I’ve been watching the Dacia UK owners’ forum for over a year now, seeing how the manufacturer was handling the plethora of rust complaints for brand new Dusters. Early adopters described rust appearing on many body panels and even on some bolts and metal fittings.
Dacia has acknowledged the problem (several times now…) and is offering free repairs on affected cars, however, owners are still dissatisfied with what they’re getting.
Apparently, while this is clearly a corrosion protection problem, the Rusters, as they’ve come to be known, only get local repairs where the rust is visible and that’s it; they’re also reportedly sprayed with some kind of rustproofing chemicals, although the information on that is a tad vague now.
Apparently, all the rust-ridden Dusters (mostly white examples) had been manufactured at Renault’s plant in Chennai, India, where (according to Dacia) “there were inconsistencies in the paint process at the factory.”
The number of complaints (reportedly somewhere in the hundreds) is not huge, given that more than 7,800 Dusters were sold in the UK in 2013 alone, most of which were manufactured in India.
Production has since been shifted to Dacia’s main plant in Romania. This has also reduced the waiting time for UK buyers and the vehicle should fare better with the Isle’s wet, salty air (undoubtedly a factor in this whole story).
We’d really like to read some comments from Duster owners in the UK, so if you have anything to add, the scroll down and have your say.
Via Rustyduster.co.uk (photo source), Daciaforum.co.uk
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