[dZired]

The Renault Fluence has reportedly been discontinued in India. Though the company hasn't revealed any official information yet, the sedan has been removed from Renault India's website. A couple of dealers in Delhi too have pointed towards non-availability of the Fluence.

The Fluence was the first car to be launched in India when Renault started its second innings in the country. It was introduced in May 2011, and was given a mid-life facelift in 2014. The facelifted model got a new bumper, chrome fog lamp housing with LED DRLs, a new pair of headlamps, and redesigned alloy wheels. However, the car wasn't really able to stir the segment, despite getting good reviews.

The Fluence was powered by a 1.5-litre, direct injection diesel engine, which developed 108 BHP @ 4000 rpm and 240 Nm of torque @ 1850 rpm. It was mated to a 6-speed manual gearbox.

The car's low sales might have forced the French automaker to concentrate on products that are selling well, like the Kwid and the Duster. Renault has been able to sell just 1 unit of the Fluence in the six month period of March 2016 - August 2016.

Link to Team-BHP News

[RajaTaurus]

Renault Tirunelveli dealer told me the same in June itself. Fluence was discontinued and booking had been stopped few months ago. And had no idea of Megane coming in 2017 or even later.

[Vinodh_Gowda]

Sharing the youtube link to the launch advertisement of this beautiful car. Don't exactly remember the name of the show which I used to watch because this advertisement used to come up during the break - Guess The Simi Aggarwal Show (May be wrong).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7GI3OXiZ5A

[GTO]

Good riddance I'd say. The petrol's CVT was too lazy, and the 1.5L diesel was the same engine you'd find in a Micra! Their lack of understanding the luxury segment was evident in the way the Fluence was positioned - only 1 top variant for the petrol, while the diesel was bare bones! Imagine, this is what the Fluence Diesel had as its audio input



Can't wait for the sexy Megane to arrive here - related thread (All-new Renault Megane sedan unveiled)

[deehunk]

GTO, rightly said. Renault has to think beyond K9K engine if they want to enter the luxury segment. The K9K engine has started showing its age in all their active models and even new vehicles don't feel new to drive. Instead of wasting money with a half-hearted approach they should concentrate on refinement of its existing vehicles.

[dark.knight]

Originally Posted by GTO

Good riddance I'd say. The petrol's CVT was too lazy, and the 1.5L diesel was the same engine you'd find in a Micra! Their lack of understanding the luxury segment was evident in the way the Fluence was positioned - only 1 top variant for the petrol, while the diesel was bare bones! Imagine, this is what the Fluence Diesel had as its audio input

Completely agree on the good riddance part, I think the primary reason it tanked was the looks.. for me it simply was too quirky and weird, specially the first version and while the facelift did improve the proportions slightly.. by that time it was too late for the model, since the engine configurations, gearbox and features were well behind the segment trinity of Jetta, Octavia and Elantra with Jetta easily being the pick of the lot.

Quirky looks sell and sell well in certain portions of Europe that includes France & Britain, that's why French manufacturers like Renault, Peugeot and Citroen make such designs, but the Fluence never stood a chance here with that design, not against the Germans or Koreans with their proportional yet sleek flowing lines. The Megane surely looks more of a proper car and it might stand to sell a few more units than its predecessor if it does land up here.

[McLaren Rulez]

I must admit, when I saw the thread title my reaction was - The Fluence was still being produced?

[shankar.balan]

The Fluence has lovely suspension and is a nice comfortable car to sit in and be driven around in.

It is a very popular car (as many French cars are) in the Middle Eastern areas like Egypt and even Jordan. It is pretty commonplace in Turkey too.

While the vehicle makes a lot of sense for India, ( a lot like the old Peugeot 309 GLD used to do 20 years ago), sadly, the Renault chaps never pushed the ante on this car for the fickle Indian car buying public. Added to this, French Marques just don't carry the same "cachet" for the general Indian consumer, as do the other European marques. Indians want features and bling when we are plonking 13-16 lacs to buy a car. Or we want some sort of Quasi SUV esque thing at that price.

This is why the Hyundais and Marutis of the world continue to rule the roost.

One more model then, consigned to the dust and rust of the great, unforgiving scrap-heap at the side of the Indian car market.

[dr_anurag]

Very sad to know that the car didn't do well in India. I am the proud owner of one and just love it. Mind you I also own a Toyota Corolla and a Scorpio 4X4. Nothing compares to its ride comfort, at least not in this price bracket. I disagree with people who call its looks- 'quirky'. It looks stunning. Is surely a head turner. On the bright side since no more of these are being produced, mine would keep being unique.

[King_pin09]

Originally Posted by dr_anurag

I disagree with people who call its looks- 'quirky'. It looks stunning. Is surely a head turner.

Me too, belong to this minority community of “Fluence” lovers.

To me, the “Fluence” was a good looking car with well sorted ride and handling characters. Yet still, any consumer investing northwards of rupees one million would expect the car to have some unique Fancy features that add up the status quotient.

Perhaps Renault concentrated too much on base practicalities and in the process ended up overlooking on parameters that matter equally. One such example has been aptly pointed out by GTO.

Renault could have better raised its feet to peek at what its neighbors on the other side of the wall viz., the Civic, Cruz and Corolla, were up to. Sadly Renault’s laziness (to bring updates and make the ca more appealing), had its toll on this wonderful machine.

Renault which is currently riding high on the success of Kwid. If at all the news of Megane coming to India as a replacement to the Fluence is anything to go by, then it needs to work out meticulously on the features front. Most importantly Renault needs to get it priced right at the time of launch itself.

[RajaTaurus]

Back in 1987 I happened to travel from Germany to Holland in a Renault car, forgot it's model but it was a sport back type. The driver told me it was their director's car. It had all kind of audio warnings for door ajar etc. The warnings could be set in 11 European languages. The driver pushed the car to nearly 200 kmph in night, inside Germany and we didn't feel a thing inside. That day I fell in love with Reno! It is not that Renault doesn't have the hi-tech gadgets, it's the misjudgment of market.

[dr_anurag]

Originally Posted by RajaTaurus

It is not that Renault doesn't have the hi-tech gadgets, it's the misjudgment of market.

Absolutely true. It has all kinds of warnings, bluetooth connectivity with entire phone book download for 2 phones, dual climate control, keyless entry, DRLs , cruise control, speed limiter etc. I believe it was not marketed properly. Most people I meet do not seem to know about it.

[sasi@8689]

Surprised to see that some members found it quirky. To me, it is one of the good looking cars in the market. Never miss to catch a second glimpse while passing by one. Somehow reminds me of the erstwhile ford mondeo, which i feel is one of the beautiful cars that ever came to our roads. Never driven one, so cannot comment on engine or features, but feels bad to see one more D segment sedan go down.

[VaidhiR]

I am surprised that Renault decided to go bare bones for what is otherwise an amazing car. Maybe they will release the facelifted version (Rumoured 2018) with the features that are available with the current Fluence here in Europe.

[ajmat]

Originally Posted by GTO

Good riddance I'd say. The petrol's CVT was too lazy, and the 1.5L diesel was the same engine you'd find in a Micra! Their lack of understanding the luxury segment was evident in the way the Fluence was positioned - only 1 top variant for the petrol, while the diesel was bare bones! Imagine, this is what the Fluence Diesel had as its audio input

Under all that was a pretty good car. In the facelifted version, Yes, it did lack a lot in the power department but it was a pretty good csr to drive. I would even venture to say that if it had as much power as the Jetta, I would have looked t it more closely.

It was Renault's first car when it came out so a few specification mistakes are tolerable.In its later days, Renault priced it too high