Motoring Middle East: Car news, Reviews and Buying guides

First look at Nissan’s version of the Renault Duster
By Imthishan Giado

Nissan mentioned during the launch of the Tiida that a new Terrano would be part of its five launches this year and now we know what it will be – a reskin of the impossibly popular Renault Duster.

Largely on the back of its low starting price of AED49,900 the Duster has been a huge success for Nissan in the UAE. It was a only a matter of time before Nissan decided it’d like a piece of the pie as well. Hence the rebadging of the Duster as a Nissan Terrano coupled with some sheet metal changes in the form of a nose borrowed from the big brother Pathfinder SUV, proper alloys and inevitably, a higher starting price because it’s a Nissan. To be fair, the rebodied Terrano looks considerably better than the original.

Expect the rest of the Duster to carry over unchanged, so it should be available with a 2.0-litre petrol engine coupled to either an archaic four-speed auto for front-wheel drive cars or a basic five-speed manual gearbox for 4×4 versions.

Seen here in a right hand drive version for the Indian market, the interior uses plenty of Nissan parts bin switchgear to lift the Terrano beyond its humble Nissan origins, with a steering wheel borrowed from the Sentra and chrome accents for the centre console. The headunit looks to be different as well; expect generous connectivity options including AUX and Bluetooth Audio.

The Terrano should debut in the UAE before the end of the yar. Based on current Indian launch pricing, we predict the base 4×2 auto version to go on sale at at a sub AED55k price. We also expect the Terrano to cannibalise Duster sales significantly – why wouldn’t you want a Nissan badge with its higher resale value instead of a Renault one?

What do you think of the Terrano? Do you remember the old one? Let us know below!