Renault Duster! It had its chance.

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There are many people who love Duster for its proportions, ride quality and also the sense of space it has inside it but now it has lost its charm to some extent with its other rivals and it fell into the category of only petrol with no AWD but it still has its chance to become a bigger player if Renault could do some key changes in it.

1. Engine: The 1.5lit was a very good one but now the company has shut it due to the upcoming BS6 regulations and it now replaces both the 1.5lit Diesel and petrol with a 1.3lit petrol engine which is BS6 compliant and the power figures have changed a bit.

If they really needed some strong sales then introducing a 1.5lit BS6 compliant diesel and petrol engines with auto gearboxes in both fuel options would have made it a strong seller for Renault.

2. Interiors: Many might have felt this but I intended to stress about this particular one because the interiors in Duster were not that appealing and the reason is that the placement of the infotainment system, ac controls and all are not in a good position.

Consider you are traveling in a city and you need to operate the touch system and it is dangerous because you literally have to take your eyes off the road and need to look into it. So, the reason for this is the placement of things inside it.

Features like Sunroof would have made the experience even brighter because for a vehicle that long, a sunroof would make things feel more premium inside and also airy as well.

3. Infotainment System: I don't know how many would obey this with me but I'll tell you the reason why I mentioned it.

It has everything like apple car play, android auto and all are there but the fonts through which we access them are not that appealing or not that professional to look at and moreover they look old fashioned rather than futuristic.

4. Switches inside the cabin: One may wonder what switches but what I mean are all the switches we touch and feel inside the Duster feel a bit low on plastic quality especially the window switches and also the steering mounted ones. Companies like Hyundai, Kia, Tata, Mahindra and all are being able to place the switches and controls for both instrumentation clusters, cruise control, infotainment system controls on the steering wheel itself then why not Renault is able to do that? This is one big thing which I did not understand because bring that old school will just ruin their sales and when they know this, why didn't they change this aspect in the latest one at least?

Here the switches and also button quality inside the interiors of Duster must be improved well in order to consider it because customers look into each and every aspect of a vehicle as deep as possible.

5. Door Handles, Headlights, Instrumentation Cluster: The No. of things above could scare you but has anyone noticed any changes on these except the headlamps because they're the ones that have changed and that's too they've replaced the halogen with Projectors that's it and nothing else.

Door handles are the same ones which are there for generations by now and in a market like India, Renault should have considered all these and must have taken some steps to change them and coming to the Instrumentation cluster, the 3-piece could be transformed either to a digital or at least half analog and half digital like in Creta. I know it provides a good amount of information but it could have been better if they've implemented this kind of things inside and the design of the headlamps might need some solid transformation is what I believe and the same old fashioned one with slight tweaks need a changeover towards a square-shaped one at least so that it'll appeal much to a bigger audience.

    

6. Rear-end design: This isn't having any problem in particular but the way it looks is not that sporty for an SUV like Duster because you see it and the changes will be evident to you in a minute that the design lacks the emotion at back because the curves on it are not that sporty to look at and the rear stop lamps need a change in my opinion. Not only this but making the window areas of duster sharper and also rectangular will have more impact because they're the ones that decide the appeal of a vehicle when looked sideways right!.

                                

7. Connected Car tech: This is one of the trending techs in India like starting the vehicle remotely, knowing the vehicle health, support over online, updates through OTA and many such like this and if one starts to implement there'll be many to install in a vehicle.

These are the 7 aspects that I felt would have made it a strong competitor for any of the vehicles in this particular segment and do comment down your opinions on what other things or aspects could have impacted its sales in Indian Automobile Industry.

Thank you for reading this lengthy post and see you in the next one...!
Note:  Images are sourced from the internet.