No rust on the German, French, Italian, Spanish, etc sold Dusters which have been out for years.

Why?

Because they are made in a well run Romanian factory.

The Duster sold in the UK is made in an Indian factory who still haven't understood the concept of quality control.

Dacia (Renault) are not the only vehicle manufacture to suffer from mixed quality in an India factory.

Its a cultural issue, the Indian mentality is to never admit to not doing something or tell anyone.

Renault have known about the concerns with the quality of products coming out of the India factory. Renault have generally ignored the complaints of Indian buyers, and put the poor quality of the first batch of Dusters to arrive in the UL down to the factory running at maximum capacity.

They have told the team at the port of Tyne to ensure full quality control and put right any problems.

This is fine for small issues, but bigger underlying problems such as poorly painted panels will take a bit longer to manifest.

It also adds further delay to the customerS wait.

Looks like it will be well worth paying the £800 to extend the warranty to 7 years if you purchase a INdian built Duster.

may I add, the sandero, sandero step away and the Logan MCV which are all built in Romania have no such rust issues.

Edited by daveyK_UK on 30/04/2014 at 22:18

We own two Suzuki Alto's made in India and have had no problems such as those described.

Maybe the issues are with Dacia rather than with India......

I'm happy buying cars made in japan, sounds like india is the new BL, only not made here anylonger.

When I went to Romania a couple of times in 1990, it seemed that every single car was a Dacia, in the shape of the old renault whateveritwas. How that relates to this thread I'm not sure but there you go.

I was seriously considering getting a Duster as a cheap 4x4 second car, and joined the Dacia Forum when I heard about the corrosion problems. They seemed a pretty unfriendly bunch refusing to accept that their cars could be problematic.

I guess if you consider the car as 'white goods' and be prepared to bin the car at the end of its life its OK.

Sadly the Sandero and its derivatives do look a good buy.

I very much doubt Renault would be so quiet on the issue if French and German buyers where suffering from poorly build Dusters.

They seem to have given up trying to improve the quality of the Indian factory, its as if Indian and British customers don't matter.

How can you make something so well in your Romanian factory that sells in big volumes and is well regarded and yet make the exact same product in your Indian factory so badly?

Edited by daveyK_UK on 30/05/2014 at 23:00

www.dacia.co.uk/about-dacia/dacia-news/dacia-duste...p

Dacia admit, in the above statement, that some Dusters have "concerns with the paintwork protection".

Those with potentially affected vehicles will be contacted to arrange an inspection and a number to call Dacia Customer Relations is also given.

The rusty Duster topic on the Dacia Forum has gone ballistic today!

Its worth repeating, the rust issue and poor build quality is only on the UK spec RHD Dusters built in India.

The mainland EU Romanian LHD Dusters are fine and sell well.

The whole brand shouldn't suffer although it may, because Renault have been slow and tried to bury its head in the sand over the poor quality control In the Indian factory.

It would appear Renault have turned a blind eye to the poor practices in India because they build cars so cheaply; they can afford to spend up to a week at the port of tyne being fixed and a fair few warranty claims per Duster.

But what they can't afford (although Im not sure they realise yet) is such bad publicity it kills the brand.

Edited by daveyK_UK on 17/06/2014 at 01:29

"Not if you read the Dacia Forum linked to above, there have been issues with LHD models."

Of course there have been issues, it's the low budget version of renault.

I'm romanian, the only reasons loads of people buy dacia here are :

1. Cheap to fix- as someone said, anything breaks, you can fix it with only 1-2 months wages (4-500 pounds worst case scenario), foreign cars are expensive for parts, dacia are not.

2. Mechanics know every inch of the logan here, will fix stuff fast and cheaper than a vw or a toyota.

3. The only car they can afford to buy new, for very many people.

4. You find parts in any part shop, in stock, no need to order, they are everywhere.

This being said, they are ok cars, I've seen taxis with 5-600 000 km on the clock and still going. In bucharest 90% of taxis are logan. I have not yet seen a rusted duster, maybe there are some, I just have not yet seen them.

Not a car to pick up chicks, but will get you from A to B. Hey, in the right village here chicks will be impressed you have A CAR!

I now have a toyota and people always say how good it is.

You'll get on famously with some people on here... :-"

I had a rusty Duster and the dealer and Dacia were quietly ignoring my requests for something to be done about it. I didn't push as I was too busy actually using the car, travelling up and down the country. I would now be seeking a repair if the car hadn't been written off a couple of months ago. I did OK out of this,as it happens. Lost about £2000 on the new value of the car but it had been driven 18,000 miles so fairly cheap motoring. In addition I got rid of a rusting vehicle and all the hassle of repair.

The other side of the coin, my wife has a 1.2 Sandero which has given a year and 11,000 miles fault-free service. No corrosion. A pleasure to drive because of its simplicity. It cost £6,600 so we don't worry about leaving it in supermarket car parks, out in the street and so on. It has a few minor dents and scrapes because of this but we just ignore them. That, to my mind really is trouble-free motoring!

The Panda 4x4 fell out of favour with me when my turbodiesel-engined Cross (Mk3 Panda) needed a new turbo at relatively few miles. Then, with the Mk4 Panda Fiat made the vehicles over complex and ornate and went silly with the prices.

Since I bought the Duster my circumstances have changed. I've moved from Sunderland to Somerset and my mileage will be very low (in fact no car of my own just now, all local trips are by bicycle). It rarely snows here so I've given up on deceiving myself that I need 4x4. Based on the very positive experience of the Sandero I've ordered a Dacia Logan MCV 0.9Tce. It's basically a Sandero estate with a massive load area. As it's a heavier car with a greater load area I've avoided the 1.2 petrol engine. Low mileage means I've avoided the diesel model so I'm having a punt on the tiny 900cc petrol turbo!

The cost of the new vehicle, around £9000, is more or less covered by the insurance payout. So, again looking forward to relatively low cost and hopefully trouble-free motoring from my new Dacia.

Not a car to pick up chicks, but will get you from A to B. Hey, in the right village here chicks will be impressed you have A CAR!

Really made me laugh-priceless!

On the most basic dacia sandero model, the sales staff get a massive £12 bonus per car.

I doubt the delaer can be making much more than £100 per car for the basic versions.

Then i fell about laughing when the cruze was valued at £2300, but what would i take to do the deal today.

Will you still be laughing when another dealer offers £2450? ;)

Dealers really don't want p/xs these days unless entirely on their terms.

Edited by groaver on 19/06/2014 at 19:31

It seems Dacia are happy to let the rust issue go on. Since they released a statement on the 16th June admitting to an issue there has been no progress at all. There are more areas of rust being discovered all the time so I have put together a page highlighting some of the issues and locations at rustyduster.co.uk there is obviously the ongoing thread on the forum daciaforum.co.uk Anyone hoping that these car were going to last years nay have to think again. Rust is even starting to affect the other models, Sanderos and Laureate. Even at the low prices they sell them for you don't expect rust that soon into ownership

I personally would not expect high quality from Renault and certainly not from new products/new factories run by Renault. They cannot even get French built Renaults right. in terms of assembly quality...

Car mags etc rely on Renault advertising budget, so there are reasons they will keep quiet.