EYE OF THE KIGER

Renault drops a new compact SUV into an already red-hot market. How does it fare?

- Pablo Chaterji

India is now a country where you can’t throw a stone without hitting an SUV. Such is the popularity of this class of vehicle that the definition of an SUV has changed over the years — or is it precisely because its definition has changed that the SUV class has become such a high-numbers game? There was a time when an SUV was a very large, rugged vehicle with four-wheel drive, but now, pretty much anything with a tall stance, decent ground clearance and an abundance of butch styling elements seems to qualify.

Take, for example, recently launched Car A from manufacturer X (it’s a real car, I assure you). It’s 3995 mm long, 1775 mm wide, 1505 mm high and has a wheelbase of 2580 mm and a ground clearance of 170 mm. The Renault Kiger is 3991 mm long, 1750 mm wide, 1605 mm high (including its roof rails) and has a wheelbase of 2500 mm and a ground clearance of 205 mm — yet Car A is a premium hatchback and the Kiger is an SUV, compact or otherwise. Make of this what you will — and I suspect the marketing departments of various automotive companies are significantly at play here — but if you want my honest opinion, the Kiger is a hatchback that was sent to the gym to undergo one of those 30-day shredding programmes .