Dacia Duster – Reliability & safety

While the Jogger received a disappointing one-star Euro NCAP safety score because it didn’t include all the safety technology features to get the maximum five-star score, Dacia remains steadfast in its approach, stating that “we don't put stuff in the car that our customers don’t want”. 

That said, there are more safety features than ever fitted to the latest Duster, with automatic emergency braking, traffic sign recognition (which worked perfectly for us), a speed-limit alert, rear-parking assist, lane-departure warning, lane-keep assist (that, again, worked very well), and driver-attention alert. Tellingly, bosses are keen to point out that these features can be turned off at the touch of a button once you’ve configured them to your personal tastes. 

As a brand, Dacia could have fared better in our Driver Power customer satisfaction survey in 2023. It finished 26 out of 32 manufacturers covered in 2023. The second-generation Duster came an impressive fourth in 2023 of the best cars to own, scoring well in categories that covered running costs.

Warranty

Dacia still offers a standard three-year/60,000-mile warranty for all models, along with free roadside assistance for the same period, but has followed Toyota in offering an extended warranty as part of routine servicing. 

If you take your Duster to a Dacia dealer for annual servicing, you get an additional 12 months of cover, or up to 18,000 miles after the standard manufacturer’s warranty has expired. You can repeat this until the car is seven years old or has covered 75,000 miles, which is longer than most manufacturers’ warranties, including for Volkswagen. 

The battery in the hybrid system is covered for eight years or 100,000 miles, but the degradation limit of maintaining above 63 per cent capacity over that time is greater than most manufacturers, who guarantee the battery pack won’t drop below 70 per cent.