| Address: | Chennai, Tamil Nadu |
I bought renault duster in august 2016 considering the ride quality, robust build, long term ownership, go anywhere attitude as usp for the car. However, my ownership turned out to be terrible with following primary issues within 6 months of time
1. Loud metal knock sound that occurs inconsistently and especially in slow stop/go traffic in first gear
The visit to different service centres has not resolved the issue and instead multiplied the problems with following issues
1. Bouncy ride noticeable at slow speed and induces fatigue at high speed
2. Steering not precise but left to live with it
As expected and usual, every time the service centre takes psychology class mentioning the issues are trivial and although the issue persist, it does not affect the performance of car and is safe to drive.in 16k kms, i started to notice the car wobbles at rear end and was hearing a very annoying humming sound. At this point i am sure that there is serious issue with the underlying issue showing its visible symptoms and no longer like to listen to polite psychological advise. Again multiple visit to service centre to this issue resulted in below
1. Initially asked to change tyres and no clear explanation given as to why oem tyres fail in 16k kms when it is supposed to come for 40k kms on normal use. After persisting the issue is not in tyres and escalating the issue, the service centre replaced the wheel bearing and the wobbling stopped and humming noise reduced by 60%. A fail wheel bearing in 16k kms tells the story that there is some fault and the wheel bearing failed exactly in left rear wheel where i usually hear the knocking sound
2. After persisting to know the root cause, the tyres were rotated for check and boom, the steering wheel alignment went for task and the already not so precise steering is left unusable with sharp left pull when hands off for 2-3 seconds
3. Service centre recognise that this is serious issue and escalates to renault for technical guidance. It took almost 11 days in keeping the vehicle in service centre to liberally interchange most vital parts of car like lower arm, power steering rack, shock absorbers to check for the left pulling even after setting the car to standard wheel alignment readings. After all the effort, the issue remains and the service centre at this point decided not to waste their labour effort anymore on this as they knew the car is faulty and that they could not do anything more. The fix they did along with renault team is to provide a non-standard wheel alignment setting that subsides the issue. When i didn't accept to this malpractice, i was asked to take up the issue with renault company and asked to take delivery of the car. I took delivery on good note for the effort they spent without any choice.
I am now left to live with car that i think is a lemon (Defect car with issue not resolved by standard repair procedure) and the customer care does not seem to provide any update or response for next steps to resolve the issue. With multiple visits to service centre, i now have following problems and has seriously compromised the driving pleasure, ride quality of the car and i'm very suspicious of long term ownership and reliability of the car. The dealers think the car is found normal if the car moves in 4 wheels and does not seem to understand the customer feelings of drive pleasure and ride quality to which they had spent money to research and buy car in the highly competitive market.
1. Random dead spots in steering where steering seems gets disengaged and gets engaged after an effort. This is dangerous in high speed drive and manuver
2. Left pull slightly reduced but visibly persists. I now need to consciously hold the steering wheel with an effort to steer the vehicle straight
3. Knock sound in left rear wheel still persists and is not diagnosed for any cause in the last 1.5 years since i reported
4. Steering shudders on turning side to side in idle and this is not the case in other vehicles i checked
5. Shock absorber sound (Newly introduced in recent repair) on going over speed bumps
6. Poor mileage with 10-12kmpl in city and 12-14kmpl in highways
A sincere request to renault. I dont complain the duster car is useless but some customers getting a defective car or dealer not trained enough to handle some complex issue, there needs to be special care from the manufacturer to address the issue rather letting the customer go in tremendous mental stress and pain to get a issue fixed. So far after so many escalation, i didnt get to speak with a senior person of customer complaints and there is no direction provided on the next steps for resolution.
Such treatment will only spoil the reputation of the brand you had meticulously built over years and whatever great product that you bring to market in future, such mistrust of customer is going to eventually fail the brand.
The issue not resolved in 2 years i dont believe the issue magically resolves now in few days and with drive experience lot compromised with multiple repairs, i sincerely request renault to take up this case atleast now and provide a replacement car. I'm fine even if the full replacement to brand new vehicle is not possible, you shall deduct a reasonable amount for kms driven and replace with new car and show us the value of renault brand in india.
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