Dacia Duster Journey Hybrid long-term test: the family SUV that can do it all

Verdict

Family life with the Dacia Duster continues to be an absolute pleasure, because everything just works, and works very well, with the occasional exception of the Apple CarPlay connection. Whether it’s space, practicality, economy or comfort, the Dacia nails it. In contrast to what the brand is promoting, everyday life is far from an adventure – it’s more like a walk in the park.

• Mileage: 2,015 miles
• Efficiency: 55.3mpg

Value is arguably the word that attracts most potential Dacia buyers, but once you’re a Dacia owner, there’s another one that the brand is keen to promote: adventure. It’s the spirit that underpins all things Dacia, from the Sleep Pack for the Jogger to the Sandrider that the Romanian company has developed to compete in the Dakar rally.

It’s also something that I’m aware of every time I get behind the wheel, because I catch sight of a little graphic in the corner of the windscreen showing a car crawling over some ‘rocks’ formed by the black shading. Plus, as the touchscreen fires up, it displays a rotating 3D map of some decidedly hilly terrain.

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Happily for me, in typical Dacia fashion, the firm also sees things in more modest terms, with a section on its website dedicated to ‘Everyday Adventure’. Dacia even suggests some ideas to inspire you in a downloadable PDF. So, with an inset day at my daughter’s school looming and a lack of inspiration on my part, we decided to take up Dacia’s challenge.

Used - available now

2019 Dacia

Duster

29,780 milesManualPetrol1.6L

Cash £9,995

View Duster

2017 Dacia

Duster

39,367 milesManualDiesel1.5L

Cash £7,455

View Duster

2021 Dacia

Duster

52,668 milesManualPetrol1.0L

Cash £9,702

View Duster

2019 Dacia

Duster

38,937 milesManualPetrol1.6L

Cash £11,300

View Duster

However, a couple of suggestions were immediately vetoed. The thought of our daughter making a camp in our living room brought me out in a cold sweat, and we didn’t fancy visiting the worst-reviewed spot in our town. But the prospect of going out for a picnic seemed far more appealing.

Before the big day, we did a practice run, meeting up with a couple of friends before all five of us – myself, my wife, our daughter and our friends – jumped into the Duster and headed off for a stroll in Bushy Park. I’d worried that we’d struggle to fit, but we made the short journey in reasonable comfort.

Buoyed by this success, I decided to look further afield for our official adventure day – but any worries about space in the car were alleviated by the fact that it was just myself and my daughter making the trip. The plan was to head from our south-west London home to Swinley Forest and the Look Out Discovery Centre just outside Bracknell, Berks.

While my daughter worried about what to wear, I prepared a picnic – although, in the spirit of the day, I should perhaps have been a little more adventurous than filling the sandwiches with plain cheese. No matter, they were all gratefully wolfed down after a hectic morning of discovery – and the day proved just why the Duster is such a great car.

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The drive included a mix of suburbia, A-roads and motorway – and the Duster was at home everywhere. The hybrid set-up was great around town, managing plenty of time in fuel-saving EV mode. The smooth ride was much appreciated throughout the day, too.

The light steering made manoeuvring easy, and the various cameras were a great help when parking – I love the Dacia’s chunky styling, but it makes it very hard to judge where the extremities are without hi-tech help. While this is nit-picking, I’d prefer it if the screen could display an all-around view of the car. As it stands, it can only show one camera’s view at a time, so I often find myself switching from one to another when I’m trying to slot between two parked cars.

On the other hand, the high seating position gives a good view out while I’m driving, and my only criticism is wind noise at motorway speeds. Mind you, my daughter is developing a fine taste in music (i.e. overlapping mine), and we were both happy to drown out the wind noise with the latest Eureka Machines album via the wireless Apple CarPlay.

There was lots of room on the back seat for a child seat and our bags, so we didn’t use the boot until we got to the car park. Our trip was a complete success, and we’re plotting our next one. Perhaps, following a Dacia suggestion, it’ll be to visit the highest spot in our local area – a day out in Richmond Park sounds just like the kind of everyday adventure we can cope with!

Dacia Duster Journey Hybrid: second fleetwatch

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Our Dacia Duster averaged 70mpg around London, and still got nearly 60mpg when laden with medals and champagne

There’s lots to like about our Dacia Duster, but one thing that has consistently impressed me has been its fuel economy. The hybrid is excellent in town – I regularly see 70mpg around south-west London – but it’s still good on longer journeys, too. On a  trip to Cambridge for a sports tournament, and despite the extra weight of a trophy, two gold-coloured medals and two bottles of bubbly on the 80-mile return leg, the Duster still returned 57mpg.

Dacia Duster Journey Hybrid: first fleetwatch

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Our Dacia Duster showcased its practicality on a trip to a football match

It’s demanding when my daughter’s football team has an away fixture, but the Dacia Duster’s passenger-carrying ability faced its toughest test yet when a team-mate and her mum asked for a lift to a game in Reigate, Surrey. The match didn’t go our way, but the Dacia once again proved a winner. Even with two adults in the front, there was enough room in the back for the 11-year-old girls in their child seats.

Dacia Duster Journey Hybrid: first report

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We’re looking forward to life with a bargain-priced family SUV

• Mileage: 762 miles
• Efficiency: 53.4mpg

I’ve never been one for jumping on a bandwagon, but I’m certainly joining a big – and growing – crowd by embarking on life with a brand-new Dacia.

The brand enjoyed a record year in the UK in 2024, registering almost 32,000 new cars, and along the way found a home for the country’s 100,000th Duster since the original model first reached these shores in 2013.

Much has changed since then, but the third-generation Duster that I collected from Dacia’s flagship dealer in Brentford, west London, has much in common with its predecessor – not least its rugged charm and no-nonsense character. 

I already know I’ll find this new model fascinating to run, because I didn’t really like the original Duster. I thought it was crude and uncomfortable, while the fixtures and fittings – not to mention the tech – were clearly past-their-prime hand-me-downs from parent company Renault.

But as soon as I stepped into the dazzling new Dacia showroom, it was obvious that things are very different now.  Dacia London West shares its site with a Renault franchise, and I walked past several gleaming new Renault 5s to get to the Duster. Yet the two brands’ cars sit very happily alongside each other. Is Dacia the poor relation? Absolutely not.

Likewise, as soon as I sat in my car in the handover bay, I could see that everything inside it was Renault’s latest technology. The 10.1-inch touchscreen and digital dashboard give the Duster a fairly modern look, and I know that the SUV sits on the same platform as the Jogger, and Renault’s Clio and Captur – all of which have won Auto Express awards in the past few years.

The Duster has followed in their wheeltracks, too, picking up the Small SUV of the Year award in 2024 – so signing up for six months in one was hardly a gamble for me and my family. Not least because I treated myself to a few luxuries.

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I collected the car from Matt Downing, Dacia’s Product Performance Manager, who told me that, while the company is renowned as a value-focused brand, most of its customers pick a high-spec Journey or Extreme model – as I’ve done. 

Apparently, I’ve also followed 70 or so per cent of Duster customers by opting for the full-hybrid powertrain. In part, buyers want the promised excellent fuel economy, but choosing this set-up is, for the time being, the only way to get yourself into a Duster with an automatic gearbox.

Despite all that, this is a car with a list price of less than £26,000 – lower than the most basic version of the Ford Puma – yet it comes with lots of premium tech. My car’s Journey trim includes all-round electric windows, a multiview camera, keyless entry, sat-nav and a smartphone charging pad, plus wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity.

So, once I’d taken delivery of the car, was the Duster as impressive on the Great West Road and beyond as it was in the glitzy showroom? To cut a long story short, yes. In fact, I’ve done a few hundred miles since these pictures were taken, and they’ve all been very pleasant. Admittedly, pretty much all of them have been around suburban south-west London – which plays to the car’s strengths – but I have no complaints.

The ride is smooth over the pothole-ridden roads, and the transmission is silky, switching neatly between petrol and electric power. The icing on the cake is that I’m getting more than 50mpg without making any great effort to drive economically. Given that the car’s official economy figure is 55.4mpg, this is very pleasing. Indeed, on one 19-mile round trip to play some sport in another part of London, I managed a record (so far) of 71.7mpg. If the car continues to hit these numbers, I’ll be very happy indeed.

The practicality, too, is perfect for my three-person family. My wife and I have plenty of room in the front seats, and there’s enough space for our 11-year-old daughter in the back. I’ll test the boot with a tip run soon. 

I also like the way you can personalise the driver settings through the touchscreen, then apply them at the start of each trip with just two button presses. When you can get so much for so little it’s no surprise whatsoever that so many people are signing up to drive a Dacia.

*Insurance quote from AA (0800 107 0680) for a 42-year-old in Banbury, Oxon, with three points.