India to Paris in a Renault Kwid part 4: The home run

European union

It’s fair to say that the Kwid’s journey from Russia to Estonia didn’t exactly go according to plan. Representing Autocar UK, I was due to help with the final leg of the journey from Tallinn to Paris. But when I arrived in the Estonian capital there was no sign of the car, or the team. Eventually, an exhausted Autocar India crew turned up later that night at the hotel, with tales of a four-hour hold-up crossing the border from Russia. Both Estonian and Russian authorities were clueless as to what a car registered in India was doing so far away from its country of origin.

They cross-questioned the team separately to get a better understanding of what they were really up to. Still unconvinced, they moved the team to an inspection shed along with the cars. After lot of explanation, and even more inspection, the crew was made to buy green card insurance for both cars, and only then let through. 

The next morning, we headed out to take some photos of the Kwid in Tallinn’s Old Town, but even leaving as early as we did, the snowy streets were still cluttered with cars and navigating around proved to be a tricky affair that involved a lot of “look out for that tram!”

Eastern Europe is full of picturesque old towns. This is at Tallinn, Estonia.

We found a picturesque spot, complete with cobbled streets and old towers, filmed the Kwid, then hit the road, but I was still bleary-eyed and quiet from my first early start of the trip and the shock of the cold. Rahul, Jay, Ashley and Mrityunjay, on the other hand, were all razor- sharp, clearly well-drilled from weeks of the same routine in challenging conditions and grateful for the comfort of big, conventional European hotels.

Our route through Estonia didn’t include any expressways, but had long country roads through stretches of forest with strict 90kph speed limits and aggressive lorry drivers attempting fearless overtakes. Progress was steady, but slow.

We paused in Latvia for lunch and some more snowy photos, before powering through to our overnight stop in Kaunas, Lithuania – our third country of the day. The team had to recalibrate their sense of distance because from covering a country over a couple of days, they were now covering a couple of countries a day.

In the morning, we headed to yet another old town – eastern European cities have a wealth of them – and soaked up the history and architecture. We were surrounded by snow, and it was cold; but my shivering complaints fell on the deaf ears of my colleagues who, not that long ago, were driving in -23deg C. A quick glance at the Duster’s temperature gauge read 0deg C. I stopped moaning.
I got behind the wheel of the Kwid for the first time to take it across the border into Poland. The last time I drove the Kwid was in India, down the Konkan coast in 2016, and it was the 0.8-litre version. The extra poke in the 1.0-litre is noticeable, but the biggest shock to me was that everything worked. We are talking about a car that has already been through thousands of kilometres in extreme conditions, and it costs just Rs 4 lakh! And there’s nothing wrong with it. Astonishing...

Snow-covered hills in Poland gave us the perfect backdrop for some more photos of the little marvel, and we ploughed through the capital, Warsaw. We were grateful for the extra grip from the winter tyres as night fell and the gentle snowfall became a blizzard.

The home stretch

The policeman looked at me quizzically. I couldn’t blame him. Just what on earth was I doing driving a car with Indian number plates in Germany? A very fair question, and one that I had asked myself several times over the past few exhausting days. He checked our documents, saw all was in order, and waved us on. Even when you’re sticking to the speed limits, it’s hard to look inconspicuous driving in a convoy with two Indian cars in Europe. We rejoined the motorway and eventually left the snow behind.

Since leaving Warsaw, it had been pretty smooth sailing on well-maintained big expressways. The sleepy old towns in Eastern Europe had become a distant memory as we blasted past big German cities on the way to Berlin for our overnight stop. Berlin is a city known for its nightlife, so in the interest of, ahem, giving you the full picture, we headed out to a local restaurant to sample some well-earned hearty German food and beer. Suffice to say, it surpassed expectations. 

In the morning, we headed for the Brandenburg Gate, one of Germany’s most famous landmarks. Built in the 18th century, the Brandenburg Gate has been witness to a lot of Germany’s history. Napoleon has led a procession through its columns in the early 19th century, and it was also where the call for a unified Berlin and Germany picked up momentum at the tail end of the Cold War. Today, it is seen as a symbol of peace.

Berlin’s historic Brandenburg Gate was one of the important landmarks en route.

Back on the road with Cologne on our GPS, it wasn’t long before we hit the glorious autobahn – a stretch of derestricted expressway in Germany where you can go as fast as you want. It sounds too good to be true, like it can’t exist – but it does. One thought crossed our mind – “Max it out.” With Rahul behind the wheel, he waits for a gap in traffic, pulls into the fast lane, slams his foot to the floor and waits. The engine howls in response, wind and road noise cranks up to 11. The Kwid’s acceleration isn’t breathtaking, but it still manages to squeak up to 174kph – a ridiculous number considering its meagre 1.0-litre three-cylinder engine – overtaking cars that cost 20 times as much. A strange sensation, I can tell you that. We reach our hotel in Brühl, on the outskirts of Cologne, and the sense of relief and achievement is obvious among the Autocar India team members as Paris comes within touching distance.

It’s the final countdown. We’re met with a beautiful wintry morning. It’s pretty busy, but the traffic eventually clears into the afternoon and we pass through Belgium without even noticing it – such are the relaxed borders in mainland Europe – and see the first road signs directing us to our final destination, Paris. Everyone’s excitement is calmed slightly by the horrendous queues of traffic going into the city, but before long we’re carefully navigating through the free-for-all (it reminds Rahul of Mumbai traffic) around the Arc de Triomphe. The structure is reminiscent of Delhi’s India Gate which is where our travelling circus began six weeks ago. A few minutes later, the monument of metal that is the Eiffel Tower fills the Kwid’s windscreen. This is it. This is the finish line. The homecoming. The ceremonial flag-in is by Dr Mohan Kumar, India’s Ambassador to France and Sumit Sawhney, CEO and MD of Renault India. The smiles and genuine sense of accomplishment all around talk volumes of the enormity of the achievement. At an event for the French media a few days later, DL 8CAC 4895 looks like it’s just rolled off the production line. The lustre of its paint and shine on its polished tyres belie the adventure it’s been on.

Towering achievement. The Eiffel Tower provides the backdrop for the Kwid as it completes the epic journey.

Now that it’s all done and over with, time for an admission. The idea of crossing two continents in winter in a car that costs the same as a set of 20-inch wheels on a Ferrari 488 Spider was like climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in flip-flops. Right until the very last day, we were unsure of the Kwid’s ability to go the distance because of just how far it was being taken outside its comfort zone. Remember, the Kwid is made in India and made for India, and here we were putting it through conditions it wasn’t made for. Over the 43 days and 18,996km, the Kwid braved sand, slush and snow, saw temperatures ranging from 36deg C to -23deg C, and even climbed from 154m below sea level to an altitude of 4,120m above sea level! We were glad to learn our concerns were unfounded because through good conditions and bad, the Kwid just soldiered on. That it did so without a single fault and even a single puncture is remarkable for a budget car. It’s a feat that I can’t get my head around still.