A 3200km round trip to Kerala proved just how versatile and well-engineered the Duster is.
In my opinion, there’s no higher authority on a car’s ride and stability than my mother. She usually gets car-sick at the mention of the words ‘road’ and ‘trip’ and worse if they are mentioned in sequence. It is testament then to Renault’s chassis engineers’ expertise that not once on the 1,600km road trip from Mumbai to Kerala for Christmas did she even remotely feel green.
As for me, I wasn’t too sure about the Duster. To me, 108bhp sounded a tad inadequate to comfortably lug four adults and a boot full of luggage halfway across the country.
How wrong I was. The 1,000km that lie between Mumbai and Bangalore were comfortably dispatched because the engine has this really nice mid-range that you can surf on all day. That and the flexibility that six gears offer means it made light work of overtaking and, when the road permitted, cruising at triple-digit speeds. I did occasionally wish it had an extra 30bhp (that would have been perfect) but as is, the engine is totally up to the job.