Dacia / Renault Duster SUV 2019 in-depth review | carwow Reviews

This is the new Dacia Duster. With the entry model edition coming in at only £10,000, it’s pretty much the cheapest SUV on the market today. But at such a low price, is this deal too good to be true? Watch our latest in-depth review to see what Mat made of this budget SUV!

Awkward haggling is a thing of the past with carwow. Choose your perfect car with our configurator tool and let the country’s best dealers compete over you. Compare the five best offers by price, location and dealer ratings and choose the one that’s right for you – no hassle, no haggling, just a great deal.

[carwow]

Did you spot the Easter Egg in this video? Comment with what it was, and where you saw it!

[vlip]

Duster is selling better than Kadjar on every singel market. Even in France. That says a lot. Why pay 22k when you can have same things with 15k with a small downgrade to comfort? And cheep to mantain.

[DodoNn]

Well it's good enough for Croatian Mountain Rescue Service to save all the British and other tourists that go wondering about on real mountains in flip flops because they came in their Mercedes and don't know a thing about rough.

[tybs_p]

Great car! Ordered a Duster Prestige with the "deathly slow" engine. Absolutely fine for me. 😉
In fact, the car has all I need - and even a little bit more than that. 👍🏻

[termach]

We had a offroad private challange. All I can say is the Dacia Duster, was able to do what a Range Rover Sport 2017 couldn't 🤣

[dragosb]

Kadjar has a 23900 Euro starting price with 4x4 comparing with 18500 for full option Duster. Why are you hating it so much?

[skyhigheagleer]

Matt really struggles to review budget vehicles, he can't help himself comparing to vehicles costing 6x as much.

[megamanmadrid]

The new Duster is huge succes across all of Europe. Soon, the romanian factory will have to almost double it's producction to keep up with the demand. I can tell you that I asked for a test drive with a 125 CV petrol engine to the biggest dealer in Spain and they don't have it available for like a month.... So yeah, keep on ranting against Dacias all you want (as the brits always have) the succes of the brand is bigger than ever.

[adia]

The same hard plastics like on vw t-roc but duster is 3 times more cheaper...sorry matt, you were not fair with this car..the new generation it is a robust and easy to drive car, much more improved from all points of view.

[IRTEHLEETOKNPBB]

i have test Driven a Volkswagen T-ROC
360 degrees of hard plastic

[ThewellbeingCompany]

What a moaner. Its a Duster, not a Merc...what does he expect? Personally I love an honest car

[nutakkipavan]

In India, we have the previous generation being sold as Renault Duster,

However here 95 % of the dusters sold are run by diesel, 1.5 dci . The rest 5% are run by petrol.

When launched, it created a new segment of it's own and was a straight away success,

Facelifts kept on coming,

The strong point for duster to have a fan base in India,

1) Excellent ride quality .

( There's no other vehicle in same price range to provide the same comfort as it does. )

2) AWD, it's again the only vehicle to provide all wheel drive ( there's no vehicle in same segment in the Same price range to offer that )

3) independent suspension at the rear, adding extra comfort in the AWD version .

4) and yeah it gives decent fuel economy, say around 15 kms per litre of diesel,
5) its a vehicle with auto transmission AMT providing ESP and traction control along with ABS AND EBD ( again when compared to same segment cars and price range, )


Accepted that the quality of interiors are not to the standard levels, one can find cost cutting at many places,

When buying a car, in general it ticks most of the boxes, , so we love it .

This is just my opinion, not to contradict with any one, .

Thank you.

[weedmastersr]

With all due respect, this review is really biased and unfair. I think it might have to do with the fact that CarWow makes money by offering car discounts and can't recommend this car because no great discount can be offered on it.

First of all, the Duster is an OFF-ROAD oriented car. As all such cars, it means it won't be extremely refined, well appointed or good to drive on road, similarly to real off-road oriented Suzuki Jimnys, old Land Rovers, old Jeeps and other such vehicles. It comes with the territory. Of course you're going to have woolly steering feel and limited grip with the higher profile off-road oriented tires of the Duster compared to other "SUVs" that have ridiculous low profile tires that can barely drive over a gravel road. Sure, the Duster might not be the best car in the world off-road either, but it's pretty damn good, especially for the money.

Secondly, the comparison with the Kadjar is unfair. The Kadjar is a crossover shit with huge overhangs that would be crap off-road compared to the Duster. The Kadjar doesn't have the same capability. They're different cars that serve different needs and for different purposes.

Thirdly, you have to look at the target audience of these vehicles. These are workhorses for farmers, forest rangers, hunters/fishers, outdoors-people, etc. They don't need a posh, soft car. They need a vehicle that can get the job done. One that goes nearly everywhere and you don't spend every minute worried about getting it slightly damaged and spending a fortune to get it fixed. Where I live, the Duster is in the driveway of almost every hard-working mountain man.

Lastly, not everyone wants the needlessly complicated, tech burdened, gimmick suffocated modern car. Some would love a simpler, cheaper car. That's the market that the Duster serves and looking at the absolutely booming sales numbers, there are a lot of people that want that. Dacia is selling tens of thousands of units every months in Europe alone. Hundreds of thousands a year and millions over the lifespan of one generation. There are many people that want a car in which you don't need a week to learn its electronic features, that doesn't cost a fortune to buy and repair (you can spend that money on more important things like family), that doesn't have an unreliable turbo gasoline engine, that will last longer, etc.

The way some British reviewers generally behave around cheaper cars is appalling. They all act like it hurts their bottom to sit in anything below a Ranger Rover when in reality a modern car like the Duster is more refined than the vast majority of cars sold merely one or two decades ago. Not everyone wants or needs the overly cluttered, isolated, tech filled modern car. Modern cars are too expensive anyway and the Duster doesn't make you a debt slave. If you took a second to realize that, you would've made a better review.

Not to mention that if you looked at the Duster for its real purpose, hard work off-road, you'd understand why it is the way it is and why it's not more flawed than a Suzuki Jimny, a Jeep or anything similar.

[sebastiantschatordai]

It's inexpensive & it gets you from A to B. To some people, that's enough already.

[nicolasbocchino]

Honestly I never understand how you can complain about the infotainment system on a car with this price.

[drgabe]

Mercedes owner: My car is so luxurious
Dacia owner: 9:09 BUT CAN YOU DO THIS?

[Sayua-chan]

Rant all you want Mat, but this car's sales speak for them selves. And frankly I prefer this over the Kadjar. Reanult might be more posh, but this Duster is:
- rugged, tough
- better looking (looks like it can actaully go offroad, not a school runner)
- cool name
- cheap interior? Mat, this is for families. Let's get real here. Kids drop food all over the place, dogs have dirty paws and old people farts are wet. You don't want expensive interior for that money.
- slow engine, yet economic. Buying a car is one thing, but keeping it running is more important.

And to be honest, this is a perfect car for a guy with a family, who goes amateur offroading on the weekend. Scrathing it won't make you cry. Repairing it won't make you bankrupt.

[cyp]

We are sorry Mat that we weren't born in a Mercedes like you did. Why so picky? This is a great car for it's price.

[therealunclevanya]

Carwow makes money by taking a cut from dealers discounting cars, i guess there is little or no profit in the UK from this brand hence the poor review

[modelllichtsysteme]

This car looks pretty nice, even if it's a cheap car 😎👍