Logan hits the C segment

Renault Logan enters the Indian market - and that in the 4.5 to 5.75L price band. This is some fine news for people who follow the car segment and are interested in picking one. I've been looking at cars in category C entry level for sometime, and I've always felt there was a strong vacuum.

Class A and B are full of options - Maruti 800, Alto, Estilo (Yuck!) to Santro, Getz to Swift and now the Chevy Spark. Indicas and Wagon-Rs have some ugly bends, and nobody's ever heard of Palio.

The option is to jump into the C segment - without burning too much money - and there are few options. Accent is probably the best in line, but it's lost its charm becoming a 'cop' car. Ikon is a decent deal, but maintenance, I hear, is prohibitive. Esteem looks too old fashioned, Indigos just don't scale up, while Corsa and Seina have long been forgotten. Swift is arguably in this segment, and it's terribly cool, but I'm done with hatchbacks and fastbacks.

The C1 segment - Hyundai Verna and Fiesta - becomes a shade costly (into the 7L range), while Baleno's design is too crass.

In short, there wasn't a reliable, neat looking and less maintenance saloon in the entry-C segment. And that's where Logan fits the bill. It sounds like a neat deal - we just have to wait for initial round of feedback on Indian roads and the maintenance/service issues. No doubt it is going to be a great gun since it was meant for East-European and other developing markets. Mahindra having half the share in the partnership certainly gives confidence - that after-sales spares and maintenance wouldn't be a rip-off. Let's wait with bated breath.

If you are interested in it's performance and reviews, here are some: Autoexpress review, Yahoo review. Most of them say it's a fine a value for money car, and that makes fine sense.

What is surprising is you get Logans in Europe (being among the cheapest cars there) for Euro 5.5K to 6K, while it is costlier in India. This being produced in the Indian plant, does anybody have any idea why it becomes costlier than in Europe?

Update 1 (April 10 '07): I stumbled on the site called CarWale.com when I was doing basic researches. Never knew such a great site existed for comparing and researching about Indian cars. The research is deep and helps a ton in making decisions. Do check out.

Update 2 (April 11 '07): This is some serious dope. A comparison in Logan website says Logan is wider, taller and has a bigger boot than all of the following: Mercedes C-Class, Chevrolet Optra, Honda City and Toyota Corolla. Some serious shakeout in the car marketspace in the offing!