deliver by end of this month.

[beejay]

Originally Posted by PrideRed

How would you rate the performance of Kwid after tire upgrade? Is there a significant drop in Fuel Efficiency? What about warranty?
I am considering upgrading tires, but not at the cost of Fuel Efficiency and comfort.

I changed the tyres after delivery on the same day so cant comment on the dynamics prior to this.
With this upgrade it worls for me, car is planted and i enjoy the drive. To be honest I still haven't checked the average. But I don't think its drinking much. One of these days I will do a tank to tank to get the figures in the hills.

[PrideRed]

Originally Posted by beejay

I changed the tyres after delivery on the same day so cant comment on the dynamics prior to this.
With this upgrade it worls for me, car is planted and i enjoy the drive. To be honest I still haven't checked the average. But I don't think its drinking much. One of these days I will do a tank to tank to get the figures in the hills.

Thanks for the update. I was considering this upgrade however have kept this on hold for now, as my dealer has been insisting that any upgrade of tyre size will void warranty.

[wadewilson]

I'd like to comment on the posts I made a few pages back since I can't edit them, namely #282 and #308.

In regards to #282, I overreacted a lot due to my frustration of waiting months for the car, I’d like to apologize to the members for having to deal with that.

And in regards to #308, I forgot the fact that – The vehicle is normally released from the factory with buyer’s name, BUT it's not 100% only for buyer, unless and until buyer pays the remaining amount.

This means that before final payment if someone else came to purchase the car immediately and pleaded with the dealer to sell it to him, the dealer would have no option but to sell it to him as the car would still not be under my name.

And the fact that I am in another town which is 74 KMS away and have classes in the university would make it difficult for me to drive 74 KMS on a moment’s notice which would make it difficult for the SA to hold on to the car which explains why the SA tried to make an invoice for me so that he would be able to hold on to the hotly demanded car for me.

The invoice would not have constituted a sale since my signature would not have been there, and after doing PDI, I could have rejected or accepted the car.

After thinking about it properly, I realize that I made a mistake in writing those posts since all they were trying to do was help me get my car on time. Since I am unable to delete my posts, I’d like to retract back the earlier statements I made against the SA and the dealership. The dealer and SA, as I mentioned earlier in my posts, have still been warm and understanding after the debacle, and have been wonderfully helping me in this regard, clearing my doubts, processing the refund.

Overall, I'm mightily impressed with the way in which they handled my immature frustrated manner, and cleared my doubts properly, and even smoothly processed the cancellation and refund even though they had to deal with huge number of bookings at the same time. I feel like I'm the one who acted too over cautious.

I wanted to post this update in regards to the earlier posts I made and make clarifications. Thanks

[GTO]

Originally Posted by wadewilson

The vehicle is normally released from the factory with buyer’s name, BUT it's not 100% only for buyer, unless and until buyer pays the remaining amount.

This means that before final payment if someone else came to purchase the car immediately and pleaded with the dealer to sell it to him, the dealer would have no option but to sell it to him as the car would still not be under my name.

Don't be naive, buddy. Pleading doesn't do anything. It's a business transaction that should be emotionless.

For a car with waiting periods, dealers will more or less following the booking order. However, a small number of exceptions will be made based on:

1. Influence.

2. Premium (a premium can double or triple the dealer's margin and there are many ways for dealers to manipulate).

Your allotted car would go to the next in line (ideally) or something with influence / extra $$$.