[Rajeevraj]

Great review Vid. Thanks for sharing.

Looks like a nice all round entry car is now even better and more VFM. Great to see Renault giving the big boys a run for their money. Was looking at the monthly sales and noticed that the Kwid has entered into 5 figure territory with 10k plus dispatches. I doubt if any non Maruti non Hyundai car has ever sold more than 10k units in a month.

On the downside, disappointed to see a single airbag and no abs. They have been disruptive with a lot of other segment first features. Why not be disruptive with safely also?

Also wish that they had launched the amt variant. It's been some time since the Nano and Alto AMTs came out and the segment could do with some more choices.

[samaspire]

This is how Maruti is countering the Kwid.
Some evil marketing genius at work . This is what the Maruti guys are circulating on WhatsApp and probably what they are teaching their Sales Advisors.

Please find details form the competition study done for Kwid

· Vehicle is not dispatched to many dealers for display and test drive.
· Booking amount Rs.10000/- observed at majority of dealers across India,
· No exchange bonus or discount is applicable.
· The cosmetic changes are limited to a silver finish on the ORVMs and chequered flag graphics on the side. Rest features are same as Kwid 800.
· DSEs are primarily comparing Renault Kwid 1.0 with Eon 1.0, WagonR, Alto K10 and Celerio. Comparison points observed are- Better Looks, Ground Clearance, Boot space, Power to weight ratio, Touch music system and Spacious
· Waiting period of 30 days observed at majority of dealer locations in Pan-India
· Total 2 variants are available : RXT (Rs. 382776) and RXT optional (Rs. 395776) delhi exshowroom
· Colors: Total 5; Fiery Red, Ice cool white, Moonlight silver, Outback bronze, Planet Grey
· Fuel Efficiency : 23.01km/lt. (mileage has gone down from 800 cc engine)


Customer feedback
• Kwid Customer Satisfaction has gone down by 17% from Jan’16 to July’16
• Only 50% willing to definitely recommend post 6 months purchase
• Customer bought the product for the looks, but after using for six months the dissatisfaction is evident due to low performance and feature quality
• First Time Car Buyer - only 45% satisfied
• Dealer Experience – 63% dissatisfied
• Dealer Responsiveness – 85% dissatisfied
• Service Experience– 92% dissatisfied
• Key customer dislikes
• Built Quality of The Outside Rear View Mirror
• Front Wiper Blades Can Not Be Lifted Out
• Low Power Engine, Low Pick up
• AC is too noisy;Like a blower fan, Feel low power with AC, , No vent at rear
• Engine gives feeling of driving Diesel Car,
• Reverse gear is not stable, No smooth change of gears-some people go directly from 1st to 3rd gear
• Brakes not so effective. It seems that it may not stop car in case of emergency. Driving on highway creates a fear in mind
• No grab handles for front passengers
• Electronic remote available only in one key
• “While starting the vehicle if you down the driver window..it shakes and create an unusual sound..”
• “Pathetic serving experience…the mileage even gone down post each serving”
• Key Customer Complaints
• Dust & water is logging between headlight and body and could not be cleaned
• Quality of colour compromised
• Water logging inside the car
• Space between bonnet and Windscreen- Water is logging in the cabin
• Single wiper clears only 60% of the front mirror
• Wiper cannot be lifted for washing the mirror-if done creates scratches


Negatives (In comparison with Alto K10)
· Every feature is same as existing Kwid and no new feature has been added. The price increase is approx. 28,000 for just one feature change
· 28 liter fuel tank is the smallest in the segment and its 4.9 meter turning radius the largest giving poor manoeuvrability
· Use of plastics to keep the weight and cost low.
· Low fuel efficiency
· Non availability of CNG variant.
· Non availability of automatic transmission (Auto Gear Shift)
· Non availability of internally adjustable ORVM
· No tachometer. For the younger generation non availability of tachometer is a major drawback.
· Normal disc brakes and not ventilated disc brakes. Vented discs are able to shed the heat build-up more quickly, leading to longer brake life.

[batterylow]

Originally Posted by RSR

Which brings us to the negatives. While Renault have done well to improve the Kwid's structural strength (will have to wait for G-NCAP to confirm the same) and provide first-in-class seat belt pre-tensioners & load limiters, I wonder what prevented them from going further down the safety path?!?

Cost, and the need to sell it at a lower price point, hindsight is 20-20 and we can poke holes now, but Renault would not have honestly expected this kind of reception for the Kwid. Their brief would have been to manufacture at the lowest price and these omissions are just cuts that they felt that the Indian car buying junta would overlook and they have been proved correct. Going forward, lets see what changes are made to address the shortcomings, but hey, the champion in the B segment still keeps selling like hot cakes despite its shortcoming, so I don't know if Renault would want to tinker with a winning formula.

[Blow Horn Ok]

Sam, That's a long list of dislikes. I can sense similar sentiment in the official kwid thread. On the other hand the addition of 1.0 engine has definitely complemented the already good package of ride, looks and features. If Renault listens to the feedback regarding the car, service quality and sales interaction and acts positively in time, there would be nothing to look back.

One question for people who have driven the kwid 1.0 and the tiago petrol, how does the engines fare in terms of refinement, vibration and driveability? In my opinion, the tiago's mid variants offer better build quality in similar budget.

[madmaxvistian]

Excellent review as usual,rated 5 stars, Thanks for sharing.
Looks like the engine upgrade is working wonders for Renault and has created positive outlook for this Car with nice packaging overall. Nice to see another manufacturer making inroads in this price bracket dominated by Suzuki and Hyundai.

[hareesh3395]

Rated 5stars ,Renault India is upping their game with each and every launch. This will surely increase the volumes of kwid, no wonder if the sales figures touch 15k in the upcoming months.
Maruti suzuki finally has some one to worry about in the entry level segment. Way to go Renault.

[AYP]

Excellent review Vid6639.

Someone looking to buy the top-end variant of the Kwid should definitely stretch for the 1.0 variant. That being said, they should have offered this engine in the RXL variant also. The silver coloured ORVM's along with the chequered stickers look odd. They look much better in the 0.8 variant. They should have also provided a tachometer atleast with the 1.0 variant. In fact the lack of a tachometer is the single-most and perhaps the only turnoff for me when compared to the K10. I hope that Renault corrects this is in the future, especially when we consider the fact that the Redi-Go already has it.

Looking forward to more game changing products from Renault.

[vsrivatsa]

Originally Posted by samaspire

• Dust & water is logging between headlight and body and could not be cleaned
• Water logging inside the car
• Space between bonnet and Windscreen- Water is logging in the cabin

Of all the points - the above three seem alarming Is it true? And do we know if the 1.0 L Kwid resolved these issues?


I answered my own question with a quick search. Does seem to be true!!

URL

[Moto_Hill]

Rated 5 stars. I like how (only) the things that mattered are covered, excellent and uncluttered review.

I was curious about this and asked around. An 'insider' said that Renault is now rolling out Kwids with structural enhancements.

I hope that it brings some real world safety/strengthening to the car. That has been major concern in older lots.

Sadly, the ORVMs are still not internally adjustable, and you need to roll down the glass to adjust them with your hand.

There's no excuse for this ignorance. No doubt that the knob is missed by many. The only reason Renault could come up with, is the number of cars running with folded ORVMs

Fire the motor up and immediately, you know something's different. There are lesser vibrations at startup and the idle feels smoother than in the Kwid 800 (it's still not 4-cylinder smooth though). The first thing I did was turn the air-con on - this had made the Kwid 800's entire body vibrate at idle. Thankfully, that has been fixed in the Kwid 1.0 and even with the air-con running, vibrations are lesser (although they are still there).

Pardon my limited technical knowledge here, but I am wondering, what has been done to reduce the vibrations. Does a mere bump in displacement (with number of cylinders remaining same) would have achieved that ?

[samaspire]

Originally Posted by Blow Horn Ok

Sam, That's a long list of dislikes.

Originally Posted by vsrivatsa

Of all the points - the above three seem alarming Is it true?

That list is not mine; it is what the Maruti guys are circulating on WhatsApp and probably what they are teaching their Sales Advisors.

I do agree with a few points, primarily being the brakes - it caught me by surprise a couple of times on the old Kwid. Otherwise, the only big thing the Alto has over the Kwid is the perception of Maruti trust.

That being said I would not recommend anyone the Kwid (nor the Alto) until I'm sure that they have made it safer than before.

[kashif_baig]

Originally Posted by samaspire

That list is not mine; it is what the Maruti guys are circulating on WhatsApp and probably what they are teaching their Sales Advisors.

I do agree with a few points, primarily being the brakes - it caught me by surprise a couple of times on the old Kwid. Otherwise, the only big thing the Alto has over the Kwid is the perception of Maruti trust.

That being said I would not recommend anyone the Kwid (nor the Alto) until I'm sure that they have made it safer than before.

I agree with you Sir. Looks, mileage, drivability, etc are great things to concentrate on. However, the safety and security of the car's occupants should be top priority.

That being said, I am a big fan of this car. To be honest, I have not had the pleasure of driving it, I love what it represents - an underdog taking it to the segment and industry leader and how!!

What I'm wondering if the it is possible and how much would be the expense to improve the car from a comfort perspective by undertaking the following:

1. Bigger and wider tyres
2. Leather seats
3. Adding a rear-wash wipe
4. Improving the insulaltion (to avoid water seepage and improve NVH) by adding additional rubber seals and stuffing the doors with insulating foam, etc
5. Adding an arm-rest

[samaspire]

Originally Posted by kashif_baig

What I'm wondering if the it is possible and how much would be the expense to improve the car from a comfort perspective by undertaking the following:

1. Bigger and wider tyres
2. Leather seats
3. Adding a rear-wash wipe
4. Improving the insulaltion (to avoid water seepage and improve NVH) by adding additional rubber seals and stuffing the doors with insulating foam, etc
5. Adding an arm-rest

Points 1, 2, 4, 5 are possible for any car - just enquire at a good accessories shop for the cost of kwid specific sizes.

3 will be tricky. Will probably have to be an official accessory. But lakhs of alto users are using their cars without it

[Sutripta]

Originally Posted by Vid6639

The keen observers amongst you will notice that a water bottle no longer fits in the upper glovebox like before

This is interesting, esp. considering the cost of a new mould. What is being done in the 0.8 Kwid now?

Originally Posted by i74js

The outcome would result in better performance with compromised fuel economy because the compression ratio is likely to reduce / engine will run a bit richer

Why would these changes occur?

Regards
Sutripta

[kashif_baig]

Originally Posted by samaspire

Points 1, 2, 4, 5 are possible for any car - just enquire at a good accessories shop for the cost of kwid specific sizes.

3 will be tricky. Will probably have to be an official accessory. But lakhs of alto users are using their cars without it

As Renault does not seem to be inclined to take advantage of this massive opportunity (avg 8-10k cars per month) by enticing potential customers through supply of such accessories, this would perhaps make good business to some keen eyed after-market accessory shops to provide such things.

Even better to tie up with a local garage and offer a parts+installation bundle. I'm sure even locally there would be good demand - around 50-100 cars per month, say in a city like Bangalore.

[i74js]

Originally Posted by Sutripta

Why would these changes occur?

Regards
Sutripta

How will you compensate for the increased diameter of cylinder after changing the bore?

by increasing the ring size; this change will still result in altering the bore vs stroke ratio (stroke remains same in pre and post scenario).

I am assuming that ECU programing will not be part of this change. The result would be a slightly richer mix igniting at lower compression, which will give better performance, yet the economy will be compromised.

You will appreciate that after reboring the TDC of the piston will still be the same, whereas the increased diameter of cylinder will make available additional volume in the cylinder at TDC to fire up / burn fuel.

Cheers !