DACIA DUSTER AND DRIVING IN SHOWERS – ON THE ROAD AGAIN with BRIAN McDAID

This week our motoring columnist Brian McDaid takes the Dacia Duster and with summer around the corner, gives valuable advice about driving in the rain!

Road-testing the Dacia Duster

This week we were out for a spin in the latest version of the Dacia Duster. The Dacia range which is part of the Renault Group are available in Ireland for just over four years now . In my view they are one of the brands that helped kickstart the motoring industry again.

Before the recession really hit, we celebrated the good times through the cars and jeeps we purchased. As the credit crunch hit home no one wanted to be seen doing well when the country was doing so bad. So for a four year period car sales slumped. When Dacia was launched in Ireland and in particular the Duster , starting in 2012 at a price of just under €13,000 ex works it was a very encouraging offer to get the motoring public out and purchasing cars again.

I don’t know if its me but as soon as I seen the first of these Dusters on the road they looked like an evolved Renault 4. In the late 60’s my father purchased a Renault 4 which were completely different to what was on the road , They might have looked very light and swingy on the road but the Renault 4 was very versatile. The car was extremely easy on petrol, and was great in slippery conditions like snow because of its front wheel drive.

I since have learned that Renault might in the future relaunch the Renault 4 as a concept car, but I think that Duster looks so like a grandson of the old Renault 4 that we had when we were wains.

The Duster is available in four wheel drive but the majority of customers will go for the two-wheel drive version which we drove. Prices for the standard version start at €17,770.

It was such a miserable day in Donegal the day we had the jeep out. It never stopped raining. It helped to be in the Dacia Duster with that slightly higher view of the road ahead and we never had to worry about the pools of standing water on the road, as the big grippy tyres displaced the water to find grip on the wettest of roads.
I could find myself very at home in Donegal driving a Dacia. Not that there is a lot of potholes in Donegal but if you manage to hit one chances are the Duster would be well able for it with the long travel of it suspension.

We drove the two-wheel drive which had extras like cruise control, air condition, alloy wheels as standard which is called the “alternative”.

The 1.5 Dci diesel engine fitted to the Duster is just a joy to drive. With 110 BHP its so well matched and seems to have no end of torque. The model we drove had cruise control, which is great to set at to keep the car at the National limit. The design of the Duster, which I like in no nonsense get the jog done kind of style. The satellite radio controls at the side of the steering wheel will remind you of a Renault of perhaps a couple of years ago, but everything works really well.

We drove the Dacia Duster a little over 100 miles on our day out around Donegal and found the jeep very good to drive. Maybe it’s me but that sound on the indicators when in operation could be a little louder, but other than that the Dacia Duster performed more that well and he’s hoping that it might be a test vehicle to help relaunch the Old Renault 4 once more.

April Showers!

One of the major causes of heavy downpours at this time of year is the positioning of the jet stream. In early spring the jet stream moves northwards which allows “lows” to bring strong winds and rain in from the Atlantic. One minute we have brilliant sunshine, the next minute its lashing from the heavens.

For my friends who I am always “harping on” too for driving to close to the car in front. This time of the year is the time your are the most likely to be caught out by your actions.

As we head into the spring and summer months the warnings that we receive of poor driving conditions become less.

So in my view when your concentration in low, that is the time that an accident is the most likely to happen.

All around Donegal at this time of year it’s the first opportunity to get work done on the land that wasn’t possible to do in the winter months. Hedge cutting, work in the fields, construction work all take the soil out onto the road.

If you add this to our late spell of very cold weather where roads were constantly gritted and in particular salted, which condition the road to bring oil to the top of the surface.

The final but deadly ingredient in this is an innocent April shower.

All of a sudden, because its only a shower of rain, people don’t think, but in reality your grip has just halved on the road. For most of us it will make no difference. as we will not have to brake suddenly , For those who don’t leave enough room between them and the car in front of them on the road, The are really asking for bother. All the anti-lock- brake-systems fitted to cars will even make this cocktail of conditions worse.
So for the month of April keep and eye on the April showers and the conditions of the roads that you are expecting to get stopped on.

Time waits for no man

Wouldn’t it be great if we could turn back the clock to a time that we really enjoyed. Perhaps a time we put no value on when we were living in it.

I think I am a creature of habit, Don’t really like change if I find something that works reasonably well I will stick with it. So you can appreciate my dilemma when attempting a biannual routine faced by everyone.

It’s well into the second week of summer time and I am still trying to change the clock to summer time on my van. Maybe its not the summer time hour that is the problem. it could be my years that are catching up with me.

So far I have managed to adjust the headlights, dimmed the dash lights, activated a bleep for speed, and have taken a reading of the oil temperature 14 times.

I also managed to change the speedometer computer from KM/L to MPG, which I am quite proud of, even if that’s not what i set out to do at the start.

The nearest I got to changing the clock was to get the digits to flash on the dash, which they still do from time to time as if to say, try again, try again, try again.

There are three simple buttons on the dash of my van which hold the combination to turn back the clock. I suppose it would have made a lot of sense to consult the handbook to see how to address this problem, but I think i have gone to far to give in to instruction at this stage.

Fuel Watch

This week we were in Convoy to check on the fuel prices. And in Harris’ Diesel is pushing towards the 110 cents make and Petrol is pushing to the 125 cents per Litre.

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