Renault has finally launched the Duster small SUV in Australia and it has its sights set on the Jimny with an off-road focussed prototype that even wears BF Goodrich KO3 tyres! Paul Maric takes the 4x2 and 4x4 for a spin to see if they're any good.
Hardness tester, noise and lane keeping results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Exterior: 00:59
Interior: 02:50
Infotainment: 04:07
Practicality: 06:09
On-road: 08:41
Accel. & braking: 14:11
Off-road: 15:52
Verdict: 21:40
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#renault #dacia #duster
Hardness tester, noise and lane keeping results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Exterior: 00:59
Interior: 02:50
Infotainment: 04:07
Practicality: 06:09
On-road: 08:41
Accel. & braking: 14:11
Off-road: 15:52
Verdict: 21:40
We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.
Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.
Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1
You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.
Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!
Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!
CarExpert:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarExpertAus
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carexpert.com.au
Paul Maric:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulMaric
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric
#renault #dacia #duster
Category
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MotorTranscript
00:00yeah baby it's made it to a seven speed dual clutch transmission oh yeah this is not one of
00:16the good ones it is a little bit nasty so g'day i'm paul i am so excited for this car it is new
00:22to the australian market it has been out for a while though it's called the renault duster
00:25it's finally on sale here and at pricing that is going to make this a really cool competitor to
00:31stuff like the suzuki jimney so duster kicks off at just under thirty two thousand dollars before
00:37your on-road costs but they are doing like a drive-away offer for the base model this one here
00:42is the top spec it's called the techno it's the four by two there is a four by four as well that
00:47i'll run you through a little bit later on now today we're going to do a detailed review on this
00:52car if you do want to skip ahead to other parts of this you can use the time codes that are on the
00:55screen or if you're on youtube you can scroll down and use the chapters below we're going to drive
00:59the four by two and also the four by four so there's going to be just a little bit to cover
01:03here in this video now let's talk about styling first this kind of takes the approach of building
01:09on the base of stuff like the clio which this shares a platform with but it sits high you've got
01:13more ground clearance even the four by two version here has a decent amount of ground clearance at
01:17around 170 mil four by four jacks it up to over 200 mil so there are some sort of key differences
01:23there but on the styling front this looks nothing like the siblings that it shares its platform with
01:28so big reno lettering down the front there got led headlights some really cool colors to pick from
01:33as well and just a lot of these sort of rugged looking materials down the front there fog lights
01:38down the bottom as well but if you have a look at this side guard here that recycled material that
01:43they're using has different colors within it so instead of it just being a black and a bit unruly
01:49material this actually looks really cool and still a decent looking set of wheels here as well
01:54machined finish on the outside there and then piano black on the inside and this is sitting on a
01:59set of 18 inch yellow wheels for the top spec four by two and then you can actually see that
02:03recycled logo there as well um offset color here for the wing mirrors with the indicator built into
02:09there you've got roof rails here uh no glass roof or anything like that privacy glass on the back
02:14there with a door handle built into the top section then come around to the back with me more of that
02:19material finish along there with that rugged material down the bottom duster lettering just
02:25there reno logo in the center there and an enormous aerial up the top there as well so let me know what
02:32you reckon about the design in the comments section below uh this car has scored a poor safety rating
02:36over in europe so i'll be curious to see what happens in australia if they do test this uh so
02:41that could be one thing that um kind of sways people away from it but we'll see how that goes
02:44jimney was the same it didn't really score a very good safety rating so let me know if that's an issue
02:49for you in the comments section below right so we are inside the duster this is what the key looks
02:54like you've got unlock lock uh ambient boot and the reno logo i hate these keys they are so annoying
03:01because they don't really fit anywhere and anyway uh it's proximity sensing so you can leave that in
03:07your pocket and then you've got a push button start just down here so this is a rugged car which is why
03:13the interior screams cheap in parts you've got sort of very scratchy surfaces around the place
03:18um but you know i guess it's that rugged look they've gone for and it's good that they back it up
03:23with you know big infotainment screen big screen ahead of the driver there so it is offset by the fact
03:28you're getting modern technology it doesn't feel too cheap and nasty and then you've got to remember
03:32the price this thing is so cheap for what you're getting and um this is kind of what you would
03:37expect for that for that uh price band um terms of the actual touch points though uh this is sort of
03:43soft in the center there softish on the door as well so it's all sort of not too bad um we're at the
03:49launch of this car which means that we're not going to be able to do extensive testing today we
03:53haven't driven it out on the road either so we're going to get the car back to do some proper
03:57driving and proper testing a little bit later on but today will be a bit of a condensed look at this
04:01and then um yeah we'll do a bit more driving down the track and what about your door slam so this is
04:06what it sounds like now let's check the infotainment your screen's just over 10 inches in size very
04:12basic and straightforward but equally very easy to use so it has these quadrants uh radio phone
04:18date and then like an eco thing you can then also access uh some of the additional features through
04:24here um but yeah outside of that it's pretty straightforward and i love the fact that yes
04:28it has no knobs for volume and stuff you can control it here on the steering wheel you do
04:32actually have buttons right up the top they're a little bit tricky to see but um that's where you
04:36can go up and down if you need to and then you can also switch the screen off or put it into a
04:40minimal display mode as well so it's not as distracting um so yeah nice little setup no inbuilt
04:46satellite navigation but you do have smartphone mirroring this is what apple carplay looks like this is
04:51wireless nice and quick as well no lag very easy to use and i'll show you what android auto looks like
04:57it's a nice big display there very good big tick on the infotainment front i like that um head of the
05:04driver you have another smaller display there so nothing too crazy there's not a huge amount of
05:09configuration it doesn't take up the entire screen either it's only seven inches in size should also
05:13mention as well uh amfm dab digital radio with six speakers and have a look at this so phone mount but
05:19this is actually on a it's called a u clip so they have a stack of these around the cabin and
05:26basically it's like a proprietary uh clip that you can buy accessories for and then when you get your
05:31accessories they will just sort of clip on and hold on in place there so um yeah on the parking front
05:36you've got front rear parking sensors and a 360 camera i'm going to flick the car on so you can see
05:41what that looks like pop that into reverse wow quality of that is appallingly bad
05:46it's like someone's taken a clear lens and just smeared oil all over it uh then you've got these
05:53different views i mean that is so so bad yeah anyway uh i just don't know how in this day and age
06:00you can't have cameras that are better than that that is really really not very good and that's what
06:06the horn sounds like now practicality we're going to start off with connectivity you've got two usbc
06:12ports a 12 volt outlet wireless phone charger down here a little storage nook up the top there
06:18sort of storage bits all over the place pretty small cineconsole there not the end of the world
06:24and glove box another one of these weird ones where it's a big glove box and then just half the space is
06:29taken up by like a fuse box or something in that corner um what else have we got here that's about it
06:35in terms of storage no sunglasses holder either do like the roof though i just noticed that it's
06:39like a charcoal colored roof which is um something a little bit different uh in terms of your comfort
06:45you've got dual zone automatic climate control steering adjustment is tilts and reach manual seat
06:52adjustment for both the driver and front passenger in terms of reach test stuff is really easy to reach
06:57while you're driving the seat material is interesting too it's sort of i don't actually know what that is
07:01it's um it's like a wetsuit material uh top and bottom so yeah different design okay so second row
07:08what is it like it's pretty cramped uh so knee room not amazing toe room's good head room is good
07:14look it's not terrible like i've got my seat pretty far back and you know it is just compromised in terms
07:20of space here uh you've got events here two usbc ports you've got another one of these euclips and this
07:26is just like an example accessory that can go on to there it's like a cup holder it's a little bit
07:31flimsy but um it also has little euclip accessories on the side as well so you could like build cup
07:36holders you know 20 cup holders off to the side there if you wanted i guess um map pockets here
07:42uh no center armrest but you do get uh isofix on the outboard plus uh top tether as well more of that
07:49sort of scratchy plastic uh we'll see what it's like in terms of our window does it go all the way down
07:53so it's auto up and down so close now let's talk cargo space so what i like here is that given the
08:02car is so high you can actually it's a good loading height to get stuff in and out so you've got just
08:07over 350 liters to work with here you can see these are the the hooks that are sort of riddled
08:12throughout the cabin here it just allows you to to attach things so you've got a little light there
08:16you've got a 12 volt outlet over here as well and you've got some hard wearing floor mats and then
08:22under here as well you've got some storage there too which is pretty good so so it looks like with
08:27the bag in there is there fits a medium-sized suitcase which is good and then if you do want
08:33to expand the space it does expand to just under 1500 liters as well just to give you a bit more
08:39load space if you need bigger items in there okay so we've hit the road in the duster we're starting
08:46off in the 4x2 what we're then going to do is jump into the 4x4 concept car with the ko3s
08:53which i can't wait we're going to drive that off-road as well so that's going to be good fun
08:56but this on-road section will just be the 4x2 now it's interesting despite them being pretty much the
09:01body the 4x2 and the 4x4 have different engines so the 4x2 has a 1.3 liter turbocharged four-cylinder
09:09petrol engine it makes 113 kilowatts of power and 270 newton meters of torque so not a huge amount and
09:15it's made it to a seven speed dual clutch transmission never been a fan of renault's
09:21dual clutch transmissions and if we come to a stop here we'll look at what this feels like
09:26oh yeah this is not one of the good ones it is a little bit nasty so this is very elastic
09:34there's nothing nothing everything they're very hard to get precise and i don't know just not not
09:40very pleasant so the good news is if you go to the 4x4 it's available with a manual only a manual
09:45but yeah you're kind of stuck with the auto here for the 4x2 now being a front-wheel drive this is
09:50actually pretty compact in terms of its weight the entry level comes with a torsion beam rear
09:55and it weighs around 1300 1400 kilos so really not a huge amount of weight so when you do step on it
10:00even with the sort of laggy dual clutch here it sort of just gets up and moves fairly well even
10:06with me and and sean who claims he's 75 kilos in the back there um it actually sort of moves along
10:14okay so uh you're not going to feel like this needs more oomph and when you drive something like a
10:19suzuki jimney i mean that thing is so slow especially in five-door trim that you just never feel like
10:25you're going anywhere so this is a huge step up from that in terms of the performance behind the wheel
10:29now renault claims combined fuel economy of under seven liters per 100 k's uh we haven't bothered
10:34measuring it today because the car was here and as part of a launch program so it's only been driven
10:39here at sort of faster acceleration and all that sort of stuff so it's not going to be an accurate
10:43figure so uh but that figure is pretty pretty reasonable it's not amazing given the weight of the
10:48car but it also isn't terrible 4x4 on the other hand uses a 1.2 liter turbocharged three-cylinder
10:55petrol engine and that uses a mild hybrid setup so it's got just under 100 kilowatts of power
11:00but 230 newton meters of torque and six-speed manual only uh all-wheel drive system and weighs
11:06slightly more as well so you're looking at just under 100 kilos more but importantly fuel economy
11:11is better at under six liters per 100 k so you are getting a benefit there from having the smaller
11:15engine with mild hybrid not as punchy and more weight but it sort of bridges the gap there by being
11:21just that little bit more efficient now not that you'll ever be towing but if you do want to both
11:25vehicles come with a 1500 kilo brake towing capacity now let's talk about the ride uh again we've only
11:31driven this inside the proving ground haven't driven it in and around the city the ride does feel firm
11:34to me so this being on 18s it's not exactly the smoothest ride in the world it feels like they've
11:41gone for a bit of firmness to give it a sportier feel despite its sort of slight off-road connotations
11:46even here in the 4x2 uh it's not the end of the world it's probably just ever so slightly too much
11:52on the firm side the other test we do as well is the sine waves we do this at 130 k's an hour which
11:59is maximum speed limit in australia it gives us a good idea of what body control is like
12:03okay there's 130 given this is on the firmer side it should actually perform well over these
12:10look at that fantastic gets over that really nicely yeah very good quite impressed with that
12:17okay it is bouncy road time we do this at 90 k's an hour to see what it's like across a shocking road
12:25yeah it does feel firmer through here it's not the end of the world but
12:31it is on the firmer side we've got our condensed sine wave coming up here we'll see
12:35how it performs across this oh yeah it's very floaty across that yeah so what's happening there
12:44is because the suspension is firmer it's riding along the top of those sine waves instead of
12:49falling into them so yeah not the end of the world but just something to take note of now there are no
12:54sort of drive modes here outside of eco but let's go for a lap around the track we'll see what this feels
13:00like we test all cars back to back in the same way just to get a vibe check for what they're like
13:05closer to their limits okay you know it picks up and moves okay brake pedal feels good
13:13into our first corner here a little bit of body roll
13:17traction controls very bitey there as well but let's just sort of lean it into the turns here
13:28actually holds on okay and it's again if I compare it to the Jimny which this kind of
13:34relates to in some way it feels far far sportier and it's got good underpinnings for that as well
13:42when you consider that beneath the skin here you've got a lot of those faster Renault products
13:47yeah look steering is a little bit numb but it gets up and moves okay it's um it's actually
13:54surprising how quickly it's getting along here and it doesn't feel like it's overly detrimental as a
14:01front wheel drive so it looks up really nicely and then just gets up and moves so if you do ever want
14:06to go for a sportier drive in your duster you can achieve that too okay time to do a little bit of
14:12performance testing and switch off traction control that turns on automatically again at like 60 k's an
14:19hour and you can't really build up boost here with the brake pedal because it's funny as a dual clutch so
14:24i'm just going to try stand on it and and just see how it goes so here we go we'll go all the way
14:29through to 120 as well
14:30well
14:36this doesn't feel too bad off the line all right 60
14:4180 80
14:43100
14:45and 120
14:49all right let's see how that went didn't feel too bad i mean it's not um not a super car but we'll see
14:57what the numbers say so 0 to 100 in 9.18 seconds and 80 to 120 in 6.26 so it's okay front wheel drive
15:07car little it's about to be expected okay time to do a stop from 100 k's an hour
15:14see what the brake and tyre package is like
15:18all right here we go
15:21all right
15:25okay so that is a stopping distance of just under 40 meters it's actually pretty impressive anything
15:34between 35 and 40 is is a decent number to be aiming for okay how fast does it go in reverse
15:40here we go
15:4133 34 kilometers an hour okay it's time to do some light off-roading in this absolute beast of a car
15:58so this is a concept car that they've built for the australian market it's got bf goodridge ko3
16:04tires so similar to what you find in a range of raptor but the newer generation of that for the australian market
16:08it's naturally lifted the 4x4 compared to the 4x2 and this has some aftermarket equipment on the roof as
16:16well which just gives this a really killer vibe so we're going to run it here on our light off-road course
16:21before we do that i want to run you through the specs so this doesn't have low range does have a
16:25four-wheel drive lock which basically apportions 50 of torque to the front axle 50 to the rear and
16:31then you've also got some drive modes here as well to pick from but in terms of the actual numbers
16:35grand clearance comes in at over 200 millimeters approach angle is up to 31 degrees and departure
16:40angle at over 30 degrees which is mega for a small vehicle like this so it should actually be pretty
16:46capable off-road it is only available with a manual transmission so it's going to require some
16:51some not stalling from me so we'll see how that goes but we're going to kick off with our traction
16:56control test first to see how this goes when we kick a wheel up in the air and i don't think
17:00that will take a great deal of work to do so we'll get the driver's side rear off the ground first
17:07there it is just there all right roll onto the throttle see how well traction control works
17:17look at that nice basically did everything it needed to do i didn't even have to engage any of
17:27these um four-wheel drive modes it's so cool i just still can't believe what this looks like
17:32it's unreal all right we're gonna go back over that uh in the opposite direction we'll see how it goes
17:37just again without putting this four-wheel drive lock on i feel like this car is going to be a bit of
17:42mountain goat so let's see what it's like on the return path this is often a little trickier but
17:48given the short wheelbase here it may not actually be that much of a hard job for it we'll see what
17:54happens
17:54buried on that all right let's try putting this into its four-wheel drive lock
18:06there it is just needed a little bit more work
18:12this thing is so much fun i absolutely love it unreal look at that
18:24all right let's go to the next obstacle our hill you know i wasn't actually going to run this on
18:31our full drive course here because i thought this is stuff that we do in big dual cab utes and stuff
18:35it's probably not appropriate for this but you know what let's give it a shot anyway and see
18:38what happens so normally in the dual cabs i do this twice once uh driving up normally and then
18:44once coming to a stop so see how it goes but basically it's just constant throttle and given
18:50that this is a manual uh in high range as well it could be a little bit tricky but we'll see what
18:54happens all right line that up okay here we go first doesn't feel like it's geared enough to get
19:08us up here go go go no it's not liking that
19:15yeah first is a really tall gear there's there's no option here for me to go into a low range so
19:23if i just walk it up it's just going to stall so
19:26yeah first is is way too tall i have to basically keep dipping into the clutch to to try and get it
19:36to move there i will try one of the other drive modes and see how that goes
19:39uh so here we've got mud sand snow let's try mud sand see if that does anything
19:46yeah first is way too tall okay so i i don't normally do this but i've got permission from
19:57the owner of the car to actually just send it up there to see if it'll make it so
20:01this could end very well or very badly for everyone involved so hold on
20:07yeah baby
20:14i told you i was determined to get up there it just needed a bit more place
20:21this thing is so much fun all right let's send it through our little mud bog here
20:31now it does have a hill descent control so we'll give that a crack
20:36come over the edge here all right here we go
20:41there we go that's pretty straightforward nice and easy you do need a hill descent control in a car
20:48like this with only high range and a fairly tall first gear
20:52okie dokie rock time so it should get over here without too many dramas it's got
20:59adequate clearance so we'll see what this feels like
21:02nice you know what these ko3s really help the ride as well
21:11while the standard car is on sort of fairly sort of road oriented tires
21:16these ko3s really help smooth it out and especially over rocky terrain like this
21:20it just makes it not sort of as bouncy
21:23this is this really is quite good fun
21:29there we go job done
21:38there you go so the renault duster what do we reckon
21:45this thing is fun and that's pretty much what the Jimny is it is just fun in a little package
21:50and this really does tick all of those boxes for a fun vehicle in this off-road trim
21:55it's not overly expensive to buy you can go smash it around the place
21:58it's fun here with the manual as well it's disappointing there isn't an auto available
22:04hopefully renault is actually working on that because that would completely change the game but as an
22:09alternative to something like a Jimny this just gives you a more civilized experience with some of
22:14those off-road thrills as well yes it probably won't go as far as a Jimny but you can still
22:17send it up some pretty gnarly terrain that you otherwise wouldn't consider doing
22:21because you know it's a small SUV so anyway let me know what you reckon in the comments section
22:26below I'll be interested to see where the safety stuff lands but whether it's in 4x4 or 4x2 trim
22:31this is a great little car and the fact that you can get it with these accessories I think is
22:35really cool as well if you did enjoy this video please make sure you like it and you share it with
22:38your mates and we will do a proper longer form review of this down the track as well but until
22:43next time take it easy
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