Although Hyundai have deservedly shaken up this segment with the superb, safe, sound and best all-rounder in this segment in the form of the Creta, I simply must appreciate Renault for bringing in the Duster and creating this wonderful segment of modern, refined and safe SUVs in the first place.
Till the entry of Renault's wonderful Duster, customers in India were being taken for a horrible ride by a certain manufacturer of very crude, shockingly unrefined, dramatically obese and hopelessly outdated utility vehicles based on primitive pick-up truck frames, dating right back to the previous millenium!
Such unrefined, farm tractor-like vehicles were laughably glorified as "sports utility vehicles" when there was absolutely nothing even remotely sporty about the crude machines marketed as "SUVs". Such was the shockingly crude nature of these vehicles, that one of them even used a primitive hand-me-down chassis which was a leftover dating back to the time of Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin & their contemporaries.
The WW II Jeep had been discarded by the company that originally created it. This ancient discard was continuously worked on by the domestic
jugaad specialist, whose continuous
jugaadineering (i.e. the jugaad version of engineering) lead to their first supposed "SUV". It was tagged so, just because the canvas top was replaced by a factory metal body and had a couple of features like air-conditioning and power steering, which were great feats for the domestic
jugaadineering company at that time. The funniest thing about such an "SUV" was that it featured a tractor engine (no kidding at all!) Of course, the farm tractor engine was "treated" to things like direct injection and a turbocharger, before being plonked into the crude and ancient body of the glorified utility vehicle that masqueraded as a supposed "SUV".
The
jugaadineered UV's success in the marketplace at that time lead to more such products built on the same principle (i.e. take a crude ladder frame pick-up truck chassis, bolt on a body, plonk in a tricked-up engine based on some pre-historic lump, equip it with some modern convenience features, and market the crude but glorified utility vehicle as a supposed "sport utility vehicle".
These extremely crude, unsafe, shoddy, shockingly unrefined and hopelessly obese triple-cab pick-up trucks were having a gala time in the marketplace only because there was hardly any competiton in this segment. The glorified triple-cab pick-up trucks made hay as long as the sun shined for their maker. On a lighter note, making hay wasn't something exactly new to the vehicles' metal hearts, as the engines were basically tricked-up versions of the crude, ancient lumps powering farm tractors made by the same company.
Anyway, the Renault Duster heralded the entry of modern, refined, safe and sound SUVs in this segment,
finally! Yaaay!!! Boy, what a much-needed & welcome change this India-made Franco-Romanian SUV was in this space! Finally, people in India could buy something the rest of the world had been enjoying for a long time - modern, safe, refined SUVs that did
not share their chassis with some half-a-century old discard, and powered by engines that did
not share their blocks with farm tractors! Finally, proper engineering prowess had entered this segment, instead of the
jugaadineering that was the order of the day till then!
It was the Duster that cracked open this segment. The fantastic Ford EcoSport soon followed, although in the sub-4m space. The EcoSport simply annihilated a certain horrendously & hideously ugly
jugaadineered product. In keeping with the finely honed art of
jugaadineering, this visual disaster of a vehicle was made by chopping off a ladder-frame MPV (that in itself was very ugly to begin with) in order to take on the superbly engineered, safe, sexy & stonking Ford EcoSport. The horrendous visual disaster turned out to be a great sales diasater as well, which is just as well! The Indian market was finally beginning to mature, by welcoming proper modern engineering, and flatly rejecting
jugaadineering.
As soon as the Duster & EcoSport prised open the segment for products of modern engineering, others followed. The Duster's twin came out wearing the badge of the French company's alliance partner. Then came the Maruti Suzuki S-Cross and of course, the Hyundai Creta.
All these modern, safe, solid, refined, high quality products of 21st century engineering need to thank Renault, which is turning out to be a super courageous company that's changing the game in several ways and in several segments!
Hyundai thoroughly deserve to celebrate the well-deserved success of their super hit product Creta. But this success would not have been possible if it were not for the wonderful Duster. The manufacturers of the Creta, S-Cross, Terrano and even the EcoSport must not forget the pioneering efforts of Renault's Duster, which turned out to be a hero in the Indian automotive scene, by courageously liberating the SUV segment from the vice-like stranglehold that
jugaadineering had on this space! My
respect to
Renault India for their great deeds which actually paved the way for products like the thoroughly deserved winner of the prestigious ICOTY 2016!