The Renault Logan – first perspective – comprehensive review

I took a test drive on both the Diesel and the Petrol Variants.

Here is my take on it to personally go for this car as I was one of those who was keenly interested in acquiring this vehicle (either a BUY/HOLD)

Diesel – HOLD, Petrol – BUY if we want to take a chance on an unproven car in the Indian market — despite the leading reviews on television saying the Diesel variant is better than the Petrol variant! This is always one of the issues buying any new entrant to the market since it (and its defects) are largely unproven. The same principle applies in all aspects of product development. We need this trial period to evaluate if the product satisfies our needs or not.

Critical metrics for evaluation

Mileage – The engineer I spoke to told me that the Diesel Logan will easily give you a mileage of 16-20 km to a liter of Diesel. This is good. The Petrol is supposed to give a mileage of about 10-12 km to a liter of Petrol.

Air conditioning – Very poor (both variants) – the AC was a big letdown. The cooling is not at all good. A big negative.

Ground clearance – this was my biggest grouse but it appears as though the Mahindra Sales people have been trained on this and have done some clever cover up for this by trying to convince customers that the Renault displayed website at http://www.mahindrarenault.com has displayed the fully laden ground clearance and not the unladen clearance as other manufacturers do. For a safe measure, I took a scale and measured it and it did come upto 172 cms as they said it would so they are right in a way. The picture confirms this though the scale is not visible.

I drove the car over rugged roads on Bangalore’s airport road and took a detour on some countryside roads – it handled well.

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Handling and pick-up – the handling is quite smooth though the power steering isn’t as smooth as that of say, the Honda City/ The pick-up is Ok – nothing to write home about (both the Petrol and the Diesel).

The gear shift is not slick (again, for both the variants) – its quite tight and requires a complete clutch press to switch gears. Overdrive (5th gear) and reverse do not slot in easily – you need to make an effort at it. The accelerator got stuck a couple of times but the mechanic accompanying us told us it was because of the floor mat – I did not buy his story though!

The frontal view – This is good – much better than my previous Honda City. The seating is adjustable and the one I drove came with Lumbar support so it was really quite comfortable. The left clearance needs some getting used to since it is not visible – you need the assistance of the side view mirrors.

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The rear view during reversing – this is quite poor. The Renault has a high rear portion and this renders reversing quite a handful.

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The boot – this is quite good and extremely spacious – as good or even better than my old Honda City.

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The looks – quite good from the front, average from the rear – again, its got that typical workhorse type look. Its not exquisite compared to my Honda City.

The dashboard – It looks bright especially for the high end variants where they have introduced a small “computer” – if that is the right name, that tracks the basics such as a trip sheet, the mileage etc. There is a standard rpm meter similar to the Honda City and the speedometer from 0 – 200 kmph.

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The interiors – finish – I feel that in their hurry to roll off the Renault-Logan from their assembly lines, Mahindra and Renault have skipped attention to detail. A classic example is this picture. Look at the finish – its so crude!

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I went by the common Indian car way and used the right side switch for the indicators but to my dismay, the wipers started swishing! I was then told that this is a converted Left hand drive to a Right hand drive car and therefore the indicator switch is on the left! The power windows and the other switches were at the central console next to the gear shift. The door opening levers are a bit rugged and on the Diesel vehicle the lever did not even work correctly (though I would attribute that to more of a localized incorrect wear and tear or rough usage than to a genuine manufacturing defect). 

This speaks volumes of Japanese car manufacturers versus others such as the French (Renault) or the Americans (GM). If this was a Toyota or a Honda car, their quality engineers would’ve scanned the entire thing with a fine-toothed comb. Renault needs to pay this attention to detail while selling their cars in India if they are to adhere to Carlos Ghosn’s predictions of selling 50000 units for Renault to make a sizable profit on the Logan’s introduction for the Indian car market.

Price of the Logan

1. Logan 1.4 Petrol GL Euro III

MSRP manufacturer suggested retail price or sticker price – Rs. 433950

On road price – Rs. 502928

2. Logan 1.4 Petrol GLE Euro III

MSRP manufacturer suggested retail price or sticker price – Rs. 477890

On road price – Rs. 553241

3. Logan 1.6 Petrol GLS Euro III

MSRP manufacturer suggested retail price or sticker price – Rs. 574760

On road price – Rs. 673356

4. Logan 1.5 Diesel DLE Euro III

MSRP manufacturer suggested retail price or sticker price – Rs. 553050

On road price – Rs. 648222

5. Logan 1.5 Diesel DLS Euro III

MSRP manufacturer suggested retail price or sticker price – Rs. 649950

On road price – Rs. 760404