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By Jonathan Crouch

The Jogger Hybrid is pricey for a Dacia but cheap for what you get. Jonathan Crouch reports

Ten Second Reviewword count: 53

Budget maker Dacia tests the limits of what people might pay for its brand with this car, the Jogger Hybrid 140. It offers a proper full-Hybrid powerplant, seven seats and auto transmission. For less than rivals will charge for a conventional engine, five seats and a manual gearbox. Still a proper Dacia then.

Backgroundword count: 151

Value is relative isn't it? When the first generation Dacia Sandero was launched back in 2013 in the UK for around £7,000, it would have seemed inconceivable that a decade later, we'd be testing another Dacia costing over three times that much. And equally conceivable that we'd still have been telling you that it was great value. Yet here we are doing exactly that with this model, Dacia's Jogger Hybrid. It's the Renault-owned Romanian brand's very first hybrid (of any kind) and somewhat over-due because all the mechanicals in play here have been available to the marque since before the Pandemic. We refer to the 1.6-litre full-Hybrid unit that we've already seen in Renault's Clio and Arkana models, as well as the Nissan Juke Hybrid. Here, it's fitted to a seven-seat estate, today's solution for families who not long ago would have turned to the now out-of-favour genre of compact MPVs.

Driving Experienceword count: 231

You'll need a quick refresher on the mechanicals here if you're not familiar with them from the various Renault E-Tech models in which they've already been used. So there's a normally aspirated 1.6-litre petrol engine wedded to a clutch-less four-speed auto gearbox and a couple of electric motors powered by a 1.2kWh battery. The bigger of these motors drives through the transmission, while the smaller one runs the starter generator and tweaks engine rpm for rev matching. Performance is modest, though the 10.1s 0-62mph time is 1.1s quicker than the alternative conventional 1.0-litre TCe 110 variant, courtesy of a 28bhp power boost - to 140bhp. There's 200mm of ground clearance and the Jogger will tow up to 1,200kg. The Jogger sits on a relatively modern Renault CMF-B platform that's fine for purpose but not stiff enough to deliver particularly engaging handling dynamics; this car isn't intended for that kind of driving. But it'll be easy to use in town, thanks to a light electrically powered steering system that requires little effort to turn at low speeds. There's an 11.7-metre kerb-to-kerb turning circle. There's more camera safety kit than used to be on Dacias. This one gets an Automatic Emergency Braking System (AEBS). And can be fitted with Blind Spot Warning, which illuminates an LED light within the door mirror to warn the driver if another vehicle may be concealed from view.

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