The new vehicle market’s compact family-car segment continues to expand rapidly and many of the newcomers are priced around the R300k mark. The Renault Kiger is the latest model to enter the fray and we sampled the Indian-made budget crossover at its local launch in Cape Town.

What is a Renault Kiger?

The Renault Kiger is quite a good-looking newcomer to the segment.

Most of the budget crossovers that have come to market in 2021 are made in India, which illustrates the ability of that country’s motor industry to manufacture compact vehicles to a keen price point. The Kiger is based on the Nissan Magnite and is built in the same factory as its cousin. Renault has, however, made sure that its Kiger is sufficiently different from its sibling – both inside and out (unlike the example of the Suzuki Vitara Brezza and Toyota Urban Cruiser, where the latter is simply a rebadged version of the former).

The Kiger is powered by either a naturally aspirated 1.0-litre (52 kW/96 Nm) or a turbocharged 1.0-litre (74 kW/160 Nm) 3-cylinder petrol engine. The 52-kW motor is paired with either a 5-speed manual gearbox or a 5-speed Automated Manual Transmission (AMT), while the 74-kW powerplant is available with a choice of a 5-speed manual gearbox and a continuously variable automatic transmission (CVT).

The Kiger is claimed to offer the most spacious load bay in its segment, as well as a high level of standard specification, including excellent connectivity (at the price). The French newcomer is up against a veritable horde of competitor models though, including the Kia Sonet, Honda WR-V, Nissan Magnite, Peugeot 2008, Suzuki Vitara Brezza,Toyota Urban Cruiser and, to some extent, theVolkswagenT-CrossandHyundai Venue.

What are the Kiger’s engines like?

The 1.0-litre turbopetrol combined with the CVT is… the best combination of drivetrain.

At the media launch, we were only able to sample the manual and automatic versions of the 1.0-litre turbopetrol Kiger. This may be the first time I’ve ever said this, but the 5-step CVT derivative is actually better to drive than its 5-speed manual equivalent. Why? Well, the Renault’s CVT doesn’t whine as much at high rpm as those of its direct competitors and, as for the driving experience, the transmission behaves much like a conventional automatic.

Look, the version with the manual ‘box is fine, but in today’s market, automatics are becoming the default choice in terms of ease of use on the daily commute, plus they are no less fuel-efficient than their manual peers.

Speaking of fuel economy, Renault claims average consumption figures of 5.0 L/100 km for the 1.0-litre turbopetrol manual and 5.4 L/100 km for the CVT. As is customary in many Indian-built cars, the instrument cluster displays the consumption in km/L and I couldn’t figure out how to change it to L/100 km, so I had to do some on-the-spot mental calculations to work out the consumption we achieved on the day. Both versions returned between 7 and 7.3 L/100 km over the 100 km we travelled in each car, but that did encompass a fair amount of full-throttle usage, so expect the Kiger to have much better fuel consumption in the long run.

As for the turbopetrol engine itself, it feels quite spritely iand proved especially responsive to firm dabs of the accelerator pedal. Up to about 110 kph, the motor makes good progress; it seems to haul along the Kiger’s sub-1-tonne kerb weight around with little effort. Above 110kph, however, things are a bit more laboured, but the Renault will hover at the national speed limit quite easily.

Meanwhile, the much more workmanlike non-turbo 1.0-litre engine has been installed to help the Kiger meet that very impressive R199 900 entry-level price tag. The engine comes from the 7-seater Renault Triber and produces peak outputs of 52 kW and 96 Nm of torque. The naturally aspirated version of the Kiger wasn’t available to test at launch, but, hopefully, we will get to drive one for a review later this year.

What’s the Kiger like inside?

The Kiger’s interior is spacious and well-specced compared to rivals.

As a rule, Renault specs its cars generously with modern tech features – even the Kwid budget car, for example, has a touchscreen infotainment system with Apple Carplay and Android Auto compatibility.

The Kiger has 3 trim lines:Life, Zen and Intens. For a full rundown of the model specifications, check our specs and pricearticle.

We drove the Intens version, which you could say is “fully loaded”in terms of what the Kiger can offer. Wireless Apple Carplay and Android Auto is certainly a big drawcard, but the lack of a wireless chargermakes it a little less useful considering you still have to plug in a cable to charge your smartphone.

The 8-inch touchscreen is simple to use, responds quickly to touch inputs and paired with my phone without a glitch. The Intens trim incorporates an 8-speaker Arkamys audio system that produces good sound volume and clarity, especially for this segment, where aspects such as “sound reproduction” aren’t of great importance.

The interior is quite spacious with a choice of places to store things. The centre console is large and includes a large storage spaceunderneath the armrest, butdoesn’t include any cupholders, which is a bit odd. In front of the gear lever/transmission leveris a two-tier tray for storing your phone; it alsohouses the USB port.

The quality of the trim materials is probably the weakest point of the Kiger’s interior. The plastics feel quite scratchy and some of the build quality feels marginal at best. Piano-black plastic is applied strategically inside the Intens 1.0L Turbo to hide some of the scratchy plastic, plus leather trim features on the gear lever and handbrake boots, although those adornments don’t do a great job of masking the problems.

The load bay, meanwhile, is large for the segment (Renault claims a luggage capacity of 405 litres) and also features split-folding rear seats, which is something many of the Kiger’s rivals don’t have. The rear seat also has a fold-down central armrest with cupholders, although that doesn’t really fix the issue of no cupholders for the front occupants.

Stability control is only available on the 1.0-litre turbopetrol derivatives, butABS with EBD and rear parking sensors are standard across the range. The entry-level Life derivative is equipped with 2 airbags at the front, while the Zen and Intens versions are equipped with an additional 2 curtain airbags (for rear passengers).

What’s the Kiger like to drive?

The driving experience in the Kiger feels quite settled and surefooted.

In this segment, the quality of the driving experience doesn’t make or break the product, but it’s good to know that the Kiger feels quite steady on the road. It was quite a windy day in the Winelands when we drove the Kiger, but even so, the Renault stayed well planted and felt surefooted under cornering and when buffeted by crosswinds.

The steering is heavier than usual for the segment, but not unusably so, in fact, the extra effort needed to twirl the ‘wheel helps to make the Renault feel steadier on the road.

Overall, the Kiger’s driving experience won’t light up your life, but nothing in this segment is built to be sporty. The Intens 1.0L Turbodoes come with drive modes:Eco prioritises fuel economy, but makes it quite difficult to make forward progress, Sport sharpens up the accelerator pedal’s sensitivity for betterresponsiveness and Normal is the best of both (it’s the mode we used for the majority of our journey).

After-sales support and warranty

The Kiger 1.0 naturally aspirated model gets a 5-year/150 000 km warranty and a 2-year/30 000 km service plan, while the turbo derivatives get the same warranty, but a 3-year/45 000 km service plan.

Renault Kiger Pricing (September 2021)

Summary

The Kiger has earned its place on the shortlist in the segment as a good option in terms of value and design.

Without a shadow of a doubt, the Renault Kiger offers good value for money in the budget crossover segment. The price is very competitive in a busy pocked of the new-vehicle market where top-spec derivatives usually retail for R300k, if not more. The Kiger is well-equipped inside with the modern standards for connectivity, as well as nice-to-have features such as a reverse-view camera and parking sensors for most derivatives.

The 1.0-litre turbopetrol engine delivers enough oomphto make the Kiger feel nippy round town and, in combinationwith the CVT, offers the most balanced and comfortable driving experience.

Some of the interior material choices may be a bit iffy, but that’s balanced out with class-leading practicality in the form of a large load bayand split-folding seats, as well myriad storage spaces in the cabin.

Renault SA expects to sell several units of the newcomer a month – in a segment of the market that has seen the largest growth in 2021. At first glance, it seems the Kiger has a decent shot at meeting those ambitious targets.