The world is smitten by SUVs and the Indians are gaga over them. Anything that pretends to be an SUV is a sales success. So we have full size SUV, compact SUV, Mini SUV, Micro SUV and I am waiting for a Nano SUV now. To encash on this craze for SUVs and SUV wannabe, off road capability be damned, Renault India has launched the new Kwid in India. The Kwid, has been a pretty successful car here with more than 300,000 sold till date.

Looks. Taking the SUV design theme ahead, Renault has styled a basically A-segment hatchback to look like an SUV. They have latched on to the low mounted headlamps look introduced in India by the likes of MG Hector, Tata Harrier and Hyundai Venue. However, I would be wrong to say that they do not look attractive. Renault have done a good job of it. The grille on the Kwid has an interesting shape with DRLs integrated at the top a la Harrier and Venue. To accentuate the SUV look, Renault has fitted 14″ wheels with a grey spoke design. The car has been given an SUVish 184 mm ground clearance also. There is a silver skid plates and roof rails to complete the SUV looks. The rear tail lamps have an attractive C shaped LED integrated. In all its an attractive piece of machine. The Renault Kwid is available in six colours, Zanskar Blue, Fiery Red, Moonlight Silver, Ice Cool White, Outback Bronze, and Electric Blue.

Feel. The interiors are spacious for the class. Driver seat is set high to again give an SUV feeling. In a class first, Renault has provided rear seat hand rests in the Kwid. The interior is has a dual tone dash with chrome inserts for the premium feel. The seats are available in Orange and White fabric with striped embossing which will appeal to the younger buyers or premium crossway fabric with red stitching. The steering is chunky and wrapped in leather with red stitching. For the driver, it has a full digital LED instrument cluster which has a gear change display to assist the driver in extracting the maximum power and efficiency from the car. The dash is dominated by an 8″ touchscreen MediaNAV infotainment system with Apple Carplay and Android Auto. Renault has also provide the Kwid with parking sensors and reversing camera. A driver side airbag is standard while passenger airbag is available as an option. The Renault Kwid seats four in comfort and has a boot space of 279 litres expandable to 620 litres with seats folded.

The Go. Renault has launched the Kwid with two engine options. A 799 cc 3 cylinder, DOHC petrol engine with four valves per cylinder producing 54 PS of power at 5,678 rpm. This engine also produced 72 N-m of torque at 4,386 rpm. The second option is another 3 cylinder, DOHC petrol engine with four valves per cylinder displacing 999 cc and producing 68 PS of power at 5,500 rpm and 91 N-m of torque at 4,250 rpm. These engines are sufficient to allow the Kwid to do respectable speeds in city as well as highway. The engines are mated to either a 5 speed manual or a 5 speed AMT gear box which drives the front wheels. The front suspension is Mac Pherson Strut with lower traversing link while the rear suspension has a twist beam with coil springs.

The Renault Kwid offers a number of active and passive safety features like Anti Locking Brake System (ABS) with Electronic Brake Distribution (EBD), driver and co-driver seat belt reminders, overspeed alerts etc.

Prices for the Renault Kwid vary from INR 2.83 Lakhs to INR 4.85 Lakhs ex-showroom.

Advertisement