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-   -   Renault Lodgy : Official Review (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/official-new-car-reviews/162480-renault-lodgy-official-review-14.html)

Hi, have you got the delivery of your new car? Awaiting your ownership review.

Did a PDI of my Planet Grey Lodgy. Love the colour under direct sunlight. Awaiting registration on Monday for an evening delivery. A couple of clicks.

Good color choice. Is the color called Planet Grey? To me it looks more like a mixture of brown and maroon, definitely not a shade of grey.

P.s. Its time now you changed your avatar with this car instead of the white one.

Thanks! Yes, they surprisingly call it grey although its brownish. When they name a car after a "lodge", you can imagine! lol: Display pic changed for now :D

Sat in and explored the RXZ 7-seater variant in the showroom (Renault Silkboard, Bangalore).

The RXZ 7-seater one is the best put package, of all variants (not counting price in the equation; comes to nearly 15L OTR)

Also test drove the Renault Lodgy RXL 110 PS vehicle today.

My feedback form the test drive of the RXL (110 PS):

Negatives:
- Deal-breaker: Turn indicators are on the opposite side to what they usually are in India. I accidentally always ended up turning on the wipers, instead of the turn indicators! The salesman told me its a French vehicle, blah, blah. But what the hell: Its being sold in India, they better localize it for Indian rules and conditions. I am surprised ARAI even approved the sale of this vehicle.
- Footwell is very small. So much so that when you lift your foot off the clutch to rest it on the floor, it invariably collides with the clutch pedal again.
- Very poor pickup
- Very small ORVMs (Outer Rear View Mirrors)
- 3rd row floor is high, so the knees end up pointing upward (poor under-thigh support)
- Driver side door feels too light to close
- AC vents for middle and 3rd row seemed very flimsy of poor quality

Positives:
- Good, thick seats
- Height adjustable
- Very roomy
- Nice captain seats in the center row in RXZ 7-seater variant, allows entry to last row without having to fold the middle row seats
- "Food tray" like thing for middle row passengers
- NAV lets you choose the destination on the map
- Rest all features was good, quite good actually

Even VW vehicles have it the same way. I guess all European manufacturers have it on the opposite side. I earlier drove an Accent and now drive a Polo. It took me a day or two to adjust. It is just a matter of getting used to it. :D

Not just european vehicles. Fords all have it that way - went crazy driving a rented figo sometime back though the rest of the drive was excellent. They're left hand drive vehicles sold with minimal conversion for a right hand drive market.

Is the gearshift a "dogleg" like in the polo, where you have to pull a catch up and shift into first for reverse gear to engage? Or is it the conventional "reverse below the fifth gear" like in most local cars?

Thats not acceptable. Its a safety hazard not to be underestimated. I have sent a complaint to ARAI.

Took delivery of my Lodgy this evening.



Initial Thoughts:
Went with mixed expectation since I haven't had a test drive. This was my first drive of the Lodgy. I initially booked it just on the proven credentials of the engine alone and boy oh boy, what an engine this is! There were days in this forum that I used to ridicule this engine as old school but boy this engine is a revelation!



If you think I'm exaggerating, no I'm not. The moment I drove the Lodgy out of the showroom, I knew this engine was a gem. Let me tell you why! There's hardly any turbo lag and the eagerness of this engine blew me away. I never knew the K9K dCi 110 was this good! As tsk1979 rightly said in the review, there's a very mild weakness felt when accelerating from 2nd gear but it's so mild you can barely notice it. To me, this engine is a gem because with the Ertiga 1.3 DDiS, I had to literally flog it to derive any satisfactory performance from it in city driving. On the highway, the 1.3 Multijet is a star until 110 km/h. I still remember the day I took delivery of my Ertiga and lamenting the lacklustre power delivery of the 1.3 DDiS. I was smiling on the outside to keep my family happy but on the inside I was literally broken to find myself so disappointed with its performance. But I put on a brave face and thought the Multijet will get better with more miles. And, it did, just about. I'm just sharing what I felt and I by no means intend to offend anyone who purchased the Ertiga. It's a great vehicle, it really is only to be let down by the small engine. My apologies again if I hurt any Ertiga owner's sentiment, but yeah that's what I felt.

When I sold my Ertiga, I vowed never to buy another MSIL vehicle again until the day they launch a powerful diesel. Where there is true love, it hurts. It hurt me to leave MSIL because I'm a huge fanboy of Suzuki Ertiga and in fact of all their vehicles. To let them go was tough but I took that decision and bought a vehicle with an engine I used to loathe - the 1.5 dCi. How mistaken I was! Gentlemen, this 1.5 dCi is a revelation! I just realised I said that already, but yeah, it is! Moving on, the NVH inside the Lodgy is impeccable. I could hardly hear the engine or the noise outside. Noise insulation is so good that it filters out everything. And finally, the ride quality - it's carpet. When the reviewers mentioned it's ride quality I thought they were kidding but man, this thing just glides over whatever you throw at it!

I've just about done 100 kms on it and I can say this MPV is no slouch. It literally flies although I haven't gone past 4th gear yet. But the eagerness of the engine has to be experienced to really appreciate it. It's a gem. Period! Perhaps, my days of struggling with the 1.3 DDiS makes me say this, I don't know.

Having said all that, the last row seating is pathetic at best. Since the engine is so good and rewarding and satisfying, I've decided to overlook it. Planning to buy a small mattress to increase the height and use it for the female members of the house. Love the DRLs. They're so bright that I almost thought I had my headlamps on. My favourite angle is the rear 3/4 and contrary to popular opinion, I fell in love with the Lodgy because of the way it looks! I absolutely love the slab sided rear and with the tail lamps on, it oozes class. Spent a good 10 minutes watching the derriere of the Lodgy. Ground clearance is a concern although I'm yet to encounter a situation where it matters. Clears most of the Chennai speed breakers with ease. The AC is a chiller and the media nav is a pleasure to use. Paired perfectly with my Xperia Z3 phone. GPS works a treat and Renault gives free updates for the next 3 years! Filled nitrogen on my tyres and I'm not gonna upgrade now as the wheel wells seem to tight to me. The Lodgy is a highway cruiser and a brisk one at that! No qualms about it. What amazes me is this: the engine has good driveability in the city and as far as I can see, it has a great top end. Amazing combination! Is it the 6 speed box or the gem called 1.5 dCi or both? I don't know but I'm a Renault fan now!

And yeah, I'm planning a full review after putting in more miles. Thanks for reading! :-)

Congratulations on your purchase. Believe yours is going to be the first ownership report of Lodgy. Do acknowledge the performance of dCi engine being owner of 110PS Duster. Happy motoring

congratulations on your purchase of Renault lodgy. 110dci is a gem, I just love the engine's response after 2000 rpm
Happy motoring
Welcome to the Renault family:D

That is correct. Justifying the 'wrong' position of indicator stalk and wiper stalk by saying it is a French vehicle, the person unknowingly acknowledges it is wrong in India. For LHD vehicles the indicator stalk is towards outer side, the wiper stalk towards inner side. It is the same logic for RHD vehicles too. The auto makers who position the stalks for RHD vehicles are too lazy or contemptous enough to ignore the logic and copy the LHD scheme as it is. And there is no need to talk about cost effectiveness - to make a LHD into RHD involves significant costs.

Even worse was the way the wipers turn. RHD vehicle wiper stalks ought to rest towards right of the car. Some cars, when introduced in India, had stalks rested towards the left. These models sweep the windscreen from left to right, leaving a blindspot for the driver. And even this can be justified as foreign design.

Below is my correspondence with ARAI on this subject.

>>
On Mon, May 25, 2015, M. Sreenivasulu <...@araiindia.com> wrote:
Dear Mr. Venkat
We have understood the concern, we had already taken up this issue earlier, we would once again take up to the respective committee.

With warm regards.
M.SREENIVASULU



On Mon, May 25, 2015 at 11:24 AM, Venkat <...> wrote:
Dear Mr Sreenivasulu,

Thanks for your reply. I can understand the relaxation offered to manufacturers if and only if this was an expensive change to implement. But this cannot be an expensive thing for the manufacturer to implement, as part of their localization procedures which every international manufacturer must necessarily think about whenever introducing vehicles in India.

I request you to escalate this and introduce a regulation in this regard.

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.

Thanks,
Venkat




On Mon, May 25, 2015 at 10:42 AM, M. Sreenivasulu <...@araiindia.com> wrote:
Dear Mr. Karale
Thanks for your mail and we understand the difficulty faced, however as of today under CMVR there are no mandatory rules regarding the location of the controls for these systems.
However we would appreciate your suggestions and would take it up with the concerned.

With warm regards.
M.SREENIVASULU
020-30231152

From: A. R. Karale
Sent: Monday, May 25, 2015 9:27 AM
To: M. Sreenivasulu
Subject: FW: Car controls inconsistent with Indian driving standards/regulations



From: Venkat Hariharan [mailto:...]
Sent: 23 May 2015 21:39
To: info@araiindia.com
Subject: Car controls inconsistent with Indian driving standards/regulations

I test-drove a Renault Lodgy in Bangalore today. I noticed that the "turn indicators" are on the opposite side to what they usually are in India.

In India, the turn indicator lever is supposed to be on the right of the steering column. Instead, the Renault Lodgy has it on the left side of the steering column. As a result, I accidentally always ended up turning on the wipers, instead of the turn indicators!

The salesman told me its a French vehicle, and therefore it is like that. But that is unacceptable! It is being sold in India, so the manufacturer MUST localize it for Indian rules and conditions.

I am surprised ARAI even approved the sale of this vehicle!

Apparently cars from some other manufacturers like Volkswagen, also have this exact same problem.

This is a safety hazard, not to be underestimated. It requires the Indian driver to needlessly adapt to different standards from car to car within India itself! No other country permits such a situation.

It is a simple matter for the manufacturer to fix this problem and localize it to Indian regulations/standards. Please take this up with Renault, Volkswagen and all such offending manufacturers, revoke their permission to sell till the time their vehicles are localized in this regard.

Thanks,
Venkat
>>

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.

I don't mean to pry, but is this not the case with all Renault products? I have driven the Dustar, it's the same case there as well. Yeah, it is bothering, but drive it for some time and you would get used to it. As a matter of fact, its the same with our American Fords as well (at least on the Figo).

Although, I agree, there should be a regulation to change this as part of localisation efforts as it might be confusing for drivers initially and might cause issues.