[Vishal.R]

One novice question to experts about safety.

Which is less unsafe (or less dangerous) ? Duster without ABS or Scorpio with ABS?

[micrographics]

Visited the showroom yesterday and had a short testdrive. Impressed by the vehicle.

Today booked 85ps + Option Pack

[C300]

Originally Posted by Maanspeedo

Why no one is talking about petrol ?

I guess lack of safety features is the primary concern here

[ranc]

Just came back from a test drive, here are my 2 cents. RXZ 110 top end.

The bad part first.

1. It is not a SUV, looks much smaller then even the yeti, I am talking about height here, I am sure they have included the roof rails in their height measurment.

2. No road presence, the front looks macho in the showroom, not on road, one happened to cross me when I was on my test drive.

3. Back seat space is compromised, I am close to 6 didn't feel all that comfortable.

4. The rear AC is a pain.

5. Music system is plain basic, audio quality is average.

6. All the controls are typical german ie indicators on the left , wipers on the right. Gets very difficult if your other cars are Maruti, Mahindra even Endevour.

The good part.

1. Interiors not all the bad compared to the Scorpio & Safari.

2. Great Engine, didn't feel the Turbo lag, much quicker then the Scorpio.

3. No body roll at all but it is not a Scorpio, Safari or an En-devour or fortuner which are much taller and bigger and the Center of gravity is much higher.

4. Great suspension, happened to floor it on a dirt road, gobbled it up pretty nicely.

Overall a bit of a disappointment both in terms of size, space, creature comforts and also the pricing. Top end is close to 13 lakhs, whereas a much bigger, spacier and fully loaded XUV W8 is 14.8 Lakhs.

[Neil Roy]

@Vishal.R - If rumors are to believed, Scorpio failed in it's safety test and that is why it could not get in USA Shores. Personally, in my experience, scorpio and bolero in high speeds do not have good braking manners, mainly due to the high center of gravity of the vehicles and chassis design.Both scorpio and bolero have ladder frame chassis with body mounted on top and this does not give you the same dynamics as a monocoque type construction like a Duster or XUV. Probably ABS will prevent wheel lock and ability to steer around objects, but controlling the scorpio in itself at such situations will literally be a handful.
@Maanspeedo: If you can afford it, go for the diesel duster. Petrol versions for all cars give you better pickup only if you drive pedal to the metal and that is not going to do the mileage any good. My chevy beat is giving me 10.5 kms to the litre of petrol.My friend's Logan diesel (we swap rides regularly) with my driving style gives me 16 kms to the litre - both with bumper to bumper traffic in chennai. So even if diesel subsidy is removed, fuel prices with diesel is still on the lower side. Depending on the kms we commute every day and long distance travel frequency will be the wise way to look ahead.
OT- First trip to Kanyakumari on Chevy beat cost me Rs.7000/- (approx)
Second trip to Kanyakumari on Logan cost me Rs.3375/-(approx)
And yep. Logan and Duster have the same engine.

[m_upreti]

Originally Posted by Neil Roy

Personally, in my experience, scorpio and bolero in high speeds do not have good braking manners, mainly due to the high center of gravity of the vehicles and chassis design.Both scorpio and bolero have ladder frame chassis with body mounted on top and this does not give you the same dynamics as a monocoque type construction like a Duster or XUV. Probably ABS will prevent wheel lock and ability to steer around objects, but controlling the scorpio in itself at such situations will literally be a handful.

My personal experience on the Scorpio (VLX) , I was able to bring mine from 120 KMH odd to a standstill without missing the line to within an inch from the rear bumper of the ANHC infront of me who had to brake in emergency and went all over the road to prevent hitting a herd of cows which ran on to the road from no where, the Zen behind me was not so lucky and had to swerve to avoid tail gateing me and went off the road and hit a cow.

But to be fair, on high speeds the Scorpio is like a boat in choppy waters and you need some skill and experience to keep it under control .

[DRIVEN-TWEEL]

i got a call from the showroom telling that my vehicle will be ready for delivery towards this month end.my booking is 14th. since there are 8 varients and choice of 6 colours, the order is mixed up. i found out that 1st person to book is getting the vehicle after me.thats rxz.0. the first few cars will be delivered from 23rd.few 85bhp ones. my car is a rxl 110 black. really excited.. on road 11,10,000. ordered h.r.s alloywheels. i wanted to upsize it to 235 60 16 but that size is very rare now due to isi. wanted pirelli,continental or yokohama. il keep updating..

[pjbiju]

Originally Posted by Neil Roy

...
And yep. Logan and Duster have the same engine.

They do not have the same engine in terms of power. May be they share the engine block. Logan/Verito has a 65 hp engine and the Duster has a 85 PS engine (and the 110 PS one also). So I guess the drive characteristics would be different. A better comparison in terms of drive characteristics would be the Nissan Sunny diesel. You would need to drive the Sunny with three or four adults to make the kerb weight equal to that of the Duster.

[Neil Roy]

Originally Posted by pjbiju

They do not have the same engine in terms of power. May be they share the engine block. Logan/Verito has a 65 hp engine and the Duster has a 85 PS engine (and the 110 PS one also). So I guess the drive characteristics would be different. A better comparison in terms of drive characteristics would be the Nissan Sunny diesel. You would need to drive the Sunny with three or four adults to make the kerb weight equal to that of the Duster.

My understanding was that the engine is the same for the Duster with a different state of Tune for enhanced power. Even if the engine is same,Drive has to be different as the power output is different and maybe the gear ratio might be changed to distribute this power evenly. The 110PS version definitely has a different gearbox. It is 6 speed like the XUV. My inference was that, genetically same engine with even enhanced power will still give a reasonably good mileage, though definitely not equal to the logan, which is lighter than the Duster by a good 150 Kgs at least.

[rattandip]

Originally Posted by Neil Roy

Reading all comments in the forum, I cant help but notice one thing.
For the first time in a very long time, we have our own esteemed members comparing the duster to all segment vehicles.
1) Is it a big hatch with higher ground clearance?
2) Is it better than a Sunny or a Vento?( Seriously,can a sedan wade through knee-deep water or pot hole filled roads or hillock shaped speed breakers better than a crossover?)
3) Can it replace a bolero or a scorpio?
4) Can it be compared to a YETI?
So, maybe the Duster is being considered as a replacement or an upgrade from the existing ride in itself is a good sign that maybe the vehicle might perform to desired expectations.

Very rightly put @Neil Roy, no wonder bookings are soaring day by day, touching nearly 7500 with a waiting period of 2 months. Renault would do itself a big favor by providing timely delivery and good A.S.S. With Enjoy, EcoSpot and Nissan version of Duster round the corner in next 2-4 months period, it will be hard to defend the exclusivity Renault enjoys today. I would rather like to wait for this dust(er) to settle down and have a clear winner in this segment or you can say Duster has done something about everything yet it hasn't impressed me much. Though I don't deny its can be a game changer for Renault in India.

[thalavoy]

And this number looks like it will go up with Renault announcing a 7-seater (5+2 actually) version, as per the latest news in the online sites.

[inwester]

Originally Posted by VeluM

Apologies if you've already mentioned this before, but how tall are you? I ask because my bro-in-law is going to check out the Duster, and he is 6'3" tall, with a regular sized body and long legs. He is quite slim, so seat width will not be an issue, but he couldn't fit into the fluidic Verna. He does fit into the Cruze, but no one would be able to sit in the seat behind him.

If this is any help - my brother-in-law who is 6'3", after taking test drives of many cars on the lower side of 15-18 lakhs, finally bought a Nissan Sunny. He felt Sunny had the most legroom/headroom for his size, even more than any other compact cars in the next class like Corolla/Laura/Chevy etc.

[Rigid Rotor]

Originally Posted by ranc

Just came back from a test drive, here are my 2 cents. RXZ 110 top end.

The bad part first.

1. It is not a SUV, looks much smaller then even the yeti, I am talking about height here, I am sure they have included the roof rails in their height measurment.

2. No road presence, the front looks macho in the showroom, not on road, one happened to cross me when I was on my test drive.
...
4. The rear AC is a pain..

Not an SUV? Not really!!! The Duster in its 4x4 avatar is true-blue soft roader with fairly good off-roading capabilities. The 4x2 version has inherited its genes by way of good rugged underpinnings.

Check this video in Siberia where the 4x4 version with its good power-to-weight ratio claws up its way on an icy slope.

I suppose I should know a thing or two about icy slopes and heavy vehicles- had a hair raising experience a long time ago when our Army Mahindra diesel 4x4 spun almost out-of-control on an iced incline up a road, about 2 km away from destination at about 13,000-14,000 ft elevation in the dead of Winter, snow chains and all that torque notwithstanding. The damned beast came to a rest perpendicular to the narrow road with its nose pointing into the hill side with its tail almost out on to the valley on the side. We had to hoof it to our destination and at that altitude were almost hypoxic by the time we walked & reached destination!

We may yearn for intimidating road presence by way of height - the "bully" factor may be important on Indian roads to elbow lesser mortals out of the way, but does it translate into good dynamics when it counts?

Light weight vehicles with good power always do score over the heaver "flat-footed" ones (remember the original petrol Jeep?)

Agree with you on the rear ac- those blokes who designed & cleared it for production need to be dealt with ruthlessly - firing squad perhaps? as I had earlier suggested!

Renault Duster in Siberia - YouTube

[floyd.bell]

Originally Posted by Maanspeedo

Why no one is talking about petrol ?

Originally Posted by urajkumar

Maanspeedo: there have been few comments (especially Floyd & myself) on Petrol but all in frustration on not getting any news or clue on how the petrol version drives. So we have been silent on this thread & only shows that petrol heads are going extinct in india. Am hoping we get a chance to do a TD (also Hope GTO covers Petrol in his TD too) soon. I have been following up with Renault who have finally said, TD possible only on first week of august. Fingers crossed cos i want to book the Duster soon but dont want to book without knowing how it drives.

Maanspeedo, Welcome to the Petrolheads club As Uraj mentioned, unless we get a petrol variant to drive, we can't take any decision. I have driven the 110 diesel variant and totally loved it for the refinement and pulling power. If the petrol variant's drivability is even close to what the diesel has, I would surely go for it. But the biggest sore point is Petrol RxL doesn't have ABS
When I checked in the showroom, they told me that although they are expecting 85 PS TD vehicle by this month end, they haven't received any info from Renault guys regarding availability of petrol variant for TD. So,
I think its gonna be a long wait before we actually get to drive a petrol variant.

[Ub3r]

Are the Bookings still open? Was hoping to have a look at the Game changer for renault in india

Does anybody have any clue as to how many Dusters have already been booked? IIRC,it was like 7000 four/five days back.