Dacia-Renault Duster gets 2014 facelift
The Dacia Duster, better known as the Renault Duster in the GCC, has received a minor facelift for the 2014 model-year.
The Dacia Duster, better known as the Renault Duster in the GCC, has received a minor facelift for the 2014 model-year.
Our fleet swap-over for this year is finally complete with the sale of our 2009 Renault Safrane V6 to a friend. My father had left it behind when he retired earlier this year and got shipped back to the homeland, and so the car wasn’t really getting driven much any more, once we bought more interesting machinery. Still, it’s a fine car that we’ll recommend to anybody looking for cheap transportation. We’d even go as far as to say that it’s a more “honest” car than the new Safrane that replaced it, and an even better deal now that it’s out of warranty and you could get it maintained elsewhere instead the dealer.
Almost every car enthusiast would be familiar of the Terrano moniker, an off-road capable mid-size SUV from Nissan, that was offered during the 90’s and early 2000’s, and which is still not entirely extinct. It was later taken off the production lines, giving way for the newer range of Nissan SUVs. However, the Japanese automaker now intends to bring the nameplate back beginning with the Indian market, although in the form of a Renualt Duster-based soft-roader, competing with the likes of Ford Ecosport, and has even divulged the official sketches.
Our 2009 Renault Safrane continues to chug along reliably thanks to its Nissan underpinnings, as we predicted back when we bought the car new in 2010. Well, reliably except for the power windows that is.
Renault likes the Monaco Grand Prix. Proof? Last year they introduced us to that ferocious-looking Alpine A110-50 concept. This year, it’s another revival called Twin’Run — the follow up to the Twin’Z. This blue hatch has clearly embarked to update all those yellowed memories of the Renault R5 Turbo and Clio V6.
The Renault Duster was surely a surprise package when it was first introduced GCC-wide in 2012, largely because of its minimal price-tag and the fact that it fell into the ‘SUV’ segment in terms of size. DC Designs, an automobile modification company from India, has extensively modified the Duster for the better.
The “new” 2013 Renault Fluence, which underwent a minor external facelift for this year, is now on sale in the UAE as well as across the GCC.
And didn’t crash it in the first 2 minutes. In fact it’s been about 2 weeks now and the car surprisingly still refuses to go sideways. It must have something to do with certain drivers’ skill level (or driving like a girl — Ed.). Based on a Nissan crossover, the pre-facelift 2011 Koleos is rather an oddball of a car. Bought in August 2010, the car is in almost pristine condition driven extremely carefully by the previous owner. In fact, apart from a few mall-parking door incidents, the car looks and feels brand new even with 60,000 km on the odometer.
After watching the Tata Nano post sales in numbers smaller than its engine displacement, Renault allegedly gave up on its much-publicised intention to build a truly inexpensive car to rival it. But then, a month ago, reports re-surfaced that Renault was once again resuming work on a couple of entry-level cars for the emerging markets.
Our previous-generation 2009 Renault Safrane V6 has been a reliable-enough car, but certain interior parts had prematurely worn out in just 2 years — a sign of cost-cutting if there ever was one. So we asked for those parts to be replaced under warranty.