The Renault Kwid AMT is out, and it’s not for the automotive purist. This review and indeed this car is not for you.
If however, you are someone who wants your car to be an able tool in daily life to take you to work and back, without anything else to worry about – you definitely need to read on.
Features - All Aboard the AMT
The Renault Kwid now comes in with an AMT mated to its 1-litre SCe petrol engine, adding to the already available 5-speed manual gearbox option in the same configuration – the smaller 799-cc petrol engine makes it with only the manual transmission.
The system features an advanced control unit that will shift gears for you based on driving conditions, so it adjusts the shifts according to whether you’re crawling through traffic or accelerating hard.
The only bit of driver involvement as far as the gearbox is concerned, is to rotate the Easy-R selector dial left or right from the central Neutral position depending on whether you want to go forward (D for drive) or backwards (R for reverse) – yes, it’s that simple.
The Kwid utilises its AMT really well too – as long as you aren’t accelerating too hard, the big headbang in between gearshifts, that is typically associated with AMTs, is barely noticeable.
Pin the throttle all the way to the floorboard though and it will make you rock as hard as a front-row fanatic at an AC/DC concert between gears – especially 1st and 2nd – and that’s just a limitation of the technology in general – cost effective tech means compromises, after all.
The Drive
The Renault Kwid isn’t exactly a heavy car and the 68PS, 91Nm 999cc petrol three-pot is a good mix with the AMT – it keeps things peppy enough and you don’t have to go stomping the throttle to make the car go, even on an uphill start.
This isn’t meant to be a fast hatch, it’s a convenient one and in that sense the Kwid scores extremely high on all counts.
There’s absolutely nothing else that sets this AMT variant apart from the manual transmission 1-litre Kwid, so the 180-mm ground clearance is more than adequate, the space inside is good enough for four adults.
The entire instrumentation is digital and there’s a neat touchscreen infotainment system as well.
The digital meters also prompt you for when you need to have the brake pedal pressed to operate the Easy-R knob and switch between R, N and D modes. While the digital speedometer isn’t the most seamless measure of your increasing speed, it does a decent job of keeping up with physical reality.
Verdict
The Renault Kwid AMT isn’t confusing in any way. It’s one of the few cars that don’t try to be something else. I’m sure some wisecrack will read that line and point out the Kwid’s SUVish design but even then, it’s not trying to be an SUV – it’s just keeping up with a design trend.
Priced at Rs 4.25 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi), Renault has played its cards rather smartly. The Kwid AMT only costs Rs 30,000 more than the manual version, and 25K more than what you pay for the Alto AMT.
With 24.04 kmpl (claimed), the Kwid AMT is an everyday, city-slicker hatchback designed to take its occupants from one place to another and keep them fresh for the rest of the day, all the while keeping operational costs low. The Renault Kwid AMT is simple – just what a commuter car should be.
(Muntaser Mirkar is one of India’s renowned automotive journalists and the Co-Founder of MotorScribes. He can be reached on Twitter: @BullSpeech)
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)