Renault Duster Long Term Report : November 2015

BRUISING ALONG

After a long hiatus away from the country, I finally made my way back home, and was back to the driving chaos of our roads. The Duster, of course, didn’t get to see much use in my absence but that changed immediately with my return. As one would imagine, there was a lot of work to be caught up with, and that meant I was running around all over the place on a regular basis, with the Duster proving to be a faithful steed.

Having spent much of the past three months driving different kinds of SUV’s, I’m finally beginning to understand what the appeal of SUV’s for most people is, apart from the ego boost that the size and the visual intimidation the size of the vehicle brings. For me, it has to do with the fact that with the seating position being higher than a regular vehicle, it allows the driver’s line of sight to extend further and that makes driving an easier task, especially in our driving conditions. This is primarily because you can anticipate potential problems before other vehicles, and because you can also spot broken tarmac earlier, it allows you to take preventive action in both cases.

Of course, one of the highlights with the Duster has always been its stellar suspension setup and that means even broken roads don’t pose much of a problem and it rides in an exemplary fashion in both city and highway conditions. However, the steering kickback does remain a particularly annoying issue, with the other issue being that the seats of the Duster, particularly the driver’s seat, lacks lower back support. So, on longer journeys, my lower back starts hurting after a few hours of driving. It’s not something that’s a deal breaker for me, but something that is an annoying factor all the same.

Other than that, a fact I forgot to mention in my earlier reports was the curious case of the missing windscreen washer nozzles! Evidently, the car went through a service before it was handed over to me, and it was devoid of its washer nozzles, so that means to wash the windscreen I have to resort to the old-school, water bottle method! So, in the next couple of weeks, when I have some time off, that is something that I need to get rectified.