Datsun redi-GO 1.0 AMT Test Drive Review

Performance – Under the tiny hood is the same 1.0-litre, 3-cylinder petrol engine that churns out 67 HP at 5500 RPM and 91 Nm at 4250 RPM. We’ve driven this same engine earlier so know how it feels. The low-end is very good for city driving and the car actually responds pretty well. It gathers speed at a decent pace but the engine is also very noisy and most of the noise filters inside the cabin too. For city usage, the engine performs well but out on the highways you do feel that it is running out of breath especially at speeds above the ton.

The AMT gets a creep function but car goes too slow in that

The AMT gearbox has been matched very nicely to the engine. It is pretty smooth in its operations if you’re driving slowly but while driving fast, you won’t be too happy with how the car jerks and then upshifts after a delay of some seconds. If you mash the throttle, the gearbox downshifts a cog or two with a delay of about 1-2 seconds. For people who drive in a regular fashion, all this won’t matter because the convenience offered is one of the biggest USPs here. Also, the AMT gets a manual mode too and it works very well, with a far lesser delay in gear shifts.

Driving Dynamics – The ride on the Datsun redi-GO feels stiff and is a bit bouncy on bad roads. There is a lot of movement of passengers inside the cabin and we would have liked a slightly more balanced ride. The steering is very light at city speeds but even on the highways it just doesn’t weigh up and feels so vague that it gets scary driving this car fast. You get this feeling of a disconnect between the steering and the front wheels. The puny tyres do their job well in the city but lack grip if you push the car hard. The lack of ABS is another downer and under very hard braking, expect the car to skid a bit before coming to a halt. In fact, our test car had terrible brakes with a very long stopping distance and the pedal lacking any sort of feel while initial bite was also missing.