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Renault Kwid Tested by French Media, Stands Next to Sandero Stepway and Twingo

We've seen several Kwid city cars testing in Europe, but so far Renault is saying that the Indian market model cannot be sold there. That said, several units have been shipped over and given to members of the French media so they could figure out if it's fit for the average Parisian buyer.
Renault Kwid Tested by French Media, Stands Next to Sandero Stepway and Twingo 1 photo
Photo: screenshot from Youtube
According to this video by L'Argus, the Kwid could enter production as a European car in 2018. Renault can't sell it, but Dacia might.

The Kwid could be to the Sandero what the Twingo is to the Clio. Seeing all three of them together, it's obvious just how different they are. The Twingo, for example, is very tall and narrow.

That's something we noticed when we drove its sister car, the smart forfour, back in 2015. Being of conventional design, the Kwid could prove to be a better city car, offering a sizable trunk.

However, several updates need to be made for the sake of both safety and comfort. The 0-star crash safety rating is unacceptable, even for Dacia, who's cars usually score three stars at EuroNCAP.

There's no power steering either, not enough soundproofing, or buttons we take for granted. As anybody who's crashed his car will tell you, airbags are freaking expensive, but necessary. Taking a couple of those and everything else we mentioned into consideration, the price of the Kwid will go up from around 3,500 euros to 6,500. Even then, it would still be riddled with flaws.

That's still relatively cheap. But we don't know why Renault would bother with such a car. There's hardly any money to be made. What's more, we believe the time to re-engineer the Kwid would be put to far better use making a subcompact crossover for Dacia. Considering how well the Duster is doing, that could be a cash cow.

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About the author: Mihnea Radu
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Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida.
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