The high ground clearance and a tall-boy design results in an easy ingress as well as egress. The light build doors (perfect for the segment standard though) open wide enough and tall enough. Any six footer can comfortably get in and out of the car and the high set and well padded seats just add another dimension to the comfort that this baby Datsun offers. Tall and wide enough doors, light built but fine for segment standards with flip type door handles (which car in this segment offers pull type?) and a lot of exposed metal inside. Let some pictures do the talking now:
Once you are inside, you are greeted by a dashboard designed in beige and grey (why no more the all black interior?) with the plastic quality being on the acceptable side for the segment standards. But what puts off is a lot of exposed metal, though Datsun has announced that they will be providing panels to cover these exposed parts of metal throughout the cabin; rest we have our doubts if the budget buyers will buy many of such panels.
The dash layout is all in all on a simpler side and there won’t be anything to complain here. Dashboard seems to be a bit low set and the high seat seats simply add more to the all around visibility from the driver’s seat. Once you are in the driver seat (Well, you really sit ‘partially’ in them and not ‘on’ them, that means well sized, shaped and bolstered seats) then the first point of contact is the steering wheel and this is where Datsun has definitely put some effort.
The chunky steering wheel feels near perfectly sized and is easy to fall into hand carrying a near perfectly thick rim. The wheel is nicely contoured for the points to rest your thumb while driving straight and any trained eye can easily tell that this is a Renault Kwid steering in a different shade carrying a different logo (Badge engineering?
). What we actually appreciate is the way the horn pad is extended to rim. All in all, we liked this steering wheel both in terms of design and functionality; and yes, that silver insert does look good, not the Hyundai level of finish here but quite acceptable. Although everything is placed quite well ergonomically but we wish these power window buttons were placed on the doors instead of ahead of gear lever. Here they are also at the risk of getting wet from some leaking bottle or a bottle with loose cap accidentally placed in the holders with car passing through a bad stretch.
The stalks are placed like what we are used to on Indian cars instead of the European style. What we disliked is the fact that the wiper control has only two speeds which are quite usable enough though but if you pull the stalk towards yourself then only water flows through the water jet but wipers are needed to be operated manually. Additionally the wiper coverage isn’t sufficient to cover on driver side leaving approx 5.5” of windshield glass area unwiped on the right hand side; this can cause a large blind spot and can become dangerous while driving on dual carriageways, especially during night.
The easy to read instrument cluster consists of a speedometer with simple, ample sized and easy to read fonts with a small trip computer screen which displays the rev counter (we would have preferred a manual tachometer though), odometer, trip meter, instantaneous fuel economy, average fuel economy and distance to empty. The screen is orange backlit and is on a smaller size as compared to what we would have liked, at times it becomes to read the fonts and you need to take your eyes off the road for at least a second to perfectly read any info you need to check.
The center console consists of ICE which is more of a basic unit offering FM, CD/MP3 playback, USB and auxiliary input. There are two speakers in front doors with nothing to write home about in terms of sound quality. Under the head unit lays simple and accessible air-conditioning controls. The AC is amongst one of the best bits in Redi-Go. It’s powerful enough to cool cabin quickly even under the happy Kolkata sun and with a huge glass area; strong AC it should be then. One thoughtful addition is a large triangular central AC vent which can be used to direct air towards the rear occupants; no more friends arguing in the car in a summer afternoon for AC vent direction
There are no bottle holders on the doors but we get two on them in the cabin just ahead of the gear lever where a couple of 500 ml bottles can be stored. Additionally, there’s a flat storage space under the handbrake where tablet etc can be stored but this space being on a deeper side, I doubt anything will be stored in it. Rear occupants will have to do without any storage spaces though. The dashboard offers a glovebox small enough to store only the vehicle documents, it’s really on a smaller size. But there are three large open storage spaces, one just above the glovebox, one under the central console and one on the right hand side of steering wheel. The one above the glovebox as well as the one under the central console can be used to store even large sized smart phones when needed but the one on right hand side of steering wheel was only big enough to store a GoPro.
When it comes to seats, you will be surprised to have such a set of comfortable seats in a car of this price and segment. The seats have an acceptable shape, size and cushioning. Definitely better than what we get in Alto 800 or Eon. Adding to this is the headroom and legroom which just adds another dimension to the feeling of comfort. Shown below is minimum and maximum front legroom, minimum and maximum rear legroom and rear seat legroom and seat back