This Renault Lodgy had faulty sealants that allowed water to come inside the cabin and damaged the owner’s luggage kept in the boot.
The Renault Lodgy is the latest offering to come from the garage of the French automaker and has been appreciated for its spacious interiors and a workhorse engine. One of its newest customers in Solapur was convinced by these attributes and bought himself the people carrier very recently. Just fifteen days old, the owner embarked on a long journey with his family and luggage loaded up in the back amidst pouring rains, only to have found his luggage drenched in water after driving some time under the grey sky.
While it would be a common issue in people movers over a century ago, cars today haven’t been designed to let water creep into the cabin. They are built to do exactly the opposite. On his Facebook post, the owner described his ordeal stating that water had entered through the tailgate drenching his six bags along with a laptop and iPad. The understandably angry owner further stated that apart from suffering big losses due to the issue, the Renault showroom personnel did not co-operate while writing emails to the senior management of the company was in vain.
While we cannot attest to the last part, this is a serious issue that needs to be looked into. The Renault dealership also confirmed of the leakage inside the cabin and stated that half the Lodgy’s interior was wet, hinting at a major leakage. The issue though was rectified and the car is now back with the owner. While there is a possibility of the case being a one off, it needs to be seen if Renault will be inspecting other models of this batch for potential sealing issues. Till now this is the only example of the Lodgy that has come to light with water leakage problems.
That said, this is not the first time Renault’s shoddy quality has come to light. The India made Duster that is exported to the UK with a Dacia badge has been termed as ‘Ruster’ due to its rusting issues. As a result, the automaker had to shift the production of right-hand drive Dusters for European markets from the Chennai plant to its facility in Romania. While the company hasn’t issued an official statement for the water leakage issue on the Lodgy, it definitely should inspect more units of the same batch to ensure there aren’t more examples around.
Source – IndianCarBikes.in