Dacia Duster 2024 review | First Drive

Who would have thought when James May was making Dacia jokes on Top Gear all those years ago, that one day it would be launching the follow-up to a car that sold over 100,000 units in the UK alone.

That is where we find ourselves in 2024 as Dacia introduces a new Duster to the European landscape. Far from a left field weird cheap choice, the Dacia Duster quickly became perhaps the sensible option for anyone wanting a high-riding crossover without spending big money.

That means that today’s launch of a new Duster, is a pretty important one for the UK car market. It’s had a visual overhaul and Dacia thinks it's been rather clever with some of the touches that it hopes will entice buyers seeking simplicity. It’s even got a hybrid powertrain. Dacia is very 2024.

The new Dacia Duster definitely has more than a touch of familiarity about it. The overall shape looks at first glance like it could just have been transposed from the outgoing Duster. And, as it’s a small crossover that’s not aiming at winning worldwide style awards, why not? The boxy shape is designed to maximise the space used within the Duster’s modest footprint.

But elsewhere a lot has changed. Firstly, rather than looking all big eyed and wondrous like the old one did, the new Duster’s sleek up front. Knife blade daylight running lights cut through slim headlights (aping the outgoing car’s DRLs) that are no taller than the already short grille. Into that sits the new Dacia branding, a sort of double D back-to-back (or for those of a certain age, Magnemite…). It’s a strong look that suits a proud nose and drooping snoot well. The rest is plastic-clad utility with some surprisingly large rear arches.

The back has also had a good old going over, but here it doesn’t feel as successful to me. A pair of arrow-shaped rear lights frame a simple rear (again, the same design as the old rear lamps, but without a bigger casing), with a sculpted spoiler atop and a really chunky rear bumper below. It’s not bad, it just doesn’t feel as polished as the front. 

The new Dacia Duster has a few powertrain options. A hybrid, a petrol and a dual fuel LPG, though we’re not going to be touching the gas-powered car today. The Hybrid on the Duster Hybrid 140 has been seen before on the Jogger. It’s a 1.6-litre, four-cylinder, petrol engine producing 95PS (70kW) mated to two electric motors. One is a high-voltage starter, the other a 49PS (36kW) motor. That means a total of 140PS (102kW). The alternative is a 1.2-litre three-cylinder, turbocharged petrol with a mild hybrid system producing 130PS (96kW) and 230Nm (170lb ft). 

Perhaps just as important as the new powertrains is what they sit in. This is the first Duster on the company’s new CMF-B platform, already seen on the new Sandero and Jogger. This platform has the double aim of increasing interior space and refinement. 

Starting with the petrol, the ride is firm. The damping deals with it without truly crashing, but bigger bumps can send a cascading shudder through the cabin. The steering is extraordinarily light, but does just about manage to retain a communication.

Pure petrol power is a little weedy, despite its not insignificant torque. There’s a real powerband at play here, somewhere above 2,500rpm but below 4,000 is where you’ll find the performance hiding. Although ‘performance’ is a strong word, with a 0-62mph taking 9.9 seconds.

Jump into the hybrid and the first thing you’ll notice is its more refined ride. Perhaps the suspension on the new Duster has been designed to have a better distribution with electric motors added, but whatever the difference is, the hybrid smooths both town and country roads better. It even manages to cruise around quite nicely in pure EV mode when you’re in town, which just adds a little more refinement, damping out the rather thrashy thrum of the petrol engine.

Don’t expect more performance from the hybrid, though; this is very much an addition for economy, not speed. The 0-62mph time actually rises, taking a full 10.2 seconds to get past the kilometre ton. But it’s probably worth it, with a named WLTP economy of 55.3mpg, which was closer to 45 while we drove, but still much better than the petrol.

Around town, the hybrid is absolutely the pick of the pair. Where the little petrol needs to be revved to switch the Duster’s state from static to motion, the electric motor just nips away with ease. Switchover to petrol power is perhaps not as fluid as some others on the market, but when the petrol jumps in it’s in the mid-range, rather than straining up top to try and get the Duster moving, which damps its voice quite a lot.

That is largely because the petrol motor works on a four-speed gearbox, designed mostly to run at higher speeds. There are two extra gears for the electric motors, and the Duster will always maintain enough charge in its batteries to ensure that it never pulls away on petrol power alone. 

Dacia did also let us have a little play with the petrol Duster on a short off-road course round a quarry in Derbyshire. With a raised ride height, the 4x4 Duster is also blessed with driving modes for a mixture of surfaces. The slightly wheezy petrol engine doesn’t perhaps suit going off-piste massively, but the all-wheel-drive system deals with most things thrown at it. The stats are quite impressive: 31-degree approach, 36 departure and a 24-degree ramp angles are better than most small crossovers manage.

It is a little sad that Dacia didn’t let us try the very base spec version of the Duster. The one that disposes completely of a central console, and makes do with a space for your phone which will then plug into the car’s audio systems. To me that’s pretty much modern perfection and I’d be champing at the bit to try a super cheap Duster. But not today.

Today we get a screen as we drive Expression, Extreme and Journey spec cars. That’s a 10.4-inch display sat on the dash and slightly angled toward the driver. In front, the wheel is now following the square trend for some reason and the materials are now at least 20 per cent made of recycled plastic.

The seats are actually rather comfortable for a car of this price point, but there are plenty of cheaper plastics in your eyeline to remind you just how affordable your Dacia was. If you get the manual petrol you’ll be presented with a gearstick you might remember from a Renault in the middle of the last decade (we had it on a long-term Kadjar), and all the stalks will be familiar to anyone who’s driven cars from their parent company in the last ten years.

Drive the hybrid, and you’ll lose the gearstick and gain a small gear toggle that looks very similar to that found in a Porsche, which is an interesting addition. Overall, it is definitely cheap in places, but just about manages to index up the cheerful enough to make you feel good enough about your savings.

Boot space is impressive, 570 litres with the 4x2 or 430 for the hybrid. Drop the seats and that can be boosted up beyond 1,500. Rear leg room is bigger than the outgoing model, although rather tight if you’re sat behind a driver over six foot tall.

There’s a surprising amount of tech available on the Duster for a car that starts at £18,000. We’re pretty sure that most will be sold at least in Expression trim, i.e. with the screen and both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, which knocks the price up to at least £21,000. The screen isn’t exactly the best on the market, it refused at times point blank to connect to Android Auto on our drive, but it’s very simple to use.

Dacia’s main play here is a littering of safety features. These include traffic sign recognition, emergency braking, rear parking assist, lane departure warning, lane keep assist and a few more. But much better (as far as we are concerned) is the programmable single button to shut them all off. All the systems will turn themselves back on as you restart the car, but you can programme which bits you will always want to turn off into the My Safety button. A simple double press just to the right of the wheel and away go all the annoying interferences. Want to keep them on? Just press it again.

Dacia’s cool YouClip system is worth mentioning here, too. It’s beautiful in its simplicity. A series of small square knobs around the cabin onto which a series of attachments can be added. These include a good and simple mobile phone holder (right next to the wheel without obscuring your view), a reading lamp in the back, multimedia holder, cup holder and more. They’re all quite reasonably priced and allow you to upgrade your Duster significantly without stepping up a trim level. 

Every single one of the Dacia Duster’s flaws is pretty much immediately dismissed by its price. Yes, the petrol engine is a bit basic, and yes, there are some unhappy material choices, but you’re realistically not paying more than £26,000 unless you go utterly wild with the YouClip accessories. So for a hybrid crossover it’s a steal. The hybrid system puts to shame some much more valuable cars and comfort levels within the Hybrid 140 are genuinely enjoyable. 

Dacia likes to describe its cars as “everything you need.” To be honest, the Duster provides more than that as soon as you raise the trim level. The Duster doesn’t ever try to hide exactly what it is, but doesn’t crush your soul through racing to the very bottom.

If you’re looking for a small crossover on a budget then it’s very close to being a no brainer.