Renault has produced a Car which would give sleepless nights to the ALTO 800

Exterior : The BEST IN CLASS. It's a USP for the car. No one could've asked for more from a 3.5 lac rupees car. Apart from the outdated side mirrors, Renault has just hit the right note in designing each and every detail in the exterior body. Put accessories like roof rails and some chrome packaging and the car becomes a head-turner 😎

Interior (Features, Space & Comfort) : Interior quality is pretty satisfying when keeping in mind what ALTO 800 has to offer. The touch screen audio/navigation system (though not a soft touch) sets it a class high from it rivals.

Front seats are pretty comfortable even for long drives. A 6 feet guy like me can also adjust in the rear seat as well.

I like the way Renault has given ample space to keep your water bottles, mobile phones , car papers and other tit-bits. With 2 glove boxes and with one extra shelf in the dashboard you would find a place to keep almost any small stuffs you carry for a long journey. Not to forget the 300 lt bootspace which can rival the likes of i20 also.

Engine Performance, Fuel Economy and Gearbox : Engine is a bit noisy at idling and in 1st -2nd gear. I read it somewhere that the idling RPM is being intentionally set high may be to extract a better avg. The noise may irk people who drive petrol cars, But it smoothens once you start hitting higher gears and cross 30km/hr. I touched speed of around 115km/hr with AC and the car/steering didn't shake a bit. You won't find the same with Alto 800.

Though the odometer is still under 3000 km, the car showed an average of ~ 20km/l by the time i finished my 270 km highway journey ;). That's pretty cool keeping in mind it's a petrol engine and the car is just 3K Kms old. 😄

Gearbox is not as smooth as you find in the Alto800 but it gets the job done pretty fairly.

Ride Quality & Handling : This would be another area where Kwid outshines the Alto800. I feel the major difference is the suspension tuning. I drove this car on bad hilly roads also but it was taking all the pot holes and uneven patches firmly and without much hassles. It doesn't quite upsets it's balance on sharp turns either. The steering is quite light and at times it feels like a kid's job to manoeuvre it. Though it's light but is quite stable in high speeds and doesn't give you goosebumps.

The downside are the brakes. I am not sure one would be able to avoid collisions in case of emergencies. The car doesn't stop in a safe distance when you drive at speeds > 60 km/hr. The problem worsens if you have 3-4 people in the car and going downhill. I have already raised a complaint to Renault for this.

Final Words : Overall Renault has done a great job with this Car. I have in between made comparisons to Alto800 since that's the car its majorly competing with and we should not really compare it to higher segment hatchbacks. If Renault's increasing dealer n/w can match up to the after sales service of Maruti, I am sure Alto's reign as a market leader in this segment would be over soon.

Areas of improvement

1. Should definitely have an ABS option. There are many people like me who won't mind paying the extra 20K just to get that necessary safety feature.

2, Oil Sump should be changed to a metal body. Already Renault is facing consumer complaint for this.

Looks, ground clearance, suspension, interior space managementEngine noise at idling, No ABS option, Brakes could have been better, Plastic Oil Sump