Renault-Nissan are thoroughly famous for their sisterly relationships all across the world and that’s the reason for most of their cars have an identical nature in Indian market. But, Renault sells for its reliability and European standards and Nissan for its technology and Japanese trust. And when we have two differently-similar products from these two, we actually get confused over which one to choose from.
In India, the follow-me tradition exists since the Nissan launched the micra and then under same segment, Pulse was launched by Renault. Then came sunny and its twin sister scala and so on. The pattern was, Nissan would always lead and then Renault would follow and they both made their own shares of sales and healthy customer feedback in the market, even when the products were basically similar. Some market strategy maybe. Hats off to Mr Carlos Ghosn for taking such a successful risk and succeeding!
But this time around, the pattern has been broken up by Nissan with the launch of the Duster inspired and based, Terrano! Which is Nissan’s latest and upcoming car in India, expected to hit the Indian shores on 20 August of this month. And as said, this car is wholly based on the Duster gene, so we expect something of a similar level. And what is similar in the world of automobile, gets clashed!
Let’s find out what these two cars will be like when they are head-to-head with each other.
Basically, the Terrano is just another Duster similar in space, size, cabin, dimensions and specifications. But it can’t be completely similar, so Nissan has certainly worked on the new design scheme making the Terrano a bit edgy with sharp front, new headlamp cluster with light sensing, trapeze shaped grille, electrical ORVMS with indicators, wider windscreen, rain sensing wipers, angular bold lines and no bulge like that on the Duster will be here to see most probably. Even the rear gets a touch of newness with split tail-lamps, which all together makes it a better looker than Duster ofcourse. But again, you can’t underestimate the Duster, for it has won a million hearts.
Under the bonnet, both of these cars share those beats, pumped up by a 1.5 litre dCi diesel and 1.6 litre MPFI petrol engines paired with 5-speed manual shifter for the diesel and 5-speed manual for petrol on the Terrano and expect no auto transmission for now from Nissan. But the cars, being engine clones will perform head-to-head on overall performance and we very well know how excellent the Duster has performed till date, so there’s no point doubting the engine in the Terrano. But you can expect a tuning from Nissan’s front and the engine can be a bit more smoother, linear, fun to drive then the already excelled Duster’s. A little drop of power figure with 2 bhp will be there in petrol anyways and torque remains just the same. But still, the car will be super comfortable and efficient, expect a similar mileage in both around 18-20 kpl on diesel and 12-14 on petrol, matching the ARAI figures.
Handling and ride department will here be led by the existing Duster as we literally don’t have any idea how the new car is going to be, but peeping back in times, we can actually expect a refinement from the Duster, with stiffer suspensions and tight steering feel as standard wishes to come to life.
Now, coming to the main and most important part of this comparison between two cars, the interior and cabin comfort. Well, in the whole scenario for the Duster, if ever it has seen defeat, then it is mainly because of its not so charismatic interiors for a premium car. And this time again, we believe the Duster will be took-over by its younger cousin in the department. As the spying suggests, the Terrano is here to fill up all those oddities which made Duster suffer of the class embarrassment with the whole new, Micra and Sunny derived cabin, featuring more comfortable seating, attractive and intuitive instrument cluster and central control touchscreen with many new user oriented features like distance to empty and eco mode and all as standard and the list goes on. Premium quality interior will be there with added chrome blends which all surely elevates the Terrano on a way too higher platform than the Duster and leads the spin here.
All-in-all, we expect the car to be just the same on pricing and if there is really an increase in that, we hope its not more than 40-50 grands. And if all these things go just according to the expectations, then mark our words, the 3089 units of Duster sold in July will remain a mere success and Terrano will prove its game with an overall improvement in the already successful Duster. We wish luck to Nissan and Duster as well, with Nissan leading this comparison for today.
