[Tgo]

I went and checked out the vehicle here in Mangalore. The Showroom had 3 Vehicles all RxZ 110PS engined models. The seating position in terms of height is just brilliant for a 6 footer like me. You just slide in and out of the car without any effort. The cabin gives you a snug feeling both front and back. Enough space for my requirement, people wanting to sit like a lalaji with one leg on the other might be disappointed. The best part about the rear bench is the recline angle of the bottom portion. Makes the seats very comfortable even though they look the opposite with their durable fabric and slightly hard but long lasting cushioning.

Coming to the audio system. Pairing phones and audio devices is very easy. The bluetooth link is capable of storing your call lists and contacts temporarily for easy displaying of names when calls come up. The system offers extended telephony functionality like the Ford Figo's system, dialing by search, recent calls, missed calls, number dialing, message alerts, changing tracks played over bluetooth by moving the rotary dial on the steering controls (Absent on the Verna, and no telephony offered on the Cruze, just citing examples here...) So the audio system seems to be complete and there is nothing more you can expect from it. Sound quality is basic. Not for audiophiles at all. Bass is okay, the music doesn't sound tinny. Sat in the Koleos later which has Bose acoustics. Did not find it very ground breaking after the Duster. The channeling was better as it has more speakers but the Duster's system did an okay job.

There has been much talk about the build quality here and most of us are disappointed. What is to be noted here is that they have managed to build a solid car within 1200kgs. The doors feel light and may not give nice and assuring sound while being closed but the thing to note here is that you have an SUV's suspension carrying the bulk of the car on big wheels with an ultra reliable engine moving it around with a 4year 80k km warranty offered in the ex-showroom price of the car. You can equate the plastics quality of the interiors directly to that on the Figo. The leather wrapped steering feels really good though. A/C is a chiller but then we don't have very hot weather in this part to confirm that. Sound damping material is oozing out of the fenders as a result of which the car is super silent on the inside.

Check this picture of the loosely wedged piece of foam in the fender that I noticed.


Coming to the ride. I was in the vehicle with 3 other people. The car hugs the road like all European cars. There was no body roll at all in quick lane changing maneuvers. No nose dive under hard braking. Going over potholes and rough sections did not rock the car rather tilted it in a way so as to over uneven surface. But the suspension absorbs the shocks without a fuss. The engines pulls well but starts straining out at above 3500 rpm. You cannot do smug 2nd gear starts from standstill. 3rd 4th and 5th gears were really great on the highway section. Slotting from 5th to 4th doing 90 kmph did not give the customary downshifting jerk.

I found this odd bit under the vehicle under where the front diff would be. Can anyone figure out what this part is? Seemed very delicate. Horror stories could begin if you scraped it on some rock.


With so much said. We are planning to book the RxZ 110PS Duster and sell off our less than a year old Verna.

[h.s.r]

Originally Posted by mjkaushal

Could somebody post the RXE and RXL versions exteriors photos ?

Check post # 191 on same thread.
Could be lower variant.

I have prepared a specification excel sheet of Duster, Ertiga, Innova, BMW X1, Audi Q3,Xuv 500,Fluidic Verna.

Verna is added just for reference.
IMO Duster is on par with the competition or some way could be better.
Adding Q3 & X1 just for comparison.

[gsferrari]

Originally Posted by oscarninan

I might be way off here, but when people say things like, the 110ps ran out of steam with 5 people in it, they are actually referring to the torque?

What I meant was that in a fully loaded car the engine doesn't rev up quickly enough to get the turbo spinning to do its magic. A variable vane turbo would have been a superb fit here. I think the ecosport comes with a variable turbo. The feeling of turbo lag is therefore much worse than you might find in a lightly loaded car. Even the 110 was pretty dead at higher revs...didn't have the wooooosh you get in most bigger displacement vehicles with turbocharged engines.

[aseem]

Originally Posted by John

Oncars.in who test drove the 110 PS Duster, feel that the vehicle is a tad underpowered.
To quote them "The acclaimed K9K diesel engine does the job well in the Duster, but the displacement deficit is evident on quite a few occassions." AND "the Duster fails to provide the kind of torque that you need to scale inclines – especially the off-road kind. In fact when we took our Duster on a tiny hill-climb mission, it did break a sweat and smell of a cooking clutch made us stop trying any further."

Renault Duster-Diesel Performance Review | On cars Reviews | Renault Duster-Diesel Cars | OnCars.in

Such a hopeless review. The reviewer has a very absurd writing style. He writes something like this, the engine is poorly powered but its good. The steering is hard and instrusive but good feedback. The suspension hard over bad roads but good. The gearshifts too many which is bad but a boon. Like everytime he finds a bad thing, he has someway of making it look good.

It was like saying my girl friend is ugly but thats good as no one looks at her

Originally Posted by h.s.r

Check post # 191 on same thread.
Could be lower variant.

I have prepared a specification excel sheet of Duster, Ertiga, Innova, BMW X1, Audi Q3,Xuv 500,Fluidic Verna.
Attachment 955717
Verna is added just for reference.
IMO Duster is on par with the competition or some way could be better.
Adding Q3 & X1 just for comparison.

Great comparison, I would suggest you could add power to weight and torque to weight ratio as well and 0-100 if you could find it. That would be like really awe-friggin-some!

[shuvc]

Originally Posted by mjkaushal

Could somebody post the RXE and RXL versions exteriors photos ?

Going by the spec sheet, this seems to be what the lower versions might look like.



Source: Renault/Dacia Duster sales surpass 300k units mark



Source: 2011 Dacia Duster – Photos, Price, Specifications, Reviews | machinespider.com



Source: http://motorbash.com/wp-content/uplo...a-Duster-2.jpg

[idofsuresh]

Originally Posted by Rigid Rotor

If that's indeed the fact, then it would appear that the reservations of most Team BHP members on the Duster's VFM and pricing are not representative of the views of the general public??

Some Bhpians have reservation, definitely not 'most'. I won't be surprised if the volumes of Rapid and Vento take a hit because of Duster - even within team-bhp.

Originally Posted by prateekpsingh

I dont know why, but nobody who has TD a Duster seems to mention anywhere - it has only 2 speed Wiper. It shall take quite getting used to for a lot of people.

Good one. I am sure we will discover a lot of such cost cuttings in the first month of ownership. Hope team-bhp official review covers most of them so we make a conscious decision. Other examples I could think of:

- No rubber beading on the doors
- No hand rest for the driver
- Head rest integrated for 5th passenger and it is very small.
- Mirror adjustment switch near the hand brake
- A logan look alike instrument cluster
- El-cheapo rear a/c vent. Turn it when you are angry it could break.
- No boot release lever. You have to unlock the car and the boot unlocks. Oh, it is on the 'wrong' side though it is on the center console.
- No true driver seat height adjustment. Only two stage and you have to get off the seat to adjust the height.
- I remember the remote buttons are not integrated in the key
- Flap type door handles
- Misaligned dash board plastics for the co-driver

Will be helpful if people can add to this list. Most of these things will be painful to deal with but won't be a deal breaker if you want a Duster - because if you want a Duster there is nothing like Duster in the market. It has its own USP.

Off topic: Talking about wipers my every next car seems to have poorer wiper functionality. Indica has a speed adjustable intermittent wiper, Civic has 3 speed but not speed adjustable intermittent wiper and now the Duster only has 2 speed wiper. I also remember that every company I moved on in my career had 30 more minutes of extra official working hours.

[Manas]

Originally Posted by parrys

Exterior:
Even the reflectors on the rear bumper are deep-set.

The reverse parking sensors look very neat with this fibre surround, but I wonder how quickly dust & dirt will accumulate in here.

Now we know why they call it the "Duster !!"
The price point is quite competitive for the Safari Storme I think.
Guess the monocoque explains the price!

[AutoIndian]

Originally Posted by idofsuresh

Off topic: Talking about wipers my every next car seems to have poorer wiper functionality. Indica has a speed adjustable intermittent wiper, Civic has 3 speed but not speed adjustable intermittent wiper and now the Duster only has 2 speed wiper.

Why a 10 lakh vehicle should have only 2 speeds is beyond my imgination. My humble Indica (which costed on the lower side is 4 lacs some 8 years back) has 3 speed positions (low, medium & fast). The low position has 7 intermittent speed adjustments through a rotary gear on the stalk. All this really helps to adjust the wiper speeds according to the intensity of rain. This improves not just the wiper blade life, but most importantly prevents the windshield from undue wear. scratch marks etc. The Duster deserves much more.

Originally Posted by gsferrari

I think the ecosport comes with a variable turbo. .

Are you sure you wanted to refer the Ecosport above, which is yet to be launched? The 1.0L Ecoboost engine will come with a tiny turbine & I don't think it will have a variable geometry. For further details refer the article below.

Powertrains - Automotive Engineering International Online

Quote:

It has the low-inertia Continental turbocharger designed and developed specifically for the 1.0-L EcoBoost. It can spin up to 248,000 rpm and has a 38-mm (1.49-in) diameter turbine.

Due to the above design, the EcoBoost’s torque curve is remarkably flat, producing the maximum figure of 170-N.m from 1400 to 4000 rpm for the 73.5-kW (ie 100 bhp) version and 1400 to 4500 rpm for the 92-kW (125 bhp) version, the latter having a 200-N·m (147.5-lb·ft) transient overboost capability.

Unquote

[sriturl]

Originally Posted by Tgo

I found this odd bit under the vehicle under where the front diff would be. Can anyone figure out what this part is? Seemed very delicate. Horror stories could begin if you scraped it on some rock.

Looks like a oil drain nut, to empty the oil.

[sumeshmani]

Originally Posted by somjith_nair

• Metal Finish Bumper Scuff Plates (Front and Back) are only available on RXZ variants

Now some information on certain accessories and pricing:

• Reverse Parking Assist : INR 14256/-

Thanks for the info!
I thought the Scruff Plates are there for to prevent damage to the under body of the car. What is the point of having good metal scruff plates being replaced with fiber/plastic. What is Renault thinking here?
The parking assist is just a simple audio cue, sad to see it being prices so high. I am sure we can manager a rear-camera system at this cost level.

[Rigid Rotor]

Originally Posted by gsferrari

What I meant was that in a fully loaded car the engine doesn't rev up quickly enough to get the turbo spinning to do its magic. A variable vane turbo would have been a superb fit here. I think the ecosport comes with a variable turbo. The feeling of turbo lag is therefore much worse than you might find in a lightly loaded car. Even the 110 was pretty dead at higher revs...didn't have the wooooosh you get in most bigger displacement vehicles with turbocharged engines.

It appears that the 110 K9K THP engine has a variable vane turbo, whereas the 85 version has a fixed vane - that's what the Autocar review states- check out this link to Renault's site hosting a scanned (PDF) copy of the article by Autocar on the Duster
http://220.226.4.67/renualtdynamic/n...uly%202012.pdf

[C300]

More Duster reviews!

DNA-
"DNA took the top-end Duster from Coimbatore through unbelievably winding and narrow roads of Annamalai Tiger Reserve in Munnar, Kerala"

DNA Drive: The Renault Duster - Money - DNA

ONCARS.in - This one is quite detailed:

http://www.oncars.in/Renault-cars/Re...11470792/1/296

[condor]

Originally Posted by shuvc

Attachment 955720

Looks good in Blue

Originally Posted by sumeshmani

I thought the Scruff Plates are there for to prevent damage to the under body of the car. What is the point of having good metal scruff plates being replaced with fiber/plastic. What is Renault thinking here?

Are you refering to scuff plates or engine-guard / sump-guard under the body ?

Scuff plates to prevent damage to paint on door frame when getting in & out of the car(s) (due to scratches from foot-wear). Metal plates add bling, making it look relatively up-market.

[sumeshmani]

Originally Posted by condor

Looks good in Blue

Are you refering to scuff plates or engine-guard / sump-guard under the body ?

Scuff plates to prevent damage to paint on door frame when getting in & out of the car(s) (due to scratches from foot-wear). Metal plates add bling, making it look relatively up-market.

Good catch...I mixed up the scruff plates with engine-guard. In this case then, maybe plastic/fiber plates will only be a loss of look, function will be served.

[thalavoy]

Originally Posted by condor

Looks good in Blue

Is it blue or grey colour? The pictures in the oncars.in review also look blue(ish) but it is the grey one, I think.
Or it could be just my monitor