Safety
Driver airbag is standard across all variants, setting a fine example for the herd to follow. Passenger airbags can be had as an option of either variants. Being based on the V-Platform, the Pulse is engineered with a sophisticated crumple zone at the front of the car that is designed to absorb the forces of a frontal impact. This in conjunction with the highly reinforced body shell maintains the integrity of the cabin to protect the occupants.
We still cannot fathom why Renault would have wanted to keep ABS off the options list. While you wouldn’t find much use for ABS in the city if you stick to legal speed limits, on the highway, ABS is indispensable.
Renault Complete Care
The shiny yellow button on the Renault website that says Renault Complete Care is worth a look. Renault will coordinate medical evacuation by road or air in case of an accident. We’ve also heard rumours about one instance where the evacuation by helicopter was put to the test successfully in Mumbai.
Based on our understanding of the programme, every Renault customer is entitled to the Complete Care package as long as their car is under warranty. Apart from the air/road evacuation mentioned above, the other benefits include
- Road side assistance in case of breakdown/accident
- Renault will tow your car to the nearest Renault dealership, for free
- 5 litres of free fuel if you are stranded in the middle of nowhere, limited to once per year
- Renault will provide you a cab upto 50 km from the point where your car has broken down
- Renault also offers a host of other services like coordinating hotel bookings, dining, and special events like your birthday. That’s a nice personal touch, but we wonder how many customers would actually use these services
The other feature that we liked about Renault Complete Care is how test drives are handled. Renault will let you test drive their product pretty much anywhere, for as long as you want to, of course within reason. While we were talking to the personnel from the dealership, they explained this wasn’t just marketing speak printed on the brochure. Dealerships have had to accommodate customers who requested a test drive on the ECR in Chennai, quite some distance from either Renault dealerships in the city.
Conclusion
While this correspondent does not see the point of having to explicitly pen down a conclusion, in spite of the 3000 odd words that make up the article, we do hate to disappoint readers. So here’s the conclusion for you reader-in-a-hurry. To buy or not? Buy. The Renault with its fantastic diesel mill, comprehensive equipment, coupled with how stunningly easy it is to drive and live with, tilts the scales in favour of the Pulse. While we cannot explicitly state if the Pulse is better than the competition without a comprehensive real world shootout including a whole day of back to back driving, we can say the Pulse seems capable enough to hold its own.
Go ahead and take a test drive, a very long one.
