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With a more sophisticated platform, design-savvy look and fresh tech, has this all-new version lost sight of the model’s value appeal?

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Real people buy a Dacia Duster. The car maker has sold 2.2 million of them at an accelerating rate since 2010 and currently makes 1000 per day.

In 2022, even though the Mk2 was reaching the end of its life and couldn’t offer hybrid power, it became Europe’s top-selling SUV among private buyers – and Dacia aims to do even better with this smarter-looking and even more practical Mk3. 

The Duster’s drawcard has always been simplicity, practicality and toughness. Dacia has filled this area of the market expertly for the past decade.

It nails the fundamentals and saves on the largely immaterial stuff (soft-touch interior mirror, anyone?), resulting in cars that are almost uniquely fit for purpose.

The outgoing Dacia Duster was a bit of a breakthrough in this respect, just tipping over the edge from ‘feels cheap, but at least it is cheap’ to being a genuinely good car at an unbeatable price. 

But can the new Duster live up to the previous edition? Our short answer: the new car is better almost everywhere. Read on to find out why...

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DESIGN & STYLING

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Dacia Duster review   side on the road

Dacia 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.

INTERIOR

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Dacia Duster review   full front cabin

Inside is where the outgoing car is feeling its age, being just a bit plain. The new one addresses that.

It still doesn’t feel like an expensive, upmarket car: it’s all hard plastic in here, but it’s a bit more designed.

The modular roof bars we know from the Jogger and the current Duster make a return and are joined by ‘YouClip’. With this, there are attachment points throughout the interior to which you can clip various accessories, such as a phone holder, or a cupholder-cum-hook-cum-light. It seems quite useful and also allows Dacia to present customers with a lucrative accessories catalogue.

The exterior has Y shapes as a motif in the lights and that continues with the interior air vents.

Cheaper trims might be greyer, but our test car had a splash of colour on the dashboard and I was really charmed by the ‘jeans’ upholstery. There’s a good selection of trays and cubbies too.

More digital tech has sprung up, something we'd argue the Duster didn’t need. Entry-level trims have analogue gauges with a small screen between the dials, and a phone holder instead of a centre screen.

We suspect that might be the best set-up. The test cars on our launch event all had a digital gauge cluster and a 10.1in central touchscreen.

Both of them look good and work fine, but the driver display doesn’t really provide much added value apart from looking more modern for the sake of it.

For the centre screen, we expected to see a version of the Google system in recent Renaults, but the Duster actually uses a bespoke system because it’s cheaper to make and doesn’t tread on Renault’s toes.

It’s fairly basic and therefore easy to navigate but also quite laggy. A deficit in processing power is probably where the cost saving comes from.

Dacia has stuck with buttons where it counts, though, and that deserves praise. A panel of physical switches operates the climate control and there’s another bank of buttons to the left of the steering wheel. One of those sets all the driver assistance systems to a personal preset, which is the way all modern cars should work, really.

You can sit relatively low, on fairly supportive seats, but the placement of the steering column makes it more natural to sit higher, as does the view over the flat bonnet that this gives you. In combination with a slightly pillboxy view out (blame the lower roofline), it conjures up something of a baby Toyota Land Cruiser vibe.

The engineers say that the switch to the new platform has allowed them to create more interior space within the same footprint. Indeed, rear passengers have a little more leg room and boot space has risen from 445 litres to 594 litres in front-wheel-drive models.

ENGINES & PERFORMANCE

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Dacia Duster side view

Dacia has ditched the diesel engine that powered the popular 4x4 version of the Duster in favour of a 93bhp three-cylinder turbo petrol engine with a mild-hybrid system to give 127bhp in total.

Power flows through to a six-speed manual gearbox. Other versions include the front-wheel-drive TCe 130 with the same electrified engine and the Hybrid 140, which uses the novel and ultra-frugal Renault E-Tech powertrain that combines a 1.6-litre petrol four with two electric motors to produce a total of 137bhp.

The Hybrid 140 is a two-pedal car that’s 80% electric in the city and uses 20% less fuel than good hybrid competitors, not least because it’s clutchless, getting going on electricity alone.

Dacia predicts that the Hybrid 140 will take half of all sales, with 40% going to the front-wheel-drive TCe 130 mild hybrid and the four-wheel-drive TCe 130 taking the remainder.

The hybrid powertrain is pleasant and smooth if you take it easy and let the electric motor take the strain, but any dynamic driving or long uphill sections can confuse it and cause it to behave erratically. It has the potential to be very economical so long as you stay away from the motorway.

Although overtaking uphill on a motorway does require a few downshifts, it’s just quick enough once you push through the initial deadness in the throttle pedal.

The three-cylinder has a not unappealing thrum at higher revs but, as with other Renault mills, it can sound slightly broken at lower revs. The gears are well spaced, which helps with keeping the engine on the boil.

Having a manual gearbox on newly launched car feels like a bit of a novelty, but once that wears off, the Duster’s gearchange is just okay: quite long of throw and not the most mechanical, though with sufficient texture to make it precise and satisfying enough.

We’ve not tried the new Duster with the TCe 90, but it’s looking likely that it won’t be offered in the UK. It’s a familiar engine from other Dacias and Renaults, and while it’s ideal in a Sandero, we suspect it might struggle in the bigger, heavier Duster.

We would choose the mild hybrid, however, and view the full hybrid as an automatic option that doesn’t carry a fuel economy penalty. The TCe 130 feels like the right engine for this car.

RIDE & HANDLING

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Dacia Duster review   front on the road

Dacia chose to stage the Duster’s UK launch in a huge and very picturesque quarry, with access to both a selection of stirring road routes and a short but attention-getting off-road track.

In all instances, the new Duster is better to drive in almost every way compared with its predecessor. On the road, you feel the effects of the more advanced platform immediately.

Suspension revisions mean it copes better with big, low-speed bumps. The steering, although happily similar in effort, has more authority around the straight-ahead position.

The handling is much more precise, eliminating the bit of roll and lurching that afflicted the old one. Dacia has resisted the temptation to inject any fake sportiness, although despite a similarly quartic steering wheel to recent Renaults (why?!), it doesn’t have any of the nervousness of those cars.

There’s a noticeable reduction in road noise, plus better damping to improve the already decent ride comfort. The improved steering translates to the road too and motorway cruising ability (which we feared might be worse) is excellent: quiet and smooth.

The new Duster also retains the old model’s fairly soft springing, which makes for a mostly plush ride, even if the wheels still clunk through potholes.

Off-road notes

The Duster 4x4 uses the TCe 130 mild-hybrid powertrain. In the 4x4, a twist of the Terrain Control switch between the seats can now select a variety of drive configurations (Mud/Snow, Sand and Eco join the previous simple choice between 2WD and auto/fixed 4WD).

The 4x4 version also has a multi-plate clutch to send up to 50% of the torque to the rear wheels, as well as a higher ride height, all-season tyres and a different front bumper to improve the approach angle (31deg, versus 24deg for the front-drive equivalent). Departure and breakover angles are 36deg and 24deg respectively and the wading depth is 450mm.

It won’t challenge an Ineos Grenadier, but it can navigate fairly acute dips, scrabble up slippery hills and use its traction control to extricate itself from situations where there’s one wheel in the air. Over some obstacles, the traction control was noisily working overtime during our test, and something with low gearing would be more effortless, but a four-wheel-drive Duster is surprisingly useful off the Tarmac.

The quarry test showed that the new Duster 4x4’s traction is more than equal to that of its predecessor in soupy mud-holes, although one big difference is that you need to slip the clutch now in very slow going to maintain torque and response.

MPG & RUNNING COSTS

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Dacia Duster review

For the Dacia Duster, value is the name of the game. Prices in the UK start from just under £19,000 and it's a lot of car for the money. 

The range opens with the TCe100 Bi-Fuel Essential, but buyers are more likely to go for the higher trims - and you’ll need to if you want the mild or full hybrid.

The two-wheel-drive TCe130 Expression comes in at just over £20,000, while the cheapest hybrid, the Hybrid 140 Expression, is just over £24,000. Hybrid 140 Extreme models top the range, at almost £27,000. 

Standard equipment includes LED headlights, roof bars, analogue dials and a 3.5in digital display. There's no outright infotainment system in the most basic cars, with a smartphone docking station taking its place. 

Expression cars gain 17in wheels, automatic wipers, a 7in digital driver's display, a reversing camera and a proper 10.1in infotainment system with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto integration. 

Journey models get 18in wheels, front foglights, electric heated door mirrors, keyless entry, front and rear parking sensors and a wireless phone charger. At the top of the range, the Extreme edition receives diamond-cut alloys, heated seats, faux leather upholstery, lumbar support and cargo mats. 

Dacia residual values are also good, so expect finance to be very competitive too. It should still undercut alternatives such as the Skoda Kamiq, Hyundai Kona and Peugeot 2008, if not by the staggering margin we have more or less come to expect from Dacia.

VERDICT

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Dacia Duster review   off roading through a puddle

So is the Duster still all the car you need?

With some of the added trinketry being introduced on this third generation (some voluntary, such as the displays; some enforced, such as the lane keeping assistance), it might just be drifting into offering more than you need, or indeed want, and one way or another you’re paying for that.

But maybe that’s being too philosophical about a compact SUV. At the end of the day, this car is at least as good as a Hyundai Kona while costing a few thousand pounds less. And that’s hard to argue with.

All variants are on sale now and should reach their first UK owners before the year’s end. They should be very satisfied owners indeed.

Illya Verpraet

Illya Verpraet Road Tester Autocar
Title: Road Tester

As part of Autocar’s road test team, Illya drives everything from superminis to supercars, and writes reviews, comparison tests, as well as the odd feature and news story. 

Much of his time is spent wrangling the data logger and wielding the tape measure to gather the data for Autocar’s eight-page road tests, which are the most rigorous in the business thanks to independent performance, fuel consumption and noise figures.

Steve Cropley

Steve Cropley Autocar
Title: Editor-in-chief

Steve Cropley is the oldest of Autocar’s editorial team, or the most experienced if you want to be polite about it. He joined over 30 years ago, and has driven many cars and interviewed many people in half a century in the business. 

Cropley, who regards himself as the magazine’s “long stop”, has seen many changes since Autocar was a print-only affair, but claims that in such a fast moving environment he has little appetite for looking back. 

He has been surprised and delighted by the generous reception afforded the My Week In Cars podcast he makes with long suffering colleague Matt Prior, and calls it the most enjoyable part of his working week.