All systems go for cheap Logan, but Gautam Sen believes the car has the potential to leave many customers cheerful too

“May we ask you something personal?” said a very attractive receptionist. “Like what?” I replied, a little perturbed.
“Where are you from? We know you came from Paris, but where are you originally from?” “From India,” I said. “Really? You are a real Indian? Can we touch you?” she asked.“Like where?” It was a little strange. “My grandparents were Indian, her grandmother is Indian. You’re the first realIndian we’ve met, and that’s so special for us…”

No, it’s not a figment of my imagination, nor is it some Ted Mark fiction. It’s true and it was in 1998. I was checking out of a fabulous hotel at Basse Terre, Guadeloupe, and the two PYTs at the reception wanted to touch me – unfortunately only on my arms. But it really was for them an emotional moment, they had met for the first time a real Indian from India, the land they traced their ancestry to.

Guadeloupe, where? It’s a part of the French West Indies, in the Caribbeans, a French territory since 1635. Originally inhabited by an Amerindian tribe called the Carib, with French colonisation Africans were initially brought in to work on the plantations as the indigenous population suffered from diseases. But with the abolition of slavery – and the animosity of the blacks – coolie labour, mainly from India, was introduced in the 19th century. And though there has been much mixing of ethnicities, Indian ancestry is quite obvious.

And no it wasn’t ethnological research that had taken me to Guadeloupe. I was there with Renault, to try out there all-new Clio, the second-gen version that they were launching that year. They had put us up at this great resort (with those touchy-feely inquisitive pretty young things) and for two days had us driving the Clio all over this picturesque little island. And for driving company, I had Kenneth Melville.

Melville, a Scotsman, was the designer of the Clio’s interior. He had moved to Renault not long before, after a stint with Daimler-Benz where he designed the Merc SLK. I can’t speak for Melville, but I had a ball. We talked cars, we talked design, we talked music, we talked Zakir Hussein, and shopped. And then Melville tried to do the talking, chatting up all the pretty, young – very Indian-looking – things, saying, “Je suis ecossaise…” French for, I am Scottish. But they were not interested in him, they wanted to know where I came from. Melville was not exotic, I was.

But in the last six months Melville has come four times to a country where he was surely exotic: India. Melville is currently Renault’s International Programme Design Director, and is the man who lead the design team for the Logan Steppe concept (TG April ’06) – and that’s why he was in India to visit DC Design – but more importantly oversaw the design of the Logan itself. And as this story is about the Logan and about driving it and sharing the experience with you, I thought it was the right time to catch up with Melville too.

Guess you all know the Logan well. Other mags have devoted pages to it. But here is a brief recap. It is made in Romania, by Dacia, which is owned by Renault. Based on the B platform from Renault-Nissan, the Logan’s basis is the same as that of the Nissan Micra/ Renault Modus. Starting off with a saloon, the Logan will be made by the Renault-Mahindra JV starting next year. An estate version is due to be added in Romania later this year, and a hatch is expected to follow.

The most important aspect of the Logan is its pricing. Its ex-factory price in Romania is Euros 5,000: Rs 2.65 lakh at current exchange rates. If the car can be made and sold at that same ex-factory price in India, adding taxes such as excise, sales tax, dealer margins, etc, will bring the price of the Logan to about Rs 4 lakh! Similar to the Tata Indigo. Yet the Logan is a bigger car: longer and wider, with very impressive interior volume and an absolutely cavernous boot.

At 4.25m long, 1.74m wide and 1.52m high, the Logan is the biggest of the bunch, bigger than the Petra, Ikon, Accent, Esteem, Baleno, Indigo, even the Aveo. Only the Fiesta is longer, but it’s narrower. In fact, the Logan is much wider than the others, plus it has the biggest boot to boot: 510 litres. More importantly, shoulder room is a remarkable 1,420mm – almost 80mm more than the Aveo. Lot of car for the money.

Engines range from two petrols – a 75bhp 1.4 and a 90bhp 1.6, to be joined by a 16v 110bhp version of the 1.6 – and a 70bhp 1.5 common-rail diesel. India will get the diesel, and some, or perhaps all, the petrols.

Since its debut in late 2004, over 200,000 Logans have been sold. And the euphoria has not been limited to just Eastern Europe, where the car has been a runaway success, but also in the more sophisticated markets of Western Europe. New production facilities are coming up in Russia, Iran, Morocco and Colombia, other than India.

In terms of design or technology the Logan does nothing new, nothing groundbreaking. It’s in the approach to keeping investment and costs low that has made all the difference. The important parameter was that die costs had to be kept low, and so the design had to be such that stamped panels remained small, without complex curvature as “deep drawing of the dies was not possible,” explained Melville. Wherever similar components could be used, they were. An example was the door mirrors: they are identical for right and left. The dash is a single piece mould that not only keeps things simple, but also ensures quality as there are lower chances of panel gaps and misalignments. The windshield had to be a single curvature glass to again keep costs down. In fact the styling was more or less dictated by the functionality of the car. The car had to be a three-boxer: Eastern Europe and most developing markets, like India, prefer saloons. Five 95th percentile males had to be fitted. And the boot had to be big. Though there was no limitations on the size of the car, road encumbrance had to be considered. Also, importantly, ground clearance had to be at least 20mm higher than the European average.

“More or less, the volume was already defined,” explains Melville. “The tumblehome of the car couldn’t be pronounced as that would eat into passenger area, so the top of the greenhouse had to remain wide to allow for three abreast seating on the rear bench. The car had to squarish, boxy.”

So was it difficult to design the Logan? The most difficult part was to “swallow your pride” and get on with the job of designing a sensible car, not a thing of beauty. “Every designer wants to design something beautiful. But with a brief like the Logan – to make a MacDonald of a car – that’s difficult,” confesses Melville.

It was time to drive the Logan. Renault had organized a 1.6 Laureat version, currently the top-end model for France. The very base version of the Logan sells in France for Euros 7,500, a little under four lakh rupees. That’s the bare-boned 1.4 with non-powered steering, nothing, just a heater. ‘My’ fully loaded 1.6 costs just under Euros 9,000, around 4.8 lakh in rupee-speak. For that you get the more potent 90bhp mill, aircon, a CD player, electric windows for the front pair of windows, electrically operated door mirrors, twin airbags for the driver and front passenger, 15-inch alloy wheels, full body-coloured bumpers and ABS! A lot of kit for the money. Incidentally, Renault’s press person, Aurelien Subsol, pointed out that, “more than three-quarters of the cars that are being bought in France are this version.”

Well, what do you think of the styling? A little boring? Somewhat plain-Jane? That’s what I had felt looking at pictures. And then when you see the car on the streets – you see quite a few in Paris, though the Logan seems to be doing better in the countryside – the car kind of starts growing on you.

The front half, is nicer than the rear, the grille a distinctive V that is becoming the face of Dacia. The cars that are being sold in France are badged Dacia, but with a plaque at the rear saying “Logan by Renault”. For India it seems the badging will be Renault, or Renault-Mahindra, in which case the grille may change to incorporate the Renault lozenge. Even if the rear is a little abrupt, the proportions of the rear three-quarter, the pronounced hipline and the chunky C-pillar confirms that the Logan three-boxer was designed to be a saloon, and not an afterthought. Well-defined wheel-arches and clamshell doors contribute to the sense of solidity and the car has an almost Germanic carved-out-of-one-piece look about it.

Door handles come from the second gen Clio and are identical for all four. Get in and shut the door and you hear a slightly metallic and less reassuring thunk, not a thick thwack, and you begin to remember that the car was designed and built to a cost. But the interior is far from low-rent. The dash is a solid looking one-piece unit that is broken by four rotating eyeball vents, underscored by a rectangular – faux aluminum – centre console that houses the CD-player, heating/aircon controls, and switches for electric windows, hazard-warning flasher and rear window defroster. Instrumentation is comprehensive, with the panel dominated by speedo and tacho, with digital displays for fuel level and oil temperature, plus warning lights. What is particularly encouraging is the build quality – everything seems solid and well screwed together. And if you take a seat in the rear, you’ll have a surprising amount of room.

I had the Logan for a weekend and I used it to take the family for an outing 200 kms south of Paris. In total, I did some 700-odd kms, two-thirds of which was done on highways averaging 150kph, plus a mix of secondary roads, some dirt tracks, plus the cobblestoned streets of Paris.

The first thing that strikes you is the ride: its very impressive, the suspension system evening out cobblestones, ridges, gravel. The car is surprisingly capable, handling like a big Clio; only the indirect, numb steering lets the Logan down on twisty roads. On paper, the 0-100kph time of 11.5 seconds might not sound too bad, but with low gearing and a coarse engine note it soon becomes a bind if driven hard. Between 3000-4000rpm there is a distinct boom and its preferable to keep revs at more than 4k, corresponding to an indicated 150kph. In the city and on secondary roads, you need to stay below 3k. I did allow the speed to creep up to an indicated 170 a couple of times and I have no doubts about Renault’s claimed max speed of 175kph. Fuel average was 11.8kpl.

The Logan is a very serious contender in the small saloon segment and has the capability to upset current segment leaders. There can be a big difference between a cheap car and one that offers value for money. As soon as the fine line separating bargain and basement is crossed, buyers tend to turn away. Yes, the Logan could be cheap, but we reckon it has the potential to leave many customers cheerful, too.