Dacia Duster Revealed

[See the latest iMOTOR magazine here]

The Duster joins the Logan, Logan MPV and Sandero in the Dacia family from next year, offering emerging car markets a practical and solid 4x4 that won’t break the bank. Currently, the Duster will only be offered as a left-hand-drive, and this seems unlikely to change as Renault remains reluctant to bring the budget brand to the UK.

Watch out Yeti

But we’ve raved at length about the Skoda Yeti, and while the Duster will be less fancy than the Skoda, it’s about the same size and crucially, would undercut it on price by a fair whack.

The Duster has been designed to be cheap to buy and cheap to run. So there’s a choice of 4x2 and 4x4 options, each powered by small eco-friendly powerplants which will emit less than 140g CO2/km, in two-wheel-drive versions.

What about the looks?

Style-wise, the Duster is pretty generic but tough to look at. And there’s a fair chance that the little off-roader will have some decent mud plugging ability thanks to an armoured undercarriage and switchable four-wheel-drive in the top models. The system has been borrowed from Nissan, and offers three modes, Auto, Lock (which locks up the centre diff for a 50:50 torque split front to rear), and 4x2, which keeps the Duster in front-wheel-drive only.

Anything else?

Some stats to note include the fact that the Duster only weighs 1,280kg in full four-wheel-drive guise, which should help the on-road handling, and that the boot is a massive 1,600dm3 with the seats down, making it super-practical despite its relatively small size.