Renault Fluence facelift official launch on 19 March

Renault will launch the facelifted Fluence on 19 March. Contrary to various media reports, the Fluence wasn’t launched at the Indian Auto Expo in February. Renault only unveiled it then and the official launch will take place next week. 

Renault has already started dispatching the new Fluence to dealerships across the country. Dealers are taking bookings for the diesel model at Rs 50,000. Although prices of the Fluence are yet to be announced, Renault dealers tell us that they don’t expect a major price revision, and rightly so, since there are no mechanical changes to the current model.

The Fluence has always been a good looking car but the quirky French design was looking a bit dated in light of fresher competition in the Elantra, Jetta and Octavia. Moreover, with the all-new Toyota Corolla Altis launch in a few months time, the Fluence had to receive an update to stay in the game. Right on cue, Renault has brought the facelifted version to India. 

The new Fluence gets a major front end update with the large Renault lozenge taking centre stage. The redesigned headlamps look striking and the new bumper with the integrated fog lamps and daytime running lights give the new Fluence a far more aggressive stance than before. The new Fluence will be available in two diesel trims E2 and E4 and the petrol will be available as before in the top-end trim mated to the six-speed CVT gearbox.   

Projector headlamps, DLRs, cruise control and new 16 inch alloy wheels are standard on the new Fluence. The top-end model gets rain sensing wipers, dusk sensing headlamps and climate control and on the safety front, it gets ESP and side-chest airbags over the standard front airbags.

The Fluence diesel is powered by the 110PS 1.5-litre diesel engine as before producing 240 Nm of torque at 1850 rpm. It comes mated to a six-speed manual transmission and returns an ARAI certified figure of 20.4 kmpl. The suspension setup will stay the same as well and that’s a good thing because the Fluence boasts of near perfect ride quality for our roads.