Goodwood Festival Of Speed a.k.a Goodwood FoS is a traditional hill climb racing competition featuring historic motor racing vehicles competing against each other. It is held in the grounds of Goodwood House, West Sussex, England and is one of the most prestigious events. It is held in late June or early July and is so scheduled to not clash with the Formula One season so that fans can come and attend the event.
This year the race will be held from 28 June and 1st July and beside the prestigious event another very interesting has happened there. Renault Duster, the car which is eagerly awaited in India to launch on 4th July 2012 in New Delhi India, has been officially launcheded in the UK at the Goodwood Festival Of Speed at £8995 which converts to Rs. 7.98 lakhs. The pre-order facility can be availed from 28th July 2012, and the customer will have to deposit 100 pounds to Dacia (The brand that sells Duster, part of Renault) after he or she configures the car.
image – Renault Duster Compact SUV India
The car is available in three different variants Access, Ambiance and Laureate and they come with the following features:
- 16-inch steel/alloy wheels
- ABS
- Longitudinal roof bars
- Electric front windows
- Four airbags
- Height adjustable steering wheel
- Radio/CD system with AUX, Bluetooth, USB connectivity
- Trip computer
- Scuff plates and side sills
But this is just the pre-ordering part, the actual delivery will begin from January 2013 when Renault-Nissan’s Chennai facility starts manufacturing Duster at the desired pace so as to not only deliver the car in its Indian dealerships but ship them to nearby markets as well.
For the UK market, the Duster is available with a 1.6 litre petrol engine option that delivers 104 BHP of max power and is coupled to a 5 speed manual transmission. A 1.5 litre dCI turbo diesel engine is also there which develops 108 BHP of max power and is mated to a six speed manual gearbox. Also the Duster to be launched in UK has a better safety rating than the Indian model. Dacia is also conducting public demo drives on left hand driven models which is because the production of left hand driven model is yet to commence in Chennai.
The price of the car for the UK market is low and interesting as Dacia had already promised that the pricing would be surprisingly affordable. A similar pricing is expected from Renault as the competition will definitely rise over the months as Ford is also readying its Ford EcoSport for the market. In fact over time, the competition is going to get tougher and tougher as Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai are also planning to enter the compact SUV segment in the coming years.
The launch of Duster in India is on 4th of July 2012 at New Delhi, we will keep you posted on all the details so stay tuned. The engine and features details of the Duster are already leaked and can be checked here – Renault Duster Official Variants, Features And Specifications.
Updated on 4th July 2012
Renault Duster Launched Officially In India- Price and Details
