The third generation of the modern Romanian SUV is now on sale, bringing a more beautiful design, improved technology and more equipment. We tested the mid-range Expression trim, which is powered by the eco-friendly and especially economical 1.0TCe ECO-G engine, which can also burn LPG. Let’s take a look at the Duster together…
You may remember that the design difference between the first and second generation wasn’t very big. Dacia simply didn’t want to change what had worked for customers for years. But times have moved on, and as a result, you certainly can’t mistake the new one for its predecessors. The current generation Duster comes with a radical design change that sees a complete overhaul of the graphics and styling of all body parts.
The new Duster gets LED headlights with a narrower grille, bold cladding around the entire body, striking lights at the rear and, above all, plenty of edgy details. Note, for example, the cut-out bonnet, which gives the feeling of a full-bodied off-roader and, most importantly, tells you from the inside exactly where the corners of the body are.
So the low beam and daytime running lights are basically diode, but the high beam again, even in the highest version, is always lit by halogen bulbs. It’s still one of the cheapest SUVs on the market, so the savings have to show up somewhere.
The exterior appearance is also helped by the lining of the underbody with “Starkle” material, which contains recycled plastics. On closer inspection, you’ll recognise it due to its texture with irregular white particles. This gives the Duster a robust yet surprisingly stylish look. You can also get 18-inch wheels from the second trim level. The test piece wore 17-inch wheels with Hankook tyres measuring 215/65 R17.
The still-identical length of 4.34 metres might announce that the new Duster has undergone only cosmetic changes between generations, but the opposite is true. It sits on a new, more sophisticated CMF-B platform that not only offers more space inside, but also more advanced technology and increased ride comfort.
Gone may be the classic 4×4 drive concept for almost every motorisation, but the Duster can still perform well off-road. The Duster can still offer all-wheel drive, but now only with a mild-hybrid three-cylinder and a manual. The new Duster has a ground clearance of up to 217 millimetres and a 31-degree approach, 24-degree passing and 36-degree departure angle. And, of course, a plethora of off-road helpers, including hill-descent speed control or a snow or sand mode selector.
And the change in the established pattern continues indoors. That it’s a Duster, at first glance, is reminded only by the huge sign in front of the passenger seat. Otherwise, there’s a completely new, modern design, and overall the dashboard is pleasantly airy. This is due, for example, to the free-standing ten-inch screen of the multimedia system, which is slightly angled towards the driver. You always get it from the second Expression trim onwards, and the version we tested also has built-in navigation that uses Here Maps cues.
The dashboard shield lights up a 7″ digital instrument cluster with nice simple graphics and plenty of displayed functions. You can see your petrol and LPG consumption and range, happily at the same time, or you can have the ‘ECOnometer’ display tell you when to shift and what revs are optimum for the lowest possible consumption.
The actual paragraph, however, deserves a single plain button, which Dacia particularly nailed it with. It’s called My Safety and it’s found on the dashboard to the left of the steering wheel. It’s used to quickly deactivate the driver assistance systems, which, due to EU regulations, are switched on by default at every start. There would be nothing so special about that, other cars have such buttons nowadays. Only here you press it once, which prompts the question to turn it off, and then press it a second time and you can completely deactivate all the assists at once. Perhaps in no new car is it this easy. You don’t have to press it any longer or tap anywhere on the touchscreen. Twice and thumbs up!
Navigating the 10″ infotainment system is simple and intuitive, responses are quick, and you’ll be pleased with the wireless Apple CarPlay or Android Auto connectivity. The Duster can also have wireless smartphone charging, but that’s only an extra cost. There’s one reversing camera in the Expression trim we tested, and you can order a quad of parking cameras for an extra cost. Just count on the fact that their image is not quite sharp, and here the origin in a cheap car is known.
And you can kind of tell it’s in the interior materials, too. So the interior trim is still made up of hard plastics, but thankfully they’re no longer unpleasant to the touch. The individual parts of the cabin have a pleasing colour texture, and again the designers have played with edges and patterns in many ways here. The result looks very good and you won’t even remember any soft plastics. I mean, maybe when you rest your hand on the door armrest… a bit of foam and leatherette would have come in handy here.
The trunk holds between 430 and 517 liters, depending on the motorization. The smallest, of course, is in the full-hybrid, where all the electrified equipment has to be carried. With the rear bench folded down, you always get over 1,600 litres of space, and the new platform also increases the rear seat space by 30 millimetres.
I’m absolutely not losing either with 1.86m in front of my knees and over my head. Perhaps the only weaker element of the interior are the seats themselves, which have almost no lateral guidance and, thanks to the rather hard padding, aren’t entirely suitable for long shifts.
An interesting feature of the tested Duster, was the so-called Camping box. This is actually Dacia’s InNature range of accessories, which are easy to install and remove. It’s a sort of plywood box to attach to anchor points in the trunk. The internal volume of the box is 175 litres and it can be unfolded into a bed frame for two people. Dimensions of the unfolded bed: width 130 cm at the tailgate and 100 cm in the luggage compartment, length 190 cm. You can see the layout of the Camping box and mattresses here:
The so-called complete package “InNature Pack” can be had for the price of 3 161,70€ and includes the aforementioned Camping box, mattresses, blackout blinds for all windows, a roof gallery with poles and mounting kit (the roof gallery can carry up to 75 kg of cargo, which otherwise can not be put in the trunk because of the Camping box) and, most importantly, also a tent, which can be attached behind the vehicle and offers an extended space for sleeping or other outdoor activities.
With the new technical basis, the range of engines offered also changed. To begin with, the one that will probably please those interested in Slovakia the least – we can no longer get a diesel and the only way to the atmospheric four-cylinder 1.6 is the top hybrid. Nor will you get an automatic in any other version. The aforementioned four-cylinder, on the other hand, is only available with the mild-hybrid three-cylinder 1.2, and the Essential trim is available exclusively with the base LPG-powered three-litre three-cylinder and manual, which we also got to test.
We already know the motorization very well. It is a 999cc supercharged three-cylinder with indirect fuel injection and very good adaptation to LPG fuel. On petrol this time it has 67kW (91k) and on LPG it has a nice 74kW (100k). Thanks to indirect injection, the engine is cheaper to manufacture and also doesn’t suffer from the tendency to form carbon deposits. It doesn’t mind such a solution, even if you torment it with frequent short journeys where it doesn’t have time to warm up. The downside, however, is less efficiency under full throttle, as gasoline evaporates sooner under compression and could ignite at the wrong moment.
In the new Duster, this engine has only moderate dynamics and it convinces after the first few kilometres. The acceleration is lethargic to say the least and the engine response below 2000 rpm is only very tepid. It’s only above that point that the little three-cylinder wakes up to some activity, to showcase a very solid mid-range pull, which can then be put up with until you pick up the pace and the turbo revs the blades to full speed. Unlike the Jogger, however, there’s obviously a shorter gearing, as the engine is already revving at 2,600rpm at 100mph and hitting the 3,000rpm mark at 130mph on the motorway. However, the engine is pleasantly quiet in petrol mode and sends only the bare minimum of vibration into the cabin.
In LPG liquid gas mode, the power suddenly increases and it is felt especially when overtaking, when you don’t need to do so much “magic” with the understeer. Although the “pub talk” claims that it won’t run on gas like it does on petrol, paradoxically the performance is higher here because only atmospheric filled engines have suffered from the drop in performance resulting from lower fuel burn in the past. Here, the turbo can push so much more mixture into the cylinders that the claimed torque on LPG even rises by 10Nm. Propane-butane does indeed contain less energy, but thanks to its higher octane rating it can be compressed more without igniting uncontrollably.
Unlike competing CNG, LPG is still relatively cheap and currently you will still pay about half of what you pay for petrol for a litre of LPG. So with a measured average consumption of 8 litres of LPG /100km, the cost comes out as if you were driving on 4 litres of petrol per 100km. By the way, LPG is also cheaper than conventional fuels everywhere abroad. The LPG tank has a capacity of 40 litres and the petrol tank has remained the standard 50 litres. The gas-only range works out at about 490km on 8 litres. Consumption when running on petrol is then sympathetically low, easily staying within seven litres, and you can therefore do over 1000 kilometres without refuelling in peace. Only you have to give up the security of a spare wheel, because the additional tank has obviously taken its place.
The basic third-generation Duster costs €17,490 in Essential trim, which doesn’t lack air conditioning, rear parking sensors, remote central locking or radio, and that’s with LPG power. The hybrid is offered from the second Expression trim for at least €23,890, and our grey piece in the same tested version, but with the basic LPG engine, then costs €18,990 with no extras. For metallic, media and winter pack you pay some €1,390 extra and you’ve got a decently equipped SUV that won’t shy away from dirt roads or petrol prices. You might say that’s a lot for a Dacia, but you need to test drive the Duster first and evaluate without prejudice that it’s really worth the money…
