It should be no secret that we at the editorial team are fans of the Dacia Duster. So a brand new Duster is great news, but we are still a bit concerned about this third generation. He seems, uh, at Good. Doesn’t it have too many luxuries, too many safety systems, too many durable materials to be a cheap, no-nonsense workhorse?
This really is a completely new Dacia Duster. It sits on Renault and Nissan’s CMF-B platform, which also includes the Jogger, the Clio and even the upcoming Renault 5. The Duster gets three different powertrains: a hybrid, a mild-hybrid and one that also uses LPG. There are versions with front-wheel drive, but also with four-wheel drive.
Doesn’t sound cheap, right? But rest assured, because according to Dacia, the Duster gets ‘unrivaled value for money’ with the ‘best prices in its segment’. Now you naturally want to know what the price of the new Dacia Duster is, but we have to disappoint you, because the brand does not yet want to reveal what you have to pay at the dealer.
Engines and specifications
To start with, there is the Hybrid 140 that combines a 1.6-liter petrol engine with 94 hp with a 49 hp electric motor. Dacia promises that with the 1.2 kWh battery you can drive electrically for as much as 80 percent of the time in city traffic. In practice, this means that the petrol engine is charging the battery in the meantime. This car has front wheel drive.
Then there is the Duster TCe 130. A 1.2-liter three-cylinder turbo engine is assisted by a 48-volt electric motor that also serves as a starter motor and generator. The battery now only measures 0.9 kWh. The turbo engine is attached to a six-speed manual gearbox and power goes to the front or to all wheels.
Finally, you can order the new Dacia Duster as an Eco-G 100 that runs on LPG and petrol. You can carry 50 liters of both fuels in two separate tanks. The tanks are located under the luggage compartment and therefore do not take up any boot space. You could drive 1,300 kilometers with two full tanks. By the way, it has a 1.0-liter three-cylinder turbo engine that sends its power to the front wheels.
What makes the Dacia Duster special?
In addition to a fairly modern choice of powertrains, the Duster also looks good. “We wanted to make the new Duster design more attractive than ever by making the style even more quintessentially Duster and Dacia, strongly and proudly asserting our value: rugged and outdoorsy, essential but cool and eco-friendly,” says chief designer David Durand.
Sounds like a lot of marketing speak, but there is some truth in it. It is certainly robust and outdoorsy, just because of all the plastic around it. In addition, the new Duster will soon be available with something Dacia calls ‘4×4 Terrain Control’. The gearbox can be set to five settings: Auto (where it does everything itself), Snow, Mud/Sand, Offroad and Eco. With the latter, he pays attention to fuel consumption ‘by tuning the air conditioning and driving performance’. So don’t use it on a hot day.
The plastic around the wheel arches, bumpers and side skirts is 20 percent recycled. No leather or chrome is used – which is good for the environment – and the manual has been deliberately made thinner to use less paper. You can find the extended version online, but we guess that there are few complicated features in the car.
The interior of the Duster
Inside, there’s a new 10.1-inch center touchscreen and a 7-inch driver display. With the more expensive versions you even get modern sensors and the Duster can perform an emergency stop itself if it deems it necessary. It also reads the lines on the road, keeps an eye on the driver, can call emergency services and the Duster receives software updates via the internet.
If you go out with the Duster, there is a ‘Sleep Pack’, which you also know from the Jogger. This is a large box that you put in the back of the car. You can use it as a bed, as a folding table or as a storage space. The roof rack is also new and you can put 80 kilos of stuff on it. Admit it: the Duster looks better with stuff on the roof. Too bad it’s not that good for fuel consumption.
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