CAR REVIEW: Dacia Duster

Camping editor Iain Duff finds out if the Dacia Duster four-wheel drive SUV is a good choice for campers

What makes a great car for family camping? Well, boot space for transporting all your kit, comfort for long drives and the ability to cope with tricky ground conditions top our list of essentials. Put all that together at an affordable price, and we think you’ve got the ideal package.

The Dacia Duster ticks all those boxes and more. It’s a bargain basement-priced SUV that knocks more pricy rivals out the park when it comes to bang for your buck. Yes, it’s fairly basic and, no, you don’t get all the features you might expect from a more expensive model but there’s no denying that you do get a lot of car for your money.

Dacia is Renault’s budget brand and the Duster starts at less than £10,000, albeit for a very basic model that doesn’t even come fitted with a radio or height adjustable seats. But if you can live with that, you get a very decent car at a price that is probably unbeatable. However if your finances allow it, upgrading to the Laureate model (£16,495) will take you to a different level altogether.

We put the 4x4 version of the Laureate through its paces for a month, using it for day-to-day driving as well as taking it on a weekend camping trip to the National Forest. Despite my initial reservations (mostly based on pre-conceived ideas, it has to be said) we were impressed. It was a comfortable drive, perfectly adequate for my not-inconsiderable frame and spacious enough for a week’s worth of camping equipment. In the past I’ve always ruled out SUVs, on the grounds that to get the sort of storage I’d need for camping I’d need to spend far more than I could afford. The Duster has changed my opinion. At the end of the month, I was sad to see it go, and it’s certainly something I’ll be looking at when the time eventually comes to replace my Golf estate.

DRIVING
I had the 1.5 litre diesel version of the Duster, which comes with six gears as standard. It’s certainly not the fastest or nippiest car on the road, but it’s undeniably a comfortable drive and with the raised driving position, you have a good view of the road. To someone not used to driving SUVs, it felt a bit wobbly on windy country roads and there were a few heart-in-mouth moments going over larger bumps, when for a split second I felt that I was losing control. This, of course, may have more to do with my driving skills than any inherent flaws with the car! The official spec supplied by Dacia says the car does around 60mpg, and that tallies fairly closely with my own experience.

BOOT STORAGE
For campers, I think the generous storage space in the boot will be the Duster’s biggest appeal. I was pleasantly surprised to open the tailgate and find a voluminous boot space, and one that was easy to get gear in and out. The 4x4 model has a generous 408 litre boot, but the front-wheel-drive versions enjoy an immense 475l space. Folding the back seats down quadruples the space available. For our camping trip (one adult, two kids) we managed to squeeze everything into the boot – that includes a tent, beds, sleeping bags, cooking equipment, furniture etc. Longer trips would probably still require a roof box and/or a trailer, depending on how much kit you deem essential! Experienced campers will know that the amount of gear you take seems to expand to fill the space you have.

EQUIPMENT
Clearly, if you want to keep the price down, something has to give and in the Duster some features that would be considered standard in more expensive models are sacrificed. So even in the Laureate, there’s no heated windscreen or heated seats, no automatic lights or automatic windscreen wipers, no sat nav and no parking sensors or rear-view parking camera. But in this model you do get a DAB/FM/AM radio, USB ports for media players and Bluetooth connectivity for playing music and taking phone calls. There’s an onboard computer with seven functions (fuel range, temperature, average speed etc), electric front and rear windows, heated and adjustable wing mirrors, cruise control and manual air conditioning. The benefit of having a more basic ‘infotainment’ system, is that it’s easy to get to grips with, unlike my own car, which I’m still learning to use more than three years down the line. The dashboard controls for the radio and the heater are simple to understand and easy to reach, while the radio can also be controlled from the steering column.

INTERIOR
The plastic interior of the Duster does look a little dated although I rather liked the sporty grey and black look of the seats, and found them perfectly comfortable, even on longer drives. The front seating area is spacious, with ample leg and head room. The doors are also large, making for easy access. In the back there was plenty of space for two large-ish kids and all their assorted gubbins, although a 12v socket for charging the Nintendo Switch and the DVD players would have been a definite plus.

EXTERIOR
With alloy wheels, slate grey metallic paint and chrome trim, the Laureate looks fairly sporty and certainly doesn’t have the appearance of a budget-priced car. You don’t get that satisfying “thunk” when you close the doors that you expect from a “reassuringly expensive” car, but nonetheless it all feels solid enough.

VERDICT (3.5/5)
The Dacia Duster has all the space and practical benefits of more expensive small SUVs, without all the sophistication they offer. There’s nothing thrilling about it and it might lack some style, but for sheer value for money, it’s impossible to beat.

SPEC

DACIA DUSTER
Laureate dCi 1110 4x4

Price £16,495 (range £9,495-£17,395)
Fuel Diesel
MPG 60.1mpg
CO2 emissions 123g/km
Max Speed 104mph
0-62mph 12.4 seconds
Boot capacity/seats flattened 408 litres/1570 litres

WHERE WE CAMPED

Conkers Camping and Caravanning Club Site
50 Bath Lane, Moira, Swadlincote, Derbyshire DE12 6BD
01283 224925
www.campingandcaravanningclub.co.uk/campsites/uk/derbyshire/swadlincote/conkers
Open all year
A great family-friendly campsite in the heart of the National Forest, that is an ideal base for walking and cycling. The award-winning Conkers visitor attraction (www.visitconkers.com) is right next door and the Moira Furnace museum (www.moirafurnace.org) is also a short walk away. the site is within easy reach of Calke Abbey, the National Brewery Centre, National Memorial Arboretum and the market town of Ashby de la Zouch. On site, there are plenty of grass pitches for tents, although due to the wet weather we pitched ours on a hardstanding. Rock pegs are essential and a footprint for under your tent is recommended, if you take up that option. The site has a kids’ play park and a separate ball game area, an on-site dog walk and heated shower block. You also have access to the Ashby World Heritage Trail – a three and a half mile route following the old Ashby and Nuneaton Joint Railway. Ready Camp glamping is also available.