Renault Kwid review, road test

Practicality and cost-effectiveness tend to trump styling with cars in this segment, and buyers tend to agree, but now Renault has moved the goalposts by shaping the Kwid like a crossover. Indians love SUVs, so why not make a small car look like one? It has a high bonnet, tall waistline and, true to its SUV-like styling, a high ground clearance of 180mm. This does make the 13-inch wheels look a little weedy, but it doesn’t take too much away from the overall look. The muscular bonnet gets two ridges on the edges that go along nicely with the flared wheel arches, and the twin-element headlights, big ‘serrated’ grille and large Renault logo look quite nice. The cladding on the sides lend it a rugged appeal and the nice kink in the shoulder line adds to the bulging muscular rear. The elegant tail-lamps and the tall, black bumper give the rear a neat look, but it doesn’t look quite as dramatic as the front.

Renault has been clever to give the car an upmarket look and instead cut costs in places that aren’t as important to the average buyer in this segment. Things like a single wiper, three wheel nuts rather than four and wing mirrors that aren’t adjustable from inside. It is also one of the lightest cars in its class weighing a measly 669kg, and you can feel it in the lightness with which the doors shut. That draws our attention to crash-worthiness. The Datsun Go, another budget car from the Renault-Nissan Alliance, was criticised for failing miserably in Euro NCAP crash tests, so what about the Kwid? Renault claims it will clear the Indian crash regulations, which are non-existent as of now and will come into play only by 2017. The India-spec Kwid may not pass muster in European crash tests, but Renault claims the car’s CMF-A platform is future-proof and needs just a few tweaks to comply with future crash test norms.