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-   -   Renault Duster : Official Review (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/official-new-car-reviews/123824-renault-duster-official-review-392.html)

Hi,

Have you checked out Compass in person?

Although it is a great vehicle, but I found it too cramped and immediately dropped it off my list when I compared it to my existing Duster. XUV500, on the other hand, is much better (read practical) package.

What could be the best bet here, is to wait for Tata Harrier(H5X) and maybe you find your next upgrade in that. That way you will also be able to extract more value from your current vehicle as it is working perfectly fine right now. So maybe throw in some goodies like better tires etc, and maybe a decent music system and a good pair of speakers so that your commute/ride becomes a bit more enjoyable.

PS I am sailing in the same boat as you, hence my 2 cents.

Not a duster owner, but can give a few pointers.

If you are taking are car in lease policy that offers substantial tax benefits you can consider selling it. Otherwise, IMHO, not worth selling a well-maintained car, unless it becomes a pain to maintain(frequent breakdowns)/pain to use on daily basis( eg. knee pain due to heavy clutch, poor FE etc.).

Try to estimate the maintenance cost of clutch, tyre, suspension and battery replacements, and regular service expenses assuming 50k km's in another 3 years.

Regarding resale, your car would have lost most of its value by now, holding another 3 years would at most set you back by 1.5-2L, surely nothing more. Unless, we see a sudden dip in the demand for diesel vehicles.

Another possible advantage if you wait for another year or two is that you can enjoy newer BS6 compliant vehicles.

I was facing the same dilemma- feeling a bit bored with not having a host of new features in my 2013 Vento.

I evaluated my options and the same suspects were the options you are thinking about.
We are building a house now and I didn't want to stretch myself thin. I changed the set of tyres , got a USB bluetooth hack to stream music from my phone , changed the rear wheel bearings and got a nice interior cleaning.

I feel like am in a new car now and the love is definitely back! But I do have to say ... Not a single rattle in the 93k kilometers till now, touch wood!

I am also in the same quagmire, with two out of my 3 cars are "sellable" as evident from my signature text below. My options are:

1. sell both the XUV and Punto and go for a premium german
2. sell the XUV for an Innova Touring Sport and keep the Fiat
3. sell the XUV, invest the money elsewhere and replace the Punto with an EcoSport or Amaze
4. soup up the XUV and exchange the Punto for an EcoSport or Amaze
5. do nothing :)

The last option was out (we are a family of TBHPians) of preference almost immediately. :D. After months of deliberation, we have removed option 2 (nothing to gain) and option 3 (a downgrade). Option 1 now stands half-dead (Rs. 1.5 million would be gone in 4 years as eroded value) and that leaves option 4 as the best available bet.

We're now evaluating the ES, Amaze (which we have booked actually, but on hold now) and the Nexon.

Therefor, I'd say you should keep the Dusty for another 3-4 years. If you're itching for a new car, buy a small car for city driving and keep the Dusty for long drives. I'd say, wait for the upcoming new Wagon R or Hyundai Santro.

Renault seem to be offering extended warranty upto 7 Yr/1 Lakh Km , at intervals of 1 year/20000 Km , post completion of standard warranty of their vehicles.

https://www.renault.co.in/Renault-Se...lt-secure.html

https://www.cdn.renault.com/content/...compressed.pdf

https://www.cdn.renault.com/content/...mer-TC-V-2.pdf

Yes thanks, option 4 is the preferred option for me too. And Yes forgot to mention that we have now a new i20 (2 months old) with us, thanks to wife's office car lease policy. Hence thinking of giving Duster a nice makeover and keep for another 3 years.

Please give your Dusty a facelift, if you try to sell it, it will fetch you around 3.5 lakhs. The resale value is really poor for Renault cars.

3.5 Lakhs only? Thanks You in that case ! So far whatever doubts I had , suddenly vanished , because 3.5 Lakh will not work as a seed money for the cars I was vaguely aspiring to buy. :-)

It makes sense to then spend one lac INR on goodies and drive another 3 years.

Glad to see this post active :)

I am facing a minor issue with my duster for a couple of weeks now, the issue is when i take the car to roads that are patchy or has rough loose stones. When i take the car to a pothole i heard a 'tik tik' noise from the right side of my tire and it does give a heavy feedback to my steering too. This issue was there and my ASC did fix it once but its making a come back now.

My question is what could be the reason for this sound and a heavy feedback from the tire is something to be expected?

My stock duster's horns have stopped working completely. I'm planning to install Hella Chrome trumpet set of 2. Is a relay required for after market horns in the dusty 85ps?

Very much there; so am I ! :)

I got my 85 PS Duster a year before you! But I had a simple question to myself, if I sell the Duster, what? I dont have anything which I can buy. S-Cross, Compass etc have boot space issues. Creta feels a bit off for my liking. So nothing else remains. And of course no one comes close to the Duster ride in that category (Well I hear Tata have some good answers on that front!)

And to add my car is past 100K. So what I did was pre-poned my 120k service at 100K. Timing belts, suspension bushes, clutch plate and a third set of wheels (Michelin LTX Force)

So my Duster is reborn! Nothing comes close. The speaker set I had upgraded at the time of purchase to Infinity. So its always great sound with no change to head unit. I had also added premium leather at the start. So its pretty much new car for me ! Am perfectly at peace!

Added some more stats on the car's running

Cumulative Odo Running over the last 6 years.

• An average FE of 16.7 km over the course of last 6 years
• A first order curve fit gives the distance covered at about 47km/day

A very strict and tight distribution of FE (Vertical lines are the one sigma limits). This includes all fills right from the day I bought the car. One it talks about good consistence. And second it also speaks about the driving style.

So right you are! When you say nothing comes close to the Duster wrt ride quality. I remembered GTO's review of this mean machine when he said "Outstanding ride quality!" and I endorse this repeatedly in my head and so many times when I drive my 85 PS RXL Option 2013 model. Its over 5 years and it stays rock solid in terms of build and ride. This belief was further strengthened albeit the many criticisms of its then rather poor ergonomics, average interiors, dash, etc etc. all of were rather relegated to the backdrop recently. Not to disappoint or offend anyone here. I recently got a Baleno Zeta AT for my wife in exchange for aging ZEN. And what a difference I see or rather realise - overall build quality under the hood, ride quality (of course its not apple to apple here!), etc. Despite the Baleno's jazzy features and loaded tech goodies, I am so reminded of the "good ole Duster".

I am also pretty sure the Duster AMT will be great option ! Maybe I will do a test ride one day.

Dude, do you realise you are probably the only scientist on this thread. Most will not understand this lingo. :eek:

Thanks Ampere. Hows the performance of LTX Force? My AWD stock wanderers are touching 46k and closer to replacement. Considering Primacy SUV, LTX or Contis.

Primacy SUV seem like a better option since they are lighter than the off road oriented LTX unless your'e going for the rugged look only or your driving involves nore time off the road. Have been using them since last 26k km. Tyre noise is also reduced. Geolandar SUV are a slightly more economical option as I have them on the other Duster for the last 30k km.