Goodwood Test: Dacia Jogger 2022 Review

Considering the fall of the MPV is now all but complete, the choice of seven-seaters is still broad but, until fairly recently, you’d have been looking at spending anywhere from £27,000-£83,000. Now, though, if you’re looking for a practical seven-seat family car, the Dacia Jogger has just bowled in and undercut the entire sector by about £10,000.

It’s difficult to pin-point exactly what kind of car the Jogger is. It has the boxy, van-like silhouette of a classic people carrier, but it there are elements of estate and SUV in its DNA, too. Whatever it is, it’s a large seven-seater that costs just £17,000. That shockingly low price must point towards some pretty severe corner cutting though, right?

Even just looking at the Jogger is enough to get a conversation going. Is it an MPV? An SUV? An estate? Going by its exterior you have to say it’s a little bit of all three. All that plastic cladding around the bumpers and the wheel arches feeds the inkling that the Jogger is more than just an MPV, and that it might actually possess some SUV-like off-road capability. It does look to be riding slightly higher than your typical family hatch, 200mm of ground clearance confirms that, but at the same time it doesn’t really boast the typical SUV stature. It’s not particularly bulky, and that elongated body shape screams classic ‘90s people carrier.

In terms of styling, the Jogger fits in perfectly with the rest of the latest Dacia range, you’d be forgiven for mistaking a Jogger for a Sandero Stepway from the front, but that’s no bad thing. Dacia’s design refresh in 2021 has boosted the visual appeal of the budget brand, and the Jogger maintains that modern and clean style with sharp LED headlights, that crisply creased bonnet and that cladding which is all the rage in the current market.

There are a few quirks to the design, such as the slightly weird and not immediately explainable wonk in the roof line above the b-pillar. There’s no discernible reason for it from the inside, and while it does allow for the rear windows to grow an inch or so in size, it does give the Jogger the look of a garage project that’s been welded together from two different cars. Take a look around to the back and you’ll likely notice the vertical, Volvo-style rear lights, and some quite horrendous stick-on labels for the branding.

We feel there’s only one word needed for this section. The Dacia Jogger is fine. It’s a £17,000 seven-seater, so it would be unfair to expect anything more than a comfortable ride, an engine that allows you to keep up speed on motorways and handling that enables you to stay on the road when you go round corners. In all three cases, the Jogger is a resounding success.

In fact, in many ways this car exceeded our expectations. The 1.0-litre turbocharged three-cylinder engine behaves remarkably similarly to a 12-week-old puppy. As is always the case with these thrummy three-pots, the rumble on start-up is always excitable, while initial acceleration from 0-30mph is spritely and energetic, with revs easy to come by. However, ask it to do too much and it will fall asleep on the spot.

The Jogger is fitted with a six-speed manual gearbox, which is has a reasonably short throw that allows for satisfyingly clean and easy changes, however fifth and sixth gears are strictly for cruising only. Asking for any acceleration at all, at any speed, in either fifth or sixth gear is an entirely pointless exercise, although it is a lesson you learn remarkably quickly when you go for an overtake on a dual carriageway. Take things back to town, though, and the Jogger is perfectly nippy at lower speeds. Power delivery is smooth and assured, making navigating traffic predictable – at least from your end – at all times. Visibility is generally good, too. The B-pillar is enormous which makes for quite the blind spot, but blind spot monitoring is included in Comfort spec.

The best way to describe life behind the wheel of the Jogger is that it’s comfortable. The ride is smooth and settled, and there’s actually a decent amount of insulation from road and wind noise. You’ll be just as well-off cruising along the motorway in this as you would any other comparable seven-seater – not that there are many.

This is where the Jogger will ultimately be judged, with its sole purpose being to provide suitable transport for seven people. Again, we have to say, the Jogger has, for the most part, got this absolutely nailed. Now this is a Dacia, and as always that means it is filled with parts and switches elsewhere seen on the Renault Clio, which has a perfectly acceptable interior, so no real complaints there.

Starting at the front of our Comfort model, the driver and passenger can enjoy a spacious cabin with a pair of comfortable if not hugely supportive seats, and while there is an overwhelming amount of cheap and nasty plastic, this specification does a feature a softer fabric section running across the width of the dashboard and lining the arm rests in the doors. A leather steering wheel adds a more premium feel for the driver, while the air vents and various buttons feel of decent quality. The gear lever is a slightly odd one. It incorporates leather and faux chrome, but the chrome element is rough and not at all hand shaped, so it’s not particularly comfortable to use.

The eight-inch infotainment touchscreen dominates the centre of the dash, and has the feel of a cheap, early-era tablet. The touch recognition is a little wobbly at times which can make it feel unusable if you’re trying use it while driving. Fortunately, there are separate volume controls located on their own stalk behind the steering wheel.

Moving back to the middle row of seats, the first thing you’ll notice is how much space there is. Head and leg room are ample for passengers upwards of six foot, and that goes for all three seats across the bench. This is also where you’ll find the Jogger’s two Isofix points.

Finally, we have perhaps the most surprising part of the Jogger. The rear-most pair of seats are also enormously spacious, again with plenty of room for six-foot passengers and even thought for comfort with two armrests, cupholders and additional storage space on one side. Even the windows push open for a bit of ventilation. It’s a bit of a challenge to actually climb into those seats unless you fold the middle seat all the way forward first, but once you’re in it’s a perfectly comfortable and somewhat cosy space where you feel nicely cocooned and ready for a road trip.

There is of course the issue of luggage space. While boot space in the Dacia sounds quite good on paper with all seven seats in situ there’s just 160 litres on offer in the back. It’s not a very usable space and you’ll be piling things high to fit more than a couple of bags in. That expands to 565 litres when you fold rear-most seats, and up to a whopping 1,819 litres with the middle row out of the way. The trouble comes with folding the seats. They don’t fold particularly flat, so trying to load things like pushchairs can be a bit of a struggle. Your best bet if you need more boot space is to remove the seats entirely, which is quite simple to do with the pull of a couple of levers, and they lift out easily enough weighing just 10kg a piece.

The Jogger is actually very well equipped considering its low price. There’s Android Auto and Apple CarPlay and air conditioning, which we might add is adjusted with three perfectly tactile control wheels, while a reversing camera and accompanying parking sensors are very useful in a car this size. That is about the limit of what the Jogger offers in terms of convenience tech, the list of assistance and safety features includes ABS, autonomous emergency braking, cruise control and hill start assist, but a lack of more advanced features was a key reason in the Jogger receiving a one-star Euro NCAP safety rating.

While it’s important to remember just how cheap the Jogger is, the more time you spend with this car the more that number becomes irrelevant. Regardless of how inexpensive it, this is a car you would consider even if it were £5,000 more expensive. It’s fine to drive, comfortable for an entire family and adaptable for more luggage if so required. If it’s a seven-seater you’re after, you don’t need to spend any more money than this.