Renault India bags 6,000 bookings for the Duster; Adds jump seats as dealer accessory to make the SUV a 7 seater

India loves SUVs and here’s some proof. Renault India has tasted its first real success in the Indian car market with the Duster SUV bagging 6,000 bookings in just a week of its launch. The 2012 Renault Duster is a five seater SUV that can be converted into a 7 seater courtesy the twin jump seats that Renault offers as a dealer accessory. These jump seats will be positioned in the boot of the car and will be side facing. However, the addition of the jump seats in the boot of the SUV will greatly reduce the luggage space to next to nothing as the Duster is essentially designed as a 5 seater.

2012 Renault Duster SUV

The 2012 Renault Duster is available in petrol and diesel engine guises, across a wide range of variants.The petrol engined model is the least priced of the lot with prices beginning at INR 7.19 lakhs.that said, the under speced petrol engined variants seem to mainly be offered in order to round off the Duster range rather than contribute to big volumes. Talking of which, it is the diesel engined Duster, of which there are 2 states of tune, which will be the real sales spinner for Renault India. The 2012 Duster features the 1.5 Liter K9K turbo diesel engine in two states of tune, 85 PS-200 Nm and 110 Ps-240 Nm.

The 85 PS diesel engine gets a five speed gearbox, similar to that on the petrol version wh8ile the 110 PS diesel engine gets a 6 speed gearbox. Naturally, the Duster 110 with the 6 speed gearbox will be a better bet as a highway cruiser due to the extra cog giving the car a more relaxed cruising ability. While the petrol powered Duster is bare basic to say the least, the diesel models do come with a host of safety options and creature comforts.

Features like rear AC vents and reverse parking sensors on the top end Duster variants make for the creature comforts. Safety wise, the duster gets twin airbags, ABS and EBD on the diesel engined variants. The top end Duster 110 PS is priced at INR 11.29 lakhs, ex-showroom Delhi, and this price being an introductory one could go up in the coming months. All the versions of the Duster are front wheel driven. The top end Duster comes within sniffing distance of the Mahindra XUV500 crossover’s W6 variant, which is just about INR 50,000 more expensive.

Via Cartoq