The entry-level hatchback segment is undoubtedly the most popular, and highest sales number-crunching segment. I reckon there are a couple of simple reasons behind this fact, they have always been the most efficient in terms of economy and also they are lite on the wallet as far as maintenance and service costs are concerned. These puny sized four-wheelers have never really be known for a long features list, but in the past couple of years, introductions of facelifts have meant that they now get a decent feature list, which surely is a win-win for the buyers.
Renault Kwid and Datsun Redi-GO, these two hatchbacks do share a lot of things in common, yet they have some unique USPs to offer. So, which one is actually the better bet? Read through to find the answers.
Design
Now and then, we have come up with the assertion that design is a subjective perception, and so generalising it does not imply. We will still plot the facts as they are in order to help you make an informed choice: –
- As far as the exteriors are concerned, the two competing cars have opposite nuances. While Kwid is meant to resonate with the buyers searching for a SUVish vibe, Redi-Go comes forward as a tall-stance hatchback with some pretty interesting design elements on offer.
- Kwid looks absolutely stunning from the front, especially the unorthodox headlight placement on the front bumper, comes as a fresh change, the addition of plastic cladding and a wide stance does give it a micro SUV vibe.
- Redi-Go on the other hand now gets slimmer headlamps, L-shaped DRLs and LED fog lamps, all these changes essentially mean that the car looks more refreshing than ever and weighs up well against its counterpart-Kwid.
Interior & Features
- About a couple of months old Redi-Go’s interior was no match against Kwid’s quality and feature-rich interior but the facelifted Redi-Go surely puts up a strong hand with the introduction of infotainment, reworked dashboard and impressive silver inserts on the dashboard and the central console does look good. Though we have not had the chance to get a hands-on experience for checking out the quality levels on the updated Redi-Go, we believe they will be good enough to put up a fight against Kwid.
- The Redi-Go gets important features like the touchscreen infotainment system with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay connectivity, reverse parking camera (Kwid gets all these features as well) Redi-Go also get features like LED Fog lamps and tinted glass and interestingly Kwid misses out on them.
- Kwid has always offered a good amount of features for its price. It was the first car in the segment to get features like touchscreen infotainment and a digital instrumentation cluster. The updates only helped the Kwid to get Android Auto and Apple CarPlay connectivity options. It also gets a rear parking camera. An area where it certainly excels though is the inclusion of segment-first features like fast charger and rear armrest.
- Gladly, both cars get safety features like driver’s airbag (both driver and passenger side airbags are offered on the higher trims), ABS with EBD, seatbelt reminder, high-speed alert system and seatbelt pretension as standard.
Engine Options
- Both the cousin concerns get the same 0.8-litre and 1.0-litre petrol engine and their power output figures are identical.
- While the 0.8-litre engine produces power equivalent of 53bhp and a peak torque of 67Nm, the 1.0-litre produces 67bhp, whereas the peak torque outputs stand at 91Nm.
- The 0.8-litre engine option, however, is simply not recommended, not only it misses out on features, it feels seriously underpowered.
- 1.0-litre engine option on both the vehicles get the option of both manual and AMT gearboxes
Fuel Efficiency
- Although Datsun claims that Redi-Go will return decent fuel economy figures of 20.71 kilometres per litre for a 0.8-litre engine variant, Renault Kwid manages to top that by quite some margin with economy figures of 25.17 kmpl.
- The wide gap in economy figures is narrowed for the bigger 1.0-litre engine, while the Kwid return brilliant numbers (23.01 kmpl for manual, 24.01 kmpl for automatic), Redi-Go manages to come close (21.7 kmpl for manual, 22 kmpl for automatic)
Pricing
Things get pretty interesting here, there are no margins of error for the company, as it happens to be the price-sensitive bracket, the price difference of a few thousand can turn out to be a deal-breaker in the end.
While the Redi-Go is priced between Rs. 2.86 Lakhs (for base D variant), its top model retails at Rs. 4.82 Lakhs (for T 1.0 AMT variant), Kwid is competitively priced with the base STD variant priced at Rs. 3.12 lakhs and the top of the line 1.0 RXT Opt AMT priced at Rs. 5.10 Lakhs
Kwid also gets the Cimber & Neotech variant which gets a plethora of cosmetic additions making it stand out from the regular Kwid trims on offer. These trims retail from Rs 4.29 lakh to Rs 5.31 lakh.
Which one will be the ideal pick for you?
Kwid certainly seems to score higher on a few parameters, it returns better efficiency, gets better features and also gets a bigger boot. However, after the update, Redi-Go has managed to narrow the gap by a significant margin and choosing it over the Kwid is by no means a compromise of any sorts.
To sum it up, both the cars offer a great deal for their price, Kwid certainly seems to be taking the honours, but again that by no mean implies Redi-Go does a bad job, it is a great car and is a worthy choice as well.
