Renault Duster review, test drive

Does Renault's small SUV hit the sweet spot? Read our comprehensive and instrumented review.

Published on Nov 26, 2013 04:50:00 PM

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While the Renault Duster is spacious enough in its own right, it doesn’t feel as roomy as other SUVs in its segment, like the Tata Safari, for instance. However, ingress and egress is a breeze, there’s head- and legroom aplenty for all passengers and the cabin is wide enough to seat three average-sized adults in comfort on the rear seat. Also, the flat rear seat may not look like it is really comfortable, with great back and thigh support. Likewise, the front seats, which get lumbar-support adjustment, are also comfy enough for long distances, though we found the driver’s seat height adjuster cumbersome to use while seated.

But more than anything else, it is the quality of plastics throughout the cabin that disappoint. Some bits, like the well-finished door handles and curvy instrument binnacle, do look nice, but elsewhere the hard plastics seem straight out of a budget hatchback. The pillar-like rear AC vent (engineered especially for India) stands out like a sore thumb, looks cheap, and also eats into middle-passenger legroom. Everything does feel solidly put together though and the fit between panels on the dashboard is decent. There is some more equipment now on top-end Dusters most notably the touch-screen audio with satellite navigation.

The dashboard itself is quite functional, but places the air-con controls a bit low for comfortable access; the mechanically operated air-con switches, both front and rear, also feel quite rudimentary. Then there’s the unusual positioning of the electric mirror adjuster under the handbrake lever, and audio controls on the steering column (and hence out of sight) that take time getting used to. Thankfully, Renault has repositioned the power window switches from the dashboard to dedicated pods on the doors before launching the Duster SUV in India, but it’s still not perfect.

With no third row of seats to eat into boot space as with seven-seat SUVs, the Renault Duster has plenty of space for cargo. The boot is cleverly shaped and can gobble up a lot more luggage than its 475-litre capacity suggests. Folding down the single-piece rear bench further increases the carrying capacity to 1,064 litres.

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