Dacia Duster

Published · Researched 2026-09-21

Dacia Duster — Review

Buy the Duster if you want the cheapest honest SUV in Europe and you don't care what the neighbours think. Don't buy it if you lie awake at night about crash-test stars, because this car has three and Dacia's boss has said, repeatedly, that he's not chasing any more.

There are two Dusters on the market now, and they are different cars. The old one (2018–2024) is a simple, tough, slightly rattly box on Renault's ancient B0 platform. The new one (2024–) is a proper modern car on the CMF-B platform with hybrid engines, a big touchscreen, and actual refinement — by Dacia standards, which means "acceptable" rather than "good". Both are bargains. Only one of them has proved it can age gracefully.

Let's start with what's genuinely good, because owners are remarkably loyal about it. The price, obviously — nothing else gives you a family-size SUV with a 4x4 option from under £20k new. But the loyalty runs deeper than price. Long-term owners in the UK and French forums keep coming back to the same things: it starts every morning, it costs buttons to run, the 1.0 Bi-Fuel version sips LPG and returns something like 800 miles of combined range, and nobody cries when the dog claws the boot. A Romanian owner who ran a 2024 Extreme 4x4 for nearly two years — roof tent, winter, actual off-road — put it best: the plastics are cheap, the soundproofing is poor, but the little 1.2 mild-hybrid engine pulls, the 4x4 did its job, and the car did not fall apart. That's the Duster covenant in one sentence.

The 4x4 deserves its reputation. 217mm of ground clearance, hill descent control, 31-degree approach angles — this is the one cheap SUV that will genuinely follow a Land Rover down a rutted track without disgracing itself. If you live somewhere with real weather or real mud, that matters.

Now the honest part. Gen 2's weak link was never the engine — it was the electrics. Dashboard warning lights, infotainment glitches, sensor faults that need a dealer computer to clear. Diesel owners doing short urban trips got DPF blockages and EGR trouble, and the early 1.3 TCe petrols (2018–2020) had timing-chain and coil issues that the facelift fixed. Interior trim wears faster than it should, and door seals can whistle. Dealer service is a lottery: some owners get swift warranty repairs, others wait weeks for parts and go back three times for the same fault. The 7-year/75,000-mile Dacia Zen warranty looks superb on paper — but a warranty is only as good as the dealer holding the spanner.

The new gen-3 car fixes most of the old complaints and introduces new unknowns. It's quieter, better built inside, and the Hybrid 140 is a sweet urban powertrain. But the 1.2 mild-hybrid three-cylinder has no long-term record, and the car has already had two Safety Gate recalls in its first year — a wiring connector that could kill engine electrics, and a parking-brake actuator sensor at the wrong angle. Teething trouble, probably, but don't pay to be a beta tester. And Euro NCAP gave it three stars with a 57% score for safety assist, because Dacia deliberately skips the active-safety hardware rivals fit as standard. Dacia's CEO: "We are not chasing the stars." Euro NCAP's chief, in the same week: buy something else. Both are telling the truth.

The social pulse is simple: Duster people love their cars the way people love a good pair of work boots. The arguments are all about the stars — safety-conscious parents versus the "it's a regulation-meeting car at half the price" crowd. Nobody's faking enthusiasm; the press hype was all at launch, and owner content since then has been steady, unglamorous, and positive where it counts.

Value call: the smart money is a 2023 gen-2 — the last, most sorted year of the old car, with the facelifted 1.3 TCe or the Bi-Fuel, for around £13k–14k in the UK. Skip 2018–2020 (timing chain, DPF, EGR era) and skip any diesel if you mostly do short trips. If you want the new car, buy a 2025, not a 2024 — let the first-year recalls be someone else's problem — and budget roughly £18k–27k depending on powertrain. The nearest alternatives (MG ZS, Suzuki Vitara, used Skoda Karoq) all cost more for the badge and give you back five NCAP stars. If those stars matter to you, the Duster was never your car.

The Duster is the only SUV that treats you like an adult: here's what it costs, here's what you don't get, take it or leave it. Take it with your eyes open.