Mahindra-Renault Logan 1.6 Petrol - Lo(gan) & Behold!

Looks

I am sure you would have heard many an auto-journos using the clichéd saying - ‘floor some, offend none’ a lot of times for a lot of machines. For the Logan though, this saying fits as perfectly as your inner-wear fit your essentials. Walk around the car and you will know what makes me say this. There are no sensuous curves, instead what you get are flat surfaces and straight lines. The only ‘curve’ in sight was the wheel-arch, even the air-dam has been prettified with straight lines! This leaves not much to speak about as far as the looks are concerned. The flat bonnet surface leads to a grille which manages to look smart and even sporty. In the ‘Dacia’ form, Logan had a ‘smiling’ grille, which I was particularly not very fond of and I thank Mahindra and Renault to dump this in favour of the grille section that we see today.

I would straight away come to the rear of the Logan since the side has absolutely nothing that we could either find a fault with, or liked a lot. It is plain and simple with absolutely straight lines! Not that the rear is any inspiring, but it does have something to talk about and all is not good. Dominated by the.. er.. straight lines, the back side of the Logan sports vertical tail-lamps with the famed Renault badge occupying the centre of pride. Logan has a little Ford connection to it. Remember the Ford Ikons that came with only one reverse light to cut costs? The Logan too comes equipped with one reverse light. Only one! Heights, that. Oh, and while at it, let me tell you that the windshield wipers also shout at cost cutting. The unit from the left-hand driven car has been retained with an extended arm added to aid its movement. It takes a little getting used to, to see the wipers going anticlockwise - opposite to what you’d normally expect. The outside rear-view mirrors too are an indication of, yes, you guessed it right, cost-cutting. They are spring mounted and are inter-changeable. This means that the wing mirror on the left side can be mounted on the right and the right one on the left.

Try as hard as I did, but could not find anything that was of particular interest to me, but nothing was offensive either. As said, the Logan is a car that has been garnished with straight and simple lines to look modest, as I can best describe the styling. Although build quality was acceptable, for some strange reason our test car’s front door did not shut properly. This left an irritating gap which saw many a motorist asking us to shut the door properly while we were on the road! Not a good feeling that.

Disappointed by the exterior looks, little did I know that I would get the treatment of the words that come at the end of television soaps, those words being – to be continued…

Wishful thinking seldom gets realized. So was the case with Logan. I was wishing for a better treatment towards the interior after getting disappointed by the exterior styling. As my displeasure went on unremitting, with a frown on my head I continued to examine the insides of the car, with an even more acute eye trying to find negatives. And there were some. For starters, I disliked the grab-handle on the door, which er.. weren’t really handles at all! They felt more like the extension of the arm-rest which were very uncomfortable to hold.

The interiors are utilitarian at best and that single-block dashboard is full of sharp angles and looks very square. Ergonomic fiasco, the centre console is a dud and houses the switches for power windows and central locking along with that large switch for the hazard light. What were the designers at Renault thinking when they decided to put the switches for central locking and power windows on the centre console? You really would need to have chimpanzee arms to reach for the power window control of the left side. And then is the plastic quality. Tough it sure is, but the plastic used could be better to make it feel better to your skin. Oh, and while on the ergonomics, also allow me to mention that even the power window control for the rear windows are mounted on the transmission tunnel in between the front seats. This ensures that you have a good back-exercise when trying to operate them.

The silver inserts were added to lend it a little classy feel, but the interior, I am sorry to say stay as dull as ever. The glove box, though looks spacious, is stupidly limited on space and is good enough only for the essential documents. The storage space above the glove compartment on the dash is a useful touch so are the cubby holes and the cup holder upfront. We would have appreciated a little more space on the door pockets though, and it really fails me as to why be there no door pockets at the rear?

But this car is all about space. And there is a lot of it. Wide enough to accommodate three well built men at the rear, the comfort level is of a high order too. The only grouch that we encountered when the rear was occupied to its optimum capacity was that the transmission tunnel was giving the person sitting in the middle a little point to get irritated upon. But this apart, the seats are supremely comfortable providing the right amount of support and cushion at the right places. Even at the front, the seats are well padded and lend good support for a fatigue free and relaxed driving comfort. With the captain’s seat adjusted for my 6 feet frame, I did not find any dearth of legroom and was enjoying the abundance of space that I was gifted with. The luggage space is also generous and would swallow your big bags easily. Thinking about a week long road-trip to Goa? Bang on, do it.