The India made Dusters have reportedly had corrosion issues and was one of the prime reasons to shift the Duster’s production from its Chennai facility to the Romanian plant.
Renault retails the Duster under the Dacia brand across Europe as its budgeted offering and the model has been doing good numbers, much like that in India. However, the UK buyers aren’t too happy with their Dusters have renamed the compact SUV as ‘Rusters’ due to the issue of rusting on the body panels, bolts and metal fittings. A common issue raised on Duster forums, customers have shared images of the rusting panels, while a new website has also been created by a customer highlighting the issue.
In response, Dacia acknowledged the problem and also offered free repairs to the Rusters… we mean Dusters. With the issue clearly being that of corrosion protection, the rusting has affected hundreds of Dusters by now and the company ensured to have the vehicles sprayed with rustproofing chemicals to counter the issue. The affected Dusters were manufactured in India at Renault’s Chennai based facility, which according to Dacia had inconsistencies in the paint process at the factory.
One of the reasons cited for the inconsistencies in the paint process could be that of the salty air surrounding the plant in India. Without adequate protection, the affected cars became more susceptible to rusting right from the start. Moreover, the wet conditions of the UK along with salty air escalated the rusting process faster than expected. This was also one of the prime reasons that production of the Duster was shifted earlier this year from the Chennai facility to Renault’s plant in Romania, which only produced the Left-Hand Drive version of the compact SUV.
Source – RustyDuster.co.uk