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If the driving is mostly in city/Good Hihgway roads, It is OK to do the rotation once in 10K kms. Wheels wear out unevenly due to bad alignment or Unbalanced wheel.

Even if the Spare wheel is not Alloy(:Frustrati) You can still do 4 Wheel Balancing/Alignment/Rotation so that all the wheels wear evenly.

Unless the Car is driven on Really bad roads, Alignment and Balancing may not be off by much.

This I think can be because of clogged air filter. Post cleaning most probably FE should be all right.

Am managing to get 14.7 - 14.9 from my 110 during my daily commute. This is primarily because of my sedate driving ( no quick accelerations and gear changes below 2000 rpm ). As my daily commute is in light to medium traffic with the 6th gear being put to use for small stretches. From what little highway driving I have done, the mileage does not seem to jump dramatically...I expect it to be in the range of 16 - 18 kmpl.

Regarding the noise from the boot, I opened the boot and adjusted the stuff in the jack compartment. There were a set of bolts, in a plastic bag, which were rattling.

There is a very bad stretch of road, close to where I stay...around 150 mtrs where a flyover is being made. This where if there are any noises/ rattles, they can be tested.
Also realizing that many a small bad patches ( like an uneven 5-10 mtr) patch are best handled by not slowing down to 1 st or 2nd gear. Speeding over them in your normal cruise speed, just makes them vanish. Mind you that I am not talking about large potholes. It is during these stretches that the Dusters handling is at its best.

One question to all - can the air filter in the duster be self serviced. I am yet to do R&D on it on my own, but wanted to know if this is something which can be done without visiting the A$$.

you need to open up the plastic engine cover- and that's a little tricky. I haven't been able to figure out how to open that up (never seen the service folks doing it in front of me)

Maybe out'a context, but the door rattle (especially rear without the spare wheel as in the Safari) is unexplained. If it can occur as low as in 2K kms and not get fixed properly, what kind of service support are we talking of ? The same fault gets outrageous treatment from Safari reviewers !

Touch wood, my ARIA Pure (cheapest version) is on year old, 13K on the clock, NOT a single rattle or squeak. The odd noise over the breaker was traced to loose tools in the tool crib at the rear, no noises ever since.

And yes, interior fit and finish is MILES better than any Duster trim. Cost on Road regd in Gurgaon : 10.5L in May 12. Does that sound any better value ? FE : 11.8 consistently in Delhi, A/C full time now (summer).

Sandy

I religiously follow the 5000km rule and my vehicle undergoes a thorough tyre balancing, complete cross-wise 4 wheel rotation, wheel alignment and Nitrogen check.
4 wheel rotation because I have 4 regular tyres on alloy wheels and one space saver spare on a steel wheel. Else it would be all 5 tyres and wheels which would undergo the procedure.
Of course the nitrogen check alone happens at least once a month under normal running conditions.

Its not something which got developed after I started driving. I had noticed it immediately after I got it. May be some integration problem. Dont want to comment since dont know about it much. But SA was aware of the issue and he said he would fix it which he did.


Purchasing a vehicle is one's own decision based on one's own priories. As you put it fit and finish may be way better. But if size for my requirement is too big, then that aspect takes precedence over fit and finish.

I do at least 50km every day. An FE of 11 does not work for me. I get about 18-19 along with a much smaller footprint and an incredible ride quality. Those to me were far more important to my requirements. May be time will tell how the vehicle holds out.

Here are a few cellphone pictures taken of the DC Duster. Only the Matt finish of the paint looks good, it looks outlandish otherwise. Couldn't see the interiors much.

Even if one has 5 alloys it may be better to do 4 wheel rotation rather than 5 wheel:

1) Leaves you with one new tyre so at the time of the next change you could buy 3 new tyres and move one of the older ones to the spare.
2) If one tyre develops a major fault and has to be replaced with a new one then one can buy just one new tyre and put and the new one from the spare together on the same axel.
3) If one goes in for a tyre upgrade one can just swap the 4 tyres to one of different size / brand and continue to keep the one spare as it is for short timer emergency use only.
4) If one aligns the tyres after say 10,000 kms (common for those who pile up kms rapidly) then it works out better for true alignment to keep the spare out of the picture else in 5 tyre rotation suddenly one tyre ends up being new and the remaining 10K old. - this though is not that big an issue if one does it every 5000 kms.

A friend from Kashmir just yesterday reported that his 85ps Duster was swaying a bit during a windstorm, he was sure it would've flipped if he was in the hills with those winds. Any idea why this would happen? Was thinking it could've been the high GC and the light build.

Awaiting opinions.

Any vehicle will sway in high winds. The taller the vehicle, the more the sway. Whenever there is a strong dust storme, wind speeds reach 70-80kmph, This will sway vehicles, even cars. For example, on coastal roads in California, where wind gusts of 70kmph are common, there is a warning sign for high gc vehicles and caravans to slow down, as wind gusts can make the vehicle lose control esp at speed.
In the hills, unless you are going gung ho drifting on the corners, high winds will not blow you off the hill. Infact, if the wind is so high that you can be blown off the road, your bigger worry will be trees falling on your car.

I have an SX4 ZXi for almost 3 years now. Love the car. It is comfortable, easy to drive, both in city and on highway. Kids comfortable at the back. My highway running is 700-900 Kms per month.
For those who have driven both SX4 and Duster, which car is better in terms of comfort, ride and handling for city as well as highways. Just checked the specs of both cars and Duster is about 100mm wider than SX4, is that too much more to handle in the city?

How much has the waiting period reduced to ? For the 85 PS variants.

I gather that 110 PS are much more readily available

ACM

Is it advisable to press into service, a tyre that's been kept idle in the boot for a period of 4-5 years? Even if the wear is minimal-to-none? I'm not entirely sure if it's safe. :)

Why is that? Inflation can be taken care of by periodically inflating the spare.

Is there some other thing you are talking about like compound decay etc.?