Every Day is an Exciting Journey with the Renault Duster

For our seventh marriage anniversary, my wife and I decided to visit Agra. There were several places we wanted to visit, including the Taj Mahal, which neither of had seen till then. Our friend Megha, a Delhi resident, recommended that we fly to Delhi and drive down from there, and offered us her Renault Duster which she had bought just a couple of weeks back.

I drive a hatchback in Mumbai, so I was a little nervous when I saw the car in her garage. It sported a muscular build combined with dynamic details, like the projector headlamps and LED DRLs as well as the tri-winged chrome grille with crimson red accents. As I walked around the car to get a good look at it, the black tailgate embellisher with the word Duster written in crimson red and the everest crystal cut alloy wheels screamed a confidence that my little hatchback lacked.

We packed our luggage into the 475L boot space and started off. Despite my slight nervousness, I was also excited. This would be my first time driving such an imposing-looking beast on the road!

As I eased the Renault Duster into the road, all my nervousness vanished, replaced by the thrill of handling the powerful car. It was fantastic! The 1.3L turbo petrol engine responded to the lightest touch on the accelerator, and with the exceptional maximum power of 156PS and maximum torque of 254Nm, I found myself overtaking other cars on the highway easily. And even though I was habituated to a manual transmission, the fully automatic X-tronic CVT gearshift converted me into an automatic transmission fan within the first ten minutes!

Even my wife, who isn’t a car enthusiast, fell in love with the midnight black and stone grey interior. Both of us were amazed at the glazed seat upholstery, which felt really premium. I was totally at ease on the highway too. Thanks to the sturdy monocoque body, electronic stability program, ABS with EBD and the brake assist function of the Renault Duster, there was never a moment when I didn’t feel completely in control.

We reached our hotel in Agra, and there, for the first time, the initial nervousness returned for a second as I was going to park. But it evaporated in the very next moment, as the reverse parking sensor allowed me to parallel park without a hitch!

We went to the Taj Mahal the next day. Initially, I didn’t have high expectations, as I thought I’d already seen the Taj Mahal so many times in pictures. But the actual experience was mind-boggling, and both of us were overwhelmed by its beauty.

As we were leaving, I remembered another feature of the Renault Duster, and got a wonderful surprise as we climbed into the car. The remote pre-cooling turned out to be an amazing feature indeed, as even in the Agra heat, our car was wonderfully cool, and remained that way throughout our trip. And the cooled storage on the dashboard meant we never ran out of cold water!

We visited a number of places over the next four days. By the time we returned, and I parked the car in Megha’s garage, it was as if I’d been driving the car for years! My wife realized what I was thinking and said, ‘You know, I checked online and Renault Duster’s price starts at Rs 9.86 lakh* (ex-showroom, Delhi).’

• So?’ I said.
• Maybe it’s time we get one of our own!’, she said almost as if reading my mind.

The next day, we booked a Renault Duster. It was our belated anniversary gift to ourselves!