Renault Duster- the one who took all the beating during Ladakh trip

When I planned for Leh Ladakh Srinagar trip, the toughest decision was to choose the vehicle. My plan was to rent a car from Delhi and do a round trip i.e. Delhi- Amritsar-Srinagar- Leh- Manali- Chandigarh- Delhi. I had only 10 days and couldn't afford to have for any issues with vehicle in between. Since initially only me and wife was there confirmed for the trip; I decided to go with a 4x4 though one more couple joined us later. When the situation gets tricky and with no one around to help, a 4x4 is definitely a better option than not to get stuck.

So I had two options: Scorpio 4x4 and Duster AWD. Safari was not  considered because of Tata's hilarious reliability and a Fortuner or an Endeavour was just too big and expensive for two of us.  Most of the  car rentals in Delhi offers Scorpio 4x4  and a couple of  them have Duster AWD. I was slightly inclined to Duster, since I had to drive long distances alone and was also not very assured about the reliability of Mahindra. Finally I reserved Duster AWD from Selfdrives.com- Pannu Car Rentals. But one thing forgot to consider was the availability of service centers on the way. While Mahindra has service centers all over the way and even one at Leh, the last Renault Service Center was at Mandi.

My wify with the Duster

This is a risk which I realized much later. I met of group of 5 who drove all the way from Kottayam Kerala to the Himalayas in a Duster They were having problems with the pick up of the vehicle after Manali. Also at Rohtang pass, there back windshield mysteriously broke while stuck in a landslide. The only option for them was to go back to Mandi and get the car serviced which could have taken at least two extra days. But they decided to go ahead with this quick fix.

None can beat Indians on Jugaad!! Tarpolin for windshield

The journey began from Delhi IGI airport at 8:30am day1. The first day's plan was to reach to Manali by late evening. Roads are mostly good with 4 lane highway till Chandigarh. Road widening work is going on between Chandigarh and Mandi, and some of the patches are really bad. In the highways the Duster was a good cruiser. It was composed and stable till 130kmph, but after that it had unbearable vibration on the steering wheel probably due to bad wheel balancing or something else. Also the tall 6th gear helped with the things. But 1st, 2nd and 3rd gears were pretty short and at low speeds especially in Delhi and townships it resulted in frequent shifting. But this was something which helped a lot in the proper off road patches ahead. Though the ride was bit of a stretch four of us reached Manali by around 9pm. The Duster simply glided over bad patched like a champ.The long travel suspension helped in soaking really big potholes without any trouble. And the good ground clearance gave use confidence to dash through the bad sections while other lesser mortals on other cars and SUVs crawled through them.

But the surprising thing was that soft suspension and the high ground clearance didn't result in any disconcerting body roll. I wouldn't say that there was no body roll at all, but was predictable and controllable. Once we crossed Mandi, the roads were good till Manali with lot of corners. Duster was a joy on these good winding roads. A good chassis combined with the amazing suspension tuning, did the work. I would even say there is no other manufacturer who can do a such a good job on setting up suspension for India.

We didn't get much chance to test the off road prowess of Duster. Though the roads are really bad especially after Rohtang Pass till Pang,you won't need a 4x4 to cover this stretch. But Duster's amazing suspension really made it a cake walk. We were so confident that the car we even took the short cuts in Ghatt loops during the uphill sections. Here the Duster simply walked up through really steep inclines off road in sandy terrain without any fuss. The very low ratio of the first gear also helped in this situation. But the trick here is not to let go off the turbo boost. I once went below 1500 rpm and the car stalled while climbing. Thanks to the decent ESC system, I was able to recover from the situation without much fuss.

One more thing I noticed is that even at high altitude, the relatively small 1.5L engine didn't struggle much for breathing. It might be probably because of the larger turbo charger of 110Ps engine. I was able to fully use at Tanglang La, between Pang and Leh. The roads were simply brilliant. Really wide section with flowing corners and freshly laid smooth tarmac, that too with zero no traffic What else do you need to do a hill climp race!!  I was able to touch triple digit speeds even in the up hill sections. The relatively short 4th gear kept me in the meaty mid range of the engine most of the time. With good body control, I was also able to carry high speeds around the hairpins too. The steering which was direct and offered decent feedback, also helped in this feat. It needed some time though to get used to hydraulic set up it has. The brakes was something else which boosted the confidence. It offered good feedback and bite, though the pedal travel was bit more than my liking.

Beautiful from a distance, but pulsating as you go closer

Though the trip didn't go as planned because of the issues at Srinagar, Duster just turned out to be the best choice on road and off road. The icing of the cake was the excellent fuel efficiency of 13.5kmpl for the round trip.If you are planning for a road trip, it could be a good companion all the way.