Budget and spirited Renault hatches meet

You know those flashy cover-worthy, internet breaking, highly technical car versus car shootouts? The ones where the best drivers with the most social media followers are the test pilots and there is a full TV crew flying drones and shooting footage for hours?

The ones where they don’t even use on-board road test timing equipment and start the race with a drop of the hand and declare the winner the fastest car on the planet? The same ones that cause much debate for weeks afterwards and work keyboard warriors up into such a rage, that they almost consider becoming rabid carnivores again?

Well, we at The Citizen pride ourselves on our professionalism and ground-breaking work, so this week we push the envelope to bring you the most definitive motoring shoot-out of the year! Ummm, actually this is not that at all, but pretty much as far out of left field as you never would have guessed.

Welcome to the Renault Megane RS 280 Cup versus the Kwid Climber shoot-out! I mean why not? Both are hatches, the one hot and the other not so much. Even though I might not be a social media icon with a Top Gun jacket and a million followers from Indonesia, I have been accused of being very sociable at times and I did get to pilot them both.

The Megane RS 280 Cup car runs a state-of-the-art and all-new 205 kW (280 PS hence the name), 390 Nm 1.8-litre turbocharged engine mated to a six-speed manual gearbox, while running a proper Torsen mechanical, limited slip differential up front standard on 19-inch rubber.

The trick stuff does not end there though. The RS 280 Cup features something called 4Control technology. What this means is that at low speeds the rear wheels turn in the opposite direction to the front wheels and at high speeds the front and rear wheels turn in the same direction.

Renault calls this set-up “playful”, but as I found out at the international launch of the car, “playful” takes some getting used to and if you are not aware of what happens when the rear of a car rotates so quickly as to allow you to hit the apex of a turn without loads of torque steer, then playful could easily be reserved for describing the nurse who changes your drip in hospital.

This does translate into a hatch that can haul around corners just as well as it can sprint in a straight line. Claimed 0 to 100km/h time is a mere 5.0 seconds, the quarter mile 14 seconds and the 1 km is done in 25 seconds. And when it comes to the twisty stuff like said, the Megane RS, okay in Trophy-R spec, is the fastest front-wheel drive car around the Nürburgring, the ultimate handling test track, in a time of 7 min 40.1sec, which is a full four seconds quicker than the previous title holder, the Honda Civic Type R.

The Kwid Climber by contrast runs a 50kW/91Nm, 1.0-litre, three-cylinder engine. The test car I drove came fitted with a five-speed manual gearbox. Renault says that is has been optimised for power and performance and, technically, how do you argue with that?

It could have been optimised up from 40 kW or something. It might lack lots of oomph, but for a first time new car buyer, this Kwid Climber will be their Ferrari, while it also does the job of getting you from A to B faster than it would if you had to walk in the rain or something.

I have no idea how fast it is to 100 km/h or any other speed for that matter, but a quick internet search for unofficial numbers says it should be around 16 seconds with a “safe” top speed of 135 km/h. Did I ever drive it at 135 km/h? No chance, the Kwid can hardly be considered a Nürburgring Meister, nor does it rate highly in the safety stakes, even though it now has a driver and passenger airbag fitted.

I mean it has four wheels and they are now up to 14-inches, along with a new rear axle being the new trick bits added in the handling department and ABS fitted, but that is it. No fancy 4Control, no racetrack derived ESP systems, but would you honestly expect any more from a car like this? But it sure as hell beats being stuck in a taxi alongside a dozen other people and a suicidal driver at the wheel. If I am going to die in a vehicle of any sort, I would at least like to be the one in control of that particular decision.

Joke and criticise all you want, there are many South Africans who want a new Kwid and this is supported by the sales figures for January 2020, a month during which Renault moved 1 010 of them. To put this single model range’s numbers into perspective, this is more than the likes of Peugeot, Citroen, Fiat, Jeep, Alfa Romeo, Mitsubishi and Subaru sold in total combined across all their models. Ironically, the modern and ultra-safe, Euro NCAP 5-Star Megane, as a model range, by comparison only sold 17 units.

This is sad, because the Megane is a far better car than its sales numbers have ever indicated in South Africa. However, at a starting price above that of the Golf GTI at R589 900 versus R568 600, this puts the car on the back foot to start with and there is no escaping the popularity and street cred of the GTI in this country. Still, I really enjoyed chucking around a powerful front-wheeldrive car with a manual gearbox and a mechanical diff up front. It’s something that just does not happen in this automatic electronic control age any more.

The Megane RS 280 Cup would be on my shopping list if I was looking for something different in a hot hatch. And you know what? As much as the Kwid is the polar opposite and doesn’t offer much in the terms of refinement, I almost grew quite fond of running around town with it while it barely sipped fuel. The number came in at under 6.0-litres per 100 km and after I put R200 in it this took the range to over 300 km. Would I buy a Kwid Climber? Probably not, but not for the reasons you might think.

I really battled to get in and out of the car with its small ingress into the cabin and once inside my head was basically touching the roof. Each time I forgot about this and banged my head on the car my aggression levels went up to that of a Kyalami sword-fighting boet.

Both cars come with all the luxury you would expect in these modern times, but the Kwid is probably the surprise offering with unprecedented features in its segment including eight-inch touchscreen MediaNav with Bluetooth, USB, AUX and MP3 playback, a reverse camera, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto compatibility, front and rear powered windows, electrical mirrors, aircon and remote central locking.

The Megane and Kwid come with a five-year/150 000 km warranty, the Megane gets a five year/90 000 km service plan, the Kwid a two-year service plan with one year’s insurance cover.

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