[amalji]

Originally Posted by wadewilson

I actually had no idea before that the ECU was this important in our cars Will definitely tell them to check for any firmware updates during next service. Thank you

The ECU is the brain of the car. This wiki article is a good read - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engine_control_unit

[PrideRed]

Originally Posted by wadewilson

It happened to me again yesterday as I drove to a nearby city for a Sunday drive. Thankfully, being a sunday there was relatively less traffic, but the car just gave up on me, as usual. Nowadays, I'm very alert about this, so as soon as I felt the power being lost, I slowly swerved to the side. Once parked, slammed the accelerator, no response, a few more seconds later, engine came to life and then everything was fine.

This is maddening sometimes, and I just drive the car really roughly when it happens. I know I shouldn't get pissed off at this but after waiting 7 months for the car to be delivered, and then getting a sub-par driving experience like this just dilutes the experience of owning a first car Don't know why I still love the car even with all its flaws

When you see no response, was the clutch released completely?
I see this in below scenario:
1. There is no accelerator input and car is moving in momentum.
2. You see a necessity to downshift, hence slow down a lot and change the gear(There is no accelerator input yet).
3.You change the gear, release the clutch immediately and with fraction of second press the accelerator.
Ideally I expect the Engine to stall here, but in Kwid you hit the dead zone.
Increasing the idling speed shall help here, which can be done at service centre. If not what you can do is, before completely releasing the clutch, give a bit of accelerator input.
This is quite common phenomenon with lower displacement cars.

[vishnana]

Originally Posted by PrideRed

When you see no response, was the clutch released completely?
I see this in below scenario:
1. There is no accelerator input and car is moving in momentum.
2. You see a necessity to downshift, hence slow down a lot and change the gear(There is no accelerator input yet).
3.You change the gear, release the clutch immediately and with fraction of second press the accelerator.
Ideally I expect the Engine to stall here, but in Kwid you hit the dead zone.
Increasing the idling speed shall help here, which can be done at service centre. If not what you can do is, before completely releasing the clutch, give a bit of accelerator input.
This is quite common phenomenon with lower displacement cars.

Idle speed cannot be increased so easily , moreover it's one of emission relevant item requiring re-homolagation with test agency ! So manufacturer's I guess will not let this update so easily , just my point !

[PrideRed]

Originally Posted by vishnana

Idle speed cannot be increased so easily , moreover it's one of emission relevant item requiring re-homolagation with test agency ! So manufacturer's I guess will not let this update so easily , just my point !

Well I am not very sure about the current crop of cars, but in Bikes and older 4 wheelers(read Omni,Esteem) it was a fairly simple job. Even when any issues related to engine were noticed, the server centre people used to check the idling speed of the engine and adjust if needed.
In my Pulsar, it was just a simple screw job which I used to do myself.

[Akhilash95]

I have been using our kwid as a daily driver for the past 5 months and the total odo reading is about 4300km(2300 in city and 2000 highway)

The experience has been very bad so far.
I'm getting about 10kmpl in city and 18kmpl on the highway.

My route involves dense traffic and multiple signals and about 6kms each way and I'm a moderately sedate driver .

Is this normal or am I stuck with this lemon!

[RavenAvi]

On the eve of launching the Kwid 1.0L SCe, Renault India increased the prices of the entire Kwid 0.8L range.

One reason why the narrow price gap between the two different engine variants seemed so attractive, at the 1.0L's launch. Still, the 1.0L variants are pretty competitively priced, IMO.

70 per cent of the Kwid’s sales have been attributed to the top two variants. This is the 2nd hike in the Kwid’s prices as the government’s decision to levy a 1 per cent infra cess on small cars displacing 1,200cc or less in the 2016 Union Budget spiked the hatchback’s sticker price earlier this year.

CarDekho

[PrideRed]

6500KM Update:

The car feels a lot more smoother and engine is very predictable now. The engine doesnot sound as rough as it used to sound say 3-4K KM's before. The gear shifts also has become a lot more smoother. The FE is around 11-14 in city and 20-23 in Highway. I travel via Graphite daily and traffic is pretty bad. I almost end up travelling 3KM in first gear alone and takes about 30 minutes to cross the signal. I haven't taken much on the highway barring 2-3 trips to native where the car had delivered 24KM/L on one of the occasion.


Issues Faced so far:
1. The alignment goes for a toss pretty easily. Its been ages since I am driving a car without alloy wheels and planning to upgrade the wheels sometime in future. Have got alignment twice already.
2. Replacing the tire is quite a task and things get complicated when you have to fix the tire with hubcap.
3. Minor rattles here and there.

[Traveler]

There have been a few reports of Kwid's catching fire. There was one in Chandigarh yesterday. Here is the link to the newspaper news. http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/cha...pe/287068.html

Seems to be a worrying sign.

[rsm97]

Returned to this thread yesterday after a considerable gap. Appears to me that those actively sharing the updates do not seem entirely happy with the product. Just hope that Renault has taken note and 1L version will have common bugs set right.

Prior to Kwid, the portfolio of Renault had reasonably trouble free products. With close to 10K Kwids adding every month to the supply, the product mix is changing rapidly and so is growing the challenge to service it. The infrastructure remains unchanged essentially. Tend to believe that a better equipped organisation would have managed the customer dissatisfaction way better.

[johnruben]

Last month I got Ford ecosport and I love this car, but I am unable to drive in city's bumper to bumper traffic, so I decided to get a small hatch for local commute and hence finalized on alto 800, kwid and Eon. I test drove all the 3 and found kwid better than the rest, I was so close to book this until I was stopped by many questions.

1. Sales lady at mandovi (Maruti) sent a pic (see below), it showed kwid on fire and I read couple of articles here itself in team bhp about kwid catching fire, if this is genuine it will end up like the old nano incident.

2. In YouTube there are couple of videos of Renault cars having water leakage issues and kwid is one among them, during rain water seeping inside passenger side dashboard.

3. I want to know if the plastic parts used in the kwid engine including the oil sump, are they safe and how reliable are they in long run?

4. Renault's service network is not as strong as Maruti, apart from Maruti only few of them like Hyundai could challenge (or) I should say followed up to that mark, but many have failed inspite of having that potential, they have simply given up. I don't expect a answer to this question, but my fear is Renault should not end up like GM once was.

5. Reliability of the car in long term usage is still not evaluated under normal practical conditions, so how could one be sure if this car is really ideal for a very long term usage?

I know the perfect car is a myth, but if cons of a car like water leakage issue, fire catching issue, engine component lower quality are more than the pro's then i would definitely invest my 4lakhs on already proven alto 800 from Maruti? What say you all?

[SandyX]

Originally Posted by rsm97

Appears to me that those actively sharing the updates do not seem entirely happy with the product.

Originally Posted by johnruben

1. Sales lady at mandovi (Maruti) sent a pic (see below), it showed ........ What say you all?

To those people who are still on the fence about the Kwid due to "he said that", "she showed that", just buy it if you like the car. Almost 1lac Kwids on the road so far & a couple of them caught fire. The ratio still sounds good to me just like any other brand.

I've been driving one from almost an year now in an impossible town with bad roads, heavy south rains and the occasional long distance runs. I'm yet to come across any troubles, leaks, fires etc. Sustained 100kmph+ too feels planted under right road conditions with load. People come up with updates mostly when there's something negative to report, that doesn't mean everyone else is facing the same. So far it's positive for me, enough to say i'd replace mine with another Kwid if & when i get to it.

[arunphilip]

Originally Posted by johnruben

1. Sales lady at mandovi (Maruti) sent a pic (see below), it showed kwid on fire and I read couple of articles here itself in team bhp about kwid catching fire, if this is genuine it will end up like the old nano incident.

Ooh, typical dirty tricks. I'm sure if we look around, we'll find equal examples of Marutis aflame. Hell, any vehicle that's sold in reasonable numbers. For instance, this Baleno.

Originally Posted by johnruben

3. I want to know if the plastic parts used in the kwid engine including the oil sump, are they safe and how reliable are they in long run?

Usage of plastics itself is fine in terms of reliability - provided good gaskets are used. The only risk will be in terms of sump damage due to stone hits. Even metal sumps crack, and plastic will only crack easier.

Originally Posted by johnruben

4. Renault's service network is not as strong as Maruti ... my fear is Renault should not end up like GM once was.

Since you intend to use the small car only locally, you should be covered by the network they have in Bangalore. Renault have sold a significant number of Dusters and Kwid over the last 4 years, so there are a good number of Renaults running around. And that in turn will ensure they cover off service. I've not heard of any major Renault horror stories, they seem to be average (i.e. as incapable as every other brand's after-sales service). In the unlikely - but worst case - event of them cutting down on service centers, the Kwid uses a plain ICE engine that can be serviced at an FNG. And spare availability will be covered by law. Again, the Kwid is a mass-market success, so spares shouldn't be a problem.

Originally Posted by johnruben

5. Reliability of the car in long term usage is still not evaluated under normal practical conditions, so how could one be sure if this car is really ideal for a very long term usage?

No easy answer. Kwid is made-for-India, so there's no experience from other markets for us to rely on. It is also a new product (i.e. not a refresh/facelift) so there's no prior model to refer to. Only minor consolation is that at the budget you're looking at, you should have recouped the benefits after a few years. In this respect, a Maruti or Hyundai will give you more confidence. I've not heard any rumours, but I guess Hyundai must be planning a refresh for the Eon, given it is getting hammered by the Kwid.

Originally Posted by johnruben

I know the perfect car is a myth, but if cons of a car like water leakage issue, fire catching issue, engine component lower quality are more than the pro's then i would definitely invest my 4lakhs on already proven alto 800 from Maruti? What say you all?

I think long-term reliability would be the only reason for you to consider something else (and not because the Kwid is not reliable in the long-term, just that we don't have the data). Things like fire would be a one-off, and water leakage - while it has occurred on some Dusters also - is again detectable and fixable.

That said, I sometimes wonder if we hear more complaints about the Kwid because people were hoping for a certain quality that is not achievable at that price point ("Ooh, mini-Duster"), and whether Maruti has similar issues but people have ended up putting up with their issues instead of being as vocal.

Originally Posted by johnruben

Last month I got Ford ecosport and I love this car, but I am unable to drive in city's bumper to bumper traffic, so I decided to get a small hatch for local commute

Ha ha, I totally get you. I had a Getz that I used as a beater car, and ever since I sold it I've been thinking of buying a small car. The EcoSport is a brilliant car, but with our stupid traffic, I dread taking it out to places where it might have to be parked in a risky spot. For me, the Kwid was a very strong contender, but the only thing that put me off was Renault's attitude to safety.

[crdi]

Originally Posted by johnruben

Renault's service network is not as strong as Maruti, apart from Maruti only few of them like Hyundai could challenge (or) I should say followed up to that mark, but many have failed inspite of having that potential, they have simply given up. I don't expect a answer to this question, but my fear is Renault should not end up like GM

Even when maruti was launched, they had a sparse service network and they were doing only a fraction of the volumes they do today. As sales grew, they were left with no other choice than to expand their network. If the blokes at renault are level headed, they would understand this and won't intentionally kill a golden goose. They have an example set by Hyundai in front of them about a competent product backed by a consistent manufacturer being welcomed by Indians. Don't think service and maintenance would be a major obstacle in owning the kwid long-term (atleast for a decade or so).
As for the fires, one should also suspect non-professional execution of aftermarket mods like headlight bulb upgrades and security systems. Owners will definitely deny having fiddled with anything. I have seen cars being driven post delivery straight from the dealer to the accessory shops, where the apprentice/part-time hand literally rips apart a factory fresh car.

[johnruben]

@arunphilip, I agree with you on everything, but when it comes to reliability it's definitely Maruti, why take a chance on hard earned money and spend sleepless nights with SA and insurance companies than getting a already proven vehicle which is still in the market.

Regarding Fire incident, I don't want to talk about baleno as we are discussing A segment vehicle here, maybe the fire episode with baleno is post accident, but I have not come across alto's and 800's catching fire like the kwid. As @crdi mentioned it could be due to additional accessory fittings, but we see that happening in almost 5 in 10 car sold everyday, I have seen alto's getting customized heavily and nothing happens, in fact 800 doesn't even have firewall setup, I have seen old 800's and indica's manually wired here and there for ICE and speakers where you can literally see those wires in and around dashboard, is kwid so lame it could fire like barbecue chicken because there was a added accessory, then manufacturer are hiding something.

I was told by sales guy at trident Hyundai that Renault has stopped 800cc engine production and are now trying to clear their inventory, from now on only 1.0 ltr engine will be sold and the reason for discontinuing the old engine is because of noise and vibration which couldn't be fixed.

[Traveler]

Has the new 1L Kwid review been posted. I remember it being mentioned that the review will be out this week. Could not find it... Waiting impatiently for the same.