Renault Duster (First report)

Hence, on a long trip, what eventually determines comfort for the rear passengers are the two up front, and how far they push their seats back. Fortunately for the tall passenger right behind me, my 5ft,6in frame didn’t make his knees dig into the seatback. The cleverly designed boot, which has no intrusions and a high parcel shelf, is more spacious than its dimensions suggest, which again drives home the amazingly practical nature of the Duster. And that practicality doesn’t end once you hit city limits.

The Duster beats any other SUV in town thanks to its easy handling and the brilliant visibility you get all around. However, we have yet to put the Duster through the urban grind to see how it copes in everyday traffic. Niggles? The handbrake warning light keeps flickering and this is possibly due to some loose contact under the handbrake lever, which we hope to get fixed at the first service. A more serious flaw, and one that can’t be rectified, is the position of the rear power window switch. It’s located rather badly on the armrest, so you often tend to activate it inadvertently when you rest your arm. However, we must remember that the power window switches were retro-engineered onto the Duster, because the original (Dacia) Duster sold in Europe still comes with wind-up windows! 

Hormazd Sorabjee

Odometer: 5,998km
Price: Rs 14.25 lakh (on-road, Mumbai)
Test economy: 14.4kpl (overall)
Maintenance costs: None
Faults: None
Previous reports: None