Why We’re Living With A Dacia Duster 4×4 For 6 Months

When I drove the latest Dacia Duster on its UK launch last year, I concluded by saying that “I’d have one over plenty more expensive rivals in a heartbeat.” Sitting here typing this with my new long-termer parked in front of me, that still rings true.

The Duster just looks cool, especially the ultra-chunky new third-gen. It’s emblematic of the design mojo the whole Renault group of brands has at the moment. It wasn’t just the looks that led me to that conclusion, though.

It was also the fact that the third-gen Duster feels like a more grown-up product than ever, but on the surface at least, is still superb value for money. Take our car, NA74 SVK. It’s a 4×4, which currently only comes in a single powertrain variant, a 1.2-litre, mildly-hybridised turbo three-cylinder making 128bhp. That’s paired with a six-speed manual, which feels like hitting the jackpot with a long-term press car in 2025.

It’s also in top-level Extreme trim. Going for a top-of-the-range Dacia sort of feels directly at odds with the brand’s values, especially when it only really brings frivolous things like heated seats and steering wheel. Then again, they’ll be very welcome come December, when we’re waving goodbye to the Duster. Also, those copper accents look cool.

More to the point, our car, with its top trim, all-wheel drive and swishy £650 metallic Cedar Green paint, hovers right around the top of the Duster price range, its RRP sitting at £26,700. Look at that next to another small SUV type thing – for the sake of argument, the one that happens to be Britain’s best-selling car, the Ford Puma. They’re not quite direct competitors, but the fact remains: the noticeably smaller Ford starts at £26,580.

Obviously, being so competitively priced means compromises. Even on a quick half-hour drive of the Duster, I’m reminded that things like the faux-leather steering wheel and hard dashboard plastics feel like they’re from an era of car manufacturing that most other mass-market brands have left behind.

The engine can sound coarse, the ride can get jiggly over rough roads, and I still can’t quite get the perfect seating position, either.

But all those compromises were clear on the launch, and yet the Duster still charmed me. So we’re going to see if that charm wears off with time. We’re going to live with the Duster, subjecting it to everything from long motorway runs to some fairly serious off-roading.

We’re going to see how many things we can attach to its YouClip accessory system, and hopefully, we’re going to get the optional Sleep Pack fitted and see if it can take the misery out of camping. And by the end of it, we’re going to see if what I said about the Duster last autumn still rings true.