{"id":239782,"date":"2023-09-26T14:49:00","date_gmt":"2023-09-26T14:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automotobuzz.com\/?p=239782"},"modified":"2023-09-26T14:49:00","modified_gmt":"2023-09-26T14:49:00","slug":"story-of-my-renault-kiger-hunt-purchase-1-year-ownership-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automotobuzz.com\/news-features\/story-of-my-renault-kiger-hunt-purchase-1-year-ownership-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"Story of my Renault Kiger: Hunt, purchase & 1 year ownership experience"},"content":{"rendered":"

In terms of fuel efficiency, the SUV has varied from as low as 8 km\/l to as high as 27 km\/l.<\/h2>\n

BHPian confused.geek<\/strong> recently shared this with other enthusiasts.<\/p>\n

The hunt for a new family car began in 2017. In that fateful year, the honoured passenger seat traveller (a.k.a wife) shot down the idea because no quadra-wheeled steed would meet her expectations. A disappointed buyer, his heart wanting the Mahindra Thar, accepted the decision (She hurt my feelings by saying, “Jeep hai” and I was trying to say, but that is the whole point!). The year after, the family moved into a new home and all the gold and kidneys and liver were given away for pots and pans, curtains and drapes, sofas and beds, bedspreads and pillowcases, cabinets and stands, paintings and decor. In 2019 a highly expectant buyer, now having been trained on the purchase process (having been domesticated), began the booking process of a Hyundai Venue. But fate had other plans. The day before the booking, the magic stick said positive and impending fatherhood meant my wife stomped on the idea because we predicted we wouldn’t be doing a lot of driving till our child was born and at least a year old and I agreed. Little did anyone know that this decision would prove to be wise in time, for in 2020, a fiddly little bug came about and caused the world to lock its doors and stare at each other’s faces for hours and days. The need for a vehicle, let alone a new one, was a moot point.<\/p>\n

For 4 years, I kept telling myself it was time to buy a new family car. My beloved Alto (2006 – LXI, There is an L.T.O. Review in the Forum) was starting to show signs of ageing. Some of its horses were dead and others were wheezing with rheumatism and arthritis. The problem was, that any car I purchased, even the current year Alto would be an upgrade for me, so the decision-making process was starting to get confusing. Part of me wanted a used Mercedes C-Class or BMW 3-Series, but the maintenance cost, cost of spares, and general condition of the used cars I was seeing were a deterrent. So, I switched back to the new car market and here are the cars considered and why I had to drop them from the list<\/p>\n

Kia Sonet \/ Hyundai Venue:<\/strong> Pricing. Very simple pricing. The Sonet DCT or TC models all started at an on-road price of 14L and above. The fully loaded 1 Litre came in at 16L on-road and the 1.5 litre at 17L on-road in Hyderabad. While things like a sunroof sound good, to be honest, they come at the bottom of my wish list. If I wanted to stick my head out into the air, I’d ride a motorcycle. I was also thinking of the fact that I was once hours away from booking a Venue and a couple of years later despite newer vehicles on the road, considering it felt odd.<\/p>\n

Tata Nexon:<\/strong> Let me start by saying, that this was the front-runner choice. It was the AMT transmission that did me in. The Nexon is a wonderful car. Well built and quite easy on the eye. But the AMT and its performance kept running in my mind. A friend of mine drives one and I have seen it struggle going uphill when you need to get past long-wheelbase vehicles. I just felt the car was let down by its AMT, given its price point. The Nexon Dark Edition was leading the pack and I was mulling over driving to the dealership.<\/p>\n

Renault Triber:<\/strong> This strangely was another choice at the top of the list. At the time of buying, the family grew to include my mother, wife, daughter, and our pet a Golden Retriever named Murphy. The Triber RXZ AMT sounded like a viable option. While it sounded contradictory when I criticized Nexon’s AMT, the huge price difference between the top-end Nexon and Triber made it bearable. With the Triber, there were no illusions of power and performance, it was going to be a family haulier. So it was a compromise and a rationalization.<\/p>\n

Even with the rather strange analysis, I had put together, I was nowhere close to a decision, except on 21st August last year, I just wandered into the Renault showroom and asked if they had the Kiger CVT in Stealth Black. All of a sudden a car that was not even on the radar became a front-runner. It looked really good to the eye (Until I saw the dual-tone white and black and decided to switch colours). It was priced competitively, had a good engine as per reviews and was overall supposed to be a jolly good buy.<\/p>\n

Test Drive Experience:<\/strong> Arka Renault, Kondapur, Hyderabad was the dealer I visited. Their test drive is through a network of roads behind their dealership which is a really good place to test a car. A few streets with undulations lead to wide open roads where you can push the car, so you get a good feel of ride quality, comfort, engine performance, breaking, NVH levels, etc. And they were more than happy to let me throw the car into Sport mode and stomp on the throttle. Once we returned to the showroom, I asked if they were willing to let me have a 2nd go at the test drive, but this time with my family and again they were very happy to arrange it. So, 2 hours later with my wife and daughter in tow, I had another go at the car and I found myself smiling.<\/p>\n

Purchase Experience:<\/strong> A lot of my purchase experience was simplified by the fact that I had a pre-approved car loan from ICICI and all I had to do was share the document with the dealership and they took care of the rest. I walked in on a Sunday and paid the booking amount of 10K and walked out on a Thursday with the car. (PS: The car was ready by Wednesday, but I waited the additional day for my wife and mother to agree it was an auspicious day). They did a full vehicle inspection prior to the delivery and walked me through all the features and options (Which I listened to half-heartedly, considering I wanted to hit the road and could figure out what was what, without an explanation). They did the usual pomp and show of delivery (Again, meh for me, happy happy moments for the family). I put up with the whole, remove the cover, spray confetti, take a million photos exercise with the same mood as a hungry tiger being led across its whole enclosure before being allowed to eat the meal that it could see. In my head, I was grumbling all the way. Finally, out comes the car, head to a fuel station, visit the temple, return home, send WhatsApp messages to family and friends, complete the obligatory Facebook post, answer 500 questions from my 3-year-old daughter, get 500 items of caution from my 67-year-old mother and hear my wife say, “please put Lord Ganesha’s idol on the dashboard” every 15 minutes! At this point, the inside of my head was pulsating. A large iced americano later some patience has crept in, family finally settles in and at 5 pm, I sneak out with the remote and get my first “me time” with the car.<\/p>\n

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you, Ghost The Direwolf (Yes, it is a GoT reference)<\/strong><\/p>\n

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What I like:<\/strong><\/p>\n