Published:
30 October 2024Dacia hasn’t just given the second-generation version a facelift. This is very much a new car, modernised inside and out, gaining a more rugged design that also usefully improves interior space. Thankfully, the Duster’s mantra – everything you want and nothing you don’t – remains unchanged.
The model has moved onto Renault’s more advanced CMF-B platform, though, which means its technical rundown reads like a greatest hits album of semi-recent Renault products.
That's because these underpinnings are shared with the Renault Clio and the Nissan Juke, plus the Dacia Sandero and Jogger. For 2024, though, it gains the 1.2-litre mild-hybrid three-cylinder engine from the European-market Renault Austral.
There’s also a sustainability message: Dacia now uses a pre-coloured plastic for the skidplates, while the side underskirts and wheel-arch guards are made of a tough, partly recycled material called Starkle, again unpainted.
The 1.0-litre bi-fuel three-cylinder engine, which runs on petrol and LPG, is carried over from the outgoing Duster as the entry point to the range, and the 1.6-litre full hybrid from the Jogger and various Renaults provides the only automatic option. Diesels are out, but you can still have your Duster with four-wheel drive.
If the new Duster looks far bigger than the old one, it isn’t – not by much anyway. It’s only 9mm wider and 2mm longer than before.
It is quite a bit lower and, in combination with the more squinty headlights and almost Jeepish grille, it certainly looks meaner.
