Renault Interior
Front seats are the trap. At the Triber's South African launch, cars.co.za reported two airbags on the Expression and Dynamique and side airbags on the Prestige — four in total. The seats look the same. Put a Prestige seat in a Dynamique and you have an airbag the car cannot fire; go the other way and you have a seat that will never deploy. Trim level first, always.
- Trade counter at 89 Chris Hani Road, Briardene
- Collect from the counter, or courier with the carriage in the quote
- Price, condition and fitment settled on a written quote
Interior, explained
The most expensive mistake in this category is a front seat, and it is a mistake that looks like a bargain right up until it is fitted.
At the South African launch of the Triber
At the South African launch of the Triber, cars.co.za reported that two airbags were standard on the Expression and Dynamique derivatives while the Prestige got side airbags for a total of four. The Kiger does the same thing: the base Life has dual airbags and the Zen adds front side airbags. Those side airbags live in the seat. So a seat from a higher trim contains a pyrotechnic device your car has no loom to fire, and a seat from a lower trim leaves you with a car that thinks it has a side airbag and does not.
Either way you get a warning light and a safety system that is not what the badge on the car claims.
Renault is unambiguous about the related question of seat covers
Renault is unambiguous about the related question of seat covers. Its owner's manual states that fitting seat covers on the front seats is prohibited, because it could affect the operation of the passenger airbag, and warns against placing objects between the seatback and the door.
Beyond seats, trim generation is the usual obstacle
Beyond seats, trim generation is the usual obstacle. Facelifts change dashboards, screen apertures and switchgear, and the South African cars have had several naming changes that make this harder to track than it should be — the Triber was launched here as Expression, Dynamique and Prestige and later sold as Evolution, Techno and Iconic, and the Kiger moved from Life, Zen and Intens to the same new names. Two cars described by their trim name in an advert may be years apart.
One genuinely useful thing about the Triber
One genuinely useful thing about the Triber: cars.co.za confirms the sixth and seventh seats can be installed individually as and when required, so the third row is a genuinely removable, and therefore genuinely losable, item.
How you know interior are on the way out
Recognise any of that? Tell us the model and year and we will go and check what we can get hold of for you.
The questions we ask before we price interior
- What you are really deciding
- Which trim level the car is, because on these models that decides what is inside the seat.
- Where Renault differs
- Side airbags live in the front seats and they are not standard across the range. At the Triber's South African launch, cars.co.za reported two airbags on the Expression and Dynamique and side airbags on the Prestige; the Kiger Zen added front side airbags over the Life. The seats look identical. Fitting the wrong one gives you either an airbag the car cannot fire or protection the car no longer has.
- Where the car was built
Renault does not build its South African range in one place, and that decides which supply chain a part comes down. The Triber is Indian-made, on a modified CMF-A platform, and the Kwid and Kiger come off the same Indian industrial base. The Sandero was imported from Romania, and every SA-spec second-generation Duster was built at Dacia's Mioveni plant there. The first-generation Captur sold here came from Renault's Valladolid factory in Spain.
It can show up in the metal, too: the first-generation Duster switched from Indian to Romanian production partway through its life, and cars.co.za observed that the Romanian-built cars appear to have benefitted from better rust-proofing and paint quality.
- What to send us
- The trim level and the interior colour — the VIN settles both. With that in front of us we can normally settle the right interior without a back-and-forth.
Further reading on interior
Independent sources, not ours. Worth a look if you want the background before you enquire.
Interior — what customers usually ask
Can I fit a seat from a higher-spec Renault?
Not safely, in most cases, and the airbag is why. cars.co.za records that on the South African Triber the Prestige had side airbags where the Expression and Dynamique did not, and that the Kiger Zen added front side airbags over the Life. Those airbags are in the seat. Fitting one into a car without the wiring gives you a device that cannot deploy; fitting a lower-spec seat into a higher-spec car removes protection the car was designed with. Tell us your trim and we will match it properly.
Will a dashboard from a different model year fit?
Only within the same generation and usually only the same facelift. Dashboards change with infotainment screens, vent designs and switch layouts, and the mounting points move with them. The trim-name changes on these cars make this harder to check than it looks — a Triber described as a Techno is a different vintage from one described as a Dynamique. We work from the VIN.
Is it safe to put seat covers on?
Renault's own owner's manual says fitting seat covers on the front seats is prohibited because it could affect the operation of the passenger airbag. That is the manufacturer's position, not ours, and it is worth taking seriously — a side airbag has to tear through the seat trim along a designed seam, and a cover across that seam can stop it. If your seats need protecting, look for covers specifically made and certified for airbag-equipped seats.
Where can I find a replacement third-row seat for a Triber?
Enquire, because they turn up regularly for exactly the reason you would expect. cars.co.za confirms the sixth and seventh seats can be installed individually as and when required, which means plenty of owners removed them for boot space and then parted with the car, or the seats, separately. Tell us the trim and the interior colour.
My carpets are wet. Is that an interior problem?
Usually not — it is a drainage or a cooling problem showing up in the interior. cars.co.za notes that on some early first-generation Dusters, a channel in the underbody let water drain into the rear footwells. Blocked scuttle drains do the same thing at the front. And a leaking heater core puts coolant into the passenger footwell. Check whether the liquid is clear and odourless or coloured and sweet before you replace any carpet, because replacing trim without fixing the source just ruins the new trim.