Facing up to the Duster’s charms: we test the SUV that starts at sub-€19k 

Published on 6 June, 2021

Overview

There’s some snobbery about face masks in our house. We massively over-ordered last year – and that’s not counting the boxes of face shields hiding out beneath the stairs.

We have some rather fetching masks from museums, bedding companies and clothing suppliers. That’s before the motoring ones – and there’s the rub. What ones to wear without showing off?

Of course, I’d like to have Riley or Saab masks – but the cars are no more. BMW, Audi or Mercedes ones would be a bit pretentious. Lexus, just about all right. Honda and Renault have a nice fabric, but they rather scream their emblazoned names – though I suppose it makes up for my muffled stammering.

My favourite is from Mazda. Very comfortable, well designed, and with a discreet logo in the corner. If ever a mask reflected a brand, it is this one.

And then there is the Dacia mask. It lies unused, though it was “made with love and care in Ireland” by TheaByTheadesign.com. It’s in a rather fetching blue and is very comfortable, with a special anti-fog nose bridge. I could cheat and turn the very obvious Dacia logo to the inside.

The ethics of that leave me a bit conflicted – like the brand itself. A couple of weeks back I wrote about the sheer affordability of the Sandero, the Renault-owned Romanian manufacturer’s bargain-basement family hatchback which starts at €12,999.

Now I have spent a week in the Duster, the company’s very popular SUV. You’ll see a lot of them. It put Dacia on the map here, and about 15,000 have been sold. Of course Dacia benefits from its French ownership, and many of the underpinnings of the Duster are shared with the likes of the higher priced Renault Captur.

The latest Duster starts at €18,795 but the better specced 2WD 1.5 diesel manual version I tested was nearly €6,000 more. However, that’s still a good price for a car which wouldn’t look out of place in the line- up of the Dakar Rally.

It sits very tall off the ground, showing much of its wheel arches – and our Jack Russell Ziggy had to suffer the indignity of being  carried in. There’s a lot of space for passengers and luggage.

Despite more safety equipment on board the test car, I couldn’t get a damning assessment by Which? magazine out of my head. It read: “Cheap and practical it may be, but the Dacia Duster doesn’t shine in any particular area. Indeed, in terms of safety, it’s way off the pace, making this a small SUV to avoid.”

However, that must be contrasted with Top Gear proclaiming that it is a “far better car than it needs to be at the price, and we love it for that.” The magazine went on to report that it is “so slow, that its lack of safety equipment might not actually matter.”

I got frustrated by the car, but my wife was impressed. My feet, especially the left, never felt comfortable or particularly safe. Yet on our drive out to the Donadea Forest Park last Sunday it behaved well on the open road, though there was a bit of body roll.

Recent improvements have cut engine and road noise, however we found that we had to constantly turn up the volume on the radio. The gearbox is still a bit rough, much of the panelling and switches look like they were rescued from old Renaults, and the rear camera is pretty poor.

But then again, it is there. Only a few years ago a multi-view camera and blind spot indicators simply wouldn’t be available in a car priced at this level.

The diesel version – which takes about 11 seconds to get to 100km – is the most economical of the Duster range, and the official figures of 4.9-5.5L/100 km seem pretty attainable. The Duster was a car that made us want to use it in a very practical way, like clearing out the garage and heading to the dump.

However a family of five would be very happy with it as a cost-effective family workhorse. It’s not a car of aspiration. With its three-star safety rating, the new Duster is off the pace for 2021 cars – but is still ahead of most of the driving stock in the country.

I have been spoiled over the years, so maybe I should be happy to drive the Duster and wear the Dacia mask with pride. But like my teachers used to say in their reports, we both “can do better”.