Renault is the French by nature and we expect the French wine to flow from its automobiles, to an extent it had happened with the carmaker’s famous model plate Duster in India, which had grabbed the eyeballs due to its practicality and efficient pricing too, but the rest of them wasn’t boasting a good amount of sales figure on board; and as an outcome the organization screeches to roll out different variants in the market, which now in the latest Indians are bestowed with X-Tronic CVT transmission of Scala under the 1.5L Nissan sourced petrol head.
Before dabbing our foot on the accelerator, we want to inform you that Nissan and Renault are tied together on an inked paper which leads them to share various tweaks in between, and therefore the Sunny is also rolled out in the same avatar recently. Over here in the horizon, it is learnt, except the offerings from French-Japanese alliance there are other competitors in the market, namely Honda City and Volkswagen Vento both with CVT transmissions itself, are closely eyeing these duos striding with their different lucrative strokes being offered underneath their top notching brand names.
Get started, pressing the accelerator had leaded us to the claimed driving force of 134 Nm torque, swift driving traction delivered between 1000-1500 RPM ratio, gaining a comfortable drive within city limits, but when the same pedal is bulked off with full efforts then the engine power is returned on the very aggressive note, must say the 80% of extract had reached only at a 50% of throttling dab, and that too with an increased engine noise, which then had jolted us to relax down our excitement in sober strata – driving the vehicle in which it is suited better. City ride was satisfying on the core and even highway too hadn’t disappointed on the results.
On inside, interiors are cool and airy flaring the sophisticated factors, with ample of legroom on back and, a decent upholstery on front. Not much of the changes appeared from that of manual guise but those bits which flicked to be the ‘new’ are fine with the overall statement. Practically the boot space is sufficient enough to store most of the luggage, not tempting to refuse for any of the trips, and instantly the cosmetic exterior appeal is also similar to its conventional sibling.
Conclusion: Scala CVT had proven the complete test worth a drive but the thing that had fussed us was ‘engine noise’ and ‘dragging-type characteristic on high revs’. Speaking technically, the reason behind this may be the steel belt drive which is good for the durability, but it is also a turn off for compromise on the minute driving tricks.
Fuel efficiency, as per the ARAI test it is termed at 17.97 kmpl, and to be true the CVT mechanism assimilates with engine when the accelerator knob is held down, but when we release the foot from the throttle board then it gets disconnected very instantly, leaving with less strain on the drivetrain and hence more return on fuel economy per litre, even better than the conventional gearbox makes.
