Renault Kiger RXZ 1.0 Turbo CVT: 25 observations by a Polo GT TSI owner

Overall comfort and legroom is good. Ingress and egress is quite easy. Boot space is good, but the loading lip is too high.

BHPian hemanth.anand recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

My cousin bought a Kiger RXZ Turbo CVT last month. This is his first car and still learning driving. So after a month he had driven only 150kms. The first service will soon be due and he didn’t want to give it with such low running. So I got it for a week to put some kms on the ODO.

Here are my observations from around 200kms of driving yesterday

1. It looks aggressive and mean from the outside. The Magnite looks like a 3 decade old car in comparison.
2. The card type key looks cool and with keyless entry, holding it in the pocket is very easy. Loved it
3. The interiors first thing is that ergonomics is not good. Maybe better than other French cars but still not good…One huge example for this is the seatbelt lock. My body frame is not wide but still it is a struggle to take put the seat belt. It is kind of hidden somewhere under the centre console!
4. The switches are all nice but they are not backlit. There is an LED on the 4 switches of the AC control but would’ve been nice if they were backlit. During night I can’t see what switch is what. There are many empty buttons even on this top trim!
5. The start/stop button is placed in the centre console but on the steering column, there is a blank area where there would’ve been the ignition key in lower variants which stands out like a sore thumb. The chrome ring around the start/stop looks like a silver foil on sweets. It looks cheap and I don’t think it’ll last long
6. There is a button beside the gear lever for small lights behind the door handles and in centre console, really nice touch. But this button could’ve been one of the empty switches.
7. Only the driver side power window gets auto down feature. no auto up feature. The other 4 do not get auto up or auto down function. My 2016 polo has auto up and auto own on all 4.
8. The power windows only work when the engine is on. Should’ve worked when the battery is on. Most times I had to restart the car to turn up the windows.
9. While the competition provide sunroof (like Jazz for example), this doesn’t come with it.
10. The car seems eager to move when the car is started and you slot into D or R mode for the first time. Puts lot of pressure on the clutch and brake I felt.
11. However the same car in D mode is laggy while you accelerate on the move. Overtakes need planning.
12. The mode selector knob is on the centre console beside the gear lever. Normal mode is sufficient for most times. The sports mode makes the engine noisy and upshifts slower but isn’t really exciting
13. There is a L mode for ramps where you want to lock the car in a particular gear. A manual mode would’ve been good.
14. The brakes don’t show any signs of slowing down and suddenly stops abruptly after going further.
15. The brake pedal is straight out of the manual version. It should’ve been placed further away from the A pedal and also should’ve been wider.
16. Sometimes the brakes suddenly gets hard and is scary. I experienced this 2 times and both times it was in crawling city traffic. Looks to be a problem with the brake boosters. Will ask my cousin to report this.
17. Suspension is decent- a little on the softer side but still good for rough roads.
18. The information provided on the ICE is too less I felt and the only adjustment in the settings that I could do was the screen brightness!
19. The ICE was decently good. The bluetooth pairing for the Android auto was very quick and easy. The centre ICE screen is rather dull.
20. Wireless charging is possible only as an accessory which my cousin has not opted for.
21. The A pillars create huge blindspots which is not good for a newbie driver. My cousin already has scraped in couple of corners while parking due to this.
22. With AC tuned on, I got a 13.5kmpl FE on the highway and 9kmpl inside city.
23. AC was powerful enough but what I didn’t like was the level of adjustments. both in terms of volume and direction. The adjustment is not good enough. It couldn’t completely shut off a vent and one of the vents I couldn’t really turn it away from myself.
24. The pull type door locks on the inside and the fuel opening under the seat looks dated.
25. Overall comfort and legroom is good. Ingress and egress is quite easy. Boot space is good but the loading lip is too high IMO

Keyword: Renault Kiger RXZ 1.0 Turbo CVT: 25 observations by a Polo GT TSI owner