The only French presence in the Indian automobile market was the Peugeot 309, a boxy sedan that was manufactured by a joint venture, in which the Indian partner was already losing its hold on the passenger car market.
The Peugeot 309 was launched when multinational carmakers were just beginning to corner the Indian market. The car was too early for its times in terms of the demand in the segment it was being positioned and it quickly became dated in terms of design. It only had a small fan following, that is, among those that appreciated good engineering.
So, it is no surprise that despite the Peugeot 309, the average Indian could recall the Japanese, the Americans and the Germans as being the big automobile manufacturers of the world, but the French were still a people that were more popular as wine makers.
But that was before Renault and Mahindra & Mahindra announced the Logan project. The Logan, as we all know by now, was originally conceived by Renault along with Dacia (the Romanian company that the French auto major acquired) and is currently sold successfully in Europe. A car that was originally developed for emerging automobile markets such as India and Eastern Europe, the Logan has actually done remarkably well even in developed markets such as France.
The car is now being manufactured by M&M at its Nashik facility and delivers on its promise of good engineering, great value and low prices. But it still will have to face up to and get over a number of issues on the way before its Indian innings can be counted amongst its successes worldwide. This, despite the killer pricing and feature-rich package that is being offered with the India-made Logan.
One of the issues that may not work in its favour is the Logan's unexciting, overly simplistic design. The design was conceived with a purpose — to keep manufacturing and maintenance costs low — especially in cost-sensitive markets such as India. But as you go up the price segment in the petrol sedan category, buyers are more demanding even in the design department.
The Indian Logan has seen a few design changes in the front, and features a new bonnet grille, headlamps and bumper. The changes make the Logan look different from some of the existing entry-level sedans, which, otherwise, it may have seemed to share a few identical bits with.
Straightforward design
The Logan's design lines are simple and straight and its low cost manufacturing strategy has also been carried forward by choosing windscreen glass that is almost flat. Some of these ideas, including sharing the same outside rear view mirrors for both the left and right are not new and we have seen them being tried out even by Ford in the Ikon. The Logan's rear design is weaker with the Dacia Logan's tail-lamp cluster and rear body panels being carried forward.
The Mahindra Renault Logan epitomises the concept of frugal engineering that the French company's CEO, Mr Carlos Ghosn, has been praising as a positive trait amongst Indian manufacturers. Overall, the Logan successfully conceals the fact that it is a product of frugal engineering or cost cutting, as we would call it in common parlance.
But there are few areas where its cost cutting shows. The Logan's bumper integration and relatively poor line matching, wide panel gaps and the lower quality bumper paint job are some of the slips. Features such as the single reverse indicator and the awkward windscreen wiper have been chosen for their practicality, but these may actually spoil the car's looks.
The interiors of the Logan have a much better finish. The dashboard layout is simple, but precise and pleasing. There are no evident signs in the interiors of the frugal engineering that the Logan represents, and except for the seemingly lower quality of dashboard plastic that has been used, the overall fit, finish and feel is good. But despite the use of matt-aluminium inserts on the dashboard and some fabric inserts on the door panels, the Logan does not have an upmarket feel, unlike the Honda City's or the Suzuki SX4.
With a high seat position and a vertically oriented dashboard centre console, some of the controls are a bit difficult to reach for the driver. Smooth shifting five-speed gearbox and short throw stick shift are a big plus for the Logan. Safety features in the car include front disc brakes as standard in all variants and a driver's side airbag in the top-end petrol and diesel variants. But anti-lock brakes are not offered even as an option.
Engine trio
The Logan comes with three engine options — two petrol and one diesel. It is clear from the choice of engines and their power rating that the focus has been on fuel efficiency for both the 1.4-litre and 1.6-litre petrol engines.
Generating a peak power of 75bhp and 84.5bhp respectively, the engines have been tuned to deliver only adequate power for city driving conditions. Reminding you of the Honda City ZX's i-DSI engine, both the petrol engines in the Logan deliver a little more power than the former.
However, the comparison ends there. Unlike the Honda engine, refinement levels in both the Logan petrol engines are notches lower. As tested, the engines tend to be noisier than their peers in the segment. But the above-average noise levels and the strain on the engine seem to show up only at higher rpm levels. At lower rpm levels, the Logan's petrol engines are sedate performers and the interior of the car is as quite as the competitions' — while driving in city traffic conditions, for instance. But on the highway or under higher acceleration and coupled with a NVH (noise, vibration and harshness) packaging that is less efficient at insulating the passenger cabin from all of the engine and road noise, the Logan's petrol engines don't sound all that refined.
However, with most buyers in this segment expected to use the car mostly in the city, the cabin noise levels won't be an issue that will annoy too many. Moreover, though the engine refinement levels are lower, Renault and Mahindra would have ensured that reliability of the engines are maintained at a high standard.
Diesel, a performer
Thanks to its performance, the 1.5-litre dci, common rail diesel engine variant would be our automatic choice . It would be the chosen one for thrifty sedan buyers for its promise of low running costs, and it is also the most refined of the three. Featuring a second-generation common rail direct injection system, this 1.5dci engine is still used by Renault for a number of its other cars.
This diesel mill is not powered for the kind of thundering performance that the Hyundai Verna can offer. The Logan diesel misses some top-end whack, with its 65bhp of peak power tapering off at 4,000 rpm. But with all of the 160 Nm of torque being available from as low as 2,000 rpm, this is a very tractable engine that is in its elements in the city, and not too troubled on the highway either — traits very similar to the Ford Fiesta. In fact, the specs of the Logan's 1,461cc dci diesel engine are almost identical to the Ford Fiesta's 1.4-litre Duratorq engine.
Suspension, ride quality
The Logan's extra-long wheelbase and wide body means that the car has loads of shoulder room and legroom for rear seat passengers. Adding to the comfort of the rear benchers is the suspension set-up, which has been chosen to offer a firm but pliant ride. With a laden ground clearance of 155mm, the Logan is also very capable of handling the worst and biggest speed breakers in town.
But for owner-drivers, some of the features that have not been changed or reengineered for our right hand drive sedan market, like the turn indicator stalks, the bonnet release lever at the left extreme and the absence of a remote boot release may be irksome. Top-end variants of the Logan get some premium bits such as a single DIN CD-player and music system with four speakers, glove box light, trunk room light, rear defogger, remote door locking and driver's seat height adjustment.
The bottomline
The whole story of the Renault Logan lies in its unabashed attempt at offering Indians more bang for their buck. It should capture the entry-level sedan buyer's imagination with its size, ride quality and build relative to its price positioning.
Size matters for Indians and the Logan offers enough of it in every department except the choice of engines, which is again very relevant for us given the buyer's fixation with fuel efficiency.
To compare the Renault Logan with the Toyota Corolla or the Mercedes Benz C-class sedan is like comparing a hard-boiled lick-lolly with a Godiva specialty truffle. But if you are a sweet tooth on a tight budget, the lick-lolly will be the automatic choice.
So, forget the wheelbase and boot-size comparisons with the higher priced luxury sedans. The Logan clearly belongs in the entry-level sedan segment and its competitors are the Ford Ikon, the Tata Indigo and the Maruti Esteem. This, we believe, is the set of petrol-engine sedans that the Logan's petro-models will have a clear edge over.
On the contrary, the Logan's diesel will, in our opinion, be the most preferred variant and it has the ability to wean away those looking at higher priced petrol-engine sedans such as the Ford Fiesta, Honda City, Hyundai Verna and the Suzuki SX4. But, that of course, will be the case only if the buyer is undecided about his choice of engines and his focus is only value and running costs. He, then, will invariably tend to gravitate to the diesel.
Clearly, if the buyer only wants a petrol sedan and is looking for a combination of performance, build quality and reasonable fuel efficiency, then he is going to look beyond the Logan at sedans such as the Suzuki SX4 and the Honda City, which are more expensive, but also offer more premium fit, finish and feel.
The Logan's pricing is what makes it even more attractive for those looking to purchase their next car from the premium hatch or the entry-level sedan segments. The 1.6-litre petrol engine is offered with only one fully loaded variant — the 1.6 GLS — and is priced at about Rs 5.75 lakh (ex-showroom). The 1.5-litre diesel engine comes in two trim variants — the 1.5 DLE and the 1.5 DLS, priced at about Rs 5.6 lakh and Rs 6.56 lakh respectively.