DACIA DUSTER

With a more sophisticated platform, design-savvy look and fresh tech, has this all-new version lost sight of the model's value appeal?

- ILLYA VERPRAET

TESTED 18.4.24, SEVILLE, SPAIN ON SALE NOVEMBER PRICE £23,000 (EST)

How much car do you really need? It's a question Dacia has been answering quite expertly for the past decade by nailing the fundamentals and saving on the stuff that's largely immaterial (soft-touch interior mirror, anyone?). It has resulted in cars that are almost uniquely fit for purpose.

The outgoing Duster was a bit of a breakthrough in this respect, just tipping over the edge from 'feels cheap, but at least it is cheap' to being a genuinely good car at an unbeatable price. Dacia UK sent me one for a few days before the launch event of the new, third-generation Duster, and actually they could have given the old one a facelift with a more modern-looking interior and it would still be eminently recommendable. It's a genuinely pleasant car to drive: it's spacious enough, comfortable and easy to get on with.

But Dacia hasn't just given the second generation a facelift. This is a very substantially new car. As usual, the technical rundown reads like a greatest hits album of semi-recent Renault products. It moves to the CMF-B platform employed by the Renault Clio, the Nissan Juke and the Dacia Sandero and Jogger but adds the 1.2-litre mild-hybrid three-cylinder engine from the European-market Austral. The 1.0-litre bi-fuel triple, which runs on petrol and LPG, is carried over from the outgoing Duster as the entry point to the range, and the 1.6-litre full hybrid from the Jogger and various Renaults provides the only automatic option. Diesels are out, but you can still have your Duster with four-wheel drive.

If the new Duster looks far bigger than the old one, it isn't - not by much anyway. It's only 9mm wider and 2mm longer than before. But it is quite a bit lower and, in combination with the more squinty headlights and almost Jeepish grille, it certainly looks meaner.