DUST TO DUST(some text hidden)

By Jonathan Crouch

Ten Second Review word count: 42

The third generation version of Dacia's Duster is a much more advanced thing. But in many ways the spirit and value of its sensible, practical small SUV predecessors still remain. Don't buy another small, lifestyle SUV until you've looked at this one.

Background word count: 209

'The best bargain on the market'. That's quite a claim isn't it, particularly for a car that starts from around £20,000. But this third generation version of Dacia's Duster SUV just might be. It's not an EV but it's the first Duster that's been in any way electrified and, thanks to use of existing Renault Group tech and cheap manufacturing in Romania and Morocco, it offers easily the best value compact family SUV proposition on the market. You could argue that the Duster always has, ever since it first arrived back in 2010. Alongside the Sandero hatch, it's been the brand's biggest seller since then, updated in second generation form in 2017 and along the way notching up 2.2 million registrations. All that's been founded on a back-to-basics approach to SUV design and a platform originally created by Renault in the '90s. A structure which of course couldn't accommodate the kind of electrified engines a car like this must now have. So this MK3 Duster adopts the same Renault Group CMF-B platform of other Dacias, a move additionally supposed to benefit practicality and refinement, though one that's also pushed the price up. But as we said earlier, the Romanian brand still thinks it's a bargain. Is it? Let's see.