What is it?
In a world where cars are becoming increasingly more advanced and complicated, there has always been something rather refreshing about the Dacia Duster.
Here is an SUV that, in an incredibly simplistic sense, offers you everything you need in a car - namely an engine, four wheels and a steering wheel - and absolutely nothing that you don’t. The entry-level version of the original Duster didn’t even come with air conditioning or a radio, which is certainly saying something in this day and age.
Welcome, then, to the new second-generation Duster that, in base-model specification, still doesn’t include a radio or air conditioning. However, this almost puritanical approach towards excess in the context of car manufacturing means that the Duster - indeed, the entire Dacia range - is still incredibly affordable. “Shockingly affordable”, even, if you take a look at the Renault-owned brand’s marketing material.
That suitably named Access model will set you back a miserly £9995, which is an increase of £500 over its predecessor. Aside from the new styling - which lends the car a wider, more muscular stance, despite it being almost identical in size to its forerunner - you now get electric power steering and LED daytime running lights as standard. Phwoar.
Our more luxuriously equipped Comfort test car, which sits above Access and Essential and below the flagship Prestige in the rejigged line-up, comes with a few more creature comforts. With a 113bhp 1.6-litre four-cylinder petrol engine driving the front wheels (there’s also a four-wheel-drive version available, as well as a front-driven diesel), it’ll cost you £13,195.
For that sum, you get a 7.0in touchscreen infotainment system with sat-nav, Bluetooth and DAB radio, rear parking camera and sensors, electric windows all round and electrically adjustable wing mirrors. New 16in alloys, meanwhile, are suspended by MacPherson struts at the front and a torsion beam at the rear. Talk about living the life of Riley.
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MG ZS
Lots of people saying that there isn't really another competitor - but the MG ZS is pretty close. Going from £12,495 to £17,495 (for the auto) it spans the middle/top of the price bracket pretty well (albeit without 4WD) but does have more kit. Plus the ZS is a slightly nicer drive.
In a class of it's own
The new model does look good granted. Typically cheap cars don't depreciate as much because they are cheap. warranty and frugality perhaps the only real reason to purchase one.
Renault Duster
https://goo.gl/qRK53D
Just a word on the commentor who said that Dacia had beaten the Chinese at their own game.
In South Africa they do have a number of Chinese brands: Chery, Foton, GWM, Geely, Chana, to name a few, and from what I saw, they weren't in the same league as the Renault/Dacia. Besides being cheaply made, which was apparent, they were unreliable.
I was told that vehicle taxation in China, on motor vehicles, was dependent on the age of the vehicle and got more expensive, the older it got. 10 years was the cut off where it was cheaper to buy a new car rather than keep the old one and vehicles older than 10 were scrapped. If this is correct it would account for the poor quality of the vehicles.