Nissan Revives The Terrano In India
The Nissan Terrano, once a fairly rugged SUV, is now the nameplate by which Nissan will sell a rebadged Dacia Duster in India. How about some exports?
No, really, why not? With compact crossover sales on the rise all across the globe, and the Duster garnering positive reviews even among the enthusiast press, it could be a golden opportunity for Nissan to enter that segment with a product below the Qashqai (aka our Rogue). Hell, why not bring it to North America as a Versa-sized crossover (we wouldn’t get it otherwise – setting up a Dacia dealer network is a billion-dollar fool’s errand for our market)? Assuming it meets regulatory requirements, it could be positioned as a cheap ‘n cheerful subcompact crossover, just like the Versa is in the subcompact segment.
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I was just ragging on Nissan's watering-down of the Pathfinder name in the last story. This might be worse.
This looks rubbish, and the wheels are too small. Also, why sell the Dacia AND the Nissan in India - what's the point when they're the same? Don't they sell some Renault products there too?
It's not sold as Dacia in India, but as Renault. Afaik Dacia brand is only for Europe (and northern Africa). The Duster is being sold under the Renault nameplate in India, Russia, South America, Central/Southern Africa etc. It looks like badge engineering doesn't bother too much Renault/Nissan in India as they are already selling the Versa (=Renault Scala) and Micra (=Renault Pulse). These cars even have the superpopular Renault diesel 1.5 engines that are selling like hotcakes everywhere in Europe (Mercedes, Nissan, Dacia, Renault mostly)
One reason not to bring over a Duster, rebadged or not, is that it has pretty poor safety ratings. Given that cute-utes are the official young mom-mobile in the US, it's hard to imagine that will fly here. This drawback is noted in UK reviews of the Duster.