Dacia was viewed with skepticism at first, but its third-generation SUV surprises in the forest.
The summary is made by artificial intelligence and checked by a human.
The third generation of Dacia Duster is popular in rural cottages.
The car entered the Finnish market in 2010, and its price has risen to around 24,700 euros.
Dacia cars use Renault’s previous generation technology to save costs.
Duster sales are concentrated outside Ring 3, but the light hybrid attracts city buyers.
No you should drive to such a place by car.
There is a route around Hämälä’s fall forest that is suitable for forest machines.
Now, on a steep hill, the SUV shuts off due to the use of a jerky clutch. The car stops at a corner that heats up by several degrees.
Now. You probably have to back off and pick up speed from here, but I’ll give the car one chance for the hill start. The four-wheel drive suddenly crawls gracefully to the crest of the hill.
The car is the third generation Duster from the Romanian company Dacia, whose story in Finland is a mountain crossing in a colossal size.
The four-wheel-drive Duster with the highest equipment level runs on a curved slope. Although the corner doesn’t look steep from the outside, inside it felt like the car could topple over at any moment.
Dacia entered the Finnish market in its current form in 2010 just with Duster. Beards were shaved at provincial gas stations: what the hell is that?
“It had a bit of an Eastern European look, and was very strongly positioned to cut the price in half. There were advertisements where the car was sawed in half”, recalls the CEO Heikki Vuorinen From Nordic Automotive Service, which imports Dacia.
I got this Carpathian SUV new then for about 17,500 euros.
“Technically, it was already a very good car back then. When it came from Romania, it was modeled after different beauty ideals.”
The price range for the new Duster starts at around 24,700 euros with front-wheel drive, which is In the statistics of the Automotive Information Center about half the average price of a new car.
In the background, Dacia’s main owner Renault is playing tricks. Dacias use the technology of the previous generation of the French brand – that is, when “Rellu” is renewed, Romanians come to Rääpää to get the old parts for themselves.
Euros let’s shake the interior. For example, Duster does not have electrically adjustable seats
“Usually one person drives a car and adjusts its seat once, so no money is put into it. Let’s only put the money into what is necessary. That’s the ideology there.”
The amount is also cut from a questionable direction. In European crash tests, traditional brands invariably receive five stars. Dacia has struggled with getting points, and the new Duster has received “up to” three stars.
“It has been made known that five stars have not been applied for, because it would cost so much,” says Vuorinen.
He continues that the current test methodology is “really demanding”. All legal safety equipment is included.
Poo. The Duster was tested on a challenging forest road, where it partially got stuck in the air. The ground clearance of the four-wheel drive is 21.7 centimeters.
Who buy these? The same faces that first scratched their beards at the gas station.
“One consistent factor is that until now, sales have been quite a lot outside Ring 3,” says Vuorinen.
The majority of the shop is just these Dusters, with four-wheel drive. They are used in rural Finland to cabins and hermitages.
However, the brand is tickling urban buyers with a light hybrid that will be on sale, where the gasoline engine is assisted with electricity. There is no fully electronic option. Why?
“Well, the cost. Dacia will stick to combustion engines and hybrids, low-consumption ones, as long as the law allows. We are not going fully electric.”
The brand has made one fully electric model, but it is not sold in the north. It simply doesn’t suitable for winter living.
Let’s go back to the forest.
At the end of the lumpy forest path is a deep ditch. Duster has an approach angle of 31 degrees. It means the steepest angle that the vehicle can safely approach the obstacle without hitting places.
The drive mode, which distributes the four-wheel drive evenly to the tires, quietly roars over the Duster’s pothole.
Soon, the car’s display reveals another degree number: we are on a downhill slope of about 20 degrees. I release the gear and take my foot off the brake. The downhill retarder quietly slows the car down.
As such, similar functions can be found in other cars, but now we have to remember that we are driving a cheap SUV.
The Duster quietly races down with the help of the downhill retarder. Then you don’t have to press the brake, but the car descends the hill independently.
From the Duster’s screen, you can see how slanted or at a steep angle the car is. Here we go down a steep hill at an angle of 19 degrees.
Dacian this year’s market share in new cars has been around 0.7 percent. For comparison, the Japanese Toyota dominates the market with a share of almost 20 percent.
Toyota’s most popular model, the Corolla, has “a very long history”, Vuorinen says. Dacia, on the other hand, has only reached the teenage years on the Finnish market.
The four-wheel drive has an approach angle of 31 degrees. In practice, it means the angle formed by the tire and the front of the car, which allows you to drive into potholes without the bumpers banging.
Vuorinen admits that the brand has one unused “game slot” to increase its share.
Many brands are abandoning their unprofitable small cars due to the tightening of emission restrictions. It can create space for Dacia for the little Sandero. It is one of the most popular basic cars in Europe, but it never took off in Finland.
“We are not satisfied that we have not succeeded to show that car for the big crowd.”
Last year, almost half of Dacia’s first registrations were Dusters, while Sandero’s share was around 16 percent. If competitors disappear from the small car market, Dacia might do as it does with Rellu.
Throws himself into rapping.
The new design makes Duster externally comparable to more expensive competitors. Here is the light hybrid version of the car, in which, for example, starting is assisted with electricity. The car was photographed in the scenery of Aulango in Hämeenlinna.
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