The Renault Kiger gets a new face and new features, but is that enough for it to make a mark in the sub-4m SUV space?
The Renault Kiger gets a new face and new features, but is that enough for it to make a mark in the sub-4m SUV space?
The Renault Kiger is back with a facelift. New face, new colours, new features, and more importantly, six airbags as standard. But is that enough in today’s sub-4 metre SUV game? Let’s find out.
The Kiger is Renault’s second launch this year, after the Triber. And part of their 5-product push till 2027.
Now, about that face. Gone is that large logo that you used to see on the Kiger earlier, and now it has the new 2D badge that Renault is going to use on all its cars in India. It gets a sleeker upper portion of the grille, a larger air intake in the front bumper, which also has new foglamps. All of that gives it a very “tagda” vibe that the Kiger earlier was missing. That "tagda" vibe also comes especially with that sculpted bonnet with a muscle-car bulge. The alloys, too, have a much better design. At the back, not a lot has changed. It still gets those same C-shaped LED taillamps, but with slightly different elements inside, and of course, you get a slightly different bumper and the new 2D logo.
Step inside, and the cabin feels fresher too. The old all-black setup is out, replaced by this black and grey combo with yellow contrast stitching – even on the logo! It makes the cabin feel livelier and less cramped.
Practical bits stay the same: dual gloveboxes (with a cooled lower one), wireless charging, and cupholders.
But the big new addition is ventilated front seats. Sure, rivals like the Sonet and Nexon already have them – but the Kiger is now the most affordable car to offer this “cool” feature. Add in auto headlamps and auto wipers, and daily driving just got a little bit easier.
The biggest update though, is safety. Six airbags are now standard across the range. The Kiger’s platform-mate, the Magnite, just bagged a 5-star rating under the new GNCAP protocols. The Kiger previously managed 4 stars in 2022 under the older system. With six airbags now, things should only get better.
The Kiger still comes with a choice of 1.0-litre petrol and a 1.0-litre turbo-petrol with the option of a 5-speed MT, 5-speed AMT and a CVT. We had the turbo-petrol MT with us, the most fun one of the lot.
We’re driving the Kiger on the ICAT, the proving grounds right outside Delhi, so we don’t really have a real-world experience of what it’s going to feel like. But it still has those three drive modes – Eco, Normal and Sport – and it’s one of the few cars in the mass-market segment where you can actually feel a noticeable difference between all three modes. Eco feels the most restrained, Normal doesn’t feel very different and Sport, as the name suggests, is the sportiest of the lot, and you can actually feel the engine being peppier, punchier and more agile. Now Renault says it has worked on the NVH levels of the Kiger with the facelift by adding a few components, changing a few things here and there and to be honest, on a flat surface like this, you won’t really notice the difference, you actually notice it outside the track, in the real world with a lot of traffic around you, so we’d reserve our comments on if it’s actually improved until we drive it out on the road.
But here’s a question. In a sea of sub-4 metre SUVs – the Punch, Exter, Venue, Sonet, Nexon – can the Kiger make its mark? Renault sold under 10,000 units in the past year, while its cousin, the Magnite, managed 25,000 units in the same period. Mind you, that also included the facelift that was also launched in India last year.
The Punch and Exter have a lower price point, both at the lower end and top end. Even its cousin, the Magnite, is ₹15,000 cheaper, but its top end is more expensive. And all the other rivals – Venue, Sonet, Nexon and the likes – start at a much higher price point.
So, will this update finally help the Kiger make waves instead of just being a droplet? Will buyers warm up to this French SUV the way they once did with the Duster? That’s the battle Renault is fighting – and your guess is as good as mine.
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